Labor of Love Doula Services and Childbirth Education

2011-12-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

Welcome After 18 years of educating pregnant couples in San Luis Obispo County and supporting nearly 80 women in labor I decided I wanted to connect with women in a new way to share the wisdom I had gleaned; my new baby, a doula blog, was born. It is dedicated to all the women who have come before; a gift from them to you. Please use it to help create the birth you want. Read, enjoy, empower yourself! My Journey Began with a Simple Question "What do you plan to do if you go into labor when Tim is on the road?" I asked simply as I trotted around the circle. I was riding Kareem in the round corral at Sabrina's house in Arroyo Grande. Our sons were busy playing Ninja Turtles together. This was how I had spent many afternoons lately... Click to read how I started.

I Believe

2011-12-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

Pregnancy, birth and early parenting are a very special season in the cycle of your life. I believe every woman deserves to be treasured during this transformational process. True care and nurturing for the entire family throughout their journey empowers them and creates deeper bonds. An educational foundation rooted in the natural abilities of women to birth their babies instills confidence and is a critical component of empowerment. My classes prepare the heart, mind and body for the journey ahead. Through the birth of my son I came to understand the critical role a doula plays in helping couples achieve a harmonious and uplifting birth experience. A doula is a vital member of your team no matter where you birth or who your care provider is. As an experienced guide providing one-on-one continuous care throughout your birth I allow everyone to relax and be fully present in their roles. As a communication facilitator I help insure your voice is heard and respected, as well as, translating medical information and choices; providing you the opportunity to make your own choices. I have been helping birthing women on the Central Coast since 1992 and am passionate about protecting and preparing women during this most vulnerable time. Please use the words I have written in this blog to learn more about my beliefs surrounding birth.

Baby's First Bath

2011-12-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

(Ricky Martin gives his baby his first bath)

One hour old. One hour of holding and gazing. One hour of nuzzling, smelling, latching and sucking. One hour of “she has my ears” and “she definitely has your mother’s nose.” One hour of the most precious time in a new family’s life. Time stands still; generations collide; the universe contracts down to be held in the grasp of her impossibly tiny fingers wrapped around your hand and heart.

The pleasant nurse asks, “Would it be alright if I weigh and measure your baby now?” The young mother elated and tired from the birth relinquishes her vulnerable newborn to the waiting nurse’s capable hands. She is as anxious as everyone else to begin these next steps in the rituals of birth.

“Eight pounds 8 ounces,” announces the nurse. “My, she is a big girl!” The doula snaps a photo of the digital reading on the scale for the baby’s memory book. The brand new father excitedly posts the vital statistics on face book for the world to see what he has created.

After measuring her length and head size, the nurse carefully places her feet down on the paper, gently pressing each of her tiny toes to the page to capture her foot prints for the birth records; one set for the birth certificate and another set for the memory book.

Then she turns to the father and says, “Well it is time for her first bath. Would you like to help?” She fills the clear plastic isolette tub with warm water and gets out a bar of hospital antibacterial soap. She makes sure the warmer is heated up just right so the baby will have a warm dry place to go to as soon as the bath is over. She knows it puts a baby at risk to let them get chilled.

“Okay Dad, can you bring your daughter over here?” instructs the nurse. She confidently guides him through the process as he gingerly picks his daughter up for the first time; painfully aware of how fragile her tiny, perfect body feels in his suddenly over large hands. The experienced nurse talks him through what has become an important bonding ritual between fathers and their babies all over the U.S. She encourages him to not be afraid as together they gently scrub the baby all over with soap and water, cleaning away germs and bacteria. She teaches him how to lather her hair with shampoo and rinse it while protecting her face and eyes. When all traces of the birth have been cleaned from her baby soft skin she is laid on the warmer, dried, diapered and carefully dressed in the tiniest white t-shirt the dad has ever seen. Finally the nurse shows him how to swaddle the baby and puts her into his waiting arms.

This washing of the baby bonding ritual is repeated in hospitals everyday all across America. Sometimes siblings or grandparents are included in this sweet experience. But the time has come to take a closer more critical look at this tradition. Numerous studies show us that when it comes to intestinal bacteria babies are a clean slate immediately after birth. Within a very short time their gut has been colonized with the right bacteria for living a healthy life. Where do these bacteria come from? There are two main sources; the mother’s vaginal passage and her skin, especially around her nipples.

As the baby passes through the birth canal she is bathed in her mother’s bacteria. This starts an important process for life-long gut health. If she doesn’t pass through the canal, due to a surgical birth, the bacteria the baby first comes in contact with is from the surrounding environment; the air, other infants, doctors and the nursing staff. Studies show it may take up to 6 months for the cesarean baby to attain the correct balance of flora in her gut.

The next way bacteria are introduced to the baby is by latching onto mother’s breast for her first feeding. The bacteria present on the mother’s skin are swallowed and starts the process which will create vitamin K in the baby’s system. Vitamin K is critical for appropriate blood clotting.

On top of all this there are special properties in the mother’s colostrum which help the good bacteria to thrive in the baby and bad bacteria to suffer.

Although we have been trained to think of bacteria as bad the truth is there are many microbes which are beneficially for our health. We are meant to live in a state of balanced symbiosis with these beneficial bacteria. That process is meant to start during the birth and continue during the hours immediately after birth; just as the squeezing of the birth canal prepares the baby for the adjustment of breathing air into her lungs to oxygenate her own blood. If we think of bacteria as bad and the baby as “dirty” then of course we feel a need to wash her. What happens if we think of the baby as being in an important microbial transition time which may impact her overall future health?

Need a Laugh?

2011-11-27T18:55:00.000-08:00

Every mommy needs a good laugh now and then, otherwise we would go absolutely crazy! Here is a list of blogs and books to help you through the stressful days of pregnancy and parenting. All items on this list are parent tested and mommy approved.

Here is a blog that takes a humorous look at pregnancy and mommyhood. This piece is by a guest writer. She talks about some of the things she wished some one had told her before she went into labor about hospital births. Check it out: http://pregnantchicken.squarespace.com/pregnant-chicken-blog/2011/3/26/8-things-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-about-having-a-baby.html

Sh*tMyKidRuined.com

Amber Dusick: what it is like to change diapers (illustrated with crappy pictures!) http://www.amberdusick.com/

The new book "Go the f*** to sleep"

Scarymommy.com

Finding Your Path; two women's stories

2011-09-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

A former doula & class client sent me a link to a blog piece by Cherylyn, a doula in Utah. Natalie knew I would be interested in this woman's journey of recovery from her first birth which was traumatic and left her feeling victimized and angry. Each of her next four births led her down a new path toward healing. On her journey she made many different choices for where, with whom and how to birth. Each birth was a necessary step in her process. In my classes and through my doula support I honor each woman's choice because I can't judge where she is on her path. It is my responsibility to give information and it is her responsibility to listen with an open heart for what resonates with her. Only she has the answers. Only she can access her intuition. It is my hope to support her in this process through my own intuitive listening so I can respond to her needs along the way. This is why I support women in all birth settings. This is why my classes are designed to teach couples no matter where, with whom or how they are planning to birth. My hope is to give them the tools to have a positive birth where ever they birth. Please read this article if you are preparing to birth or if you are in the process of physical and emotional recovery from a less than positive birth. Then sit quietly for a moment and take her message into your heart. Let it carry any feelings of guilt, doubt, or mistrust in yourself away.

Now let me tell you about Natalie. I met her and her husband, Tobin, at a Birth & Baby Resource Network event. When it came time in the circle for sharing their tears as they shared spoke volumes to me about the depth of their birth trauma. As the event broke up I approached them and encouraged Natalie to visit our SLO chapter of the International Cesarean Awareness Network, even though hers was not a cesarean birth. I knew that the circle of supportive women at their gatherings could help her heal her wounds. Unfortunately there is no local support group for women with negative birth stories except ICAN which is labeled a cesarean support network. Women with birth experiences like Natalie's aren't sure they would belong at an ICAN meeting. The women of ICAN would want me to stop here and say that these women absolutely are welcome and that supporting them is also part of their mission. Unfortunately the general public doesn't know that.

As Natalie's second pregnancy progressed we came to understand that not only had her birth left her with many emotional scars it had also left her with many physical ones. Like her emotional ones, these scars were hidden deep within her and they had the potential to threaten this new pregnancy. Bottom line; she was no longer the same inside and this pregnancy was therefore risky for Natalie and her baby. She was advised that the least dangerous route for her baby's birth was a cesarean. She listened to this advice. She listened to her intuition. She listened to her husband's fears. She listened to her desires. She listened to her body and she waited.

Natalie experienced an incredibly healthy pregnancy. She worked and mommied right through it. She blossomed and so did her baby; growing right on schedule, moving vigorously and letting her mom know she was doing fine. Natalie did a lot of talking, to Tobin, to me and to her doctor. She weighed all the different risks of having or not having a surgical birth; risks to her and risks to her baby. She knew what she wanted but was also willing to make needed changes or compromises. We brainstormed all kinds of possible scenarios for her birth. Then she wrote her birth plan. This plan was unique to her; not something you can download from the Internet with check off boxes. It encompassed many possible avenues for her birth to go. It was detailed. It was flexible. It was respectful and grateful to the people she knew she was going to need to rely on to see her safely through. Then she listened to her body and she waited.

When her water broke I believe all three of us held our breath and made a silent prayer that all would be well. Then Natalie and I released our breath and went to work creating as much normalcy to this labor as possible. But I don't believe Tobin let go of his breath until both mom and baby had come safely through. Natalie carried herself in labor as she does in life, with quiet unassuming strength and graciousness. You would never guess at the depth of her determination, or physical and emotional strength. Tobin told me she can be stubborn but he forgot to also tell me how courageous she is. Immediately after the vaginal birth of her beautiful baby girl she began to have an issue which required her doctor to step in and Tobin, the baby and I to step out. Natalie kept her composure throughout while Tobin died a thousand deaths holding his baby and waiting for news about his wife. For him life stood still and minutes felt like an eternity. All I could do was reassure him that she was in good hands. Dr. Yin and the French hospital staff knew how to take care of her; that's why she had chosen to birth here. In what was actually a very short time he received the news he was longing for; Natalie was fine and would be reunited with him soon. But I don't think Tobin breathed until he saw Natalie's pretty face again; all smiles and wanting to put her new baby girl to breast.

So why did I decide to tell you about Natalie? Because she knows a thing or two about healing, about listening to your intuition, about creating the birth that is just right for you and your baby. Your choices may be different than hers. You may listen to her story and think, "I would never put my baby at risk like that." That's fine. You are entitled to your feelings and if your heart had told you to make a different choice than Natalie's I would support you in that choice. But this was Natalie's choice and it brought her very far along her path as she journey's toward complete healing. So I understand why Cherylyn's story resonated with Natalie. I get it. Do you?

Thank you to Natalie and Tobin for inviting me to accompany them on their journey!

To Read Cherylyn's piece about her choices as she journeyed toward healing visit her blog: Mamas and Babies

"To Clamp or Not to Clamp? That is the Question"

2011-09-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

I've been explaining about delayed cord clamping and cutting in my classes for years. Leave it to master birth educator Penny Simkin to come up with a great visual demonstration to explain why this is so important. This isn't just a fad or a wild idea. There is basic physiologic science saying that it is healthier for your baby if no one cuts the cord until it has stopped pulsing. Listen as Penny explains.

Your Baby's First Latch: breast crawl video

2011-09-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

This is a must see by all pregnant moms, their partners and anyone who will be helping them at their birth. Of course we can crawl to the nipple, latch on and nurse! It only makes sense. All mammals can do this with minimal guidance or help by mom. Why would we be the only mammal unable to do this? It only makes sense. If we birthed in a squatting position we would naturally reach down, put our hands under their little armpits, and bring them up to our breasts keeping their spine parallel to our own. Without towels or blankets they are much too wet and slippery to consider doing anything else.

How did mothers lose this knowledge of what to do immediately after birth to correctly begin the bonding and breastfeeding process? Drugs, doctors, fear of germs, bright lights, cold hospital rooms and schedules all played a role. You have the power to reclaim this piece of your birth and be amazed at the miraculous abilities of your newborn. Put your baby's spine in line with your own. It is as simple as that. Don't forget to cover, not swaddle, your baby with a warm blanket!

Why Should I Bother with Birth Classes?

2011-09-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been asked this question by two very different women. Both are intelligent first time pregnant moms who desire natural non-interventive labor for themselves and gentle births for their babies. One has already done a considerable amount of reading, hired a midwife and has made the choice to birth at home. What more could she get out of classes, she wonders? The other has a belief in herself and birth which is rooted in her family history, her agricultural history and in her personality. She also witnessed a birth which went so differently than the Bradley birth her relative had planned that she feels her money is better spent on a doula.

I don't remember what I said to these women but here is what I wish I had the presence of mind to say in the moment. Yes, you should take classes! Classes serve many purposes. It is more than just learning the stages of labor. It is more than learning the normal psychological markers, the comfort measures or tools to help you flow with the intensity of the birth process. A good class should give you much, much more.

First as new parents it is vital to create community. Bringing forth a new life isn't just about the baby's life. You are literally bringing forth your own new lives. A new life means transition and transition is stressful. You will need to surround yourself with other new moms and dads. Now you're thinking, "But I have lots of friends who have already had babies." Great! Lots of wisdom can be drawn from friends and relatives who have kids, but talking with others who are just as confused and unsure at times as you creates a shared experience. This is support of a different kind. When you talk with them about lack of sleep, sore nipples, or the color of your baby's poop you'll be thinking, "Oh, you get what I am talking about because you are going through it too. I'm not alone. I'm not crazy." Every support group is founded on this principle.

A good childbirth class is a great place to start building community. It needs to be an environment that goes beyond simply giving you facts, advice & techniques. A good class fosters friendships through the sharing of thoughts & feelings, doing class activities or projects and breaking bread together. The class should bring both humor and intimacy to the subject of birth while always honoring each participant's unique journey toward the arrival of their child. This is an environment where friendships can blossom. After the babies arrive getting together for walks, talks, beach time or play time friendships can deepen. They show up at Andrea Heron's class or La Leche League. You walk into a SLO Parent Participation class or library story time and there they are. Your world suddenly seems smaller in a safe and secure way. This is building community within our larger community. New parents, new families need community.

Now what about the fact that many women who have decided they want a "natural" childbirth have already done a ton of reading? They have read great books, watched movies like The Business of Being Born, researched things on line and even watched You Tube videos of births. What more education could they need? All that is great but let's face it very few dads are motivated to share that particular journey with you. Sure you can corral them and ask them to watch this amazing You Tube birth or read them passages out of a book you are devouring from cover to cover but very few men are going to feel as compelled as their partner to steep themselves in birth, birth & more birth. As a matter of fact, the more she does, the more he may feel he doesn't have to because she is the one who is having the baby, right? She is doing such a bang up job getting educated so he can just relax. On top of that, if you are making decisions about the birth based on things you alone are reading and then telling him what you want, he may feel there is no point to reading or expressing his opinion; you've already made up your mind. These may be wonderfully supportive partners but they are hovering outside of the picture.

Classes help dads! I can't say that enough. Classes help dads. They invite them into the process. Men naturally come late to thinking about the birth. Actually they often come late to connecting with the baby in any concrete way. This is normal because they aren't the ones feeling it grow and move inside them. Believe it or not when they witness their baby being born it almost seems to take them by surprise that there really is a baby. A good class allows dads to connect with their own journey towards birth and parenthood. They gain the education they need through active participation instead of reading & research which suits many fathers better. There is time, space & support given for dads to express their feelings, beliefs, fears and desires surrounding the process and what lies ahead. They are honored as fathers, lovers and humans.

Classes most especially help dads who have witnessed past births that traveled down traumatic paths, such as c-sections or home birth transports. These dads need special care as they struggle to support a woman who is determined to have an un-medicated vaginal birth while carrying the fears left over from the past birth. It is vitally important that the couple has come together as much as possible before the birth and good classes help.

Good classes help you analyze and express your beliefs about the choices surrounding birth. They put you in touch with the values & fears that are informing your personal choices. Having to verbally express our values & fears can bring up buried thoughts, crystallize our perceptions and distill our feelings. Hearing what others value or fear is a powerful tool in learning about ourselves. Clarity of these issues on both sides can lead to respectful communication if your partner is of a different opinion. Clarity of values & fears can lead to a more open and empowering dialogue with your care provider.

Being pregnant is a process that unfolds over time. The way you feel about something at 12 weeks may be vastly different than the way you feel at 30 weeks or 38 weeks. The best time to take classes is the last 2 months of the pregnancy. The series needs to be 7 to 8 weeks long so that friendships have time to grow and so do the couples. Good classes encourage the couple to get in touch with where they are in the process now and where they would like to be eventually. They practice. They prepare. They rehearse. They live in the moment and open themselves to the possibilities of the future. Yes, you should take birth preparation classes. You will come away more confident in birth, more sure of yourselves and your abilities, more connected to your partner, more aware of your choices, more able to dialogue with your support team and just plain more ready.

These two expectant moms were right though. Many classes aren't worth taking. Classes that only focus on the physical biological aspects of birth are a waste of time. Classes that focus only on one tool or technique for labor are hopelessly incomplete. Classes that are only 4 weeks long give the couple no opportunity to grow or change. Classes that are taken the last month of pregnancy give the couple no opportunity to change course if they come to the realization through their class work that they want to go down a different path. Classes that honor only one vision of what birth should be like are disrespectful to the amazing complexity of the human race. Classes that only impart the guidelines and routines of the place of birth & care provider disrespect pregnant couples' abilities to make wise choices for themselves and their babies. These classes are an obvious attempt to dis-empower women and their partners. By all means take classes but choose wisely who you ask to "educate" you.

For more information about my classes. Also there are many excellent independent birth educators in SLO County. We each have a slightly different focus. It is important to find an educator you feel comfortable with. Most of them can be reached through the Birth & Baby Resource Network's on line Resource Guide.

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Here is another birth educator/blogger's take on this same issue.

From Mama Birth:
If You Are Asking My Opinion- Yes, You Need A Birth Class

In full disclosure, before I get started I should probably own the fact that I do teach natural childbirth classes for money. (I don't make much money at it, but you deserve to know that.) So you can take what I am about to say as just shameless self promotion and fear mongering.

~
I often hear this sentiment :

"Women have been giving birth for 1000's of years. You don't need a class to give birth."

What is interesting about this quote is that I hear it both from medical doctors who are very intervention happy or dislike natural birth and from people planning to home birth.

At the risk of offending everybody who reads this, I have got to address this idea. Because frankly, this just usually is not the case. Let me tell you why.

Women HAVE been giving birth for 1000's of years-

Yes, women have been giving birth for a long long time. The mechanisms of birth worked the same with the first birth as they do today in the modern woman- contractions, dilation, pushing, baby, placenta. But the CULTURE of birth is constantly changing.
How many of you have attended a live birth? How many of you have attended multiple births in person? How many of your husbands have?

A woman a thousand years ago most likely was around birth. She was at the births of her siblings or cousins or nieces and nephews. She learned to help the mother after the labor. She saw women breastfeeding. A 1000 years ago women were actually AROUND birth. Birth was something that really only women understood.

They didn't hide it in hospitals and close it behind a door and a cloak of mystery and fear. It was a normal part of life.

Not only did they see it, they talked about it, supported each other in it, and had traditions surrounding it. We have traditions surrounding birth too, but they don't do much to teach women about the actual mechanics and how to cope with birth and labor naturally. Today when women talk about birth they talk about epidurals and pain and what they were allowed to do. This can be wonderfully helpful in preparing you for the typical hospital induction birth. It does not however do much to prepare you if you are planning on birthing naturally.

Women being surrounded by other women who had birthed naturally also creates a very different birth culture. Being in a weekly class with others in your same situation and with the same goals can re-create that "birth culture" for you today. Having a teacher who has done what you are planning a few times herself also gives you somebody to ask questions and proof that natural birth is possible, even if you don't know many people who have done it.

A 1000 years ago women didn't birth in the hospital-

A large part of the classes I teach focuses on preparing women to navigate the hospital system. The truth is, if you are planning on birth in the hospital and going natural, you need to really know what you are doing. You need to know how to relax well without medications in a place where they are readily available. You also need to be aware of the purpose and ways to avoid common interventions, drugs, and procedures in the hospital.
Women didn't have to do this 1000 years ago. There are huge advantages to hospital birthing- but combining it with a natural approach is often tricky. Thus the class.

And your partner? What was he doing a 1000 years ago?

The modern woman almost always wants her husband at the birth with her. Not only that she wants him to be involved, helpful, loving, and basically fantastic.

I don't know how to say this nice, but....good luck with that if he doesn't know a thing about birth and is scared crapless of the entire idea of something huge coming out of your vagina.

Many women are self motivated enough to learn about birth and study and practice relaxation on their own. After all, they realize that THEY are the ones who have to give birth. Women are often very invested in baby and the experience long before it happens.

Men a 1000 years ago were probably not part of the birth process. But today, women expect them to be there. If you want him to be helpful, to understand what is normal, to know what a crowning baby looks like, and to know how to do a double hip squeeze, he needs a class.

My classes focus on the partner a LOT. If I can get dad comfortable, excited, and confident in your ability as a couple to have a natural birth, then I feel much better about the couples ability to do this. If mom is looking forward to this and knows her stuff, but dad is scared, doesn't know why you sound like a ghost, and just wants you to get an epidural because he wants you to be helped but he doesn't know how to help you, then we have another beast altogether.

But I am birthing at home-

I know- I still think that a natural birth class can be helpful in preparing a mom to birth at home. There are two reasons for this.

1) A good class won't just cover birth- it will cover preparing for a healthy pregnancy and staying low risk. I have seen more than one home birth mama end up having a baby in the hospital because baby came early because of poor nutrition. Some things just go wrong and can't be prevented. But some things CAN be helped with an awesome diet. You can learn about this on your own, but I notice that people focus more on how they are taking care of themselves when they are asked about it weekly by their friendly birth teacher.

When I ask people to keep track of everything they eat, they really pay more attention than they do just because they read something about the Brewer Diet online. A class helps keep you accountable while surrounding you with a supportive group of women and men.

2) Even if you birth at home, you still need to actually LABOR. Birthing at home might prevent some common interventions, but it doesn't get you out of the work involved in birthing a baby. I have talked to many a midwife who has home birth mamas who have no coping mechanisms in place for their birth.
Losing control is a natural part of birth- but knowing how to relax and do it well can help keep that to the normal, baby is almost here, minimum. A mother who is very stressed out, fearful, and unfamiliar with the birth process, can have difficulty with laboring from the very beginning and throughout the entire process. If you throw in a partner who also is freaking out, you can really change the process in a negative way.

A good birth class doesn't just talk about what happens in a chart- it teaches you how to handle it.

~
The truth is that not everyone really needs a class. I am not going to tell you that I KNOW that you do. But I do often see people who don't think they needed a class and it turns out they really could have benefited from the knowledge, the confidence, the time to prepare with their partner, the skill it gave their partner, and the nurturing friendships with like minded people.

One of my favorite things to see is how a couple's relationship grows in class. They learn to rely on one another. They learn to trust each other more. They grow together as we discuss relationship issues that arise during the time of pregnancy.

In the end a great childbirth class really just teaches you how to tune in to what you already know how to do innately. Then, you CAN birth more like women did 1000 years ago- naturally and with faith in your body.

For more information about my classes. Also there are many excellent independent birth educators in SLO County. We each have a slightly different focus. It is important to find an educator you feel comfortable with. Most of them can be reached through the Birth & Baby Resource Network's on line Resource Guide.

Ideas for Creating a Healthy Pregnancy

2011-09-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

In this series I will be delving into various ways a mother-to-be can promote a beautiful healthy pregnancy; reducing her chances of high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, anemia, sciatica, postpartum hemorrhage, low birth weight baby and poor milk supply.

First we must always remember pregnancy is NOT an illness! It is a state of health. Pregnancy, labor, birth & breastfeeding are all normal physiologic functions for women; no different than breathing, cell renewal or the synapses of our brains firing. All of these happen effortlessly as long as we are in a general state of wellness. The system breaks down when we don't provide what it needs, such as smoke free air, nutritious food, and intellectual stimulation. Although pregnancy is a state of normalcy, it does require more from all of a woman's body systems therefore requiring her to be diligent in providing what those systems need. To keep her body working optimally while growing a healthy baby will take some thought and effort. She will need to become more aware and in tune with her own body's needs and rhythms which will serve her well during the birth process. The things a woman learns about her own health at this time she will carry on into her role as mother; the guardian of family health.

Some of these posts will be written by me. They will be in italics. I am also reaching out into our community to wellness practitioners I know to write posts about their areas of expertise.

Why You Need to Create a Healthy Balanced Pregnancy

Pregnancy the First Step into Motherhood

Massage Therapy-More Than Just Pampering

Prenatal Water Massage

Having a Baby? Read These Books?

Intro to Pregnancy Nutrition

Ancient Nutritional Wisdom from China & India

Whole Foods/Low Sugar Pregnancy Recipes from CookWell

Courtney's Recommended Nutritional Health Reading List

Why Should I Bother Taking Childbirth Classes?

Your Baby or Toddler's Exposure to Toxic Flame Retardants by the Numbers

2011-06-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

The young mother carefully positions her newborn on the nursing pillow in her lap. Being sure to latch the new baby on correctly, she begins breastfeeding. She is proud of herself for giving her baby the best food on the planet for human babies. She wants only what is best for this new little one. Unknown to her the pillow she has purchased for this most satisfying of mommy moments is covered with a toxic substance.

Far away in another city a mother lays her squirming 6 month old down to change his diaper. He has become adept at wriggling himself away from her at critical moments during the process. When he reaches out and pulls the corner of the changing pad into his mouth she breathes a sigh of relief hoping this will keep her active boy satisfied until she can finish. It never occurs to her he is ingesting a toxic chemical.

In a third town a busy mother of two is happy her toddler is keeping herself occupied scooting around on the floor while she is busy nursing the new baby and trying to get dinner. The little girl lays down on her tummy putting her face close to the rug on the floor so she can reach under a chair and pull out a forgotten toy. Her mother is completely unaware that her daughter is breathing in toxic dust.

These babies are all being exposed to flame retardants every day and so is yours. Flame retardant chemicals are put onto many products in your home; rugs, couches, drapes. They are also put on many baby products to meet fire safety standards. This was done without testing the consequences of long term exposure on humans. Here is the down and dirty info you need to know.

* 90% of Americans have flame retardants in their bodies

* 3 times higher levels of flame retardants are found in toddlers bodies than adults

* 80% of the baby products tested contained toxic or untested chemical flame retardants

* 3 products tested: car seats, changing pads and portable cribs

* 1/3 of products contained a chemical called chlorinated tris

* 40 years ago they stopped using chlorinated tris on kid's pajamas because of cancer concerns

* 1 more item included in the test: nursing pillows!

*10 times more retardant chemicals found in Americans' bodies than people in the European Union, which has banned the most common types of chemical flame retardants

*2 types of flame retardants have stopped being made due to health concerns

*2013 is the year manufacturers pledge to phase out other flame retardants

*Decades is how long these toxins will remain in most people's homes because they have been used on home furnishings. And Tris, the chemical removed from kids' sleepwear, is still commonly used in furniture foam.

For chemical free baby products visit EcoBambino in downtown SLO. Be sure to ask if the product is flame retardant free!

To read the whole story by Liz Szabo in USA Today.

Pregnancy; the first step into Motherhood

2011-06-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

This article was written by a much loved and respected resource in our community, Dr. Zoe Wells. Over the years many of my clients and friends have benefited from Dr. Zoe’s help in healing. She brings a unique blend of education, holding a doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine with a certification in Obstetrics as well as a degree in psychology, and a gentle and caring spirit to her work.

Naturopathic Medicine is a holistic approach to healing encompassing all parts of the person; mind, body & spirit. It combines safe and effective traditional therapies with the most current advances in modern medicine. Some of the modalities Dr. Zoe is skilled at include: Herbs, homeopathy, craniosacral therapy, hydrotherapy and nutritional therapy.

Issues she has helped my clients with have included recurring yeast infections, beta strep positive test results, hormone imbalances, postpartum depression, and more. Not only has she helped them with their physical issues but the women feel so respected and cared for. On her web site Dr. Zoe says “many people have stated that this is the first time they have felt heard and have been able to share their full medical history”. I can believe this. Although pregnant women are in and out of a doctor’s office every month they often feel they are part of an assembly line. But with Dr. Zoe they work together to develop an individualized treatment plan. Dr. Zoe says, “We will always be working towards healing and what that uniquely means for you”.

I was so excited when she said she would write an article about pregnancy for my blog. When I read it I thought, “How perfect! Her thoughts on "Creating a Healthy Pregnancy" are just the right blend of mind, body & spirit.” Enjoy!

Pregnancy; the first step into Motherhood

Pregnancy is such a miraculous time for women. It often affords women a chance to hone skills that will assist them in labor and even more importantly throughout motherhood.

Pregnancy is a time of numerous changes – body changes, emotional changes, hormonal changes - all preparation for the giant step of becoming a mother. One of the lessons that pregnancy can teach women is to go beyond themselves, sometimes for the first time considering the well-being of another before their own personal needs. Women find the strength and dedication to achieve their goals in pregnancy that they could not or would not fulfill before their body was filled with another presence. With the knowledge that a woman is carrying another being, literally bringing another person into form, she is motivated to care for her body as a vehicle for miracles beyond herself.

She has more determination to eat well, not only for herself but even more importantly or so it feels, for this new body forming - for this offspring that she alone is growing and raising and that she will eventually bring out into the world. She may dedicate time to exercising and thinking of her body in a new way – as this miraculous process of birth proceeds, a woman comes to understand that her body is amazing, able to bring life, able to create family and a new richness is seen in her ability, the meaning of her life.

Women can also find it easier than ever before to avoid tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and medications during pregnancy as she sees her role as life giver. The habits of her previous life are softened and take on a different meaning when she sees the body as a vehicle for nurturing a new life. Sometimes these habits are difficult to stop and feel too challenging to manage along with the challenges of pregnancy. This is a great time to consider the meaning of these habits and coping mechanisms in contrast with this new life springing forth inside and what it is asking of the mother. Realizing that one is giving life and nurturing life within her own body, can be that extra motivation to reach beyond the “easy answers”, the habitual responses that do not serve our higher good but keep us from caring for ourselves in ways that serve our health and wellness more deeply.

During pregnancy much time and attention goes towards the event of labor often perceived as an immense obstacle to overcome, but I think it is important to recognize it as just another gateway into becoming a mother, a parent. The decisions one makes around labor and how she handles the stress of pain and an intense situation such as labor is the first of many such decisions that a mother will make as her child grows. Early infancy and childhood ask mothers to make many decisions – how to feed her baby, her philosophy around teaching her child to sleep, how to meet the baby’s and later child’s developmental needs. Parenthood requires both mother and father to constantly assess situations, know themselves, and then implement decisions regarding how best to care for their offspring. Labor is a great first step in dealing with the unexpected if that has not already occurred in pregnancy. Life does provide many opportunities for responding to the unexpected and dealing with change.

Pregnancy Health Basics
There are choices a woman can make during pregnancy to help herself and nurture her growing baby at the same time. When the body feels like it has its own agenda, it is nice to be able to make choices that support one’s well being and sense of balance.

1. Nutrition is key in pregnancy. I consider nutrition to be #1 in terms of contributing to a healthy pregnancy. For most of pregnancy a woman needs an extra meal per day (not twice her normal meals!) to feed her changing body and the developing baby. During the first trimester when many women feel nauseous, extra whole grain carbohydrates can be beneficial such as brown rice, oatmeal or granola, sweet potatoes and cooked vegetables such as winter squashes. Miso soup also tends to calm the stomach and eggs are an easy and often well tolerated source of protein. As the appetite increases and the stomach calms, an increase in protein rich foods, vegetables and fruit are better tolerated and well needed. During the third trimester when the body feels the weight demands of the larger baby, the high quality fats are important for baby’s brain development such as nuts and seeds, fish, avocado, coconut oil and olive oil. Eating smaller meals are better tolerated with a focus on more protein and vegetables as preparation for labor.

2. Exercise. Exercise is even more important for mom than baby. Body changes during pregnancy are constant and one’s exercise routine should reflect these changes. Early on in pregnancy a woman can feel short of breath and fatigued, a time when less intense exercise is beneficial. Later when the body has adjusted to the hormonal shifts and weight changes, a woman can increase her exercise to pre-pregnancy levels if this is well tolerated. Anemia must always be taken into consideration as there is less oxygen available during anemia and exercise is not as well tolerated or supported. At the end of pregnancy many women enjoy water exercises to have moments of weightlessness where she can stretch her body and enjoy the water supporting her weight. Keeping cardiovascular health up during pregnancy helps with labor both psychologically as well as physically.

3. Avoid alcohol, tobacco, marijuana as well as decrease caffeine and sugar. These will lower incidences of pre-eclampsia, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, yeast infections and decrease the risk of medical intervention during labor, and baby needing medical assistance after labor.

4. Time for quiet and centering. With the birth of a first child life changes in ways previously not fathomed. Pregnancy may be the last time for a while when a woman has time for herself, quiet time, reflective time. I recommend taking time regularly in pregnancy to check in with yourself, see how you feel, journal, meditate, pray, hike, walk… whatever feeds your soul. Life is about to change and the more centered you are, the easier it will be to respond to those changes. You will know yourself better and have a place from which you can make the decisions that will support you and your family.

Best wishes to you in your pregnancy! What an amazing time of life, both for you and your baby – the first of many journeys you will take together.

Visit Dr. Zoe's web site!

Fresh New Pregnancy & Birth Book for Men

2011-06-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Finally a book by a man, for men about pregnancy and birth! As a birth educator and doula for 20 years I have read many wonderful books about birth, but I felt none of them was the kind of book a man would pick up on his own to read. Instead men have been reading the books their pregnant wives would ask them to read; the books that were full of info the women wanted their husband to know. But "Baby Daddy", by Clayton Connelly, is a book full of information men want to know. It is one dad’s humorous look at his personal journey through his woman’s first pregnancy. Connelly’s approachable writing style mixes laugh-out-loud personal experiences with sage advice from a dad who’s been there; sprinkled with just the right amount of facts and important information to open the eyes of a birth novice and get them thinking. "Baby Daddy" is the perfect gift for that friend who just found out the pitter patter of little feet is soon to be entering his life. Trying to find a way to break the news? Why not wrap it up and give it to your man or casually leave it on top of his fine bathroom literature. Although it is meant to be read in stages to go with each trimester, I guarantee once he starts he won’t want to put it down.

Clayton & his wife Jessica took my classes to prepare for the birth of their first child. Read this book to find out what was going on in Clayton's head during my classes.

Hear what the author has to say about the book: http://www.babydaddybook.com/Site/Baby_Daddy.html

Comparing Approaches to Pregnancy & Birth

2011-06-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

"The techno-medical model of maternity care, unlike the midwifery model, is comparatively new on the world scene, having existed for barely two centuries. This male-derived framework for care is a product of the industrial revolution. As anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd has described in detail, underlying the technocratic mode of care of our own time is an assumption that the human body is a machine and that the female body in particular is a machine full of shortcomings and defects. Pregnancy and labor are seen as illnesses, which, in order not to be harmful to mother or baby, must be treated with drugs and medical equipment. Within the techno-medical model of birth, some medical intervention is considered necessary for every birth, and birth is safe only in retrospect." — Ina May Gaskin (Ina May's Guide to Childbirth)

Homebirth & Saving the Earth: a Natural Fit

2011-05-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

Many women who birth outside of a hospital setting are changed by that experience for the rest of their lives. It begins in pregnancy as they educate themselves about the choices they are making surrounding birth. In discussions with their midwife, a subtle paradigm shift happens which puts the pregnant woman in charge. A good midwife guides them to see that they need to look beyond what the medical institutions have presented as ‘truth’, and find their own. During a natural, unmedicated, and uninduced birth a woman must listen to her own rhythms of contraction and expansion and learn to work in harmony with them. She taps into a power within herself that until now has been hidden from her. It is an awe-inspiring power that deeply connects the woman to generations of women from the past and the future. From that time on, she knows this power lies within her and she can rely on it. The confidence this brings helps her to look at the world with new eyes. She may make new choices, such as deciding to have her baby sleep in bed with her and her partner even though her best friend says it is dangerous. She may simply feel more able to stick with a choice she already made, such as breastfeeding, even though the first several weeks are rough going.

So how does this help the earth? Well, first there are her choices surrounding parenting in the first weeks and months of her baby’s life, such as sleeping with the baby. Co-sleeping means no trees were cut down to build a cradle or toxic chemicals used to build a crib. On top of that, no fuel was spent to ship it to a store and then get it to your home. No energy was used to run the factory or store. No lights were used at home while putting the crib together.

Breastfeeding, though natural, can be challenging at first. Midwives traditionally promote breastfeeding and are an ongoing resource for nursing education and support. The impacts it can make on our environment are varied. First, it requires no excess packaging, processing, or shipping. There are no bottles to buy, transport, wash, and eventually throw away. This is a huge energy savings, plus there is no damage to our environment from the making and disposal of plastics or glass. Because breastmilk is nutritionally superior to formula, it grows stronger, healthier people who are less likely to need pharmaceuticals or mercury-laden fillings. The fats contained within breastmilk spur more brain growth than formula. We need smarter kids to help us out of the environmental dilemma we are in. On top of all that, exclusive breast-feeding prevents more births than all other forms of contraception combined, which helps slow our ever-climbing population explosion.

Empowered birth creates an empowered woman who has confidence in her physical and psychological abilities. A woman who knows she is capable and has the strength to follow through on those out-of-the-norm decisions, such as cloth diapering. Let’s face it: cloth diapering is a bit more work than disposables, but the small amount of effort required is easy compared to filling up our landfills.

Home birth creates a mother who listens to her own innate intuition. She can listen to herself as a guide instead of relying on ‘authorities’. She will make her own best choices for the survival of her children, even if that means making different choices than mainstream America. She might decide not to fill a prescription for antibiotics which end up in our water supply and create super bugs, and instead rely on rest and mommy love to get her baby through a cold.

Then there are the less obvious connections. A positive birth experience imparts to the couple confidence in parenting to the couple. It creates a solid foundation and unites them in their parenting journey. Midwives often encourage the couple to explore the components of Attachment Parenting, such as baby wearing, responsive parenting, and immediate bonding after birth. This style of parenting creates confident kids with a different world outlook. They tend to think about what the group needs, instead of feeling they would be better off looking out for themselves because no one else will.”

Who knows where a woman’s new-found sense of accomplishment will take her? Perhaps she will decide to roll up her sleeves and plant an organic garden, saving her kids from pesticides and lessening the world’s fuel consumption, or decide to take on the local water board when she finds out there are unsafe levels of chemicals in the tap water her family drinks. Maybe she will confront her local school board on buying more local organic fruits and vegetables for the lunch program. Perhaps she will start her own recycled kids’ clothing store, or get active with her local Earth Day committee. Perhaps she will sponsor a local kids’ sustainable community garden. These are just a few of the things I have seen local mothers do. The power and energy a positive out-of-hospital birth unleashes is tremendous. The possible choices of what to do with that power are endless. The positive effects that might bring for our planet are immeasurable. As a doula, one thing I have learned is to never underestimate the power of a mother!

Mothers' Day; Thinking Globally

2011-04-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

As Mother's Day has come and gone for another year I am confronted with the cold reality that most mothers around the world don't have what we take for granted; good quality prenatal care, access to high quality nutrition, and well trained birth attendants. These simple things hold the key between life or death for women of the developing world. The gulf between the developed world and the emerging nations is wide and deep.

Surviving Motherhood
by Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General

Reprint from UNICEF Philippines
UNICEF Philippines celebrates Mother's Day with the rest of the nation with a message to nurture and protect all mothers. Mothers’ Day is upon us in many countries around the world. Children of all ages will give flowers, make breakfast, call home.This is as it should be. On my travels around the world, particularly to its poorest and most troubled places, I have learned that it is mothers who keep families together -- indeed, who keep entire societies intact. Mothers are society’s weavers. They make the world go round. Yet too often, the world is letting mothers down.In the rich world, when a mother dies giving birth, we assume that something went wrong. For women in the developing world, by contrast, dying in childbirth is simply a fact of life. In some countries, one woman in eight will die giving birth. Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide.Becoming a mother -- the rite of passage that Mothers’ Day celebrates -- can carry a terrible burden of fear, anxiety and loss for many women and their families.We know how to save mothers’ lives. Simple blood tests, a doctor’s consultation and someone qualified to help with the birth can make a huge difference. Add some basic antibiotics, blood transfusions and a safe operating room, and the risk of death can almost be eliminated.Recent figures show that we are making progress in helping women throughout the world. Yet we still have very far to go. Every year, hundreds of thousands of women die in childbirth, 99 percent of them in developing countries. That is why, as secretary-general, I have spoken out for the needs of mothers and pregnant women at every opportunity. I am counting on people around the world to back us in ending this silent scandal. No woman should have to pay with her life for giving life. On Mothers’ Day, let us honor mothers around the world by pledging to do everything we can to make motherhood safer for all.

Feeling inspired to do something to help our world wide community of mothers but you don't know how? Some of the members of Birth & Baby Resource Network are doing just that. These doulas have been called to work not only with birthing women here at home but they have a global commitment as well. Heather Larson went to study midwifery in Senegal and was so impacted by her experience she came home and founded Tree of Light. This non-profit is working to build a Birth House in Senegal. Terri Woods is part of a family inspired to help women have access to quality maternity care. She lives in the North County but also spends time each year working with her sister and daughter building, managing and staffing birth centers in remote areas of the Philippines. On September 22, 2010, the United Nations launched "The Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health". They understand that to lift women and children out of sickness, poverty and death creates a more peaceful world for all. We all need to invest in the world's future.

Thank you to Terri Woods of Mercy in Action who posted this to her face book page.http://www.mercyinaction.com/

What’s a Parent to Do?

2011-04-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

The American Academy of Pediatrics latest guidelines on car seat safety recently hit the news. Are you confused about which seat in your car to use, which direction to have it face and when your child can safely come out of a car seat? What about air bags? When should you move your child from full on car seat to booster seat? What about safely using seat belts with older kids and a host of other questions? The San Luis Obispo County Child Injury Prevention Coalition will be teaming up with the Birth & Baby Fair this year to answer all your questions about the new guidelines and state laws regarding car seat safety. There will be 10 certified car seat technicians on hand to check car seats for proper installation, broken parts and recalls in the parking lot next to the Historical Museum on Broad St. in SLO. The Coalition is happy to provide this service free to the community. San Luis Obispo Police Officer John Caudill, a member of the Coalition, says much of what he does is education because car seats constantly change, as well as the laws about them. This is an important year to get your questions answered Caudill clarifies because, “although these new guidelines are only recommendations they are very significant and we support the changes. They go over and above current laws in California. They aren’t the law yet but we will be lobbying the state to change California law.”

Vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death and injuries for children because they aren’t properly restrained in car seats. This led to a nation wide campaign to educate parents. Officer Caudill who attended a week long series of classes to become certified said, “The guidelines are rigid because of the little ones we are keeping safe.” Typically eighty to ninety percent of the seats checked have some sort of problem, usually misuse by parents; anywhere from just installing it too loosely to actual broken parts. Caudill explained, “We’re not going to be writing tickets. We don’t want to cite parents. We want to help fix things so they leave safer than they came.”

Bring your car and seat on Saturday May 7 from 10 to 3 or make an appointment during the Fair for a check to be done at a later date.

Birth & Baby Resource Network Celebrates!

2011-04-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

From a booth at Earth Day to a school hallway to Garden Street to Mission Plaza; this year marks a milestone in the history of this local all women non-profit organization as we host our fifteenth annual Birth & Baby Fair. In presenting this year’s Fair BBRN is excited to be partnering with Santa Lucia Birth Center andCommunity Health Centers. We are a very small organization of dedicated volunteers and putting on the Birth Fair is a huge task each year. To have Santa Lucia Birth Center and Community Health Centers come in as co-sponsors of the Fair this year helped make our fifteenth annual a reality. Since our founding nearly 20 years ago our mission hasn't changed. It is to connect families to information and resources that help empower them to make safe decisions. The Fair is our premier community outreach event creating a network of resources for families across the spectrum of health care.

The Fair is looked forward to each year by pregnant couples and new parents all over the county as the best place to connect to health practitioners, photographers, and local craft people with ties to pregnancy, birth and babies, as well as, gathering health and safety information. There will be raffles, freebies, food and fun. The Silent Auction will have many wonderful items including a car seat donated by San Luis Obispo County Child Injury Prevention Coalition. It is BBRN’s tradition to hold the Fair the day before Mother’s Day as part of our way of celebrating motherhood and honoring the work mothers do. What started as a few booths in a school hallway has blossomed into spilling out onto the streets surrounding Mission Plaza. Come join the excitement as we celebrate from 10 to 3.

BBRN is also proud to announce the reopening of our Lending Library which had been put in storage due to earthquake retrofitting. The Library is an important part of fulfilling our mission of providing families access to information empowering them to make their own decisions surrounding pregnancy, birth & parenting. The Library is located in the Santa Lucia Birth Center on South Higuera across from Los Osos Valley Road.

Another way the Resource Network has been busy this year with community outreach is hosting monthly events on such varied topics as; “Birth from a Multicultural Perspective”, “Talking with Your Child about Sex”, “Postpartum Depression”, and “How Birth is Portrayed in the Media”. Coming in May is “Birthing an Earth Friendly Family” and June we will hold another "Meet the Midwives" night. In order to provide a wide range of topics BBRN networks with many local non-profits and individuals to present up to date information on what is currently available in our community. The environmentally friendly baby store, EcoBambino in downtown SLO graciously provides a location.

For information on events, Library hours, membership, or to access our on-line Resource Guide visit their web site at http://www.bbrn.org/.

Thank you to Marilyn Rivas Tate who took beautiful photographs of the 2010 Birth Fair !

Breastfeeding & Working: I did it and you can too!

2011-04-24T11:32:00.000-07:00

Are you breastfeeding and working? Whether you are leaving your baby and stepping back into a suit or juggling working from home it is challenging continuing to breastfeed. I applaud you for wanting to give your baby the very best! You probably already know breast milk is nutritionally far superior to formula with long and short term health, emotional and intellectual benefits for you both. My guess is that is why you have taken on the many challenges which come with this territory.

I have first hand experience at being a working breastfeeding mom. When my son was born I was a professional horse trainer. I had continued to ride until I was almost 7 months pregnant. When I was told it was time to get off my feet I took a chaise lounge to the arena's edge and instructed students from my throne. The day I went into labor I had been helping the vet do lameness exams. In the throes of labor it floated into my consciousness that it was Sunday; I was missing the local horse show. Clutching my husband's hand I whispered I would rather be at the show. After about 2 weeks off I packed my baby up and headed back to the barn. By 5 weeks I was pumping and leaving him home with his dad one day a week having compresssed all my students' riding lessons into one day. That first day I don't know which ached more when I got home to our little Shell Beach home, my arms from longing to hold him, my heart from the separation or my boobs!

My son went to the barn with me 5 days a week until he was about 11 years old. Through teething, weaning, learning to walk, ride a bike, skate board and scooter, homeschooling and more I mothered him in the midst of my professional life. It required patience, flexibility, daring and determination on my part. I guess it required that from Joe as well. It was a conscious choice on both our parts that we wanted to be together. Somehow we made it work for both of us. Every day was different because he was growing and changing, so I was constantly having to shift gears and learn something new; step into unknown mommy territory.

During our breastfeeding stage I didn't know anyone else who was doing what I was doing. I'm sure they were out there but I didn't know them. If I had gone to a La Leche League meeting I could have connected to women who were also blending their career and mommyhood. I sure could have used the ideas and encouragement. Unfortunately I didn't know League existed so I blazed my own trail with my son riding double behind.

Now there is an evening La Leche League meeting which speaks to the specific issues of breastfeeding while working. On the 4th Monday women and their babies are gathering at Santa Lucia Birth Center to share, laugh, decompress and advise one another. In a warm friendly atmosphere important bits of information are passed from woman to woman, such as, which breast pump worked the best for you, how did you work that through with your boss, how has your husband been able to help, or how do you get enough sleep at night to go to work the next day. The conversation is different every time. Although there is a general discussion topic, questions or concerns about anything are always welcome. Of course once you get home from work it may feel insurmountable to go out of the house again. But if you can get yourself to come to just one meeting I think you will find yourself re-energized with good mommy feelings and recommitted to giving your baby the best. Don't forget if you bring the baby Dad gets a night to re-energize too!

Newest Addition to the Labor of Love Family

2011-04-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

What a difference an hour and a half can make in one family's life!

"This little piggy went to market"... Big brother says hello.

Baby bliss!

Photos courtesy of Cindy Franklin Photography

Photo Essay: A Santa Lucia Birth Center Birth

2011-04-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

Parker Wilson became a part of one of my favorite familys on January 14.
Between Heather and John, brother and sister, I have been honored to be included in 4 of their family centered births; one at General Hospital, two at home and this one at the new birth center.

Peace Before the Storm

Shortly after arriving Mom and Dad settle into the birth tub. Candles, a beautiful serene room and a warm tub to relax in; exactly the experience Heather and Mike were looking for.

Moments Old

After an intense pushing phase Parker enters this world surrounded by family. Everyone crowds around the big double bed as tears of joy flow freely from Mom, Dad, Grandma, Aunt Emily and Uncle John. Still wet with amniotic fluid Parker is placed in Heather's loving arms to warm and dry.

First Step Toward Independence

After Parker has made the change to oxygenating his own blood, Dr. Dietrich, Licensed Midwife, deftly guides the new Dad through the ritual of cutting the cord that connects Mom and baby.

Precious Moments

Mom, Dad and Parker undisturbed together in the big bed with hearts over flowing. Time stands still. Disbelief that it is over quickly turns to awe.

Exploration

Heather and Mike tenderly get to know their new son. Amazed at his size. Wondering, at how vigorous, alert and healthy he is. The first hour of smell, touch and taste unwinds at its own unhurried pace. Loving gazes and excited exclamations of, "He has your nose" and "Look how long his fingers are" draw the new baby into the family.

Vital Statistics

After sufficient time has passed Dr. Dietrich starts the newborn assessments with the traditional weighing followed by a complete health screening of the new arrival done on the bed with Mom and Dad close at hand.

Life Begins

After only 3 hours Heather, Mike and baby Parker are ready to head home to start their new life together. They will be visited tomorrow by a midwife to make sure they are settling into their babymoon.

********
As a doula I am blessed to meet and work with many families. I met Heather 9 years ago when she needed someone to guide her and Valerie, her mother, through the birth of Heather's second son. This wonderful extended family accepted my help with open arms. Each birth has been unique. Each experience has had its own challenges along the way. My only regret is that I think this will be the last birth for a while. I'll have to wait for the next generation to start having babies but when they do; I'm there!

Connection

2011-02-18T11:50:00.000-08:00

Pfieffer Rose and her daddy; love at first sight! This little girl is one of the strongest, smartest babies I know. She knew exactly how to take care of herself and patiently waited for all of us professionals to figure it out. She taught me just how brilliant babies are and the importance of tuning in to listen to what they are trying to tell you during birth.

Welcome Baby Brinlee!

2011-02-18T11:36:00.000-08:00

Your birth brings healing and joy out of past pain, fear and suffering. You are the best valentine gift; a family complete.

When Midwives Disagree

2011-02-17T11:06:00.000-08:00

Midwives are human beings with all the good and bad that goes with that. The alternative birth community would like to present to the rest of the world a rosy picture of loving, nuturing and everyone getting along. They often paint the medical establishment as evil in contrast to themselves the angles of mercy and caring. Unfortunately in my experience this is far from the truth. The alternative birth community is just as full of politics, power stuggles and personalities as every other human endeavour. Money, group dynamics and territory are often issues. Opposing belief systems and practice protocols often clash. Often skills, abilities and safety get dragged into the fight. Yesterday I ran into just such a situation playing itself out on face book. It prompted me to write "A Good Midwife". Later I realized I wasn't done with my thinking on this topic. I wanted to explore how I felt about some of the underlying issues that I believe get in the way of building true community, true connection.

I believe:
The moment we think we know it all is the moment we stop learning. The moment we are convinced we know the TRUTH is the moment we stop seeking the truth. The moment we only see our differences is the moment we miss the opportunity to connect through our common bonds. The moment we believe there is only one way is the moment we have closed ourselves off to a world of possibilities. To think that we know all there is to know about something as complex and miraculous as birth is the height of egotism. Egotism is the opposite of midwifery, to be WITH woman, not above, not below but with. By being “with” we can learn much and we can teach much. From this all life flows.

A Good Midwife

2011-02-16T11:51:00.001-08:00

Today I stumbled upon an online debate over different views of midwifery. As commonly happens in arguments each side seemed to think it was all or nothing. You must either believe totally in the rightness of their side or you were evil; a danger to your unsuspecting clients.

This got me thinking. As a doula I have been in the unique position of watching many different midwives and doctors working with birthing women. I have been present in hospitals, homes and a birth center. I have listened to women grieving and traumatized by their births. Contrary to popular homebirth myth these did not all happen in hospitals. There are times when women suffer terribly after their homebirth. Sometimes they are speaking to me during those early postpartum weeks and sometimes it is years later during their next pregnancy.

After listening and watching here are some of the things I believe makes a good midwife no matter where she practices.

A midwife needs to know when to keep her hands out of a client and when to put her hands in.

A midwife needs to have the ability to be patient, to move slowly and carefully and the ability to move quickly, decisively and without hesitation.

A midwife needs to absolutely trust birth, and a woman's instincts and birth intuitions, and yet be skilled enough to know when a woman needs guidance.

A midwife needs to know how to let the laboring woman be center stage, the lead in the play, while she is prepared to step in as needed in the supporting role, as the hero or just make a cameo appearance.

A midwife balances equally the importance of the mother's experience with the mother's and baby's safety.

A midwife needs to know when to lead and when to follow.

A midwife needs to know the depth of the waters she is swimming in and is prepared to transfer care when she is out of her depth.

A midwife needs to know how to guide without taking over control.

A midwife needs to know all the variations of normal, what they look like, what they sound like, what they feel like so she can help her clients be unafraid.

A midwife needs to know how to help without rescuing. A midwife needs to have the skills and character to rescue when it is needed.

A midwife needs to be skilled at suturing tears and vigilant at trying to prevent them.

A midwife needs to be able to monitor the health of the mom and baby through skilled and timely assessments, heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature without interrupting the flow of labor.

A midwife needs to understand every birth follows its own unique timeline and plan and that sometimes that plan includes transferring care or surgical birth.

A midwife needs to create a relationship of trust with her clients and has a responsibility to not break that trust.

A midwife needs to be able to speak to both the instincts and the intellect of her clients.

I have a deep respect for all the midwives I have watched supporting, guiding and sometimes rescuing my clients over the years. The work is complex, physical, emotional and draining. When births go as planned the midwife will be an adored friend for life. When births aren't the fantasy a woman imagined, the midwife will be blamed forever. It is often very difficult for the birthing woman to grasp all the pieces of what happened and why because she was in the thick of labor. Without real understanding, it is natural to blame the person she imagined was to keep all bad things from happening; the midwife. There are no perfect midwives, just as there are no perfect people. They are simply flawed humans with strengths and weaknesses just like the rest of us.

Thank you to Edana Hall, Brenda Ramler, Sandy Rodriguez, Tiffany Dietrich, Lisa Winick, Linda Seeley, Helen Cominos, and JoAnne Tarkington for devoting your careers to caring about women.

Do you have thoughts on what makes a good midwife? Comment here or email me: jjmstover@sbcglobal.net.

Wonder How to Talk to Your Kids about Sex?

2011-02-15T14:36:00.000-08:00

Your five-year-old child casually looks up from his plate of mac and cheese and utters some of the words most feared by parents,“Where do babies come from?”
Your heart races; a million thoughts and feelings flood in.“Oh my gosh! Why is he asking me this? How should I answer? Why does it feel like my heart just sank into my shoes? What is the RIGHT answer to this most important parenting test? What do I SAY?”

We all know the questions are coming. We wonder when and how we will react. So why are we left feeling astonished and unprepared for these natural questions, and why are they difficult to answer? Basic questions about human biology are no different than your child’s desire to know where stars come from
or how fish breathe in water.

Children are miniature scientists with a burning desire to explore and know their world. It is this same human desire that has propelled us to the moon, written
the most profound literature and created the most exquisite art. And yet, as an adult, we see the layers of complexity wrapped up in such a simple question and it makes our palms sweat.

Our deepest desire as a parent is to say the right thing to our child to start them on a life-long path of shared values surrounding sex and sexuality. We understand the importance of getting this right, but we can find ourselves at a loss for words.

Help is on the way! As part of Birth & Baby Resource Network’s on-going mission to support and educate parents, they are sponsoring “Opening the
Door: Talking with your Child about Sex.” This workshop is designed to empower parents of preschoolers and school-age children to become “askable”
parents right from the start.

Workshop leader Sue Simonson, I.C.C.E, is the founder of the Without Regret foundation, whose motto is “Children not taught by their parents, will be
taught by the world.” Sue helps parents understand why this can be a difficult subject, and she offers strategies for becoming your child’s primary sexuality
educator.

Simonson has been a birth, family and sexuality educator for 30 years. She does not feel it is her place to advocate either abstinence or safe sex. Instead, Sue views her role as enabling parents to communicate with their children about their own values. She has prepared thousands of parents to answer their children’s questions about sexuality openly and honestly, based on their own family beliefs. Sue equips parents to more confidently tackle the sensitive topic of sexuality with the theme statement, “If we are not answering their questions at ages 2 and 3, they will not be asking at ages 12 and 13.” As a childbirth
educator for pregnant teens, she is inspired to do this work with the hope that parents of teens won’t hear those other words that strike terror in a parent’s heart, “Mom, Dad, I think I’m pregnant.”

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to build a foundation of open communication about sexual issues on Tuesday, February 22nd from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at 1490 Southwood Drive in San Luis Obispo.
Pre-register at www.bbrn.org or call 473-3746.
Tickets will be $10 at the door.

Parents are advised to use their
best judgment regarding their
children’s attendance.

Having a Baby? Read these books...

2010-12-07T15:59:00.000-08:00

One April a few years ago I picked up the phone. It was Brenda Ramler, a local midwife calling.

"Hi. I'm working on a recommended reading list. Do you have any books you think I should include?" Brenda is someone you can always count on to get straight to the point; a real straight shooter. One of the straightest shooters I have known in my life.

"Why? What's up?" I on the other hand am an information gatherer. I never like to express my opinion until I feel I know all the facts. You know, a lay of the land type person.

"I'm working on something to hand out at the Fair. I have a list but I'm looking for new ideas to add to it." She was talking about Birth & Baby Resource Network's annual Birth & Baby Fair. This fair was almost as old as BBRN itself and Brenda & I had been involved in some way every year since its founding.

That's another thing about Brenda, she is a worker. She never sees something she feels needs to be done and says, "I'm too tired" or "too busy." Besides that she is an organizational wizard and perhaps one of the most detail oriented people I know. On top of that she is passionate about birth. I should say natural birth. Birth the way she feels it was meant to be. Her vision of birth encompasses pregnancy, birth and parenting. To her birth is one piece of the whole; not an isolated, stand alone event.

She has strong opinions about all of it and doesn't mind sharing them. Actually I believe she feels it is her calling to share them with women and their families; a duty to herself and to God. Of course she shared them with her clients, but she would also share them with pregnant women she met at a coffee shop or in line at the grocery store. She moves through the world strong in her beliefs that women need to know. Why? So they can be responsible for themselves, for their births and for their babies.

This is not a unique belief in the "alternative" birth world. It is the founding principle of BBRN and many other organizations, but Brenda is unique in her power of conviction and willingness to clearly state the truth without fear of repercussions. Many people find this not an endearing trait. But as far as I can tell it never fazed Brenda what other people thought of her. She brought that power, conviction and confidence to every birth. It served her clients well.

She safely caught lots of San Luis Obispo county babies during her years here. She educated many women in their birthing and mothering abilities. She made an impact in our world one family at a time. She also impacted our birth community; educating assistants, doulas, teachers, and even doctors and midwives. I was one of those people. I was lucky enough to doula at a few homebirths with Brenda and she always made herself available to discussclient issues or situations. Now she has moved on to new adventures in new places with her husband. The women whose lives she touched will never forget her. Myself included.

Recently I found a copy of the list of books Brenda and I spoke about that day on the phone. I was in the home of one of her assistants who is currently training to be a midwife. I recognized it as soon as I saw it and asked Heather if I could have a copy. Many of these books are classics. The basics of birth and parenting do not change but the context of the cultural/financial politics which surround it continually changes. These books continue to be relevant because the underlying foundation of greed, power and mistrust of women's bodies remain as a constant at the core of our birth culture. I am happy to announce that these books and many others will soon be on loan again through the Birth & Baby Resource Network in the library at the Santa Lucia Birth Center.

Here is Brenda's Recommended Reading List:
Nutrition/Exercise
***********
Active Birth
Janet Balaskas

The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook
local author Cathi Olson

Pregnancy & Childbirth
************
American Way of Birth
Jessica Mitford

A Wise Birth
Penny Armstrong

Birth as an American Rite of Passage
Robbie Davis-Floyd

Birth Reborn
Michel Odent

Gentle Birth Choices
Barbara Harper

Immaculate Deception II
Suzanne Armstrong

Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way
Susan McCutcheon

Pursuing the Birth Machine
Marsden Wagner

Special Delivery
Rahima Baldwin

Pregnant Feelings
Rahima Baldwin

Choosing Waterbirth
L. Bertram

Seasons of Change: Growing through Pregnancy & Birth
Suzanne Arms

Creating a Joyful Birth
Lucia Capprioni

Mind Over Labor
Carl Jones

Cesarean/VBAC
********
Open Season
Nancy Cohen

Birthing from Within
Pam England & Robin Horowitz

Rights & Responsibilities
****************
Birthing Normally
Gayle Peterson

Birth Your Way
Shiela Kitzinger

Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities
Henci Goer

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
Henci Goer

Breastfeeding
*******
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
La Leche League International

The Nursing Mother's Companion
local author Kathleen Huggins

Babies & Children
**********
Natural Medicine for Children
J. Scott

Take Charge of Your Child's Health
G. Wootan

The Baby Book
Dr. Sears

Pregnancy Nutrition

2010-12-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

Pregnancy is such a tremendous time of growth; personal growth, family growth, spiritual growth and intellectual growth. It is an incredibly important time to nourish ourselves on many levels. Of course nourishing our bodies and therefore our babies is the most important thing we can do to insure a healthy pregnancy, healthy baby and healthy birth and yet most pregnant women in the US receive very inadequate nutritional guidance from their care providers. In my classes I explain the connections between feeding ourselves correctly and preventing pregnancy complications, such as, diabetes, pre-eclampsia, low birth weight babies, and high blood pressure.

The couples I work with come to me with all different nutritional profiles. Some have specific diets, such as, vegan or gluten free. Some eat out a lot, while others do all their own organic cooking. Many buy most of their foods at the standard grocery store, while others believe they are feeding themselves more healthily by buying packaged foods from Trader Joe’s. What ever their level of nutritional awareness they usually need to make some adjustments to fully support a healthy pregnancy. I encourage couples to not change everything about their diet at once. Instead choose 1 big thing a week to change, such as, buying organic produce and make 2 or 3 healthier choices a day, such as, adding an additional piece of fruit to their breakfast or eating a hard boiled egg as a snack. These little changes add up over time. Pregnant women need to constantly be on the look out for ways to eat nutritionally dense foods because at the same time space in their stomachs shrink their babies’ nourishment need grows.

My work gives me the opportunity to learn new things all the time. I asked Courtney to write an article about whole foods eating. I knew nothing about it myself. Her article blew me away with the depth of her knowledge and the depth of my nutritional ignorance. Warning! This article is very intellectually dense, in other words, it is packed with info. I encourage you to read it carefully and digest it slowly. Use it to guide you in making some simple changes, such as, what oil you use for cooking or what type of bread you buy. Don’t let the depth of it overwhelm you into not utilizing the information. Instead look for the nuggets that fit with your life style or that seem to call to you. Maybe you want to change the salt you use or drink water at a different time of day. Definitely find one recipe to try. For me I’m going to try baking plantains and making her Apple-Raspberry Spice Rice. It sounds delicious and I always have a little left over rice hanging around. Don’t you?

Ancient Nutritional Wisdom from India & China

2010-12-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

I’m Courtney Coleman of CookWell.org and I’d like to give you some ancient wisdom from India and China on whole foods diet & lifestyle so that you and your baby can be as healthy & beautiful as possible. You, as a mother, are my role model. I very much look forward to experiencing the magic of carrying & birthing my own child someday. Pregnant and nursing mothers are role models for women everywhere. Congratulations!

As most of you know, the Standard American Diet of processed & fast food is a huge factor in degenerative diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cancer. This has happened since the mass food-processing & refining era of the 1940's which denatures food. The stripping away of the natural food-state vitamin and fiber-rich bran of grains, the refining of vegetable oils renders them highly unstable and oxidized (rancid), the adding of nutrient void fillers, chemical preservatives, anti-caking agents, antibiotics, hormones, etc. and the refining of sugar all bring our vitality crashing to the floor. Warning! Basically, 99% of the packaged products at grocery stores including Trader Joe’s AND health food stores are made from refined foods. Beware of packaged foods labeled organic - they’re still made from refined wheat, etc. Even when the ingredient list says, “evaporated cane juice” and “sea salt”, these ingredients are still refined to the degree that they are not good for the body.

Sally Fallon, in her book, Nourishing Traditions, shows us why indigenous people have far fewer diseases than modern Americans. They eat regionally, with whole grains, beans and vegetables as the basis of their diets. They use animal products when needed medicinally, for building strength and warmth. And, they soak & sprout or ferment their grains. Unsoaked and unfermented whole grains and flours contain phytic acid which binds with minerals (mostly calcium) and inhibits their absorption, ultimately leading to degenerative bone loss and tooth decay. People who eat sprouted or fermented grains as a staple have strong teeth and bones late into life. Vikings and other European cultures fermented their wheat flour to make sourdough. Even American pioneers were famous for their sourdough breads, pancakes, & biscuits. African natives and the Welsh ferment corn or millet for several days to make porridges. In India, rice and lentils are fermented to make idli and dosas. (Sprouted grain bread is higher in usable calcium & protein both important pregnancy building blocks! My pregnancy specific additions are in italics-Jennifer)

Also, indigenous people don’t eat processed foods which spike the blood sugar - refined flour, sugar, soda pop, etc. High-glycemic foods over time are being found to be the culprits in not only insulin resistance and diabetes, but in high blood pressure, heart disease, and in depressed immunity and thyroid function. (It is important when growing a baby that we keep the fire of creation set at a consistent temperature. This helps with nausea & tiredness commonly thought of as “normal” in pregnancy. Most importantly it helps prevent pregnancy diabetes which can send women down the path to an automatic cesarean section!)

And as far as sweeteners, we want grade B maple syrup, barley malt syrup, brown rice syrup, small amounts of raw honey, rapidura sugar (sucanat), and organic molasses. Stevia leaf extract is a natural, no-sugar, no-calorie sweetener, which is great for low glycemic and candida diets. (Again helps with gestational diabetes prevention, as well as, yeast and thrush prevention.)

Indigenous people don’t consume refined salt. They use whole sea salts rich in trace minerals (electrolytes), which our bodies need. Refined salt is just sodium-chloride, which acts like a toxin in the body and elevates blood pressure. We want foods to be made with salts like “whole sea salt, Celtic sea salt, Himalayan Pink sea salt, Real Salt brand (sold at TJ’s), or Portuguese sea salt.” These are the salts our bodies can use for their benefit. (Salt is necessary during pregnancy to help balance the chemistry of our bodies. It is recommended that women eat salt to taste.)

Regarding oils, people who live long, healthy lives close to the earth use only unrefined (extra virgin) oils. Refined vegetable oils like canola, corn and soy oil change molecularly with heat and form long-chain fatty acids. Using refined vegetable oils in cooking at home, eating at restaurants & fast food joints, and eating packaged, processed foods (especially those with hydrogenated oils), works in conjunction with saturated fats to clog our arteries. The oils which benefit the body should be unrefined (extra virgin) and cold pressed. Store them in airtight, opaque glass at 65 degrees F or less. To cook on high heat use: ghee, coconut, peanut, grapeseed, palm, or palm kernel. To cook on medium/low heat, use: olive, sesame, almond, apricot kernel and avocado. (Oil or fat is an important ingredient in a healthy pregnancy, as long as it is the right kind. This is commonly misunderstood by American women in their quest for body perfection they have thrown out the good fat along with the bad. Flaxseed, fish oil and Evening Primrose oil are all recommended as supplements.)

Also, we are usually de-hydrated and don’t even know it. There are doctors who recommend drinking more water for every disease. We should be getting ½ our ideal body weight in ounces per day. Hydrate with 16 - 32 ounces of water 4 times per day without food. Only drink 4 oz or so with meals to avoid diluting your stomach acids & enzymes. When you hydrate with large amounts of water, do it 30 min before meals, or about 2 hrs after meals (hydrate, wait 30 min, eat, wait 2 hrs, hydrate...). For the body to really be able to uptake water so it goes to efficient use in the body, re- mineralize purified water with a pinch of whole sea salt, a squeeze of lemon, a tsp or so of raw apple cider vinegar, or an ounce of any real fruit juice. All these things contain trace minerals (aka: electrolytes). So you basically want to create Gator Aid without the sugar. If you think about it, water in nature always has trace minerals present for the body to use, as it comes to us from wells, springs and streams. (For heart burn help, change your water habits! This problem is so common in pregnancy it is considered normal. Don’t dilute your stomach acid before a meal! Instead use Courtney’s time table and definitely try adding the vinegar!)

Basically, if it’s from a package or any restaurant, it’s probably not good for you. If you can restrict your consumption of processed & restaurant foods down to 20% of the time, and 80% of the time use fresh, seasonal, organic vegetables & fruits from Farmer’s markets or health food stores, whole grains soaked & simmered at home like millet, amaranth & quinoa, and whole beans and lentils, you are on the road to a gently cleansing and balancing whole foods diet.

Now, we are all biochemically different & need different foods & lifestyle practices to maintain vitality and balance. Some of us, based on ancestry and other constitutional factors, may need animal proteins and non-starchy vegetables more often than whole grains as the basis of our diets. If you have low energy, you may want to experiment with systems like blood typing, metabolic typing and Ayuvedic typing for a few weeks to figure out which type of diet & lifestyle works best for you. Also, in regard to seasonal foods and cooking, nature knows best and always provides us with foods which help balance us. Eating foods grown seasonally and regionally helps to balance our bodies. We generally need warming foods and cooking techniques in the fall & winter, and cooling, cleansing foods and cooking techniques in the spring & summer. The exception to this is that some of us tend to be cool and deficient with cold extremities, so we need warming building foods year round, and some of us tend to be hot, with excess weight and need more cooling & cleansing foods year round.

In regard to eating a raw diet vs. macrobiotic & Ayurvedic diets, I’ll say this: Each of us has a different quality of digestive fire, or agni, as it’s referred to in Ayurveda, the East Indian philosophy of eating and living in harmony with nature. Where one person may be able to eat some of everything offered at a buffet, another person may need to carefully apply the principals of proper food combining and eat mostly cooked foods which are easier to digest. According to both Macrobiotics and Ayurveda, a 100% raw diet year-round is particularly cooling, contractive and difficult for most people to digest. Living enzymes can be added to meals with salads or other raw veggies on the side eaten at the end of the meal. Also, a lifetime of eating refined foods and more animal proteins than necessary is what leads to systemic enzyme deficiency. (During pregnancy our digestion slows down to promote more nutrient absorbtion. For some women this causes digestive issues. Add to that enzyme deficiency and you may have a perfect storm going on in your digestive system!) Soaked (and thusly sprouted) and simmered whole grains provide an easily digestible, long lasting energy source that’s gentle on the digestive system. Whole grains lie more toward the middle of the yin/yang spectrum and help us maintain balanced blood sugar, hormones and body chemistry. In balance, whole grains and seasonal vegetables comprise the basis of the diet around which more extreme parts of the diet revolve.

When we are in balance, we can more easily quiet our minds and open our hearts to know what the best action is in any given moment. From this place we can go forward in the world and make it a better place.

Courtney graciously included several recipes to get you started and a reading list for further study!

About Courtney and her CookWell business.

I’m 33 yrs old and for the past 12 years I’ve studied and practiced Macrobiotics, Solar Nutrition and Ayurvedic cooking. My friends loved the whole foods meals I’d make with them and said they felt more vital after eating with me, so in 2006 I started teaching people in their own kitchens to CookWell. I teach how a whole foods diet & lifestyle can prevent and reverse disease, increase energy, and bring the mind, body and spirit back to balance to people all over SLO County. I give guidelines for balancing their particular constitution according to blood typing, Ayurvedic typing and metabolic typing. And, of course, I show them how to make incredibly delicious whole foods meals for their families. This work is incredibly gratifying, and I feel blessed to be on this path. I’d love to talk to anyone anytime to offer further wisdom on the how-to of a whole foods diet & lifestyle. To get you started, I have instructional videos & some delicious free recipes listed at the bottom of the first few pages of my website like: positively perfect brown rice, chipotle beans with sea veggies, and dark leafy greens stir-steam. I teach, sometimes alongside my wonderful husband Don who helps people with their emotions, with developing mindfulness and joy in the kitchen, and with gently transitioning to a whole foods diet & lifestyle. His website is http://www.gingerbuddha.com/. We teach private or small group classes for adults or kids in your SLO county home at affordable prices. We also offer whole foods cooking for your party or event, or for meals for you to store & re-heat. I welcome any questions you may have and can be reached at courtney@cookwell.org or (805) 528-8837.

Don't forget to visit her web site at: www.cookwell.org!

I Love the Holidays!

2010-12-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

The first Christmas card has arrived! I love Christmas cards. I love to see the babies I was blessed to witness being born growing through the years.

In the spirit of full disclosure I need to confess something. I am terrible about sending cards. I never seem to organize my time to include the time it takes to prepare and send cards. I want to include a personal letter and that seems so daunting a process I don't get started and then it is too late! One year I sent New Year's cards and one year I sent Spring cards and some years I don't send cards at all!

So my hat's off to Bernadette. Her card arrived on Nov. 30th. Of course Bernadette is one of the most organized and efficient women I know. She even births in an organized and efficient way. One evening early last January while in labor she carefully packed up her Christmas tree. The next morning she went to her scheduled prenatal appointment only to shock her doctor by already being at 10 centimeters dilation!

Inspiration

2010-11-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I forget that one woman can make a difference. I get caught up, bogged down and generally frazzled trying to meet all my commitments to all the people in my life. My nose is pressed so firmly to the grind stone I can't even see what I'm grinding. Don't get me wrong I treasure my grind stone and whatever it is I'm grinding at the time. But I can get so busy I loose sight of the bigger scheme of things.

Tomorrow I am starting a new project, another layer of wheat on the old grind stone; a support group for women using the philosophies of attachment parenting. This style of parenting has been around forever and is practiced in many cultures so why a support group? Because currently it isn't favored by mainstream America. Consequently these mothers are often judged negatively and are left feeling isolated and adrift. So I'm really excited about my support group project. I woke up with ideas swirling in my head this morning and can't wait for tomorrow but I'm also thinking, "Are you nuts! You already have too much to do and it is the beginning of the holidays. Company is coming, your son will be home. What are you thinking?!"

I was sorting through the stacks of stuff that always magically collects in the guest bedroom when the answer to my question appeared. I opened an envelope from my friend Rainie Fross, a past La Leche League leader. She had dropped off a bunch of resources for breastfeeding moms months ago and I had simply stacked them all in my magical collection of 'things I'll get to at some point'. I drew out a faded newspaper clipping from 2008. To be more precise it was an obit that ran in the Chicago Tribune with a large headline and photo. And there she was; one woman who had made a difference.

Back in 1956 this woman and six other mothers banded together to offer each other support and guidance. They were choosing to parent differently than 80% of the other mothers in the U.S. at that time. The medical establishment and scientific community was not in favor of their parenting beliefs. They were working in direct opposition to a huge industrial interest. They even had to choose a name in another language in order to put out meeting notices in newspapers. Slowly they built a grassroots community of women which spread nationally and eventually even internationally. She co-authored a book that was released this year in its 8th edition. When I googled the very first word of the title it immediately came up at the top of the list. She went on to give lectures around the world and even addressed the United Nations.

One woman within a small group of women within a community. Her name means nothing to most people but the group she helped found is known world wide, La Leche League. Through League she touched millions of lives helping create better family relationships, better health, and a better planet. Amazing what one woman within a small group of women within a community can do!

Thank you Betty Wagner Spandikow. Thank you for being an inspiration to me. Thanks for helping me look beyond the grind stone and remember why I do all I choose to do. And thanks to Rainie too!

If you are interested in finding out about my latest project, the Mothering; a Labor of Love group, visit my facebook page for updates on where and when.
For more info on Attachment Parenting philosophy and their 8 principles visit Attachment Parenting International's web site.

Homebirth: Listening to a Master Midwife

2010-11-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ina May Gaskin is America's premier midwife.If not for her I don't know what would have happened to birth in this country. Her book, "Spiritual Midwifery" reignited the flame of natural woman centered birth. Her personal life story is amazing and what she has achieved is incredible. The numbers of women's lives that she has impacted is unknowable. Like a pebble tossed into a pool her courage and belief in women has flowed outward in never ending rings. Take a moment to sit at the feet of a master and listen to the wisdom she has learned by witnessing women birth. Then visit her website at:http://www.inamay.com/ or buy her book, "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" from my library.

Home Birth—Why It's Necessary

By Ina May Gaskin, CPM
Originally published by Ina May Gaskin Productions, 2007-01-14

Simply put, when there is no home birth in a society, or when home birth is driven completely underground, essential knowledge of women’s capacities in birth is lost to the people of that society—to professional caregivers, as well as to the women of childbearing age themselves. The disappearance of knowledge once commonly held paves the way for over-medicalization of birth and the risks which this poses. Nothing in medical literature today communicates the idea that women’s bodies are well designed for birth. Ignorance of the capacities of women’s bodies can flourish and quickly spread into popular culture when the medical profession is unable to distinguish between ancient wisdom and superstitious belief. To illustrate, I would cite a National Geographic article (1) which states that, “…we [humans] can give birth to babies with big brains, but only through great pain and risk.” The writer, depending upon the work of two U.S. anthropologists, explains that the fact that our species walks upright causes inevitable pain and risk during birth, forgetting how easily we can go to our hands and knees if need be.

I would have had no way to know how well healthy women’s bodies can work in labor and birth had I not experienced a rediscovery of women’s capacities in birth, along with several hundred other people, as we established a midwifery service in our newly founded community in 1970. Most people would have predicted that my diving headlong into attending home births for friends and then training a group of midwives to work with me would have ended in disaster, given that I came into midwifery only with the training afforded by two degrees in English literature. What happened instead is that I received timely and essential help from a few generous, wise physicians, and our service was able to help the first 186 women give birth vaginally (without instruments or other medical interventions) before our first cesarean was necessary. It was not until birth #324 that the second became necessary. All of this was accomplished without negative consequences to mothers or babies.

This degree of success is hard for many physicians to believe, because it runs counter to what they have been taught. For many decades, physicians have been taught that the female pelvis is often too small to permit the safe passage of a term baby through it. Still, over the last three and a half decades, more than 2400 births have been attended within our midwifery service, with our cesarean and instrumental delivery rates combined still below 2 percent, in sharp contrast to the U.S. cesarean rate, which is now nearly 30 percent and climbing.

The publication of our early data in my first book, Spiritual Midwifery, in 1975, helped to encourage the natural childbirth movement that began in North America during the late 1960s. (2) This movement caused U.S. hospitals to radically reassess their maternity care policies during the 1970s and 1980s, leading them, for the first time, to allow family members to be present at births; to allow women, for the first time, to choose midwives as birth attendants; and to change—again for the first time, their policy of mandatory episiotomy. The natural childbirth movement, which was greatly inspired by home birth pioneers, also had the effect of drastically reducing the incidence of forceps deliveries, which had previously been used in more than 40 percent of U.S. births.

Midwifery care blossomed in the U.S. because of the home birth movement, as women who didn’t themselves want home births but who did want care that did not involve routine and unnecessary medical interventions and practices, such as pubic shaving, enemas, being forced to remain still while lying supine during labor (the painful position possible) and often mandatory pain medication, wanted to be able to choose the midwifery model of care in the hospitals where they would give birth. Women themselves began to force these changes by opting for midwifery care and by insisting upon doula care. All of these transformations demonstrated both to laboring women and to their caregivers that women are fully capable of giving birth without the mandatory use of several interventions once considered by U.S. obstetricians to be not only important but essential to the health of mother or baby.

I have not yet mentioned the long list of techniques and practices common to home birth midwifery, which have made their way into progressive hospital maternity care practice. Among these are the use of water tubs for alleviation of pain during labor, the all-fours position (sometimes called the Gaskin maneuver) to resolve the serious complication of shoulder dystocia (3-5), upright positions for labor and birth, the safety of allowing almost all women to enter labor without induction, the use of nipple stimulation to release the body’s natural oxytocin to augment labor (6,7) and the possibility of sleeping, eating and drinking during labor. It is no exaggeration to say that none of these techniques would have been adopted into hospital practice, had it not been for their having first been developed and tested in the “laboratory” of home birth practice. Medical research is expensive and thus rarely focuses on preventive measures or those which don’t rely upon pharmaceutical or technological products.

Another extremely important concept that arises from home birth practice is the recognition of what I call “sphincter law.” (8) This concept describes the common phenomenon, which occurs often in women’s labors, in which stress sometimes causes the cervix, once dilated in labor, to suddenly close, or for labor to stop. Having first observed this phenomenon in the early years of my practice, I found that other midwifery colleagues working in and out of hospitals and many labor and delivery nurses were also familiar with it. We found that such cases could safely resolve themselves, without medical intervention, by waiting for labor to resume in less stressful circumstances. Looking deeper into medical books written during the period when home birth was the norm, I found many 19th century authors who had also documented this physiological phenomenon, which is dependent upon an imbalance of maternal hormones during labor which can take place when the woman feels greatly stressed during the birth process. If current medical knowledge included these concepts which it once did, fewer women would be subjected to the risks of induction drugs, the use of which has increased sharply over the last fifteen years—not always with good results. (9)

Of course, this is not to say that women should be required to have home births. However, the option to give birth in the place of choice should be open to those women who desire it, as long as their physical condition permits it as a safe choice. The body of knowledge available to all maternity caregivers depends upon a full range of choices being available to childbearing women.

Notes

1. Ackerman J. The downside of upright. National Geographic July 2006, 126-145.

2. Gaskin IM. Spiritual Midwifery (1975) Summertown, TN: The Book Publishing Company.

3. Meenan A and Gaskin IM, et al. A new (old) maneuver for the management of shoulder dystocia, The Journal of Family Practice, 1991: 32:625-29.

4. Bruner J and Gaskin IM, et al. All-fours maneuver for reducing shoulder dystocia, The Journal of Reproductive Medicine, 1998; 43:439-43.

5. Gabbe SG, Niebyl JR, and Simpson JL. Obstetrics: Normal & Problem Pregnancies, 4th ed. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 2002.

6. Curtis P. A comparison of breast stimulation and intravenous oxytocin for the augmentation of labor, Birth, June 1999; 26:115-122.

7. Curtis P. Breast Stimulation to Augment Labor: History, Mystery, and Culture. Birth, June 1999; 26: 123-6.

8. Gaskin, Ina May. Understanding birth and Sphincter Law, British Journal of Midwifery, Volume 12, Number 9, September 2004.
9. Wagner M. Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First (2005) Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Creating a Healthy Pregnancy

2010-11-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

First we must always remember pregnancy is NOT an illness! It is a state of health. Pregnancy, labor, birth & breastfeeding are all normal physiologic functions for women; no different than breathing, cell renewal or the synapses of our brains firing. All of these happen effortlessly as long as we are in a general state of wellness. The system breaks down when we don't provide what it needs, such as smoke free air, nutritious food, and intellectual stimulation. Although pregnancy is a state of normalcy, it does require more from all of a woman's body systems therefore requiring her to be diligent in providing what those systems need. To keep her body working optimally while growing a healthy baby will take some thought and effort. She will need to become more aware and in tune with her own body's needs and rhythms which will serve her well during the birth process. The things a woman learns about her own health at this time she will carry on into her role as mother; the guardian of family health.

Some of these posts will be written by me. I am also reaching out into our community to wellness practitioners I know to write posts about their areas of expertise. I hope you enjoy this post by Tina, a local prenatal and infant massage therapist and are inspired to try "pampering" yourself and your baby.

Massage Therapy-More Than Just Pampering by Tina Risley, CMT

2010-11-09T07:58:00.000-08:00

Massage during pregnancy provides many benefits. Medical science has long recognized the value of massage therapy to aid in the treatment of many conditions and diseases. Studies prove massage reduces anxiety & depression. It can improve immune function & promote better sleep. The Touch Research Institute's studies on prenatal massage showed a decrease in anxiety and stress hormones (norepinephrine) which cross through the placenta to the baby. There were fewer pregnancy complications, as well as, a reduction in premature birth rates. The normal increase in blood volume during pregnancy puts stress on the whole circulatory system. Massage supports the circulatory and lymphatic systems by promoting the movement of blood and lymph. This action assists the heart and reduces swelling throughout pregnancy. Massage helps to alleviate stress on the weight bearing joints of the hips, pelvis, knees, and ankles, relieving soreness in the muscles that support the additional weight of the baby. Massage therapy provides a nurturing, soothing touch promoting an overall sense of well-being in the mother. Reassurance, nurturing, and relaxation for the mother have far-reaching impacts on her growing baby. Babies sense and respond to their mother’s stress level as registered by her heartbeat. The birthing process is often made easier and less complicated by regular massage during pregnancy and throughout the labor process.

Choosing a knowledgeable massage therapist with specialized training in prenatal/pregnancy massage is of the greatest importance.Take the time to get to know your massage therapist. Never hesitate to ask any questions you may have about pregnancy massage and discuss any concerns you may have with your therapist or prenatal care provider.

Massage therapists are not medical doctors and massage therapy should not be used as a replacement for routine obstetrical care. Remember you should always ask your doctor before beginning a massage regimen if your pregnancy has been diagnosed as high-risk or if you have pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, gestational diabetes or deep vein thrombosis. For all high risks pregnancies it is necessary for the therapist to work WITH the mother's prenatal provider. Moms with these issues can benefit greatly from massage support. In these special situations its powerful detoxing and blood sugar lowering effects require an experienced practitioner and input from the woman's doctor or midwife. Massage in general is contraindicated for broken bones, tumors, bleeding, burns and other acute conditions.

In conclusion, pregnancy can be one of the most fulfilling experiences of a woman’s life. Pregnancy massage is a wonderful tool to aid in making this special occasion a time of power and happiness by reducing physical and mental tension. Remember throughout your pregnancy that your body is working hard to grow your little one. Take the time to pamper yourself. You deserve it.

In Health,

Tina L. Risley, CMT

Tina can be reached at Barefoot MomEase

Women of SLO County Help Empower Your Sisters & Friends!

2010-11-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

There is nothing more powerful than women sharing information. Most women make important decisions about their health care based on things they have learned from other women in their community. This exchanging of information and wisdom is a staple of women's conversations from time immemorial; from the local well at the oasis to the local quilting bee on the prairie. Today women go on-line in droves to connect on social networks; from chat rooms to blogs to web sites devoted to women's issues. It is time information about our local birth community was part of this conversation. You can help your sisters, friends, workmates and all the birthing women of SLO County. It is simple. You don't even have to leave your home.

If you have given birth in the last 3 years I urge you to let your voice be heard. By answering the questions on the Birth Survey you can easily let other women in our community know how happy or unhappy you are with your care provider, place of birth, doula & childbirth educator. You also will be helping the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services compile national statistics on what is really happening out there with issues, such as, induction & pitocin, epidurals, and cesareans. Perhaps just as important for other women to hear is how the office staff treated you, if your care provider listened to you, were you able to get all your questions answered, did they provide their statistics for c-sections, episiotomies and natural births. How would you rate the hospital staff? Did you feel well cared for? Did they offer breastfeeding help and was it helpful, etc.? Wouldn't you like the women in our community to know about the quality of care you received during your pregnancy, birth & early postpartum period?

For a pregnant woman finding a care provider, doula, educator and place of birth that match her values surrounding birth is critically important. These choices can make or break her feelings about her birth. Her birth has the power to impact her either positively or negatively. As an example, if she wants an epidural she should go to a doctor who supports that choice and if she doesn't want one she needs to find a care provider that supports THAT choice. Why? Because if she desires to birth with an epidural and doesn't receive one she will feel disempowered during the birth. For the woman that wished to birth without medication and then feels pressured to give in to an epidural she will feel victimized and helpless. The key is finding the right match for you. Look up a doctor, midwife or hospital.

Guess what? Sierra Vista isn't even on the survey yet because in the 2 years it has been going no one has input any information about their experience there. We owe it to our sisters, friends, coworkers and all the women in our community to stand up and be counted. Please take the Birth Survey!

Welcome Home Baby Gavin!

2010-11-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

A baby's homecoming is such a sweet time; especially if delayed by a stay in the NICU. Congratulations Kila & Mason! Enjoy your babymoon time.

New Mothers Grow Bigger Brains Within Months of Giving Birth

2010-10-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

A new study once again shows the benefits of motherhood for the mother. Although you may feel like your brain is slower because of lack of sleep, the stress of transforming your life, and learning a new set of skills all at the same time. You actually have revved your brain up in a number of critical areas which promote better bonding and mothering. This study was done on breastfeeding moms with no signs of postpartum depression. They will do further study on groups of women with postpartum depression and non-breastfeeders to help them understand if or how these issues play a role.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2010)

Warmer Feelings Toward Babies Linked to Bigger Mid-Brains

Motherhood may actually cause the brain to grow, not turn it into mush, as some have claimed. Exploratory research published by the American Psychological Association found that the brains of new mothers bulked up in areas linked to motivation and behavior, and that mothers who gushed the most about their babies showed the greatest growth in key parts of the mid-brain.

Led by neuroscientist Pilyoung Kim, PhD, now with the National Institute of Mental Health, the authors speculated that hormonal changes right after birth, including increases in estrogen, oxytocin and prolactin, may help make mothers' brains susceptible to reshaping in response to the baby. Their findings were published in the October issue of Behavioral Neuroscience.
The motivation to take care of a baby, and the hallmark traits of motherhood, might be less of an instinctive response and more of a result of active brain building, neuroscientists Craig Kinsley, PhD, and Elizabeth Meyer, PhD, wrote in a special commentary in the same journal issue.

The researchers performed baseline and follow-up high-resolution magnetic-resonance imaging on the brains of 19 women who gave birth at Yale-New Haven Hospital, 10 to boys and nine to girls. A comparison of images taken two to four weeks and three to four months after the women gave birth showed that gray matter volume increased by a small but significant amount in various parts of the brain. In adults, gray matter volume doesn't ordinarily change over a few months without significant learning, brain injury or illness, or major environmental change.
The areas affected support maternal motivation (hypothalamus), reward and emotion processing (substantia nigra and amygdala), sensory integration (parietal lobe), and reasoning and judgment (prefrontal cortex).

In particular, the mothers who most enthusiastically rated their babies as special, beautiful, ideal, perfect and so on were significantly more likely to develop bigger mid-brains than the less awestruck mothers in key areas linked to maternal motivation, rewards and the regulation of emotions.

The mothers averaged just over 33 years in age and 18 years of school. All were breastfeeding, nearly half had other children and none had serious postpartum depression.

Although these early findings require replication with a larger and more representative sample, they raise intriguing questions about the interaction between mother and child (or parent and child, since fathers are also the focus of study). The intense sensory-tactile stimulation of a baby may trigger the adult brain to grow in key areas, allowing mothers, in this case, to "orchestrate a new and increased repertoire of complex interactive behaviors with infants," the authors wrote. Expansion in the brain's "motivation" area in particular could lead to more nurturing, which would help babies survive and thrive physically, emotionally and cognitively.

Further study using adoptive mothers could help "tease out effects of postpartum hormones versus mother-infant interactions," said Kim, and help resolve the question of whether the brain changes behavior or behavior changes the brain -- or both.

The authors said that postpartum depression may involve reductions in the same brain areas that grew in mothers who were not depressed. "The abnormal changes may be associated with difficulties in learning the rewarding value of infant stimuli and in regulating emotions during the postpartum period," they said. Further study is expected to clarify what happens in the brains of mothers at risk, which may lead to improved interventions.

The Seamstress

2010-10-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

My doula journey takes me into people's homes and hearts. I am sometimes a receptacle for their smoldering anger or deep despair. I am always honored to help a woman along her path to peace and understanding. Birth trauma occurs when our hopes and dreams go awry. The wounds are deep if we felt unsupported at the moment our plans splintered into a million pieces of sharp glass raining down on us, and the grief process long. This poem is for all the seamstresses out there. The cesarean epidemic has infected our hospitals like a disease causing a disproportionate number of our mothers to begin motherhood disheartened, disillusioned and disattached from their selves. They are all seamstresses.

The Seamstress

We sat amongst her disillusionment and despair
piecing together the scattered remnants of her destroyed dreams.
The disarray of her disappointment spread around us
disconnecting her from the fabric of her life.

We sat disentangling the threads of her distrust and disbelief
from the dishonesty of those she thought had cared;
vainly trying to dispel her disenchantment.

The disjointed story spilled from her wounded heart
discouraged tears distorting the lines of her face.
The silver needle plunging in and out
as she desperately tried to repair the damage.

Together we examined the jagged edges of their handiwork
searching for patterns and matching the pieces.
How had this disaster happened;
this horrendous disruption to her plans?
Had she lost all of her abilities of discernment?

__ __ __ __ __ __

Carefully they stitched the edges of her womb together.
Her birth desires disintegrating around her
she lay in disembodied disgrace upon the cold metal of the steel table
discarded, dismissed and dispossessed.

Disheveled and disoriented she lay upon the gurney.
Could they not see the gaping wound they left upon her heart
her life blood disgorging onto the sterile white sheets?

Gathering together the fraying edges of her heart
she pressed discomfort, anger and disloyalty to her breast
bravely trying to staunch the unending flow.

__ __ __ __ __ __

Dislodged from all her instincts
her disordered mind distorting her visions for those first precious days of life.
Distraught she began incessantly working
the needle flashing in and out
feverishly sewing together the crazy quilt of her life.

Would she forever be at a disadvantage
disqualified for motherhood by her disfigurement?
Was there no way to close this wound that would not stop leaking
to rid herself of this terrible disease?

__ __ __ __ __ __

We sat discussing, sharing and disclosing
patching over the disharmony of her soul.
Disengaging from blame or guilt
we discovered a mother willing to sacrifice her body and her dreams.

# # # # # # # # # #

I became fascinated with the word and syllable 'dis' as I thought about this piece. First because of the dis-ease women feel with their bodies and their mothering abilities after a traumatic birth. Secondly because feeling they were dissed during the process is a large component of their grief. Third the syllable 'dis' turns a positive into a negative which is what they feel happened to their birth experience.

When I researched the meaning of dis this is what I discovered:

The Many Meanings of Dis

Pronunciation: dēs,
1. lady; woman.
2. Female deity; especially one promoting fertility.

Pronunciation: dis, Slang
1. To show disrespect for; affront.
2. To disparage; belittle.

Pronunciation: dis, Classic Myth
1. A god of the underworld.

As a Latin prefix
1. meaning “apart,” “asunder,” “away,” “utterly,”
2. having a negative, or reversing force when used as an English formative
Example: to change ability to disability; or affirming to disaffirming

I was stunned to learn Dis was both a female fertility deity and a god of the underworld. Now I see my seamstress as wrestling with these opposing gods; trapped in the depths of the underworld; struggling to sew her way back up to the light.

An Out-of-hospital Birth Center Birth from a Father’s Perspective

2010-10-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

I am including this birth although it is not local but it does have a local connection. I met Jessica and Clayton when they participated in one of my childbirth class series. Jessica gave birth to their first daughter at French Hospital. Everything went very smoothly and they felt very good about their experience and their care by their midwives and the nursing staff. Then they moved away.

On Monday, September 20, 2010 Jessica gave birth to their second daughter. Feeling empowered by their first experience they chose an out-of-hospital birth center for this birth and planned a water birth. I was excited to hear about their story and wanted to share it because our community is about to have our own out-of-hospital birth center complete with birth tubs. Besides Clayton was always such a sweet, enthusiastic, supportive dad during classes and Jessica was such a great birther I couldn't resist including them in my birth story project.

The birth of Shiloh Rose...

It was Saturday, September 11th and I was excited for a number of reasons. One reason was that the Ocean Beach Jazz fest was happening all day just a couple miles from my home. The other reason was that I had a sneaking suspicion that my 2nd daughter would be born that day. That morning as I was eating breakfast with my buddy Danny, I noticed that Jessica was running around in a flurry cleaning everything. Now Jessica keeps a tidy home but her efforts that morning were extreme. I looked at Danny and said “I think Jessica is going to have our baby today... she seems to instinctively be preparing for it.” At that time there were no major contractions to speak of so I went down the street to catch some first rate live Jazz.

The music was great, over 8 stages of sounds to choose from! At about 2:30, half way through Charlie Hunter, I received a text from Jessica that said “My Water Broke!” I immediately returned home to my dear wife who was excited to finally be in labor 9 days after our "due date". I asked Jessica if she had called the midwife, but she was waiting until she knew for sure she was in labor. After some convincing on my part she eventually made the call. Our midwife Brooke agreed to meet us at the birth center whenever we felt ready.

Now Jessica wanted to labor in the comfort of her own home as long as possible before heading to the birth center. I was in support of that, however about a week prior, in my prayer time I felt the spirit speak to me that when labor began, the baby would come quickly. I spent the next couple of hours preparing our things and loading them in the car. We had packed pajamas, swim trunks for the water birth we had planned, music, video camera, all sorts of clothes for mama and baby. The additional car seat was installed and family members were contacted.

During those couple hours, I could see the contractions becoming stronger. She began getting very quiet and still when they would hit. At this point I suggested that it was time to go. She said that she wanted to eat a quesadilla first... I did too. Following our pre-game meal we left Kairah with Aunt Robin and hopped in the car to meet Brooke at the birth center. We arrived at 5:15 pm. The birth center was so peaceful at that time of day. It was Saturday evening and there were no people in the waiting room and no one else there giving birth. We talked a bit with Brooke and had a look around to select which room Jessica wanted. By now it was about 5:30. Jessica had been having contractions throughout our conversation but was still very much engaged with us. Then Brooke asked to check Jessica’s progress. To all of our surprise she said that Jessica was dilated to 10cm which meant she was ready to push the baby out!

It was Jessica’s desire to have a water birth so Brooke turned on the faucet to fill the tub. I began setting up the video camera as well as preparing some music. During that time I watched Jessica have an intense contraction while laying on her side in bed. It was then that she said “I’m ready to hop in the tub now”. After a couple minutes I went in to check on Jessica who was kneeling ninja style in the tub. The water was about up to her hips in this position. I took a minute to put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her. When I looked down I was shocked to see that the head of our baby was crowning! I asked Jessica if that was the baby’s head and she said yes! Brooke responded in astonishment, "The Baby is coming out?" Jessica nodded yes. The next thirty seconds was a whirlwind. Brooke turned off the water, I moved the video camera, and Jessica pushed one more time. I adjusted the camera just in time to capture Jessica reaching down into the water to deliver her own baby. It all happened so fast! Jessica reclined into the tub without even breaking a sweat saying “Hi little one, That was fast!” Shiloh Rose Connolly was Born at 5:42 pm. I couldn’t stop laughing in amazement. There was no build up, no drama, no “you can do it Jessica”. We were literally there less than a half hour and Jessica delivered so fast no one but her and the baby were ready! I then got to climb in the tub and meet my new daughter. She was so beautiful. She was so captivating. We hung out in the tub for about 15 minutes and then decided it would be a good time to cut the cord. I had the honor of that task. After I cut the cord, Shiloh nursed for the first time... effortlessly. After getting out of the tub, Jessica, Shiloh and I were left alone to spend time together. It was all so amazing! I was so proud of my girls. We couldn’t have asked for a better situation. We were laying together in a queen size bed in the comforts of a room that could have easily qualified for a bed and breakfast suite under different circumstances. There was no commotion, no interruption, no sick people across the hall. It was only us, with Brooke and her assistant in the other room if we needed them.

A couple hours later, we let the word out to all our friends and family. This was the first time we formally announced her name! The first to arrive were Robin and Kairah! It was so awesome to introduce Kairah to Shiloh. Kai had been preparing for months anticipating her new role as a big sister and finally got to hold Shiloh for the first time. Soon after, the Pearsons arrived bearing gifts of birthday cake, champagne and best of all... Sushi! My family also began to file in from all corners of the state. My mom traveled from the Central Coast, Heather came from LA and my Dad and his family drove from Lake Arrowhead to be there. It was such a glorious time of celebration. We all took turns for a personal photo shoot with Shiloh as well as taking turns watching the ever so short birth video. The day ended at about 10:30pm with us loading Shiloh into the car and bringing her home for the first time to begin her new life as a Connolly. The Good Lord was so faithful in answering our prayers! All of our expectations were exceeded, and most importantly we have a new member of the family that we are so excited to do life with!

Welcome Shiloh Rose Connolly! I promise to be a good Daddy!

Mares Don't Like to be Watched

2010-10-08T08:32:00.001-07:00

This is the first installment in a series I have been thinking about writing for some time. Over the years I have learned so much from so many about how to be a good doula. Every time I support a woman I either learn something new, renew my understanding of something ,or see an old truth from a fresh perspective. But I see clearly now that my beliefs and understanding about how best to help laboring women wasn't learned at my doula training. It wasn't learned through all the birth books I have read. It wasn't even learned through the birth of my son. My real doula training and my core beliefs about birth predate all of that. As crazy as it sounds I have come to realize that I learned how to be a good doula through my work with horses. The skills I needed for guiding women through the intensity of natural birth I honed in grass pastures, show arenas and barns. Some of my most amazing teachers were the brood mares I met along the way. Their ability to listen to their bodies and do exactly what needed to be done blew me away. Horses are fascinating and fabulous creatures. This set of stories is dedicated to the wisdom of the mares.

************

I lay still in my sleeping bag trying not to make the rusty springs of the old metal cot squeak, listening in the cold dark. I could hear Lunette on the other side of the wall rustling the straw as she moved about the deeply bedded foaling stall. The quiet was so complete in the dark of the old barn I could hear the mare's teeth grinding as she peacefully chewed her alfalfa. The stillness was broken by the screech of a far off owl calling to his mate. Lunette stopped in mid chew to listen but there was no answering call to hear and the intense quiet slowly settled back over us like a blanket; even deeper than before because of the sharp interruption. I tried to quiet even my breathing so as not to disturb the heavily pregnant mare. Finally Lunette relaxed, blew a big warm horsey sigh, lowered her head and went back to contentedly eating.

I lay in the dark trying not to doze off as the hours passed. Carefully I moved my arm out of the warmth of the sleeping bag and raised my wrist to my face. Peering down I could see the dial of my watch glowing in the dark; almost one o'clock. As quietly as I could I unzipped the sleeping bag and wriggled out. The cot gave a rusty groan as I stood up. Looking over the half wall into the dimly lit stall I could see the brood mare standing, neck straining, head up, eyes wide, on high alert from my noisy progress. I talked to her calmly then walked to the other side of the barn. Picking up the phone in the tack room I dialed Betty's number and woke her up.

"Hi Betty. Its time for the second shift."
"How is she doing?" inquired the owner of Belvidere Welsh Pony Farm.
"She is fine; not as restless as last night" I informed her.
"Okay. I'll be down in a minute. Just let me make a cup of coffee."
"Do you want me to stay until you get here?" I asked.
"No; no need for that. I'll be there in five minutes. You go on to bed and get some sleep. It sounds like we might be doing this for a few more nights."

I hung up the phone, walked wearily out to my beat up Chevy pick up, climbed in and started the reluctant motor. I longed for my cozy bed warmed by Mike's body. It was just a quick two minute drive from the barn but it felt like miles. Steering down the dark sandy farm road next to the soy bean field I wondered when Lunette would decide the time was right and have her foal.

I climbed the steep stairs to our little farm house and quietly opened the porch screen door. Spot jumped down from the shabby upholstered chair where he slept on the screened porch during good weather. He met me with a shaggy wag of his plumed tail. Too tired to stop and pet him I eased out of my old leather boots and went inside. Pausing only long enough to peal off my clothes, I carefully slid under the cold covers on my side of the bed trying not to wake Mike. Before I could close my tired eyes the phone rang.

"Come back. The foal is here!" Betty excitedly gasped in my ear.
"What?" I answered in disbelief.
"She foaled. Hurry!" and the phone went dead. I scrambled into my clothes, pulled on my boots and ran.

When I entered the old converted dairy barn I could see the dim glow of the lights coming from the foaling stall and heard Lunette nickering to her new baby; a low, deep rumbly sound with the hint of a whisper in it; a special whinny only share between mother and foal. She proudly stood on guard over a wet bay bundle of colt half buried in the deep yellow straw. As soon as she recognized me she dropped her head and went back to the important business of being a new mom; alternately licking the colt's haunches dry with broad strokes of her pink tongue and drinking in it's odor with deep wuffling draughts of her nostrils. Betty knelt in the straw with an old cotton terry towel in her hands vigorously rubbing dry hair of the foal's shoulders slicked down by amniotic fluid. I grabbed another towel from the birth kit sitting ready by the open door of the stall and went in to help.

"I can't believe it" I said amazed. "She wasn't showing any signs; no sweating, no nervousness, no looking at her sides, nothing."
Betty just chuckled and explained, "Mares don't like to be watched."

************

This story was a glimpse into something called foal watching that is a part of the cycle of the seasons on a breeding farm. Every breeder wants to be there when foals arrive. But mares, as prey animals, are genetically coded not to foal when anyone or anything is around because this might put their foal in danger during those first couple of critical hours when the foal is most vulnerable to attack. In order to survive in the wild a mare needs to be able to run away. She instinctively knows that once her water breaks and the birth process has begun she will be incapable of running away, therefore she is easy prey. Once the birth process begins it is very rapid and the foal is on its' feet within the first hour and can keep up with the herd within a couple of hours. So when a mare is watched it triggers her adrenaline and other stress hormones. As long as these hormones are flowing through her veins her labor will be suppressed. This is why brood mares like to leave the herd and search out a well known secluded spot to birth.

So what is a breeder to do? Lots of money has been made creating high tech devices that alert the owner who is in an apartment or room on another part of the property when the mare has begun giving birth. Even more money has been spent on outfitting stalls with remote controlled video cameras so foal watchers can observe from a room far enough away to not disturb the mares. Horse breeders have long understood what our scientific medical community still doesn't get, that intervention in any form, even just watching, should be done in such a way as to disturb the natural physiologic process of birth as little as possible; to only step in and make your presence known when absolutely necessary. To be a good doula you need to learn the art of being present without intruding on the process until you are needed.

Why You Need to Create a Balanced Healthy Harmonious Pregnancy

2010-10-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

Two new books delve into an issue I have been educating women about for almost 20 years: “Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives” by Annie Murphy Paul and “More than Genes,” by Dan Agin, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago. They explain what current science and studies tell us about the effect creating a balanced healthy pregnancy has on your baby later in life. Actually they are looking into the connection between an unbalanced, unhealthy life style during pregnancy and the outcome for your baby later in life. Several studies have shown how your baby's weight at birth can have health effects for him or her in midlife. Now their is evidence that suggests pregnant women exposed to stress, pesticides, junk food, poor nutrition, illness and other factors may have a life long impact on their children's health and mental abilities. Childbirth educators, doulas and midwives have been telling expectant moms this for years.

Long before we had scientific studies to prove this it just made sense to me. Why? Because of what we know once your baby is outside your uterus about the long term health benefits of giving your baby the ideal nutrition it needs through breastfeeding. Your breastfed baby has less chance of ending up with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or asthma. As an adult he or she has a reduced risk of getting diabetes, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as, having a healthier cholesterol level the rest of their life. To top it all off breastfed babies have higher IQs. So if feeding your baby exactly right after they are born has all this impact it only makes sense to me that feeding your baby well when they are inside you must also have an impact. Actually I believe it may have an even greater impact because of the magnitude of the creation process going on in utero. You are building your baby one teeny component at a time and the complexity of the finished project is miraculous. You are setting up their nervous system, their hormonal system, their brain and the chemical balance within it, as well as digestion, respiratory, circulatory and eveything else. We know that as an adult a healthy lifestyle through diet, exercise and low stress impacts all of the interconnected body systems I just mentioned and greatly improves our chances of living a long productive life. How can it not have a profound impact on your baby in utero.

Part of me hesitated to post about this because I hate laying guilt on mothers. But another part of me said if this information could encourage just one pregnant woman to make some life changes that would impact her baby for life it was worth more maternal angst. Get healthy before you conceive. Or the minute you know you are pregnant start making choices that will benefit you both. If you need information or support in your quest for a healthy pregnancy contact me about joining my Healthy Beginnings class series.

To learn more about this issue: Nicholas Kristof's op ed piece in the New York Times.

Experience Watsu

2010-09-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

There is nothing more earthbound than a heavily pregnant woman. Waking or sleeping, she feels more and more weighed down as she slowly plods through the last weeks of pregnancy; her belly swollen with baby and amniotic fluid.

Now imagine the same woman stepping into a pool of warm water and floating, weightless. Her eyes are closed as light and shadows play across her eyelids. Her ears are submerged, so only muffled sounds can be heard. She is cradled in the supportive arms of another, who gently rocks her to and fro to the rhythm of her own breathing. The baby floats submerged within her womb in the warm, dark amniotic water, gently cradled within the mother’s pelvic bones. They are one, together, weightless and free. Their energy flows freely and all tension about the impending birth drifts away. The mother-to-be achieves a deep level of peaceful relaxation, entering an altered state; bliss. This is a state through which the journey of natural birth is much more possible. Floating somewhere between dreaming and wakefulness the mother-to-be feels her body gently letting go, stretching, lengthening, opening and releasing.

This is water massage, a unique form of bodywork also known as water shiatsu or Watsu. Invented in 1980 by Harold Dull, it combines elements of massage, joint mobilization, shiatsu, muscle stretching and dance. Its therapeutic benefits are for everyone and can bring new life into long neglected muscles, joints and ligaments.

As a birth professional I have witnessed the amazing benefits specifically for pregnant women. They go beyond relieving the typical aches and pains of carrying a baby to term. Watsu combines the deep breathing of the Bradley method, the trance state of Hybnobirthing and the gentle stretching of prenatal yoga within the weightlessness of water. Requiring no intellectual effort on the mother’s part water massage frees both her body and mind to prepare to birth confidently. As a doula, I have held many women in my arms during labor, so I find Harold Dull’s goal particularly poignant; “a world where everybody holds and floats each other in their arms.”

To experience this amazing technique connect with kinesiotherapist Kay Heaton:
544-4280. kay@clubk-aquaticintegration.com

To see prenatal Watsu for yourself visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpDrmfNz98k

A Cultural Perspective on Mothering

2010-09-27T18:19:00.000-07:00

African Mother by Denise Cummings

Below is a beautiful piece on mothering from an African perspective. It is filled with wisdom. The author, a mother from Kenya, reminds American women that we need to slow our lives down when we have a baby and get back to the basics of mothering. How does this woman become so wise? By following the wisdom of her grandmother. Woman to woman; generation to generation women learn everything they need to know from each other. When we go off the path our babies are quick to tell us if we will only use our hearts to listen.

Why African Babies Don't Cry:An African Perspective

by Claire Niala
A mother, osteopath & writer based in Nairobi, Kenya

I was born and grew up in Kenya & Cote d'Ivoire. Then from the age of fifteen I lived in the UK. However, I always knew that I wanted to raise my children (whenever I had them) at home in Kenya. And yes, I assumed I was going to have them. I am a modern African woman with two university degrees and I am a fourth generation working woman - but when it comes to children, I am typically African. The assumption remains that you are not complete without them; children are a blessing it would be crazy to avoid. Actually the question does not even arise.
I started my pregnancy in the UK. The urge to deliver at home was so strong that I sold my practice, setup a new business and moved house / country within five months of finding out I was pregnant. I did what most expectant mothers in the UK do - I read voraciously: Our Babies, Ourselves, Unconditional Parenting, anything by the Searses - the list goes on. (My grandmother later commented that babies don't read books - and really all I needed to do was "read" my baby). Everything I read said that African babies cried less than European babies. I was intrigued as to why.

When I went home I observed. I looked out for mothers and babies and they were everywhere (though not very young African ones - those under six weeks were mainly at home). The first thing I noticed is that despite their ubiquitousness it is actually quite difficult to actually "see" a Kenyan baby. They are usually incredibly well wrapped up before being carried or strapped onto their mother (sometimes father).

Even older babies already strapped onto a back are then further protected from the elements by a large blanket. You would be lucky to catch a limb, never mind an eye or nose. It is almost a womb-like replication in the wrapping. The babies are literally cocooned from the stresses of the outside world into which they are entering.

My second observation was a cultural one. In the UK it was understood that babies cry - in Kenya it was quite the opposite. The understanding is that babies don't cry. If they do - something is horribly wrong and must be done to rectify it immediately. My English sister-in-law summarized it well. "People here" she said "really don't like babies crying, do they?"

It all made much more sense when I finally delivered and my grandmother came from the village to visit. As it happened - my baby did cry a fair amount, and exasperated and tired, I forgot everything I had ever read and sometimes joined in the crying too. Yet for my grandmother it was simple - nyonyo (breastfeed her!). It was her answer to every single peep.
There were times when it was a wet nappy, or the fact that I had put her down, or that she needed burping that was the problem, but mainly she just wanted to be at the breast - it didn't really matter whether she was feeding or just having a comfort moment. I was already wearing her most of the time and co-sleeping with her, so this was a natural extension to what we were doing.

I suddenly learned the not-so-difficult secret as to the joyful silence of African babies. It was a simple needs-met symbiosis that required a total suspension of ideas of "what should be happening" and an embracing of what was actually going on in that moment. The bottom line was that my baby fed a lot - far more than I had ever read about anywhere and at least five times as much as some of the stricter feeding schedules I had heard about.

At about four months, when a lot of urban mothers start to introduce solids as previous guidelines had recommended, my daughter returned to newborn style hourly breastfeeding. She needed hourly feeds and this was a total shock. Over the past four months the time between feeds had slowly started to increase. I had even started to treat the odd patient without my breasts leaking or my daughter's nanny interrupting the session to let me know my daughter needed a feed.

Most of the mothers in my mother and baby group had duly started to introduce baby rice (to stretch the feeds) and all the professionals involved in our children's lives - pediatricians, even doulas, said that this was OK. Mothers needed rest too, we had done amazingly to get to four months exclusive breastfeeding, and they said our babies would be fine. Something didn't ring true for me and even when I tried (half-heartedly) to mix some pawpaw (the traditional weaning food in Kenya) with expressed milk and offered it to my daughter - she was having none of it.

So I called my grandmother. She laughed and asked if I had been reading books again. She carefully explained how breastfeeding was anything but linear. "She'll tell you when she's ready for food - and her body will too." "What will I do until then?" I was eager to know. "You do what you did before, regular nyonyo". So my life slowed down to what felt like a standstill again. While many of my contemporaries marveled at how their children were sleeping longer now that they had introduced the baby rice, and were even venturing to other foods, I was waking hourly or every two hours with my daughter and telling patients that the return to work wasn't panning out quite as I had planned.

I soon found that quite unwittingly I was turning into an informal support service for other urban mothers. My phone number was doing the round and many times while I was feeding my baby I would hear myself uttering the words, "Yes, just keep feeding him/ her." "Yes, even if you have just fed them" "Yes, you might not even manage to get out of your pajamas today" "Yes, you still need to eat and drink like a horse" "No, now might not be the time to consider going back to work if you can afford not to". "It will get easier". I had to just trust this last one as it hadn't gotten easier for me - yet.

A week or so before my daughter turned five months we traveled to the UK for a wedding and for her to meet family and friends. Especially because I had very few other demands, I kept up her feeding schedule easily. Despite the disconcerted looks of many strangers as I fed my daughter in many varied public places (most designated breastfeeding rooms were in rest rooms which I just could not bring myself to use), we carried on.

At the wedding, the people whose table we sat at noted, "She is such an easy baby - though she does feed a lot". I kept my silence, then another lady commented, "Though I did read somewhere that African babies don't cry much." I could not help but laugh.

My grandmother's gentle wisdom:

Offer the breast every single moment that your baby is upset - even if you have just fed her.
Co-sleep. Many times you can feed your baby before they are fully awake, which will allow them to go back to sleep easier and get you more rest.
Always take a flask of warm water with bed to you at night to keep you hydrated and the milk flowing.
Make the feeding your priority (especially during growth spurts) and get everyone else around you to do as much as they can for you. There is very little that cannot wait.
Read your baby, not the books. Breastfeeding is not linear - it goes up and down (and also in circles). You are the expert on your baby's needs.

Reading this reminded me of something that happened years ago when my son was just a few months old. I was already back to riding and training horses, as well as, teaching lessons. I would take him with me and teach as I carried him around in a Snuggly. I was determined to continue my professional horse life and be a mom, i.e. super woman you can do it all.

One day I was teaching a young girl at her home on the Mesa. Joe began to cry and nothing I did would make him stop. He didn't want to nurse. He didn't need his diaper changed. He didn't need a nap. So I ignored him, raised my voice above his cries and valiantly kept teaching.

After a while my young rider's mother came out of the house carrying a baby blanket. She was a vastly more experienced mother having had many children by then. She calmly said, "I think your baby doesn't like the wind" and began tucking the blanket over his head and stuffing it into the sides of the Snuggly sack creating a warm little cocoon. It was magic. His cries immediately stopped and he opened his eyes and calmly peered up at me. His face quite clearly said, "Thank goodness somebody came along who knows something about babies!" Along the way I learned so much from so many women more experienced in motherhood than I. I am forever in their debt.

Do you have a story of an experienced mom helping a young mom? I would love to post it. E-mail me at jjmstover@sbcglobal.net.

This article appeared on The Natural Child web site. A wonderful on line resource for new parents at: http://www.naturalchild.org/.

A Chance to Do Something I've Never Done Before or Is this What it is Like to be a Nurse?

2010-09-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

One morning recently I was getting ready to go to a La Leche League meeting when the phone rang. It was another doula, a friend, and she needed some help.She was stuck at an airport far away and one of her client's had just called to say her water had broken. Unfortunately her back up doula had been at another birth all night. Would I go to the birth? Of course! My friend said she would connect with her birth client and let them know I would be calling.

So as I pulled my pick up truck onto the freeway in Pismo Beach I answered a call back from the dad. He was fairly calm. We discussed how mom was doing. He said she was in labor but handling contractions well. I asked if he wanted me to come right over to their place? No, he thought I should go on to my LLL meeting as planned. I asked if I could talk to her? When he took the phone to her I could hear the labor sounds she was making; a deep breathy moan. Hmmmm...I'm thinking. Then dad came back on the phone and said she couldn't talk now. Hmmmm...I'm thinking. He said he would see me when the meeting was done. Hmmm...as I drove towards SLO I'm thinking that didn't sound like a mom in early labor. Hmmm...My gut said I don't think you're going to League today. So I drove past SLO and on over the grade to their place.

Driving down their windy country road I wondered what this would be like. I had never supported a woman I had never met. Usually I have spent many hours with my moms sitting in their homes, chatting, educating, answering questions, calming fears, instilling confidence and creating relationship. As the birth nears I become a unique blend of confidante, experienced guide, friend and mother hen. So I wondered what would this be like? Could I be effective? Would she respond to me, a total stranger?

When I pulled into their driveway dad came around the corner with a puzzled look. I introduced myself and he visibly relaxed. He took me to the sunny deck where mom sat leaning back in a chaise lounge looking very uncomfortable and obviously contracting. After the contraction subsided I introduced myself and told them their doula was very sorry she couldn't be there with her. Then we got down to business.

I suggested she would be more comfortable in a different position. Could I help her move? After getting her into a leaning forward position I began to gently rub her shoulders as I assessed where she might be in her labor by the rhythm of the contractions, her response to them, her flushed face and unfocused eyes. I thought either this was going to be a long difficult posterior labor or things were moving very quickly.

"When had she last been to the bathroom" I asked? "Could she try to do that with me?" We slowly worked our way through the sliding glass door and into their bedroom. From the deck across their bedroom to the bathroom counter was 3 contractions. We never made it past the bathroom counter. Leaning onto its' smooth surface with me giving sacral counter pressure she swayed and moaned and contractions flowed through her like a torrent.

I turned to dad and calmly asked when he had spoken to their midwife and what she had said. He informed me that she said she would come some time this morning and check how things were progressing. I instructed him to call her again and tell her I said it was time to come. He left the room.

Alone together my hands sent waves of quiet calm into her being. Then I felt her knees begin to buckle with the power of her contractions. Her body was being lead in the primal birth dance, rocking, swaying, head rolling, opening to the flood of sensations that would bring her baby. Having been a birth dance partner for many women I could sense where we were in our journey together, so I was not surprised when I heard her give a soft grunt with the next contraction letting me know her uterus was pushing.

Dad came in and I inquired what the midwife had said. "She's on our road" he announced. "and will be here any minute." I breathed a sigh of relief. I am a doula not a midwife. I am not trained in catching babies. I have non of the necessary equipment. A few contractions later the midwife walked in, assessed what was going on and calmly went into action readying her supplies, talking to the mom and dad and smoothly stepping into the primary support role.

Usually a midwife has a trained assistant but it was clear to us that this baby wasn't going to wait for an assistant to arrive. As best I could I worked with the midwife, getting supplies, holding things, and handing things, while at the same time talking to the mom to give her confidence in her abilities to birth her baby, taking photos, and guiding dad into positions where he could remain a connected part of the process. Very soon a beautiful baby girl emerged into this world and into her moms waiting arms, healthy and happy.

I continued in my new dual role during the mother's repair and clean up, alternately fetching for the midwife, stroking mom's hair, taking more photos, cleaning up their rug, putting their towels in the washing machine. Finally it was time to go. Mom, dad and baby were in bed glowing and in love. Food and drink were at hand, family was arriving. They thanked me once again for being there, for not listening to dad's suggestion to go ahead to the League meeting and for everything I had done. Then I walked out of their door.

It has taken me weeks to process this new experience. I still don't know why she listened to me. Why she willingly followed my every suggestion. Why did she have confidence in me?

Is this what it is like to be a labor & delivery nurse? You walk into a room with people you don't know and yet you need to be able to guide them during one of the most intimate and intense moments of their lives. You have to assess where the laboring woman is in the process in order to call the doctor or midwife to come in time for pushing. When they arrive you have to support the mom at the same time playing step and fetch it for the doctor. When it's all done the family walks back out of your life and the connection is broken.

I can tell you I have worked along side some excellent labor nurses. Women that have known how to seamlessly flow from one role to another. The best ones are able to instill confidence and a sense of caring within minutes of entering the room. They are able to enter a room without disturbing its' energy or the rhythm of the labor. They listen to the mother as she progresses through labor and will try to encourage the doctor or midwife to honor the mother's wishes for her birth. Apparently I have learned a lot from these wonderful nurses.

Of course I have learned just as much from struggling with nurses that do not have an aptitude for being with birthing women. They don't generate the right kind of energy for laboring with a woman.

A good doula or nurse needs to be able to emanate confidant guidance without taking control. Their presence needs to create a sacred space in which the woman feels secure to birth. They become the mother's sanctuary in the storm. Now I know this can happen within minutes of meeting if the labor guide brings an open & intuitive heart to the birth.

A Quick Homebirth

2010-09-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

Baby's First Latch
I love catching this precious moment on film. Welcome Desiree!
Born on 8/9/10

We never know how birth will go. At classes we try to prepare first time parents for the idea that things can go very quickly, the 50 yard dash babies, or very slowly, the marathon babies. Accepting whatever you are experiencing and going with the flow is the important thing. If a couple is having a fast birth the dads are often left one step behind because they were mentally preparing for a marathon. When the baby arrives they are astounded! It's done? The babies here? How can that be?

Desiree James was born at home one unassuming Monday morning. Daddy went off to work. I mentioned that I was feeling "A little uncomfortable". Two short hours later my water broke and I called him back. I laboured quickly. Like Superwoman, Jennifer arrived and gave us the leadership and support we needed. I was having surges so closely together that my partner was unsure of how to help me. Jennifer immediately helped us into a more suitable birthing position. She used her calming voice and loving hands to ease our labour and reassure our progress. What a magical day it was. We had our baby girl in our arms, and all in the comfort of our own home. Thank you Jennifer for your professional and loving care!

There is nothing sweeter than being able to tuck a mom, dad and baby into their own bed after the birth is done. Leaving the house cleaned up, food available and supportive family at the ready feels just right. I'm a believer in what Dorothy said, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home."

The Challenges of Being in Labor While Being a Mommy

2010-09-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

I love this humorous account of a local homebirth. The humor comes from her no nonsense down to earth truth telling about the challenges of laboring and mothering at the same time. This is one of the difficult parts of having another baby. Women don't get the luxury of stopping motherhood while pregnant, birthing or recovering. No matter how many times I tell my experienced moms to have things arranged so you can drop everything, including your older child/children and zoom to the hospital I always arrive there before them! And then there is the issue of assuming this birth will be like the last birth; right? Enjoy Kelly's story!

Our little Alubia (bean in Spanish) was born on Aug.27, 2010; weighing 6 lbs 14 oz and measuring only 18 ¾ inches. She’s soooo small, but so cute. She has a full head of black hair and adorable chubby cheeks. We have named her Maui (Maria Luisa) and sometimes manage to NOT call her Alubia. Thanks, Maui, for the name.

Her birth story is very different than I imagined it would be, but it is still perfect (well, mostly). It turns out this labor stuff is complicated and having had a child only makes it more complicated. Who knew? This is the way things are supposed to be with a second birth: 1) The mother should know when labor starts. 2) The mother should remain calm during labor, because after all, she’s done this before and should be able to relax and breathe correctly. 3) The first child is NOT supposed to randomly start vomiting once labor starts and need his daddy. 4) The mother should be able to handle labor just fine if the father is temporarily needed by the older child. You know, the !Kung women only have birth attendants with their first child. After that, they go into nature and give birth alone and walk back to the village. So what’s a few contractions with no hubby, right? Well, none of that worked out well for me. And, I’ve also found out that the fact that everybody says that second labors can progress rapidly once they actually begin actually has a bit of a negative spin. They can take forever to “actually begin” and you should probably simply store your birth personnel (midwives, doulas, babysitters) in the garage or office or something so that everyone is ready to go right when you need them.

So here’s how it started. Wednesday at noon, I went to put Xavi down for his nap, but just couldn’t. I had absolutely no way of keeping my eyes open. So I pulled out a comforter and pillow and lay down on the floor and tried to convince him to nap with me. No such luck. Under those circumstances, he wants to lay on top of you with you on your back and I just couldn’t do it while pregnant. Finally, I texted Eneko to come and put Xavi down for his nap. He did and then returned to work while I went and laid down. And then started vomiting and having very continuous Braxton Hicks contractions and feeling like I was going to die. So he returned home and worked from home, watching Xavi while I made friends with the toilet (like we haven’t spent enough time together during this pregnancy). I felt so icky and wretched, way worse than with any stomach flu I’ve ever had, but a little like I was in labor, but not for any real definable reason. Kristi came over to check me and said not yet and drink the following liquids and we all went to bed (not together, she went home, obviously). A little later that night, the vomiting and ickiness went away and real contractions began. So that happened for most of the night and by morning, I was sure the baby was coming that same day, on Thursday. So when Eneko woke up, I told him the good news and we started getting the house ready for the baby and then I went to lay down to rest between contractions. It was wonderful. I let Laura, our doula, know what was happening and that we would call her when we needed her. Meredith, our babysitter, was able to get her in-laws to come care for her son until when her husband got off work and she kept me company until Megan could come check me and tell me… ehhh, maybe it will turn into active labor, but maybe not today since it was in the early stages. Stay hydrated, well-fed, rested and probably tonight, after Xavi was in bed.

Discouraging, but Eneko, Xavi and I decided to do those final things before the baby arrived. We ate lunch, went to Trader Joe’s to get some stuff, got Alubia’s birthday for Xavi present from Whiz Kids (love that store!!!), went to Doc Burstein’s one last time to get ice cream (I imagine I will be dairy-free with this little girl too so gotta eat the good stuff while I can) and then came home to rest while California Pizza Chicken (according to Eneko) was delivered. All this time, I was having fairly regular contractions that were pretty strong and I was doing a good job of relaxing during them, visualizing progress and all that good stuff. And on Thursday night, NOTHING! No baby snuggling in bed with us when we woke up in the morning on Friday.

So after a contractiony breakfast, the decision was made to send Eneko to work. Who knows when this labor will start so we’re going to have to go on with our lives, just pausing to breathe every little bit. Xavi and I went to gymnastics and the contractions were pretty controllable while we were there and then we came home, prepared dinner and had our naps and our lunch (staying rested and well-fueled like advised). I was pretty miserable by now, but didn’t want to waste my last days of one to one attention with Xavi, so we went to Avila Valley Barn to feed the animals, ride on the tractor and get some "I-sheem." That tractor ride almost killed me. When we got home it was close to five, so we finished dinner and then sat on the sofa to read (Xavi is in the phase where he loves to have marathon reading sessions, having you read a book to him over and over and over and then choosing another and having you read that one over and over and over. Up til now this had been great for pregnancy because how often do you get to sit with a toddler???). By now, I’m moaning through the contractions and trying to read to Xavi. “A cow says Moo, A sheep says Baaa. Three singing pigs say AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” and Xavi is getting upset and crying because that isn’t how the book goes and Eneko sends me a message saying he’ll be staying a little late to finish some stuff and I’m about to cry… But we survived that extra half-hour with no daddy and when he got home, he took Xavi on a bike ride and I got to have a few contractions without someone crying through them and flailing on my lap. Things seemed bearable once again. Eneko would be home all weekend and hopefully we would have a baby. Then during dinner, Eneko tells me about all the stuff happening in the office that weekend and I start freaking out. If he needs to work, he needs to work. Life can’t stop because I’m having contractions. But SERIOUSLY, it is sooooo hard caring for a toddler and having contractions. Should I call Sabrina to watch Xavi Saturday? But she needs to move and it’s her day off and she has her own family to take care of. And what if this goes on for days? weeks? It’s getting reaaalllly hard to relax during the contractions since it was getting really hard to relax period! And when you’re tense, they hurt so much more. And I was getting to my mental breaking point.

So my poor husband is trying to help and he offers to call one of the midwives to examine me and I say no, we have to wait until we are actually in labor. He offers to examine me and I say, no. Then I change my mind and decide that once Xavi is in bed, that would be a good idea and then I went to moan my way through the contractions in bed while he put Xavi to bed. By the time Xavi was asleep, I was so restless, moving from the ball, to walking, to laying on my side and just not feeling too great anywhere, knowing it was my fault, if I could just relax I wouldn’t have a hard time. So Eneko, around 8:30, checks and he says, “Not a 2 or a 5. A 3 or 4.” And I almost cried. Or maybe I did. Can’t remember. If it’s a 3, that means NOTHING. But if it’s a 4, then we’re in labor. But what if it’s a 3 and I stay like this for weeks???? He calls Kristi, against my advice, and reports his findings and asks for someone to come. And says he will set up the birth pool. I’m dead set against this, because, what if I’m not in labor? He wants to call Laura and Meredith too and I say no! And then beg for the pool because I can’t take it anymore and I need something to help. So he sets up the pool and it was like heaven getting into the warm water, but I still couldn’t relax because now we had an inflatable pool set up in the dining room in a house with a toddler and a cat (what could possibly go wrong there?) and what if this wasn’t even labor and if you can’t relax the contractions hurt and aren’t as effective which causes you to tense up more, which causes them to hurt more.

Poor Eneko is doing all of the last minute birth preparations for the house and wanting to call in reinforcements and I’m still saying no, not until we know for sure. Around 10, Megan and Edana arrive and begin unloading all the equipment for the birth and I am soooo frustrated because they might just have to pack all that stuff up and take it with them. I had thought one person would just come and do a quick exam. But, it turns out, surprise, it was labor. Finally Eneko gets to start calling help when Xavi wakes up. So Eneko is trying to call people and things aren’t working out. Meredith’s husband is working that night of all nights and Sabrina has to bring her little girl who is throwing up and he didn’t want that because it’s contagious. Turns out, I had understood that incorrectly. The reason Xavi kept waking was because HE was the one who was throwing up (probably what I had on Wednesday). So no babysitter. And I am freaking out again, because I really needed Eneko to help ME but it turns out it is hard to arrange for childcare via telephone while taking care of a vomiting child and massaging your wife’s back in the birthpool at the same time. Why isn’t there an app for that? Everything else seemed to happen in some kind of crazy blur. It seems like Laura, Meredith and Sabrina arrived about the same time, right when they were needed most and Eneko was able to focus on one thing, me, since Xavi was now in good hands :). Things were moving so fast at that time, or at least it seemed like it from my perspective. The contractions got crazy strong very suddenly and for two or three contractions it was really overwhelming and then we adjusted and the birth went on well. But certainly not gracefully. I was never really calm or centered or focused, even having to be reminded to breathe on way more than one occasion. I remember Xavi’s birth as being so peaceful but this one I think I will remember as more chaotic (entirely my own fault though). I think she was born just a little while later, totally covered in vernix, but adorable. And then we got those great moments you dream of in your pregnancy: time has stopped, you’re sitting in the pool, holding each other and your new baby, not feeling like pushing out the placenta, but knowing you will have to. And, yeah, after she was born, I was informed that it had indeed been labor :)

Anyhow, everything ended up perfect and everyone came through and then some, making our night exceptionally special. We got some amazing pictures, though all seem to have some kind of nudity, and it was great to see how my friends who had come to take care of Xavi ended up helping out with everything, as did our doula. It was so wonderful to birth our little Maui among friends.

Now I have a feeling that if we have any more kids, I will not be allowed to participate in any decisions about phone calls. So unfair! I only messed up one time. Like the one time (our first “date”) when the action movie we went to see ended up being a graphic (or pornographic depending on your definition) movie about gay bank robbers. And now I’m not allowed to choose movies for us to go see anymore. People should really get more chances in life.

A Woman’s Guide to VBAC

2010-09-07T16:55:00.000-07:00

Wow!!! Great new site full of just the right info for women considering trying to go for a vaginal birth after a cesarean! Thanks to Megan Bochum, a local student midwife and member of our local ICAN, for posting this link on facebook.

A Woman’s Guide to VBAC

Weighing the Pros and Cons of Planned Vaginal Birth after Cesarean and Repeat Cesarean Section

VBAC Success Rates and Prediction Models: Understanding Your Chances of Important Outcomes

Putting Uterine Rupture into Perspective

Are You an “Ideal” Candidate for VBAC? What Are Your Choices If Not?

The “Immediately Available” Standard: Where It Came from, What It Means, and How to Move Forward with New Evidence and Guidelines

What We Don’t Know: Critical Gaps in Evidence and How to Make Informed Choices In Spite of Them

Discussing Your Options with Your Care Provider

Legal Rights and Protections for VBAC: Issues from the NIH Consensus Conference

Take Action!

If Your Baby's Breech

2010-09-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

I have had several couples over the years who were planning natural births only to be told at the end of their pregnancy their baby was breech. This is a very upsetting situation. First the medical establishment doesn't give the parents much options or hope. Second they don't seem to understand why the mother is upset; surgical births are second nature to them. For them it is no big deal. For the moms it is a very big deal. They feel boxed in, frightened of a cesarean, frightened of a vaginal birth, the clock is ticking, they scramble about to educate themselves on ways to get the baby to turn, and they begin the grieving process for their dream birth before the birth has even begun. All of my moms have tried hard to get their babies to turn. So far none of them has been successful. I feel some of this is due to how late in the game they were told about the situation. Some have toyed with going ahead with a vaginal birth and what that would entail; finding a care provider in or out of the hospital willing and qualified to assist the mother, dealing with everyone else's opinions on the subject and facing down their fears. Some were completely demoralized by their cesarean experiences others were not. No matter what you decide here are some things you should know.

All of my moms seemed to intuitively know something wasn't right about what they were feeling in their uterus before anyone confirmed their suspicions. They would say, "this just doesn't feel like a butt to me" or "if this is his bottom why am I getting kicked way over here?" Most of these were first time moms but they just knew. If you think this might be your situation ask for an ultrasound to verify position earlier rather than later. Don't rely on the doctors skill in "feeling" baby positioning because they can be wrong. Don't let your doctor talk you into putting this off until 37 weeks. The best time to start natural turning methods is 35 to 36 weeks. The bigger your baby, the tighter the space, the more difficult she will be to turn!

There are many alternative things to try: acupuncture, homeopathy, slant board, Watsu massage, prenatal massage, chiropractic adjustment, headstands or somersaults in a pool, frozen peas on your belly, and more. Use this link to learn more: One Midwife's Collection of Breech Turning Techniques

If the natural methods don't work you can try an external version where your care provider tries to manipulate the baby into turning by pushing on your abdomen. If this is done by a doctor they will want you in the hospital. They will have an i.v. in place so they will be ready to do an immediate c-section if the process causes the baby fetal distress which can't be resolved any other way. This is one of the reasons they will try to put you off and tell you not to worry until 37 weeks. They have nothing else to offer you and they want the baby to be considered "term" in case it needs to come by emergency c-section. I have watched this done a few times now. For some moms it is quite uncomfortable and for others only mildly uncomfortable. I have to say the doctors all spent quite a bit of time and really tried hard to get the babies to turn. Here is a link to view a version.

If none of these methods turn your baby you will need to say to yourself, "now what?"

Consider going for a vaginal birth anyway. Some of you may think I am being reckless, too "radical", in even suggesting such a thing. But guess what? In Canada, that bastion of radical thinking the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists new guidelines say to NOT automatically go for the cesarean with a breech. Here is a study from Canada on which they are basing this new approach. For them the "wisdom" of doing a c-section depends upon what type of breech position the baby is in. Study.

Do your own research! Read the chapter on breech birth in The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer. Then go more in depth with Breech Birth by Benna Waites.

If you are going to go for a vaginal delivery of a breech baby who will be your care provider? Ask your doctor or midwife. Ask them if they know any doctors or midwives in your area who do breeches. It is very hard to find any doctor willing or skilled anymore in breech deliveries because with all breeches being automatic surgeries non of them have had much practice at it. This of course compounds their distrust of a vaginal delivery because they don't have the skill. Talk to the homebirth midwives in your area. Are any of them skilled in breeches? Will any of them do a planned breech baby at home? Ask yourself if you are comfortable with the idea of having a baby at home?

If you find a care provider and a place you will need to prepare yourself and anyone else who will be at your birth with positive images and stories of vaginal breech births. You can find this in the book, Breech Birth-Woman Wise by Maggie Banks. Find a copy of Birth Reborn, the movie, through your birth educator or a midwife. This video has some intense footage of a breech birth which made me hold my breath with fear the first time I watched it because it was so foreign to me. You and your partner need to get beyond that feeling.

So what do you do if you can't find a care provider willing to "let" you birth your baby vaginally? Well you can be really radical and just show up at the hospital in labor and then refuse to go to the operating room. Once they have informed you of the risk you are taking you have the legal right to refuse consent to any procedure. This is not an option I am advocating because for labor to go well the mother needs a peaceful and relaxing environment. This sounds far from peaceful to me. My point is you have this option; it is your right. Some women have chosen this path; it has been done before.

If you are still thinking you want to have a cesarean birth the next decision is whether or not to let labor spontaneously happen or to simply choose a day, book the O.R. and schedule your baby's birthday. Here are some things to think about. We know that labor is physiologically good for babies and for mothers. It stimulates the babies breathing, pumps the baby full of hormones that spring the brain into activity, and prepares the baby for life outside the womb and for bonding. The down side to this approach is not having control of the cesarean itself. If you schedule it you can have a meeting with the head nurse of your hospital's labor and delivery unit and make special requests. The number one thing to ask for is to have mom, dad and baby together continuously. In other words the baby and dad stay with mom in the O.R. throughout her repair and go with her into recovery. At most hospitals this is not the standard procedure. It may require special staffing or shuffling of staff at your hospital. It is much more likely to happen when it is arranged ahead of time. You can also arrange to have a lactation consultant be there to help with latching the baby on in the recovery room or perhaps even in the O.R. Of course your doctor may be concerned about "allowing" you to go into labor at all because your water could break. They have concern about "letting" the water break because of possible cord emergencies with a breech presentation. Again this comes down to presentation. If your baby is presenting their butt firmly down into your pelvis and not a foot or feet than common sense tells us the risk of cord prolapse is about the same as for a head. If not than you need to consider that about 30% of the time a woman's water breaks before any signs of labor and the risk of cord prolapse with a foot presentation is considerably higher.

If you are scheduling a cesarean consider asking your doctor to try to do the external version one more time after you have an epidural. Sometimes with the mother unable to feel anything her muscles will relax enough for a version to be successful. If you are successful you would have to decide to go forward with an immediate induction or risk having the baby slip back into breech position.

So much to do. So much to learn. So much to think about. So many decisions to make. So little time and so little energy for any of it those last few weeks of pregnancy. This is why it feels so overwhelming. Of course the easy choice is to simply abdicate your authority and responsibility for your birth to your doctor and say yes to a cesarean without any further thought. Unfortunately abdicating your responsibility isn't what motherhood is all about. Whatever you decide make it your choice because you will have to live with this birth for the rest of your life. Your heart will heal better if you take the time, think it through and take up the role of mother. Parenting starts now!

Read one of my birth class client's breech birth story.

The Pendulum Swings

2010-09-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

Can you feel it? The pendulum is beginning to swing the other way again. Last February I witnessed a doctor emotionally manipulating a woman, who was courageously working on pushing her baby out, into agreeing to a cesarean. I didn't know then that in that hospital room we were standing at the apogee of the pendulum's arc.

Apogee (Merriam Webster) Definition: 1. Farthest point on an orbit 2. final climactic stage, standing at the culmination

I only knew that in the past few years it had become a greater and greater struggle to keep my hospital doula clients out of the operating room. I didn't know that this was the final climatic stage in a hailstorm of surgeries.

Here is a simple physics lesson:
When a pendulum reaches it's apogee it holds its maximum potential energy. This energy is released as it begins to swing back the other way.

Can you feel it? In the past few months there has been a huge release of energy on a national and international scale against cesarean sections. On Tuesday I opened our local paper and saw more evidence of this phenomena; an article reprinted from the Los Angeles Times titled Study Finds Patience May Lower C-section Rates. That's right patience, not patients.

Here is a simple vocabulary lesson:
**Patient as a noun.
(Merriam Webster) Definition: 1.an individual awaiting or under medical care and treatment 2. one that is acted upon
**Patient as an adjective
(Merriam Webster) Definition: Patient 1.manifesting forbearance under provocation or strain 2. not hasty or impetuous 3. steadfast despite opposition, difficulty or adversity
**Patience is a singular noun
(Merriam Webster) Definition: the fact of being patient

Here is what this latest study done by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development said:

If doctors and their patients (women under their medical care) would have patience (forbearance under the strain of waiting out those last difficult weeks of pregnancy) and not go with an induction they have a much greater chance of not having a surgical birth. Of course for the woman remaining patient (steadfast) to the idea of waiting for spontaneous labor in spite of her doctors threats of placental disintegration, baby too large or blood pressure rising (opposition) can be a daunting (a great strain). In my experience getting a mom through these last prenatal visits is very difficult but well worth the effort. My own doula statistics bear this out with a 1% section rate for my first time moms who wait for labor to begin on its own.

If doctors would be patient (not hasty or impetuous) about the progress of their patients (women who they are acting upon) labors there could be many fewer c-sections. The authors of the study say doctors aren't acknowledging that labor takes time and doesn't follow a predictable pattern, especially in first time mothers. A high proportion of the surgical births reviewed were done after the patient (one who is acted upon) had been in active labor for only 2 to 3 hours! OMG!!! These women are being labeled as suffering from "failure to progress" which leaves them feeling defective the rest of their lives which leaves them much more open to being manipulated into repeat elective cesareans for all future babies. Most of the women I attend at births are in active labor for waaaaaaayyyy longer than that. I guide them, support them and explain that this is normal, babies take time and they are doing just fine. My cesarean rate even for mom's who agreed to an induction; 1%. The study showed that a major reason for having a cesarean was having had a cesarean. But my total cesarean rate with spontaneous labor, inductions and v-bac attempts is only 7%. There is no great mystery here. I am no wonder woman. Doulas and midwives support women whom they do not see as patients but instaed as healthy people in the process of a healthy physiologic act; like breathing or sex. Doulas and midwives having an abundance of patience is the key to good, safe, healthy births.

One final thought: Years ago I met the women who were spearheading our local International Cesarean Awareness Network at the time. One of them said, "There is no such thing as a 'failure to progress' only a 'failure to wait'. I have been calling it that ever since and now we are beginning to have the studies to prove who failed and what that failure has meant to women in america.

Can you feel it?

National Institute of Health panel strongly urges that steps be taken to reverse repeat cesarean sections.

Study in Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology says v-bac is a reasonable and safe choice because the outcomes for repeat elective surgery and v-bac were basically the same.

New Guidelines from American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on repeat sections.

Study Finds Patience May Lower C-section Rates.

Breastfeeding and Kangaroo Care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

2010-08-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

I met Jessica when she came to give a talk at an ICAN meeting. Even though this birth was not local I felt her poignant story was so important I asked her if she would be willing to share it on my blog. It is full of many of the issues I have currently been writing about; changing our "plans", creating a partnership between mothers and medical staff, pairing the best of mothering with the best of science so our most vulnerable babies get the best of both worlds, and when is the moment we are reborn into the role of parent. It is of particular interest to me that although Jessica is a Certified Nurse Midwife when it came to her own child she was no different than most first time moms. It took time for her confidence in her mothering abilites to grow enough for her to step into her parental role, stand on her feet and stand up for her son and her rights.

A Nursing Story

Oliver was born under the bright lights of the operating room. At three pounds, seven ounces, he was lucky to be born in 2006. He had a statistically high chance for survival in the neonatal intensive care unit. I was told he cried when he was lifted from my belly and when his delicate little body was subjected to IVs and wires and tubes just moments after birth. The details of Oliver’s birth and my operation were finally made clear to me many months later when I reviewed the operative note. It’s all I have of his birth. But I have Oliver and I am grateful.

Magnesium sulfate kept me from holding my baby for the first 24 hours after his birth. I vaguely remember vomiting, severe headaches, and terrible abdominal pain during that first arduous day. My home birth midwife knew how badly I wanted to have a “normal” childbirth experience and my strong desire to nurse my child. Within the first couple of hours she had procured a hospital grade pump and taught my friends how to pump my breasts. They propped me up every three hours and collected my colostrum until my mother arrived and took over the duty all night (after flying across the country).

The next day I was considered stable and was wheeled to the NICU to meet my son. The NICU nurse carefully handed him to me. He was exactly what I wanted. I felt like I was meeting someone I already knew, his face so familiar yet lovelier than anything I had ever seen. I did what I had seen hundreds of new moms do when holding their babies for the first time. I put him to my breast. The nurse panicked because he was not “cleared” to take anything by mouth. But Oliver’s tiny mouth and weak suckle would have prevented him from nursing anyway at that stage. “We are just bonding,” I explained to the kind nurse. Oliver closed his eyes and breathed in the smell of his mommy. We both relaxed and I knew we would eventually get over his traumatic birth.

Oliver was born at a progressive hospital with an excellent NICU. When I knew I would be delivering him early, I was transferred via ambulance to that particular hospital because I was told it had the best NICU in the state of Connecticut. My husband and I spent hours holding him skin to skin doing “kangaroo care.” Oliver was getting stronger and my bags of breast milk were filling up the small NICU refrigerator. I was so proud of that milk. At every tube feeding the nurses would help me put Oliver to my breast to help him associate my breast with a full belly. Eventually Oliver was strong enough to move to a less intensive care unit. We decided to have him transferred to a smaller NICU closer to our house. I called the nursing manager and was told I would be supported in my desire to do kangaroo care with my child and breastfeed.

We arrived at the small NICU early in the morning on a weekend. I immediately took Oliver out of his isolette for some kangaroo time after the long ambulance ride. After an hour of skin to skin, I was told by the nursing manager to “put him back” because I was making him cold. My husband and I learned that kangaroo care at our new NICU consisted of one hour, once a day. I argued with the nurse and wanted to speak with the pediatrician. I wasn’t able to hold my baby that entire day and evening. I just sat, staring at him though the plastic of his isolette, and cried. I finally cried about everything: the loss of our birth experience, the first precious moments after birth, our special baby moon. It suddenly felt like we were in hell. That night I pumped and noticed a sharp decrease in the amount of milk I was producing. I was concerned so I called my midwife and told her what had happened. She lit a fire under me and gave me the strength to fight for my son. A friend helped me gather articles about the benefits of kangaroo care so I would be armed with information when I met with the pediatrician in the morning.

After a long meeting, the pediatrician agreed to “let” me hold Oliver for one hour, three times a day, as long as his temperature was monitored every fifteen minutes. I agreed because I wanted to show how stable his temperature would be during kangaroo care. The nursing manager stopped speaking to me but I did find compassionate support from many of the nurses. At night, the nurses would “forget” to check on us and I would end up holding him for hours. Slowly, I was able to try to nurse him again at every feeding. I was the only breastfeeding mom at that time in the NICU and the staff had never worked with a mom who was exclusively breastfeeding at discharge. My midwife came to the NICU to show the nurses how to use a supplemental nursing system and how to position a small baby correctly. With her help I was finally able to get Oliver firmly latched on during a feeding.

The last four days of Oliver’s stay at the NICU were the most difficult, but necessary to establish a breastfeeding relationship. I convinced the pediatrician to let me sleep at the hospital. The NICU nurses set up a cot for me near the unit so I could be available to nurse Oliver every few hours. By the time I put Oliver in his car seat to leave the hospital, he was 100 percent breastfeeding. It is my most important accomplishment.. I send the NICU nurses a Christmas card every year to remind them of sweet little Oliver and this annoying mom who made it her mission to breastfeed and succeeded!

Next read about a "miracle" baby and the chemical, biological, and emotional power of a mother's love. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1306283/Miracle-premature-baby-declared-dead-doctors-revived-mothers-touch.html

Being a Hospital Doula: My Greatest Challenge

2010-08-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I can only bear witness. I am helpless to ward off the blow. I educate. I put a "game plan" in place. I manage. I guide. I manipulate the system. I encourage. I remind women they have a voice; they have a choice. But in the end sometimes I am powerless to protect. My role is to stand and bear witness to the birth unfolding before my eyes. My heart breaks; little pieces crumbling away. Bits of me I will never get back. Moments in my life I will never forget. I hold on to the belief, for her and for me, that grief is transformational if we let it be.

Home Birth... Why I Did It (& I'm Not a Hippie)

2010-08-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

Not sure about where to birth, hospital or home? When trying to decide where to birth I always advise my clients to look deep into their hearts and listen to what it is telling them. Where will you feel safest? For some moms that is the hospital and for others it is at home.

Recently I had a client who was preparing for the birth of her second child. She was having a difficult time deciding between Sierra Vista or French Hospitals. She had a lot of negative feelings about her first birth but was choosing to return to the same hospital, even though she dreaded it, because of fears about safety issues for her baby. Her heart was conflicted. I encouraged her to listen to her heart and decide. She planned to return to the hospital of her first birth. That was the plan. It was all settled. Everyone knew that was the plan . . . until she was on the way to the hospital. Then her heart spoke to her again and said, "you have nothing to fear for your baby. She is fine and healthy. Go to the hospital where you think you can labor best." And that is what she did. She changed her plan.

Read one Illinois mom's thoughts about making her choice posted August 4, 2010 on Ireport at CNN.com

I gave birth to my son at home.

And no, I’m not a hippie. I’m a college educated, business minded woman who made an informed choice about the labor and delivery of my second child.

Giuseppe Massimo “Max” entered this world at 11:46 pm on March 4th, 2010 in our bedroom of our Northbrook, IL home. I wouldn’t change a thing about the labor and delivery. It was one of the most incredible moments a family can have. I’d like to tell you a little more about what led up to that special moment.

When my husband and I first learned I was pregnant a second time, We weren’t even considering a natural birth, let alone a home birth. My first child was born in the hospital, I had been given an epidural, and I just assumed I’d do the same for the second. A few months later I learned that one of our neighbors had delivered all three of her children at home. I’m sad to say that my first reaction was “why in the world would anyone ever want to do that??” But something kept creeping up in my mind, I was truly intrigued by the idea. A few weeks later I talked with a friend who had done a natural birth. I’ll never forget the day when we met over coffee and I heard her birth story and the emotions she had around her natural childbirth. I was amazed by her story and yet sad when I realized my feelings about my first birth were nowhere near that happy, passionate or memorable. Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughter dearly, but her birth was not as I had always envisioned. I then started to open my mind about the idea of natural childbirth and began doing some detailed research. What I found both elated and saddened me. I was thrilled to learn about all of the wonderful benefits for both mom and baby when childbirth is left to naturally run its course. But I felt so dismayed that the majority of women are never exposed to this information. They don’t really know they have a choice. Society puts so much pressure on them to have a fast labor, make sure it’s painless, and get in and out of the hospital quickly. There are so few natural birth advocates out there, likely because hardly anyone is doing it as its not likely to be covered by insurance or endorsed by your OB/GYN. Plus there’s a stigma. As I mentioned, I’m not a hippie, but everyone assumes you are some free lovin’, incense-burning, crazy lady that has no regard for her or her unborn’s health when you tell them you are having a home birth. The reality is that for healthy women with no pregnancy complications, natural childbirth is much safer and healthier for both mom and child (when the birth is attended by a certified midwife). If you think about it, people go to hospitals because they are sick, childbirth is the only thing they go there for that is a completely natural process. Why is that? Well, it all has to do with the mighty dollar. It’s a big business and insurance companies and doctors solve for the riskiest cases, and then apply that logic and methodology for all. Patients assume this is best, but its simply not. History has shown this time and time again.

I encourage you to do your own research on childbirth, but I’ll give you a bit of the basic info that I’ve learned over the last year. There’s more to childbirth then simply getting the baby out. A complex chain of events occurs with the mom and baby as labor and delivery progress. When left untouched, natural hormones enter the mother and baby that make the birth easier for both and also create a stronger bond with mom and baby. Natural birth babies are more responsive and much more likely to successfully breastfeed. Passage through the birth canal helps squeeze all of the fluids out of the baby’s lungs enabling better breathing after birth. The benefits of natural birth go on and on, all leading to a happier, healthier baby and mom.

So, why at home then? Sure you can have a natural birth in the hospital, right? Not always. You may go in with a birth plan, but hospitals have their own agendas. They minimize the risk and get you out quickly so they can get a new mom in. With 1/3, yes ONE THIRD of women in the US now having c-sections, I didn’t want to take my chances. The rate was under 5% in 1965 when hospitals began to keep track of the numbers. Now it’s over 30%! What happened? Well it’s not that women are smaller, or babies are that much bigger, it’s now a matter of convenience. But not for the mom, its for the hospital, doctors and insurance companies. C-section rates are actually highest at 5 pm and 10 pm. Why? So doctors can get the birth over with and get home for dinner or bed. They can opt for the c-section and be out of the hospital on their way home in less than 30 minutes. And at that point, weary moms are likely not to argue. You simply assume the doctor knows best.

I’m guessing that even with my natural birth plan, if I had been in the hospital I would have ended up with Pitocin (drug used to speed up labor, but reduces the mom’s natural birth hormones) and likely a c-section. At home it took me 30 hours to labor Max down. And at 9 lbs, it took me over an hour of pushing. Likely not something a doctor would have the patience to wait out. But my midwife stayed calm and relaxed, she knew the baby would eventually emerge. She was a great coach and I felt confident she had the experience to handle any situation. This is important to note, as I don't believe in unattended home births. A home birth should always have an experienced midwife present.

And sure, it was painful, REALLY painful. But the instant my son was born, I felt 100 times better than I did with my first baby. My connection with him was instant and he immediately latched on to breastfeed. My husband also enjoyed the experience much more at home. First, he always wondered why I didn’t seem to show a strong connection with my daughter when she was first born. With Max he was in awe of the immediate deep bond. Additionally, he was able to really participate. He was able to help much more at home and actually catch the baby as he emerged. Plus, we all got to sleep in our own bed that night. We wouldn’t trade the entire experience for the world.

My hope is that by sharing my story, I may encourage at least one mom to do her own research so she can make the best decision for her childbirth experience. Women need to start reclaiming their baby’s births. I’m certain almost all women are capable of a natural birth, and if they take back that right, we will have healthier and happier moms, dads and babies out there.

What speaks to your heart? Where will you feel safest?

Breech Birth: Turning Her Plans Upside Down!

2010-08-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

This is the story of Zoe's birth at French Hospital in 2009 and a mother's difficult decision to let go of her vision of the birth and growing into acceptance of a scheduled cesarean birth.

For me, there was no better choice than to have my baby naturally, no drugs and as few interventions as possible. That was the plan. But as most women who have a baby, ‘the plan’ is rarely followed. You can prepare for birth but not plan, I know that now.

My husband and I decided knowledge was the best tool to being prepared for our daughter’s arrival. So we took a very extensive, thorough birthing class. We learned about nutrition, the history of birth, birthing options, physiology of birth, pain management, interventions, and the newborn. These classes made me feel positive, ready and prepared.

I wasn’t entirely comfortable with a home birth. I would have loved to have a birthing center, but that option did not exist, so we opted for a hospital birth. Because of this, we felt hiring a doula was even more important for ‘game day’. Our doula was someone we felt could help us navigate the decisions we inevitably would have to make but did not know what they would be yet.

Week 36 of pregnancy rolled around and I was feeling ready, prepared, but anxious about all the unknowns. We were about to run into our first big ‘unknown’. We went to my weekly doctor’s appointment and as my doctor felt my baby bump, she decided she was no longer convinced that what she thought was the baby’s bottom, up by my ribs, was in fact her bottom. Yep, this baby was breech. What does this mean? What do I do now? What are my options? Could this have been determined earlier?

For the next two weeks, I dropped everything else in my life and put all my energy into trying to convince my breech baby to turn. I researched breech babies and the possibility of having a breech baby vaginally and decided that was not an option for me. So I set out to try to convince my baby to turn. I was in the breech tilt for most of the week. I took warm baths and put cold peas at the top of my belly. She moved, she didn’t like the cold on her head, but she didn’t turn. I did acupuncture and worked on relaxation. I tried a homeopath from my chiropractor. I did hand stands in the pool. All of this encouraged movement, but not turning. My last attempt was a manual version, where the doctor tries to manually turn the baby. Nope, this baby was set in her ways and was going to stay breech.

For a while I felt defeated that I could not get my baby to turn. This was just another piece of evidence that birthing stories are not in our control. I had about 2 weeks to process the fact I’d be having a c-section, I was thankful for that time. After all this time of preparing myself to NOT be in control (which is hard for me, but I was ready to just give myself over the process), all of a sudden I was picking my baby’s birthday and working around ER and doctor schedules. It felt weird, wrong, and inorganic. Luckily I have a very supportive husband, family and friends who helped me process this very drastic change of events. I had one friend list all the things to look forward to with a c-section (some silly, some serious).

When December 18th finally came, we had an appointment to have our baby. I never really got past the fact that in was really weird to schedule a birth, but the excitement of being able to meet my baby overtook any lingering disappointment I may have had. The c-section was flawless and in a moment, a scheduled moment, I became a mother, we became a family. At that point, I didn’t care how Zoe arrived, because she arrived safely and was healthy. I was able to have her with me in the recovery room and she nursed within a ½ hour of being born. It wasn’t the birth I planned for, but it was the birth that we got, and that is a-ok with me.

To me the moment Zoe's mom became a mother was when she chose to do what she felt was right for her baby and put aside her dreams for herself.

Rewriting Her Experience

2010-08-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

New big brother Lincoln thinks his new baby sister is pretty special. I think she is too. She taught her mom what a high it is to birth naturally. Often the power of preparation, positive thinking and a second baby combine to transform feelings of regret or inadequancy left over from a first birth experience into jubilation, awe and empowerment. Congratulations!

A huge thank you to Trina Dart who was my back up doula for this birth. She stepped in when I couldn't and provided excellent support and care. She made a world of difference during the birth.

You Don't Know How Lucky You Are

2010-08-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

I don't believe the birthing women of San Luis Obispo have a clue how lucky they are. Even many of the women working in our birth community don't know how lucky we are. We are so busy being in the here and now of our little corner of the world we assume this is how it has always been, this is how it is everywhere. Those of us working in the "alternative" birth community often see only the negatives. Guess what? Your perception is wrong. There are so many positives going on every day in our community. There is constant movement toward making births better for all women and their babies.

This was brought home to me in a very powerful and personal way the first time I attended a birth outside of our community. Being with my sister-in-law as she birthed at a hospital in Berkeley was an eye opening experience. A few years later attending another sister-in-law in Nevada taught me to treasure our hospitals and the people working in them. I can't tell you how grateful I am to be working as a doula in SLO.

So let's focus on the positives please! Here is a list:

Twenty years ago when I had my son if your baby was born in need of serious medical attention he was flown by helicopter to Stanford. Moms, dads and babies were separated until the mom was recovered enough from the birth to drive up to the Bay Area. Then the staff at Sierra Vista got together and created our local NICU. This was a huge project which now benefits women, babies and families in our community every day. Now if you are a high risk mom or have a high risk baby you have a place to go close to home and the support of family and friends.

When it became clear to everyone that General Hospital was probably going to no longer be funded by the county French Hospital stepped up to fill the gap. General had always been the low-tech family friendly hospital. French Hospital with it's small size and supportive staff is an excellent hospital for women going for a less medicalized birth approach.

Not too many years ago the best we could do for using water as a pain relief method was a shower. Now we have labor tubs at all three county hospitals where women can seek pain relief without the use of narcotics and needles. Want to birth in water? You can rent a tub and birth at home with one of our skilled homebirth midwives.

Fifteen years ago when a friend needed a specialized ultrasound done to check out the chambers of her baby's heart she had to travel to the Bay Area. Now for women who need specialized monitoring of their pregnancy we have qualified perinatologists with ultrasound capabilities far beyond what we once had.

We have lots of OB doctors with lots of different personalities and philosophies and styles to choose from. If you want to use a midwife instead we have an ever growing choice. There is something for every woman on the menu. Want to birth in the hospital but with a midwife? Guess what? We currently have two different certified midwifery groups working with two different doctors. Don't want to go to the hospital? We have two different licensed midwives to choose from and by this time next year we should have several new midwives joining their ranks.

Don't feel comfortable either birthing at home or in the hospital? Guess what? We have an out-of-hospital birth center currently under construction. It is due to be open for women with December due dates. Watch their progress on facebook.

I remember when your only choice for birth education was to take Lamaze at the hospital or Bradley outside the hospital. Now you can choose from these as well as Informed Birth & Parenting, Hypnobirthing, Birth Works or Birthing from Within. There is something for everyone from over the grade to the south county.

We have many other support groups and professionals for new parents in our area. Need free breastfeeding help? Call the Warm Line at 541-BABY. Want a breastfeeding support group? Try our local La Leche League meetings. Speaking of breastfeeding; we have excellent lactation consultants working in and out of our hospitals. Need postpartum support and counseling? Call the Postpartum Hot line at 549-7786. Need a shoulder to cry on about a negative birth experience? Go to one of our ICAN meetings. We have mommy support networks both on line and in person such as SLO County Mommies. We have parenting classes through Parent Participation throughout the county or Andrea Herron's Growing with Baby.

Considering using a doula at your birth? Go to the resource guide at the Birth & Baby Resource Network: wwwbbrn.org. We have a whole list of doulas working in the community and new ones getting trained all the time. The perfect match to your personality and belief system is just waiting for you.

As a doula these last items are the most important to me.

When the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists created new rules which required anesthesiologists standing by for a woman to be "allowed" to go for a vaginal birth after a previous c-section Sierra Vista stepped up and did what was necessary to make that happen for our community. Guess what? We have the only hospital for hundreds of miles that will do v-bacs. I recently had a client who moved back here from Santa Barbara just to be able to successfully v-bac!

Need a c-section? Our hospitals are actively working to create them to be as family friendly as possible given their staffing and geography restraints. They are trying to keep moms, dads, and babies together as much as possible. And guess what? Usually your doula, as well as your husband, can be with you during the entire process.

Last I would like to speak about the relationships with the hospital staff and doulas in our community. It has been many years since I was introduced at a birth as a doula and felt open hostility from the nurses. Now the staff has grown in their understanding and acceptance of the value of doulas within the hospital setting so much that I have even been paired with new nurses so they could be part of a "natural" birth. I would like to also say that anytime I have had doula clients with special needs or situations in preparing for their births both Marie Chaney, Maternal Child Assistant Director, at Sierra Vista and Charley Ault, OB Nurse Manager, at French took the time to speak with them and did their best to accommodate their needs and desires.

So within SLO town the picture looks pretty rosy but step outside this box and the picture gets ugly fast. There are hospitals that won't "allow" doulas to be present at births. They also don't "allow" birth plans or want couples who have taken classes which encourage natural unmedicated births. As a doula I have run into open hostility, been excluded from c-sections, had my client's pre-arranged wishes for their births ignored and witnessed verbal disrespect bordering on abuse of a mom preparing for a cesarean birth.

So thank you to all the women over the years who have tried to make this community more mother/baby friendly. A mountain of sand can be moved one grain at a time.

Fascinating Video on Initiating Breastfeeding

2010-08-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is a must see by all pregnant moms, their partners and anyone who will be helping them at their birth. Of course we can crawl to the nipple, latch on and nurse! It only makes sense. All mammals can do this with minimal guidance or help by mom. Why would we be the only mammal unable to do this? It only makes sense. If we birthed in a squatting position we would naturally reach down put our hands under their little armpits and bring them up to our breasts keeping their spine parallel to our own. Without towels or blankets they are much to wet and slippery to consider doing anything else.

How did mothers lose this knowledge of what to do immediately after birth to correctly begin the bonding and breastfeeding process? Drugs, doctors, fear of germs, bright lights, cold hospital rooms and schedules all played a role. You have the power to reclaim this piece of your birth and be amazed at the miraculous abilities of your newborn. Put your baby's spine in line with your own. It is as simple as that. Don't forget to cover, not swaddle, your baby with a warm blanket!

Click on the title to watch the video.

Why Does Birth Feel Like This?

2010-08-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

I found a beautiful quote posted on Denver Doula's Facebook page.

"As mothers we must learn to be flexible, for the rigid tree breaks in the windstorms of life. In birth we are utterly taken apart. In this way God guarantees that we emerge anew. This is how Mother Nature builds a new mother, by first burning down our pre-existing lives. The survival of this precious being you hold close today depends upon your undoing."
-Robin Lim via Harmony Miller

No truer statement can be said about birth. Letting go of our bodies, our preconcieved ideas and our inhibitions is essential to the process. Not just the birth process but the process of mothering itself.

Keeper of The Space

2010-08-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

This is posted for all my doula friends and other women who provide sacred space for birth.

Keeper of the Space
by Michelle Fonte, Birth Doula

she…on elbows and knees on the bathroom floor
naked body glistening with the evidence of her exertion
brow wet
dad poised behind her
hands ready to catch
abundant curiosity and bliss on his face
she…hands grasping mine. holding. tight
me… mirroring her pose: knees and elbows on the cold floor
her forehead on my shoulder. pressing hard when the surges are strong
i meet her force with equal force
a break.
a pause
i shift my weight
she feels me
eyes raise and meet
intensity
she says ‘don’t leave me’
‘i won’t’
i say
she feels the truth in my answer. again rests her head on my shoulder.
“don’t leave me” she said.
her words turn over in my mind and stroke my ego
wrap around my shoulders like a warm blanket
for a split second. i. feel. Important.
she grunts and groans and sings
looking under her body
between her thighs I see her baby’s head filling up her. blossoming. pink.
intensity of these universes colliding: the one baby has inhabited for 40 weeks and the one he is about to enter
makes her think she may come apart
in this moment. she believes that she needs me
with courage and power and will she perhaps didn’t know she possessed, she births her baby into his daddy’s hands
the midwives say…’mama…take your baby’
she. stunned. still between worlds.
cannot
reaching under i receive their slippery blueish-turning-pink child
daddy’s eyes meet mine.
joy
i passing the gorgeous baby into her hands
eyes raise and meet again
i am humbled
she knows
her power
i remember
i am not important
simply the keeper of the space

Michelle is the mama of six children, doula and birth activist. She currently lives in Miami, Florida.
www.birthgirlz.com

www.motherpathdoulamiami.com

Thank you to Womb Space, a page dedicated to spreading information on childbirth through essays, pictures, articles, videos, poetry and more. http://wombspace.tumblr.com/post/947981510/keeper-of-the-space-michelle-fonte-birth-doula

Baby Comes in a Rush!

2010-08-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

This is the birth story of my second child born Feb. 2, 2010 at Twin Cities Hospital.

I loved being pregnant; (almost) everything about it. I had rather easy pregnancies compared to some that I've heard of before. I thank the Lord for that! Never got sick, although I did have some complications early on in this pregnancy and was advised to quit my housekeeping jobs. I was just over doing it. Had horrible pains one night, cramping, and some very heavy bleeding. I went into panic mode, expecting the worst. Spoke with the Dr. on call, went in for an emergency ultrasound early the next morning and discovered that everything was fine. Again, Thank you Lord!

Months later, we passed the due date of Jan 26th, patiently waiting for that moment. I was having contractions for about 2-3 weeks here and there, having a lot of "not sure if this is it moments" then finally, decided, since my Dr. suggested it, to have my membranes stripped. Not as painful as I thought it would be. Then that night, odd, right at 12:00AM , I woke up from just dozing off it seemed, to a light "pop" sound. Now, my water never broke with my first, they had to break it for me, so this was new to me. Even after hearing that, I just still wasn't sure if "this was it". I raised up in bed, stepped out of bed and felt a slight wetness, but again, I wasn't sure because this little guy had been SUPER low for a while now and I was loosing bladder control a lot, so I first thought, maybe he's putting enough pressure on me down there that I just trickled and didn't make it to the bathroom to pee.

Shortly after that though, I began having contractions and again, I still was not yet convinced that "this was it". My husband woke because he heard me pacing and breathing. I remember telling him, I'm just not sure if this is it or not, I'm not sure if you need to get out of bed yet. However, the contractions were coming a lot harder, painful, and more regular, & rather quickly. I finally told myself, ok, if this isn't it, I'm going to be upset because this hurts! I told my husband that I thought my water broke, but I wasn't sure. I was still trickling though, staying sort of wet.

Hubby decided to get up, saying that "well, we need to go to the hospital but let me brew a pot of coffee first". LOL. Taking our time, all the while they were getting more painful, I finally knew, this is it! I live about 10 minutes from Twin Cities Community Hospital. Thank goodness! We arrived at the hospital at 12:55AM. My pants were definitely wet at this point.

Now I had preregistered, but what the point of that was I have no idea. I get in there, they put me in the triage room, check me, I was 4cm dilated. They said, we'll get you checked in. I said, ok, I do want an epidural this time around. They said ok. He lives just around the corner and we'll get him here when we get you all checked in. Ok great. I was really looking forward to that this time. Things just don't always go as planned, not even for the nurses!
I was hurting, badly, feeling the urge to push like crazy. Telling them, I need it now, come on with it! I remember looking at this nurse, saying, I'm really not a mean person okay! They all still kept taking their time, getting me checked in, etc. Not sure what the hold up was. I just knew it was time to push. I was ready, breathing hard, trying to get through each contraction which at this point was back to back, barely a break at all. I was beginning to think they didn't know what they were doing and that maybe I should of been doing this on my own, because really, I was. My husband just stared at me telling me no, don't push yet.

Finally, still not checked in, another nurse comes to check and see how far I am, keep in mind, only about 15-20 mins had gone by since I got there. I was at 8cm. and there was blood, I was ready. Suddenly I saw the panic in their faces a bit, scurrying around, rushing a bit more now, saying get the Dr. it's time. I asked for an epidural yet again, they said, "oh honey, it's to late for that." I was mad because I was trying to tell them, I needed to push, why don't they listen!?! I'm still in the triage room when the Dr. comes in no scrubs or nothing, saying she hopes for nothing to get on her shoes. I remember thinking, woman, I don't care about your shoes! My husband refers to the bed as a "transformer bed" as quickly as they got this thing ready for what was about to happen!

I was so worried about tearing because I did with my first and that is what I remember most about my first delivery because when I went to pee afterwards, the best way to describe it was like "peeing razor blades", I did not want that to happen again! That is what I was terrified most of! But, one big long push, (and feeling some poop come out as well, eww, embarrassing, but I knew the doctor had seen it before), there he was! It was 1:38AM, I had arrived at the hospital at 5 minutes to 1:00 and he was born at 1:38. Even they were shocked and surprised at how quickly he came. And I didn't tear! YEAH!
7pounds 8ounces. 20in long. Baby Boy Landon. Feb 2, 2010.

(Jennifer-one hour 38 minutes from start to finish! What a mad rush this birth must have been. These fast births take every one's breath away. Often the hospital staff is caught off guard because they have many first time moms come in thinking they are far into labor when they aren't. I never doubt a second time birther. If they say the baby is coming or they have to push you better believe them! I don't know why the OB staff still disbelieves the mom until they prove it to themselves via a vaginal check.)

Now during the stay at the hospital, they informed me that they were going to do a drug test on me and the baby because of how quickly he was born. They said they had seen it where people place bets on when the baby is going to be born and so they'll win, they drug induce labor. I was shocked, blown away at what I had just heard. Wow.

A while later, I did get the medical bill and I called and got an itemized detail of the charges of my stay, on that list was about 8 lab tests they had done for testing for 8 different drugs. Each one costing $200-$500. I think it was about $2800+ worth of tests. Crazy! I called and disputed it, saying, you didn't ask me for these tests, you took it upon yourself and said that it's hospital protocol that you do it, so I don't feel like I should have to pay for this (we did have insurance, but still). They, without question, took all 8 off of the bill. Very interesting I thought.

(Jennifer-I have never heard of this before.)

So, you'd think as fast as that was, my birth story would be shorter. LOL. But here I am, blessed with 2 beautiful boys! Both naturally. Even though I had planned on having an epidural the second time around, it just didn't happen that way. Someone else had a different plan and I just took a deep breath and said ok, here we go. I CAN DO THIS! That was that! Now my husband and I are all done. Two kids is enough for us. Especially 2 boys with my husbands blood running through them! LOL.

Jackie

(I e-mailed Jackie to ask her how far past her due date she was when the doctor first suggested she have her membranes stripped.)

Jackie wrote:
"Let's see, I was 1 week past. My Doctor had actually mentioned it to me before. I was 3 cm dilated for a couple of weeks. After he was born, the nurse said, I was even further along than the due date they had given me as well. "

(Goodness a good doula would know that any second time mom who has been hanging out at 3 centimeters for a couple of weeks and then goes into strong back to back contractions is going to move very quickly! As to due dates, don't even get me started. They are notorious for being off regardless of ultrasound technology. After babies are born the nurse does an assessment to try to guesstimate how developed your baby is, which helps them know how many weeks gestation actually occurred before the baby was born.)

New Guidelines Aim to Reduce Repeated C-Sections

2010-07-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

Great reporting on an important birth issue by someone in the mainstream media! This reporter does an excellent job of thoroughly explaining the complexities of the issues surrounding giving women back the right to make their own choice to try for a vaginal birth after a previous cesarean or to go with a repeat surgical birth.

But before you read it let's put it into historical, local, political, and a doula's context.

When I was in my twenties the cesarean rate was rising. Like my sister-in-law most of these women were being sectioned the first time for something called cephalopelvic disproportion. This means the baby's head (cephalo) is too big (disproportion) to fit through mom's passageway (pelvic). How did they figure this out? Two ways. One was a labor that wasn't progressing at the rate of speed the medical community agreed was normal at that time. I say "at that time" because I have worked with plenty of local doctors who no longer practice with this older time frame model in mind. Or before she ever began labor they might xray the mom , take measurements and make a determination without even a trial of labor. Of course this practice has now been abandoned. Xraying moms; it sounds crazy doesn't it? Guess what! We still routinely ultrasound moms who have gone past their due date and one of the things the doctor does is make a recommendation to your OB or midwife about the possible size of your baby and whether you should be sectioned for...wait for it...here it comes...cephalopelvic disproportion or possible shoulder dystocia (shoulders to big to fit) before you even try!

The second reason women were being operated on to give birth was the fact that they had been operated on to give birth. This was the era of "once a cesarean, always a cesarean". The surgical technique of the time was to cut the mom vertically from below the ribs to the pubic bone. This classical cut was associated with a high rate of rupture during future labors. The ghost of this fear based on the rupture rate of classical incisions is still with us today in the doctor's office when women discuss their "options" for future births. It is still in women's hearts too, passed down to them from their mother's birth era.

When I was in my thirties things were changing. The medical community had realized the cesarean rate was sky rocketing and they needed to do something about it. Surgical technique for incisions and suturing had changed; the "bikini cut" had come into vogue, and the risk of rupture had been significantly reduced. Also consumers had put pressure on the medical establishment by taking matters into their own hands; either birthing out of hospitals all together to achieve their V-BAC, or going into the hospital late in labor and refusing to undergo a repeat surgery. Doulas were being asked to labor sit at home with these moms and try to bring them to the hospital at the last moment. These brave pioneers proved women could safely and successfully labor and birth vaginally after a previous surgical birth. They proved V-BAC was a viable option for many women. I remember Dr. Clutter and Dr. Lickness being our first local doctors to support women in this choice.

When I was in my late thirties it was the norm to at least go through a "trial of labor" before deciding to section a woman again. Some of our doctors were much more liberal in their "trials" than other local doctors. As a doula I often felt I had to match wits with some of our more scalpel ready doctors to keep my clients out of the operating room. Another positive change was our local certified nurse midwives being allowed by their supervising doctors to V-BAC women in all our hospitals. Sandy Rodriguez and JoAnne Tarkington caught many, many a successful V-BAC baby.

By my forties the pendulum was swinging back. The fear of uterine rupture was again haunting doctors' offices and labor rooms. A study came out showing that V-BAC women had a greater chance of rupturing than nonV-BAC women. This study lumped all women together without taking into account if the mom went into labor on her own or if she was induced. It also didn't make any distinction as to the method used for induction. (Remember that wonderful induction drug Cytotec? This is the era it is becoming more popular among the medical community. Don't know about Cytotec? Read my piece, Let's Talk about Off Label Use, Cytotec and You.) In reponse to the study the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) came out with guidelines requiring hospitals to have anesthesiologists waiting in the hospital the entire time a V-BAC mom labored. Most hospitals found this a financial, practical, legal and bureaucratic impossibility. For a brief time all V-BACs were shut down at our hospitals. Luckily for us Sierra Vista took the bold step of contracting with our local anesthesiologists for enough coverage to allow Sierra Vista to offer the V-BAC option to women in our community. But it is the only hospital within hundreds of miles to do so! I recently had a client who moved back from Santa Barbara to Atascadero just so she could successfully V-BAC at Sierra. ACOGs guidelines also required OBs to be standing by throughout potentially long labors. For many doctors' practices this was a practical, geographic, and financial impossibility. So if your OB's office was located physically close enough to Sierra Vista you could V-BAC, if not you could not. And of course our wonderful nurse midwives were no longer "skilled" enough to catch V-BAC babies. I will never forget the last V-BAC I was at with Sandy and JoAnn. My client had been told she could V-BAC with them but when she was in labor in the hospital she was told the supervising doctors could no longer advise she go for a vaginal birth because she was past her due date. My client decided to refuse to say yes to another surgery. Sandy supported her decision and JoAnn did a great job catching a beautiful healthy baby girl. I have never been more proud of three women in my life. Meanwhile women continue to safely V-BAC with our licensed midwives at home and with doctors at Sierra Vista every day.

When I was fifty I was hired as a doula by a woman who was trying to find some way to not end up with a second operative birth. She was caught in a terrible bind. Her due date fell at a time when one of our homebirth midwives was not practicing and the other was already over committed trying to service all the local women who wanted to birth at home. Her MediCal doctor had deemed her too great a risk for V-BAC and wanted her to have a repeat operation. He put her under extreme pressure to agree to a surgical birth, even sending her a certified letter saying he had explained the risks to her of not agreeing to a surgical birth and requiring her to get a notarized signature. Although the nurse midwives wer supportive of her desire they could not help her. It was suggested to her that she labor at home with me for as long as possible, then come to the hospital and refuse the surgery. You tell me how it can possibly be a good choice to labor at home without a skilled medical attendant, with a woman who has more risk of things going wrong, without anyone who can take the baby's heart tones or has any emergency equipment or training? This is an impossible position to put doulas in. My client called me late into her labor and when I arrived at her home it was quickly obvious to me she would be pushing soon. I told her we needed to go to the hospital and she begged me to stay with her at home and catch her baby. She told me she trusted me. I told her I couldn't do it, I had no equipment and no experience. I convinced her to go to the hospital and she ended up with another c-section. An outcome that will weigh on both our hearts forever.

In the last few months I have seen another change on the horizon. I believe we are witnessing a new V-BAC era being born. There have been a flurry of studies, articles and announcements about the concern over the rise in our national cesarean rate, balancing risks of repeat c-sections versus v-bac and a woman's right to choose. The National Institute of Health came out with their finding which has pushed ACOG to review it's guidelines and make their own announcement. Read Neergaard's great article to see where we are headed.

By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical Writer

Most women who've had a C-section, and many who've had two, should be allowed to try labor with their next baby, say new guidelines - a step toward reversing the "once a cesarean, always a cesarean" policies taking root in many hospitals.

Wednesday's announcement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists eases restrictions on who might avoid a repeat C-section, rewriting an old policy that critics have said is partly to blame for many pregnant women being denied the chance.
Fifteen years ago, nearly 3 in 10 women who'd had a prior C-section gave birth vaginally the next time. Today, fewer than 1 in 10 do.

Last spring, a National Institutes of Health panel strongly urged steps to reverse that trend, saying a third of hospitals and half of doctors ban women from attempting what's called VBAC, for "vaginal birth after cesarean."

The new guidelines declare VBAC a safe and appropriate option for most women - now including those carrying twins or who've had two C-sections - and urge that they be given an unbiased look at the pros and cons so they can decide whether to try.

Women's choice is "what we want to come through loud and clear," said Dr. William Grobman of Northwestern University, co-author of the guidelines. "There are few times where there is an absolute wrong or an absolute right, but there is the importance of shared decision-making."

Overall, nearly a third of U.S. births are by cesarean, an all-time high. Cesareans can be lifesaving but they come with certain risks - and the more C-sections a woman has, the greater the risk in a next pregnancy of problems, some of them life-threatening, like placenta abnormalities or hemorrhage.

The main debate with VBAC: That the rigors of labor could cause the scar from the earlier surgery to rupture. There's less than a 1 percent chance of that happening, the ACOG guidelines say. Also, with most recently performed C-sections, that scar is located on a lower part of the uterus that's less stressed by contractions.

Of those who attempt VBAC, between 60 percent and 80 percent will deliver vaginally, the guidelines note. The rest will need a C-section after all, because of stalled labor or other factors. Success if more likely in women who go into labor naturally - although induction doesn't rule out an attempt - and less likely in women who are obese or are carrying large babies, they say.
Thus the balancing act that women and their doctors weigh: A successful VBAC is safer than a planned repeat C-section, especially for women who want additional children - but an emergency C-section can be riskier than a planned one.

Because of those rare uterine ruptures, the obstetricians' group has long recommended that only hospitals equipped for immediate emergency C-sections attempt VBACs. Many smaller or rural hospitals can't do that, and that recommendation plus high-dollar lawsuits have been blamed for some hospital VBAC bans.

"Restricting access was not the intention," the new guidelines say. They say hospitals ill-equipped for immediate surgery should help women find care elsewhere, have a plan to manage uterine ruptures anyway, and not coerce a woman into a repeat C-section.

Educating women about their options early enough in pregnancy for them to make an informed choice is key, said Dr. F. Gary Cunningham of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who chaired the NIH panel on repeat C-sections.

It requires a fair portrayal of risks and benefits that can differ by patient, added Dr. Howard Minkoff of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., which has women sign a special VBAC consent after counseling yet has a higher-than-average VBAC rate of 30 percent.

"There's no doubt that how things get framed influences how people act," he said.

While the guidelines cannot force hospital policy changes, some women's groups welcomed them.
"I feel like ACOG has really listened to how their previous policies have impacted women," said Barbara Stratton of the International Cesarean Awareness Network's Baltimore chapter, adding that she'll advise women seeking a VBAC to hand a copy of the guidelines to caregivers who balk.
But she called for reducing overuse of first-time C-sections, too, so that repeats become less of an issue.
Read more: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/07/21/1223164/new-guidelines-aim-to-reduce-repeated.html#ixzz0uQm4tHXf

Let's Talk about Off Label Use, Cytotec and You

2010-07-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

So you're pregnant. Congratulations! Guess what? Parenting starts now. It doesn't begin after you bring your baby home or even the moment your baby is in your arms. No, your role as protector and nurturer begins from the moment you first realized you were pregnant. You will have a larger role in your child's life than anyone else. You will know your child better than anyone else. You will make more decisions for your child than anyone else and those decisions are more likely to be purely out of a desire to do what is best for your child than anyone else. Being a responsible parent starts now.

What does this have to do with off label use of medications? This has to do with the protector part of your parental responsibilities. So here we go. As I explained in my previous post, "More on Why Women Need to Question Authority" a doctor can legally prescribe a medication for a use for which it has never been tested, in other words no FDA approval. This is called off label use. Apparently this practice is surprisingly common in the medical world.

So what would you do if your doctor came to you when you were pregnant and said, "I want to use drug X on you. It has never been tested for safety in pregnant women or their babies but there is some evidence that it may be effective for your situation." Unless your medical situation was dire most women would say, "Are you kidding? No way!"

What if you went to a prenatal appointment and your doctor or midwife said, "There is a new drug, X, which they are starting to test for FDA approval that might help with keeping blood pressure down during pregnancy. I'd like to sign you and your baby up to be part of the drug trial. Are you interested?" It is hard for me to imagine the mom who would answer, "Sure sign us up!"

So how do they find out if a drug is effective and safe during pregnancy, labor and birth? By doing an end run around you and the safeguards that are in place to protect us from unsafe medications. They go off label. Most medications we commonly use in pregnancy and birth were originally given experimentally on women without their real understanding or consent to the process. Then they collect data in hindsight and try to figure out what is truly OK to be using on us.

Marilyn talks about an example familiar to many of us in her comment on my earlier piece,
"I totally agree with you Jennifer. My mother was given thalidomide for nausea in the 60's and subsequently had three miscarriages and was never able to conceive again."

Most of us have heard about thalidomide babies but we make the mistake of assuming nothing like that could be happening now. That was the kind of thing they used to do in the past before women were treated as equals, right?

Now you are ready to talk about Cytotec. Do you remember the questions I posed in my earlier post?
"Are you seeing a doctor that will induce you if you go past a certain calendar date? Are you worried about being induced? Concerned about ending up on the dreaded "pit drip"? What if your doctor whom you trust said, "don't worry. We're not going to use Pitocin. We're going to use this little tiny pill instead. You won't even need to be hooked to an IV and it is perfectly safe for you and your baby." What would you think? What would you do?"

If facing a labor induction most women would say yes to their doctor or midwife. Their fear of a Pitocin induced labor, which they have heard plenty of bad things about from sisters, mothers and friends, coupled with their fear of ending up with a c-section, added to their trust in their care provider to never do anything to harm them or their babies, and their assumption this pill has been FDA tested for safety in labor, will lead most of them to say yes to their doctor. You have just become an unwitting lab rat.

The truth about Cytotec also known as Misoprostol:

From Wikipedia
In August 2000, Searle—the manufacturer of misoprostol—distributed a letter warning against the use of misoprostol in pregnant women. The letter cited reports of uterine rupture and death associated with using misoprostol to induce labor. Other rare complications include amniotic fluid embolism (a very rare complication which usually results in maternal and fetal death) It is difficult to determine if misoprostol causes a higher risk than do other cervical ripening agents. One estimate is that it would require approximately 61,000 patients enrolled in randomized controlled trials to detect a clinically significant difference in serious fetal complications and approximately 155,000 patients to detect a clinically significant difference in serious maternal complications.

Enter the lab rats. Where on earth are they going to get 155,000 pregnant women to sign up for their experiment? So instead they use Cytotec off label on many more women than 155,000. They have to use many more lab rats because no one is writing down the data. No one is setting up a control group. No one is following up! It takes much more momentum of bad outcomes for moms and babies before the collective consciousness of the medical community realizes the mistake they made.

So how did we get here with Cytotec? When they were testing this drug for it's intended use as an ulcer medication they discovered it was an abortifacient, in other words it caused women to go into labor and miscarry or abort. Someone had the bright idea to use it at the end of pregnancy to cause women to go into labor and birth their babies.

Since there had been no testing for dosing levels for labor induction they needed to wing it. Cytotec is a small white pill. It is only sold in 100ug tablets. They began placing it inside women up against their cervix's where it would slowly be absorbed into the blood stream. Through trial and error they have learned that the best dose is one quarter of one pill or 25ug. Searle the drug manufacturer continues to not sell it in 25ug because they don't want to be legally responsible for what may happen next to you and your baby.

Here comes the tricky part, Pitocin can also cause uterine hyperstimulation which left unchecked can lead to uterine rupture. Here is the difference in what I have seen with my clients. When Cytotec is used they place the pill and wait. With some of my moms absolutely nothing happens, nada, zippo, no contractions at all. Then we all have to wait many hours before they can either try placing a second dose or transfer over to Pitocin. With some moms it works like a charm. They start into strong labor and birth their baby. But what happens to the third group of moms? They get into trouble. Their contractions are coming too strong and too close together. Their baby begins to go into fetal distress. The nurse and doctor have no way of retrieving the pill. They have no way of turning it down or turning it off. With Pitocin they try to find the level of medication which will be strong enough to cause you to contract effectively enough to dilate while not causing contractions so strong they can rupture your uterus or that your baby can't handle. I have seen this dance many times with Pitocin. With Cytotec there is only one way to "rescue" the situation they have created; perform a surgical birth. The mom is rushed down to the OR and she is cut open. Voila! What a lucky thing you had your baby in the hospital otherwise who knows what would have happened!

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists holds that substantial evidence supports the use of misoprostol for induction of labor, a position it reaffirmed in 2000 in response to the Searle drug company disclaimer letter.

When you google Cytotec up come all the law firms preparing cases for grieving families.

Remember Marilyn whose mom took thalidomide? Here's what she had to say as a conscientious parent, "Good rule of thumb - don't take ANYTHING while you're pregnant and before you agree to anything after your child is born - conduct a full spectrum of medical professionals - talk to top homeopathic practitioners, and SEVERAL medical practitioners before you make any decisions. You owe it to yourself and your child to do your homework - don't take anything doctors tell you at face value."

Congratulations on a Successful V-BAC!

2010-07-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Anna,

Thank you for letting me share in your journey. Your acceptance of the challenges and possible risks along your path are an inspiration. You never lost sight of your strong belief that women were meant to have babies. You embody true female empowerment which is vulnerable, thoughtful, physical and heroic. Congratualtions on bringing into this world your beautiful 9 pound 13 ounce baby girl, Paloma!

Understanding U.S. Birth Trends & How They Might Effect You

2010-06-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Currently there is a lot of buzz about our high cesarean section rate and trying to lower it. Why? Because the statistics are starting to bear out what many of us have been saying for years, that doing more cesareans doesn't mean better care or better results. Furthermore that moms are getting a tremendous amount of pressure from their doctors to have C-sections and that c-sections put moms at more risk with no improvement in benefits for babies. This video is a good explaination of current trends in our birth culture and medical practices. It goes on to show how these trends are effecting our cesarean section rates, maternal out-comes and baby out-comes.

My thoughts on the statistics coming out about c-sections:

What an outrage has been perpetrated on women yet again! The rising birth surgery rate in the last 10 years is an appalling abuse of power. This is just one more time in a long list of times when our society's views on women and it's values of pursuing science and money have blended with the male dominated medical model to put women in harms way. Women, just as other minorities within our culture, have been used and abused at the alter of the medical machine once again.

Young mother's today haven't grown up with the mantra, "Question Authority!" or the understanding of the true balance of power between men and women built into our system. They have grown up in a Hillary Clinton world where women like Meg Whitman appear to be able to have a firm grasp on the levers of power in the financial and political world. They don't understand that these women are an aberration. They are an illusion. In the world I live in thousands of women everyday are being lied to or at the very least subltly manipulated into turning their bodies over for someone else's monetary gain. And the propoganda is so good most of them have no idea what just happened to them. They actually believe that their rapists are their saviors. How sick is that? They arrive home dazed and in pain with only one clear thought, how grateful they are to their doctor for saving them and their baby.

I have one thing to say to young women today, "Wake up!! Stop drinking the kool-aid! Question Authority!" Just because Authority wears a white lab coat and has a degree behind the desk doesn't mean he or she has only your best interest at heart. Don't let yourself be a cog in the wheel of the great machine. Take a cue from your hippie sisters of the sixties and reclaim your right to your bodies and your births. You deserve it.

GET EDUCATED! WATCH THIS VIDEO: http://www.lamaze.org/OnlineCommunity/LamazeVideoLibrary/LamazeVideoPlayer/TabId/808/VideoId/4/Birth-By-The-Numbers.aspx

Good News about V-BACS!

2010-06-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

Women need to think twice before they put their lives at risk by saying yes to a repeat elective cesarean! This was just forwarded to me from our local ICAN chapter leader about a new VBAC safety study:

Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Found to be Safer for Moms than an Elective Repeat Cesarean

A study appearing in the June edition of the journal Obstetrics andGynecology reviews evidence about maternal and neonatal outcomes relating to vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). The study authors identified relevant studies from multiple searches of MEDLINE, DARE and the Cochrane data bases(1980 to September 2009) and from recent systematic reviews, reference lists, editorials, Web sites and experts. Overall, there were low rates of maternal harm for both trial of labor and elective repeat cesarean delivery. Maternal mortality rates were higher for elective repeat cesarean delivery at 0.013% compared with 0.004% for trial of labor. Rates of maternal hysterectomy, hemorrhage and transfusions were similar for both trial of labor and elective repeat cesarean delivery. Perinatal mortality was increased for trial of labor (0.13% compared with 0.05% for elective repeat cesarean delivery. The study authors concluded that VBAC is a reasonable choice for the majority of women, since adverse outcomes were rare.

To access the full study online, go to: http://journals.%20lww.com/greenjou%20rnal/Fulltext/%202010/06000/%20Vaginal_Birth_%20After_Cesarean_%20_New_Insights_%20on.25.aspx

ICAN of SLO: icanslo@yahoo.com

A Letter to Baby Jalilah

2010-05-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Jalilah,

I hope you will come to know your mother as I know her. I wish you could have seen how hard she worked, how much she cared and how difficult her path. She is a powerful woman who will perservere and survive against incredible odds. I know she has so much to give you. Now that the first difficult weeks of colic and latch on and lack of sleep and healing are fading the blessings of motherhood can flourish and grow. Love her little Jalilah all of her days because I know she loves you with all of her heart.