Hi all! Lots of updates and links to share.
Classes – I’ve got a great workshop series of my classes being hosted by Beth at Leela Yoga. The first is Labor and Birth and it’s This Sunday!! I’m bringing the demonstration pelvis and baby so you know it’s going to be fun. Sign up at Leela Yoga if you can come!
Links!
Group B Strep (GBS) – this is one of the big topics of pregnancy, and areas where you should get your information correct to be able to make a good decision for you and your family. This is is a nuanced problem that really begins in pregnancy but can carry over to what happens if your baby does become sick after the birth, and describing what that experience might be like. Whether you are ok with antibiotic use or not, I think that most of us don’t like the idea of over use of antibiotics, but when it comes to decisions about your baby’s health, it can be difficult to really know what to do. Something that we talk about a lot in the midwifery world are the steps you can take to get yourself healthy, and in the case, to help test negative for GBS. I like this article because Aviva talks about some of these prevention steps. More taking charge of your health!
The Birthful Podcast, with Gail Tully – this episode features Gaill Tully of Spinning Babies discussing the influence of the the muscles, ligaments, and soft tissues of the pelvis during labor. She points out that the habits and activities that we do everyday train our muscles to be a certain way, for instance, if we are always crossing our legs, overtime the muscle being pulled at the back of the leg and butt will stay lengthened, while the muscles in the front of the leg and pelvis will tighten. These little things become a part of the birth as the baby is trying to make her way down and turning to navigate these tighter spots. Again, there are exercises you can do before you go into labor that will help stretch and rebalance these muscles. Check out this podcast for tips!
Squatting! – speaking of some of these exercises, I have to talk about Katy Bowman and her discussion about squats. We should all be squatting, whether you are pregnant or not. This is a long term health issue and a good starting point for those experiencing chronic pain. Her blog is a wonderful resource but actually seeing a Restorative Exercise specialist in person is really the way to go to make some good change. If you’re in the Davis, CA area I recommend my good friend, Megan Kane who helped me tweak some things that lead to a happier, less painful pregnancy and labor (4 hour labor!).
Hospitals need to be more supportive of breastfeeding – (First of all, there’s a journal called Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report?! Yikes!) Yes, hospitals could do more to help those who would like to breastfeed, which includes the majority of parents. This is a challenge people. A challenge to the hospitals to step it up but also to breastfeeding advocates to step up the education of hospital staff and making resources available to these sleep deprived parents being released from the hospital into the world of the unknown (even if you’ve breastfed before, you might be in for some new plot twists, trust me).
Lastly, who’s going to buy me this pillow? The holidays are coming. I’m just sayin’.
I wanted to raise a cup of tea to those of you out there doing the daily routine, making ends meet, getting the kids off to school, etc. To those of you who might be feeling a little stuck, a little overwhelmed or bogged down. To those of you feeling anxious about an uncertain future that doesn’t get any clearer when you listen to the news. I know these feelings. Do something good for yourself today even making yourself that cup of tea and setting aside the time to actually finish it. I’m halfway done with my cup 🙂