Concerned about the upcoming flu season? Debating whether or not to get your kids vaccinated? Thinking about the inevitable doctors, and possibly, ER visits? And what about your baby?
Well now it’s time to get excited because there is something cheap, easy, and safe that you can do to prevent sickness! It’s the gift of nutritional food. Replacing foods that weaken your immune system with foods that strengthen your body will go a long way to preventing you and your family from catching viruses. Plus, if you do get sick, healthy eating can lesson the effects of viruses, and eliminate them much faster than anitbiotics (without all the risks)!
Creamy Carrot Soup
I highly recommend the following three books. Any one of them will get you started on your way to a healthier family through the foods you eat:
The Naturally Healthy Pregnancy by Shonda Parker
Disease-Proof Your Child by Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Nutrition for a Healthy Pregnancy by Elizabeth Somer
Posted in Normal Pregnancy | Tags: antibiotics, cold, diet, doctor, flu, food, h1n1, healthy, immune system, medicine, nutrition, seasonal flu, sick, swine flu, vaccine
I bet you can think of at least one woman you know who had a difficult birth because of a baby in an awkward position and she didn’t even know that’s what the hangup was. Her labor was probably long, she may have had back labor, she either took a long time to dilate or couldn’t push her baby down very well once she did dilate, and may have had a forceps or vaccum extraction birth, or was given a cesarean section. Maybe you had a birth like this yourself.
Oftentimes, women with labors like this are diagnosed with “failure to progress” or “baby too big to fit syndrome” (also known as CPD). They are led to believe that they will never be able to have a normal birth because their pelvises are not “normal” or because they have a history of big babies or whatever. In reality, very few women are unable to deliver their babies vaginally because of a tight fit. There are very simple ways in which to avoid this situation or to overcome it if it should start to happen in labor.
In order for you to understand what is happening, I will first describe how the baby normally maneuvers through his mother’s pelvis to be born. Usually the baby is born head first, with his forehead facing the mother’s tailbone. This is ideal because it allows the largest part of the baby’s head (the back of his head) to move under the mother’s pubic bone and slowely open her cervix with minimal stress on either the mother’s bones or the baby’s bones. Here is what it looks like for a baby being born in a perfect position, medically termed “anterior”.
Sometimes, for reasons I will get into, a baby enters into the pelvis in a less than ideal position. Sometimes posterior, with his forehead facing mom’s pubic bone, sometimes facing side ways, or possibly even angled like this. In a normal labor a baby’s head will turn into a few different positions so that it can “corkscrew” it’s way out of the pelvis, it may enter at a posterior position and end at an anterior position, and as long as progress is being made and mom is comfortable this is fine. But if the baby doesn’t want to turn his head he may have a hard time maneuvering the pelvis, or if the mother has bad posture during pregnancy or is in a less than ideal position during labor it may prevent her baby from being able to turn into a good position for birth, and she may have a long difficult labor.
So how does your position during pregnancy affect your baby’s position, and what can you do to encourage him or her to adopt a good position for birth? The way you sit and stand during pregnancy affects what part of your pelvis has the most room, and as your baby gets bigger, he will curl up wherever there is the most room. For example, spending a lot of time in a lazy-boy will cause the weight of your baby’s head to sink toward your spine, resulting in a posterior position. Slouching lessons the amount of space in your abdomen for your baby to have options and he could easily end up lying sideways in your uterus, or with his head at an uncomfortable angle in your pelvis.
Spinningbabies.com has some wonderful tips for encouraging your baby to turn head down and face backwards by the time your labor starts. And if for some reason labor starts with baby in an awkward position, these same tips can help to turn him in labor to make pushing more effective and less difficult for you.
These tips include:
Starting early in pregnancy, or as soon as you read this, will increase your chances of having your baby in a favorable position for an easier birth. If you are unsure of where to start, call your doula or another person who understands fetal positioning to help you get started. For more information on how fetal positioning affects birth, I highly recommend this book by Penny Simpkin.
Posted in Preparing for Childbirth | Tags: anterior, baby, birth, cesarean section, cpd, doctor, doula, failure to progress, forceps, labor, midwife, pelvis, position, posterior, pregnancy, spinningbabies, transverse, vaccuum extraction, vaginal
If you are living in the Oxford Hills area in Maine and expecting a baby in 2010, please contact Birthwise Midwifery School for your doula services. I’ve decided to take the year off from attending births for this coming year so that I can devote more time to my growing family (this of course does not apply to close friends or family who may be expecting). This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is for the best.
Birth a Miracle Services will still be offering childbirth preparation classes, birth counseling sessions, the Babymoon Package at King’s Hill Inn, doula teas, and of course, adding resources to this blog.
I highly recommend the Birthwise Doula Program because it is offered by the school’s midwifery students who are very passionate about serving women during birth. Their service is low cost – only $50 for two prenatal visits, continuous labor support, and one postpartum visit in your home. They also offer a postpartum doula service for $10 an hour, for a minimum of 4 hours. Each of the midwifery students has completed a doula training program, usually DONA or ALACE, and have attended home and/or hospital births.
To learn more about the Birthwise Doula Program, here is their contact information:
Birthwise Midwifery School 24 S. High Street Bridgton, ME 042009 (207) 647-5968 clinicaldirector@birthwisemidwifery.edu www.birthwisemidwifery.edu
When I became pregnant with my first child I knew exactly how I was going to give birth. He would be born at home, possibly in a birth tub, surrounded by my trusted midwives and my family. But it was not to be.
Five weeks before my due date I developed mild hypertension, and I was having trouble raising my iron level. Although my liver was showing no signs of developing preeclampsia, my midwife was still very concerned, so at 38 weeks pregnant, I found myself having to decide what hospital I would birth at, and who would catch my baby. (More on my first birth story here)
A lot of people think that stories like mine are no big deal. Most babies are born in the hospital anyway, right? Thankfully I still had a couple of weeks left to process what was happening, to mourn the loss of my ideal birth, and to decide what my next best choice would be, but many women are not that lucky.
I recently had a conversation with a previous client of mine whose plans to have a water birth at home turned into a cesarean hospital birth during the course of her labor. She had no time to learn about cesareans, to decide who would help her to give birth, or to coem to terms with the change emotionally. And as predicted, well-intentioned family and friends made it sound like it was no big deal. Her baby was healthy, right? She recovered from the surgery right? It’s only birth after all, you have a whole life left of parenting!
Comments like these not only prevent women from heailng from difficult births, they prolong the damage. When we pass off their births we make women feel guilty for not being able to “get over it” or “move on”. Telling a woman who had an unexpected cesarean, a home birth transfer, or a difficult vaginal birth that she should just be greatful for her baby is the equivalent of telling her she is mentally unhealthy and a bad mom to boot.
Courtesy of http://birthlove.cyclzone.com/pages/csec_vbac/meghan.html
Of course, comments like these come from well-meaning people, they just don’t know what else to say. So here’s a message for you, if you know someone who lost something at their birth, or if you are that women: It’s okay to grieve! Cry, yell, cuss, complain, speak against it, write or draw out your thoughts and feelings, tell someone who will listen to you. They can’t fix it, but it needs to be acknowledged that birth is important to women and babies.
Although not so for some women, the majority feel that birth is one of the deepest and most meaningful expressions of their femininity. Having one’s baby cut from their womb, or pulled from out of them (whether necessary or not) leaves them feeling incomplete and wounded. These are normal feelings not to be ignored, surpressed, or underestimated. This rite of passage called birth must be acknowledged for what it is: a highly physical, emotional, spiritual, and yes, sexual event.
You cannot move on or be truly greatful until you have allowed yourself to admit and mourn the loss of your birth. And healing will come. That birth experience will never be better, but you will no longer feel guilty for admitting that.
And perhaps if you have another child your next birth will go differently. After my son was born I went through a lot of emotional work so that my next pregnancy and birth would be different. I am proud of myself for that, and my daughter was born at home as planned.
Please read this woman’s story about healing from a difficult birth. She describes it much better than I ever could.
Posted in Postpartum | Tags: baby, birth, birth center, birth story, childbirth, doctor, doula, get over it, grieve, healthy baby, home birth, hospital, midwife, mothering, move on, parenting, postpartum depression, pregnancy
For the longest time I have been under the impression that the United States’ infant mortality rate is on a downward slide, already much worse than most all other developed countries. The NYT recently reported it as being number 29 on the list.
Most of the top countries attribute their success in few babies dying to the high use of midwives and home birth with good access to OB’s. But my whole belief in this just got turned on it’s head. I recently found a reference to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) who discourages comparison of world-wide infant mortality rates because they are all registered differently.
Some countries count any baby born over 1 pound, others count babies over 12 inches long, others register babies born after 26 weeks of pregnancy, and in the US we count any baby born alive after 22 weeks, I believe. That would mean we would have more babies dying just because of the way we count live births.
Half of infant deaths are due to preterm birth, and a report by U.S. News and World Report in 2006 showed that once you adjust for birth weight our babies the US infant mortality rate is comparable to Norway’s, which we all know is one of the lowest. The high preterm birth rate is probably due in part to higher use of fertility drugs in this country than in other countries.
As of this writing, a healthcare bill is being pushed through Congress which would presumably take effect in 2013. The purpose of H.R.3200 – America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 is essentially to broaden healthcare coverage to those who are not currently insured. It sounds good at first, but the huge debate cross country over this issue has been for good reason. OpenCongress summarizes that this bill includes: “a new government-run insurance plan (a.k.a. a public option) to compete with the private companies, a requirement that all Americans have health insurance, a prohibition on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and, to pay for it all, a surtax on households with an income above $350,000″.
The consequences of allowing the government to have such large scale control over our healthcare would be devastating to our economy, and some countries with national healthcare plans such as this are even backtracking to an open-market system. Yet some well-known natural birth advocates and maternity care providers are pushing hard for a system like this to be put in place in the United States. They argue that countries like Norway, Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden have some of the best outcomes world-wide in maternity care because of the benefits of a national healthcare system; primarily, close working relationships between doctors and alternative healthcare providers, and an established role for home birth and midwives. So the question is, do the presumed benefits of a national healthcare plan outweigh the large-scale consequences?
The answer lies in taking a much closer look at the methods of comparing the United States to countries with national healthcare plans. Using infant and maternal mortality rates, countries are compared to each other to determine who is offering the best healthcare. As I just showed, comparing global infant mortality rates is a highly inaccurate way of comparing healthcare systems, and when you take a closer look at the numbers, the United States is doing far better than many care to admit.
Of course, the countries commonly referred to when discussing who offers the best maternity care are those which have national healthcare plans, but they do have certain features about their maternity care which probably would have a beneficial effect on our own, namely, the high value they place on well-trained home birth midwives, and access to home birth for every healthy woman. And while I look forward to the day when home birth is valued by more Americans, we can be assured that passing this healthcare bill or any comparable bill, will not improve our access to or quality of healthcare, it will not create better access to home birth for our women, and it will absolutely not improve the maternity care our women are receiving.
So, after spending all this time talking about the United States’ infant mortality rate being worse than most other developed countries, I now have to backstep. Something hadn’t felt quite right about it, and I realize now that using a biased organization like the World Health Organiztion for such an important resource is really not a good idea. I will not defend our current infant mortality rate, which should of course be improved, but we can no longer use the reasoning that countries with higher home birth rates have lower rates of death, and we absolutely cannot argue that countries with national healthcare plans offer the best maternity care, because it is just not true.
Instead, we should refer to accurate studies which show the safety of home birth in comparison to hospital birth, and make efforts to improve our current maternity care system based on a free market. More on this in my book, Inspired Birth.
Posted in Complications of Pregnancy and Birth | Tags: h.r. 3200, healthcare, healthcare bill, home birth, infant mortality rates, marsden wagner, maternity care, midwifery, neonatal mortality rate, obstetrics, organization for economic cooperation and development, u.s. news and world report, world health organization
I’ve been putting off this post for a while. I put a lot of things on the back burner but if I wait much longer, there won’t be a 5 Months of Pregnancy post to write!
I am 21 weeks pregnant and I have finally seen my midwife! The last appointment was postponed after her son wound up in the ER for stitches after a hockey accident, but at 20 weeks we managed to get together. Of course, everything is great, baby is growing wonderfully and I’m healthy.
16 weeks
My biggest challenge by far has been fatigue. I don’t remember being this tired before, which doesn’t seem possible because as a mom, you’re almost always tired. But this has been different, so I’ve been working on increasing my protein, iron, and vitamins from natural sources, disciplining myself to go to bed earlier (it’s almost 10pm right now, how am I doing on this on?), and learning how to say no to people.
There is one other thing, twins cannot be ruled out yet. I don’t even like to admit the possibility because I doubt I am pregnant with twins, but the odds keeping stacking up against me! My midwife said we should know for sure around 26 weeks when the baby(s) would go through another growth spurt and we’d be able to feel the number of babies easier. Part of me thinks it would be exciting to have twins, and another part of me is thinking, if we’re having twins, I’m going to do my best to not get pregnant again, possibly for good. Perhaps it’s just the tiredness talking, but I think I’ll be content with 3 or 4 kids to raise.
Other than that it’s life as usual. Home-making, child-rearing, marriage-building (almost 5 years!!), business-boosting, and the seasonal stuff like preparing for winter and the holidays.
20 weeks
Oh, and, if I am having twins, I will still plan to give birth at home, although we may have to find an additional midwife who has had more experience with twins. That is, unless the first baby is breech which would pose more risks and we might have to consider alternatives, but that’s still a ways down the road, and may not need to be considered at all. Just some random thoughts.
Posted in Resources | Tags: acappella, birth, conference, home birth, hypnobirth, men, painless childbirth, singing
Posted in Resources | Tags: home birth, midwives, shoulder dystocia
