Planet Birth

Mothers Predominately Cradling Infants On Their Left May Have A Deep Evolutionary Origin When a mother picks up her infant, she will predominately cradle the baby on her left-hand side. This behavior, known as the left-cradling bias, has been k

Ultra-runner Sophie Power taking time out during a marathon to breastfeed her 3-month-old baby while simultaneously expressing. She says: 'The fact I was doing it in public seemed to surprise many people more than the fact I was running 106 miles 3 months after giving birth.'

Image credit: Alexis Berg

If you are breastfeeding you can have the vaccination for COVID-19. You do not need to wean before or after receiving the vaccination. The COVID-19 vaccination may provide indirect protection to babies by transferring antibodies through the breastmilk.

Your breastmilk contains antibodies and other immunological benefits that can help protect your baby against respiratory diseases including COVID-19. If you have COVID-19 it is recommended that you continue breastfeeding. Continue to wear a mask, and wash your hands before caring for your baby.

https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/covid-19

https://ranzcog.edu.au/statements-guidelines/covid-19-statement/covid-19-vaccination-information

https://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/press-releases/2021/who-recommends-continuing-breastfeeding-during-covid-19-infection-and-after-vaccination

In the hospital they usually tell moms to try to breastfeed every 2-3 hours. Wake baby to nurse every 2-3 hours. That way you can make sure to nourish baby and bring in a good milk supply.

Unfortunately this isn’t exactly how it works🙄 this visual was shared in a post from a friend that I shared a couple years ago and it’s incredibly accurate.

It’s basic math that they use in the hospital to give you the “ideal” feeding schedule. This “ideal schedule” equals about 8-12 nursing sessions in 24 hours which means baby would only have to nurse every 2-3 hours.

This is their way of saying that baby needs to eat often, but this isn’t exactly how it works for mom and baby in real life. Which can cause a mom to really struggle when her baby wants to nurse more often than every 2-3 hours! Nothing like setting new moms up to fail🤦‍♀️

Because they push this so heavily, I’ve noticed that parents seem to think breastfeeding is going to be super simple and perfectly spaced out feedings like the cereal picture. It also makes it look as though all feedings should be the same size so they should be nursing for the same amount of time each time. Which also is NOT accurate.

THIS IS NOT THE REALITY. In reality, baby will have big/long feeds sometimes. Or little/short feeds. Or feeding sessions while they are still mostly asleep. Or feeding sessions that aren’t so great. Or anything in between! They are not guaranteed to sleep better just because their feedings are all spaced out perfectly and done for the same length of time.

Instead of watching the clock and timing sessions, let baby lead! Watch for feeding cues from your little one and go from there😊

I also wanted to say that I love the blueberries portion of this visual. It shows more of a reality for how nursing sessions go. Some are bigger. Some are smaller. Sometimes there’s a longer amount of time in between. And in counting the berries, there are STILL the correct number of nursing sessions for the day.

Amazing, right?! Our bodies and our babies know what they are doing. Let them lead💙💚

It's Birth Trauma Awareness Week. So we want to raise awareness that ideal birth outcomes are NOT just about delivery of a healthy baby.

Never, never say to a mother, "at least the baby is healthy". Please never be dismissive of a mothers painful birth experience.

A birth experience for a mother (AND the witnessing partner) leaves an imprint that can forever change their lives and impact on the health and wellbeing of the entire family.

Terror, shame, embarrassment, fear, guilt, helplessness simply should not be words we have to use to describe birth experiences. But unfortunately for many mothers, this is the case. 1 in 3 women describe their birth as traumatic.

Birth Trauma can be both physical and psychological trauma and can be a contributing factor to perinatal mental illnesses, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Postnatal Depression and Anxiety and Postnatal OCD.

Peach Tree provides a safe space for mothers who have experienced birth trauma to come, and know they are not alone in their experiences and to seek help. ❤️

As a woman who wears her hair short and who over the years has had to “audition” several barbers (and barber shops) before committing, I appreciate this photo and this barber’s caption. ..because the brothas be too 💁🏽‍♂️


Grooming the Nurturers ⁣
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( Back Story ) ⁣
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Nicolette came in for a haircut and her husband sat in the lounge with their baby. He was crying a lot and I asked his mother what is wrong. She replied that he was hungry and needed to be breastfed. ⁣
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I had already completed the haircut and was about to add the lines. I assured her that it was okay to take care of her son. She smiled and her husband laughed as he carried him into the room. ⁣
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This photo addresses two things that women are constantly criticized for, cutting their hair off and breastfeeding. ⁣
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It is time that we embrace what is beautiful and natural. ⁣Women should be able to breastfeed without fear. ⁣
**** POSITIVE COMMENTS ONLY ****⁣

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Happiest Mother’s Day! Moms truly make the world go around. 💐❤️

Now that’s a grand entrance into the world 😍❤️😍

[This amazing shot is by ]

Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines do not appear to pose serious risk during pregnancy, research shows

9 Black Doulas And Midwives To Follow Now — Whether You're Expecting Or Not Learn about your options through their pages and work that's being done by these ladies to make the birthing process safer for Black women.

I was personally born via cesarean section - classical incision to be exact - in a rural Virginian hospital in 1976 after 6 days of labor at home...
My mother read Ina May Gaskin and gathered supples for her planned homebirth. My father read Leboyer and gathered herbs for my bath. ..
They reluctantly and with pain recount the story of walking the green carpet in the living room trying to get her labor to progress day after day. On the fifth day of contractions, they even went into ‘town’ for a check up from the ‘doc’, who announced she was 8 cm and they should go home and keep trying...
When they finally decided to go to the hospital my mother had a fever, was leaking black mec-stained water, and couldn’t feel my movements. ..
My cesarean was absolutely life-saving - I spent 2 weeks and my mother spent 2 months in the hospital postpartum - I suffering seizures and my mother suffering a severe uterine infection that kept resurfacing. ..
But as necessary as the medical intervention was, it remains the second most traumatic event my family has lived through, second only to my little brothers death after a planned cesarean...
In all my years of midwifing families, it is clear to me that birthing by cesarean is not what’s actually traumatic, it’s the accompanying cultural messaging about ‘failed homebirth’, ‘failed midwife birth’, ‘failure to progress’ ‘arrest of progress’..... being made to feel like a failure is what causes trauma...
People.... birthing by necessary cesarean is NOT a failure. Transferring into the hospital for a cesarean is the opposite of a failure.... It’s actually a brilliant, courageous, necessary choice by conscious, caring parents who trust their gut and/or their care providers counseling and are finding a way to meet their baby as safely as possible...
I am truly one of the lucky ones in all of history, to have survived along with my mother major abdominal surgery. In fact this has only been possible for a very small amount of our history. The first successful caesarean section to be performed in the United States took place in Mason County, Virginia (now Mason County, West Virginia a mere 3 hours from where I was born), in 1794. The procedure was performed by Dr. Jesse Bennett on his wife Elizabeth...
Over the last 300 years the pendulum has swung from one extreme to the other. Our job now, as mamas, papas, and birthers, Midwives, providers and advocates is to find the balance...
April is cesarean awareness month. Awareness- not shame, not coercion, not failure - awareness. Let us all become aware of experience the newborn has/ the parents have. Let us become aware of our words as medicine / poison. Let us be clear about the risks of major abdominal surgery, so that it can be used only when needed. And let us all start to imagine new ways to welcome the occasionally necessary-cesarean, while honing our skills as providers to decrease the dangerously too-common ‘unnecessarean’. This elusive balance, inclusion, education, and awareness will take all we have. ..
Yes to plastic drapes to include the parents. Yes to birther scrubbing in too. Yes to all parents and support people being at the birth. And a big fat NO to shaming, blaming, abusive coercion. Seriously, providers ask yourself- do you really believe you care more about the healthy and safety of a baby then their parents?!? The sovereignty of medical decision-making always rests with the adult(s) the decision effects the most...
Here’s to the brave souls who birth and are born via cesarean. Here’s to the continued march of human innovation. And here’s to the humility and self-reflection it takes to find balance - the tipping point between safe and sacred birth. ..
📷 ://www.facebook.com/piedmontdoulacare/

Reminder: it's only a joke if everyone it is intended for is laughing and it isn't at someone's expense.

Every year we share that pregnancy isn't a good (and certainly not original) April Fool's joke and inevitably we get people arguing to defend it and say things about people being too sensitive and snowflakes and taking things too seriously, and blah blah blah blah blah. You can't say it if you want to but there's really no point. We get it, you think it is funny and that you don't care that others don't so if it causes others pain that's their problem and you don't care about them. Got it. We know. We've heard it.

For those that do care about others and don't want to cause unnecessary pain in the name of "good fun" then this is for you.

Here's why you might want to skip this tired ol' attempt at a practical joke this April Fool's: https://bit.ly/3fv88H3

Pregnant women show robust immune response to COVID vaccines, pass antibodies to newborns Researchers have found the new mRNA COVID-19 vaccines to be highly effective in producing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in pregnant and lactating women. They also demonstrated the vaccines confer protective immunity to newborns through breastmilk and the placenta.

New Zealand Approves Paid Leave After Miscarriage The measure, believed to be among the first in the world, would apply to couples who lose a pregnancy at any point.

How did you celebrate weaning from breastfeeding? 😂

Happy IBCLC Day! 🤱🤱🏼🤱🏻🤱🏽🤱🏾🤱🏿

It was never a dress...Happy National Women Physicians Day!

Today we released two, new vaccine resources. Access them at no cost on the SMFM website:

- Provider Fact Sheet: Provider Considerations for Engaging in COVID-19 Vaccine Counseling with Pregnant and Lactating Patients www.smfm.org/covidclinical

- Patient Fact Sheet: COVID Vaccine Advice if You Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding www.smfm.org/covidfamily

💀 🎃 💔

In case you need a reminder...

“It’s time for the bridesmaid photos!”
“I’m still pumping”
“Even better”

amberfletcher.com

Happy Midwifery Week!

En caul births are not only rare happening in 1 in 80,000 births but even more rare to capture 📸 when this mama expressed her fast labors I was in shock in how truly fast it was, with the help of the amazing birth team this sweet girl was brought earth side in a space filled with so much love 💕
I am so greatful to be able to share this amazing image with you all✨
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These 35 Vintage Maternity Ward Photos Prove That Motherhood Is Timeless When I'm in a crummy mood, staring at sweet photos of babies can change everything. Even better when those photos are of happy moms snuggling precious newborns. Because while motherhood has changed through the ages, these vintage maternity ward…