Sunday, April 20

Breech birth!!

Interesting information about care providers and people who are willing to go against the norm to preserve a natural process.

http://www.homebirth.net.au/2008/04/breech-birth.html.

Enjoy!

Friday, April 18

Five Good Reasons to Delay Clamping the Cord

The following website is from Gentle Birth. They discuss Five Good Reason to Delay Clamping the cord (http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/lateClamping.html).

The first reason is basically that is what nature intended. The second reason it gives the parents a chance to bond with the newborn, slows down the drill. The third reason is because it may cause unusual lesion in the brains of infants. The fourth reason is the problem with Rh negative mothers, it is advised to wait until the placenta is delivered. The last reason is because the baby is designed to have the blood at birth, scientist have discovered t-cells which have cancer fighting properties in these blood...we shouldn't wait until 30 years later to give the blood to that baby, but now...to build strong bodies.

Part of my birth plan is to delay the clamping of the cord. I already advised my midwife of the cord clamping. I gave them the birth plan. When I arrive at the hospital, they should be aware of all my requests, such as not asking me for my level of pain, not asking me whether or not I want my epidural, not asking me whether my baby should be circumcised, not administering Vitamin K shots, or hep B, or eye ointment. I wrote that I don't want pacifiers and bottles for my baby. I took care of everything I could possibly think of using other people's ideas of birth plans, and merging them into what I needed for myself.

At 30 weeks, waiting for the next few 70 days or so...to pass by smoothly and happily.

Monday, April 14

The Baby MOVES me

I know that some people say that there should be a certain amount of movement per certain amount of time. I have no clue what those numbers are, what I do know is that the baby moves me. The stomach either trembles, or you can feel a kick, or a rub. Since I started this message the baby moved at least six times. There are times, when I'm walking, talking, or just simply moving around that he would literally stop me, and say "Aha! I'm here!!"

I feel the kicks higher in belly, which is good, it could mean that he is in the right position. He is kicking me above the belly button. Now, I'm telling him that he needs to face my back, and keep kicking up there where he is at. I tell him that is great that he is kicking, it doesn't bother me at all. Well it only bothers me when I feel movement right on top of my bladder, and I have to go ROOM...oh! If you have had pressure place in your bladder, you know how that goes. I'm terribly excited as time goes on and everything with the baby is so perfect. I'm increasing in size, gaining weight as I should be. I'm looking forward to birthing, and putting the hypnobabies into practice. I have about 10 weeks left. I'm just thinking positively that I am looking forward to meeting my second son real soon.

Sunday, April 6

La Leche League of New Jersey

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend a great conference that creates awareness in breastfeeding. It was pretty interesting. I personally went to 4 groups. One of the groups discussed psychological impacts of breastfeeding. They went a little in depth as to why some women choose not to breastfeed or only breastfeed for a few weeks. The next workshop I went to was about co-sleeping, the family bed. The third workshop was about positive thinking (the author of this website, wwww.letthebabydrive.com). The last workshop I went to was about babywearing, different types of carriers and how to use them. In the middle of all this was speech presented by Dr. Sear's son about attachment parenting, inspirational to those of us who practice some sort of version of it.

La Leche League is a great program that helps ladies thru mother to mother support gain trust back into breastfeeding. I did with my son when he was 5 weeks of age, I had tons of doubt, and problems. Despite of the mastitis, the lack of support, and other things, I breastfed for about 3 1/2 years...basically almost two to three months ago, my son stopped mainly due to breastmilk probably decreasing due to my pregnancy, in which I was frequently complaining about tenderness. In all honesty if I was not pregnant, I think we would still be a breastfeeding duo.

La Leche League can be found at www.llli.org, and the La Leche League of NJ can be found at www.lalecheleaguenj.org.

Friday, April 4

April is Cesarean Awareness Month

I wish I knew half of what I know now for my first birth. I guess I can use this information now for this birth and any other experience in the future...

I have learned that I must take responsibility for my learning, not one person in the world is going to come to me and say you should really learn about this or that...

There are people that are willing to give you the hand, and share their rope, but only if you are out there seeking for it...not the other way around. At the end of the day, at the end of the month, it is only up to you, to take their hand, and let them guide you and help you, is it up to you to ask the right questions, is it up to you to make sure you get the right answers...

Here is the website to learn more about ICAN, and Cesarean-Awareness-Month
http://ican-online.org/.