Too tired to search the internet for possible explanations – I used my excellent reasoning skills to give me reassurance: I am a smaller person; I gained 50+ pounds with my daughter; she was an unplanned c-section. My abdominal muscles must not be strong enough to hold this baby from protruding my midline when I do a crunch-like motion. It will go back into place after he’s born, I told myself. And I am doing a really good job of moderating the weight gain this go around! I’m really good at self-reasoning.
Written by Martha Yazdani, co-owner of The Birthing Tree Hang on, what is that bulge in my stomach? I thought to myself one night when I lifted my head while lying next to my 3 year-old-daughter as part of our normal bedtime routine. Of course, my belly was big - I was 7 months pregnant with #2. But this was different. I relaxed my head back down, and lifted one more time. There it went again. It looked like my still growing baby was a cone-shaped bulge in my belly – with a peak – like a hill peak vs. a mountain peak. To humor myself, I did it again of course.
Too tired to search the internet for possible explanations – I used my excellent reasoning skills to give me reassurance: I am a smaller person; I gained 50+ pounds with my daughter; she was an unplanned c-section. My abdominal muscles must not be strong enough to hold this baby from protruding my midline when I do a crunch-like motion. It will go back into place after he’s born, I told myself. And I am doing a really good job of moderating the weight gain this go around! I’m really good at self-reasoning.
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What do I need to prepare for exactly? Feeding my baby will just be instinctive right? Those are the kinds of things that people say to me all the time in Childbirth Preparation classes and what I always say is that the only thing that is instinctive about breastfeeding is that the baby is hungry and you want to feed them! Nursing a newborn can be very straightforward and easy but it is not uncommon to need some help to get in to the groove of breastfeeding your little one.
You won’t know what challenges you might face until your baby has arrived but I like to prepare parents with some basic concepts to help you identify potential issues and help navigate the first weeks. Congratulations on your pregnancy! The first weeks of pregnancy can be a mixed bag of emotions for many people. Whether your pregnancy is a surprise or it has been long awaited here are a few tips to support you through the first trimester.
"Breastfeeding my daughter was the hardest thing I've ever done."
This was a bold statement coming from a nationally renowned theater coach who is commanding in her poised stature. I would have thought making a living in theater would have been the hardest thing she'd ever done, but to her, it was more difficult to sit down and nurse. I made the choice to go back to work after I had my daughter. "Some mothers are better parents because they work," our First Born visitor told me before I gave birth. I really enjoy working and it seemed like I was going to be that type of parent. Since I had my daughter nine months into my first job after finishing grad school, I didn’t want to take time out of my career at the very beginning, but I also really appreciate my job and was eager to return.
I had a compassionate boss, a fellow parent, and he allowed me to come back to work doing three days in the office, two days at home, for as long as I needed. In addition, my husband was able to stay with our daughter for the first eight months because he worked from home. In The Baby Book, by Dr. and Mrs. Sears, I came across this advice which really helped ease any further qualm about being a working mom: "The issue is not the working mother, the issue is attachment with your baby. Separating mothers into two camps (working moms vs. stay-at-home moms) does nothing but provide judgmental material for magazines and devalues one side or the other." With that advice, I began to figure out how I could be a working mom still connected to my baby. Here are five tips I can now share with you: What is the first question we ask when a woman says she is pregnant?
"What's your due date?" is close to the top of the list. Only five percent of women give birth on the "due date." That means fully ninety five percent of women are either early or late. What if instead we have a due month? When someone asks, "When are you due?" the reply might be, "Oh sometime in August." Expanding the sense of when the baby is "due" offers a spaciousness and feeling of relaxation. We no longer need to worry if the baby arrives within a particular twenty four hour period, we have a whole month. In fact we might consider a due five week period. Midwifery regulations allow home delivery between 37 and 42 weeks. Eighty percent of babies are born within these parameters. Only ten percent come before 37 weeks and 10 percent come after 42 weeks. And of the babies born outside the due month, the vast majority are perfectly healthy. The two standard methods of determining the due date, Last Menstrual Period and ultrasound scan have a margin of error of two weeks, that is seven days on either side of the due date. Neither one of these methods is an exact science. Since a healthy gestation period differs for every pregnancy, healthy birth needs a wide berth --the due month. The due month is a simple way for women to experience pregnancy and birth with the individual timing required. The due month lessens anxiety about when the baby is "due" and increases confidence that the baby will arrive just on time. Trusting the natural physiological process of pregnancy and birth promotes both physical and psychological health. Written by Meria Loeks, Midwife, Doula Mentor, Childbirth Educator
Caring for yourself and your baby in first 40 days postpartum can dramatically improve your healing process and increase your bond with your child. We made an easy to follow infographic that shows you how to ask for and receive the help you need in this exciting time.
Remember, you can also contact us for one-one support! Picking your Provider: A guide to what you need to know about choosing a maternity provider6/14/2015
Choosing a provider may not be as simple as you first think. In fact, who you choose can change the course of your birth experience. For so many reasons, the provider's philosophy directs the options they give you! Right down to how they handle variations of normal to what position they want you in to have your baby. Doctors and Midwives carry their own expectations for birth and what is the 'ideal experience' for a birth and they may not match yours.
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AuthorThis blog is collaboration between co-owner Shabd Simran Adeniji (BA, BM, MPH) and guest bloggers Categories
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