Panhandle Birth Services

06/28/2022

Yes I’ve seen this happen so many times!

Due dates are really guess dates. There is some research out there that risks increase every so slightly as we gestate, but your body is smart. Trust it and release the date.

04/26/2022

“When pregnant, the cells of the baby migrate into the mothers bloodstream and then circle back into the baby, it’s called “fetal-maternal microchimerism”.⁠
For 41 weeks, the cells circulate and merge backwards and forwards, and after the baby is born, many of these cells stay in the mother’s body, leaving a permanent imprint in the mothers tissues, bones, brain, and skin, and often stay there for decades. Every single child a mother has afterwards will leave a similar imprint on her body, too.
Even if a pregnancy doesn't go to full term or if you have an abortion, these cells still migrate into your bloodstream.
Research has shown that if a mother's heart is injured, fetal cells will rush to the site of the injury and change into different types of cells that specialize in mending the heart.
The baby helps repair the mother, while the mother builds the baby.
How cool is that?
This is often why certain illnesses vanish while pregnant.
It’s incredible how mothers bodies protect the baby at all costs, and the baby protects & rebuilds the mother back - so that the baby can develop safely and survive.
Think about crazy cravings for a moment. What was the mother deficient in that the baby made them crave?
Studies have also shown cells from a fetus in a mothers brain 18 years after she gave birth. How amazing is that?”
If you’re a mom you know how you can intuitively feel your child even when they are not there….Well, now there is scientific proof that moms carry them for years and years even after they have given birth to them.
I find this to be so very beautiful.

This research is belongs to Hina Chaudhry and her team. Here is the resent article about her and team:
1. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.118.313246

2. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-science-motherhood-180977456/

03/28/2022

The weekend papers and news feeds are again filled with stories designed to fill us with fear about birth.

Sadly, it's a regular thing. No matter whether they're on the web, in the papers or on TV, these stories are written to be scary and focused on risk. They are designed to instill fear and undermine women’s confidence in their own bodies and babies.

Here are a few things that you should bear in mind when reading these headlines and the associated stories.

1. Both the originator of the research and the people who turn it into a story want to get the headline and the story to spread as far and wide as possible. Their job isn't to help you make an informed decision about what is right for you.

2. The goal of getting maximum publicity for a research finding or story is sometimes achieved by taking a sensationalist stance. Key facts may be glossed over, shared in a misleading way or left out completely.

3. Risk and fear sell news very quickly. There are many, many studies showing that birth is safe and that women's bodies are marvellously good at growing, birthing and feeding babies. But these don't make exciting headlines, and they don't make nearly as many people read, click and share. So they are often ignored.

4. There is almost never any discussion of the bigger picture or the wider context, either of the study or situation itself or of other work that has been done on the same topic. We need more information than can be found in the headlines.

5. In reality, research and report findings are never certain. All studies have limitations. Sadly, the complexity and the uncertainty gets compromised in favour of those risk-filled headlines which make you want to click, read and share.

Stay calm.

Remember that the job of the media is to sell headlines, not to help people making pregnancy and birth decisions.

Breathe.

Get informed.

And then make the decision that's right for you.

If you'd like to see more of my work on this topic, you can find me at www.sarawickham.com/wrfm



Photo credit .kraft

02/07/2022

Repost from
These Are My Hours

//catch//

What if no one *catches* the baby? Often we see women getting low to the ground when there are no expectations of a midwife catching her baby. The baby will come out of her body and be born to the floor and spend a few seconds gathering air into their lungs and pushing out the fluid which has kept their lungs open and ready for this moment.

The mother spends those moments catching her breath and saying a prayer of thanks for the end of the hard contractions that feature in late labor.

It is a still and emotion-rich moment. It does not require fixing.
A baby does not need to be put on their mother’s body.
The two will reach for one another when the time is right.

Don’t disturb the process.
Spend your own seconds being grateful that you were given the invitation to be there.

11/10/2021

In the US 1 out of every 100 babies are born with a congenital heart defect, 25% of these defects are critical.
Only 50% of congenital heart defects are found on mid pregnancy Ultrasound scans, but many more can be found after the birth of your infant using pulse oximetry screening at 24-48 hours.
It is a simple, noninvasive screening test that can and should be done in the home or birth center by your midwife.
Talk to you care provider about pulse oximetry screening today. It could be life saving for your newborn.

​​​​Pulse oximetry (also called pulse ox) is a simple and painless test that measures how much oxygen is in the blood. The test can be used to monitor a baby's oxygen level during a procedure or treatment, and it can also be helpful in determining if a baby's heart and lungs are healthy.

09/06/2021

Delayed cord clamping benefits in adding a third more blood volume in the first 3 minutes of your newborn’s life - most of this blood transfer happens in your baby’s first few breaths.
Cord blood is rich in stem cells and can aid in diseases over a lifetime.
In some recent studies, they have found delaying at least 3 minutes may increase neurodevelopment-helping with social and fine motor skills later on.

07/15/2021

Six weeks into motherhood, I diligently brought my bleeding ni***es and anxiety along for a routine visit to the doctor’s office.

The doctor checked my baby thoroughly, asked a million questions about her development, and proceeded to hand me a pamphlet about birth control.

I’ll be honest, birth control was the last thing on my mind at the time, and yet it seemed to be the only thing on my doctor’s agenda.

I didn’t mention my ni***es at that appointment, nor did I give voice to the anxiety coursing through my veins.

I was too busy listening to the pros and cons of the pill, versus the IUD.

I was too distracted by my rooting baby.

I was too scared to admit to my worry and overwhelm.

I wrongly assumed that I was one of only a handful of moms to be feeling so depleted, so scattered and shattered. And so I didn’t breathe a word of it. I smiled, sweated somewhat profusely (they never warned us about this aspect of postpartum, right?! 😅) and dashed out of there to feed my baby in the sanctuary of my car, shredded ni***es and all.

Moms, we are slipping through the cracks of the system all too often. A system designed to monitor every last inch of us during pregnancy, before the free-fall of postpartum sets in.

Because for myself, and for so many others, postpartum can feel like we’re free-falling. Falling in love with our babies, of course, but also falling out of step with the rest of the world, and falling without support into the uncharted waters of new motherhood.

We deserve more.

Breastfeeding support, mental health support, pelvic floor phsyio, birth debriefs, access to holistic postpartum practitioners…these things surely top a birth control script in terms of necessity.

Imagine if postpartum checks focused on maternal wellbeing and mental health to the same degree they focus on our choice of birth control…what a difference such a simple change could make to so many new and free-falling moms.

You’ve got this.

With love,
Louise 💓
Via Instagram Mother Nourish Nurture