This Week In Birth Blogs is a weekly blog round-up of birth related blog posts.
(I give up – Friday is clearly not a good day, so I’m permanently switching to Saturday.)

Birth Stories:

• Our Birth Story (Planned Cesarean)
• Capturing Birth Stories (Tips for Photoblogging a Birth)
• Baby Jaxson Birth Story (Photoblog)
• Betsey’s Birth Story (Born at 26 weeks)
• Jamie’s Birth Story (Hospital Birth with Midwife)
• I is for Induction: Gabriella’s Birth

Breastfeeding:

• Can Breastfeeding Protect from ADHD?
• Breastfeeding in Public: Tips to Hide Your Nips
• How Formula Can Complement Breastfeeding
• An Open Letter to Moms Who Think Formula is Poison

Postpartum/Parenting:

• I am Mother with You
• Surprise! I’m Still Me
• 5 Tips for Postpartum Care
• Do I Tell Him? Life With an Autistic Son
• Most Useless Baby Stuff: Newborn Edition

Maternal Health and Childbirth Advocacy:

• What’s a Woman To Do? {Choices Ripped Away}
• Help Change The Birth Crisis in Your Area with These Tips
• Write for VBAC Facts: Hospital VBAC Ban Reversals
• Birth Activists Unite!
• Listening to Mothers III Survey Reveals Need For Improvements in Information, Communication in US Maternal Healthcare

Infertility and Loss:

• Moments of His Grief
• Jess’ Infertility Journey
• Moving Past a Loss

Doulas:

• Sometimes You Need a Doula to Birth Your Inner Mother
• How To Have a Boy or a Girl (A Doula Reveals Her Secret)
• The Doula as a Witness

Midwifery:

• The Hairy Midwife: Inviting All Birth Professionals
• Midwife Charged with Manslaughter Takes Plea Deal
• Why I’m Seeing a Midwife Instead of a Doctor
• Born Into My Hands: My First Births as a Primary Midwife Under Supervision

To submit your blog post for inclusion in This Week in Birth Blogs, please send your URL and a brief description in an email to Kate: katedonahue@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is Friday (each week) at 8pm (in Portland, Oregon).

Read More:

..................................................................

This post, This Week in Birth Blogs #5 originally appeared on Portland MamaBaby Center on May 18, 2013. Thanks for reading!

..................................................................

This Week In Birth Blogs is a weekly blog round-up of birth related blog posts. (Sorry it’s a little late this week!)

Birth Stories:

• “When They Say Everyone’s Different, They Aren’t Kidding!”
• Nora’s Birth Story (Birthing Center)
• My No Regrets Birth Story (CBAC)

Breastfeeding:

• Ask Questions First, Prescribe Later When She Needs Breastfeeding Support
• 35 Tips and Tricks for Pumping Mamas
• Shanna Moakler: Breastfeeding is sexual… and incestual [sic]

Postpartum/Parenting:

• Five Things Mothers Want Fathers to Know
• 35 New Mom Blogs That Are a Must Read
• Postpartum Recipes: Kale and Bean Soup

Maternal Health and Childbirth Advocacy:

• Maternal Mortality: New Awareness Campaign
• 14th Annual State of the World’s Mothers Report
• Selfish Women and Their Silly Birth Experiences
• North Carolina Midwifery Bill Passes First Hurdle

Infertility and Loss:

• To The Mothers Who Have Experienced Loss
• 8 Ways to Help a Marriage Through Infertility
• Mother’s Day and Infertility

Doulas:

• Doulas: A Birth Essential
• Insider Secrets for the Uninitiated
• Your Doula Can’t Do It For You
• My Newest Job: Postpartum Doula Work

Midwifery:

• I love my midwife
• Being a Single Mom Midwife
• A Midwife Helped Me Out
• Jana and Jill: More Midwifery
• The Virtual International Day of the Midwife

In Case You Missed It:

• Bedrest, When Used for Anything Other Than Sleep, Has No Proven Benefit, and May, In Fact, Be Harmful
• Frequently Asked Questions (That Other People Have Already Answered)
• Electronic Fetal Monitoring: More Harm Than Good?

To submit your blog post for inclusion in This Week in Birth Blogs, please send your URL and a brief description in an email to Kate: katedonahue@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is Thursday (each week) at 8pm (in Portland, Oregon).

Read More:

..................................................................

This post, This Week in Birth Blogs #4 originally appeared on Portland MamaBaby Center on May 13, 2013. Thanks for reading!

..................................................................

This Week In Birth Blogs is a weekly blog round-up of birth related blog posts. To submit your blog post for inclusion in This Week in Birth Blogs, please send your link and a brief description in an email to Kate: katedonahue@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is Thursday (each week) at 8pm (in Portland, Oregon).

Birth Stories:

• Elisha Rose’s Birth Story (birth center, transfer, epidural, cesarean)
• Pumpkin’s Birth Story (pre-eclampsia, planned induction, cesarean)
• Marathon Mama’s Birth Story (a very fast home birth)
• Evelyn’s Birth Story (castor oil induction, epidural)
• Porter’s Birth Story (breech/planned cesarean turned head down at the last minute, Pitocin, epidural)
• Reflections on our Birth Story (what one woman learned in looking back)

Breastfeeding:

• Facebook Still Equates Breastfeeding with Sexual Enhancement Products
• Help Wanted in Brooklyn: Breastfeeding Cheerleader
• How I Successfully Breastfed For a Full Year

Postpartum Depression:

•  When Birth Trauma, PTSD Affects Both Partners: 6 Tips to Better Communication
• Harnessing Social Media to Predict Postpartum Depression
• Oh Great, Having a Baby Can Give You OCD

Infertility/Loss:

• Resources for Processing Traumatic Births and Losses
• My Infertility Journey
• Our Journey with Infertility

Childbirth Advocacy & Activism:

• Normal Birth Is On Trial Here
• Advocating Natural Birth
• Birthing Bliss, Birthing Trauma, and the Role of the Perinatal Patient

Books/Videos:

• Cesarean Awareness Month: Cut, Stapled, and Mended
• Lainey Louise: A Birth Video
• Jude’s Birth Video
• Natural Homebirth Video of Clementine

Doulas:

• Help Me Become a Doula
  
• Doin’ the Doula Thing
• Catching Babies

Midwifery:

• AAP Weighs In On Home Birth
• MANA Response to Recent AAP Home Birth Statement
• Midwifery History Lesson

I wonder, which of these are your favorites?

Read More:

..................................................................

This post, This Week in Birth Blogs #3 originally appeared on Portland MamaBaby Center on May 3, 2013. Thanks for reading!

..................................................................

¿Sabía que dar a luz en casa es una opción que una mujer embarazada que vive en (Portland) Oregon tiene? La verdad es que tiene muchas opciones para su parto aquí en Portland. ¿Quisiera hablar con una comadre (una partera) que hable español para aprender más?

Aquí tengo tres recomendaciones de comadronas hispanohablantes:

• Silke Akerson, Two Rivers Midwifery
• Jennifer Gallardo, Andaluz Midwifery
• Lucina Armstrong, By Her Side Midwifery

Si está en busca de a una doula (dula) hispanohablante, estoy a su servicio.

Read More:

..................................................................

This post, ¿Es Ud. Una Mujer Embarazada Que Vive Cerca De Portland? originally appeared on Portland MamaBaby Center on May 1, 2013. Thanks for reading!

..................................................................

I have been so busy that I forgot to post photos of this little sweetie that I took at our one-week postpartum visit. She’s just a week old and looking a little sad, which is why I didn’t ask her to pose for another photo after this one. She much preferred to be snuggled into her Mama’s chest. She was more than happy to pose for the 2nd photo – you can tell she has grown a bit and is enjoying the world. <3

This precious girl was born into a super peaceful and calm space with the lights down low and voices shushed. In fact, her entire labor was quiet, still, and calm – a hypnobirth baby!

Welcome to the world, Lucy! Your Mom and Dad sure do love you (and your doula does, too!)

Read More:

..................................................................

This post, Introducing Lucy! originally appeared on Portland MamaBaby Center on April 30, 2013. Thanks for reading!

..................................................................

Q: What do you recommend for your doula clients who are planning for a natural (physiological) childbirth?

A: Avoid the unnecessary induction.

The clients who hire me to be their doula are looking to have a natural (unmedicated) physiological birth experience and are committed to avoiding an unnecessary induction.

The Medically Necessary Induction vs. The Medically Managed Induction

It can become a bit tricky to discern between the usual protocols for medical management of birth and individualized medical advice when doctors tell my clients that their babies are too big to possibly fit through their big American pelvises, their baby’s amniotic fluid looks to low and they are drying up in there, or the baby may suddenly die as a result of passing the due date. Plans to induce are frequently discussed before the baby’s due date and those plans are often executed at 40 weeks and 1 day in the medical model of obstetrics and nurse-midwifery.

Why so many inductions? 

It’s a totally new phenomenon to chemically push a baby out of the womb. Are we to believe that women are incapable of having babies if doctors don’t give them a pharmacy full of drugs to start labor? That at some point in the last 60 years, almost half of the females in human species are incapable of reproducing without chemical intervention? If that’s true, then that’s a very sudden and severe threat to our existence, don’t you think?

It seems more realistic that American society has gotten caught up with the false notion that more intervention means better maternal-fetal care. Meanwhile, Cuba, Malaysia, and Portugal do less and do it better. In fact, the US ranks 39th in global maternal health. Perhaps this medical management of birth isn’t good for babies after all?

Induction has no business in natural childbirth. The mere fact that you are forcing the baby to be born before it is ready to be born is, by definition, unnatural. To pursue an induction and a natural childbirth is oxymoronic.

So how do inductions lead to cesarean births?

Well, to begin with, an intravenous (IV) drip of fluids and Pitocin is placed in one arm. The fluids, while necessary due to the anti-diuretic properties of Pitocin, are associated with early newborn weight loss. Now one arm is kind of immobile and there are stress hormones rushing as a response to a needle and foreign object being inserted into your skin.

Pitocin is noted to cause low blood pressure, and so therefore, requires frequent blood pressure monitoring. A blood pressure cuff will be placed on the other arm (the arm without an IV in it) and left there to electronically monitor regularly.

Continuous electronic fetal monitoring is required, which measures the strength and duration of your contractions along with the baby’s heartbeat. Two plastic discs will be placed on your abdomen with elastic straps attaching them to your body. With an IV in one arm, a blood pressure cuff on the other, and two abdominal monitors, you are in bed for a while.

It’s not likely the hospital staff are going to allow you to get up and walk around or be in the tub. This is a problem for laboring women, who need the freedom to move as their body needs to move during labor. Even if you are allowed to, it is a burdensome chore that most women seem to avoid. Most women report feeling really ‘strapped down’ with an induction.

An epidural is added to this package of interventions that come along with labor induction, because the Pitocin makes the contractions unbearable for most women.

Along with the epidural comes also the placement of an urinary catheter (a tube is inserted into your urethra and placed into your bladder to collect urine), which further limits your ability to move about, which is crucial in a physiological (natural, vaginal) birth. To learn more about epidurals, please read the article on Science & Sensibility: Straight Talk on Epidurals for Labor and Pain Management for Women in Labor: A Research Review. It’s also worth noting the correlation between epidurals in labor and breastfeeding problems.

Further, inductions put you on the hospital’s time clock. Once you start, you had better have your baby and have it quickly and on their schedule, because any variation from the Friedman’s curve and you could be cut open for failure to progress. Of course, to assess your progress means you’ll be given a lot of vaginal/cervical exams and each of those increases your risk for infection. If they break your water, another common induction intervention, you have 12 hours before you can add on some antibiotics to this birth plan, too… tick tock.

Finally, let’s talk about “Pit to Distress“, which is really the culmination of all of these interventions leading to results in electronic fetal monitoring that cause concern for the well-being of the baby that leads to an immediate cesarean. With an epidural already in place, the doctor easily recommends an emergency cesarean.

Do the right thing for yourself and for your baby. It really does matter how your baby is born. Inform yourself. Demand to be treated as individuals. You and your baby deserve better than if-then-else protocols that are created by administrators and litigators who have their own interests at heart, not yours and your baby’s. I encourage you to research labor inductions, epidurals, and cesareans for yourself. Knowledge is power.

The Bottom Line

“Is the mother doing ok? Is the baby doing ok? Then let’s wait another day,” needs to be the mantra of the pregnant woman who facing pressure to induce. If there is no reason to force the baby out, then let her be. Inductions are contraindicated in most cases if the goal is a physiologic birth. A natural birth is best achieved with a natural labor.

[Ask your question: email | Facebook | Twitter | tumblr]

Read More:

..................................................................

This post, Want a Avoid a Cesarean Section? Avoid the Induction!! originally appeared on Portland MamaBaby Center on April 30, 2013. Thanks for reading!

..................................................................

Now, whenever I doula at a home birth, I always make sure that I ask my client to purchase (ahead of time!) all the ingredients necessary to make a postpartum smoothie.

Here’s the basic smoothie recipe:

• 1/2 cup organic yogurt
• 1/2 cup organic milk
• 1 cup organic berries or a banana (or half and half!)
• 1 Tbsp flax seed oil

Blend it all together and serve it up with a bendy straw.  Double it and make a smoothie for Mom’s partner at the same time – s/he will appreciate the loving doula care, too!

NB: Frozen berries work great, too!!

I’d love to make a smoothie for you after you have a baby, too! If you are interested in hiring me to be your doula, please contact me (KateDonahue@gmail.com) and let’s meet!

Read More:

..................................................................

This post, Doula Tip #12: Master the Smoothie originally appeared on Portland MamaBaby Center on April 29, 2013. Thanks for reading!

..................................................................

This Week In Birth Blogs is a weekly blog round-up of my favorite birth related blog posts.

Birth Stories:

• My Story (Birth Rape)
• A Home Birth Story (PhotoBlog)
• Crew’s Birth Story (epidural and epidural headache)
• Addie’s Birth Story (induction and cesarean)
• My Birth Story (Or How I Live Tweeted My Labor) and Live Tweeting Your Birth Story
• Birth Isn’t Medical…Until It Is
• A Tale of Two Births

Breastfeeding:

• Triumphant Tuesday: Breastfeeding a Baby with Multiple Allergies
• Breastfeeding in Church?
• Celebrity Moms Talk About Breastfeeding: The Benefits and the Bond

Childbirth Advocacy & Activism:

• Pressured Into Inducing
• Milkscreen Breastfeeding Assessment Calculator
• Cesarean Awareness: The 18-Month Cry
• Homebirth: Tradition into Law
• From the Organizers of Human Rights in Childbirth/Midwifery Today Summit
• Diplomacy and Human Rights in the Labor Room, The Answer to Change
• Loving Everyone Else While Hating Myself

Books/Videos:

• Book Review: Cut, Stapled & Mended: A Captivating Read for All
• The Homebirth Cesarean Project: An Interview with the Authors
• Book Review: Homebirth in the Hospital
• Book Review: Optimal Care in Childbirth

Doula-Related:

• What is the Goal of the Doula Movement?
• A Doula and So Much More
• Deciding on Having a Doula
• Doula Seuss

Midwifery:

• Bill Legalizing Midwifery Still Faces Roadblocks
• International Midwife Position
• Mama Midwife: A Birth Adventure

Do you enjoy This Week in Birth Blogs? Would you like me to continue doing it? Would you like to submit your blog for inclusion? Please leave a comment and let me know what you think (and include your link!)

Read More:

..................................................................

This post, This Week In Birth Blogs #2 originally appeared on Portland MamaBaby Center on April 25, 2013. Thanks for reading!

..................................................................

As a doula, I make very few recommendations – I do actually recommend this for my clients. If you’re pregnant and wondering about whether or not you should invest in placenta encapsulation as part of your birth plan, here are some articles and blog posts to consider:

About Placenta Encapsulation In The Media:

• Placenta Encapsulation: Should You Do It?
• Placenta Encapsulation: A look at how it’s done
• A look at the practice and benefits of placentophagia
• Mothers Turning to Placenta Pills to Overcome Postpartum Depression
• NYMagazine featured The Placenta Cookbook
• The Feminist Breeder Resource Guide

Moms Blog About Their Placenta Eating Experiences:

• Oh Yes I Did! I Ate My Placenta!!
• I Ate My Placenta
• I Ate My Placenta And Loved It
• I Regret Eating My Placenta
• Why I Did Not Eat My Placenta

DIY Placenta Instructions/Recipes:

• DIY Placenta Capsules: The Traditional Chinese Method (TCM)
• 3 DIY Placenta Medicine Recipes for DIY Moms
• Raw Placenta Encapsulation How-To Video

Of course, f you’re considering placenta encapsulation and you live in Portland, Oregon, please get in touch.
 Portland MamaBaby offers off-site placenta encapsulation and tinctures and serves the entire Portland metro area.

Read More:

..................................................................

This post, Placenta Encapsulation (Placenta Pills): Should You Have Your Placenta Encapsulated? originally appeared on Portland MamaBaby Center on April 24, 2013. Thanks for reading!

..................................................................

Do you know the facts about VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean)?

I took the VBAC Facts class in April in Portland and I loved it!  I want you to take it, too, if you are planning a VBAC or you work with VBAC clients and here’s why: It’s important to understand that not all VBACs are alike – there are individual factors to consider – and what you need is knowledge. Knowledge is power in a VBAC.  The very first thing you should do if you are pregnant after cesarean is to inform and empower yourself. Jen Kamel, the founder of VBAC Facts, as a mother who had a VBAC, has some really important information to share – she has read and reviewed and analyzed all of the studies and data that exists about the history of VBAC politics and policies, and the risks of VBAC. She took this on like you would if you were doing an MPH thesis – she looked at all the data, all the studies, all the public documents that are behind the policies and recommendations – basically she did ::all:: the work and I got to sit back and benefit (for $85.00) and you can, too!

For more information about local classes and webinars, see the VBAC Facts Classes page on VBACFacts.com. You can also find VBAC Facts on Facebook and Twitter.

If you’d like to plan your VBAC with doula support, I’m ready to help you. Contact me today for a free doula consultation.

Read More:

..................................................................

This post, Just the (VBAC) Facts, Ma’am originally appeared on Portland MamaBaby Center on April 23, 2013. Thanks for reading!

..................................................................