Full Circle Midwifery

From WebMD Health News
Salynn Boyles

May 5, 2010 — Women who take high doses of vitamin D during pregnancy have a greatly reduced risk of complications, including gestational diabetes, preterm birth, and infection, new research suggests.
Based on the findings, study researchers are recommending that pregnant women take 4,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D every day — [...]

Quick Facts

If you have had a cesarean, your next baby can be born vaginally safely.  This is called a VBAC or vaginal birth after cesarean.
As Mona Lydon-Rochelle MD said at the 2010 National Institutes of Health VBAC conference, “There is a major misperception that TOLAC [trial of labor after cesarean] is extremely risky.”  George Macones MD [...]

Click here for a YouTube of great ideas!

What is GBS?
Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a bacterium that is normally found in the intestinal tract. The human body is full of bacteria, most of which are helpful for digestion, absorption of nutrients, and maintaining the immune system. It can be normal to find GBS in the anal and vaginal region of a woman [...]

By James J. McKenna Ph.D.
Edmund P. Joyce C.S.C. Chair in Anthropology
Director, Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory
University of Notre Dame
Where a baby sleeps is not as simple as current medical discourse and recommendations against cosleeping in some western societies want it to be. And there is good reason why. I write here to explain why the pediatric recommendations [...]

By Joene Hendry

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Feb 19 - Eating lots of vegetables and fruits during pregnancy may lower the chance of having a baby with certain allergies, hint study findings from Japan.
Greater intake of green and yellow vegetables, citrus fruit, and veggies and fruits high in beta carotene may lessen the risk of having [...]

Written by Linda Folden Palmer, D.C.

Friday, 27 June 2008 11:17

Newborn infants routinely receive an injection of vitamin K after birth in order to prevent (or slow) a rare problem of bleeding into the brain weeks after birth. Vitamin K promotes blood clotting. The fetus has low levels of vitamin K as well as other [...]

What is Transparency?
A pregnant woman asks her care provider, “What is your episiotomy rate?” Her doctor responds, “I only do them when it is necessary.” On her tour of the hospital maternity center, another woman asks about the hospital’s cesarean rate and is told, “We take care of many high risk patients, so you can’t [...]

Baby Says: Better the Car than the OR!
29 December 2009, 3:40 pm

The UPI reports of a baby born in a car on the shoulder of an Illinois highway today:
An Illinois woman says she and her newborn are doing well after the woman’s boyfriend helped deliver the baby inside a car along Interstate 72.
And…
Holeman said she and her [...]

December 3, 2009 Nicholas Fogelson

There are times in our medical careers where we see a shift in thought that leads to a completely different way of doing things.   This happened with episiotomy in the last few decades.  Most recently trained physicians cannot imagine doing routine episiotomy with every delivery, yet it was not so long [...]

We’re a month into the school year and it’s the time of year when it seems our kids are spending more days sick than well. Please don’t be fooled into thinking that this winter is so different from previous winters.
Swine Flu does not pose a realistic risk to your family: There will be millions of cases [...]

By Misha Safranski

We have it ingrained in our heads throughout our entire adult lives-pregnancy is 40 weeks. The “due date” we are given at that first prenatal visit is based upon that 40 weeks, and we look forward to it with great anticipation. When we are still pregnant after that magical date, we call ourselves “overdue” [...]

Mommy, What Did You Do in the Industrial Revolution?

Plante LA. Mommy, What Did You Do in the Industrial Revolution? Meditations on the Rising Cesarean Rate. The International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics. Spring 2009;2(1):140-147. DOI: 10.2979/FAB.2009.2.1.140 
http://afar.info/id=2322
Lauren A. Plante, MD, MPH, FACOG
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia PA
Email: Lauren(arobase)LaurenPlante.net
The cesarean rate in the US has been rising [...]

Keep your toddler in a rear-facing car seat until age 2 (not 1)
©2009 American Academy of Pediatrics. This information may be freely copied and distributed with proper attribution.
April 2009      www.aapnews.org
New research indicates that toddlers are more than five times safer riding rear-facing in a car safety seat up to their second birthday. Following [...]

The information collected here was collected to identify VBAC policies in individual hospitals.  We wanted to identify those hospitals that have official bans against VBAC in place. In some ways, these were the simplest calls. It is unlikely that we are mistaken about these hospitals. The more difficult hospitals were those with de facto bans [...]

8 Proven Parenting Principles for Raising Connected and Compassionate Children, says don’t let your baby cry it out

Released in October 2008, a new data brief from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics ranks the United States 29th globally in infant mortality in 2004, the latest year such data were available for all countries. The U.S. ranking, which has risen from 12th in 1960 to 23rd in [...]

DOH COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS - A SUMMARY
Increased Utilization of Licensed Midwives Improves Outcomes and Decreases Maternity Care Costs
An independently conducted cost-benefit analysis released by the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) in January 2008 indicated that licensed midwifery care results in cost savings to Medicaid of nearly half a million dollars biennially and when private [...]

B12 Deficit May Boost Risk of Birth Defects
Women who are vegans and vegetarians most affected, study says
Posted March 2, 2009

 
MONDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) — Women who do not have enough vitamin B12 in their blood before and after conception have a greater chance of having a baby with brain or spinal cord defects, a [...]

Staying Home to Give Birth: Why Women in the United States Choose Home Birth 
Debora Boucher, CNM, Catherine Bennett, RNC, BSN, Barbara McFarlin, CNM, PhD, RDMS, and Rixa Freeze, PhD, MA 
Approximately 1% of American women give birth at home and face substantial obstacles when they make this choice. This study describes the reasons that women in the United States [...]

GESTATIONAL DIABETES TESTING
Sarah J. Buckley GP, MD
The test for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is still controversial. While some experts believe that GDM is a serious condition, and that every pregnant woman should be screened and treated, others believe that diagnosing and treating GDM is not only unnecessary but can cause more harm than good because [...]

Deciding Whether or Not to Circumsize Your Baby Boy  by  Dr. Sears
This is a decision that many parents face.  There are many misconceptions and out-of-date  information that parents may read.  Here is a summary of the pertinent issues that you should  consider when making this decision.
 
·      Medical benefits - THERE ARE NONE!  Do not circumcise [...]

Charlotte Church’s delivery goes swimmingly as singer gives birth to a baby boy at home | Mail Onlin 8:18am
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Charlotte Church gave birth to her second child yesterday - a boy weighing 7lb 5oz. The singer, 22, had her boyfriend Gavin Henson and two midwives by her side.

from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/science/30baby.html
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: December 29, 2008
Vitamin D deficiency may increase the likelihood of having aCaesarean section, a new study has found.
At the turn of the 20th century, according to background information in the report, deformed bones in the pelvis often led to a C-section, a problem that virtually disappeared with the vitamin D fortification of milk [...]