Childbirth classes may seem like a silly waste of time (how can anyone truly be taught how to give birth, right?), but they may be worth more to you than you think. The American Pregnancy Association gives these reasons why you should consider attending classes before the birth of your first (or next) baby:

* You will learn about options and methods to help control pain, including medications, massage, breathing and relaxation techniques.
* The information and experiences you share can help you feel more confident about your body being able to handle childbirth.
* Talking about your fears, questions and expectations with other participants can help relieve anxiety and better prepare you.
* The shared experience can help create a stronger bond between you and your partner.
* Taking a tour of the hospital where you plan to have your baby (often where the class is offered) allows you to become familiar with the environment, observe the staff and ask questions.

I didn’t take a childbirth class with my first baby, and if I had it to do over again, I just might attend. Although no amount of coaching/teaching can ever fully prepare you for your individual birthing reality, what you learn might be worth your time anyway, so that you go into the experience with a more realistic idea of what lies ahead.

Posted by Sunshine.

Keep the clutter out of baby’s crib! And we are not only talking infants here. From 2002-2004, 241 children under age 5 died in nursery incidents - 40% attributable to beddings and toys. Beware of the bath too - during that period 36 deaths were attributed to bath seats. There are about 65,000 nursery product related accidents per year. Of course accidents do happen, just be aware to try to prevent them if at all possible.

Spanking leads to sexual deviancy? This is a survey that is probably going to get conversations going. Spanking your child. This often ends up in the “hot topics” area. There is a survey out that those who are in the “no spanking” camp may use as a reason. The survey says that children who were spanked in childhood will grow up to be more aggressive and could have sexual issues. What sexual issues are they referring to?

One stat: the 25 percent of university students who ranked highest on a corporal punishment scale insisted on sex without a condom, compared with the 12.5 percent of university students who scored lowest on the scale. Another: 75 percent of college students who’d been spanked a lot said they were sexually aroused by masochistic sex, compared with 40 percent of students who were never spanked.

Those in the “spanking is OK” camp say that in proper circumstances and done properly, it can be effective without any damaging effects. This is surely one of those things that will always be controversial and an individual parenting decision.

This baby is an amazing survivor! A pregnant woman in India was riding on the train. She went to the bathroom, started labor (prematurely) and passed out. The baby was born into the toilet and slipped out onto the train tracks. (For those who aren’t frequent train travelers, it is often the case that toilet waste is disposed that way.)

The family, worried she was gone a while, went to find her. When they realized what had happened, the pulled the emergency button, and a search was on for the baby somewhere along the tracks. Nearly 2 hours later, they found the infant on the tracks - alive! It was taken to the hospital and is under care and it is considered a miracle.

Strange cravings… not only for pregnant gals. If you thought your cravings will be over once the baby comes, that is not necessarily true. Sure those pregnant hormones can trick you into eating some really weird stuff, but people who aren’t pregnant sometimes do as well.

Why do people crave strange stuff? It was originally thought it was because the body was missing some important nutritional vitamin or mineral. “Cravings are believed to be emotionally or psychologically driven. People also tend to crave foods they enjoy and associate with pleasurable times and places.”

In the linked article, people shared some of their very unusual cravings. Me? I can’t say I eat too much strange stuff. I think the most exotic thing I eat is french fries dipped in my hot fudge sundae sauce. What about you?

Orgasmic birth? No, that isn’t a typo. Or-GAS-mic birth. What does it mean? Ina May Gaskin says that women experience a euphoric sensation at the moment of childbirth, and likens it to an orgasmic feeling.

Ina May Gaskin - her name may be familiar if you saw Rikki Lake’s movie about childbirth. She is a 67 year old midwife who established a commune in the 1970’s, and has done an incredible amount of work to advocate natural childbirth. She is frustrated that there are so many caesarian births, and is now writing a book about natural childbirth and the “orgasmic” euphoric feeling. She is hoping to get women to feel passionate about the birth experience and their bodies, and figured she needed something catchy to get the attention of modern women.

It certainly got my attention! And I have to say that even though I would never liken it to an actual orgasm, I do recall a distinct level of euphoria each time I pushed through that dreaded “ring of fire”, so I think I understand where she is coming from.

Yesterday, a friend (who doesn’t yet have kids) asked me if there was a particular moment when I felt like a mom for the first time - did it just “happen” as soon as I got the double lines on the pregnancy test, or what?

Of course there was a particular moment - and it was one of the most defining moments of my life.

I miscarried my first (unplanned) pregnancy around ten weeks. I had barely gotten my mind around the fact that I was pregnant, so I didn’t feel like a parent at all. I felt the loss, but not the motherhood I’d already walked into in some ways.

With my daughter, I didn’t feel very maternal for a long time. I loved this new little person growing inside me, but on some level it was still an abstract concept to me. That changed when we were sent for an ultrasound to measure my amniotic fluid levels, and the tech freaked us out by running for the doctor, who sent us straight to the hospital. We didn’t really understand until he told us that, among other things, if she rolled on her cord, she didn’t have enough room to get off of it, and she could die if she didn’t get out of there now.

Suddenly it wasn’t “the baby is” anything - it was “my child is in danger.” Over the next 22 hours, I went from passive observer of my pregnancy to mama bear mode, and when she finally cried that first ticked off cry, all was right with the world. My daughter was safe, and I was firmly entrenched in motherhood in every possible sense of the word.

Was there an equally defining moment for you, when you realized “Wow - I’m a parent!” for the first time? Squawk back and share!

Posted by Sunshine.

Elective C-sections gain popularity. It seems as though this is a topic that a women usually have a very passionate stance about - one way or the other. Some wonder why in the world a woman would actually elect to have a C-section over a vaginal birth, others consider it a perfectly acceptable way to give birth and wonder why everyone else, stranger or not, feels free to weigh in (and often criticize) their personal decision to have this elective surgery.

The safest way to give birth is an uncomplicated vaginal delivery. The problem is, that is an impossible thing to predict in advance. More and more women these days are electing to have a C-section, even first time mothers with no previous birthing experience. Doctors are not sure why this is gaining in popularity. As the rate of elective C-sections has increased, so has the rate of maternal mortality. At least it has in 2003 and 2004, data from 2005 and onwards is not yet available. But it has not been proven that the maternal mortality rate is linked to the increase in C-sections.

Doctors and researchers would really like to figure this out and have a factual basis to the question “which one is safer”, however structuring how to research this as an unbiased test proves very difficult - it basically would amount to a large group of women agreeing to being randomly chosen to give birth either vaginally or by C-section.

My bet is that this will remain the topic of heated discussion for years to come - research will not change women’s passion regarding this. In the end, it is the woman’s body and her individual choice as to her birthing plan. So please be supportive of your friends and loved ones no matter what they decide!

A girls self-esteem impacts her chances of obesity. A study shows that girls who consider themselves to be “popular” gain less weight as they grow up then those who consider themselves “unpopular”. What is interesting is that researchers now see that a girl’s perceived social status is not just something she can grow out of as she grows up, it can as well have future health impacts. On a somewhat related note, studies have shown that obese girls also more likely to avoid going to college. Having a tween daughter myself, I am always hopeful that she will not grow up to be one of those uber-popular girls a-la the “Mean Girls” movie. But I do hope to instill in her a healthy dose of self-esteem, and I hope that her teen years aren’t too dramatic. Time will tell…

Is she or isn’t she? She IS! Nicole Kidman’s publicist just announced that the actress and her husband, Keith Urban, are expecting their first child later this year. See, I told ya so! *wink*

I’m not one of those women who feels cheated by their delivery experience(s). I’m also not an advocate for natural, unmedicated childbirth (though there’s nothing wrong with that route). Both of my deliveries resulted in healthy children…but after reading this article, I realized there are still things I didn’t know that might have affected my decisions and experiences.

A new survey of mothers reveals some disturbing things about hospital maternity care that may make pregnant women want to take a closer look at their options.

What choices do we really have, and what choices are being made without our involvement?

The article explaining the survey results is not easily summarized, so I’ll just highlight five facts that surprised me (please take a few moments to read it for yourself - you may be startled by what you learn!). Did you know these things?

1. Maternal mortality is on the rise in this country - it was up to 13 deaths per 100,000 in the United States in 2004, up from 11 in 2000. Forty-one (that’s 41!) other developed nations have lower maternal death rates.

2. 73% of the women interviewed who had an episiotomy were not asked for their consent. (This was true of my first delivery as well.)

3. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has never approved Pitocin for the use of augmenting labor and it has been suggested now that mismanagement of Pitocin is the leading cause of liability suits and damage awards. Say what??

4. A woman with private insurance is more likely to end up with a Cesarean section than an uninsured woman or one on Medicaid.

5. Eleven states prohibit births with homebirth-trained attendants, such as certified professional midwives (CPMs), or ban homebirths outright. My state is one of them. Seventeen states have no birthing centers.

Well…good thing I was OK with my children being delivered at the local hospital, I guess! It’s appalling to me that so many of our options are dependent on where we live, and that our experiences differ based on what sort of insurance we carry (or don’t have) - and on how forthright our doctors are with us regarding decisions about the birth itself and care afterward.

Keep your eyes and ears open, moms! Every woman has the right to be involved in the decision-making process when it comes to her health and that of her child.

(Via Radical Catholic Mom.)

Posted by Sunshine.

Enemas during labor, not so useful? Researchers out of Bogota, Colombia, found from a study that giving women enemas does not shorten labor or reduce the risk of infection to mother or baby during labor and delivery. Enemas are often given to laboring women to make the pelvis roomier for the emerging baby and to reduce the risk of the mom relieving herself during the pushing phase, which can be a source of infection (and embarrassment). However, a study of over 1,700 women found that enemas made no difference in infection rates, and there was only a slight trend toward shorter labors for women who were given enemas.

Breaking the waters, not useful either? A study out of the Cochrane Systematic Review finds that routine “breaking of the waters” during labor should be reconsidered, as it does not appear to shorten labor, improve a woman’s birth experience, or improve the condition of the newborn. The conventional wisdom has been that the hormones in the amniotic fluid that are released when a woman’s amniotic membrane is ruptured stimulate contractions.

Bike safety concerns: A new study published in the journal Injury Prevention finds that bike injuries among children and adolescents are more prevalent than was previously thought, and account for nearly $200 million in hospital inpatient charges each year. “Bicycles are associated with more childhood injuries than any other consumer product except the automobile,” said Gary Smith, MD, DrPH, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy, faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, and one of the study authors. “The high rate of hospitalization and use of healthcare resources identified in our study supports the need for increased attention to bicycle-related injuries.” One-third of children hospitalized for bike-related injuries are diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, underscoring the need to emphasize bike helmet use.

Preemie Health News: Research out of Children’s Hospital, Boston, finds that by examining the umbilical cord blood of premature infants, doctors may be able to predict which babies are at risk for developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), an often fatal lung disorder. By examining the cord blood from babies who developed BPD and comparing it with that of babies who did not, the researchers found that the BPD babies’ blood had a distinct gene expression. BPD is the second leading cause of death in preemies.

Moms Out of Luck: If you’re very, very pregnant and desire an induction, we hope you don’t live in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Regina Mother Baby Unit is overbooked, so doctors are holding off on labor jump-starts. Shauna Kaytor is 42 weeks along and has been informed that space won’t be available for her for almost another week. “If I go into labour right now, then I’d be admitted and the baby would be delivered,” said Kaytor, who will be a first-time mother. “But for now I’m on the wait list. I’m not high risk, so I just have to wait by the phone.”

Music and Language Development: A new study out of Northwestern University concludes that early music training may be more effective than learning phonics at building verbal skills. The multi-sensory processing the brain uses during music training appears to involve the same circuitry used in speaking and reading. The researchers believe music training could be effective at combating literacy disorders. (Via Autism Vox.)

Beef Recall: Topps Meat Company of Elizabeth, N.J. is recalling 21.7 million pounds of ground beef products because of 25 cases of illness that appear to be due to E. coli bacteria. The recall… covers a wide range of frozen hamburger patties and other products manufactured over the last year and bearing a “sell by” date or “best used by” date between last Tuesday and Sept. 25, 2008, along with the United States Department of Agriculture designation EST 9748.

Wow! A Siberian woman got a surprise when she welcomed her 12th child - all 17.1 pounds of her. “We were all simply in shock,” said Nadia’s mother, Tatyana Barabanova, 43. “What did the father say? He couldn’t say a thing — he just stood there blinking.” The newcomer was born via C-section.

Via Radical Catholic Mom, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, maternal death rates in the US rose from 12 per 100,000 in 2003 to 13 per 100,000 in 2004. And while revised death certificate questions in California, Montana, and Idaho may account for some of the up-tick in terms of cause of death reporting (that is, deaths that would not have been attributed to childbirth formerly now are), experts believe the actual number is rising, perhaps because of the continued increase in C-section deliveries.

“There’s an inherent risk to C-sections,” said Dr. Elliott Main, who co-chairs a panel reviewing obstetrics care in California. “As you do thousands and thousands of them, there’s going to be a price.”

Excessive bleeding is one of the leading causes of pregnancy-related death, and women with several previous C-sections are at especially high risk, according to a review of maternal deaths in New York. Blood vessel blockages and infections are among the other leading causes.

Maternal obesity may also be a factor, as overweight women are more prone to complications such as diabetes, and are more likely to have excess tissues and large babies that make vaginal deliveries problematic. Older mothers are also more likely to have pregnancy complications, and more women are having babies in their late 30s and 40s.

Sadly, 40% of maternal deaths could have been prevented through proper monitoring. Black women in particular are more prone to high blood pressure during pregnancy, and are also more likely to have inadequate prenatal care. The rate of maternal death for black women is three times higher than that of white women.

And while these deaths matter in and of themselves, they also point to a larger public health issue. The CDC’s 2001 manual on reducing pregnancy-related deaths opens with the following reflection:

Pregnancy-related deaths are the tip-of-the-iceberg with regard to complications of pregnancy. For every woman who dies of a pregnancy-related cause, several thousand suffer morbidity related to pregnancy—before, during, or after delivery. Each year six million women become pregnant, almost four million give birth, and over one million experience pregnancy-related complications. This means that pregnancy-related complications are a significant burden on women, their families, and society in economic, social, and personal term.

The CDC proposes a three-tiered plan to reduce maternal mortality:

• Primary prevention strategies: Improving sex education and family planning services to prevent unintended and high-risk pregnancies; improving nutrition programs, preconception care, and diagnosis and treatment of STDs.
• Secondary prevention strategies: Improving pregnancy outcomes through early detection and treatment of complications.
• Tertiary prevention strategies: Treating complications in an optimal fashion to reduce fatality rates.

Tangent: I’ve been thinking about how much of the above is in our own hands. What can we women do for ourselves to improve our pregnancy - and general health - outcomes? How can we better serve ourselves in terms of family planning, preconception care, and health and lifestyle choices? How can we be better role models for our children in terms of staying informed about and protecting our own health?

I hope I don’t sound preachy. Let’s face it - in large part, general health is a roll of the dice, a combination of genetics and luck. But some common poor health outcomes are the result of lifestyle choices. And I write this as a woman who for years smoked a pack a day and was never ten feet from a Doritos bag. I cleaned up my act pretty well in my 30s and have been blessed with two healthy children after two uncomplicated pregnancies. My family has good health coverage. I think I’m pretty well informed about general health issues. But with all these advantages, I’m still far from where I want to be in terms of being my own health monitor.

Posted by MommaSteph.