Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Tip Tuesday: Keep a Clear Mind


As you move toward your goal of natural childbirth, many will cloud your mind with negative concepts and ideas. At times, women can harp on their own negative experiences with birth or exaggerate another's experience because it makes a good story. Recognize these thoughts, ideas and stories for what they are, and continue to fill your mind with positive stories of birth and labor. Know that most stories are wonderful ones.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Fertility Friday: Diet Matters

Our diet is our medicine. When trying to conceive or even just trying to maintain overall excellent femninine health, diet is the foundation of good health. Some quick tricks include:
  • Eat like a Mediterranean. See Mediterranean Diet
    • Eat whole foods, avoid processed junk
    • Limit Red Meat
    • Eat oils, nuts and olives as opposed to animal fats
  • Drink water, avoid sugared drinks
  • Eat leafy greens, the darker the better
  • Eat beans and legumes, the oft forgotten items. Add them to food you enjoy often like pastas, rice, and other grains

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Tip Tuesday: Natural Birth: You can do it!

You can do it. Sometimes just saying these words to yourself can be enough to send you down the wonderful journey to prepare for natural childbirth.  It is something that you are completely capable of and your body is more than able to do. Preparation is the key. Align yourself with a supportive team and plan for preparation and you will do it. Find a great class that you connect with. Read inspiring birth stories. Assemble you birthing team. Get connected with a provider that you trust and will support you and invite others to attend you during the birthing and preparation process. You are amazing, you are wonderful. You can do it.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Doctor or Midwife?

Finding the right obstetrical provider is stressful enough, but having to choose betwen the differnt types of provider just might put us over the edge. Here is a quick guide to the difference between the doctors and midwives.

Training
The fundamental difference between a medical doctor (MD) or a midwife (CNM/CM) is the training. Midwives are trainied specifically in the normal birth process. They are trained in how recognize and manage health birth, pregnancy and newborn care. Typically, they are taught to identify risk factors, and deviations from a healthy birth and pregnancy process and then co-manage a high-risk pregnancy or birth with a physician, or refer a client to a doctor for care.  Some midwives do receive additional training to perform surgeries and manage high-risk patient populations. These midwives may have the additional credentials after their name such as DNP, RNC, or PhD.

Physicians are trained in all medical fields from pediatrics to geriatrics in medical school. After usually 4 years of medical school, they are officially an MD, but may not practice as such until they complete some residency training. After medical school, they specialize by selecting a residency program. In OB/GYN, the residency is typically 4 years.  In these four years, they are trained in gynecology, obstetrics, gynecologic cancers, infertility, and gynecology surgery. Some physicians will go on to receive additional training in each of these specialties, called fellowship. Fellowship is only done by a handful of doctors, and it is a sub-speciality of an already chosen medical career path.  In the medical field of obstetrics, sub-specialized training is called maternal fetal medicine (MFM) or sometimes called a high-risk obstetrics.

Beyond the difference in training, each individual midwife and doctor will be unique. Women tend to choose physicians for their expertise and midwives for the personalized, unhurried care.  The model of care the worked in the US until the mid 1900's and still works in Europe today is to have the midwives care for the majority of clients unless they have a medical history or conditions that necessitates the use of a doctor.  Ideally, women would have access to both a midwife and a doctor and have the best of both worlds.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Which IUD should I choose?

I receive many questions about IUDs (intrauterine devices) and because of older versions of these devices were harmful, their current offsprings have gotten a bad rap. In fact, IUDs are
extremely effecitve and patients who use them are very satisfied.  We only have about 6% of women in the United States who use birth control using IUDs. Part of this is becasue are mothers are remembering IUDs from the 60's and how they decreased fertility and increase the risk of uterine infection. We also still think that they are not for women who have never been pregnant, when in fact, they are a great idea for these women.  Currently, there are three types of IUDs on the market: Click on each for a link to their site.


Hormonal
Skyla are Mirena are progesterone containing IUDs and are made of plastic. The Paragard is a non-hormonal containing IUD made of copper. The Skyla and Mirena work by thickening the cervical mucus and blocking sperm from entering the uterus. They also work to inhibit ovulation and implanation.  

Non-Hormonal
The Paragard IUD works by preventing fertilization.  When there is a foreign body in the uterus, it causes an inflammatory reaction which disruptions fertilization, implanation and is hostle to sperm.

For more information, click of each link to see the prescribers information and talk to your healthcare provider.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Kegels Video

Kegel exercises should be like drinking water for any woman of childbearing age.  Some of us are blessed with exceptionally strong pelvic floor muscles, with or without training.   But most of us are not. If you are not one of these women with an exceptionally strong pelvis, here is a very basic explanatory video about Kegels.