Do You Doula?

A video about the role of doulas in childbirth... pretty good!

Delayed Cord Clamping

Great video about the benefits of delayed cord clamping!

Mom's Group 5/13

Come to Amy's house and meet other moms on the second Wednesday of each month. Meetings start at 11am and end at 2pm. Bring lunch or something to share. Children are always welcome!

Where:
52 Marshall Road
Glen Mills, PA 19342

When:
Wednesday, May 13th 11am to 2pm

Widespread use of labor induction potentially harmful

The investigators found support only for inducing labor at or beyond 41 completed weeks of gestation and under some conditions when a woman's membranes break before labor. However, there is not good evidence for inducing labor in many other situations, including when the fetus is believed to be large or to have restricted growth, or when a woman is pregnant with twins, has insulin-dependent diabetes, or has low levels of amniotic fluid.

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Cesareans outnumber Vaginal Births in S Florida

Last year, for the first time, more babies in Miami-Dade County were born by cesarean section than were born vaginally, according to state records, and Broward's not far behind, with a rate of 43.7 percent -- both far above the national average.

At Kendall Regional Medical Center in Southwest Miami-Dade, seven out of 10 babies were delivered by C-section, a rate that University of Miami obstetrician Gene Burkett called ``just astounding.''

Locally and nationally, the cesarean rate has been creeping up annually for years. In 2007, the U.S. rate reached 31.8 percent, according to the National Center for Health Statistics -- an increase of more than 50 percent over the past decade.

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Essay on the Factory Model of Childbirth

If only more OBs thought this way! Please read this - the lack of choice in maternity care is something that people need to be aware of!

Obstetrician/gynecologist Lauren Plante has a remarkable essay in the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics in which she condemns the rising cesarean rate and compares current U.S. childbirth practices to the industrial revolution.

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Washington State Passes Breastfeeding Law

It's now a woman's civic right to breast feed her baby in public. Before the new law, women couldn't be arrested for indecency while breastfeeding, now they're protected from being asked to leave.

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Home births 'as safe as hospitals'

The largest study of its kind has found that for low-risk women, giving birth at home is as safe as doing so in hospital with a midwife.

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Nursing by the numbers

In 2001, the USDA concluded that if breastfeeding rates were increased to 75 percent at birth and 50 percent at six months, it would lead to a national government savings of a minimum of $3.6 billion. This amount was easily an underestimation since it represents savings in the treatment of only three of the dozens of illnesses proven to be decreased by breastfeeding: ear infections, gastroenteritis, and necrotizing enterocolitis.

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Birth by Appointment

A decade ago, surgical delivery mainly was reserved for emergency situations, such as when mothers had high blood pressure or were failing to progress in labor or the baby showed signs of distress. Today, several factors are leading to the rapid rise in C-sections, even though having one carries with it a longer hospital stay, longer recovery time and the risk of complications from anesthesia. Those factors include changing attitudes toward childbirth, the convenience of a scheduled birth for busy women, and malpractice concerns by doctors and insurance companies.

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Mom's Group Rescheduled!

I am walking out the door to a birth and have to reschedule mom's group to next Wednesday, April 15th. It will still be 11 to 2 at my house. Hope to see you then!

Eating Lightly During Labor May Not Affect Obstetric or Neonatal Outcomes

Eating a light diet during labor did not affect obstetric or neonatal outcomes or increase vomiting, according to the results of a prospective, randomized controlled trial reported online first in the March 25 issue of the British Medical Journal.

"The current rationale for women fasting during labour is to protect them from pulmonary aspiration should general anaesthesia be needed for an emergency operative delivery," write Geraldine O'Sullivan, MD, from St. Thomas' Hospital, Guy's and St. Thomas' National Health Service Foundation Trust in London, United Kingdom, and colleagues. "However, prolonged fasting in labour has never been proved to influence the incidence of pulmonary aspiration, and some clinicians and midwives consider that preventing food intake can be detrimental to the mother, her baby, and the progress of labour. Whether food intake in labour will influence the ability to deliver normally, the length of labour, or other obstetric and neonatal end points is not known."
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The new 'natural' cesarean

The lights of the operating theatre are dimmed and there is a mood of calm among the hospital staff. A midwife softly narrates a continuing procedure to a patient who is squeezing her husband's hand. The surgeon gives the nod: it's time. The drape across the patient's abdomen is lowered and her head is raised. Her eyes widen as she and her husband watch their baby, tiny and pink with a mop of black hair, being gently delivered from her. There is a moment of collective awe before the newborn's cry fills the air. "It's a boy!" his mother gasps, before enveloping him in a warm hug.

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Caesarean link to surge in hysterectomies

Doctors in Dublin’s maternity hospitals are performing an increasing number of life-saving hysterectomies on mothers who have previously had caesarean sections. The upsurge in the number of births by c-section has led to a marked increase in emergency operations to remove women’s wombs due to a condition called placenta accreta, according to a new study.

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Mom's Group 4/8

Come to Amy's house and meet other moms on the second Wednesday of each month. Meetings start at 11am and end at 2pm. Bring lunch or something to share. Children are always welcome!

Where:
52 Marshall Road
Glen Mills, PA 19342

When:
Wednesday, April 8th 11am to 2pm

Please note, I have a client due any day now. If I have to go to a birth, I'll post here when I leave so check or call me before you head over!

The Belly Project

Bellies of all shapes and sizes before and after childbirth... check it out!
The Belly Project

Personhood USA

According to Personhood USA, legislators in at least five states are sponsoring bills that would give the unborn full state constitutional rights from the moment of fertilization.

Near-Term Babies May Face a Higher Risk of Problems

Babies born just three to six weeks before their due dates are more likely than full-term babies to have disabilities or developmental delays in kindergarten, a study has found. The children also are slightly more likely to be suspended or held back in kindergarten and to require special education.

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Have you given birth in the past three years?

If you have, please take the Birth Survey! Leave me a comment if you do!

The Birth Survey is structured around the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) evidence-based 10 Steps to Mother-Friendly Care and other quality of care indicators. The creation of The Birth Survey has been inspired by Childbirth Connection's Listening to Mothers Survey (Harris Interactive, October 2002) and the A-CAHPS (Ambulatory Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) program and surveys.

We believe that women of childbearing age must have access to information that will help them choose maternity care providers and institutions that are most compatible with their own philosophies and needs. We hope that the Transparency in Maternity Care Project will provide information that will help women make fully informed maternity care decisions.

We also believe that maternity care practitioners and institutions must have access to feedback from their patients. We hope that doctors, midwives, and hospital administrators will find the information generated through the Transparency in Maternity Care Project useful in quality improvement efforts.

Women need accurate, objective data in order to make fully informed choices about birth settings and providers. Practitioners and hospital administrators also need data to evaluate whether they are delivering quality care. We hope this project will fill a void by providing much needed information that benefits all parties engaged in maternity care.

Cesarean beliefs 'misguided'

Women who choose to have an elective caesarean in the belief that it will prevent incontinence and genital prolapse are "misguided" and may be putting their health, and that of their baby, at unnecessary risk.

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