Too Little of This Mineral Spells Disaster for Your Baby in Utero

In all likelihood, your caregiver has told you to reduce or eliminate the consumption of one very important mineral.

Salt.

Why?  Why would this recommendation even exist?  It's based on the misguided assumption that salt in pregnancy causes water retention and bloating and could contribute to high blood pressure.  And these recommendations started becoming standard about the time when salt was being heavily refined and many chemicals were added to salt, so maybe there was something to that assumption, BUT.....

You need salt when you are pregnant.  For many reasons.  Without it your kidneys will not function normally and it could contribute to pre eclampsia and toxemia, a potentially life threatening condition.

Now, new research shows that not having enough salt in your diet can alter your offspring's kidney functioning.  It can contribute to hypertension and renal (eye) failure in children. 

It is important to note that not all salt is created equal.  You want to get unrefined, pure salt for your diet in order to ensure proper assimilation.  Did you know that regular table salt has MSG in it?  So, avoid it completely.  Instead I highly recommend full-spectrum sea and mineral salts like Himalayan Pink Crystal Salt that are loaded with beneficial trace minerals and actually have been shown to prevent hypertension and high blood pressure.

To learn more about how your kidneys impact your pregnancy, please visit Birthologie.com

Why a Blessingway is Way Better Than a Baby Shower

Everyone I talk to doesn't mind going to baby showers, but it never fails....there is always a complaint.

"If I have to try to guess a melted candy bar in a diaper one more time I think I will throw up."

"I really hope I don't have to taste any unlabeled baby food jars again."

"I never know what to get the baby, it all seems too impersonal."

All pregnant women crave the same thing for their baby showers....a feeling of support and connection.  You'd have to be pretty shallow to just be in it for the gifts.

Traditional baby showers try their best to provide this support and connection, and to some extent they do.

But why not make your celebration as meaningful as possible?

Why not throw a Blessingway instead of a baby shower?

Just what is a Blessingway?

I've put together a nice pictorial of my niece, Julene's blessingway.

Enjoy....

To learn more about making your birth meaningful, please visit Birthologie.com

A Rare Hospital Indeed.....

Oregon Health and Science University Hospital is doing something unheard of in this country.....

They are developing evidenced based policies.

Vaginal Breech Births and VBAC after 2 cesareans.

While I applaud them for moving ahead and practicing according to what is safe rather than what is obstetrically trendy, I have to question their motives for doing so.

Says the article:

In 2008, 2 percent of home births in Oregon involved breech deliveries, Cheyney said.

"Part of the reason we decided to start this program is we felt it would be safer for those expectant mothers to have a hospital option and there wasn't one," Pereira said. "Some of these women would like to deliver in a hospital, but there wasn't a hospital to take care of them.

"We are just worrying about patients doing higher-risk type deliveries at home," he said. "We want to be able to offer them a safer option."

Oregon is a state that sees a high number of homebirths.  And apparently, the competition got to them.  They aren't offering these options because they think they are safe and support them, but are doing them to save those poor, helpless mothers and babies making ignorant choices and having their babies at home and oh yeah, they were losing business because of their backwards policies. 

As I wrote in one of my VBAC articles:

If I’ve learned one thing as a doula and childbirth educator, it’s that you have to be willing to walk away and say no in order to get adequate care sometimes.  I’ve also learned that the obstetric community doesn’t change until a certain threshold number of women will walk away from them.

In Other Words, OB’s Eventually Do What We Tell Them To. Period.

Now, this is not to vilify OB’s or pit you against your OB, but you do not have the luxury of time.  You cannot afford to wait until your OB’s ‘gets it’.  But let me suggest this.  If you aren’t willing to research, work and question your OB…if you aren’t willing to walk away and go somewhere else, if it is true that OB’s eventually do what we tell them to do (and I personally testify that that is the case), then may I suggest that the problem is not your OB, it is YOU.

I am glad that women have one more choice of how and where to birth, I just wish the motives were more authentic.

To learn more about VBAC and your birth options, please visit Birthologie.com

Women are Choosing this Option In Birth 20% More...Should You, Too?

There are a lot of trends when it comes to childbirth.  A LOT.

In the early 1900's it was Scopolamine

Starting in the 1930's, it was routine forceps

The 1940's-60's were big on the use of Twilight sleep (no, no vampires were involved)

In the 1980's, continuous electronic fetal monitoring and epidurals became the norm

And in the 1990's to today, induction is a big issue

All these interventions have or will eventually be just a part of history.  Sooner or later something 'better' and 'safer' comes along.  But one thing that has always been around since the beginning of time, and always will be around for childbearing women is......

Homebirth.

And from 2004 to 2008 (when this study ended), homebirth rose a whopping 20%.

Why such a large leap all of the sudden?

From the 1920's to the 1980's, access to homebirth was all but obliterated due to political and socio economic factors, but since the early 1980's homebirth has been slowly but steadily growing and it seems as though women in the 21st century have finally gotten the message that they not only have choices, but that they have viable, safe choices and that birth can actually be enjoyable!

This article is a great synopsis (and my good friend Sherry is also interviewed) on why women are looking at out of hospital births as a viable option.

To learn more about the History of Childbirth, please visit www.Birthologie.com

Doing This While Bottle Feeding Can Really Mess Your Baby Up

Can you bottle feed incorrectly?  It's easy right?

Fix up a bottle
Put it in the baby's mouth
Done

Most people think that it's as simple as that, right?

How your baby bottle feeds can determine just how healthy your baby is.  And finally, a lactation consultant has spelled it out for you.

So, if you are planning on using a bottle - whether it's breastmilk or formula - there are some simple guidelines you can follow to minimize colic, gas, indigestion, and increase the odds of your baby being smarter and sleeping better.

Thank you to Best For Babes for this great article!

In regards to bottle feeding after a feeding at the breast:

I often hear from moms who are afraid that they aren’t producing enough milk because their baby will gulp down a bottle after breastfeeding. It’s important for parents to understand that with traditional bottle feeding methods, babies have no choice but to gulp down everything in their bottle in order to protect their airway. If you hold a bottle upside down (even one with a slow flow nipple), it drips. When a baby being given a bottle swallows, the negative pressure created draws more milk into the baby’s mouth, meaning the baby has to swallow again to avoid choking. This is stressful for the baby, and babies will often display stress cues such as splayed fingers or toes, milk running out of the corner of the baby’s mouth, trying to turn their head away, or trying to push the bottle away. The picture above is a good example of this.

Other tips for healthy bottlefeeding:

1. Hold your baby sitting upright, and start by placing the nipple of the bottle against your baby’s top lip. Wait for your baby to open up before putting the bottle in his mouth. Never force a bottle into a baby’s mouth.

2. Your baby should be sitting up enough that the bottle is horizontal (parallel to the floor). Tip the bottle just enough to keep the tip of the nipple filled with milk (as the bottle empties, you will have to tip the bottle up more). It’s fine if there is an air bubble at the base of the nipple as long as the tip is filled with milk. This works much better with a straight bottle rather than an angled one.

3. If you are supplementing a breastfed baby, or pumping and bottle feeding in the hopes of getting baby back to nursing, it is beneficial to let your baby suck on the nipple for a minute or two without getting anything, and then tip the bottle so your baby is getting milk. When breastfeeding, babies have to wait a minute or so for mom’s milk to let down, and they have to suck to trigger that let down. Babies who have been bottle fed sometimes get used to the immediate reward from the bottle and then are impatient at the breast and don’t want to wait for let down. By letting baby suck for a short while without getting anything from the bottle, you are mimicking the process at the breast, and it can help with the transition. There is no need to worry about your baby taking in air, one end or the other it will come back out!

4. Watch your baby’s cues. All babies, whether breast or bottle fed should be fed whenever they show signs of being hungry, and not according to any kind of schedule. During feeding, if your baby starts to show any signs of stress (splayed fingers and toes, milk spilling out of mouth, turning head away, pushing bottle away – see picture above) then your baby needs a break. Keep the bottle in your baby’s mouth, but tip the bottle so that the nipple is pointing towards the roof of the baby’s mouth. By doing this, your baby knows that the bottle is still there and will start sucking again when ready. At that point you can tip the bottle back up so that baby is again getting milk. It is frustrating for your baby if you take the bottle out of his mouth to give him a break because he doesn’t know where it has gone or if it’s coming back. If your baby is showing signs that he is done (turning head, trying to push bottle away etc), then respect those cues and end the feeding.

5. Alternate sides part way through the feeding to mimic breastfeeding and allow stimulation to both eyes and both sides of the body. This also helps to prevent the development of a side preference when feeding.

6. Find a nipple that works well for your baby. There are no black and white answers as to which bottle nipple is “best” for a breastfed baby, because all babies are different. For young babies, make sure you are using a slow flow nipple. Even with older babies a slow flow nipple may be best if your baby is struggling with the flow of milk. Don’t worry about the recommended ages on the bottle nipple packaging, watch your baby to determine what works best for them. Unfortunately, “slow flow” is not something that is standardized, and some “slow flow” nipples actually flow quite quickly, so again, watch your baby. I do not recommend the “Nuk” or orthodontic type nipples because mom’s nipples don’t look like that! (If mom’s nipples are pinched or flattened after baby feeds, it’s a sign that baby isn’t latched on properly, or some other issue is causing baby to compress the nipple). Your baby should be able to “latch” onto the base of whichever nipple you use. Some bottle nipples that are advertised as having a wide base and being “more like mom’s breast”, are so wide that baby ends up being just on the nipple, which is something to be avoided. There are some good pictures of how your baby should look when latched onto a bottle nipple on this Best for Babes post, titled How to Bottle-feed as You’d Breastfeed, and more information at the website www.breastandbottlefeeding.com.

Things to avoid:
1. Never prop a bottle. It’s a dangerous practice that is stressful for your baby.

2. Don’t bottle feed your baby while he’s swaddled. You need to be able to see your baby’s hands to watch for stress signs, and your baby needs to have his hands free to participate in feeding.

3. Don’t feed your baby with him facing away from you. Feeding is an important time for the development of social interaction in babies. Make eye contact with your baby, talk to him and enjoy the feeding as a fun interaction with your baby rather than another task to get through as quickly as possible.

4. Don’t force your baby to finish a bottle by twisting it or moving it around in baby’s mouth. Let your baby decide when he’s done. Overfeeding can lead to an uncomfortable and unhappy baby!

To learn more about healthy babies, please visit Birthologie.com

If This Doesn't Move You....

If this doesn't move you, you are made of stone.  Concrete.  Wood.  You should just cry, that's all I'm sayin'.