Thursday, January 20, 2011

Labor, the Hardest Work You'll Ever Love?

Labor and lovemaking hormones are the same (oxytocin and prostaglandins). Increasing the release of these hormones during labor can help speed your labor.
The increase can be accomplished through kissing, "making out," breast or nipple stimulation, stimulating the clitoris or having an orgasm, just "simply lying naked in skin contact with your partner will help increase oxytocin." (Intercourse is okay as long as your bag of waters is intact.)
Physical closeness can, also, relieve pain. (p 43-44)

"Once active labor is reached, labor is more similar from woman to woman, and the baby will probably be born within the next five to ten hours." (p 45)

"...in response to the effort and pain of labor, women's bodies produce extremely high levels of endorphins (natural painkillers and mood-boosters)." (p 47-48)

"While practicing on the toilet, if you feel you must strain or you will not be able to have a bowel movement, take a break and wait until later in the day when the urge to push feels stronger. Because pregnancy can be a time of increased constipation, you may have the perfect opportunity to try this out!" (p 50)

"These sensations will build up until the baby begins to pass the pubic bone, at which point the urge to push will become an overwhelming force." (p 52)

"Let your early bearing-down urges simply be there, while neither resisting them nor adding extra force to them." (p 52)

What Every Woman Needs to Know About Cesarean Section booklet.
Three reasons to have a doula if having a VBAC:
1 Having "a doula lowers the rate of cesarean,"
2 "doulas lower the use of epidurals and medications to stimulate labor,"
3 "giving birth after a cesarean involves restoring your confidence that you can do it." (p 57)

"A Canadian study of thirteen hundred women showed that mothers with higher motivation for a VBAC were much more likely to achieve one." (p 58)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Doulas Are Great Pain Relief; For Fathers, Partners, and Other Loved Ones; Labor, the Hardest Work You'll Ever Love?

Before I get started...
If you are reading this blog, considering a doula, and live in Nebraska, please, visit http://www.doulasource.org/

Okay...
"epidurals lower the blood pressure of one in three mothers, and therefore lower blood flow and oxygen to the baby. This can create changes in the baby's heart rate which may be seen as "fetal distress," a cause of further interventions and cesareans." (p 7)
"mothers with doulas are more likely to give birth without needing epidurals, yet they still report less pain." (p 7)

Want a good way to speed up labor without Pitocin?
"Current estimates of the use of Pitocin are as high as 50 to 60 percent of births in the United States...With a doula, the use of Pitocin has been shown to be reduced by 40 percent...the use of a doula results in labors that are 25 percent shorter." (p 9)

"Without a doula, epidurals are used in the U.S. by approximately 85 percent or more of first-time mothers." (p 13)
"Studies show fathers participate more when a doula is present." (p 28)
"one result of childbirth is that athletes who've gone through it become faster at their sport." (p 40)

REFERENCES
The New Essential Guide to Lesbian Conception, Pregnancy & Birth by Stephanie Brill
Attending Your Grandchild's Birth: A Guide for Grandparents by Carolynn Bauer Zorn

Vaginal Birth After Cesarean

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynocolgists (ACOG)in July of last year helped women desiring to have a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) in the hospital by posting less restrictive guidelines for doing so.

However, in the state of Nebraska, the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha is the one place I know of where a woman stands a chance of having a VBAC in hospital. One of the couples I work with told me that the midwives at UNMC said women desiring a VBAC need to go completely unmedicated in labor to prevent uterin rupture. As of the time the couple had met with the UNMC midwives, the women who were able to go unmedicated had all taken Bradley childbirth classes.

Sad Stats

When at the toLabor training, we watched a video where a woman was talking about her first birth which ended in a cesarean (c-section). It wasn't until after her birth that a nurse pointed out that she had just had, "major abdominal surgery." It was sad to me then, and still is, that there was a failure to mention that a c-section is, "MAJOR abdominal surgery."
The World Health Organization notes, "The best outcomes for mothers and babies appear to occur with cesarean rates of 5% to 10%." As of 2007 the United States had a c-section rate of 31.8%. That is about one in three women having, "major abdominal surgery," to birth their children.
Dr. Bradley had a 3% c-section rate and took high risk moms. AAHCC boasts a 87% "completely natural birth rate." Nebraska has a 28.6-31.9% c-section rate.
"Completely natural birth rate," needs to be explained. It is no longer okay just to ask if you had a, "natural birth." Many people associate, "natural birth," with vaginal delivery, not unmedicated.
The support of a doula lowers c-section and epidural rates.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

My Experience

The journey to this point has been long.
Growing up, I wanted one more child than my aunt. By the time I graduated high school, she had nine.
Reality set in and my wish for one more than her shrunk to 5, maybe. Then, to four. Currently, it stands at three. I don't know what God's plan is for the future of our family. I would still like, "one more." However, my husband, as seems to be the case with most husbands of doulas, has caught on to the, "one more," idea and with that has come the skepticism if just, "one more," would be the end of it.
My husband and I took Bradley classes when expecting our first child. I had put a lot of meds in my body to get pregnant, as is the case with people who have fertility problems, and wasn't willing to put in more to get him out of me.
I had an amazing labor and birth experience. One of my first comments after his birth was, "Can we do it again in 9-months?"
Eighteen months later, we did it again. And again, it was AMAZING!
Then, again, 21-months later.
Between the birth of our second and our third, I started teaching classes.
I couldn't keep my mouth shut about how wonderful un-medicated childbirth was and would willingly share with anyone who would listen. Which, often looked like an expectant mom. I quickly discovered, it was the expectant dad that needed to be listening and the easiest way to do that was to teach a class.
Our Bradley instructor was glad to welcome me to the world of childbirth instructor. I owe many thank yous to our instructor who first helped me to see what was possible.

Birth of a Doula

My name is Jessica. I have been teaching Bradley (Husband Coached Childbirth) for two years. During the last two years, I have been teaching through the American Academy of Husband Coached Childbirth (AAHCC).
In the 2010 year, I assisted three women in the births of their children. Two for friends. One for one of my Bradley couples.
Last summer I attended a toLabor (ALACE) training.
I started reading the toLabor manual right after training, but, got discouraged with one of the articles that was a little to vivid for me. Plus, overwhelmed with facts and needing a place to put them so I don't overwhelm everyone in my life with pregnancy, labor, birth, and after birth facts.
As it stands right now...
I am honored to be invited to two births this year. One in May for a friend. And another in August for one of my Bradley couples.
I have switched from the Academy of Husband Coached Childbirth to Brio. Brio is based on Dr. Bradley's principles.
I have ordered some of the reading list for the toLabor training...
Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year
The Doula Guide to Birth
The Complete Book of Pregnancy & Childbirth
The Birth Partner

Wise Woman Herbal is a book I am glad I ordered. I can't imagine sitting down and reading it cover-to-cover. However, like The Complete Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy (that I have owned for years), I imagine I will keep it near at hand for reference to specific situations. The pages will be dog-eared shortly.

The Doula Guide to Birth is proving to be a good starting place for me. In the first few pages, the one thing I want to remember is to recommend olive oil as an oil to use to help stretch mom to avoid an episiotomy or tearing. I know to use oil to massage the perineum, but, often I don't think of olive oil. I think of almond. It is good to remember something that everyone, probably, already has in their kitchen can be used.