Project Helps Parents Understand Colic as "Purple Crying"

A doula in my local doula association recently sent around a link to a website called The Period of Purple Crying. I checked it out and found that their goal is to help parents understand that there is a stage of development in which their baby may cry inconsolably or inexplicably... and that this is normal! The organization refers to this stage as "purple crying" in an effort to change parents' perception that their baby has a problem that needs to be fixed. I'm not sure that "purple crying" sounds much better than "colic," but I think the information that they provide on their website is useful nonetheless!

I've included an excerpt below. Visit the Period of Purple Crying website to see more articles and related videos.

The period of purple crying is a new way to help parents understand this time in their baby’s life, which is a normal part of every infant’s development. It is confusing and concerning to be told your baby “has colic” because it sounds like it is an illness or a condition that is abnormal. When the baby is given colic medicine it reinforces the idea that there is something wrong with the baby, when in fact the baby is going through a very normal developmental phase.

The period of purple crying begins at about 2 weeks of age and continues until about 3-4 months. There are other common characteristics of this phases, or period, which are better described by the acronym PURPLE. All babies go through this period; some can cry a lot, some far less, but they all go through it.

Plumber Helps Deliver Son in Bathroom

I always enjoy stories of families who bring their newest additions into the world without a team of medical staff. Maybe these fantastic news stories perpetuate the common (but false) idea that birth is always dramatic and fast, but they simply remind me that birth is a natural process and that mothers can do this work on their own if they need to. It's always nice to see how proud the father who got to catch the baby is, too. His role at a birth like this is very different than it would have been if he and his wife made it to the hospital...

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Brian Hines, a plumber, helped his wife Andrea deliver their second son in the bathroom of their home, in Waterford, Michigan. WDIV's Lauren Podell reports.

Historical Breastfeeding Photo: The Cornstalk Madonna

My sister sent me another historical breastfeeding image.

This photo was taken by Orin Crooker 94 years ago, on May 15th, 1916. The mother is sitting on a wooden box next to cornstalks, feeding her child on a farm in Hoopeston, Illinois.

I tried to find more info about the photographer and stumbled across this entry in the August 1922 issue of Farm Mechanics, where he described how a local farmer was using electric power on his farm. I could not find any information as to whether Orin Crooker was a farmer or reporter or something else... So I can't know who this woman was or what the circumstances surrounding this photo were. But I love that the baby is so tuckered out that he's falling asleep on the job. :) And that the mother is peacefully letting him sleep while she enjoys looking at him. So lovely! And such a contrast to the fast-paced, sterile, convenience-oriented, expensive, powder-measuring, bottle-warming culture of formula that most American mothers participate in these days. What a sad loss.

You can find this photo at the Library of Congress website at this URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c37707

Defeating the Culture of Death

Vision Forum has posted the topics that will be addressed at its Baby Conference next month. It isn't too late to sign up! The topics look GREAT and include:

☆ A Season of Victory in the Long War Against Babies — Doug Phillips
☆ The Wonders of Embryology — Geoff Botkin
☆ Haiti’s Message to the Families of the World — Doug Phillips
☆ The Glorious Vision of Adoption and Why You Should Consider It
☆ Symposium: Babies, Children And Training
☆ The Glory of the Fruitful Womb
☆ Naming Babies
☆ The First Three Years
☆ Children as Pets
☆ Toys, Tools, and Children
☆ How to Practice Biblical Discipline in the Home
☆ The Indispensable Role of Grandparents in the Life of Children
☆ The Hopeful Theology of Miscarriage
☆ What Every Father Needs to Know About Government Education
☆ Children and the Dominion Mandate
☆ How the Local Church Builds a Thriving Culture of Life
☆ What About Reversal Surgery?
☆ The Myth of Overpopulation
☆ Why I Chose A Midwife Over a Doctor
☆ Suffer the Children: How Families and the Local Church Must Care for the Sick and the Disabled

☆ How Reproductive “Freedom” Destroyed Not Only our Culture, But The Christian Church
Top Seven Legal Issues Facing Christian Parents
☆ The Demographic Bomb
☆ What the Bible Says About Birth Control
☆ The Future of Healthcare in America: How Must the Church and Family Respond to Socialized Medicine
☆ How to End Abortion in America: A Look at the Spiritual, Practical and Constitutional Realities
☆ Symposium on Biblical Bio-Ethics for Birth in the 21st Century: Surrogacy, In Vitro Fertilization, Designer Babies, Cloning, Artificial Wombs, Male Pregnancy, Stem Cells, and More
☆ Symposium on Biblical Bio-Ethics for the Infirm and Aging in the 21st Century: Brain Death, Organ Transplants, Euthanasia, and Care for the Elderly
☆ First We Were Wives, Then We Became Mothers
☆ Women’s Symposium: Managing Logistics for a Large Family
☆ Lessons for the Future of Adoption from the Great 2010 Crisis in Haiti
☆ The Who, What, When, Where and Why of International Adoptions
☆ Top Ten Toughest Adoption Questions

Register for the conference here: http://www.visionforumministries.org/events/bc/

I'll be there. I look forward to seeing any of you who can make it!

"Speed Dating" Connects Families and Doulas in Toronto

To make it easier for parents to pick the right doula, Amanda Spakowski of The Nesting Place and Dr. Jennifer Wise of Urban Chiropractic have started a service called Doula Speed Dating in Toronto, Ontario.

The idea is to meet several doulas face-to-face and conduct mini-interviews. It allows couples to get to know multiple doulas while cutting down their research and interviewing time. I think it's a good idea because I often conduct extensive email correspondences with potential clients before I meet them. Then so much of our compatibility (or lack thereof) is established when we meet in person. So it seems efficient and effective to meet lots of clients in one place and to skip the time and money spent on organizing lunch dates for those separate initial interviews. Then clients can contact the doulas they best connected with and set up appointments, or hire them immediately, since they already know their options.

Maybe it's time to organize something like this in Austin. What do others think of this concept?

www.doulaspeeddating.com