I just read this article, and I love it. My oldest will be turning 13 in about a week and a half. 13! I feel like I was just getting ready for my first birth and baby, and now we are entering into the teen years….

Http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janell-burley-hofmann/ode-to-adolescence_b_1335609.html?ref=parents&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

I find this article very interesting:

Http://www.wfmj.com/story/17119878/when-unneeded-induced-labor-may-increase-complications

I need to get back into blogging….. this is my start….
I need to build my business up. I would like a more steady flow of clients. I welcome any ideas that could help with this. I am interested in finding ways to expand my services.. maybe placenta encapsulation? I am looking into becoming a midwife assistant. I am thinking strongly about expanding my service area….I can teach classes, but I find I am more comfortable not teaching. I would love more post partum clients. I love working with new families and helping oarents find their “flow”.
So we shall see what the future holds for us here at PBDS! Hopefully lots of good things!! I look forward to working with my families… new and old!!!

http://www.normalfed.com/Starting/hat.html

Off With Their Hats?

Your beautiful baby is born after a perfect birth. You hold him against your chest, drop your head, and take a deep, soul-filling breath of his… hat?? Where did the hat come from? Watch a mainstream childbirth video, and you’ll probably see hands swoop in right away to settle a hat on that still-wet head. But why?

The hat is probably a hold-over from the days when newborns were whisked away from their mothers and had to maintain their body temperatures abnormally, with no vast and loving Mama-furnace to lie against. Babies are now kept with their mothers, but instead of receiving the embrace of a blanket that says, “Here, mother and baby, warm yourselves as one,” there is the swift descent of a hat that says, “Here, baby, it’s a cold world, and you are on your own in it.”

But is it a good thing to do? Well, if mother and baby are kept in skin contact there’s certainly no research to say that a hat is helpful. There is research to indicate that in the event of a brain bleed following the delivery, cooling the baby’s head is important. And we certainly know a hat changes a newborn’s appearance from the wise look of someone from a distant star to the slightly goofy look of someone returning from a successful shopping expedition. Is there a hat because all commercial ventures – even hospitals – like to give the customers a free gift? Is it there because others want to demonstrate control? Because someone thinks it’s cute, like the gratuitous bow at the dog groomer’s?

<>The hat interferes with those first raw gazes that you and your baby have toward each other. It’s one more pair of hands intervening at a time when you want the rest of the world to disappear. It interferes with your ability to smell and feel your newborn. There is no research supporting its use. It is a holdover from those strange times when babies were not kept with their mothers post-birth. Mother Nature made many human newborns furry-topped but many others bald. If a warm head at birth were that important, wouldn’t all human babies be furry-topped?

Without the hat, a mother dips her head down to s-n-i-f-f and rub her cheek and breathe, and the very presence of her face and cheeks and breath warm and dry the top of the baby’s head and perhaps contribute to that early, life-long, crazy-glue love affair. Put a hat on, and Mama doesn’t sniff, or rub her cheeks, or perform any of those other innate little head-top rituals, or if she does, she doesn’t get the same feedback. Does it matter? Who knows? But we do know that there’s no research to support the hat. And we don’t know how important it is not to have it. Trust yourself to mother well, be alert to the many tiny intrusions on this self-sufficient system, keep your baby with you… and let the outsiders wear the hat if they like.

©2008 Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC 136 Ellis Hollow Creek Road Ithaca, NY 14850 www.wiessinger.baka.com

Just the other day I had the honor of watching a Mom listen to her body. She birthed her baby her way and was AMAZING! This mom stayed relaxed and in control the ENTIRE time.
Welcome to the world Beautiful Baby H. Your parents worked so well together and it was an honor to be a part of your birth.

“There is power that comes to women when they give birth. They don’t ask for it, it simply invades them. Accumulates like clouds on the horizon and passes through, carrying the child with it.” Sheryl Feldman

The above quote is so true. And I dream that each woman gets to feel that power. So many women these days say they just want the epidural, and they fear the pain. But we need to realize, we are STRONG! We were made to birth babies, and we are powerful. To numb that power, to give it to the dr.. well it takes away from us as women. Each woman has the power inside of them. Each woman has the ability to birth… I just wish more could feeel the power….

Now this is not to say drug free birth is for every woman. I would never suggest such a thing. I just wish more women would give it a try. Because you might just be stronger than you think…..

I am very excited to be taking on another birth client!! It has been almost a year since my last client. (Well I had a client in October, but I was hired on the same day as the birth, and it was a super fast birth.) Between my family, and some struggles we were having and feeling a little bit of burnout, I am excited to have just been hired for a May birth!! I can not wait to help this couple become a family. To see thier new little baby come into the world. YAY!

Recently while I was at the beach, I found myself sitting watching the waves. ON this day the waves were very calm and slow. Just the day before they had been quite rough and almost dangerous. My brain started to think and reflect upon birth and labor.
We are conditioned to think that we NEED contractions to be fast and furious. We are told they MUST be 2-3 minutes apart and over a minute long to produce a baby. And as I sat and watched the waves, these calm slow waves, it hit me!! The tide was still going to come in. Even with very little wave activity, the tide would still come in.
In my mind I often equate labor pain and waves as very similar. There is the start , the height and then the ride down. This is known. This is unavoidable. This must happen.
BUT, do we NEED the peak to be super crazy high and out of control? Do we need the contractions to come so close together to bring about a healthy baby?
As I was thinking these thoughts, I was reflecting back on my last doula client’s birth. This Momma was in control. She stayed on top of her contractions. She rode the waves like a seasoned surfer. (She was a first time momma). As each contraction came, she relaxed down into it and took it on head first.
y the time we got to the hospital Momma was 8 cms, and still in control. BUT! Momma was only contracting every 6-9 minutes!! How could this be? How could she get to 8 cm and only contract 6-9 minutes apart?
Momma went on to achieve a drug free beautiful birth. All with contractions that never got any closer together. Now this goes against everything we are conditioned to know. But it goes back to simplicity. Simply put, if left alone, our bodies know what to do. If left alone, our bodies will get the baby out. If left alone, we CAN achieve our goals.
Much like the ocean… it can be rough and have waves coming back to back.. or it can be still, and only have a wave here or there. Either way, the tide will come in and go out. In much the same way, our body will get the baby out……

“We’ve put birth in the same category with illness and disease and it’s never belonged there. Birth is naturally safe, but we’ve allowed it to be taken over by the medical community.” -Carla Hartley, Ancient Art Midwifery Institute

I often find I wonder what we have done to birth in this society. In our society we are sort of brainwashed to believe our doctors know everything there is to know about birth.
When in reality, WE, as women, as the experts on our own bodies. How can a Dr. who has met us a handful of times know when conception has occurred? As women, we should know our bodies enough to have an idea as to when this would have occurred. And based on this knowledge we should be able to figure out an accurate estimated due date. Sadly, Dr.’s base our EDD on a general cycle length, and give out a general EDD. This leads to a time line being put on your pregnancy. In most cases it is already decided that you will have your baby before 42 weeks gestation. (But remember, this is based on every woman having the same exact cycles.)
From the minute we step into the OB’s office, we are “treating” pregnancy. But the question is, what are we treating it for? Pregnancy is not a disease. It is not an affliction. It is not something that can be “cured” or treated. It is something to enjoy. To relish. To savor. Each woman should take the time during pregnancy to read. To educate themselves on what choices they have while they are pregnant. Each woman needs to know that she can choose where she wants to give birth, who she wants to be there and most importantly HOW she wants to birth. It does not make one difference weather she wants to have an epidural from the first contraction and be in a hospital or if she wants to go completely unassisted in the middle of the woods. As long as each woman educates herself and knows what to expect and is happy with the birth outcome, THAT is what matters…
We need to remember that birth is safe. Birth is natural. And we need to bring it back to that. We need to stop “treating” it and start empowering ourselves. Start taking that control back. Start to have faith in ourselves again. When we do that, we will see a change in our birth culture. And it WILL be for the better.

Thought this was too good not to share:

http://www.bloomspokane.com/2009/07/05/hiring-a-doula-a-husbands-perspective/