Austin American Statesman Publishes Story Featuring GetBabied! Doula Collective

I got a mention in the Austin American Statesman today! My name is included in the caption of the photo accompanying an article about mothers who are taking their placentas home from the hospital and how GetBabied (via specialist Lindsey Roberts) is making information available to mothers who want to go through the time-consuming process... which includes securing necessary legal paperwork, signing an Unopposed Motion, taking notarized documents and fee to the county courthouse, filing documents, appearing before the judge, and keeping a copy of the Agreed Order to deliver to the hospital staff. Whew!

the Statesman story: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/more-local-moms-taking-placentas-home-1080492.html

How to secure your placenta from North Austin Medical Center: http://www.getbabied.com/2010-10-12/how-to-secure-the-release-of-your-placenta-from-north-austin-medical-center

Austin, Texas placenta encapsulation service: http://blog.placentabenefits.info/index.php/2010/04/pbi-on-the-news-in-austin-tx/

more about placentas: http://placentabenefits.info

Celebrate the Opening of South Austin-Area Birthing Center

Austin Area Birthing Center: http://www.austinabc.com/



This kid-friendly open house will include Joe McDermott and his Smart Little Creatures Band (performing from 2-3pm), the George Carver Quintet, and Santa and his balloon-twisting, face-painting elves. The kiddie train will take families on a tour of the parking lot. Food and frolic provided. Visit with all the AABC midwives and help them celebrate their new baby, AustinABC South.

For more information and to RSVP, visit www.socializr.com/event/245770087

Breastfeeding moms don't get less sleep

This Reuters story summarizes a recent university study that found breastfeeding mothers to be as well rested as formula-feeding mothers. I wasn't aware that it is commonly believed that breastfeeding mothers get less sleep - I tend to believe the opposite! - but I am glad that research is debunking that myth so that mothers will have one less bad reason to consider giving their babies formula instead of milk!

Contradicting the suspicion that breastfeeding moms get less sleep, the results represent "good information to be able to tell women, (that) 'not breastfeeding is not going to help you get better sleep,'" study author Dr. Hawley Montgomery-Downs of West Virginia University told Reuters Health. "And the benefits (of breastfeeding) for both mom and baby are tremendous."

Read the entire story here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40094001

More commentary from TIME magazine: http://healthland.time.com

Mother's Cuddle Brings Baby "Back to Life"

An Australian woman tells how she resuscitated her premature baby son with cuddles, two hours after doctors had declared him dead.

Baby Jamie showed no signs of life when he was delivered along with a twin sister, Emily, at just 27 weeks gestation and weighing 2lb at a hospital in Sydney, Australia.

Doctors said they had lost him and he was given to his mother, Kate, who unwrapped his blankets and placed him on her chest so she and her husband, David, could say their goodbyes.

Following two hours of cuddling and being spoken to by his parents, Jamie began to gasp. Doctors initially claimed it was a "reflex" but the baby began gasping more often and then opened his eyes.

The family have spoken of their experience for the first time since Jamie was born five months ago. They told of the importance of "skin-to-skin" bonding between mother and baby in a technique also known as the "kangaroo touch" in Australia because of the way the animals held their newborns close to the skin in their pouch.

Read the full story by Rebecca Smith on Telegraph.co.uk: Mother's Cuddle Brings Baby Back to Life

ob/gyn: "Fetal heart monitoring is an appallingly poor test."

This story in The Philadelphia Inquirer asks a good question...

Why do we use fetal heart monitors when they do not lead to improved outcomes?

"A test leading to an unnecessary major abdominal operation in more than 99.5 percent of cases should be regarded by the medical community as absurd at best," wrote Steven Clark and Gary Hankins in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "Electronic fetal heart rate monitoring has probably done more harm than good."
Why do doctors cling to continuous fetal heart monitoring? An obstetrician will most likely point to the fear of being sued, but the complete answer is more complex. Our medical culture prizes technology and tests, even if they don't work and can cause harm.

"It's our bias that anything that can be quantified is an improvement," said H. Gilbert Welch, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School whose research focuses on harm caused by screening and over-diagnosis.

Alex Friedman is a fellow in maternal-fetal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Read the full story by Dr. Friedman in The Philadelphia Inquirer: http://www.philly.com:80/inquirer/magazine/20100426_Test_leads_to_needless_C-sections.html

Images from FetalMonitorStrips.com

Breastfeeding Cuts Fever Risk After Vaccines

A new study shows that infants who are exclusively breastfed are less likely to run fevers after their routine immunizations than infants who are partially breastfed or only receive formula.

"Babies want to nurse more frequently, and because they are nursing more frequently, they are getting more food [than formula-fed infants], so whatever need they have to repair their body and bring down the fever is being met," said Barbara Holmes, a lactation specialist at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City.

Read more:

Study Shows Breastfed Babies Less Likely to Have Fevers After Vaccinations, by Denise Mann

Don't Short-Change Your Baby By Inducing Labor

I read this column on MSNBC today, about why women should not choose to induce labor in their final weeks of pregnancy. The author refers to a recent study that details the complications that come with late preterm births, including respiratory distress and difficulty sucking and swallowing.

I agree with the column, but I would add that the dangers of induction do not end at 40 weeks or the "due date" your doctor wrote in your medical file. Just because some babies are born around 40 weeks does not mean every baby is ready to be born at 40 weeks. Why induce at 40 weeks if you would not induce at 38?

Here are some good comments from Judith A. Lothian in the Journal of Perinatal Education:

Thinking of, and clinging to, the “due date” as “the day” makes it difficult for women to trust nature's beautiful plan for the end of pregnancy and the start of labor. What women rarely know, and what people tend to forget, is that some variation exists in how long it takes for an individual baby to mature fully. Acknowledging that babies can safely come 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after the due date does not tell the whole story. Some babies are mature as early as 37 weeks (259 days), and others need 42 completed weeks (294 days) and sometimes a bit more to be fully ready. Size is not an indication of maturity, and the due date is only a guideline.

She notes that "Waiting for labor to start spontaneously is almost always the best way to know that the baby is ready to be born and that a woman's body is ready for labor." Read her article for more details about the risks of induction: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595289/