This is a question that is massively poignant to me, and isn't one that I ask lightly. Seasoned medical professionals and women who have experienced painful births are no doubt baring their teeth. Whilst I don't wish to trample on their experience, I am due to give birth in six weeks and I'm hoping that the title to this piece may be truer than we are currently able to anticipate.
Since becoming pregnant I have explored my options. In doing so I discovered 'Hypnobirthing - The Marie Mongan Method' and my education in natural, empowering birthing began. Whilst I've not yet put the theory to the test, I am already a superfan of the possibilities hypnobirthing holds.
Hypnobirthing starts from the premise that the pain commonly felt in childbirth is not a natural side effect of birth but rather it stems from fear. Women in our highly medicalised society are ingrained to believe that birth is frightening and as they go into labour the feeling is often one of terror. This terror may have been welling in them since childhood when stories of their own birth were recounted, or from the horror tales put to them throughout their life. A pregnant woman is often not reassured by her friends gleeful recitations of tearing, cutting, blood loss, vomiting, labors that last a week and the howling screams coming from a woman in the next room.
This understandable, but culturally driven fear naturally provokes the body's fight, flight or freeze response. All physical energy is directed away from the birthing process and a lifetime of anticipating great pain becomes true, surgery occurs, episitiotomies are dosed out, drugs are taken and birth becomes a medical traumatic situation.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Showing posts with label binsi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label binsi. Show all posts
A Home for Births
By opening a freestanding birth center, perinatologist Steve Calvin is determined to make maternity care more satisfying for women and cost effective.
By Kim Kiser
Standing on a sidewalk on Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis, Steve Calvin, M.D., is at the intersection of high-tech and high-touch health care. Behind him is the 100-year-old Victorian home he bought two years ago and turned into a freestanding birth center—a place where women can deliver their babies in much the same tradition as their great grandmothers. Across the street, a crane is busy at work on construction of the Mother-Baby Center on the campus of Children’s and Abbott Northwestern hospitals—a place where women will have access to some of the most sophisticated maternal and neonatal services in the Twin Cities.
Although setting up a birth center across the street from two tertiary care hospitals could seem ill-conceived, the project is well thought out. As a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who has worked at Abbott Northwestern for 23 years, Calvin has attended to some of the most challenging pregnancies and deliveries. Over the years, he observed that most mothers and babies didn’t need the kind of care a hospital could provide. He notes, for example, that 80 percent of women who have a hospital delivery get an epidural block. “Epidural blocks have been a godsend for many women; but there are concerns that we’re overdoing it,” he says, adding that it may make them unable to feel the urge to push. “If a mom is in pain, the nurse says, ‘Let me call the anesthesiologist and get an epidural,’ rather than sits down with them and says, ‘You’re at 8 cm and you’ll soon be complete and able to push.’”
To read the rest of this article click here.
By Kim Kiser
Standing on a sidewalk on Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis, Steve Calvin, M.D., is at the intersection of high-tech and high-touch health care. Behind him is the 100-year-old Victorian home he bought two years ago and turned into a freestanding birth center—a place where women can deliver their babies in much the same tradition as their great grandmothers. Across the street, a crane is busy at work on construction of the Mother-Baby Center on the campus of Children’s and Abbott Northwestern hospitals—a place where women will have access to some of the most sophisticated maternal and neonatal services in the Twin Cities.
Although setting up a birth center across the street from two tertiary care hospitals could seem ill-conceived, the project is well thought out. As a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who has worked at Abbott Northwestern for 23 years, Calvin has attended to some of the most challenging pregnancies and deliveries. Over the years, he observed that most mothers and babies didn’t need the kind of care a hospital could provide. He notes, for example, that 80 percent of women who have a hospital delivery get an epidural block. “Epidural blocks have been a godsend for many women; but there are concerns that we’re overdoing it,” he says, adding that it may make them unable to feel the urge to push. “If a mom is in pain, the nurse says, ‘Let me call the anesthesiologist and get an epidural,’ rather than sits down with them and says, ‘You’re at 8 cm and you’ll soon be complete and able to push.’”
To read the rest of this article click here.
As January Jones admits to eating her own placenta, experts reveal the health benefits (and the cooking instructions)
By Victoria Wellman
January Jones has certainly been mysterious about the paternity of her son, but one thing she hasn't been shy to admit is how she ate her own placenta following his birth.
Eating the placenta however, is not an uncommon practice these days, and has become something of a trend among new mothers interested in the much talked about health benefits.
Chinese herbalists among others believe that re-ingesting the protective layer that connects the baby to the wall of the uterus is common sense when it comes to nourishing the body after childbirth.
Ayla Yavin, a Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist specialising in women's health who also used to be a doula told MailOnline: 'You spend nine months building the placenta and then when your baby is born you lose a huge amount of blood.'
The New York-based specialist went on to say: 'Eating the placenta is good for a few reasons.
To read the rest of this article click here.
It's a Baby, Not a Gallon Of Milk
If your baby’s date has come and gone fear not! Your baby is just not ready yet. If you find your self in this place, now is a good time to:
Get Cozy. Turn off your phone. Record a message telling your friends and family that you will let them know what’s going on but you will not be available till after the baby comes. Why hermit it up? Well, you know the old saying a watched pot never boils? Well it’s fairly true when it comes to birth, all the expectant well wishers can stress a mama out. If you have alone time you and your family can have the time and space you need to get in touch with the baby.
To read the rest of this article click here.
The Most Scientific Birth Is Often the Least Technological Birth
When I ask my medical students to describe their image of a woman who elects to birth with a midwife rather than with an obstetrician, they generally describe a woman who wears long cotton skirts, braids her hair, eats only organic vegan food, does yoga, and maybe drives a VW microbus. What they don't envision is the omnivorous, pants-wearing science geek standing before them.
Indeed, they become downright confused when I go on to explain that there was really only one reason why my mate -- an academic internist -- and I decided to ditch our obstetrician and move to a midwife: Our midwife could be trusted to be scientific, whereas our obstetrician could not.
Many medical students, like most American patients, confuse science and technology. They think that what it means to be a scientific doctor is to bring to bear the maximum amount of technology on any given patient. And this makes them dangerous. In fact, if you look at scientific studies of birth, you find over and over again that many technological interventions increase risk to the mother and child rather than decreasing it.
But most birthing women don't seem to know this, even if their obstetricians do. Paradoxically, these women seem to want the same thing I wanted: a safe outcome for mother and child. But no one seems to tell them what the data indicate is the best way to get there. The friend who dares to offer half a glass of wine is seen as guilty of reckless endangerment, whereas the obstetrician offering unnecessary and risky procedures is considered heroic.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Apologies To The Parents I Judged Four Years Ago
By Kara Gebhart Uhl from The Huffington Post
To the Parents I Knew Four Years Ago: I'm Sorry
I have come to realize many things since having three children. For example, I now know that I can read "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" seven times in a row without going insane. No matter what people say, throw-up is throw-up and I don't care if it is my daughter who is throwing up but her throw-up makes me want to throw up. I am a really fast diaper changer. And it's true: love does not split, but grows with additional children.
But perhaps one of the biggest realizations I've made as a relatively new parent (my daughter turns 4 in March, my twin boys turn 2 in May) is how incredibly judgmental I was pre-children.
You, the woman at Kohl's who pushed a cart with your screaming toddler draped on the rack underneath it, ignoring her as she scraped her feet on the floor because she couldn't have the toy she wanted: I judged you.
Girlfriend with children who had Nick Jr. on the entire time I visited: I judged you.
Parent at the park who did not pack an organic, free-range, all-food-groups-represented, no-dessert lunch complete with sandwiches cut in cute little shapes, who instead fed your children chicken nuggets, cold French fries and (gasp) chocolate milk? I judged you.
Not out loud, of course. But internally, I was smug. I thought things like I would never have children who would behave in such a manner in public. Or, Doesn't she know the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV until the age of 2? Or, How can he possibly be feeding his children that crap? Has he not read any of Michael Pollan's books?
And what's worse, now that I'm a parent, I realize internal smugness isn't so internal. As a parent, I know when I'm being judged. I can sense it, even when nothing is being said out loud. It's in the look. The double-take. The whisper to the companion they're with.
It's hard not to care about what other people think. But still, that quiet judgment can sting, especially on days when my nerves are shot and my children are in the worst moods -- a combination that often leads to a situation judge-worthy by many.
To read the rest of this article click here.
To the Parents I Knew Four Years Ago: I'm Sorry
I have come to realize many things since having three children. For example, I now know that I can read "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" seven times in a row without going insane. No matter what people say, throw-up is throw-up and I don't care if it is my daughter who is throwing up but her throw-up makes me want to throw up. I am a really fast diaper changer. And it's true: love does not split, but grows with additional children.
But perhaps one of the biggest realizations I've made as a relatively new parent (my daughter turns 4 in March, my twin boys turn 2 in May) is how incredibly judgmental I was pre-children.
You, the woman at Kohl's who pushed a cart with your screaming toddler draped on the rack underneath it, ignoring her as she scraped her feet on the floor because she couldn't have the toy she wanted: I judged you.
Girlfriend with children who had Nick Jr. on the entire time I visited: I judged you.
Parent at the park who did not pack an organic, free-range, all-food-groups-represented, no-dessert lunch complete with sandwiches cut in cute little shapes, who instead fed your children chicken nuggets, cold French fries and (gasp) chocolate milk? I judged you.
Not out loud, of course. But internally, I was smug. I thought things like I would never have children who would behave in such a manner in public. Or, Doesn't she know the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV until the age of 2? Or, How can he possibly be feeding his children that crap? Has he not read any of Michael Pollan's books?
And what's worse, now that I'm a parent, I realize internal smugness isn't so internal. As a parent, I know when I'm being judged. I can sense it, even when nothing is being said out loud. It's in the look. The double-take. The whisper to the companion they're with.
It's hard not to care about what other people think. But still, that quiet judgment can sting, especially on days when my nerves are shot and my children are in the worst moods -- a combination that often leads to a situation judge-worthy by many.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Set Up a Birth Altar For Focus and Guidance During Labor
When prepping for birth, there are so many medical and physical factors to consider – but your emotional state is also something that is incredibly important. Along with learning deep breathing, and methods such as Hypnobithing to help you through labor, there are things you can put together to help give you focus as well. One of those things is a ‘birth altar.’
Now, I know the word ‘altar’ itself weirds some people out – but remember it’s not religion-specific, though Christian churches, Catholics and Pagans alike, amongst many others use them that way – but it’s instead spiritual, inspirational and emotional.
Specifically, it’s a table, surface or set up with items or images of importance. And that’s what we’re talking about here! Setting up some little emotionally-charged and helpful pictures, tools, words and so on for you to concentrate on. But if the word still bothers you, feel free to choose something different to call yours. Your birth shrine, maybe?
The whole goal here is to have a focal point during labor with things that help calm you, even release endorphins, remind you of the purpose of your contractions and help you feel calm.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Warning Signs to Look for in Your Care Provider
Written by Muscat Midwife
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift” - Albert Einstein
We need to shift our beliefs about childbirth in order to choose an appropriate care giver.
If you desire a natural childbirth then you need to find a care provider who works in an environment that supports natural childbirth. Most hospital obstetric units function according to the medical model of care where birth itself is viewed as a medical event that should be conducted in an intensive care setting with modern high-tech equipment. Sadly, many obstetricians have never had the opportunity to see a truly natural birth.
Care focuses on managing problems and complications
Make sure that you understand the distinction between the risk factor and the actual complication. Your care provider should be reassuring you about your natural ability to carry a normal pregnancy to term and give birth naturally. This should start from the first consultation.
Higher rates of using interventions
In a hospital setting, interventions are sometimes used because it is the common thing to do, and not necessarily because it is needed. Make sure that you are informed and proactive.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Emergency C-Sections, Incubators, & Hospital Protocol: Men Experience Birth Trauma, Too
by Birth Without Fear on August 28, 2011
Birth trauma is very real and probably much more frequent than women in our society realize. But birth trauma is not exclusive to the moms and babies. We dads experience birth trauma, too, but in a very different, very mentally draining way.
Postpartum Depression for Men?
I am very involved in my family and find that my life revolves around them no matter what I do. I lie down with the younger two kids at night and, if I’m home, for naps during the day. I draw for my son and play superheroes and tag with him often (though not often enough by his standards, which would be 24/7/365), and I’m constantly teaching my oldest the differences between right and wrong as she begins getting older and discovering new language and behaviors (that we aren’t always thrilled about). I recently had to quit a steady job that demanded too much time away from family and I am now currently starting up my own business where I can make my hours revolve around my family.
With all that being said, it should not came as a surprise that I am very involved with the ins and outs of Mrs. BWF’s pregnancies and births. When she goes through trying times, I go through trying times.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Retreat at The Farm
Are you tired of witnessing women being violated during birth and feeling powerless to stop the train wreck happening before your eyes? Do you wonder how there can possibly be such a giant gap between what medical research recommends and the standard procedures in hospitals? Do you wonder how the United States can spend more money than other countries on maternity care and have worse outcomes? Or how it is possible, in a time of technical advances and improvements in our health, that maternal mortality in the U.S. can be on the rise? Are you ready to stop being a bystander and work for change?
Let’s stop talking about how bad things are and do something. Let’s come together, gather our allies, learn from the people who have improved maternity care in their communities and lay the groundwork for a full-scale birth revolution! Join the national grassroots movement to change maternity care.
Where’s My Midwife? invites you to spend a weekend at the Farm in Tennessee, plotting and scheming, coming up with activities that can be carried out in any community at any time for little to no money. These activities will raise public awareness about our broken maternity care system, and draw attention to the methods that are producing better results for mothers and babies. We need to put public pressure on the people, organizations and businesses in positions of power and hold them accountable for improving outcomes.
If you are ready to take the next step, join us June 22nd through the 24th at our first annual Birth Activists Retreat. For more information, e-mail us at info@wheresmymidwife.org.
And remember, “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Let’s stop talking about how bad things are and do something. Let’s come together, gather our allies, learn from the people who have improved maternity care in their communities and lay the groundwork for a full-scale birth revolution! Join the national grassroots movement to change maternity care.
Where’s My Midwife? invites you to spend a weekend at the Farm in Tennessee, plotting and scheming, coming up with activities that can be carried out in any community at any time for little to no money. These activities will raise public awareness about our broken maternity care system, and draw attention to the methods that are producing better results for mothers and babies. We need to put public pressure on the people, organizations and businesses in positions of power and hold them accountable for improving outcomes.
If you are ready to take the next step, join us June 22nd through the 24th at our first annual Birth Activists Retreat. For more information, e-mail us at info@wheresmymidwife.org.
And remember, “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Childbirth: A Different Way to Remove the Placenta May Save Mothers’ Lives, a Study Finds
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: March 12, 2012
Delivery without pulling on the umbilical cord may be a simpler way to keep some women from bleeding to death in childbirth, a new study has found.
In Africa and Asia, postpartum hemorrhage kills a third of the women who die in childbirth, and health agencies constantly struggle to refine midwife training to prevent those deaths. (Above, a maternity ward in Sudan.)
Many midwives are now trained to deliver the baby, give the mother a shot of oxytocin to help her uterus contract, clamp the cord and pull steadily on it to get the placenta out. Then they massage the uterus to help it tighten and to cut off blood flow.
A study published by The Lancet last week looking at results from a trial of more than 24,000 women in eight countries found that pulling the umbilical cord — known as “controlled cord traction” — did not significantly reduce the amount of blood lost.
Pulling also carries a slight risk of tearing the cord and of causing a rare but life-threatening condition — uterine inversion, in which the organ is pulled inside out or even out of the body.
To read the rest of this article click here.
The mean-girl advice of What To Expect When You’re Expecting.
I loved this article! I hope you enjoy it too!
By Allison Benedikt|Posted Saturday, March 3, 2012
If you ask a pregnant woman about pregnancy books, she will generally respond with some hand-waving variation of: "Oh, I don't read the books. They just make you crazy!" But contrary to our carefully cultivated pregnancy personas, expectant moms devour pregnancy advice. Late into the night. Down into the wormhole. And, with more than 17 million copies in print worldwide, plus untold millions being passed between sisters and friends, What To Expect When You're Expecting is still the mother of them all.
The origin story goes that, in 1984, expectant mom and advertising copywriter Heidi Murkoff, feeling let down and freaked out by the pregnancy books on the market, decided to write her own. Extreme nesting, perhaps, but the difference between her plan and your notion to knit your child’s entire home-from-the-hospital outfit is that she actually followed through. "Determined to write a guide that would help other expectant parents sleep better at night," per her bio, Murkoff delivered her book proposal just hours before delivering her first child, Emma. What? Yes. She wrote the proposal for the book all about pregnancy while pregnant with her first child. Three decades, four editions, countless spinoffs, and a notable uptick in Emmas later, 93 percent of American women who read a pregnancy guide read What To Expect, according to its publisher’s website.
The first time I was one of those women, I had two books on my bedside table, each reflecting my potential pregnancy personality: Midwifery guru Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, with stories of 72-hour natural homebirths and testaments to the benefit of deep kissing in labor, in case I turned out to be that person; and What To Expect When You're Expecting, in case I turned out to be myself. Reading Murkoff's advice back then—it didn't really frighten me. It consumed me, as did the pregnancy. When you are in it, you are really in it. And when you are really in it, you are in denial about what is actually going on. (Pro tip: The baby is not only going to come out, it's going to stay out.) So you sign up for an eight-week childbirth class, think about switching to decaf, feel guilty that you didn't switch to decaf, watch that Ricki Lake movie, develop philosophies about mom things, make your husband watch that Ricki Lake movie, quietly judge your friends' philosophies about mom things, buy a 20-class pass for prenatal yoga, go to yoga twice, and read (and re-read) a book that purports to tell you "what to expect" – all in order to focus your crazy-person energy on … something. But now that I've had the baby, and another one after that, the book that seemed perfectly normal, even essential, just four years ago, feels harsh, punitive, almost like parody today.
To read the rest of this awesome article click here.
How to Trust Your Body in Birth.
By Helene Rose from www.elephantjournal.com
Do you trust your body to birth your baby?
Knowing our bodies is key to trusting our bodies. When we fully know and trust ourselves, we are free to tap into our power center and can birth as nature intended—free from artificial stimulation and augmentation, free from narcotics and analgesics. Our inner strength guides us as we birth and we know how!
Unfortunately, most births do not unfold as nature intended. Why? The answer is F-E-A-R. Fear interferes with our ability to know and trust ourselves. A mother fears that she won’t be able to “handle the pain” or her “hips aren’t wide enough” or her “baby is too big.” Care providers and hospitals fear lawsuits, long births, the natural process.
The good news is that with awareness we can notice our fears, eliminate them, and learn to understand and trust our bodies.
Consider bring more trust and knowing to your being:
1. Notice your fears. Eliminate them.
With keen awareness, notice each thought that you have around birth. With keen awareness, notice the words that others speak that are fear based, and how they affect you. Choose healthy thoughts. Gently, without judging, guide yourself with a loving mantra “My body is perfectly designed to grow and birth a healthy baby.” Repeat often.
2. Choose care providers who are not guided by fear.
As you interview various care providers (midwives, obstetricians, family doctors) pay close attention to the responses that they give you to your questions. Are they fear based responses? Are their words manipulative? Do they let you make your own choices that feel right to you or do they seem to have a standard plan of care?
To read the rest of this article click here.
Do you trust your body to birth your baby?
Knowing our bodies is key to trusting our bodies. When we fully know and trust ourselves, we are free to tap into our power center and can birth as nature intended—free from artificial stimulation and augmentation, free from narcotics and analgesics. Our inner strength guides us as we birth and we know how!
Unfortunately, most births do not unfold as nature intended. Why? The answer is F-E-A-R. Fear interferes with our ability to know and trust ourselves. A mother fears that she won’t be able to “handle the pain” or her “hips aren’t wide enough” or her “baby is too big.” Care providers and hospitals fear lawsuits, long births, the natural process.
The good news is that with awareness we can notice our fears, eliminate them, and learn to understand and trust our bodies.
Consider bring more trust and knowing to your being:
1. Notice your fears. Eliminate them.
With keen awareness, notice each thought that you have around birth. With keen awareness, notice the words that others speak that are fear based, and how they affect you. Choose healthy thoughts. Gently, without judging, guide yourself with a loving mantra “My body is perfectly designed to grow and birth a healthy baby.” Repeat often.
2. Choose care providers who are not guided by fear.
As you interview various care providers (midwives, obstetricians, family doctors) pay close attention to the responses that they give you to your questions. Are they fear based responses? Are their words manipulative? Do they let you make your own choices that feel right to you or do they seem to have a standard plan of care?
To read the rest of this article click here.
Husbands and Home Birth: A Call for Women to Educate Men
by Kathleen Quiring on February 29, 2012
I recently read a thoughtful, thorough article comparing the different options of birth settings available to mothers: home, birthing center, and hospital.
The author concludes the article by explaining that she personally chose to give birth in a hospital because her husband felt uncomfortable with a home birth, and she wanted to be submissive to him in the matter. In fact, she admits that she didn’t even bother to give much thought to the question of a home birth after her husband’s initial response.
The comments to that article were filled with similar stories: women who may have wanted to give birth at home opted to birth in a hospital because their husbands were uncomfortable with the thought of a home birth.
When I mentioned this to a friend, she said, “Oh definitely. My husband doesn’t want me to have a home birth, either.”
Let me begin by saying that I understand that these husbands are objecting to home births primarily out of love and concern for their wives. They want their wives — and their babies — to be safe. They believe hospital births are the safer option. It’s wonderful that these men care so deeply about their wives’ well-being.
But these men’s objections to home birth are also rooted in ignorance, fear, and androcentrism (more on these in a moment), and that’s a problem. I don’t think, then, that the matter of childbirth is one in which female submission is entirely appropriate.*
Before I go any further, I also want to say that I’m deeply impressed by these http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwomen’s lack of resentment or bitterness towards their husbands. That takes a level of maturity that I don’t entirely share.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Can Fetus Sense Mother's Psychological State? Study Suggests Yes
ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2011) — As a fetus grows, it's constantly getting messages from its mother. It's not just hearing her heartbeat and whatever music she might play to her belly; it also gets chemical signals through the placenta. A new study, which will be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this includes signals about the mother's mental state. If the mother is depressed, that affects how the baby develops after it's born.
In recent decades, researchers have found that the environment a fetus is growing up in -- the mother's womb -- is very important. Some effects are obvious. Smoking and drinking, for example, can be devastating. But others are subtler; studies have found that people who were born during the Dutch famine of 1944, most of whom had starving mothers, were likely to have health problems like obesity and diabetes later.
Curt A. Sandman, Elysia P. Davis, and Laura M. Glynn of the University of California-Irvine study how the mother's psychological state affects a developing fetus. For this study, they recruited pregnant women and checked them for depression before and after they gave birth. They also gave their babies tests after they were born to see how well they were developing.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Fetal Lungs Protein Release Triggers Labor to Begin
We've long known that a mammal's lungs are the last organ to develop inutero before it is baby's time to exit. Disrupting this normal process (and initiating/inducing labor to start before a baby triggers labor on his/her own) frequently causes a cascade of complications - from difficulty in latch, poor breathing, increased infection, decreased immunity, under development, failure to thrive, and an increase in SIDS.
Now, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers have found that it is in fact the fetal lungs themselves which provide the signal to initiate labor.
Drs. Carole Mendelson, Jennifer Condon and Pancharatnam Jeyasuria published findings that a substance secreted by the lungs of a developing fetus contains the key signal that initiates labor.
The protein released from the lungs of a developing mouse fetus initiates a cascade of chemical events leading to the mother's initiation of labor. This research, which has implications for humans, marks the first time a link between a specific fetal lung protein and labor has been identified, said Mendelson, professor of BioChemistry and Obstetrics and Gynecology and senior author of the study. Their research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is currently available online here.
The initiation of term labor is carefully timed to begin only after the embryo is sufficiently mature to survive outside the womb. Previous studies suggested that the signal for labor in humans may arise from the fetus, but the nature of the signal and actual mechanism was unclear. In this study, researchers found that the key labor triggering substance, surfactant, is essential for normal breathing outside the womb.
"We found that a protein within lung, surfactant, serves as a hormone of labor that signals to the mother's uterus when the fetal lungs are sufficiently mature to withstand the critical transition from life in fluid to airbreathing," said Mendelson.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Worth The Wait: Curbing The Practice Of Deliveries Before 39 Weeks
Waiting. In our daily lives, we greet it with frustration, and even irritation. But when it comes to childbirth, the time we spend waiting can affect whether a child is born healthy, or not, and sets a baby on a path toward lifelong health.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently launched an important initiative, Strong Start, to prevent premature births, a public health problem that costs society an estimated $26 billion a year. That initiative aims to improve prenatal care for pregnant women, but its focus is also on curbing the unsafe practice of scheduling elective, medically unnecessary deliveries before the 39 week mark.
That's an important step, but more must be done to reduce the threat posed by elective deliveries of healthy babies before 39 weeks, which often are scheduled for reasons that have more to do with convenience than with health.
More than half a million infants are born prematurely in the United States each year, a number that has increased 36 percent since the early 1980s. We also know that 25 percent of those births are due to early elective deliveries -- either by inducing labor early, or by scheduling a cesarean section.
That's a dangerous trend that continues, despite a growing body of scientific studies that indicate that babies born before the 39 week mark run a high risk of underdeveloped organs, infections and other health problems that can lead to disabling conditions that can last a lifetime.
To read the rest of this article click here.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently launched an important initiative, Strong Start, to prevent premature births, a public health problem that costs society an estimated $26 billion a year. That initiative aims to improve prenatal care for pregnant women, but its focus is also on curbing the unsafe practice of scheduling elective, medically unnecessary deliveries before the 39 week mark.
That's an important step, but more must be done to reduce the threat posed by elective deliveries of healthy babies before 39 weeks, which often are scheduled for reasons that have more to do with convenience than with health.
More than half a million infants are born prematurely in the United States each year, a number that has increased 36 percent since the early 1980s. We also know that 25 percent of those births are due to early elective deliveries -- either by inducing labor early, or by scheduling a cesarean section.
That's a dangerous trend that continues, despite a growing body of scientific studies that indicate that babies born before the 39 week mark run a high risk of underdeveloped organs, infections and other health problems that can lead to disabling conditions that can last a lifetime.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Too Many C-Sections: Docs Rethink Induced Labor
The rise in cesarean-section deliveries in recent years has been characterized by some as a key indication of the overmedicalization of childbirth. While the procedure undoubtedly saves lives and leads to better health outcomes for mothers and infants who face problems during pregnancy and labor, many experts say the procedure is being performed too often, and in many cases for nonmedical reasons, putting healthy women and babies at undue risk of complications of major surgery.
The rate of C-sections has reached more than 31% in the U.S., a historical high, according to 2007 data from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). The reasons for the increase are many and have been widely discussed: the rising rate of multiple births, more obesity in pregnant women, the older age of women giving birth. In fact, C-sections have become so common that many women may have an inflated sense of safety about them. "For the most part, moms and babies go through the process healthy and come out healthy, so maybe there's this sense that we're invincible," says Dr. Caroline Signore of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. (See pictures of pregnant-belly art.)
But C-section carries all the attendant risks of major surgery; and data show that compared with vaginal birth, cesarean delivery increases the odds that a mother will end up back in the hospital after birth with complications such as bleeding or blood clots.
Now obstetrics experts are actively seeking ways to drive down the number of C-sections. On July 21, the ACOG issued new guidelines recommending that hospitals allow most mothers who desire vaginal birth after cesarean, or VBAC, to attempt a trial of labor, including some mothers who are carrying twins or have had two prior C-sections. Despite studies showing VBAC to be safe for most women — ACOG data suggests that 60% to 80% of women who attempt VBAC will succeed — many hospitals have urged women to undergo a repeat cesarean over the past decade, largely to avoid medical risks and malpractice suits. (Read how postpartum depression can strike fathers.)
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Getting Enough Iron During Pregnancy Doesn't Have to Mean Popping Pills
During your pregnancy, considering the fact that you’re growing a new organ and a new human and supplying the oxygen and nutrients from your own body, it’s especially important to make sure your iron levels are healthy.
Iron is a vital mineral that is essential for bringing oxygen to the different organs and tissues within your body. It’s actually present in every single cell in our bodies, although it’s primarily found in the hemoglobin in the red blood cells, and the myoglobin in the muscles.
Iron supplements can cause uncomfortable digestive upsets such as constipation or diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, especially during pregnancy when many women are queasy to begin with, so how can you make sure you are taking in enough iron if you can’t keep the pill down? Fortunately there are many different ways to increase your iron intake through the foods you eat, rather than turning to a supplement.
There are many foods that provide iron, and our bodies know how to work with the nutrients in real food so much more efficiently than the nutrients in most vitamin supplements. Another benefit of getting iron through natural food sources instead of a supplement is that nutritious, whole foods are rich sources of many other valuable nutrients.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Iron is a vital mineral that is essential for bringing oxygen to the different organs and tissues within your body. It’s actually present in every single cell in our bodies, although it’s primarily found in the hemoglobin in the red blood cells, and the myoglobin in the muscles.
Iron supplements can cause uncomfortable digestive upsets such as constipation or diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, especially during pregnancy when many women are queasy to begin with, so how can you make sure you are taking in enough iron if you can’t keep the pill down? Fortunately there are many different ways to increase your iron intake through the foods you eat, rather than turning to a supplement.
There are many foods that provide iron, and our bodies know how to work with the nutrients in real food so much more efficiently than the nutrients in most vitamin supplements. Another benefit of getting iron through natural food sources instead of a supplement is that nutritious, whole foods are rich sources of many other valuable nutrients.
To read the rest of this article click here.
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