Another Homebirth Video

The Homebirth of Lucia Mae from Sara Janssen on Vimeo.

This video has some darling , colorful pictures. I love the portrayal of the daughter's role in her sister's birth. It is also a testimony to the family's affection for their midwife, she's like a part of the family! To read more on the lasting impression a midwife makes through a woman's lifetime (i.e. beyond the childbearing years), check this out, Midwifery Care: Reflections of Midwifery Clients. Be sure to download the full text.

Mom I Am

I couldn't find an author to credit for this poem, so whoever you are, thank you! This is humorous and right on. Enjoy, and enjoy your weekend!!

Dr. Seuss for Nursing Moms

Would you nurse her in the park?
Would you nurse him in the dark?
Would you nurse him with a Boppy?
And when your boobs are feeling floppy?

I would nurse him in the park,
I would nurse her in the dark.
I’d nurse with or without a Boppy.
Floppy boobs will never stop me.

Can you nurse with your seat belt on?
Can you nurse from dusk till dawn?
Though she may pinch me, bite me, pull,
I will nurse her `till she’s full!

Can you nurse and make some soup?
Can you nurse and feed the group?
It makes her healthy strong and smart,
Mommy’s milk is the best start!

Would you nurse him at the game?
Would you nurse her in the rain?
In front of those who dare complain?
I would nurse him at the game.
I would nurse her in the rain.

As for those who protest lactation,
I have the perfect explanation.
Mommy’s milk is tailor made
It’s the perfect food, you need no aid.

Some may scoff and some may wriggle,
Avert their eyes or even giggle.
To those who can be cruel and rude,
Remind them breast’s the perfect food!

I would never scoff or giggle,
Roll my eyes or even wiggle!
I would not be so crass or crude,
I KNOW that this milk’s the perfect food!

We make the amount we need
The perfect temp for every feed.
There’s no compare to milk from breast-
The perfect food, above the rest.

Those sweet nursing smiles are oh so sweet,
Mommy’s milk is such a treat.
Human milk just can’t be beat.

I will nurse, in any case,
On the street or in your face.
I will not let my baby cry,
I’ll meet her needs, I’ll always try.
It’s not about what’s good for you,
It’s best for babies, through and through.

I will nurse her in my home,
I will nurse her when I roam.
Leave me be lads and ma’am.
I will nurse her, Mom I am.

Right Side Up - Breech Babies

The women in the above photo are trying to right a baby. This directionally challenged baby is coming bottom first. The method they are using to try to turn the baby, hard to decipher in this photo, is called moxibustion. Moxa, or mugwort, is heated and, like acupuncture, used over certain pressure points to induce heat to the region, and thereby blood flow. It works incredibly well for turning babies upside down, exactly where they need to be in order to be born.

Four percent of all babies present breech at term, or 37 weeks of gestation and beyond. How do you imagine that those four percent are born? Does the doctor or midwife, pull them out by their feet? What is the danger of a breech birth? Why do we never hear of babies born breech anymore?

A recent study in Tel Aviv has challenged the wisdom of late that breech babies should be born via Cesarean section. In the 'old days' the skills to deliver a baby coming breech, feet or butt first, were taught in medical school. After 2000, this was no longer the case. The Term Breech Study, the largest of its kind on breech births, found that breech babies delivered vaginally had a 1% increase of death in the first six weeks of life. The study also found that for mothers there were more benefits to a vaginal birth. From then on, the only doctors to attempt breeches were the old school doctors who had learned from experience that babies born breech, stubbornly do just as well as their head first counterparts. There were many issues with the 2000 Term Breech Study including research bias, and the fact that it's near impossible to randomize such a study.

The Tel Aviv study is urging medical schools to reintroduce the skills of delivering breech babies. Their research shows that there is no increase risk to a baby born breech vaginally and that mothers do better with morbidity and mortality when delivered vaginally. Professor Glezerman, a researcher on the trial, states that a C-section is no minor event in a woman's reproductive life, that it impacts future pregnancies, uterine health, and subsequent labors.
Although, not mentioned in the study, increasingly the research is pointing towards health effects of babies born by C-section as well. In one of the more recent findings, babies born by Cesarean section are at a higher risk of developing celiac disease. Another reason to avoid unnecessary surgery, who would want to assign anyone to a diet that prohibits bread, pasta, cookies!! Poor baby.

So how do you reconcile the lack of skill of the current docs with a pending breech birth? Look at the photo above for some inspiration - you make all efforts to turn the baby before delivery. Here are some tips to get you started:

• Acupuncture/moxibustion is a powerful tool for breech babies. Do the moxa each day while squatting and making figure eights with your hips. I'm not kidding! One time I had an acupuncturist for a client, with a persistent breech presentation. She tried everything under the sun, before turning to her chosen profession, to turn her little girl. Two nights of these contortions and the babe turned!

• Pulsatilla 200C one time. My little girl was breech until about 35 weeks. I never resorted to this, but I was ready to. It was suggested to make it a one time event, and to do it consciously. Light some candles, pour some tea, put your hips up, and take the pulsatilla. Engage with your baby, visualize his little head snuggled tight in your pelvis. This can be a really powerful way to turn a baby.

• The breech tilt. This is an old recommendation, but really useful. The idea is to elevate your hips higher than your pelvis, to disengage the baby so that when you stand up, the baby will realign itself the proper way. You can do this by laying an ironing board angled against a coach and laying down, with your feet up and head on the floor. Or you can make a stack of pillows and put your hips atop the pillows. Do these for at least 15 minutes twice a day. Talk with your baby and shine a flashlight starting at the top and moving to the pelvis, "For now and always baby, follow the light."

• Webster's Technique is a chiropractic technique that is often employed to help turn breech babies. It's not really 'turning' the baby, it's addressing tightness and torsion, among other issues in the mother's pelvis. Let's be fair after all, there are two players at work here, it's not just the baby choosing to be breech. Fibroids, cysts, and other issues in the mother's pelvic can force the baby into a breech position. Webster's technique can address some of these problems.

• One of the interesting theories about why babies are breech is not a physical reason. There is a theory that babies who are breech do so out of a need to get their mother's attention. It's as if they are saying, "Hello, remember me, I need you to pay attention." It could be this lack of attention that is causing them to swim close to mama's heart, a gentle pull on it's strings, those tiny fingers dialing your number before you've even heard them cry. It's a sweet thought and one I found bore a lot of fruit for women who were breech beyond 35 weeks. It tended to happen to women who worked, worked, worked right up until the end, women undergoing a lot of stress, and women who maybe had some hesitancy about becoming a mother. Overall tension also produces lots of tension in the pelvic region, which can be a culprit in breech presentation. If you are breech these themes are worth exploring through journaling, art, conversation, etc...

• If none of that works, there is always frozen peas. Put a pack of frozen veggies on your babies bum. They won't much like it and will soon get the picture that that's not where they should be hanging out and will head to, uh, warmer regions!

The most important thing with breech delivery is the skill and experience of the practitioner. If none of the above work, seek out someone experienced with breech births. These tend to be the older male obstetricians and older midwives. Trust your instincts, as always. And encourage medical schools to teach the skills of delivering babies who for some reason, want to land in this world, feet first.

Hakima Midwifery at Eco-Fair

Tomorrow, November 6, from 11-4, the MCA in Santa Clara, California is hosting it's annual Eco Fair. I'm going to have a booth there with lots of giveaways, including Erba Organics mom and baby body care products. I think I might even have some chocolate to give out too. So, come and say salaam, there will be children's activities, a mini farmer's market, demonstrations, a book and hijab exchange, and more. Come and support the Muslim Green Team!

What Luke Said

Home births don't always happen at home. On average around 10% of attempted home births end in the hospital. This is the story of one such birth and the feelings and raw emotion such a transfer can evoke. This acute disappointment and sense of failure is the domain of women who attempt natural birth and don't end up with one. They are the brave ones, the ones who risk, struggle, go out on a limb, and after their labor, in this case two days of it, end up in the place they had hoped to avoid. Unlike women who intend a hospital birth and well, end up with one, women who attempt a home birth and then end up in the hospital have the extra burden of processing what went 'wrong'. Another curve on the long road of motherhood.



Maceo was my client. She is an example of the intelligent and thoughtful women who choose out of hospital birth. A talented writer and warm presence, she brought joy to her pregnancy and was one of the rare women who enjoyed the pregnancy more and more as her belly swelled, all the way up to and past her due date! She will always have a special place in my heart as after my own baby was born, in her fifth month of pregnancy, she brought me delicious Cuban food and her cheery presence. We measured her belly on my couch with my two week old sleeping nearby. During her first night of contractions, I slid my sleeping daughter into the car, and drove the mile to Maceo's house, my daughter never waking the entire night. This type of shared motherhood is the glue of friendship and community. Thank you Maceo!



So without further ado, here is a re-posting from Maceo's own blog, Dripping River Water, which of course, you all must go subscribe to right now, as I'm sure there is much forthcoming mama wisdom from this source! And welcome to the sweetest Omar!

There is a table in the lobby. It is long and wooden positioned right below a big mirror. There people leave things they no longer want: old fax machines, magazines, sneakers, books. I am the resident manager and this leaving of things annoys me only when no one takes it. I am left to throw away these items. Things that could have easily been given as a donation, somewhere else, not in the lobby of my building. There was a pocket sized New Testament once. I picked it up. This is a book I couldn’t throw out, I couldn’t leave it on the sidewalk, I couldn’t give it to a random person. I had to keep it and for a year it lived between my Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook and El diccionario de sinonimos y antonimos bought in Venezuela when I was there in 1996.

My son is now 5 weeks old. He has lived his days between arms of those who love him. I have only been away from him minutes at a time, missing him and calling my mami to see how he is doing. Yesterday I went for a walk with my friend. I left my mami with 5 ozs of my milk. I gave her instructions and hoped that it wouldn’t be too hard for either of them. The sun was out. Its rays hit my toes. There was a chill in shady areas. I was afraid to catch a cold. I thought of myself confined in my bedroom pumping milk, sweating and sick, not able to see my son.

We went to Arizmendi. I was treated to pizza and a root beer sitting outside. I watched the beautiful people of Oakland pass by. I saw the mamas pushing the strollers or carrying their babies on their backs. I saw the dogs. The endless amount of dogs take over the sidewalk. I wondered if my skin would darken sitting outside of Arizmendi. I have been home for weeks looking out the living room windows at the trees and the birds. The root beer was good. It became my new favorite. There on the table was the cap. It had writing. In the inside it read, Luke 1:37. I thought the root beer bottling was more hipster than religious. Or maybe it was both.

For the past five weeks I have only written in my head. I write books and plays while I nurse my son in his sleep. I wish that the words would leave my mind and walk unto the page. Any page. Somewhere else. But the words don’t. They are locked away and I wonder if I will be able to write. Then I read stories of writers who have shared similar nights. Perhaps not nursing their sons but still in bed writing words on the walls with their pupils.

For the past five weeks I have begun learning what it is to be a mother. I have learned what it is to remain still, to be totally dependent. There is a scar above my bikini line. It is black and sometimes it is sore. All throughout my pregnancy I was pleased not to have any stretch marks. Instead I got a scar where they pulled my baby out. That scar reminds me of my imperfections and my failures.

I wonder sometimes why I couldn’t give birth at home. Sometimes I have a hard time completing things. The end is always so hard. I go through my over fifty hours of labor at home and four days in the hospital. I try to figure out what exactly went wrong. I know everything is God’s will but somehow I feel at a loss. I wonder if somewhere in back of my mind I was too scared to finish the job. I couldn’t give birth naturally in a birthing tub, in my kitchen because it meant I actually had to complete something. I needed help. Like heavy drugs to soothe me, to make me relax, to actually fall asleep. I went to the hospital, a place I still don’t want to give birth in again. They helped me. I had sweet nurses who gave me more pillows and filled my water bottle. I knew that with a touch of button someone would be at my side. So the whole time I had to not be upset. I had to take everything in stride because I had my baby in my arms. And if I got frustrated at the nurses constantly coming in and asking me the same questions, at them grabbing my breasts without asking me anything to see if my milk was coming out, at my son being picked up all hours of the night to be weighed, I would have made it worse for myself and I would have been ungrateful. I still have to write about that. All of that. But I am afraid that it will make me cry.

On my bedside table there is a tube of Barq’s root beer lip balm. I don’t like that root beer but I like the taste on my lips. I put it on last night before getting into bed. Then I remembered. Luke 1:37. I went to the living room to the shelf where the pocket size New testament lived. I took it into bed. My husband perplexed. I have not read the Qur’an in weeks and here I was with the Bible. I opened it to Luke right away. There I read: “For with God nothing will be impossible.”

Sighs and smiles.

the end.

Good Bacteria

This article came out a few months back, but time has not diminished my amazement! Of the myriad species specific qualities that breastmilk possesses, one of the more fascinating is the 'probiotic' qualities. A newborn, born with a very sterile gut, lands in a world full of bacteria, good and bad. The probiotic qualities of breastmilk, or the good bacteria in breastmilk, sufficiently protect newborns from a host of sometimes lethal gastrointestinal diseases. The recently discovered, bifidobacterium longus, passes through breastmilk to the infant, and on its way out, coats the babies intestine with a protective coating, thereby serving the role of stomach acid, a substance babies don't yet possess much of. This coating acts as a decoy to potential bacteria and viruses, coaxing it to bypass the baby's gut.

Dr. E. Stephen Buescher, a pediatrician and scholar of breastmilk's many anti-infective and ant-inflammatory qualities, has an interesting theory as to why this protective coating not only benefits the gut, but also may contribute to the dramatic reduction in ear infections in breastfed infants. He had an exclusively breastfed son who spit up, a lot. After watching a plethora of spit up episodes, ones that sometimes exited the nasal orifices, he reasoned that the breastmilk when spit up was coating the upper respiratory tract with all of it's soothing and protective qualities, just like it coats the intestine. Embrace the spit up. It's better than an ear infection!

Scientists are beginning to understanding that breastmilk can serve as a lesson plan for how to nourish and protect the human body against pathogens, not just in babies. It is after all a food, specifically designed for humans, and the most vulnerable, swiftest growing of humans. The researchers aren't sure what happens, or where these bifidobacterium bacteria hide out in adults. But probiotic supplementation in America is a booming business, sales of it tripled between 1994 and 2003. Perhaps we could save our children some money in their future, by breastfeeding them now. As one of the researchers so eloquently summed it up, "It’s all there for a purpose, though we’re still figuring out what that purpose is,” Dr. Mills said. “So for God’s sake, please breast-feed.”

Nursing on Both Sides

And because I love this life

I know I shall love death as well.

The child cries out when

From the right breast the mother

Takes it away, in the very next moment

To find in the left one

Its consolation.


-Rabindranath Tagore
from Gitanjali