Augmentation Following Water Breaking

In class, we extensively discuss the spiral of interventions that add risk and may not necessarily improve the outcomes. Although the downward spiral can be started by almost any intervention, the most common steps into the cycle are induction/augmentation or pain medication.

Here is an interesting link about general induction/augmentation procedures particularly when the bag of waters has ruptured, involving patience and risk.

While these are very important topics that should be discussed with your provider before you yourself are in labor, realize that you may have unknowingly either made decisions about your care or limited your choices by your provider (or the provider's group policies). The provider(s) have a certain way of doing things that may or may not be flexible depending on your desires and individual situation. So, the take home message is to choose your provider carefully! Talk to me if you have questions about finding a provider whose practice lines up with your birth philosophy.

Pregnant and I know it

 

Ha ha ha!

More on Vaccines

One of my former couples recently enjoyed attending a vaccine workshop put on by Dragonfly Natural Health, a naturopathic practitioner. Although I haven't personally attended the workshop yet, I think it would be very interesting and definitely follows along the Bradley Method principle of being a good consumer while making your choices in healthcare. The next workshop is scheduled for April in North Hollywood. Let me know if you attend and what you think!

Unhurried

A woman will exhale from the work of birth before she begins to inhale the presence of her child and her new identity as a mother. - Mary Esther Malloy, MA, CD(DONA), CLC, AAHCC

A fellow Bradley Method instructor who is also a doula and lives in NY wrote a very interesting article about having an unhurried first meeting between mom and newborn. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This sounds appealing to me if/when we have a third little one.

Dr. Rion, D.C.

Do you think chiropractic and pregnancy don't go together? Think again. Dr. Rion Zimmerman visited us in class last week. He taught us a mini-anatomy lesson about the many ligaments and tendons that involved in pregnancy, the tightness or misalignment of which can cause discomfort and pain, and possibly lead to malpositioned (breech, posterior, etc.) baby.

Dr. Rion sees many pregnant patients for wellness throughout pregnancy. As a dad himself, he also developed some specific stretches and exercises while his wife was pregnant that he could help her with for both the purpose of relieving that tension as well it being another way to be involved. Both moms and coaches in my class enjoyed feeling a good stretch and learning about some exercises.

One exercise in particular that he shared with doing gentle squats using an exercise ball. You put the ball between your back and the wall. When you bend your knees slightly and then return to standing, the ball rolls with you down the wall slightly, giving comfortable support in proper alignment. As Dr. Rion said, you don't have to go down very far to begin to strengthen your legs and gluteal muscles. Strengthening your glutes is not only good for labor and birth, but can also help with urinary incontinence (in combination with kegels) and is another good life-long toning exercise.

Dr. Rion Zimmerman is the owner operator of Flintridge Family Chiropractic and is certified in the Webster technique. If you want to find out more information about the Webster technique, which is used to help allow the baby to turn to the vertex (head down) position, please give Dr. Rion a call or send him an email through his website. There is also a video of some mothers sharing their testimonials on the website.

Presence of Meconium

In class last week, one of my students had a question about meconium (baby's first stool) presence in the amniotic fluid and possible aspiration. She was wondering about how meconium aspiration syndrome was diagnosed and treated. I found a concise article in the PubMed Health Dictionary about MAS, that pretty well covers the questions asked. It is good to know that in not all cases of presence of meconium in the amniotic fluid is it inhaled requiring treatment and in general there are no long term health effects.

Professional Assistant Coaches

While we were on the topic of assistant coaches in Class 5, Tracy Hartley, doula and owner of the local B.E.S.T. Doula Service, shared with us about how to work with your hospital birth team to obtain your desires. This is an important topic since sometimes couples who take the Bradley Method classes sometimes feel that their desires differ from the normal hospital policy or the doctor's way of doing things. Hopefully the couple will have prepared ahead of time and openly discussed their desires with their doctor, decided which if any things will be compromised, and written up a clear birth plan (of course, knowing that flexibility is a necessity in childbirth).

One of her tips to use a compliment as a way of stating your preference for something that the doctor may or may not usually support. For example, she told how she had used this tactic with a doctor who alway wants his laboring moms to give birth on their back, legs in stirrups. This position is known to be the worst possible position for comfort of the laboring woman and the ease of exit for the baby, but is the easiest position for the doctor to see and catch. So Tracy kindly said to the OB as the mom was about to start pushing, "Thank you so much for supporting her choice to use an alternative position for giving birth!" He looked surprised and confused, but then didn't make her get on her back! It worked!

While Bradley coaches are trained to be the primary support for the laboring woman, there is something special that another woman can offer. If you have more questions about doulas, their services, costs, benefits, or how to go about hiring a doula, feel free to contact Tracy or visit her website, search for a good fit from the 300+ doulas in DASC (Doulas of Southern California), or let me know.

Finally, Tracy offers to all childbirthing women, the opportunity to participate in The Letters Project. It is basically a personal letter drafted to the hospital administrator where you plan to or have given birth, telling him/her your birth preferences. Simply select your preferences from scroll down menus, edit if desired, print, stick a stamp on it and mail it. The hospitals won't know your preferences if you don't let them know! Let's be part of the change in hospitals offering more choices to birthing women! I just did it and it only take a few minutes!