"We Can Be Much Kinder" video

:: more info about babies' circulation ::

In this video, doctors, midwives, and nurses discuss cord clamping/cutting over images of homebirth, with delayed cord cutting, and hospital birth, with immediate cord clamping.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2870183/we_can_be_much_kinder_birth_matters_video_contest/

About Fetal Blood Circulation

I am currently sitting through a birth education series taught by Kristen Downer and Paige Trabulsi of Womb Service. During the second class, one of the dads asked a question about where the blood goes after it has passed through the umbilical cord from the mother to the baby. Does it circulate back into the mother? Or absorb into the baby's system?

Kristen found this page online that does a good job of explaining how the unborn baby's circulation system works. And it is amazing to think that it all changes instantaneously, when the baby starts using his lungs! What a perfect design!

Here's the article, from the health library of the University of Alabama at Birmingham website: http://www.health.uab.edu/14535/

Courtesy of the University of Alabama at Birmingham
http://www.health.uab.edu/14535/

Moms Help Sustain Motherless Baby

I read this post on StrollerDerby.com:

"Charles Moses Martin Goodrich was born on Jan. 11, but when his dad said he wanted the boy to receive breastmilk right off the bat, he was told the hospital didn't have a milk bank. A delivery could come in from elsewhere in Michigan, but it would take several days to ship.

"Then Robbie Goodrich got a call of condolence from a friend, a mom who was still nursing her one-year-old daughter. Anything the family needed, she said, anything. . . even her breastmilk. It's when Robbie told his hometown paper that things clicked - he realized other moms might want to help him in his plight, and he called on a family friend to help him round up moms with something to give..."

Read the rest of the story, by Jeanne Sager, here: http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/2009/03/25/motherless-baby-breastfed-by-six-women-each-day.aspx

Mothering Mothers Feature on MSNBC

This news report by Hoda Kotb is a brief look at what doulas do, from the labor room to the baby's room...

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/30894159#30894159