Article in O Magazine about breastmilk donation

This is a beautiful but sad story that brought tears to my eyes. Hopefully it will help bring some awareness to the need for breastmilk donation. I personally donated a small amount of milk to a family through a group called Milk Share and it was a wonderful feeling to help someone else. I would love to hear thoughts on this story.

http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200903_omag_milk_bank/1

Breast Crawl Video

This is a link to a video that I believe was created by The Mother and Child, Health and Education Foundation. UNICEF, WHO and WABA along with the scientific community strongly recommend initiating breastfeeding within an hour of birth. This video shows how a newborn placed between its mother's breasts will initiate breastfeeding on it own. The newborn has the ability to find its mother's breast all on its own and to decide when to take the first breastfeed. This is an amazing video and I just wanted to share it.

http://breastcrawl.org/index.html

Childbirth Without Choice

An article about how women have to fight tooth and nail to be "allowed" to attempt a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). This is one of the things that makes my blood boil. Providers will make the risks of VBAC sound so horrible but they won't discuss the risks of major abdominal surgery or the risks of repeated c-sections. They also don't discuss the risks of c-section to the baby. The first link is to an article called Childbirth Without Choice and the second link is to an article written by the same woman that was in Time Magazine called The Trouble with Repeat Cesareans.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-paul/childbirth-without-choice_b_168652.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1880665,00.html

Do you or someone you know want to have a VBAC and are being refused or discouraged from attempting it? Did you or someone you know have a successful VBAC? I would love to hear about it.

Obesity, gastric bypass and pregnancy

Here are the links to two articles from the Post-Gazette. One is about obesity and pregnancy. The other is about gastric bypass and how fertility often improves after gastric bypass surgery. I found them both to be very imformative. I don't personally know anyone who got pregnant after gastric bypass. I would love to hear from someone who has had this experience and how the pregnancy went for her. If you know anyone send them by to leave a comment.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09049/949746-114.stm


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09049/949749-114.stm

Meet the Doula Events

This will be where I will post the schedule for the Meet the doula nights for the time being. If I do not have one scheduled convenient for you please leave a comment and I will arrange to have one close to you in the near future.

I have the following dates set up for Meet the Doula Nights. All of them will start at 6:30 pm

July 16th at the Panera at Waterworks Mall in Fox Chapel
July 30th at the Panera at the Butler Commons in Butler

August 10th at the Panera at Cranberry Mall in Cranberry
August 27th at the Panera at Butler Commons in Butler

September 17th at the Panera at Waterworks Mall in Fox Chapel

October 15th at the Panera at Cranberry Mall in Cranberry

December 15th at Panera at Cranberry Mall in Cranberry.

Feel free to comment here and let me know if you will be attending or hoping to attend so I can watch for you.

Thanks.

Amy

Consumer Reports on Maternity Care

Here is a link to an article that Consumer Reports did about the state of maternity care. Anyone want to guess what they found? Overuse of high-tech interventions and not enough use of low-tech things like midwives and such. Are you surprised? The average woman in the u.s. does more research to buy a car than to have a baby.

Here is a link to a quiz about maternity care which you can take and then follow up by reading the article.

http://www.consumerreports.org/health/medical-conditions-treatments/pregnancy-childbirth/maternity-care/maternity-care-quiz/maternity-care-quiz.htm

This is the link to the article.

http://www.consumerreports.org/health/medical-conditions-treatments/pregnancy-childbirth/maternity-care/overview/maternity-care.htm

Older article

This is a link to an older article that I wanted to post about but somehow I missed it. When they had the big earthquake in China there was a policewoman who took it upon herself to breastfeed babies who were separated or orphaned in the quake. It's fitting to put this right after the post about Salma Hayek though.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/22/china.breastfeed/index.html

Breastfeeding on Mr. Rogers

The following is a link to a clip from Mr. Rogers about mama's feeding their babies. It is very well done and I am sure we would never see it on tv today. Thoughts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSVINzN2ces&eurl=http://www.phdinparenting.com/2009/02/07/breastfeeding-on-childrens-television/&feature=player_embedded

Salma Hayek Story

I think this is just amazing. Salma Hayek was in Sierra Leone on a trip for UNICEF to encourage tetanus vaccination in that country and she met a mother whose baby was starving and she nursed this woman's baby for her. I think it is just amazing that she would do this. I would do it if I were in the same situation but I know there are many women who would not. God bless her and I hope someone is able to go in and educate the people in Sierra Leone about the importance of breastfeeding.

http://entertainment.oneindia.in/hollywood/top-stories/scoop/2009/salma-breastfed-060209.html#cmntTop

Benefits of Aquarobics during pregnancy

Doing aquarobics during pregnancy may be associated with lower usage of pain medication during delivery. Here is an article about the study that was done. Swimming during pregnancy just feels good too so it can't hurt to give it a try.


http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=94446