10 Steps to Natural Childbirth

By Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE, About.com Guide

Choose a supportive practitioner. No matter whether you use a doctor or midwife, be sure that your practitioner has a lot of experience in caring for women who want to have an unmedicated birth. Midwives usually specialize in this type of birth. How to choose your practitioner.

To read the rest of this wonderful article click here.

Cesarean Section - Tips & Tools: C-Section

Found on the Childbrith Connection website


How should I move forward after deciding to plan a vaginal birth or a cesarean section?


WHEN PLANNING A VAGINAL BIRTH, what are some basic tips I can use during pregnancy to increase my likelihood of having a vaginal birth?


What are some tips I can use in special situations during pregnancy to increase my likelihood of having a vaginal birth?

Pregnancy - Getting Ready!

Posted by Carri:

So I'm approximately 4 weeks from my "exit date" and I'm starting to make sure I have everything ready. What is an "exit date" you ask? Well my 3 other kids all came exactly 11 days early, so I'm planning on 11 days before my due date for the baby to come. I sure hope this one doesn't decide to hang on longer, because I am very very very uncomfortable and am thanking my lucky stars for every day closer I get to the exit date!

Anyways, after having my 3 other kids at the hospital, this home birth requires a completely different way to get ready. There is no bag to pack, but there are a lot of other things you need to have ready. You need to have a home birth kit (which you can buy online, or from your midwife) that has chucks pads, and other necessities that the midwife needs to attend your birth. I also needed to have a mattress cover, hydrogen peroxide (in case blood goes where we don't want it to), sterilized towels, tea kettle, maxi pads (and I also use Depends because pads always seem to leak as well), baby blankets, first outfit, Recharge energy drink, red raspberry leaf tea, music, birth ball and of course my BINSI outfit!

In 2 weeks I will have my home visit where my midwife, midwife assistant and doula come to my house. They all get familiar with my house and we check to make sure everything is ready, as well as talk about my desires for the birth. I don't think I really have a birth plan this time around, because most of the things I've had on previous birth plans were about medical interventions associated with hospital protocol. All in all, I just want a calm, joyful and beautiful final birth experience.

Doula Digest - Writing a Birth Plan

Posted by Kim:

Birth Plans have become an important part of the birth experience. This is the time when you and your partner's most important wishes and concerns can be expressed to your doula, midwife, doctor, hospital staff and any family or friends who will be attending your birth. This document lets everyone know what you hope will or won't happen during your labor, birth and postpartum care. Be sure to give everyone a copy of your birth plan prior to your labor.

When writing your birth plan the two main points of advice that both Carri and I give our doula clients are

1) Write it in bullet point format
2) Try to make it no more than 5 main points.

I recommend that there can be 5 points in two different categories

1) Labor
2) Baby

Bullet points make it easier for everyone to read through your wishes quickly. If your birth plan is written in a long paragraph form it is difficult to get the gist of what your needs and wishes are and may not even be read, even if they have the best of intentions. Remember the staff and doctor may be caring for several laboring moms so you want to keep it easy and simple for the them. Plus this will also make it easier for your doula to quick reference your choices. The nurses really want to help you have the best birth experience as possible, but they are use to specific routines so they may do things out of this routine, not to go against your wishes. So having the easy bullet points helps to avoid confusion.

Items you may want to consider for your birth plan:

Labor

• Support People - Who will be with you in during your birth names of your birth partner, doula, allowed guests, whether or not you will be accepting guests
• What you would like to wear during your labor
  
• Vaginal Exams - preference to have exams only upon request
• IV - Preference to not have a continuous IV, but willingness to have a buff cap placed
• Urinary Catheter and Enema
  
• Induction - Use of pitocin during labor and delivery of the placenta
• Breaking the bag of water
  
• Pain medication - What methods of pain relief, if any would you consider? "Please do not recommend any method of pain relief unless I ask"
• Fetal monitoring - Prefer intermittent fetal monitoring vs continuous monitoring, would like to avoid internal monitoring
• Freedom to walk or eat and drink
  
• Labor Positions - Preferred positions, laboring in the water
  
• Labor Environment
• Preference to labor down before pushing
  
• Assisted Delivery - Preference to avoid the use of forceps or vacuum
• Preferred Pushing position - Squatting, in the tub/birth pool
• Partner to "catch" the baby
  
• Episiotomy
  
• Delay cord cutting until cord stops pulsating
• Partner to (or not to) cut the cord
  
• If stitching of perineum is required use of local anesthetic
• Placenta - would you like to keep it or have it disposed of in a particular way
  

If a cesarean section is required

• Partner present
• Epidural anesthesia if possible
• Breastfeeding in recovery room
• Partner to hold baby in delivery/operating room
  

Baby

• Baby to be placed on Mother's chest immediately after birth
• Perform all newborn physical exams and procedures while baby is with mother
  
• Baby to be rooming in with parents at all times
• Breastfeeding - use of supplemental formula feeding and/or water
  
• Preference regarding bottles, artificial nipples, pacifiers
  
• Eye ointment, Vitamin K shot
• Bath - do not remove vernix
• Clothing
  
• Vaccinations
• Circumcision
• Use of disposable vs cloth diapers
  

Ultimately your birth plan is your birth guide, a general outline of what your ideal birth scenario would be. But as we all know birth is a wonderful, beautiful, unpredictable experience and the need for everyone involved to be flexible is very important. However, in my opinion do not mistake flexibility with your ability to advocate for yourself and your baby. If at any time you feel pushed to make a decision before you feel comfortable with the results of that decision, don't be afraid to ask for time to consider your choices. It is your experience and ultimately your care and your baby's care should be a team approach between you and your care providers. That is why it is very important that you are well educated and you surround yourself with well educated birth partners so you can make informed decisions during your labor if questions arise.

Doula Digest - Bradley Birth Education

Posted by Kim:

As part of my doula training I had to take a childbirth education class (not pregnant). It seems like I am always meeting Bradley birth educators and a lot of people are talking about it so I thought I would check it out, plus I really loved the idea of the Husband Coached Childbirth. It sounded like a method that my husband would have liked and appreciated. If only I was as educated then as I am now. I almost feel like I know so much more now that it is a shame that I am not having another baby. This is not to say that I haven't been lobbying for baby #3 for the last year! Back on track......

For convenience sake and the fact that I already knew her I decided to enroll in Michelle Mueller's Natural Childbirth Education class. There were four pregnant couples in the class and as the weeks passed we became a pretty close group. Unlike the birth education class we took. In our class there were about 50 people in our class and there was absolutely no intimacy or sharing of information between the students. WE simply learned what the teacher wanted us to know. Not that she was a bad teacher, we definitely learned the facts, but we didn't get the different perspectives from the students because no one really felt open to share in front of 50 people! Again I digress, back to Bradley.

Our class met for 11 weeks beginning in September and we covered the following topics:

• Exercise
• Nutrition
• Pregnancy/Gestation
• Variations and Options
• Intro to First Stage
• Intro to Second Stage
• Birth Plans
• Coaching
• Postpartum
• Advanced First Stage (Labor Rehearsal)
  
• Advanced Second Stage

Each class started with Michelle asking each couple how their week went, how their nutrition was for week and if they have any concerns (including concerns about their care provider). In addition Michelle would ask each couple if they had been practicing their Taylor sitting, kegels and relaxation techniques. What struck me the most about this class was how fun it was to see each couple grow and develop during their last trimester. There was definitely quite a difference between the first class and the last, boy could I relate to how they all felt as they grew closer and closer to their due date.

The primary theme throughout the class was nutrition, labor management and the intervention spiral. We discussed the common interventions, why they are done, benefits, risks and alternatives. Some common interventions and their alternatives that we discussed were:

• Vaginal Exams - request that they do not do the exams unless there is a compelling medical reasons.
• Non-Stress Test - fetal movement counting
• Induced Labor - Waiting, nipple stimulation, sex, accupressure, herbs, acupuncture, or Castor oil
• Membrane Stripping - Nipple stimulation
• Vaginal exams in labor - Limit exams prior to pushing,
  
• Gowning - Wear own clothes
• Separation of mom from support during admission - Do all admission work ahead of time
• IV - Stay hydrated
  
• Restricting food & drink - eat lightly, drink sips of water, eat ice chips or popsicles. Energy gels or honey.
• Electronic Fetal Monitoring - Use fetoscope or doppler or intermittent EFM
  
• Doptone - Use fetoscope if someone is trained to use it.
• Restricted movement during labor - walk around, change positions often, take a shower or bath
• Amniotomy - Use natural ways to speed up labor like walking, suck thumb, nipple stimulation, acupressure or acupuncture
• Narcotics/Analgesics - Natural methods of pain relief
• Epidural - Natural pain coping techniques: relazation, changing positions, movement, birth ball, visualization, bath or shower
• Augmentation - Use natural methods of speeding up labor
• Episiotomy - Choose a caregiver who does not perform them. Do pre-natal perineal massage. Do not lay on his back to push, practice kegels
• Forceps or Vacuum Extraction - Prevention: good pushing positions and techniques, avoiding epidural

The Cascade Effect of Interventions:

1. Break water to advance labor
2. Gel
3. Pitocin
4. Drugs/Epidural
5. C-Section

Common side effects of the Epidural are:

1. Drop in mom's blood pressure
2. They only work 85% of the time
3. It may only work on one side
4. Epidural headache 25% of the time
5. Pain at the injection site
6. Need for the use of forceps ro vacuum extraction
   
7. C-Section
8. Episiotomy

Overall I really enjoyed this class. I thought Michelle presented a great point of view and each couple could cater the information they learned to their own wants and needs. However, learning about Bradley made me more curious about the other methods of childbirth education. I think I may need to take the other methods so I can learn about them and then be knowledgeable about the different methods my different doula clients may choose to follow. Now I just need to find the time!

To learn more about the Bradley Method of childbirth please visit their website www.BradleyBirth.com