2 ½ C flour

1 ½  t baking soda

¾  t cinnamon

1 t ground ginger

½  t ground cloves

½  t salt

½  t cayenne pepper

8  T butter

½  C  sugar

1 C brown sugar

1/3 C molasses

¼  C egg whites

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine flour, baking soda and spices and set

aside. Cream the butter and sugars together. Add the molasses to the creamed

butter, then add the egg whites until combined. Add the dry ingredients

slowly. Once incorporated, roll dough into 1 inch balls and place onto

baking tray. Bake 8-10 minutes.   Recipe by Gale Gand.

Cool.  Eat.  Hope for a baby.

The next doula called me a few times throughout the day.  This birth wasn’t going so smoothly and she thought she was calling me for advice.  All I did, though, was listen.  She presented a situation and told me what she had said or done and I just held her hand over the phone so that she wasn’t alone.

The last call was from a doula who had been at a long, emotionally-charged, yet satisfying birth.  It was over now and she just needed to release.  How else would she have been able to sleep that night?

Each of these doulas needed a sounding board.  They didn’t turn to me for my expertise.  They just needed a pair of ears with a heart that could relate and perhaps a shoulder to lean on.  Perhaps everyone needs to debrief at the end of the day, but clearly some of us need it more than others.  I think doulas can be a particularly needy group.  After spending so much time supporting others, we need a little support ourselves.

It wasn’t long before this was the popular birthing procedure in the U.S..  The method was said to dull the pain yet women were restrained and strapped to gurneys for their own protection as they thrashed around in bed, freed from their inhibitions by the drugs, but not entirely freed from the pain. Some had their legs clamped in stirrups for hours in order to be ready when the doctor arrived.

The women, while responding somewhat to pain, did not remember it after delivering their babies.  They didn’t remember the pain or the actual deliveries.

At the time, the medical consensus was that scopolamin-morphin was without danger to the babies.

This idea would eventually change as the negative side effects of twilight sleep came into the light.

Some of the complications noted were emotional.  Removing the mother from the experience of childbirth, leaving her with no memory of the labor or delivery of the child is definitely a side effect.

However, more severely, the drugs had depressive effects on the central nervous systems of the newborns. This resulted in a drowsy baby with a compromised breathing capacity.

As if this wasn’t enough, let’s take another look at the following phrase: the experience of childbirth without the memory of pain.  Is this not colossal disrespect!?!  Ironically it was the suffragists who rallied for it to become standard procedure throughout the country.

By the mid 1970s, twilight sleep was no longer being used, but the labor and delivery staff of the previous generation had lots of stories to tell while the mothers had none.  They just couldn’t remember.

I am not really superstitious- I happily believe some of the positive (things) and leave the rest behind.  I’ll even go as far as saying that Friday the 13th brings me good luck because, if everyone has bad luck on that day, the good luck has to go somewhere.  So, I’ll often see the positive portents in my life, and recognize nary an ominous omen.

I feel like I came into birth work in the caul.  I have been very lucky.  I’ve had great mentors and many opportunities for continuing education.  I’m usually called to births after breakfast and get home before dinner.  I get women to the hospital just before they need to push, leaving no time for interventions, and homebirths speed right along too. 

The last two homebirths I assisted were attended by the same midwife.  For the first one, she arrived just three minutes before the baby was born.  Things were just going so smoothly and everyone was coping well, it was hard to tell that it would end so soon.  For the second one, she arrived a little less than an hour before the little caul-enveloped girl emerged.  The midwife told me that I am very calming and that’s why labors go so quickly for me.  Well, “calm” is the one word everyone uses to describe this midwife.  What a compliment it was to have her say that about me. 

Now I’m on call for another client with the same midwife.  Some might suspect that my luck should run out by now, I choose not to worry myself with those thoughts and just take the challenges as they come (if they come).  

I don’t think there are any long- standing beliefs about the people who are present when a baby is born in the caul.  Well, there is now and you better believe it’s a good one.  

The midwife mentioned above had an aunt who was also a caulbearer.  She died the day the little girl speedily came out in her own caul.  That’s not superstition, it’s just fact, but I like to believe that those coincidences are significant too. 

Check out some amazing photos and some more info HERE.

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.

The rebozo is a traditional Mexican garment, like a long shawl or Spanish mantilla.  In addition to its use as a shawl, it is multifunctional, being used during pregnancy, labor and as a baby or toddler carrier.  During pregnancy, it is used to counteract back pain, during labor to help the mother into various positions, for relaxation and to adjust the position of the baby.

When used by a doula, the rebozo is like an extension of the arms, allowing one to help support the woman’s weight and helping to ensure that she is in a good position.  During the pushing stage of labor, it can be used like a tug-of-war rope to help the mother focus her pushing and widen the pelvic outlet.  The rebozo can be used by a midwife to assist in repositioning a posterior or breech baby.

The most basic technique one can practice with a rebozo is used to relax the soft tissues of the abdomen and the broad uterine ligaments.  It is called jiggling or sifting and is pretty much what these names imply.  This method can also be used during pregnancy to help the baby get into the optimal position for birth.

For photos and videos on these techniques and more, visit Spinning Babies and Birthing Essentials.

For books and other related materials, check out The Rebozo Way Project.

For more uses, view Midwifery Today’s Transcription of the Rebozo Workshop Given by Dona Irene Sotelo and Naoli Vianver.

So, go out and get a cheap pashmina shawl.  Dress it up, dress it down and carry your groceries home from the farmer’s market in it.  Then, when you’re pregnant, it will help you relax and get your baby into the right position for birth.  When the time comes, it will be right there to help you in labor and even support you in pushing your baby out.  How great that you can then use it to carry that baby.  On second thought, maybe you don’t want to get such a cheap one.

In the beginning of our prenatal classes, I ask the women to introduce themselves and to share how they are feeling about their pregnancies and/or labors & deliveries.  Charlotte would reluctantly say that she didn’t really care or otherwise convey her indifference.  

One day, she arrived very early for class.  We got the chance to talk and Charlotte told me that she was unhappy.  She said she was being criticized for being pregnant and that she had just moved to a new foster home.  By the end of that conversation, Charlotte decided to get a doula (a free doula I would match her with,) and I saw her smile for the first time. 

 A couple of doulas had agreed to meet her and Charlotte never kept her appointments with them or returned their calls.   One woman travelled for two hours to find that Charlotte was out, no one knew where.  It was getting to be a challenge getting her the help I knew she needed.  A few weeks before she was due, it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to get her a doula.  At that point, I told her doctor to call me when she went into labor.  I wasn’t free to commit to being on call, but I was feeling responsible for this young lady.

On Friday when Charlotte called I recognized her voice immediately.  She told me that she was in labor and that she had already been to the hospital a few hours earlier.   They had found her cervix to be half a centimeter dilated and had sent her home to walk.  Now, the most important lesson in the first class of my prenatal series is to stay home as long as possible.  I guess Charlotte had to learn that one the hard way. 

 I spoke to her foster mother who asked me to get there as soon as possible.  I arrived shortly after to find Charlotte talking and laughing through seemingly mild contractions that were sporadic.  Within forty minutes of my arrival, Charlotte became much more relaxed and focused.  Suddenly her contractions were coming every three minutes.  She was willing to go out for a walk with me.  Perhaps because she remembered the benefits of walking as learned in my class, or maybe it was because she knew that she had spent much of the day laboring in an unsupportive environment, and this was her chance to change scenery. 

 Either way, out we went to walk the streets of Harlem at a time of night when I would normally be sleeping.  Charlotte felt very free out there to moan and move instinctually.  She was doing an amazing job.  Hours earlier she had been begging for a cesarean and now she couldn’t deny the power that enabled her to cope so well.  I was so proud of her. 

Eventually, we all agreed that it was time to go to the hospital.  Frankly, by the time we got on the road, I thought we might not make it there before the baby was born, but he did wait about half an hour and that was enough.  Charlotte pushed through half a dozen contractions before we were able to meet her son.  Once she saw him, she started to smile and I don’t think I noticed a time when she wasn’t smiling after that.  It was truly glorious for me to witness the transformation in Charlotte.  She had done such a marvelous job and I told her just that.  To that she replied that I was the one who had done it, that it wouldn’t have been possible without me.  Before I left her that morning, I made sure she understood that all I had done was shown her what was possible, that she had done the job all herself. 

 And what an amazing job it was!