In addition to my doula work, I also babysit. On Monday I get to start watching a little 5 month old! I am very excited about this. I am also excited that her mom an I have similar parenting philosophies and feel the same about many things. Baby is exclusively breastfed.
Right now the baby goes to daycare at the Mom’s work. Mom and I were going over things the other day and mom asked if I needed a red band around baby’s bottles. She informed me that the daycare requires this, as breastmilk is a bodily function/secretion, and is considered a biohazardous material.
I told mom that there was no WAY I wanted her to do this. I could not believe this was done!! Honestly I feel formula would be more of a biohazard tan something that is created specifically for a baby!
I am so bothered by this. I think alot of younger unmarried women tend to work at daycare centers. And this is something that could totally put them off from breastfeeding their own child one day. What are we teaching our children, our young adults? We are conditioning them to think that what our body does is gross!!
Why do we do this? Now don’t get me wrong, I feel formula has a place. I do feel everyone should have the choice on how they feed their own child. But I just wish that we would give good balanced info and not condition our youth to think this is a gross practice.

http://www.fertilitycarefriends.org/hoperetreat.html

This sounds like an awesome day, set up by a good friend. If you are suffering from infertility, you should look into going!!

Newborns like to be close to their mom, dad, older siblings, grandparents… There is no better way to keep them close than to wear them in a baby carrier. There are many different types of baby carriers. The Sleepy Wrap is one of the many wonderful options you have. Please go to their website for more information.
www.sleepywrap.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8483149.stm

A three-month pilot of the Care Bundle scheme found 73% of women given it did not need any clinical intervention to deliver their babies.

The Caesarean rate was 13.5%, compared to 37.5% among mothers who did not take part in the pilot in the Swansea area.

The package has been shortlisted for a Royal College of Midwives award.

It was devised by consultant midwife Maggie Davies and senior midwife Elizabeth Rees at the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Trust, which covers hospitals in Swansea, Neath and Bridgend.

Six actions for the latent stage of labour
L - Look and listen
A - assess maternal observations
T - Time
E - Encouragement
N - Non-pharmalogical pain relief
T - Telephone

Source: ABM University Trust
The early stage of labour is known as the latent phase, and the midwives believed if this stage was managed well, the woman had a better chance of having a normal delivery with less pain.

The care package offers plenty of one-to-one time to women either in person or by telephone.

The midwives listen to the mother’s concerns, offer information, care and support and help boost their confidence in their ability to give birth without intervention.

Ms Davies said: “We introduced it as a pilot across ABM between August and October 2009 and the outcomes are very encouraging.

“Not only have we had very positive feedback from the women who received the care, but midwives have also seen the benefits.”

Following the pilot which ran from August to October last year, 40 mothers’ deliveries were reviewed.

Of those who took part, 11% did not use any pain relief at all, and 21% used paracetamol to take the edge off the pain.

More women also used natural pain relief like birthing pools.

Catrin Roberts, 34, from Swansea, gave birth to her first child Jac Dafydd at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend.

She said: “I can’t praise the service enough. The midwives were reassuring and made me feel they knew what they were doing. I felt like I was having individual care.

“This was my first baby and I didn’t know what to expect and I was frightened. But they reassured me that everything was going to be OK and helped make the experience much more pleasurable.”

More ABM University Trust midwives will now be trained to use the Care Bundle, and the approach will be adapted for other areas of care for new mothers.

The RCM awards are taking place on Wednesday evening, with the ABM project in the running for a “Research into Practice” category award.

“Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers ~ strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.”
Barbara Katz Rothman

Quick, think of birth……. what comes to your mind first? For many it is pain, screaming, lots of time, hospitals, water…
So many things go through my mind when one saus birth. But ultimately I would have to say it is baby. For many birth = baby.You get pregnant, you go into labor you have a baby. Every year you celebrate this baby.
But we forget… we forget that a mother is born with each baby. We need to remember that within that first moment we find out we are pregnant, a mother is being formed, just as surely as the cells inside are forming a baby.
With each birth a strong, intelligent, smart, amazing mother is born. This mother needs to know that she knows her baby. She is the expert. She holds the answers to this tiny being.
Every year the baby is celebrated on it’s birthday, as it should be. But the mother should be celebrated too. The strong, competent, capable mothers should to be celebrated also.

As I prepare for a prenatal visit with a client today, I thought I’d brush up on a few common questions thatare asked. One question is always : “Why would we NOT do the Vit. K shot, if it is routine?”

I always answer this with:
“You need to do your research, and find out what you are most comfortable with.”
And then we go into the pros and cons of this routine procedure.
As I am not perfect, I like to make sure I am as educated as I can be in my job. So I am often googling, and reading and researching.
Often it is hard to find balancedarticles to read. There seems to be alot of black, and alot of white, but very little grey. It can get very frusterating, as I feel my job is to present the black and white, but I also need grey.

So to get to the point, I came across this article today and found it interesting.. read it for yourself and see what you think!

http://drbenkim.com/vitamin-K-shot-baby.html

Are you looking for a doula to complete your birth team? DO you know someone who may be thinking of having a doula at their birth? Please pass my info on!! I am booking clients for 2010!! I am offering a discount for Feb. Births!! Contact me to get more information.
Do not forget about my classeds!! There are multi class discounts. I am also hapy to tailor any class to fit your needs!!

Do not forget to check us out on FB and twitter!!
FB: Peaceful Beginnings Doula Service.
Twitter: PBDoulaservice.

” EVERY ACCOMPLISHMENT STARTS WITH THE DECISION TO TRY ”

Another doula had this in their facebook status(Hound Hill Doula). I do not know if she came up with it herself, or what. But I love it!!
Lets think about this for a minute….. Every Accomplishment starts with the decision to try. Yes.. it is true… if you do not every try, how will you ever accomplish anything? If you did not try to learn how to drive a car, you would never be able to drive. If you did not try to train your dog, you would have an unruly, misbehaved animal. If you did not try to learn to read, well, you would miss out on my awesome blogs!! LOL!
So think of this.. if you do not TRY for the labor and birth you dream of, you can not accomplish it. If you do not think it, it can not be. If you decide with out trying that it won’t happen, it simply won’t. So set you goals. Make a plan. Decide what you want, and then do more than TRY….. ACCOMPILSH!!!!!!!!

“The moment you define something as ‘difficult’ you give it an unfair advantage.” - Unknown

I just read this on a fellow Doula’s FB status. And I thought, ” I need to blog about that quote!!”
The moment you lable something as difficult you give it an unfair advantage. Let’s apply this thought to labor and birth.
Why do we think labor and birth are so difficult? Why do we hold so much fear, and stress and worry? Why do we think it is such an issue that we need medical intervention every step of the way? Why can we not trust in our bodies and let them do the job they were created to do?
By fearing birth, by labling it “difficult” you are giving that fear your power. We, as women, are strong!! We tend to forget this. We need to realize that we are made to birth babies. Our bodies were created to get babies out!! Yes, I agree there are times when one needs medical intervention. But it should not be the norm.
We need to take our power back!! Take back our control over our births. At that time I think we will see less intervention. Less c section births and more happy, naturally birthed, content women and babies!

“Attending births is like growing roses. You have to marvel at the ones that just open up and bloom at the first kiss of the sun but you wouldn’t dream of pulling open the petals of the tightly closed buds and forcing them to blossom to your time line.” Gloria Lemay

I just read this quote.. and it made me think of the many births I have attended in 2009. Many of my 2009 births were LONG. And I mean like I actually went home for 2 of them to sleep and then went back!! For many I was there over 2 days.
This past weekend I had a birth where I was there for about 3-4 hours. (I got the call at 3:40 am, arrived at the hospital at 5, I think mom and dad arrived about 5:30, baby was born about 7:40 am)
It was a welcome change. I was not nearly as tired. I was not away from my family as long as usual.
But I also felt like I did not get to “hang out” with my client. We missed a bit of bonding (Because their birth is about me right,lol!!)
This quote is so true. A short birth is wonderful for so many reasons.. but I would never trade a long birth for a short one. It would be exactly like trying to pull open the petals of a rose before it is ready. And then you would miss on the beauty of that rose. People think short births are better.. but there is plenty of beauty in a long birth too. And as always, I am lucky to get to be a part of either!!