Bloom Blog
Spokane’s New HypnoBirthing Classes
I am thrilled to announce that we have three new HypnoBirhting educators in Spokane! Here’s a quick overview of HypnoBirthing and information about each of our new local teachers. Please be in touch with them individually if you are interested in taking a class.
ABOUT HYPNOBIRTHING
The HypnoBirthing website is a great place to find more information [...]
READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Sign Up for Doula Training in Spokane
This blog post was submitted by Melanie Bailey. She is organizing a DONA Birth Doula Training to take place in Spokane this October. She needs at least 10 people to register for the training in order to bring the beloved Tamy Roloff here as the instructor. Please read the info below, download the registration brochure and mail it in. We need more doulas in Spokane as the number of families choosing natural birth continues to rise! [...]
Eat My Placenta? Ewwww!
Most people are initially grossed out at the mention of placenta eating, including my own husband. He’s heard me talk about it numerous times with my friends, and still shutters with an audible “ughhh” every time the subject comes up. Even I thought it was weird the first time I heard it mentioned, but as a woman who has suffered postpartum depression with both of my children, I only wish that someone had told me about it before I had my babies. Once you hear how and why it works, it seems like a much better alternative to anti-depressant drugs…especially once you realize it comes to you in the form of capsules taken just like you would any other pill. [...]
Spokane’s 1st Annual Breastfeeding Walk
World Breastfeeding Week is August 1–7
Come celebrate World Breastfeeding Week in our community. Join other families as we walk together on Saturday, August 7 to network, create friendships and share. Let’s gather in large numbers to spread the joy we feel breastfeeding has given us!
World Breastfeeding Week is a great time to make our communities aware of the importance of breastfeeding and show support for local breastfeeding organizations. [...]
Breastfeeding for Working Moms
As a mom who went back to work only 2 months after my first son was born, I understand the difficult balance of trying to make a living and wanting to give your baby the gift of breast milk—liquid gold, as it is often called. There have already been many articles written about the benefits of breastfeeding and it is widely acknowledged, even by the infant formula industry, that you can’t synthesize the ingredients in breast milk that make it so invaluable to our babies health and development. Moms (and dads) often find themselves in the difficult position of having to decide the best way to care for their children AND make ends meet. [...]
Plan Your Hospital Birth
If you are going to have your baby in a hospital, you can greatly benefit from having a birth plan—especially if you’re planning a natural birth. In the article Eyes Open Childbirth, author Amy Scott says, “In a hospital, the possible interventions are numerous and it is wise to be aware of these methods, their usefulness, their risks, and in some cases, their misuse or overuse. It can be easy to forget that in most ways birth is reliable, and that in the case of most healthy women, it can be trusted to produce a healthy baby with no more intervention than encouraging words, soothing hands and watchful eyes.” The article goes on to describe all of the medical interventions and birth processes you should be aware of and educated about in case you have to make a game-day decision about what’s right for you. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you read it! [...]
New Study on Home Birth is Skewed
All of my birth-obsessed friends on Facebook have been buzzing about a recent home birth study published by the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG). Everyone, including the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS), is outraged that the publishers of the study “accepted a poorly designed and methodologically unsound study in which authors concluded there is a 3-fold increase in neonatal mortality in planned home births compared with planned hospital birth.” You can read CIMS’s full response to the study on their website. [...]
A Labor and Delivery Nurse’s Views on VBAC
Nothing gets my ears perked up and my excitement stirred than chatting about birth. To be even more specific about what really gets my juices flowing are discussions surrounding VBAC births; vaginal birth after cesarean. It might make more sense to know that I am a labor and delivery nurse by trade and a mommy at heart. I get the pleasure of escorting new little souls into this life each and every shift and participate in someone’s best day and, unfortunately, sometimes their worst. I work at a Portland-area hospital and we see everything from the most natural, “normal,” labor and delivery patient to the most tragic, life-threatening situations; needless to say, it is a very special, very dynamic job and I am blessed to be a part of it. [...]
The Only Due Date Calculator You Need
I’m happy to have found a “due date” calculator that actually sets proper expectations for women. It gives you a safe range of dates in which you can expect your baby to be born and explains why our current cultural thinking around due dates isn’t helpful.
“One of the biggest obstacles to natural birth is misunderstanding your “due date.” A due date does not mean there is only one safe day for your baby to be born. It is meant to establish a range of time that your baby is mature and safe to be born. Because modern obstetrics narrows this to a specific day, unnecessary interventions, like inducing labor, come into practice.” [...]
Why Consider A Natural Birth?
I often think back to my first prenatal yoga classes when the teacher, who was also a doula (something I’d never heard of at the time), introduced the idea of natural birth. I guess I had always assumed that I would have my baby in the hospital, most likely under the spell of an epidural or other drugs that would make the experience entirely bearable. In fact, I don’t think anyone I personally knew had had a baby any other way, unless by accident. The only pregnancy book on my shelf at the time was “The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy” which, as funny as it is, would have me believe that one might die if she actually felt a single contraction or was made to “room-in” with her baby during the remainder of her hospital stay. Thank heavens for my prenatal yoga instructors! [...]
Spokane Pediatrician Recommendations
I attend the Spokane Mindful Mamas meetings on the South Hill almost every Thursday morning with my two young sons. The group is a great place to meet other parents and share information and resources.
As the creator, researcher, writer and blogger for Bloom, I often receive emails from local parents asking for pediatrician recommendations. And while I plan to expand Bloom over the next year to include more early-childhood resources like a list of local pediatricians, I thought for now it would be best to ask the Mindful Mamas what pediatricians they take their kids to and why they would recommend them to others. [...]
Spokane Holistic Family Fair
For the first time, the Spokane Holistic Chamber of Commerce will host the Mind, Body, Spirit “Family Fair” held at the Unity Church on the South Hill, 29th Ave. and Bernard St.
Admission is FREE and there is plenty of FREE parking.Licensed childcare for children 4 years old and under will be available at the reasonable cost of $5 per hour.
Elizabeth Hesse Sheehan, DC will be the keynote speaker at this unique event, presenting the topic Myth-Busting: Vaccinations and Diet. [...]
VBAC Less Risky Than Multiple C-Sections
The National Institute for Health issued a report this week titled, Vaginal Birth After Cesarean: New Insights. The report presents evidence to support the choice of a trial of labor (TOL) as a safe option for women who have had previous c-sections.
The conclusion of the report states, “Each year 1.5 million childbearing women have cesarean deliveries, and this population continues to increase. This report adds stronger evidence that VBAC is a reasonable and safe choice for the majority of women with prior cesarean. Moreover, there is emerging evidence of serious harms relating to multiple cesareans. Relatively unexamined contextual factors such as medical liability, economics, hospital structure, and staffing may need to be addressed to prioritize VBAC services. There is still no evidence to inform patients, clinicians, or policymakers about the outcomes of intended route of delivery because the evidence is based largely on the actual route of delivery. This inception cohort is the equivalent of intention to treat for randomized controlled trials and this gap in information is critical. A list of future research considerations as prioritized by national experts is also highlighted in this report.” [...]
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Getaway Retreat Weekend Class
Birth Journey Prep will be hosting a weekend retreat childbirth education class June 11–13 in Twin Lakes, ID. A full bed and breakfast package PLUS our complete childbirth course with Stephanie Nobles and Terri Young teaching. More information is below. You can sign up on the Birth Journey Prep website. [...]
April is Cesarean Awareness Month
With the C-section rate in the U.S. up to over a third of all births, it’s no wonder families are starting to pay attention to potential risks of unnecessary cesareans. The well-researched Unnecesarean website says, “The Cesarean section is an essential, life-saving surgery for both mother and child when performed with medical indication. However, too many women and their partners are unnecessarily coerced into the surgery by doctors under the argument that it’s what’s best for their baby or babies and for their body.”
New Report Confirms “Breast is Best”
I was pleasantly surprised this week to see ABC News reporting that a new study confirms that babies who are solely breastfed for the first 6 months of life can ward off ailments, including diabetes, sudden infant death syndrome, childhood leukemia and stomach viruses. Breast milk is rich in antibodies that boost immunity and can help regulate insulin levels to prevent childhood diabetes. The study in this week’s Pediatrics Journal reads, “The United States incurs $13 billion in excess costs annually and suffers 911 preventable deaths per year because our breastfeeding rates fall far below medical recommendations.” [...]
Goodbye Wendy Connolly. We’ll Miss You!
I am sad to tell you that Spokane is losing one of our two HypnoBirthing educators to the lucky city of Portland. But before she leaves, Wendy Connolly of Spokane HypnoBirthing will be teaching one final series of classes beginning April 13th. She has a few open spots, so if you’re interested I suggest you contact her right away. Even if you are early in your pregnancy, this is the perfect time to take the class. [...]
New Controversy Over Babywearing (Slings)
Last week the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning “advising parents and caregivers to be cautious when using infant slings for babies younger than four months of age. In researching incident reports from the past 20 years, CPSC identified and is investigating at least 14 deaths associated with sling-style infant carriers, including three in 2009.” The CPSC announcement concerns “bag” slings, a very particular style of baby carrier. It does not mean that all infant slings are dangerous. [...]
Prenatal Pilates and Birth Education
I have been reminded, once again, how lucky we are here in Spokane to have so many passionate, smart, skilled and caring people working to educate and empower the women in our community! I recently met Elizabeth Jones, a local Pilates instructor and physical rehabilitation specialist who has focused much of her career on working with pregnant women. As we began talking, something Elizabeth said captured my attention. “Society has lost interconnectedness with families and with birth.” I was drawn to this statement because it encapsulates the core reason that so many of us (midwives, doulas, educators, etc.) do what we do. We are trying to reconnect women and families to the importance of birth in our lives. Elizabeth Jones does this by providing women a way to stay in good physical health while preparing their bodies and minds for birth. [...]
Birthing From Within Weekend Class
I received an email yesterday from Charlene Hamilton, a Birthing From Within childbirth educator based in Seattle. She will be coming to Spokane in late March (just a few weeks from now) to teach her weekend intensive childbirth preparation class. Please check out her website to register for the class and contact her with any questions you may have.
