BINSI Blog

What the Doctor Isn’t Telling You about Pregnancy and the Flu Vaccine

2012-01-27T10:01:00.003-07:00

by Jennifer Margulis

When Katie Tyler, who’s 33 years old and lives in Truckee, California, went in for her 28-week pregnancy checkup, the nurse at the doctor’s office urged her to get the flu shot.

At first, Tyler, a real-estate agent, was skeptical. About to go on a 10-day vacation with her husband, she didn’t want to do anything that might make her sick. Because she was pregnant she was avoiding medication, and was a bit perplexed about why she should get a vaccine. She had never had a flu shot before.

“I want to do whatever’s right for the baby, and for myself during pregnancy,’” Tyler, who has shoulder-length brown hair, light brown eyes, and a warm smile, remembers telling the nurse.1

The nurse responded that every pregnant woman in the practice was getting the flu shot. She reassured Tyler that she’d be fine, and that the vaccine definitely wouldn’t make her sick.

Within 12 hours of being vaccinated for influenza, Tyler had a sore throat, aches and pains, and was feeling generally horrible. She was sick with flu-like symptoms for two and a half weeks. One night, on vacation in Hawaii, she began to have trouble breathing. Wanting to save the out-of-pocket expense of an emergency-room visit, she called her doctor, who, over the phone, diagnosed her with bronchitis. When Tyler mentioned that up till then she hadn’t been sick during her pregnancy, had never had the flu in her adult life, and thought the illness might have been caused by the vaccine, her doctor was adamant that there was no possible connection.

To read the rest of this article click here.

My Attraction (HomeBirth After 3 c-sections) HBA3C. A story of healing ♥

2012-01-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

Part 2 - Fear and Pain: A Cultural Picture of Childbirth...and What We Can Do to Change It

2012-01-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

As discussed in Part 1 of this post, the experience of childbirth - and particularly the experience of childbirth as inherently painful - is strongly influenced by cultural perceptions and norms. In America, birth is largely defined by the culture-bound idea that pain and childbirth are inextricably linked. Insofar as thoughts and beliefs can impact personal experience, women who are told repeatedly to expect that birth will be grueling, difficult and painful naturally internalize these views (and the fears that result from them) over time and, thus, their birth experience could more likely be a painful one.

Challenging Our Views of Birth
If an understanding of birth as fundamentally painful and unpleasant can lead women to experience it as such, one has to wonder if this rule can be reversed. Are women who view birth as inherently comfortable -something to be embraced rather than resisted - and themselves as calm, confident and capable, less likely to have painful, difficult birth experiences?
This idea - that one can "deprogram" the mind of the cultural mindset that childbirth must be painful - is the basic premise of one particular approach to childbirth education and "pain management:" Hypnosis for Childbirth.

The Hypnotic Mind

Remember how in Part 1 I said that my own birth experience was virtually pain-free, drug-free and without any major medical interventions? In large part, I credit hypnosis for this.

There are two major hypnosis programs/styles that cater to pregnant and birthing women: Hypnobirthing (a.k.a., the Mongan Method) and Hypnobabies. There are also a number of childbirth education methods that utilize components of hypnosis. I used the Hypnobabies program for my pregnancy and birth with Little Man.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Fear and Pain: A Cultural Picture of Childbirth...and What We Can Do to Change It

2012-01-24T09:38:00.001-07:00

What if I told you that I gave birth to my child without anesthesia or medication of any kind, without any medical interventions to speak of...and the result was a childbirth experience that was virtually devoid of any pain? That I experienced childbirth in its fullest, most visceral state, completely comfortable and aware throughout the whole process? Would you believe me?

Allow me to digress for a moment, and ask you this question, instead: What is it about childbirth that immediately conjures images of screaming pain and terror? Why is it so difficult to believe that a child can be born peacefully and with minimal pain and discomfort?

The answer, it seems, is largely derived from culture-bound ideas about pregnancy and childbirth. Simply put, American culture - from popular media, to personal anecdotes - seems to emphasize that the birth of a child is inherently a painful and difficult process, wrought with potential dangers for both mother and child, and manageable only by those with the proper "authoritative knowledge" and understanding.

As the classic Brigitte Jordan book Birth in Four Cultures reveals, this view is not universal. Women in American culture are taught that this is so. They are told to expect that childbirth will be painful and thus, they experience it as such. For women in many other cultures, this is simply not the case.

This is not to suggest that women who experience childbirth as painful are somehow to blame for their experience, or that they are doing something wrong - far from it. The point is simply to ask how the American cultural picture of birth influences the way women in our country experience this fundamental life process. With fear and pain being interrelated phenomena - one influencing the other - does this expectation that all women are doomed to have an inescapably pain-ridden birth experience increase our fear and, thus, increase our perception of pain during childbirth?

How Fear Influences Pain - And What this Means for Birthing Women
For most, the idea of pain-free childbirth is quite foreign. While I've been interested for a while in the concept of "pain-free childbirth," I really started thinking about how fear can influence childbirth outcomes when I saw this article. The study described in the article examined mothers who suffered from severe or "excessive" fear of childbirth, and the impact of this fear on their birth experience. The main conclusion of this study was that women who suffered from extreme fear of childbirth were more likely to have epidural anesthesia, induction of childbirth, elective c-section, or emergency c-section.

According to the authors of the paper, and other previous studies (cited on page 4), the heightened levels of adrenaline that accompany a fear response can undoubtedly influence the progress of labor. Many of these women had had a previous traumatizing childbirth experience (and the phenomenon of birth trauma is a topic for a whole separate post I intend to write at some point in the future).

While the fear experienced by the women in this study was extreme, the results still raise many questions. Did the women's fear (and the neurological effects created by it) directly impact the progress of their labor, as the authors suggest? Were their care providers just more likely to undertake this type of intervention because of the woman's psychological state? Or is there somehow a correlation between the type of provider (one who is more likely to perform inductions and cesareans) and the experience of fear by their patients? It is difficult to pinpoint a specific cause-effect relationship here, and the study does not directly point to any one answer.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Help, my milk supply is low! Or is it?

2012-01-23T09:26:00.003-07:00

By Tanya Lieberman, IBCLC from The Leaky B@@b

Ever wish your breasts had little ounce markings? If so, you’re not alone. One of the more confusing things about breastfeeding is determining how much milk you’re making. You can’t see how much is going into your baby, so how can you tell if your milk supply is enough for your baby?

On this page we share the best ways to determine if your milk supply is in fact low, and describe the many things that can make you think that your supply is low when it actually isn’t.

Below are some normal experiences that can trick you into believing that your supply is low:

“My baby wants to eat all the time.” It’s normal for babies to eat frequently, generally in the range of 8 to 12 times in 24 hours for many months. This means many hours of feeding a day, and it may feel constant at times. It’s also normal for babies to “cluster feed” at times during the day. If your baby is feeding significantly outside of the 8-12 times range, contact a lactation consultant or other breastfeeding support person.

“My breasts feel softer than they used to.” Toward the end of the first month of breastfeeding many women notice that their breasts have decreased from the size they were when their mature milk came in. This is normal, and does not indicate anything about milk supply.

“I don’t feel that ‘let down’ sensation.” Some women have a “let down” sensation when they make milk, and some don’t. It doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the amount of milk a mother makes, so don’t worry if you don’t feel anything.

“My baby suddenly wants to eat all the time.” Babies go through growth spurts. They do this in order to increase your milk supply to meet an increased need for calories. To do this, they go on a feeding rampage for a few days – eating more often than usual and sometimes acting unsatisfied and fussy after feedings. During a growth spurt it’s common to question your supply. After a growth spurt you’ll find that you have more milk than ever!

“I can’t pump very much.” Pumping output is usually not a good measure of milk supply. Why? Because your body doesn’t always make milk for the pump (it has to be tricked into believing that the pump is your baby!) and when it does the pump doesn’t remove milk as well as your baby does. So don’t gauge your milk supply based on your pumping output. You almost always have more than you pump.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Labor of Love Trailer

2012-01-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

video platform video management video solutions video player

When Midwifery Works

2012-01-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

By Birth Without Fear
I recently attended the long anticipated birth of a dear friend of mine. This birth was a planned HBAC. Her first birth was a c section at 35 weeks due to problems with one of the babies. Those babes are now robust, fun 7 year old girlies. I was with her during that pregnancy from the day..yes the day those babies were conceived on a camping trip.

I was delighted to be asked to be midwife this time around. We’ve been through some ups and downs in our friendship over the last three years but when it came down to it, she knew she could trust me as her midwife and I knew any differences we had in the past had nothing to do with her desire for a healthy pregnancy and vaginal birth.

Of course when you live some place where homebirth and midwives are not the norm, you get looks and comments but this mama was having none of it and put everyone who offered a differing opinion in their place with a firm “It’s MY choice so shut up”. Love.

Labor commenced at 40 weeks 2 days. I was excited and went to check on her when her water broke in the early morning. She labored beautifully all day as I went to check on another midwife and her client and came back again.

She labored all through the day and into the late evening with no cervical change at all. As I examined her I could feel what I thought was a forehead and not an occiput (back of the head) and I had estimated a 9 ½-10lb baby. We tried everything I know of to get little big guy to turn but he did not.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Mamma Mia needs a doula.wmv

2012-01-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

Natural Childbirth: Crazy or Conscientious?

2012-01-17T08:55:00.001-07:00

Unaware of alternatives, the majority of women use drugs to cope with the pain of labor and delivery.

Most of my friends and family members think I’m crazy. By choice, I bore my first child without an epidural and I’m hoping to do it again the second time around.

“There’s a reason they offer women drugs,” one of my sisters reasons. “Childbirth hurts!”

Most of the women — and men — I’ve spoken to echo her sentiments. Some women even have planned Cesarean sections as a way to avoid as much of the birth process as possible. I’m not at all surprised, and I certainly don’t blame them.

We are a culture that has a drug for just about everything. We opt to avoid discomfort at all costs. Besides, birth is often presented — by women who have given birth, by men who have witnessed a live birth and by the media as an unbearable experience that no one should ever have to undergo. People love to exaggerate, and it’s difficult not to get caught up in the drama.

I, for one, bought into the hype. For as long as I can remember, my perception of labor and delivery featured three elements: hours of screaming followed by lots of blood followed by hours of crying. In my teens, I swore I’d never have children. In my twenties, I planned to adopt children in part to forego the pain of childbirth.

Until I became pregnant with my son in 2009, I never had a reason to question the negativity associated with birth. In fact, my first care provider was an obstetrician whose Western approach to medicine supported the notion that pregnancy, labor and delivery should be addressed as crises. Had I stayed under his care, I would have ended up drugged, depressed and delusional during one of the most beautiful moments of my life.

Instead, I began to educate myself about pregnancy and childbirth thanks to my friend and favorite fellow mom, who gave me a copy of Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth. Written by a midwife, the book presents childbirth as a natural process that should be embraced and celebrated rather than avoided and feared.

After reading the book, which includes the birth stories of dozens of women who have given birth vaginally and without medication, I began to see pregnancy and childbirth in a new light. It turns out, women have options and drugs during childbirth is not among the best of them. I soon switched to a group of midwives.

To read the rest of this article click here.

7 Reasons Kale Is the New Beef

2012-01-16T08:49:00.000-07:00

Like the saying goes, the only constant is change. We may resist it all we want, but Time and its inevitable evolution of everything in its path is unaffected by our attempts to stop it. The resulting trajectory of humanity's nascent ascent appears to be positioning itself to sweep us into progressive new times, especially where our food choices are concerned, as nearly 7 billion people are now standing on the little scraps of land that we share with some 55 billion rather large animals raised for food each year. (As another famous saying goes: This town ain't big enough for the both of us.) So, beef (and all factory-farmed meat) may be going from rib-eye to relic as we transition to a greener world… literally—as in leafy, green vegetables.

Environmentalists cite meat production as one of the biggest contributors to global warming, and the USDA's new food pyramid (MyPlate) suggests the healthiest choice is making vegetables and fruit the biggest part of every meal by reducing consumption of animal proteins. Kale is far more nutritious than other leafy greens, but these seven reasons why it is such an important futurefood may just surprise you.

1. Anti-inflammatory: Inflammation is the number one cause of arthritis, heart disease and a number of autoimmune diseases, and is triggered by the consumption of animal products. Kale is an incredibly effective anti-inflammatory food, potentially preventing and even reversing these illnesses.

2. Iron: Despite the myth that vegetarians are anemic, the number of non-vegetarians with iron-deficiencies is on the rise. Per calorie, kale has more iron than beef.

3. Calcium: Dairy and beef both contain calcium, but the U.S. still has some of the highest rates of bone loss and osteoporosis in the world. Kale contains more calcium per calorie than milk (90 grams per serving) and is also better absorbed by the body than dairy.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Postpartum Abdominal Support

2012-01-13T08:37:00.002-07:00

Your baby has been born and your “6 week post partum period” has ended; yet you may still find yourself in pregnancy jeans with an extra pregnancy pouch. Many of us have this idea in our head that once the baby is out, our body just goes back to the way it was before. I hate to say it but I was astounded by how much my own body changed after having a kiddo. I have continuously told people to be gentle with themselves, after all it took 9 months to put it on why would we expect that at 6 weeks we would be back to normal. There does come a point where you are feeling rested enough and you are ready to get your body back, to strengthen the core and the muscles that have been stretched and weakened. When dealing with my own postpartum 6 years ago I was shocked to read all the different opinions on how to get your muscles back. I hope that this article will lay it out for you all simply.

What is a Diastasis?

A diastasis is very simply a separation of rectus abdominus muscles that occurs during pregnancy. The reason for the splitting can be due to weak muscles to begin pregnancy, and/or simply because they needed to separate to accommodate the growing baby. A diastasis is very common!!

Abdominal Muscles-The Layers

Transverse abdominal muscles are connected to your back muscles as well as your rectus abdominal muscles. The transverse abdominis is the deepest layer of the abdominal wall and the most important during the postpartum period. The muscle fibers run across the abdomen and draw the belly inward. These muscles are the bodies’ most important core stabilizer. Exercises like crunches/sit ups completely miss these muscles and may give an appearance of strength but in reality you are weak on the inside at the core and so these exercises are no longer recommended during the post partum period.

The rectus abdominus are your vertical abdominal muscles that go from your sternum to your pubic bone. This group is what is getting the work out during crunches/sit ups; this muscle group is nicknamed the “six pack”. The main job of the rectus abdominus is spine flexion.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Erykah Badu talks home birthing, family plans

2012-01-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

Midwife Q&A: Are We Having Babies All Wrong?

2012-01-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

By Jennifer Block
Ina May Gaskin started delivering babies in 1970 while on a hippie cross-country trip known as the caravan. She had no medical training, just a master's degree in English and a gut feeling that women deserved kinder, gentler births. When the hundreds of caravaners settled in Tennessee on what they called the Farm, Gaskin and several other women began delivering the community's babies at home and also opened one of the first, nonhospital birthing centers in the country. Word got around when Gaskin wrote about her successes in Spiritual Midwifery, and a movement was born.

Today, women still travel far and wide to give birth on the Farm, and Gaskin's methods have the respect of clinicians around the world (there is even an obstetric maneuver named after her). Now 71, she is credited with reviving what was essentially a dead profession in the U.S., inspiring scores of women to enter the field and helping found the Midwives Alliance of North America. But even while midwives attend more births in the U.S. — about 7.5% in 2008 — they're finding it increasingly hard to get practice agreements with doctors and hospitals. In her latest book, Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesta (Seven Stories, April 2011), Gaskin argues that America needs midwives more than ever. (Read "American Women: Birthing Babies at Home.")

You started attending births with no formal medical training. How did you know you could do it?
I knew how to deal with potential complications because kind doctors helped me. But basically I was behaving the way my aunt, who had a farm, would around any laboring mammal. You don't disturb her, you don't upset her. She deserves peace and quiet and respect. Doing that meant that no C-sections were necessary for the first 200 births on the Farm.

The C-section rate on the Farm is very low, under 2% for about 3,000 births, while the average in the U.S. for low-risk women is 20%. Can you explain?
It's very rare to see an undisturbed birth in a modern U.S. teaching hospital, but when you see a woman who isn't frightened, who's giving birth without interference, you stand back in awe and realize how little needed you are except in the rare circumstance. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be around in case there is a problem. It just means that you should be able to tell when there's a problem, and you should be able to tell how not to create problems. (See the risks of early C-sections.)

To read the rest of this article click here.

An OB Pushing Her Baby Out At Home? Say It Ain't So!

2012-01-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

Is it wrong to admit that when I got this birth story I thought I was being Punked? Only the sure knowledge that Ashton Kutcher couldn't waste his time on me assured me that this wasn't the case. Though probably rare, this is a birth story from an obstetrician. (I admit, I still have doubts. I must be very, very jaded!)

Seriously though, I have had four medical doctors in my classes trying to have natural births. Sometimes even the people who are part of obstetric America realize that "that" kind of birth isn't what they want.

Congrats to this mom on her lovely home water birth. May we all have beautiful births like this.

Enjoy-

Caden's Home Waterbirth

This was my first pregnancy. My “guess date” was Monday, Sept 19. I had a wedding of a close friend to attend Sept 17 and joked at the party to everyone that 'Peanut' & I had had a discussion and that he/she was going to arrive the next day. I had seen my MW, Lisa, on Friday, Sept 16 and had had my membranes stripped.

I was currently the chief resident in charge of the gynecology service at a busy inner-city hospital and we had a busy week planned – a week full of long surgeries and although I had prided myself on plowing through 60-80hr work weeks with nary a complaint, the thought of doing another week was almost more than I could handle. We made an appointment for her to come back on Sunday to restrip them again.

At the wedding I did dance a lot, which caused some non-laborish contractions but otherwise nothing to get excited about.

We had a late night and I didn't sleep all that well. I woke up at 6am with contractions that were uncomfortable but not really painful. I had watery bloody discharge in a fairly large amount and was concerned my water was broken. I was timing contractions at this time and when I had woken up they were about 5-6min apart. I gave up laying in bed about 7am and got up, sitting on an exercise ball, moving my hips during contractions. The contractions persisted and about 8am I decided to call Lisa and let her know that I had somehow managed to make an appointment for my labor! LOL

She thought I was just having bloody show and was not ruptured. About 9a I went to pee and there was just more of the discharge than I wanted to clean up, so I decided to get in the shower. The shower was really relaxing and made the contractions seem less intense but still frequent. However, once I got out they became more intense and required more attention. I could no longer sit on the exercise ball during a contraction so I went to kneeling on the floor and leaning over the exercise ball which worked great. Although they hurt more, I still felt in control. I was able to snack on some fruit here and there – luckily I thought to eat a substantial breakfast right when I got up before things got intense – my mom kept me supplied in cut up fruit and water.

To read the rest of this story click here.

Birth Film Trailer

2012-01-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

The Lie of the Estimated Due Date (EDD): Why Your Due Date Is Not What You Think

2012-01-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

We have it ingrained in our heads throughout our entire adult lives-pregnancy is 40 weeks. The "due date" we are given at that first prenatal visit is based upon that 40 weeks, and we look forward to it with great anticipation. When we are still pregnant after that magical date, we call ourselves "overdue" and the days seem to drag on like years. The problem with this belief about the 40 week EDD is that it is not based in fact. It is one of many pregnancy and childbirth myths which has wormed its way into the standard of practice over the years-something that is still believed because "that's the way it's always been done".

The folly of Naegele's Rule

The 40 week due date is based upon Naegele's Rule. This theory was originated by Harmanni Boerhaave, a botanist who in 1744 came up with a method of calculating the EDD based upon evidence in the Bible that human gestation lasts approximately 10 lunar months. The formula was publicized around 1812 by German obstetrician Franz Naegele and since has become the accepted norm for calculating the due date. There is one glaring flaw in Naegele's rule. Strictly speaking, a lunar (or synodic - from new moon to new moon) month is actually 29.53 days, which makes 10 lunar months roughly 295 days, a full 15 days longer than the 280 days gestation we've been lead to believe is average. In fact, if left alone, 50-80% of mothers will gestate beyond 40 weeks.

Variants in cycle length

Aside from the gross miscalculation of the lunar due date, there is another common problem associated with formulating a woman's EDD: most methods of calculating gestational length are based upon a 28 day cycle. Not all women have a 28 day cycle; some are longer, some are shorter, and even those with a 28 day cycle do not always ovulate right on day 14. If a woman has a cycle which is significantly longer than 28 days and the baby is forced out too soon because her due date is calculated according to her LMP (last menstrual period), this can result in a premature baby with potential health problems at birth.

To read the rest of this article click here.

How to Wear a Baby Sling as Shown by a Dad

2012-01-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

Ina May and Stephen Gaskin Talk With Lisa Reagan

2012-01-04T09:04:00.001-07:00

Ina May Gaskin, the Godmother of Modern Midwifery, and her husband, Stephen Gaskin, founder of Plenty International, talked to Lisa Reagan in Washington, DC, in July 2011 about birth, midwives, The Farm, and being "Technicolor Amish". The interview was filmed after the broadcast interview with Ina May to the 2.2 million listeners of The Diane Rehm Show. (Lisa Reagan, Kindred's executive editor, is pictured with Stephen and Ina May at WAMU radio station on the left of this page.)

This intimate and memorable discussion between Ina May and Stephen, who have been together for more than 30 years, includes Stephen sharing his advice to men to "act like knights" and "pledge your sword to a lady. Protect those who need protecting." Ina May and Stephen remember the trucks on The Farm, why midwives are the best drivers and conversations with international physicians who have advocated for natural birth as a human right.

In this video, photographers like Robert Altman and David Frohman, chroniclers of the 1960s movement and The Farm history, show "professor" Stephen Gaskin talking to a group of 1500 young people about what was going on in their radically changing world. From The Farm's website:

In 1966, a young assistant professor at San Francisco State College began scheduling classes to talk about what was happening outside his window. The classes grew too large for the college halls, so the class moved to a church, a theater, and then, in 1969, to the Family Dog, Chet Helms' rock hall on the coast. Monday Night Class became a weekly pilgrimage of throngs of hippies from up and down the coast, from high schools and university campuses, from army bases and police academies, from mountain communes and Haight Street crash pads. Thousands of people, in various states of consciousness, came with tamborines and diaphanous gowns, love beads and bangles, Dr. Strange cloaks and top hats with feathers. The open-ended discussions ventured into Hermeneutic geometry, Masonic-Rosicrucian mysticism, Ekenkar and the Rolling Stones, but opened with a long, silent meditation and closed with a sense of purpose. At the center of this psychedelic crucible, the professor in the welder's hood, was 31-year-old Stephen Gaskin, known simply to most hippies as "Stephen."

Stephen would say, "Lets talk about how we're gonna be." Not "how we're gonna stop the war" or "how we're gonna make it fair," but "how we're gonna be."

To read the rest of this article click here.

The Etiquette Of Visiting Parents With Newborns

2012-01-03T08:59:00.001-07:00

There are few things in life more heartwarming than meeting a newborn baby for the first time, especially if that baby is the son or daughter of a dear friend. But for the parents who have just had a baby, there are also few things that are more stressful and exhausting. The new mom or dad have probably not had more than three consecutive hours of sleep. The mom’s nipples are probably sore and bleeding. And neither have had time to eat a real meal. This post is dedicated to the etiquette of visiting new parents. I hope it doesn’t offend anyone. It shouldn’t. I definitely violated these rules before I had a baby. This is meant to simply help friends understand the needs of a new parent.

1) CLEAN YOUR HANDS: When you arrive for your visit, the first thing you should do is wash your hands and let your friend know that you are washing your hands. You want to give your friend the peace of mind that when you touch his/her new baby, you are doing it with the cleanest possible hands. And ask if there’s any hand sanitizer for you to use. I guarantee there’s probably a couple gallons of it around the house. Newborns have fragile immune systems and you don’t want to be the reason the baby gets sick at such a young age. Believe me, parents keep tabs on who may have made their baby sick— they may resent you forever. This brings me to rule number two:

2) IF YOU’RE SICK DON’T VISIT: This may seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many people seem to think it’s ok to visit a newborn when they have a cold. Even a minor cold could make the baby sick. So just wait till you are back to full health before you visit.

3) COME EARLY, DON’T STAY TOO LONG: This is probably the most important piece of advice. You probably think your friend wants to have some adult company after spending days alone doing nothing but changing diapers and burping a baby. That’s true. But unless you’re the kind of person that knows how to handle babies and can give mom or dad a break to go shower or sleep, don’t stay for more than an hour. Moms need to do things like breastfeed, or pump milk, or put the baby to sleep in a quiet environment. It’s not easy to do any of these things with friends around. Try not to stay past 6 PM. New moms and dads will be trying to go to sleep as early as possible and they need a little while to get things in order before they can take a snooze ahead of a long night of interrupted sleep.

To read the rest of this post click here.

New Study Shows Normal Labor Takes More Time Than OBs Are Allowing For

2012-01-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

Obstetricians have been trained to expect labor to progress faster than it actually does, which may be the reason for the high rate of inductions and c-section deliveries in the US according to a new report. The study published in Obstetrics & Gynecology used information from over 62,000 normal, natural births and figured out the average labor time for dilation from 4 to 5 cm, 5 to 6 cm, and over 6 cm. Most cases of "failure to progress," which is the number one reason for inductions, occur during this part of the first stage of labor.

The authors found that women who had given birth before progress much quicker once they reach the 6 cm mark than women who were giving birth for the first time. The progression from 4 to 5 cm and 5 to 6 cm went much slower for both groups of women than earlier studies have shown. The established obstetrics benchmark based on those earlier studies created an expectation for a much quicker progression through active labor than what this report found. The researchers also pointed out that spinal nerve anesthetics also may be delaying the second stage by 29%, with an average labor time of 3.6 hours with an epidural and 2.8 hours without it.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Nurse midwives empower patients with delivery options

2011-12-30T08:03:00.002-07:00

Sarah Darby, RN, CNM, is a nurse midwife at The Women’s Healthcare Group. She delivers at Overland Park Regional Medical Center as well as the Shawnee Mission Medical Center.

“Nurse midwives are more able to develop and bond with their patients,” said Sally Darby, RN and CNM at The Women’s Healthcare Group in Overland Park. “We’re going to enable them to be part of the decision-making process.”

Darby has delivered 130 babies since 2009, when she began training as a midwife.

“It’s that sense of responsibility,” she said. “You are making all the decisions. You can make an impact and influence in women’s lives.”

Midwives care for normal, low-risk healthy pregnancies, which distinguishes them from obstetricians who care for high-risk pregnancies and healthy pregnancies. Darby said she is passionate about practicing in an area where she can offer her patients a wide range of services. She encourages expectant mothers to make their own decisions about their birth plan and spends a lot of one-on-one time educating her patients. She likes to tailor pregnancy care to fit each unique individual, she said.

“Pregnancy is in itself a healthy state of being,” she said. “That’s how midwives view it.”

Darby said patients who decide to use a midwife come to her with a fair amount of knowledge on the process of pregnancy and childbirth. They have taken the time to learn something about the process, she said, and arrive prepared to be a decision-maker. Darby helps expectant mothers understand their labor options, whether they choose a natural childbirth or one with medication. Should a woman choose a natural birth, Darby said having a midwife will help ensure her success.

“For some women they want to explore that natural childbirth option,” she said. “My passion is helping women through a natural childbirth.”

Darby delivers at Shawnee Mission Medical Center and Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Women can choose a home birth, a birthing center or labor and delivery unit at a hospital. The options for delivery are abundant, she said.

When push comes to shove, home births don't deserve to be demonised

2011-12-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Tara Moss
December 14, 2011

Monty Python's 1983 film The Meaning of Life begins with a woman in hospital about to give birth. Comedians Graham Chapman and John Cleese are dressed as doctors in scrubs, surrounded by expensive hospital equipment (including the machine that goes ''ping'').

''Don't you worry, we'll soon have you cured,'' Chapman tells the panting woman. When she asks ''What do I do?'', Cleese replies: ''Nothing, dear. You're not qualified.''

Childbirth is still seen by many as something best ''cured'' by a doctor in hospital. The rate of major surgery for birth has more than doubled in the past 15 years in Australia. More than 30 per cent of mothers now have a caesarean - more than 40 per cent in private hospitals.
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And caesareans aren't the only procedure on the rise. Obstetricians in NSW have been given strict new guidelines after a record 34 per cent of women having their first baby were induced in 2009 (more than 50 per cent in three hospitals), causing significantly higher numbers of emergency caesareans and other complications. First-time mothers who give birth in hospital here are now more likely to have a medical intervention than not.

While the medicalisation of birth is on the rise, the demonisation of women seeking natural births continues. A recent article in The Daily Telegraph by Miranda Devine labelled all home births dangerous and home-birthers as selfish "zealots".

It followed a previous article in the Herald in 2009 - the same year the largest study conducted into home births (examining 529,688 births and published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology) concluded that home births for normal pregnancies were just as safe. In 2009, Devine quoted a doctor saying that ''100 years ago, one in 10 women died from complications of childbirth and [one in 10] babies''. In her article this year, she pointed out that ''3.5 million babies are stillborn, 90 per cent of them in impoverished Africa and Asia'', concluding that we have modern medicine to thank for our better birth outcomes in Australia.

To read the rest of this article click here.

As You Desire: Orgasmic Childbirth ~ Can it be?

2011-12-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

By Nancy Sutton Pierce December 6, 2011

After watching this video there were so many things running through my head. The first of which was, "If I had known that I would have had many more children". The next was, "I'm pissed off because I didn't know that was a possibility when I was living through 24 hours of natural labor and delivery"!

I went into my own childbirth experience very well educated and prepared. Now I realize I was not nearly as prepared as I would have liked to have been. Can labor and delivery actually be a sensual, orgasmic experience? According to the experts approximately 20% of birthing mothers experience an orgasm during the delivery. Dr. Christiane Northrup explains that the very same anatomy which is stimulated during sexual intercourse is also stimulated by the descending baby. Makes sense. Then why don't more women know about this? Do we have puritanical attitudes which prevent us from seeing sexuality as a normal physiological process... kind of like breathing?

I was a labor and delivery nurse for part of my nursing career. I have to admit I never saw that side of childbirth. My experience and research explains why. When we put a laboring woman in bed, attach her to wires and machines, she is unable to move about and labor naturally. There are very few cultures who do this to their women. Birth is the most natural act (besides sex) and yet we treat it as though it was a "diagnosis" to be dealt with. I've heard all the reasons for this... the medical culture in the USA has very stanch beliefs to back up their defensive practice actions. Morbidity, Mortality, & Legality are the top three. But what they don't realize is that the way we currently treat childbirth is creating a whole new basket of problems (we call them unforeseen consequences) they have yet to connect the dots to.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Why are we scared to give birth naturally?

2011-12-27T08:47:00.001-07:00

My belief is that as more medical intervention occurs in childbirth, it leads to a cascade of labour complications and traumatic birth experiences. This has led to a most understandable increase in the amount of fear and aversion felt by women and prevent them even considering giving birth vaginally.

If more money was spent on offering women counselling, fear release and relaxation techniques for those women, who quite understandably felt afraid to undertake childbirth, then not only would women experience the joy of giving birth, but also have less complications recovering from major surgery.

* Opting for caesarean
* HypnoBirthing
* Effects of caesarean
* Explore natural options

Opting for caesarean

A controversial move by NICE to introduce guidelines for caesarean section to be available as a choice for women has stirred up emotions both for and against the move. I am a great believer in giving women informed choice, but one of my concerns is that women are fully informed about the pros and cons of a caesarean section. What worries me even more is that we have such a negative view of childbirth that we are too scared to give birth naturally!

Don’t get me wrong, a caesarean section is a life saving operation in specific circumstances and should be used in those situations. The problem is when it becomes normal practice and we forget that it is major surgery with a higher risk of complications for both mother and baby.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Mothers and babies can instantly synchronize their hearts just by smiling at each other

2011-12-26T08:43:00.001-07:00

Mothers and their babies are often said to share a deep, intimate connection...but even so, this new discovery is weird. Simply by looking and smiling at each other, moms and babies synchronize their heartbeats to within milliseconds of each other.

Researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel found that visible affection from their mothers had tangible physiological effects on three month old infants. Previous studies in animals have shown that social interactions between "attachment partners" can actually affect the animal infants' body, but this is the first time such an effect has been observed in humans. Writing in Infant Behavior and Development, the researchers explain what they discovered:

Mothers and their 3-month old infants were observed during face-to-face interactions while cardiac output was collected from mother and child. Micro-analysis of the partners' behavior marked episodes of gaze, affect, and vocal synchrony. Time-series analysis showed that mother and infant coordinate heart rhythms within lags of less than 1 s.

Bootstrapping analysis indicated that the concordance between maternal and infant biological rhythms increased significantly during episodes of affect and vocal synchrony compared to non-synchronous moments. Humans, like other mammals, can impact the physiological processes of the attachment partner through the coordination of visuo-affective social signals.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Childbirth: Images Spanning Thousands of Years

2011-12-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Posted by Monica Bielanko on December 13th, 2011 at 7:36 pm

A year ago my husband gifted me with Randi Hutter Epstein’s book Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth From the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank.

It is an excellent read for myriad reasons. Myriad, I say! Doesn’t the phrase “myriad reasons” make me sound a little bit smart? I think it does. That’s why I employed it when describing Epstein’s book.

Get Me Out runs the gamut of pregnancy, exploring the medical and cultural history of pregnancy and childbirth, from folk remedies and old wives’ tales to ultrasound images and fertility drugs.

It was so mind-altering reading it got me to googling images relating to sections of the book and I was amazed at what I discovered. From ancient times to now, whether carved into rock or snapped by a camera, images of childbirth are absolutely fascinating.

To view these amazing pictures please click here.

Giving Childbirth Back to Women through the Support of a Doula

2011-12-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

During my three years at International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR), I have been fortunate—and humbled—to work with incredible colleagues whose dedication to securing sexual and reproductive health and rights for all is unsurpassed.

As Project Design Coordinator, I know my work is vitally important, particularly at a time when several large global health donors have withdrawn from Latin America and the Caribbean. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has “graduated” the majority of countries in our region, despite the inequalities that persist, as has the UK Department for International Development, USAID’s counterpart in the United Kingdom. The Netherlands, one of the region’s significant donors, is currently phasing out its final project in Colombia, and the Danish government will be pulling out of Nicaragua, a country it has supported for many years.

Despite this trend, last year IPPF/WHR Member Associations provided nearly 29 million vital health services and worked to promote the sexual rights of every woman, man and young person. But sometimes, working on these issues from behind a computer screen is not enough. For many of us, our mission is more than our 9 to 5. We live and breathe the commitment constantly, both in and out of the office. We march for reproductive rights in the United States, spread the word, and continue to seek opportunities to expand our knowledge of the field.

While we are often challenged to defend the right of all women and girls to decide if, when, and with whom to have children, the equally important right to choose the way in which a woman brings her baby into the world often does not receive the attention it deserves. Rich or poor, childbirth is a defining moment in a woman’s life—whether the experience is positive or not, it is one that she never forgets.

To read the rest of this article click here.

What babies learn before they're born

2011-12-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

Editor's note: Annie Murphy Paul is the author of "Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives." She's now working on a book about learning, and writes a weekly column at Time.com called "Brilliant: The Science of Smart." TED is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "Ideas worth spreading," which it distributes through talks posted on its website.

(CNN) -- When does learning begin? As I explain in the talk I gave at TED, learning starts much earlier than many of us would have imagined: in the womb.

I was surprised as anyone when I first encountered this notion. I'm a science writer, and my job is to trawl the murky depths of the academic journals, looking for something shiny and new -- a sparkling idea that catches my eye in the gloom.

Starting a few years ago, I began noticing a dazzling array of findings clustered around the prenatal period. These discoveries were generating considerable excitement among scientists, even as they overturned settled beliefs about when we start absorbing and responding to information from our environment. As a science reporter -- and as a mother -- I had to find out more.

This research, I discovered, is part of a burgeoning field known as "fetal origins," and it's turning pregnancy into something it has never been before: a scientific frontier. Obstetrics was once a sleepy medical specialty, and research on pregnancy a scientific backwater. Now the nine months of gestation are the focus of intense interest and excitement, the subject of an exploding number of journal articles, books, and conferences.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Dangers of “Crying It Out”

2011-12-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Damaging children and their relationships for the longterm.
Published on December 11, 2011 by Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D. in Moral Landscapes

Letting babies "cry it out" is an idea that has been around since at least the 1880s when the field of medicine was in a hullaballoo about germs and transmitting infection and so took to the notion that babies should rarely be touched (see Blum, 2002, for a great review of this time period and attitudes towards childrearing).

In the 20th century, behaviorist John Watson (1928), interested in making psychology a hard science, took up the crusade against affection as president of the American Psychological Association. He applied the mechanistic paradigm of behaviorism to child rearing, warning about the dangers of too much mother love. The 20th century was the time when "men of science" were assumed to know better than mothers, grandmothers and families about how to raise a child. Too much kindness to a baby would result in a whiney, dependent, failed human being. Funny how "the experts" got away with this with no evidence to back it up! Instead there is evidence all around (then and now) showing the opposite to be true!

A government pamphlet from the time recommended that "mothering meant holding the baby quietly, in tranquility-inducing positions" and that "the mother should stop immediately if her arms feel tired" because "the baby is never to inconvenience the adult." Babies older than six months "should be taught to sit silently in the crib; otherwise, he might need to be constantly watched and entertained by the mother, a serious waste of time." (See Blum, 2002.)

To read the rest of this article click here.

Vit.K- Are Babies born Deficient? or Do Modern Life and Current Birthing Practices Create the very Problem that Vit.K supplementation is supposed to S

2011-12-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

by Sherry Rothwell

So the question has been asked at Birth Without Fear: Vit.K…yes? no? why?
http://www.facebook.com/#!/birthwithoutfear

Well, I was about to give my two sense, when I remembered that I wrote about this at length in response to a post at Homebirth: A Midwife Mutiny written by Lisa Barrett (which is a fantastic blog by the way and I recommend that you read her whole article and thread on this topic!)
http://www.homebirth.net.au/2008/03/vitamin-k.html

Lisa writes,

“This brings us to the action of the third stage in all of this. If the placenta isn’t detached from the baby until after it has birthed then there is an equalisation of the blood passing to and from the placenta: this creates just the right amount of transfer of all the cells required. There is a higher haematocrit which essentially makes the blood thicker and stickier. Isn’t this the natural way to prevent bleeding in the newborn until vit K can be made by the gut flora and what is in breast milk can be absorbed by the baby. This is a good reason not to interfere with the third stage. Even cutting the cord when it doesn’t seem to be pulsing isn’t a guarantee that the natural process has taken place, and I believe that the potential for complications due to that can cause bleeding issues for the mother if cut before placenta is out.”

While I don`t profess to know the ultimate truth here or have the final answer on this subject, I sure do have a lot of questions.

First of all, I think that Lisa`s point is a poignant one and probably the most important consideration here.

As well, would it not be possible that while we are also “creating” this “deficiency” of adequate Vit.K (by cutting the cord too soon and not enabling baby to have “thicker and stickier blood”), but we might also want to ask, “how much Vit. K is stored in that 1/3 or more missing blood supply“ when the cord is cut before it stops pulsating (as is done in hospitals and even with some homebirth midwives….gasp!)?

To read the rest of this article click here.

Mothers Wanting Natural Childbirth Have Options

2011-12-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

By DyAnna Gordon
The experience of giving birth profoundly impacts a woman forever. In the past, many women had little choice in their birth experiences. Either they gave birth before the advent of modern anesthesia techniques or gave birth during the time of “twilight sleep birth,” when women were given pain medication that rendered them unconscious or into such a trance that they would not remember what they went through.

In the modern world, women have more options. They can choose a natural birth, without any type of medication, or an epidural — anesthesia placed in the woman’s spinal column causing a cessation of pain below her waist. Epidurals can be a lifesaver for women who need cesarean sections and a useful tool for those with drawn out labors.

However, natural childbirth offers tremendous benefits for the laboring woman and her baby such as:

• Reduced chance of cesarean section.
• Easier time breastfeeding.
• Increased bonding between mother and infant and less separation.
• Increased participation by the mother’s partner in the birth experience.
• Increased maternal sense of accomplishment.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Ricki Lake: Why I'm So Passionate About Childbirth

2011-12-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

In her first blog for the iVillage blog series CelebVillage, actress/ filmmaker and mom of two Ricki Lake shares why she's so passionate about her childbirth documentary film, The Business of Being Born, and its follow-up series and why she feels they've "revolutionized" her purpose in the world.

About eight years ago my dear friend, director Abby Epstein, was visiting me in Los Angeles and I approached her with an idea for a film project about midwives and natural birth. I showed her home video footage of my younger son Owen’s birth in our New York City bathtub and gave her a copy of my childbirth bible, Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery. I am sure Abby thought I was nuts and was probably thinking this would not be a commercially viable project (to say the least!) but she took the material and politely agreed to look it over.

A few weeks later, Abby called me and said she was blown away by her own ignorance on the subject and thought it would make an amazingly compelling documentary. We spent the next three years filming birth in hospitals, homes and birth centers and ultimately created The Business of Being Born (which Entertainment Weekly has said was the "rare documentary that is actually changing lives. It deserves to be called revolutionary.")

To read the rest the rest of this article click here.

Midwives in demand as delivery alternative

2011-12-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

By Jack Minch, jminch@sentinelandenterprise.com
Posted: 12/11/2011 06:34:50 AM EST

Jennifer Matoney lives in Worcester but traveled to HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster to give birth to her first baby Aug. 28 because she liked the midwife program.

"During my pregnancy, it was to have what I considered not only medical care but more of emotional-based care," Matoney said. "Just the way midwives treat you I found to be a lot better than other medical staff that I had been exposed to before."

Her daughter Cascade "Cassie" Reif Matoney was born weighing 6 pounds, 14 ounces after a 34-hour labor.

Matoney is certain an obstetrician would have wanted to perform a caesarean section earlier.

Professionals say midwives let nature take its course while doctors often favor medical procedures when children are born.

"Midwives tend to see pregnancy as a normal state of health rather than as a condition," said Amanda Molter, a midwife at Family Medical and Maternity Care in Leominster. "In general, we tend to intervene a lot less if things are going well and everybody is well and happy."

A doctor is always available if a woman in labor has complications, she said.

There are about five levels of midwifery services, including the certified nurse-midwife who is licensed as a nurse and midwife; a certified professional midwife who meets the standards set by the North American Registry of Midwives; and a lay midwife who is self-taught or learns through an apprenticeship.

HealthAlliance had five certified nurse-midwives working at Montachusett Women's Health but three of them resigned recently.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Waterbirth Videos – ALL Your Questions Answered: Like: “How Does My Baby Breathe Under Water?”

2011-12-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here’s a new waterbirth videos series answering all your questions about water birth.

You see, when I even entertained the idea of having a water birth, I was shot down by so many well meaning friends and family that I almost didn’t investigate it further. “Ooh, it’s not safe” one said … or more condescending comments like, “Sweetheart, that’s just for hippies, just do what the doctors tell you to do!”

Boy, am I glad I didn’t listen! … My experience of birthing my baby girl in the water was the MOST WONDERFUL & BLISSFUL time in my ENTIRE LIFE!

I guess the reason I didn’t listen to all the negativity was because when I asked all of my “Advisers” who among them had actually had a waterbirth – NONE of them had.

I began going to childbirth classes (NOT the hospital ones – I personally did Hypnobirthing, but there are lots of others to check out) and when I saw numerous waterbirth videos of women laboring so comfortably in pools, baths and spas I KNEW that was what I wanted.
Over the next few weeks I became a bit obsessive and started searching YouTube for all the waterbirth videos I could find! – Lucky for you, I have found all the best ones and put them on this website :)

However, this particular page is dedicated to waterbirth videos – QUESTIONS: See below for the most commonly asked questions about water birth and if you have any more then leave a comment below. Enjoy!

Waterbirth Video QUESTION 1 – Benefits Of Water Birth For Mother

To watch more videos that will answer more questions about water birth click here.

Letting Your Best Friend Have A Bad Birth

2011-12-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

"Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing.
There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow
people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a
time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over."
~Gloria Naylor~
Have you had a natural birth? Do you have actual (and strong) opinions about things like vaccines and circumcision? Do you find yourself cornering newly pregnant women whom you have never met at social functions and dumping information on them when they mention that they want an episiotomy because "it just heals up so much better when it is a straight cut than a jagged tear"?
If so, then this article is for you!
Now- what do you do when somebody-- maybe even somebody you love, appears to be heading down the birth trauma highway?
Ahh, the humanity! Knowing that your friend/sister/neighbor/in-law is being set up for a horrid birth experience! How hard is this for the natural birth mama who simply loved her life changing birth experience? Do you keep your mouth shut? Do you offer information? Do you share your experience? Can you "let" her go down a path you don't think she should?
~/~
Questions like this are asked all the time:

"My friend is being set for an induction at 39 weeks because she is uncomfortable. What research can I give her?"

Or, as a natural birth teacher I get phone calls from the mom or mother in law or buddy trying to enroll their loved one in a Bradley natural birth class.

"I LOVED my Bradley birth! She really needs this class. When does the next one start?!"

So what DO you do?

As a woman who has actually uttered the words "You didn't need that c-section" (yes I am that tactless), I can honestly say that this is a very difficult one.

A few things that I try to remind my tactless self:

1) What you consider a good experience might not be what somebody else considers a good birth experience.

I remember telling the birth story of my first child to a woman who had a c-section for failure to progress. I had three nights of labor and had pushed for 4 hours- two hours longer than she had before they declared her unable to birth vaginally. Maybe I was thinking she would hear my story and say

"Ahh- you wonderful woman! Thank you for your wisdom! I now see that maybe, just maybe, I too am capable of vaginal birth. You have given me hope!"

This is NOT what she said. Instead she looked at me with a little bit of horror and said something about how she couldn't believe I would want to go through that. What was an empowering experience for ME just sounded exhausting and brutal to HER. She has scheduled her c-sections for her other babies, and I believe been quite happy with her births. I can only imagine that my most recent unassisted birth in my bed would have sounded equally awful to her.

So- to each his own. We don't all want the same thing from life or from birth.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Five Reasons to Choose a Midwife for Your Pregnancy Care

2011-12-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

By Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE, About.com Guide

Using a midwife is growing in popularity as increasing numbers of women choose midwifery care in some form or another for their pregnancy and birth. Here are some of the top reasons given for choosing a midwife:

1. You’re a low risk woman.
Midwives generally only take care of low risk women. This means that your midwife has been trained to ensure that you do your best to stay healthy and low risk through out your pregnancy by guiding you in your choices towards healthy options. It also means that she is constantly watching to ensure you are within these healthy parameters, like a life guard, only stepping in when needed. Occasionally you will have a midwife in a high risk practice, she provides patient education in these settings.

2. You want a normal birth.
Midwives tend to have much lower intervention rates, like a lower cesarean and induction of labor rates. This eases the minds of many women who are hoping to avoid unneeded interventions. It also means that your midwife has plenty of ways to help you cope with pregnancy and labor that don’t involve medications when they aren’t needed. Some midwives do use medications in labor, depending on the location of your birth. Your midwife is also more likely to spend time with you, helping your through labor.

To read the rest of this post click here.

How Will I Know I Am In Labour?

2011-12-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

Written by Rhonda Young-Pilon, RN BScN, CAPPA trained Labour Doula

There are cardinal signs that labor is in the beginning or early stages, although all signs are unique to each woman. We all have different birth stories, and it can be hard to know when the exact time is beginning.

Here are some signs that labor may be beginning:

- loss of mucous plug (this can range in color/consistency for each woman, some lose their plug more than once in pregnancy and some do not lose it until they are in active or transitional labor... but it generally looks like "bloody snot" and varies in size and color)

- rupture of waters (another highly variable sign) Some women may experience "trickle" which can be confused with urine leakage, vaginal discharge, or other moisture. It's not always like in the movies where it appears the woman gushes a lot of fluid. Waters are usually straw colored and have no scent. Waters can also be stained with "meconium", which is a sign that baby may have taken a bowel movement. Waters can also be a greenish color or blood stained. If your water has broken, chances are you should make your way to the labor and delivery unit to be checked.

- contractions: this can mean several things, but you probably already know a little bit about Braxton-Hicks contractions if you're in the later stages of pregnancy. True labor-style contractions are felt across the abdomen and in the back and have a distinct pattern. If you are early in pregnancy, they may feel like tightening. We will discuss in our appointments about when it is best to call your doula or obtain medical attention.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Doulas More Effective than Staff or Mother's Family, Friends Read more at Suite101: Doulas More Effective than Staff or Mother's Family, Friends | Su

2011-12-07T08:14:00.001-07:00

Research continues to show how effective doula support is for laboring women. Doulas have found to be more effective than family, friends or hospital staff.

While using a doula during birth may seem like a new trend, the original research by Klaus and Kennell on doulas is now over 30 years old. Yet more information is coming out all the time about how doula support is uniquely different from other types of support. Doulas may be more effective than family, friends or members of the hospital staff who provide support to the mother during labor.
Review of Existing Doula Research

Research lead by Ellen Hodnett, from the University of Toronto, Bloomberg Faculty School of Nursing involved reviewing a number of studies that examined the effect of one-to-one support from a doula versus standard care in the hospital.

The research team also wanted to discover if the effects of support were affected by routine practices of the facility, the supportive person's relationship to the hospital and the mother and the timing of the support given to the mother.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Delay cord clamping to 'prevent newborn health problems'

2011-12-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

Maternal and newborn health researchers have recommended delaying the clamping of the umbilical cord after birth.

A study conducted by Swedish researchers and published on BMJ.com found waiting at least three minutes before undertaking the procedure can protect kids against iron deficiency during infancy.

The authors of the investigation noted there are fears not clamping the cord quickly can lead to serious health problems including neonatal jaundice, but the scientists insisted this link is not valid.

Indeed, among the 400 full-term infants assessed in the study, no adverse outcomes were seen in babies whose umbilical cords were clamped after at least three minutes, but there were fewer cases of iron deficiency at four months

To read the rest of this article click here.

Things I Would Say to the Hospital Staff If I Saw Them Today…

2011-12-05T12:09:00.001-07:00

I can’t help it, I hold grudges. It’s just my personality to seethe over things when I feel like I’ve been dumped on, and it just stews inside my bones, boiling under the surface for months, weeks, years, decades… until I find a way to resolve my anger.

I have a lot of unresolved rage over things that happened in my first two birth experiences. My first was an induction-turned-unnecessary cesarean, and my second was a hard, hard, hard-fought VBAC that nearly resulted in a second unnecessary cesarean about a dozen times before my labor finally finished.

Having my VBAC, and my then my Home VBAC, ultimately healed the way I felt about my body after those traumatic births. It was empowering and liberating. But it didn’t shake the anger over the way I was treated in the hospital because I know so many other women are experiencing the same mistreatment every day, and in some weird ways it makes it feel like it’s still happening to me.

In both of my first two births, there were some things that the hospital staff did that I may never forget, and certainly have not yet forgiven. And I’m not alone here, either. Jessie Peters of Roanoke Birth Services, a doula and midwife in training says,

“I believe that we as women never forget how we felt, and were made to feel during the births of our children, and that the way we are treated during this vulnerable time impacts our future.”

Many highly trained birth and psychology professionals agree that birth imprints memories on us in a way that can’t be shaken, which can be especially hard to process if they are negative feelings. But I’m going to try to process them how, in hopes that it will relieve some of the internalized anger that nags at me. I also hope that if labor & delivery professionals stumble upon this, it will make them rethink the little things they’re doing that will forever impact how a woman remembers her birth experience.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Birthing Options Grow Scarce after C-Sections

2011-12-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

By Hana Askren
WeNews commentator
Tuesday, November 15, 2011

In her doula work Hana Askren finds that women who want a vaginal birth after a Caesarean often cannot find a doctor or hospital to provide this kind of care.

We are constantly making choices about how to lead our lives. We wage political and economic battles over what kinds of choices citizens should be allowed to make--from school vouchers to having an abortion--with the recognition that each choice entails conflict.

But one choice you don't hear so much about is that of certain maternity patients to choose their birthing method. That's because, in this case, little choice is left.

Mainly I work as a journalist. But in my sideline work as a doula, or nonmedical birth assistant, I come across many women desiring the security of hospital facilities "just in case" who can still attempt a natural birth with a hospital-based midwife or doctor.

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No similar choice exists for many who have had a Caesarean section and would like to try a vaginal delivery referred to as a VBAC, vaginal birth after C-section.

If such women are not comfortable with giving birth at home, they are often unable to find a doctor to agree to attempt a vaginal birth in a hospital. One woman I spoke to worked with seven care providers in her part of Maryland, never finding a doctor to support her, while another, in Brooklyn, transferred three times before she found a VBAC-friendly practice. At that point she was 32 weeks along.

During the last 10 to 15 years, many hospitals have banned VBAC and obstetricians have stopped offering it in favor of elective repeat Caesarean sections, mainly due to liability concerns.
VBAC Safety Studied

At the same time, recent studies from health authorities such as the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Health Quality and Research have shown that VBAC can be safe, often safer for the mother than a repeat Caesarean. There is a fraction of a percent chance that labor contractions will cause the old scar to separate. Meanwhile, repeat Caesarean sections carry a comparable risk of hemorrhage, infection and other complications, increasing with each subsequent surgery.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Happily After Giving Birth – 10 Things They Don't Tell You

2011-12-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

You know in the movies when the woman gives birth and they hand her a perfect, clean 3-month old movie baby? The husband puts his arm around her and they gaze lovingly into each others eyes? Ahhhh, the end. Well, here are just a few of things that can happen after the credits roll. Most of them aren't movie friendly so sadly, the don't get discussed unless you have really good friends that let you in on these little secrets. Not all of them happen to everybody but, chances are, one or more will be added to your new role as motherhood so don't be alarmed.

1. You will have a really heavy period. No matter how you give birth (c-section or va-j-j) you will have postpartum bleeding. This delightful discharge is called lochia and it sounds about as appealing as it is. It lasts as little as two to three weeks or as long as six weeks after birth. The best part is you're given giant, thunderpads in the hospital because you can't use tampons during this time (it can introduce bacteria into your healing uterus) so you have the added pleasure of feeling like a 15-year old girl from 1974.

2. Your crotch might be a mess. You may be dealing with a swollen, stitched up mighty mess that even Stephen King couldn't dream up. There are a variety of elixirs and contraptions to help ease the horror including sits baths, frozen bags of peas and a little water bottle that you squirt on yourself while you pee. In my experience I've found that it's best not to look – it was actually worse than I thought it would be. Dear God so bad.

3. You're still fat. You will need clothes after you've had this kid because you'll be sort of second trimester doughy for a while. This is yet another reason I hate those damn model asshats that are wafer thin 10 minutes after they've given birth because it isn't realistic. Everything is very different when you've had your tummy tuck during your elective c-section and you can hand your baby off to a nanny and have a personal trainer up in your face everyday. Pilates and brown rice my ass. Stupid starlets. Except Heidi Klum. I love Heidi Klum and that bitch earned her wings.

To read the rest of this article click here.

5 Countries, 6 Births, 7 Babies

2011-11-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

British Study: Half Of All Pregnant Women Could Give Birth At Home Safely

2011-11-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

LONDON -- A new study in England shows little difference in complications among the babies of women with low-risk pregnancies who delivered in hospitals versus those who gave birth with midwives at home or in birthing centers.

Based on the findings, researchers said women with uncomplicated pregnancies in England should be able to choose where they want to give birth – and one expert said about half of all pregnant women here could potentially safely give birth outside a hospital.

But they sounded a note of caution for first-time mothers and their infants, who may face a higher risk if they choose a home birth.

"I would never say women should give birth in a particular place, but hope this gives women more information to make an informed choice," said Dr. Peter Brocklehurst, director of the Institute for Women's Health at University College Hospital in London, one of the paper's lead authors. He conducted the research while at Oxford University.

"Birth isn't an abnormal process, it's a physiological process," he said. "And if your pregnancy and labor is not complicated, then you don't need a high level of specific expertise."

Brocklehurst added that about 50 percent of pregnant women in England – those who are low-risk – should be able to choose where to have their baby.

More than 90 percent of pregnant women in England now give birth in a hospital. Some officials say the new study should prompt women to consider alternatives.

"This is about giving women a choice," said Mary Newburn of NCT, a U.K. charity for parents, one of the study's authors. She said midwife-run birth centers in England have a more homelike environment, with privacy, sofas and birthing pools.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Dr. Sears Addresses Recent Co-Sleeping Concerns

2011-11-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

Every night millions of mothers and babies the world over sleep close to each other, and the babies wake up just fine. Instead of alarming conscientious parents, like the recent shocking and insensitive ad campaign in Milwaukee did, as reported in the Journal Sentinel, sleep advisors should be teaching parents how to co-sleep safely.

Since I’m a show-me-the-science doctor, consider the following:

* Cultures who traditionally practice safe co-sleeping, such as Asians, enjoy the lowest incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
* Trusted research by Dr. James McKenna, Director of the Mother-Baby Sleep Laboratory of the University of Notre Dame, showed that mothers and babies who sleep close to each other enjoy similar protective sleep patterns. Mothers enjoy a heightened awareness of their baby’s presence, what I call a “nighttime sleep harmony,” that protects baby. The co-sleeping mother is more aware if her baby’s well-being is in danger.
* Babies who sleep close to their mothers enjoy “protective arousal,” a state of sleep that enables them to more easily awaken if their health is in danger, such as breathing difficulties.
* Co-sleeping makes breastfeeding easier, which provides many health benefits for mother and baby.
* More infant deaths occur in unsafe cribs than in parents' bed.
* Co-sleeping tragedies that have occurred have nearly always been associated with dangerous practices, such as unsafe beds, or parents under the influence of substances that dampen their awareness of baby.
* Research shows that co-sleeping infants cry less during the night, compared to solo sleepers who startle repeatedly throughout the night and spend 4 times the number of minutes crying. Startling and crying releases adrenaline, which can interfere with restful sleep and leads to long term sleep anxiety.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Pre-Eclampsia Linked With Low Vitamin D During Pregnancy

2011-11-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

Vitamin D deficiency early in pregnancy is associated with a five-fold increased risk of preeclampsia, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

A serious complication of pregnancy marked by soaring blood pressure and swelling of the hands and feet, preeclampsia is the leading cause of premature delivery and maternal and fetal illness and death worldwide, conservatively projected to contribute to 76,000 deaths each year. Preeclampsia, also known as toxemia, affects up to 7 percent of first pregnancies, and health care costs associated with preeclampsia are estimated at $7 billion a year in the United States alone, according to the Preeclampsia Foundation.

"Our results showed that maternal vitamin D deficiency early in pregnancy is a strong, independent risk factor for preeclampsia," said Lisa M. Bodnar, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) and lead author of the study. "Women who developed preeclampsia had vitamin D concentrations that were significantly lower early in pregnancy compared to women whose pregnancies were normal. And even though vitamin D deficiency was common in both groups, the deficiency was more prevalent among those who went on to develop preeclampsia."

To read the rest of this article click here.

Statewide project helps mothers avoid C-sections

2011-11-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

BY Patricia Anstett

DETROIT FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER

A Michigan project considered a national model is helping women avoid medically unnecessary C-sections and contributing to healthier outcomes for their babies, project organizers report.

The Michigan Health and Hospital Association Keystone obstetrics project has triggered major changes at the 65 Michigan hospitals as they move to eliminate many Caesarean births and use of labor-induction drugs before the 39th week of pregnancy.

Under the project, elective or scheduled C-section births are discouraged unless the mother has a chronic disease or is carrying more than one baby, or her baby is small and developing slower.

At Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center in Dearborn, where the idea for the project began, doctors have seen improvements in babies' birth scores and fewer in the neonatal care unit.

Claire Marie Wilhelm was worth the wait, said her mom, Jennifer, 28, of Lincoln Park, who gave birth naturally Oct. 27 at Oakwood a week beyond the standard 40 weeks. The labor seemed short and "much easier" than the 12-hour induction with her first child, she said.
Project aims for healthier births

Jennifer Wilhelm got her wish: a natural childbirth for her second baby, Claire Marie.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Changing Lives at Birth

2011-11-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

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Mother Directed Pushing in Hospital

2011-11-18T08:51:00.001-07:00

Study: Two-Thirds of OB-GYN Clinical Guidelines Have No Basis in Science

2011-11-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Majority of ACOG Recommendations for Patient Care Found to Be Based on Opinion and Inconsistent Evidence

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 15, 2011)—A study published this month in Obstetrics & Gynecology, the journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, found that barely one-third of the organization’s clinical guidelines for OB/GYN practice meet the Level A standard of “good and consistent scientific evidence.” The authors of the study found instead that the majority of ACOG recommendations for patient care rank at Levels B and C, based on research that relies on “limited or inconsistent evidence” and on “expert opinion,” both of which are known to be inadequate predictors of safety or efficacy.

“The fact that so few of the guidelines that govern routine OB/GYN care in this country are supported by solid scientific evidence—and worse, are far more likely to be based on anecdote and opinion—is a sobering reminder that our maternity care system is in urgent need of reform,” said Katherine Prown, PhD, Campaign Manager of The Big Push for Midwives. “As the authors of the study remind us, guidelines are only as good as the evidence that supports them.”

ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 22 on the management of fetal macrosomia—infants weighing roughly 8 ½ lbs or more at birth—illustrates the possible risks to mothers and babies of relying on unscientific clinical guidelines. The only Level A evidence-based recommendation on the delivery of large-sized babies the Bulletin makes is to caution providers that the methods for detection are imprecise and unreliable. Yet at the same time, the Bulletin makes a Level C opinion-based recommendation that, despite the lack of a reliable diagnosis, women with “suspected” large babies should be offered potentially unnecessary cesarean sections as a precaution, putting mothers at risk of surgical complications and babies at risk of being born too early.

“It’s no wonder that the cesarean rate is going through the roof and women are seeking alternatives to hospital-based OB/GYN care in unprecedented numbers,” said Susan M. Jenkins, Legal Counsel of The Big Push for Midwives. “ACOG’s very own recommendations give its members permission to follow opinion-based practice guidelines that have far more to do with avoiding litigation than with adhering to scientific, evidence-based principles about what’s best for mothers and babies.”

To read the rest of this article click here.

Natural Birth Twins Triplets (Natural Childbirth Twins Triplets)

2011-11-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

Breastfeeding tied to lower blood pressure risk-study

2011-11-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

Nov 2 (Reuters) - Mothers who breastfeed for the recommended period of time, at least six months exclusively, may have a somewhat lower risk of developing high blood pressure later on, a U.S. study of more than 50,000 women said.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, add to evidence that breastfeeding might have benefits for mothers as well as babies, although it does not prove that breastfeeding is the direct cause of the healthier blood pressure, researchers said.

Breastfeeding is thought to help protect babies against common ills, such as diarrhea and middle-ear infections, and previous studies have found that women who breastfeed have lower risks of diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease later in life.

"Women who never breastfed were more likely to develop hypertension than women who exclusively breastfed their first child for six months or more," wrote lead researcher Alison Stuebe at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

In general, experts recommend that babies be breastfed exclusively for their first six months, then continue getting breast milk along with solid food until they are a year old.

For the study, Stuebe and her team looked at the correlation between breastfeeding and later risk of high blood pressure among some 56,000 U.S. women taking part in the long-running Nurses' Health Study II. All had had at least one baby.

Overall, the study found women who had breastfed for at least six months were less likely to develop high blood pressure over 14 years than those who had only bottle-fed.

Nearly 8,900 women overall were eventually diagnosed with high blood pressure. But those odds were 22 percent higher for women who did not breastfeed their first child, versus women who'd exclusively breastfed for six months.

To read the rest of this article click here.

More Business of Being Born Trailer

2011-11-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

Caesarean link to respiratory infections in babies

2011-11-11T11:36:00.002-07:00

3/11/2011-
A new study from Perth’s Telethon Institute for Child Health Research has found that babies born by elective caesarean are more likely to be admitted to hospital with the serious respiratory infection, bronchiolitis, in the first year of life.

click here

The study, published in the latest online edition of the international journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, analysed linked birth data and hospitalisation records of 212,068 babies over a 10 year period in Western Australia.

Report lead author, Dr Hannah Moore, said that after adjusting for a range of maternal factors and pregnancy complications, the effect was an 11 per cent increase in hospital admissions.

"While the increase is relatively modest, this is the first study to link elective caesareans to bronchiolitis," Dr Moore said.

Bronchiolitis, generally caused by the common respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), is one of the most common reasons for babies to be admitted to hospital. Bronchiolitis also has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of asthma in children.

Previous research by the Institute team has found an increased risk of hospital admissions for acute lower respiratory infections in children less than 2 years of age, delivered by elective caesarean.

To read the rest of this article click here.

First Foods: Why White Rice Cereal Is Bad for Your Baby

2011-11-10T07:42:00.002-07:00

White rice cereal is one of the most commonly recommended first foods for infants. It is easy to make, easy for infants to eat, and easy to sell to parents since it is fortified with important vitamins and minerals like iron.

It is also bad for your baby.
What's Wrong with White Rice Cereal?

According to Stanford-based pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene, a lot.

"The number one ingredient in what we call rice 'cereal' is processed white rice flour. That's all the rice there is. There are also some vitamins and minerals sprinkled in that babies could easily get in other ways. These don't make this gateway junk food healthy ... Metabolically, it's not that different from giving babies a spoonful of sugar."

Feeding your infant white rice cereal is the equivalent of feeding him sugar? Yes, and it only gets worse. Dr. Greene believes that not only is the cereal nutritionally bad for babies, but also that its consumption sets our children up for health problems later in life.

Ever wonder why so many children (and adults) prefer to eat white breads and highy processed foods? Consider Dr. Greene's theory that flavor preferences are influenced by our first foods. If a highly processed cereal is the most consumed food in a child's first year of life, it only makes sense that the child will prefer processed foods later on.
First Food Alternativeshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

White rice cereal might be bad for our babies, but it is still frequently the first choice of parents and pediatricians. This doesn't have to be the case. There are many healthier alternatives for baby's first foods. If you're trying to decide what solid foods to introduce to your baby, consider some of the following options:

whole grain baby cereal
avocado
sweet potato (cooked until soft)
mashed banana

To read the rest of this article click here.

What if I poo or pee myself during birth?

2011-11-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

Cesarean vs. VBAC: A Dramatic Difference

2011-11-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Cesarean vs. VBAC: A Dramatic Difference from Alexandra Orchard on Vimeo.

Cord around the neck – what parents & practitioners should know

2011-11-07T09:28:00.001-07:00

This article shares information about the common practice of checking for a nuchal cord during the second stage of labour, and unlooping or cutting the cord – interventions that are not evidence-based and can cause birth trauma.

It is important women are informed about nuchal cord ‘management’ and how it may affect their birth. Prior information can assist with birth planning; promote discussion with care providers and birth support; and help to avoid iatrogenic injury.

NUCHAL CORD

A nuchal cord is when the umbilical cord is ‘coiled’ around the baby’s neck. Most nuchal cords are single coils and loose. Less common are tight, double or multiple coils. (1,2,3)

Various studies have shown nuchal cord to occur:

* in 10% – 37% of all births;
* more commonly in male babies;
* during pregnancy or labour;
* progressively with longer gestation. (1,2,3,4)

Maternity care providers should expect to encounter nuchal cords regularly in their practice. (2)

NUCHAL CORD RARELY THE CAUSE OF HARM

Nuchal cords are rarely found to be the cause of adverse outcomes in studies of pregnancy and birth. Several authors have concluded nuchal cords “ordinarily do no harm”. (5,6,7)

Some studies have associated nuchal cord with an increased rate of variable fetal heart rate decelerations during labour, and tight nuchal cords to a higher proportion of fetal distress and low Apgar scores. (3,4,8) However, in these retrospective studies the definition of tight nuchal cord were those ‘clamped and cut before delivery of the shoulders’ – therefore short-term morbidity was more likely caused by the interventions rather than the presence of nuchal cord. (3)

(To learn more about nuchal cords, how babies can and are born with loose/tight/multiple nuchal cords, and why they are disproportionately associated with risk and adverse outcomes, please read Nuchal Cords: the perfect scapegoat.)

To read the rest of this article click here.

Childbirth classes help ease anxiety

2011-11-04T08:25:00.000-06:00

By Linda Charping
Health Department
Published: Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 12:38 p.m.

Having a baby can be a wonderful experience, but for most first-time mothers, there are lots of questions, fears and concerns, especially related to labor and delivery. Talking with a health care provider and taking childbirth education classes can help to reassure women and reduce the normal anxieties of childbirth.

The Department of Public Health is now offering Lamaze Childbirth Education classes taught by certified instructors in English and Spanish. The goal of Lamaze education is to promote, support and protect natural, safe and healthy birth throuhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifgh education. The classes are a place to ask questions, gather information and socialize with other pregnant women and their families. Being prepared for childbirth can help reduce the use of unnecessary interventions and improve overall outcomes for mothers and babies.

Fortunately, giving birth in the 21st century is a far more positive and healthy experience than it was years ago. Birth in the 19th and 20th centuries was characterized by routine interventions with women being heavily drugged, restrained and isolated. The practice of putting women to sleep during labor contributed to a shift from home delivery to having babies in the hospital.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Birth is not a crisis

2011-11-03T08:22:00.000-06:00

By Elizabeth Payne, Ottawa Citizen October 18, 2011

While having a baby at home and live online may seem wacky, it draws attention to how rare natural childbirth has become, writes Elizabeth Payne.

Nancy Salgueiro is not crazy. She is tired, very busy and extremely happy, like most new mothers.

But the Barrhaven woman's decision to live-stream her home birth, which took place early Sunday morning without a hitch, while unconventional, was not irrational.

In fact, doctors, nurses, medical students, health policy-makers and prospective parents would do well to watch the recording of baby Oziah's birth, which is available at Salgueiro's website yourbirthcoach.com. It might be one of the few chances they ever get to see a baby born without medical intervention, which is a sad comment on modern health care.

The fact that normal has become the wacky exception when it comes to birth is a problem that gets too little attention. If Salgueiro's decision to bring her baby's birth to a world audience was provocative, that is a good thing. It might just provoke a conversation that is needed about how natural childbirth became something so rare that few people even know what it looks like, including the very people whose jobs it should be to promote and encourage it.

That is why she decided to take the unusual step of welcoming the world ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnto her living room to watch her give birth. An estimated 2,500 people, who had registered beforehand, watched from countries including Brazil, Afghanistan and Australia.

"I want people to realize that birth is not the crisis that (movies and television shows) make it out to be. Birth is just a normal part of life."

Salgueiro, 32, who is a chiropractor and birth educator, says there is a great deal of unnecessary fear surrounding birth. "We are the population with the least faith in our ability to (give birth naturally). Women are totally capable of it, it doesn't need to be managed."

To read the rest of this article click here.

Bali-Based Midwife in Bid for CNN Hero

2011-11-02T08:18:00.000-06:00

More than 20 years ago, a series of tragic events changed Robin Lim’s life forever: her sister, her best friend and the midwife who helped her when she gave birth all lost their lives in the same year.

“Three people, all females, that you love died. You have to decide why you are living,” she said.

Two years later, Lim, a US citizen, decided to move to Ubud, Bali with her family and start over.

“We were reinventing our life,” she said of the reason she and her husband made the transition. “And we heard that Bali had a reputation for strong family values, that parents really take good care of their children.”http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Lim’s sister had died while giving birth, despite being in a modern hospital in the United States. A midwife herself, Robin already had a strong commitment to natural childbirth and a link to Asia — she is half Filipino and spent part of her childhood in the Philippines, where her maternal grandmother was a traditional birthing assistant.

Today Lim is known to many as Ibu Robin, or Mother Robin, and leads a non-profit, donation-based organization called Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth Foundation) that focuses on prenatal care, maternal health and child survival.

To read more click here - and don't forget to vote!

Artist turns childbirth into an exhibition by delivering her baby boy in a gallery

2011-11-01T08:12:00.000-06:00

A woman has turned childbirth into a work of art by delivering her baby inside an art gallery.

Performance artist Marni Kotak gave birth to her 9lb 2oz son in a specially designed ‘home birth centre’ at the Microscope Gallery in New York.

The 36-year-old chose to have her baby in front of art enthusiasts at the Brooklyn gallery as she believes giving birth is the “highest form of art”.
To read the rest of this article click here.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T08:09:00.000-06:00

Blind archaeologist uncovers ancient childbirth inscription

2011-10-28T09:30:00.000-06:00

A legally blind archaeology student uncovered one of the oldest depictions of childbirth yet found, inscribed on a pottery sherd from an Etruscan temple site, perhaps 2,700 years old.

"I am visually impaired, almost totally blind, so I needed to find an archaeology role where I could work on new excavation strategies," says William Nutt of the University of Texas at Arlington. He found one at the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project field school run by Southern Methodist University at the site of Poggio Colla, in Italy.

Thought to hold the ruins of a 2,700-year-old pilgrimage site or religious sanctuary for an underworld deity, the site allowed Nutt and his wife, Hannah, also a student, to work out a method of using a trowel with his right hand, while feeling layers of earth with the other.

To read the rest of this article here.

Tanya's Hypnobabies Birth

2011-10-27T09:24:00.000-06:00

Meconium in the amniotic fluid

2011-10-26T09:06:00.000-06:00

Posted on May 22, 2009 by gloria

It’s estimated that about 10% of full term babies pass their first bowel movement while still in the womb. It can be a sign of distress or it can be a perfectly normal, physiological event. When a midwife sees meconium in the amniotic fluid, she usually increases her surveillance of the fetal heart rate. The meconium can be well mixed with the amniotic fluid giving the appearance of pea soup or brown gravy. If just meconium is pouring out like oil, the midwife will realize that the baby is presenting bum first (breech).

Babies with meconium who are born in the hospital can be at a disadvantage because the hospital routine involves cutting the cord immediately and passing the meconium stained baby over to the pediatric nurse or dr. Cutting the cord forces the baby to inspire into the lungs deeply and leads to induced fetal distress–the unwanted problem.

This photo is of baby Abigail who suffered meconium aspiration syndrome after her hospital birth. She now has cerebral palsy:

Medical professionals are starting to realize that many babies have been treated unnecessarily with harmful consequences. Leaving the umbilical cord to pulse, putting the infant skin to skin with the mother, allowing the vigorous baby to have time to pink up without suction—all these natural methods have science to show they work best with meconium stained infants. Here are some studies that support taking the more gentle approach:

M E C O N I U M
Research
Researchers reviewed records of 199 cesareans that were done for
non-reassuring fetal condition and/or meconium stained amniotic fluid in a
rural hospital to evaluate the effect on neonatal outcome. Apgars at one and
five minutes were compared with those of 33 vaginal births after labour with
meconium staining. Five babies out of the 232 (2.2%) had an Apgar score 7
at five minutes. Of those, one died shortly after birth. Of those born by
caesarean section group for non-reassuring condition, two were stillbirths
and one was an early neonatal death, giving a perinatal mortality rate of
15.1/1,000 births. Mode of delivery did not affect the five minute Apgar
score in a statistically significant manner.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Funny!

2011-10-25T09:44:00.000-06:00

John Elliot’s Birth

2011-10-24T09:37:00.001-06:00

Parents: Sara and Michael
Date of Birth: April 13, 2011
Baby Info: 9 lbs. 1 oz. | 20.8 inches
Birthplace: Home

Birth trauma. Just after the “emergency” cesarean with my first baby in 2008, if felt as though something had been stolen. I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t understand all of my feelings so I just pushed them aside. I had a new baby to take care of, after all. She and I struggled to breastfeed, and struggled to bond in general. We had just moved to the UK for the Air Force and with no support and a husband working 16 hour shifts, I was miserable and suffering from PPD. I just knew I didn’t want more children. I couldn’t guarantee the outcome and I didn’t want another cesarean.

This quote helped me face my trauma and deal with it. “A woman faces everyone’s denial when she attempts to say how a traumatic birth has affected her. An uncomfortable sense of isolation and a fear of being crazy results as loved ones, friends, and coworkers do not acknowledge her pain or how her world has changed. This separation from others in viewpoint and experience is often more difficult to heal than the physical wounds of birth.” Lynn Madsen

When Liv was about 18 months, we decided to try for another baby. I knew what I wanted. I wanted a VBAC. Better than that, I wanted an HBAC. An unhindered, natural, loving, peaceful and gentle birth. My baby deserved it. I deserved it.

I began drinking mass quantities of Red Raspberry Leaf Tea to help my uterus prepare for it’s amazing task ahead. I took [and still take] six whole food prenatals a day, ate many fruit and veggies, and really got to enjoy being pregnant.

I ordered my birth pool, got together the birth supplies. Sorted and folded and resorted and refolded baby clothes. I cleaned and prepped the birth room a zillion times. We bought a gender neutral car seat. I learned how to encapsulate my placenta to help fight PPD.

I read. I read some more. I researched. I learned. It’s true; knowledge is power. I forget who said it but I read something once that said ‘ If you don’t know your options, you don’t have any.’ Such truth. I had amazing friends support me through a virtual Blessingway. What a joy that was, to bond with my friends on a much different level. Having people who believed in me and were willing to say so was so helpful. They respected and trusted my decisions and kept their worries and fears [if they had any] to themselves. They loved me.

All we had to do was be patient, and wait. It was hard – carrying post dates is frustrating. Even knowing that due dates are just guesses, it definitely toyed with my emotions. Finally… El’s Birthday…On April 12th, I drove Michael’s mum to the airport. We got there around 1340, said our goodbyes, and I left. After I dropped her off, stopped a Wendy’s on my way home to get Olivia [my eldest] a frosty (she was very sad about Granny leaving) and was home by 1415.

To read the rest of this lovely birth story click here.

S.Africa to stop free infant formula at hospitals: minister

2011-10-21T08:37:00.000-06:00

(AFP) – Aug 23, 2011

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa will no longer distribute free infant milk to public hospitals and clinics in an effort to promote exclusive breastfeeding and lower child mortality, the health minister said Tuesday.

"South Africa is one of only 12 countries in the world where infant mortality has been on the increase and as government we have committed ourselves to changing this unacceptable situation..., said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.

"Hence reducing child mortality is one of the most important priorities in our country and central to this is breastfeeding as a child survival strategy."

He was speaking at a breastfeeding summit where delegates recommended that infant formula milk should be distributed only if an authorised health practioner gave permission to mothers who, for medical reasons, could not breastfeed.

"It is undeniable that breastfeeding is the very best way to nourish babies - there is, literally, no substitute for it," he said adding that even HIV-positive mothers were encouraged to exclusively breastfeed for the first six months.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Skin to Skin Minutes After C/S in the OR… Speaking Up and Making it Happen

2011-10-19T08:08:00.001-06:00

Submitted for the Healthy Birth Blog Carnival #6: MotherBaby Edition

Skin to Skin immediately after birth is an extremely important part of the continuum of the nurturing of pregnancy, the process of birth and the transition of nurturing from inside mom to outside mom. This is the natural habitat where baby should transition and begin his own regulations of breathing, heart rate, temperature etc… This is recognized by the AAP in their changes to the Neonatal Resuscitation Algorithm back in 2000. The recommendation was to keep baby with mom and provide all initial evaluations and steps with baby on moms chest for all healthy babies! We all know that babies have an inborn innate ability to self attach and nurse right after birth. These recommendations are not just for vaginal births. Kathy Petersen has a beautiful description of the importance of STS after a Cesarean birth on her Woman to Woman Childbirth Education blog in her 5/30/10 post Skin-to-Skin in the O.R. after a C-section.

As soon as I heard about the last edition of Science and Sensibility’s Healthy Birth Blog Carnival with a theme about “keeping moms and babies together after birth”, I wanted to write about my tiny little efforts, struggles and some successes in providing moms and babies with an environment that supports and protects their need to stay together. My recent role in the protection of such an environment and subsequent privilege of watching a baby self attach in the OR 15 min after a C/S birth has re-energized my efforts to get more mother’s and nurses to speak up and make this a standard for healthy babies!

To read the rest of this article click here.

Flu Vaccine Causes Inflammatory Response in Pregnant Women – Vaccine Journal

2011-10-18T07:48:00.001-06:00

Posted on October 2, 2011 by The Refusers

MB Comment: A new study shows an increase in inflammatory response among pregnant women who receive flu vaccine. This inflammatory response increases the risk of preeclampsia and preterm birth. Preeclampsia is a life-threatening condition characterized by a rapid rise in blood pressure that can lead to seizure, stroke, multiple organ failure and death of the mother and/or baby.

The CDC recommends flu vaccination for pregnant women. Most doctors will unquestioningly follow that CDC dictate. This new study is a stark warning to pregnant women about the safety of CDC-recommended vaccines. Health authorities apparently don’t mind killing you or your baby when they conduct a successful universal vaccination program. Their experts would claim it is a coincidence and state unequivocally that the benefits outweigh the risks.

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Inflammatory responses to trivalent influenza virus vaccine among pregnant women.
Vaccine Journal September 2011

Abstract
OBJECTIVE:

In the U.S., seasonal trivalent influenza vaccination (TIV) is currently universally recommended for all pregnant women. However, data on the maternal inflammatory response to vaccination is lacking and would better delineate the safety and clinical utility of immunization. In addition, for research purposes, vaccination has been used as a mild immune trigger to examine in vivo inflammatory responses in nonpregnant adults. The utility of such a model in pregnancy is unknown. Given the clinical and empirical justifications, the current study examined the magnitude, time course, and variance in inflammatory responses following seasonal influenza virus vaccination among pregnant women.

To read more click here.

25% Off EVERYTHING!!!

2011-10-14T00:00:00.001-06:00

Today is my birthday, and I thought it would be the perfect day to extend a gift to you! For today only, use the code CarriBirthday and you will receive 25% off everything on our site. This code will expire at 12:01 AM October 15th.

Woman gives birth 7 hours after finishing marathon

2011-10-13T09:18:00.000-06:00

By Rita Rubin

Amber Miller sounds almost apologetic when she says yes, she did have an epidural when she delivered daughter June at 10:29 p.m. Sunday. She just didn’t think she had the strength to go without an epidural. Not surprising, considering she had completed the Bank of America Chicago Marathon seven hours earlier.

Really, that last sentence should have a row of exclamation points after it.

In a phone interview from her hospital room, Miller says she wasn’t sure until the last minute whether she was going to run the marathon, her eighth. Not because she didn’t think she could do it, but because it fell eight days before her due date.

“I kind of was thinking it was likely I was going to have her before the race,” says Miller, 27, a stay-at-home mom who lives in the Chicago suburb of Westchester, Ill. After all, son Caleb, now 19 months, was born 18 days before his due date.

But “the night before, I’m still pregnant, I’m still feeling good. I figured I paid for it.”

So what the heck, she thought, not planning on actually completing the whole 26.2 miles. “I thought it’s likely that the last few miles I’m going to get really, really tired.”

On her doctor’s advice, she conserved her energy by alternating between running and walking every two miles. “Pregnancy-wise, I felt fine. The baby was still moving. I was drinking a lot, eating a lot.”

To read the rest of this article and watch the video click here.

Doula support more effective in improving obstetric outcomes – latest review

2011-10-11T08:33:00.002-06:00

In February 2011, the new Cochrane Review of Continuous support for women during childbirth was published.

The study includes 21 randomized controlled trials with 15,060 women with doulas and hospital staff (including 4 newly added trials that compared trained support people from the woman’s own social network (partner, family friends)).

This review confirms previous findings that improved obstetric outcomes are associated with continuous support, especially the support of a doula.
A ‘doula’ labour support companion has the strongest impact on health and safety during labour and birth, compared with women who have no support in labour, or support from a member of the hospital staff, friend or family member.

Women with continuous support from a doula or other independent person were:

28% less likely to have a caesarean section
31% less likely to use synthetic oxytocin to speed
labour
9% less likely to use any pain medication

To read the rest of this article click here.

Five Things You Should Ask Before Hiring a Doula

2011-10-10T08:02:00.002-06:00

By Rae Crawford, Certified Labor Doula

So you have decided you need a doula! What now? First things first, interviews! Each doula has different skills and services that they offer. One may offer a pre labor massage while the next may know how to use hypnobirthing. It is important that the doula you hire supports what you desire to have in your birth.

The following five questions are great ways to narrow down which doula is right for you:

1. Are you available on my due date? Doulas usually commit to being available 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after your estimated due date

2. What experience and training have you had? You may want to familiarize with some of the major organizations that train doulas; www.cappa.net, www.dona.org, www.childbirthinternational.com are a few of the well-known organizations.

3. What services do you offer? This would include how many times the doula would visit you, when they will join you in labor, do they offer any special services.

To read the rest of this article click here.

My VBAC Success Story I ignored my doctor to have the birth I wanted

2011-10-07T09:43:00.000-06:00

By Jana Llewellyn | September 27, 2011

I ignored my doctor to have the birth I wanted

When I was pregnant with my son in 2007, I read articles, listened to radio broadcasts, and watched TV shows that all reported the alarming rate of C-sections. Since my pregnancy had been without complications up to that point, I assumed this wasn’t something I had to worry about. I was more interested in the increasing popularity of natural birth.

“Should I forego an epidural?” I asked my doctor.

He said, polite as always, that some women thought they'd decline an epidural, but once they hit active labor, “they realized why epidurals were invented."

He tapped into one of my biggest fears: pain.

So after the obstetrician broke my water and told me I’d be in “excruciating pain,” I agreed to the epidural. She assured me that epidurals didn’t slow down labor as I had thought. Ten hours later, I was in the operating room. I had been given enough Pitocin to dilate, but the doctor suspected that my baby was positioned sideways and mandated a C-section.

When I got pregnant with my daughter almost two years later, I did not want another C-section. In fact, I was planning my VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) only hours after my son was born. After all, my body was well-equipped to carry other human beings — both of my children wanted to stay well past 40 weeks — and I knew that I could labor successfully if given the chance. But, my doctor warned me, due to my first C-section, I was now considered a high-risk delivery case.

The biggest fear doctors and patients have with VBAC is a uterine rupture, where the scar tissue of the uterus opens, necessitating an immediate C-section to save the mother’s and/or baby’s life. This, of course, is to be taken quite seriously. But since the risk of uterine rupture is less than 1 percent, which means only 7 or 8 women in 1,000 will experience it, I thought I’d take my chances. After all, there are plenty of fatal complications that can occur in labor, like placental abruption, which affects women who have not had C-sections. Even women who have never had previous abdominal surgery are vulnerable to uterine ruptures. Furthermore, there are risks with C-sections, too — hemorrhaging, blood cots, bowel issues, and breathing problems for the baby — and I knew that having a second one could make those more likely should I get pregnant again. I also knew that a vaginal birth would come with a shorter recovery time and therefore allow me to be more attentive to my son during a transitional time.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Canadian mother plans to live stream birth of her third child

2011-10-06T09:34:00.001-06:00

Ottawa - A Canadian mother and professional birth coach has announced she is planning to live stream the birth of her third child on the Internet, in an effort to empower women and promote natural home childbirth.
Nancy Salgueiro, a 32-year-old mother of two, says "women and young girls used to be exposed to birth throughout their lives." This changed, she said, "when we took birth out of homes and moved it into the hospital we took away the generations of information handed down from one woman to the next."
Salgueiro is on a mission to remove the secrecy and mystery from childbirth and she will do so by broadcasting her third experience with motherhood online.
"I feel it's really important for people to see the difference because birth is not what you see on TV. It can be, but it doesn't have to be like that," she said.
The mother of two, who is a chiropractor, childbirth educator and natural health expert, has established a website, yourbirthcoach.com, where visitors can pre-register for access to the live-stream birth. CBC News reports over 800 people have already signed up for the big event.
Updates on her website give women an idea of what to expect during pregnancy. She hopes this will counter women's fears of childbirth.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Doulas: Support For Dads

2011-10-05T09:28:00.000-06:00

July 18, 2011 by Rhythm of Life Consulting

Do you wonder how comfortable your husband will be with your doula? Good news: this week we brought back Micky Jones, an LLL Leader, doula, lactation trainer, conference speaker, IBCLC, Hypnobabies instructor, and author to guide you through her doula “cheat sheet” for Dads.

“I’m just not sure if he’s going to be able to handle it. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to hire a doula.” If I had a nickel for every mom who said this during an interview for doula services, well, I would have a lot of nickels. Moms often wonder if their birth partner will truly be able to fulfill the role set before them in childbirth classes or birthing books. So much to remember. So much pressure for someone who is also deeply invested in the well-being of this special baby and mother.

The presence of a doula can free a father (or other close emotional support people) to experience and enjoy the birth without needing to be a perfect “birth partner”. I suggest that the partner also must be free to be present, vulnerable and primal. One dad might get in the birth tub with his partner and catch the baby while another might sit in a chair in the other side of the room and just try not to loose his lunch. Both can benefit from the encouragement of a doula’s support. It is the right of the couple to determine the level and type of involvement he should give. Insisting that all fathers participate in a certain way is just as judgmental as assuming all women should birth in a particular way.

Obstetrician, Michel Odent has suggested that the influence of the father’s participation during the birth is far more complex than we have considered. In a Midwifery Today article from 1999 entitled, Is the Participation of the Father at Birth Dangerous, Odent raises questions including’ “Does the participation of the father aid or hinder the birth?” and, “Can all men cope with the strong emotional reactions they may have while participating in the birth?”. Most of us would say, “Of course!”

But after witnessing the interactions between many couples during birth and postpartum, I believe we have put fathers in a position they were never meant to be in.

Make no mistake, I believe in women AND men attending childbirth classes. The father/birth partner needs to gain information, understand how the mother plans to labor and discuss options during pregnancy in order to be very connected and in agreement concerning plans for the birthing. Information given ranges from anatomy to the stages of labor to the smorgasbord of interventions and choices available today. That’s a lot of information to tuck into one’s brain cells. Not to mention that this is a pretty big day for dad too as he rides his own roller coaster of birth.

So, how can a doula help dad? Here are just five of the ways the support of a doula can free dad to offer support in a way that is comfortable and effective.

1. Doulas live, breathe, eat and sleep all that stuff from childbirth class you (dads) can’t remember. Doulas who have been through training and certification have a basis of information about pregnancy, birth and newborns that is more than most men know or want to know about birth. While a really smart doula knows her main job is to just “hold the space” (provide emotional and physical support to mom) and assist her in gathering information from her care providers. A doula has a knowledge base of “birthy stuff” that takes the pressure off dad (and mom) to remember it all.
2. Doulas give dads a teammate. Birth is often compared to a marathon. It is important to keep the birthing mother hydrated, fueled and even rested periodically during her birthing event. Same goes for dad. Dads need to eat, drink, stretch, take naps and refresh themselves during labors that last more than a few hours. A doula gives dad someone to tag to come in the ring when he needs to bow out for a break. Dads often feel tremendous relief leaving mom with the support of someone who he knows will not leave her side and will support her choices.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Eugene Declercq: The Truth about C-Sections

2011-10-04T09:23:00.000-06:00

The Truth about Midwives.. Part I

2011-10-03T09:17:00.000-06:00

Posted by The Skeptical Mother on September 26, 2011

There is a lot of misinformation out there about midwives. Generalizations about their character, why they choose midwifery and how much money they make, have all been misrepresented. I think we deserve to know the truth about midwives and all the different areas of concern. There's a lot of ground to cover and there is a lot I have to learn so I am beginning this post as Part I and will continue with Part II in time. I want to discuss where there is room for improvement as well as the best aspects of midwifery care. I am also interested in interviewing a CPM, so if anyone reading is interested, please let me know.
In this post I'd like to look into a misconception I've been seeing a lot lately.. the salary of the CPM.

For awhile now, I have watched silently as people discuss the very large amounts of money CPMs must make. The theory is that they make 4k a birth, do 4 births a month and therefore make 16k a month, which would almost be 200 thousand dollars a year. I'm assuming that the people who claim this about midwives must not know any. It's a nice thought but entirely unrealistic. When I had my homebirth I had two midwives attending. These women usually spent at least two hours with me at every appointment. Looking back, they were very kind to let me ramble on with my questions and concerns, well past my time slot with them, every time. I never felt rushed, I never felt they had somewhere more important to be. They both have three children each and are part of a large, busy, practice, yet I always felt like I was their only patient in the world. They each made $1500 from my homebirth. Probably less because a third midwife also helped with my prenatal care and I know some of that money went to her. That is $1500 for the to six and a half months of pregnancy care, the 6 hours they stayed with me during labor and giving birth and the 5 hours afterwards where they cleaned everything up- which included doing our laundry. That included the 6 weeks postpartum care and the time when I called at nine at night, crying because I couldn't get my baby to latch and my midwife rushed over to help me. I could go on and on about everything they did, all the time and effort they put in to giving me the best care possible and I still don't think I could do an accurate job of displaying how amazing and dedicated these women were. In all honesty, I actually think they were underpaid for all the time and effort they put into me and my family.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Ina May Gaskin Pleasure Bonding in Birth for Couples

2011-09-30T09:16:00.000-06:00

Pitocin induced labor doubles the risk of ADHD

2011-09-29T09:13:00.000-06:00

(NaturalNews) Pregnant mothers often anxiously await the arrival of their little one. Unfortunately, this anxious waiting has turned into an epidemic of labor induction. Scientific research has recently uncovered the reality that labor induction poses several risks to both mother and baby. In April 2011 Researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at Colorado State University published a study showing a strong relationship between pitocin induction and the incidence of ADHD. Labor induction has been linked in previous studies to increased risk of c-section, instrumental delivery, shoulder dystocia, NICU admission, and respiratory problems in the baby, among other complications. Elective induction of labor should be brought into question as research continues to increase indicating significant health risks without adequate benefit.

Researchers of the Colorado State University study concluded that there is a strong predictive relationship between pitocin in labor and subsequent ADHD development in childhood. The occurrence of ADHD in the pitocin group was 67.1% as opposed to 35.6% in the non-exposure group. The natural ebb and flow of nature is commonly overridden in our ever technology-reliant world, and often with risky results. As science continues to investigate invasive interventions in natural life events, such as childbirth, the dangers of intervening with nature are exposed.

There is a commonly held fear of birth in the medical community. Birth is a powerful, miraculous event that cannot be quantified or controlled. Induction is a seductive solution for both medical personnel and pregnant women. Doctors can induce women according to their own personal schedules and be home for dinner. Women can schedule the birth of their baby for their own convenience. Pregnant women praise modern technology and the ability to deliver early and be done with the discomforts of pregnancy. The question remains whether this is a wise option with respect to the health and wellbeing of the mother and baby.

Learn more click here.

Call for Submissions: What Did Your Doula Do for You?

2011-09-28T09:04:00.000-06:00

Originally posted here on Giving Birth with Confidence.

A doula can be an amazing ally in your journey through pregnancy and birth. Time and again, research shows that doulas can increase a woman’s chance for having a spontaneous vaginal delivery (ie, without vacuum extraction, forceps or cesarean surgery), shorten her time in labor and facilitate a more positive childbirth experience. For my most recent, third birth, I hired a doula for the first time and I will say that I loved having a doula. Even though my actual birth experience was super-fast and allowed very little time for anyone to provide hands-on labor support, my doula provided amazing emotional and informational support and guidance throughout my pregnancy and postpartum — and perhaps the most vital benefit for me, was the confidence I gained by knowing that she would be there for me in labor to help me achieve the epidural-free birth that I wanted.

Now that I have the contrasting birth experiences — two without a doula and one with — I want to yell from the rooftops, “Every woman deserves a doula!” Instead, I thought it would be better to hold a blog carnival on doula support to share with expectant moms and families. We’re looking for stories (and photos!) from moms and dads about your experience with a doula. If you hired a doula for any of your births and had a positive experience, we want to know about it! Think about answering questions like, how did your doula help you in labor — both directly and indirectly; what did your doula do for you in pregnancy and/or postpartum; and, how did the support from a doula affect your birth experience?

Participation in the “What Did Your Doula Do for You” Blog Carnival is easy:

1. If you have a blog, write a blog post on the carnival theme. Post it on your blog by Wednesday, October 5. Make sure the post links back to this blog post. You may also submit a previously written post, as long as the information is still current.

2. Send an email with a link to your post to cterreri [at] lamaze [dot] org.

3. If you do not have a blog but would like to participate, you may submit a story for consideration by emailing it to me.

4. I will compile and post the Blog Carnival here at Giving Birth with Confidence on Friday, October 14.

Happy doula blogging! I can’t wait to read your submissions!

What Babies Want - An Exploration of the Consciousness of Infants part 1

2011-09-27T09:07:00.000-06:00

The Fourth Trimester

2011-09-26T08:50:00.001-06:00

We all know that pregnancy has three trimesters. Most know what happens in each, and all that comes with them. What we don't realize or don't understand is that there is more to pregnancy than growing and then birthing that baby.

There is another trimester that we brush over, the period from birth until baby is about three months old. For most those first three months are a trial. You are getting to know this new person that has needs and wants, and it is especially hard because babies don't use words, so you have to figure it all out through actions and cries.

The birth our your child starts a new phase in your life. It doesn't matter if this is your first baby or your fifteenth. Each baby has a different personality, different wants, different needs. They are their own person. You have to learn about this person right from the start, and having this new baby can be hard.

Unless you have an incredible support system after birth, the fourth trimester can be lacking and made even harder. People come over, not to help, but to meet and hold the baby. People that you don't know very well all the sudden invade your space, sit on your couch, and cuddle this new person, while your needs are put on the back burner. You don't matter, all that matters is this cute, precious little bundle. You have to go back to how life was before this baby was born, even if you aren't ready for it.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Debunking the Myth: Birth Should Only Be Handled by Experts

2011-09-23T08:55:00.000-06:00

Learn Your Options: Choosing a Care Provider

2011-09-22T09:00:00.001-06:00

Bringing Back the VBAC

2011-09-21T09:17:00.000-06:00

Vaginal births after Cesarean (VBACs) are an important part of the question surrounding the rising Cesarean rate in the US. While many organizations support access to VBACs, they are still elusive for many women. Transforming Maternity Care published an article by Amy Romano on Monday that begins:

If evidence supports VBAC as a “reasonable option” for most of this population and indeed the better option for many, it is time to be reasonable about how to make VBAC as safe, accessible, and satisfying as it can possibly be.

Unlike many recent articles about VBAC, this one doesn’t discuss whether VBACs are safe (although it does link to many resources regarding the safety of VBACs and various studies regarding them). Instead, this article deals with building a “quality framework” for increasing access and care.

Romano lays out three basic steps in building such a framework:

1. Help more women make and implement choices that are informed by the best quality evidence and aligned with their own values and preferences.
2. Maximize the proportion of women planning VBAC who experience uncomplicated vaginal births.
3. Provide the best possible response to obstetric emergencies including uterine rupture.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Ina May Gaskin on Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesta

2011-09-20T09:09:00.000-06:00

Special maternity clinic leads to hike in natural births at Norfolk trust

2011-09-19T09:03:00.000-06:00

14 September, 2011 | By Jo Stephenson

A specialist clinic at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has led to a big increase in the number of women choosing natural childbirth having previously had a caesarean section.

The Birth After Caesarean clinic was set up at the Norwich-based hospital by consultant obstetrician Fran Harlow with two specialist midwives.

The number of women opting for a normal delivery after a C section has gone up from 40% to 68% since the clinic launched in May 2010.

The percentage who went on to have a natural birth has also increased from 64% to 73%.

Ms Harlow said often women were not aware that normal birth was possible after a C section.

“It is important the women are allowed to make informed individual choices and if a woman does want to have another caesarean section then that’s fine,” she said.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Do You Really Need to Attend a Childbirth Class?

2011-09-16T08:11:00.000-06:00

September 12, 2011 by Rhythm of Life Consulting

This week we are thrilled to welcome Laura Fields to the Mother’s Advocate blog to discuss the importance of knowing your options and taking the right childbirth class to ensure a safe and healthy birth.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada recently published a study, which found that women don’t know their options when it comes to childbirth. Many don’t even know they have options. This may be surprising to the general population, but ask any childbirth educator or doula, and they’ll tell you it’s no shock to them.

Another study found that only 11% of women attend a childbirth class while pregnant, and many of those take only the class offered by the hospital. Those classes tend to focus on how women should behave as patients, and less on the risks and benefits of various procedures they may encounter during labor.

It does seem that more women are hiring doulas, and this is great news! However, a doula is not a substitute for a good childbirth class. To have the best and safest birth possible, take a class and hire a doula.

If you think you are prepared for childbirth and don’t need to attend a clhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifass, ask yourself if you know these things:

The stages of labor, how to recognize them and comfort measures for each stage
How to stay comfortable during labor without drugs
How to speed-up a slow labor
How to turn a baby into the best position for birth
When the best time is to leave for the hospital, if you’re planning a hospital birth
What to do if you’re unable to make it to your birth place because labor progresses quicker than expected

To read the rest of this post click here.

How Doctors Dupe Moms Into Supplementing With Formula

2011-09-15T14:05:00.001-06:00

Posted by Christie Haskell
on August 29, 2011 at 1:53 PM on The Stir

One of the biggest reasons that I know of why women start supplementing with formula in the first couple weeks is because "baby's not gaining enough weight." While a 5 to 7 percent weight loss in the first couple of days after birth is considered totally normal, 10 percent can sometimes result in pediatricians telling the mother she must supplement.

However, recent studies show what many of us have suspected or deemed obvious for years: Babies whose mothers received IV fluids -- either to stabilize blood pressure, before an epidural or c-section, or sometimes just because -- have babies who lose more weight initially.

Why? Well, it's actually pretty simple.

When we're given lots of fluids in labor, those fluids also go into our baby and sometimes even "over-hydrate" them. Therefore, their birth weihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifght is artificially high, meaning baby not only will lose the weight that is normal for newborns, but will lose more weight (water weight) as well. In other words, Junior's 7-pound, 8-ounce "birth weight" might be a few ounces or so higher simply due to that IV drip bag!

To read the rest of this post click here.

When Survivors Give Birth Workshop

2011-09-14T09:18:00.000-06:00

Based on the book When Survivors Give Birth by Penny Simkin, PT and Phyllis Klaus, CSW, MFTthis workshop is specifically designed for pregnant women who are childhood sexual abuse survivors. While sexual abuse is not a topic that many of us like to talk about, it is a stark reality in the lives of many women (and men). And because childbirth can often retrigger previous abuse or trauma, I think it is extremely important for survivors to have the opportunity to prepare for their upcoming birth with specific attention to their history.

In my work as a birth doula, I have learned a lot from my clients about maternity care practices and how they can affect survivors during birth. My intention with this workshop is to help women prepare for their birth (logistically and emotionally), so it can be a new and healing experience.

Please note: while this workshop is not designed to be a process group about sexual abuse, we will hold space for women to tell their stories and relate their past experiences to fears they may have about their upcoming birth.

This workshop is typically held for 3-hours on a weekend afternoon and costs $40.

Upcoming When Survivors Give Birth Workshops:

Sunday, October 23rd from 2-5pm

Please click here for more information.

Pelvic Floor Party: Kegels are NOT invited.

2011-09-13T08:54:00.000-06:00

Very interesting information and something that I am going to look into more!

Recently I met a woman who told me she used to be a runner. Naturally, I asked: Why don't you still run? The answer: "Because 60 hours of labor with my first child and a forceps delivery ruined my desire to run anymore."

To sum up for those who still may not infer the problem: She pees her pants when she picks up the pace.

My friends and I joke about sneeze pee, jumping jack pee, trampoline pee, and other bladder challenges. But full blown incontinence is no laughing matter. I'm a firm believer that a strong pelvic floor is the answer to incontinence (although pharmaceutical companies and surgeons often try to persuade people with other remedies). A strong pelvic floor, I've learned, not only makes the difference between wet and dry running shorts, but also keeps me running pain-free: I no longer suffer from the back and hip problems that used to plague me.

So today I bring you an interview with Katy Bowman. I have had the opportunity to interview Katy for magazine articles. Since becoming a freelance writer 13 years ago I have interviewed scores of sources. Very few I remember. Katy made an impression. She is a biomechanical scientist who applies her knowledge on the human body. Among other things, she has her own DVD program, "Aligned and Well," and is the director of the Restorative Exercise Institute. Her blog, Katy Says, is amazing (and she's as funny as she is smart). I like that combination so I asked her to chime in about the pelvic floor. I had no idea she would rock my pelvic floor world. Even if you've never peed in your running shorts even a little bit, you should still read what she has to say about pelvic floor strength.

Mama Sweat: First, a lot of women just assume it's childbirth that causes incontinence, but I've read that pregnancy itself puts a strain on the bladder (so a c-section won't necessarily save you) and that most women, as they get older--whether they've had children or not--will likely experience problems with incontinence. And even men aren't immune. All this suggests that a weak pelvic floor doesn't discriminate.

Katy Bowman: Nulliparous women (that's women who've never had a baby) and men are equally affected with PFD (pelvic floor disorder) so while child birth may accelerate PF weakening, it is not a primary cause of PFD. PFD is first caused by slack in the pelvic floor due to the fact that the sacrum is moving anterior, into the bowl of the pelvis. Because the PF muscles attach from the coccyx to the pubic bone, the closer these bony attachments get, the more slack in the PF (the PF becomes a hammock).

MS: So rather than a hammock, you'd rather your PF be more like a stretcher--more firm and able to hold up weight without buckling?

KB: I like to think of the PF like a trampoline--the material is supple, but taut...the perfect muscle length.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Erykah Badu Training As A Midwife

2011-09-09T09:37:00.000-06:00

Posted by Claire Shefchik on September 6, 2011 4:54 PM

Erykah Badu is training to become a midwife, People Magazine reported in an interview with the singer.

Badu, 40, is currently working as a doula, providing expectant mothers with Reiki treatments, massage and support during childbirth, all at no charge. She said she was inspired after helping a friend through a difficult childbirth in 2001, and told the magazine her clients call her "Erykah Badoula."

Doulas do not provide medical care, but the "On and On" and "The Cider House Rules" singer and actress is a spokeswoman for the International Center for Traditional Childbearing. She aims to get her professional certification so she can open natural birthing centers in inner city communities.

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Baby Ocho's Birth

2011-09-08T12:26:00.002-06:00

We are so honored that Robin wore BINSI for her 8th baby's birth. She is incredible. Please read this wonderful birth story.

By Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE, About.com Guide

In the weeks leading up to Ocho’s birth, my hips had really been aching. I had a lot of trouble finding a comfortable position, sleeping, walking, siting – nothing was good. My bath tub was the closest I came. (I’m afraid of my water bills!)

So on Thursday night, I had a board meeting. It was an insanely long one – 4 and a half hours. I finally got up out of my chair and sat on the floor. Then I just kept wiggling around trying different positions. Plenty of people were afraid I’d have the baby right then, but I knew it wasn’t labor, just hip issues! During the meeting I sent my husband a text message asking him to set me up for a massage appointment on Friday. I needed a prenatal massage, even at 41+ weeks of gestation.

So on Friday I had a busy day – take the kids to school and get a massage. The therapist was new and newly pregnant. We had a very nice time chatting about pregnancy. Despite being over due, I was very calm and not anxious to rush the end of the pregnancy. I asked her not to hit any of the labor triggering points and she did not.

Afterwards I felt pretty good. I decided that I deserved a pedicure too. So I went to the nail salon and decided to be wild and signed up for a pedicure and manicure. As I sat there reading the newest science magazine I started to notice I was having some contractions. Since my last baby was born in about three hours, I was paying attention. I knew that my husband would be totally upset if he missed the birth.

First one contraction. 10 minutes later another… I was beginning to wonder. I left the salon and headed to pick up the older two kids. They wanted to get slushies and it was as good of an excuse as any for me to get my ice chips. While I was in the drive through I decided this was probably early labor, so I bought a whole bag of the ice. I also called my husband and talked to him. I said something like, “I’m not sure it’s early labor and I don’t need you to come home right now, but be ready to drop everything and come home…” He was excited! He also tortured his co-workers by saying loudly, “What? You’re having the baby RIGHT NOW???”

To read the rest of this beautiful birth story click here.

Placenta Medicine: My Story

2011-09-06T09:12:00.002-06:00

by Tiffany Rosenbrock

© 2008 Midwifery Today, Inc. All rights reserved.
[Editor's note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today Issue 88, Winter 2008.]

I remember the day my midwife told me about placenta medicine, I cried. I loved that birth had so many blessings to offer our family, and this was completely new to me. I was so excited when Patricia told me she would gladly encapsulate my placenta for me and that taking it would ease the symptoms of postpartum depression (PPD) after the birth. Patricia Couch is an amazing midwife. With five kids and a demanding position at the birth center, she still finds time to help mamas like me honor our amazing placentas, and this is our story.

At 4:17 am on October 14, 2007, my son Grey Fox was blissfully born in the water at Sacred Waters Community Birthing Center in Eugene, Oregon. I was blessed with a beautiful, gentle, peaceful waterbirth with my partner and my two-year-old son. The midwives were respectful of our wishes and let us birth unassisted, the way we needed to. They were trusting and supportive of us as a family in labor and they allowed us to have the birth of our dreams! Our birth was a sacred experience and everyone there was in tune with our baby’s song.

They waited for the “first mother,” tugging on the cord. Both midwives asked me to try to expel her. Finally I just reached inside myself and grabbed our placenta, and my son’s nurturer was born into my hands and lifted out of the water, just like my sweet baby! I was amazed at the beauty of the placenta. I couldn’t believe that it had just been thrown away after our first birth. Leaving the cord and placenta intact for as long as possible felt so right to me! We spent a little over an hour in the tub after the birth. I think about 45 minutes of it was spent waiting for the placenta; the rest of the time I just held both placenta and baby in my hands and floated them about in the water. I watched my new baby play with his cord and rub his face against it as he had in my womb. I touched all the veins and nubs of the cord and placenta. I put my hand inside the amniotic sac where my child had grown all these months. I smelled that wonderful smell of birth. No one was there to sanitize the experience; it was so sensual.

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One World Birth Launch Film

2011-09-02T08:09:00.001-06:00

Help for Heartburn

2011-09-01T08:58:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Lois Rain on August 31, 2011 – 12:01 am

Oh the things we shall discover from the old adage, An apple a day…

An easy and nutritious cure for acid reflux might be found in an appetizing apple. Other apple products may help as well. Organic apples remedy this problem more than their non-organic counterparts.

~Health Freedoms

I like many people have acid reflux. Being overweight and eating too much food at one time are major triggers for the disease to occur. However, I think that like many other ailments that affect us, genetics probably also plays a role, as well as the modern “factory” foods that we consume. I read some tips on stopping the pain of acid reflux and want to share them. Try them, and let me know how you make out.

An Apple a day?
We have all heard that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. That may be true, as apples seems to be one of God’s most nutritious foods one can consume. However, after meals or even after the first signs of acid reflex- eat an apple!There are a lot of over-the-counter and prescription options available for treatment of acid reflux, but apples are easy to find, incredibly inexpensive, and for some individuals—an easy fix. Acid reflux generally produces a burning sensation in the individual’s upper abdomen, chest and/or throat areas. At one time, this condition was called acid indigestion. Apples work because they help neutralize the stomach acids, which in turn, help strengthen the LES valve. (Read more: Acid-Reflux Cure Using Apples | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/way_5329848_acidreflux-cure-using-apples.html#ixzz1PjcLbE6Q)

Curing acid reflux with apples is simple. Just eat one-to-two apples a day. Try eating apple slices before going to bed and in-between meals. That being said, the old-time saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” is starting to sound more valid for many individuals experiencing acid reflux. You can also try adding apple slices or pieces to unflavored yogurt. Yogurt also naturally fights acid reflux. Eating this mixture once or twice a day should produce results in just a few days. Many individuals find that eating the mixture with dinner is particularly beneficial.
According to Dr. Brian Fennerty, who is a gastroenterologist, stick with organic apples, as they tend to be more easily digested.

Apple Cider too?
Apple cider vinegar can also be extremely helpful when it comes to fighting acid reflux. It’s sort of like fighting a hangover with “hair of the dog.” In other words, using acid to fight acid. Some individuals find that drinking two teaspoons of organic apple cider vinegar three times a day is very helpful with acid reflux. Other tips to remember include watching and maintaining a healthy weight and eating smaller meals. Make sure your final meal is at least three or more hours before bed. Avoid lying down after a meal or eating. Raising the head of your bed may also be beneficial if you experience acid reflux during sleep. This can be accomplished by placing wooden or cement blocks under the feet of the head of your bed. You can also raise the head of your bed by inserting a foam wedge between the mattress and the box spring in order to elevate your body during sleep from the waist up.

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5 Ways Pitocin is Different than Oxytocin

2011-08-31T07:25:00.001-06:00

By Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE, About.com Guide

The numbers of inductions of labor using artificial means like Pitocin and other medications has gone up dramatically in the last few years. A hospital in my area says that 90 of the women have their labors induced. Since science shows us that inducing labor can increase the numbers of complications in the labor and with the baby, you might be surprised to note that many of the inductions are not for medical reasons, but rather reasons of convenience, practitioner or mother, known as social induction.

One of the things that women tell me is that they are lead to believe that induction is completely safe and relatively easy, after all, Pitocin is just another form of the body's own oxytocin, right?

While this statement is generally true, artificially created hormones, including Pitocin do not act identically to the hormones in ones body. For example, in pregnancy both the mother and the baby produce oxytocin. The oxytocin produced by each reacts differently in the body because they each have separate jobs.

Here are five things that you may not know about Pitocin and how it can effect your labor:

* Pitocin is released differently.
Oxytocin is released into your body in a pulsing action. It comes intermittently to allow your body a break. Pitocin is given in an IV in a continuous manner. This can cause contractions to be longer and stronger than your baby or placenta can handle, depriving your baby of oxygen.

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