Well Rounded Birth Prep

11/11/2025

What a ridiculous double standard, tbh

11/06/2025

Holy 💩 you guys, this is a must-read article! I’m out of the loop on AI tech used by hospitals for continuous fetal monitoring. Yall, these remote monitoring locations like the one in the picture can be up to 60 miles away from the laboring woman.

The people who make the money selling these monitoring tools claim they improve outcomes, but they don’t. We’ve known for DECADES that routine continuous fetal monitoring is causing more harm than good.

This is adding insult to injury - especially when the US has had the worst maternal & infant birth outcomes in any industrialized country, for decades. At least 20 years that I’ve been aware of, probably much longer than that.

We HAVE to do better!

An excellent article today from . Note the lack of evidence supporting the use of continuous fetal monitoring, the clear influence of business and economics, and the money grab from AI companies who claim studies support their product - when in fact they don’t - resulting in remote monitoring hubs.

I especially love that placenta accreta is described early in the article so the public can see that cesareans carry risk. As a result, we need to ensure that they occur only when needed or wanted.

Note that the photo for this article is of a remote monitoring hub. One such hub is up to 60 miles away from the hospital in which the woman is laboring.

“Nearly every woman who gives birth in an American hospital is strapped with a belt of sensors to track the baby’s heartbeat. If the pattern is deemed abnormal — too slow, for example — doctors often call for an emergency C-section.

But this round-the-clock monitoring, the most common obstetric procedure in the country, rarely helps baby or mother. Decades of research have shown that the tool does not reliably predict fetal distress. In fact, experts say, it leads to many unnecessary surgeries as doctors overreact to its ever-changing readouts.

The obstetrics field has long ignored these problems. Now, it’s putting more trust than ever on the flawed technology, often prioritizing business and legal concerns ahead of what’s best for patients, The New York Times found.

This fall, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists updated its guidelines on continuous monitoring, sanctioning it even as some other wealthy countries have cautioned against its routine use…

All three remote hubs, along with 400 other hospitals around the country, use A.I. software to help analyze the heart data. The software’s maker, PeriGen, has claimed on its website that 50 studies backed up its products.

But none of the studies found that the technology improved birth outcomes. PeriGen removed the list of studies after an inquiry from The Times. The company’s chief executive, Matthew Sappern, acknowledged that no clinical trials had shown benefits.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/health/electronic-fetal-monitoring-c-sections.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zE8.145f.FPhFANzFoVZp&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

10/27/2025

Why is the assembly line like this????

10/20/2025

The story is in the caption.

When a formula company partners with a celebrity, it isn’t about “supporting moms”, it’s about selling product. And when that celebrity has massive influence in communities already targeted by aggressive formula marketing, it becomes even more problematic.

Black mothers in the U.S. face some of the lowest breastfeeding rates, not from lack of desire, but because of systemic barriers. They’re given less workplace flexibility, fewer pumping accommodations, shorter leave, and are exposed to more formula marketing than almost any other group.

So when a brand like Bobbie uses a celebrity mom with huge influence in those same communities to “normalize” formula use, it doesn’t empower mothers, it profits off inequity.

This isn’t about one mom’s choice. It’s about corporate manipulation disguised as relatability. It’s about billion-dollar brands pretending to be on your side while quietly shaping the narrative around “choice” to keep you buying.

And let’s be honest…Bobbie has been doing this since day one. Their entire brand is built on being the “cool,” “nonjudgmental,” “mom-run” formula company. They talk like us, post like us, and use the language of empowerment, but it’s all marketing psychology.

They want to be seen as the formula for moms who care. But behind the branding, they’re just like every other formula company…corporate, profit-driven, and invested in keeping mothers dependent on their product.

Their formula? No different than others.
Their tactics? Just more aesthetic.
And their mission? The same as every other brand, to sell as much as possible, even if that means blurring the line between genuine support and strategic manipulation.

They don’t want to change the system that makes breastfeeding hard, they want to benefit from it.
Because when the system fails mothers, formula companies win.

We should be fighting for paid leave, lactation support, and access to evidence-based information, not cheering on billion-dollar campaigns built on mothers’ exhaustion.

Don’t let a polished brand and pastel marketing fool you. Bobbie isn’t the voice of mothers. They’re the voice of profit, dressed up in “mom-friendly” packaging.

09/28/2025

Another celebrity normalizing full term breastfeeding 💕

09/24/2025

Great visualization of different nursing positions!

Part of the struggle of mothering in modern society, is that we’ve lost the ability to see this throughout our lives. If we see babies, they have pacifiers or bottles - very few are seen breastfeeding, let alone breastfeeding without a cover (using a cover is a very modern concept).

We need to see breastfeeding in order to process how it works, how to hold our babies.

We learn by watching. Or, at least, we did for millennia.

08/29/2025

08/24/2025

My midwife friend shares truth!

08/22/2025

USA stats are comparable. Do you want to give birth without surgical interventions? Statistically, odds are 49% for that outcome. If you want a low (or no) intervention birth, it’s not enough to just state that that is your birth plan. It takes preparation & planning & action steps, if you don’t want to end up a statistic of the hospital assembly line.

08/21/2025

Literally every decision for our health, including pregnancy & birth, is weighing risk vs benefit of taking any action or intervention, as opposed to a different action or intervention, vs taking no action & waiting to see how things progress.

Literally nothing in life is risk-free & if someone tells you that, they’re lying to you.

When any clinician says that there are no risks with repeat cesareans, they fail to provide what patients need so they can make truly informed decisions. Not to mention: It's factually inaccurate.

Learn more about VBAC with us: https:// vbacfacts.com/courses

08/11/2025

The only position worse for labor & pushing, besides mother lying on her back like a stranded beetle, is maybe being hung upside down.

I said what I said.

Gravity & movement help mom & baby work together to get baby out safely & keep both healthy.