New Videos!
Posted by doularama | Filed under News, Recommendations
Have you taken a look at the other pages on this blog? There are some great books and links listed in addition to interesting and fun videos. I’ve just added a couple of new videos including one depicting the birth of an elephant. For a long time I was hoping to find a good mammalian birth video to add and this one is perfect. Notice how the elephant moves in labor, swaying her hips and stomping her feet. She opens her mouth as her baby emerges. Many people think that opening the mouth correlates to the opening of the birth canal. How did the elephant know that? Enjoy!
The Best Natural Cough Syrup Recipe
Posted by doularama | Filed under Parenting, Recommendations
Well, I suppose cold and flu season are upon us. I’m not going to get into the flu vaccine discussion. Please do the research and make your informed decision. I personally have never had the flu and can’t imagine that I would ever get the vaccine. Anyway, that’s not what this post is about.
I rarely used to get even the common cold. Then I started to work with children and, you know, those darned bodily fluids were a-flowing all over the place and sneezes and coughs sprayed generously. Now I have a couple of my own germ transmitters and one of them is in school!
Last week, when I dropped my daughter off at school, I heard someone ask her teacher how she was feeling. The teacher’s nasal voice proceeded to complain about how sick she had been and that she was feeling a little better, so I wasn’t surprised when my daughter came home sneezing soon after.
Now my son, who for months was only nursing upon awakening, has recently been asking for breastmilk several times a day. He hasn’t gotten sick at all, that too is another post, but it seems to me that his body is keeping him healthy by making him a frequent diner at Mom’s Breastaurant.
My daughter got a minor cold, the worst part of which was the sound of her cough. Of course, the cough was mostly at night and, although she seemed to sleep through it along with her father and brother, I could not. The next night, right before she brushed her teeth, out came my magic cough syrup. My son loves this concoction, but my daughter has a more normal palate. Luckily, it works so well that I just need to remind her of it’s effects and she happily drinks it. You might add garlic for it’s antibiotic properties, but if this is for your child, you probably shouldn’t push it.
All you do is stir well equal parts of apple cider vinegar and honey. Half a tablespoon of each is really enough. (Please do not give honey to children who are less than twelve months old.)
The Mayo Clinic agrees that honey is a great cough suppressant and you can read more on apple cider vinegar here.
Tags: apple cider vinegar, common cold, cough suppressant, cough syrup, flu vaccine
Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding
Posted by doularama | Filed under News, Recommendations
Ina May Gaskin’s new book has just been released. I was at a seminar with her last year and saw a couple of the photos she wanted to use for the cover of this book. One was the photo of a mountain which she took herself. It looks just like a breast, with color variations and all. Below is the other set she wanted to use. My daughter delightedly exclaimed “leche” when she saw a nude statue in a museum once, and my son took another nude statue as a reminder to ask me for my own milk another time. In the end, her publishers got their way and the book has a very conventional cover.
Tags: Breastfeeding, Ina May Gaskin, Statue
Laborades for Labor Aid
Posted by doularama | Filed under Recommendations
These recipes can be enjoyed as drinks or labor cubes. I suggest that you make them in advance and have ice cubes ready in case that’s what you would like during labor.
Make a strong batch of red raspberry leaf tea and add enough honey to make it sweeter than you would normally have it.
*The honey will provide energy.
*Red raspberry leaf relaxes and tones the uterus while nourishing with vitamins and minerals. It can also reduce nausea, help with labor pains and even increase the flow of milk.
*****************************************************************************
In a blender combine:
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup honey
1/4 tsp salt
2 calcium/magnesium tablets, crushed
3 cups water
*The lemon juice helps with nausea
*The honey provides energy
*The lack of calcium lowers the threshold for pain and sufficient calcium is necessary for the blood to clot (important in preventing hemorrhage). It is also good for the heart in times of stress.
*Magnesium is the prime regulator of calcium flow within the cells. It helps the uterus contract efficiently, and fully relax between contractions. It also alleviates nervous tension.
*The water will make it all palatable and help KEEP YOU HYDRATED.
Tags: childbirth, hydration, laborade, laboraid, recipes
Monique and the Mango Rains
Posted by doularama | Filed under Recommendations
Monique and the Mango Rains
Two Years with a Midwife in Mali
by Kris Holloway
This book made me laugh out loud and cry (surprise!). It provides Excellent insights into the culture, traditions and personalities of people in a village in Mali, as experienced by a young Peace Corps volunteer. This intimate, easy-to-read narrative is special because it is not the story of a volunteer’s two years in Africa alone. It all revolves around a special friendship the author developed with the young village midwife and health care worker. Through this unlikely relationship, we are invited to experience the stark reality of a small village in West Africa, not unlike many others, along with the lush simplicity of daily life there. Kris Holloway does not focus on herself, but on the people of the area and their situations. This short book can provide a much-needed education for so many people in this country who don’t know what’s going on across the waters.
Tags: Kris Holloway, Mali, midwifery
Birth Art
Posted by doularama | Filed under Recommendations
I am taking the Teaching Birth Art course through Birthing from Withtin. The drawing below is the product of the assignment for which I had to draw a birth that was going well. It is called Nothing but Peace and Love. Originally, my hands were on the woman and it looked really wrong to me. I saw that I didn’t need hands, just heart. I tell people that often the presence of a doula alone can make a difference. When I thought I was done, I became obsessed with making it simple and turned most of the page black. I rubbed and rubbed so that none of the page would show through. As a doula, I often work hard to make it look like nothing is going on too.
Tags: Birth Art Process, Birthing from Within, childbirth, doulas
The Safety of Homebirth Reviewed
Posted by doularama | Filed under News, Recommendations
Following is an abstract of a study that demonstrates the safety of midwife-attended homebirths from The Canadian Medical Association Journal. This is extremely important! People quote and misquote the findings of a very flawed study to say that homebirth is not safe and they are just wrong. Dr. Marsden Wagner, in his book Born in the USA, does a wonderful job of educating his readers on this. Too bad we’re not all his readers!
Outcomes of planned home birth with registered midwife versus planned hospital birth with midwife or physician.
Patricia A. Janssen PhD, Lee Saxell MA, Lesley A. Page PhD, Michael C. Klein MD, Robert M. Liston MD, Shoo K. Lee MBBS PhD
ABSTRACT
Background: Studies of planned home births attended by registered midwives have been limited by incomplete data, nonrepresentative sampling, inadequate statistical power and the inability to exclude unplanned home births. We compared the outcomes of planned home births attended by midwives with those of planned hospital births attended by midwives or physicians.
Methods: We included all planned home births attended by registered midwives from Jan. 1, 2000, to Dec. 31, 2004, in British Columbia, Canada (n = 2889), and all planned hospital births meeting the eligibility requirements for home birth that were attended by the same cohort of midwives (n = 4752). We also included a matched sample of physician-attended planned hospital births (n = 5331). The primary outcome measure was perinatal mortality; secondary outcomes were obstetric interventions and adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes.
Results: The rate of perinatal death per 1000 births was 0.35 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.00–1.03) in the group of planned home births; the rate in the group of planned hospital births was 0.57 (95% CI 0.00–1.43) among women attended by a midwife and 0.64 (95% CI 0.00–1.56) among those attended by a physician. Wo men in the planned home-birth group were significantly less likely than those who planned a midwife-attended hospital birth to have obstetric interventions (e.g., electronic fetal monitoring, relative risk [RR] 0.32, 95% CI 0.29–0.36; assisted vaginal delivery, RR 0.41, 95% 0.33–0.52) or adverse maternal outcomes (e.g., third- or fourth-degree perineal tear, RR 0.41, 95% CI 0.28–0.59; postpartum hemorrhage, RR 0.62, 95% CI 0.49–0.77). The findings were similar in the comparison with physician-assisted hospital births. Newborns in the home-birth group were less likely than those in the midwife-attended hospital-birth group to require resuscitation at birth (RR 0.23, 95% CI 0.14–0.37) or oxygen therapy beyond 24 hours (RR 0.37, 95% CI 0.24–0.59). The findings were similar in the comparison with newborns in the physician-assisted hospital births; in addition, newborns in the home-birth group were less likely to have meconium aspiration (RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.21–0.93) and more likely to Abstract be admitted to hospital or readmitted if born in hospital (RR 1.39, 95% CI 1.09–1.85).
Interpretation: Planned home birth attended by a registered midwife was associated with very low and comparable rates of perinatal death and reduced rates of obstetric interventions and other adverse perinatal outcomes compared with planned hospital birth attended by a midwife or physician.
Tags: Born in the USA, Canadian Medical Association, Homebirth, Marsden Wagner
Unnecessary Pain in Childbirth
Posted by doularama | Filed under Recommendations
Following is some concise information from the site Birthing Naturally. I give this to my students and to prospective clients before I am even hired.
Sources of Unnecessary Pain in Childbirth
Tension If you are skeptical of this, try it while you labor. During one contraction, do whatever you want, tensing your muscles. Then, during the next contraction actively relax your muscles. You will feel a difference.
Paying Attention Too Soon Many women become obsessed with timing contractions from the very first contraction. For some, there is a fear that if you do not pay attention, you may miss something. Some of the signs of progress in labor can be subtle, but you will not miss the major signs. When contractions begin, ignore them and go about your day for as long as you can. When the contractions demand more attention, give them only as much as they demand. Contractions will demand your full attention by the time you are in good active labor, which will require a lot of energy. Don’t waste your energy by paying attention too early.
Lack of Sleep A tired body is less able to deal with the stress of labor, causing everything to “feel” more even though your body is not doing more work. Be sure to get plenty of rest in the days leading up to your labor. When contractions begin, don’t be afraid to take a nap. I promise you will NOT sleep through the birth of your baby. If you have the luxury of a slow starting labor, use the early mild contractions to get some sleep.
Thirst If you do not take sips of water or juice between your contractions, you stand a good chance of becoming dehydrated. When your body is dehydrated, your muscle output is decreased by 30%. That means that your uterus will contract just as hard, but it will do 30% less work. Dehydration also heightens feelings of exhaustion and can elevate your temperature. If your temperature goes up, your medical team, intent on ensuring your baby is healthy, will assume this “fever” is caused by an infection and you may begin to receive antibiotics via injection or IV (which is a pain in and of itself).
Hunger Your body uses food as its energy source. If you are not eating during labor, you are depriving your body of energy it needs to labor. Many hospitals now allow you to eat during labor. If your birthplace does not allow eating, understand that most women lose their desire to eat during active labor, so simply stay home until your desire to eat is gone.
Needing to Urinate There will be a lot of activity going on in your pelvic region. During active labor you may not be able to distinguish the need to urinate from the other pressures you feel. Your uterus will put pressure on your bladder as contracts, so the best way to prevent pain from an over-full bladder is to urinate frequently (at least every two hours).
Performance Anxiety Also known as going to the hospital too soon. Some women believe that if they can just get to the hospital, everything will happen faster. That is not true. In fact, the move to the hospital can actually be stressful enough to temporarily slow down or stop your contractions. Waiting until you are in good active labor can help prevent this. Being in the hospital too early makes the labor seem slower than if you had stayed at home and busied yourself with your life. Having nurses and doctors checking on you can make the “seeming slow” labor seem even slower, causing the mom to feel that she has to perform better, labor must get moving. This anxiety can be enough to send some women into the fear/tension/pain cycle.
Lying on your Back When you are on your back, the contracting uterus has to move “up” against gravity, which is much more work than simply moving forward. Also, you can constrict the blood flow to the heart, causing you to be light-headed. Staying off you back can help in preventing labor pain.
Reducing Infant Mortality
Posted by doularama | Filed under News, Recommendations
DONA International is the Associate Producer for the important film, Reducing Infant Mortality, Improving the Health of Babies. DONA International Founder, Phyllis Klaus, is featured as an expert along with many other wise and caring professionals, including Sarah Buckley and Marsden Wagner.
The film can be seen and downloaded for FREE! It is available on the web site at www.reducinginfantmortality.com.
Penny Simkin on Doulas for Birth Care
Posted by doularama | Filed under News, Recommendations
Tags: doulas, Midwifery Today, Penny Simkin
