Sep
Breastfeeding Is easier than you think
Join Certified Lactation Counselor and long time La Leche League Leader, Lynnelle King at the Baby Place for a Breastfeeding Made Simple Class tomorrow night!
Wednesday, September 28th, from 7 pm-9 pm, The Baby Place Midwives & Birth Center is hosting the first of a series of Breastfeeding Made Simple Classes.
Some breastfeeding topics covered will be positioning and latch,
how to tell if your baby is getting enough,
and the secret to avoiding the most common concerns and challenges
Instead of trying to memorize the mechanics of breastfeeding, we’ll explore what works naturally when we keep it simple.
La Leche League Leader and homeschooling mom, Lynnelle King facilitates learning in a relaxed style, welcoming the connecting, interacting and community building that happens when we grow together as parents.
Join us! Just bring $15 in exact change and something yummy to share if that doesn’t stress you out. We’ll have dolls to practice with and visual aids as well, so whether you learn best by watching, listening or doing…we have you covered.
Call 884-1223 and let us know you’re coming. We’ll save you a seat!
29
Jul
Gardening As A Metaphor
There is something sacred and healing about a garden. Something about getting your hands in the earth. Something about nurturing that small seed to its full, ripe potential. And something especially rewarding and satisfying in eating food you have grown for yourself.
We’ve been spending a lot of time in the garden at The Baby Place lately and the process of discovering what is needed and what isn’t, what can be done and what should be done seems a bit of a metaphor for the birth center and our midwifery practice.
The metaphor is in our approach both to the garden and to pregnancy and birth: just because something exists doesn’t mean we’re meant to use it. (I didn’t say it was a subtle metaphor.)
Just as there is satisfaction in using heirloom seeds and not succumbing to the attempts of big businesses to corner the market and prevent farmers and gardeners from growing their own food; there is satisfaction in helping women and families understand their options for maternity care and birth. Just as there is satisfaction in growing our food; there is satisfaction in knowing you do have choices and there are providers who respect them. And there is certainly satisfaction in knowing that you can give birth in a home-like setting with care providers you know and trust.
Just as there is gratitude for technology, there is also gratitude for intuition. And just as there is a time for intervention, there is time to wait and watch and trust.
And then the garden challenges you…to move beyond your knowledge and experience and it requires you be creative, find another approach.
Last year, our tomatoes were attacked by both disease and hungry bugs. We could have used a pesticide to prevent it this year. But that isn’t the way we do it. We don’t always do things exactly like others do. We often don’t do what is easy.
We see value in a different, but tried and true approach.
For example, a friend came over to our house a few months ago and inquired about the large cage in our kitchen. I replied that I was hatching Praying Mantis (we’ll have photos of those next year) to put in the garden to protect the tomatoes. You should have seen her face. I expect it was similar to the faces of some people when they hear you’ve chosen to give birth at The Baby Place and especially when you tell them, no, they don’t have epidurals there.
Growing things they way we do isn’t for everyone. And yes, there are times we get weary with our own choices. But, we’ve already been enjoying the peas and beets and we look forward to the tomatoes, corn, brussel sprouts and more.
We’ve tasted the fruits of our labors and have confirmation in the harvest.
The harvest we value most is experienced every day at The Baby Place. It is not from this garden and won’t be found on a plate or come from the mouths who wish we weren’t here.
It’s impossible for many to understand that it is in the cultivating that joy is found. It takes work and willingness, energy and effort, time and trust. There is sacred in the mundane and the truth is that there is nothing mundane about it.
Fortunately for The Baby Place, the families who understand this and value it, find us. And when they do, we dig our hands and heart deep into this garden where relationships grow.
And together, we cultivate a family.
May
Need an Early Labor Project Idea?
Try a little ropin' practice for a distraction from contractions!
This mama has a tradition in early labor. Each time she and her husband drive up (from out of state) to give birth here at The Baby Place Birth Center, she brings her rope and does a little ropin’ practice on our property. We’ve seen her do this before and we’re sure she’ll do it again because she knows what works for her. Moving her body, doing what is right for the time of day (while paying attention to her body’s cues for rest) is exactly how she labors and gives birth and our job, as the Midwives at The Baby Place, is to stay out of the way of what works and help our clients do what they know to do.
"Got him!"
May
Who Says You Can’t Move Around in Labor?
And who says you have to be confined to a bed?
Laboring Dancing is encouraged!
We know this is a proven way to labor well…this MOVING thing really works. As one of the Lamaze Best Birth Practices, evidence shows that “walking, moving and changing positions” is essential to supporting the way your body is working to bring your baby down and out. And this is why, at The Baby Place, our midwives are committed to making sure you have so many options for moving in labor.
The squat bar is a favorite for some moms.
This is YOUR birth and we know well that women know how to give birth.
In fact, who says you have to stay inside?
A breath of fresh air does a mama good.
It is not uncommon for some labors to begin at night and move into the morning and sometimes the very best thing in a longer labor is to start your day fresh.
Having the space and the place for our families to move outside during labor is one of the many blessings we are able to offer our families. We can’t say enough about the power of fresh air and light to help a laboring mother move through her birthing time.
The privacy and space of our property in back allows our families the time and space to re-group and refresh even in the midst of laboring.
Morning walks make a difference for moms and dads.
Where ever, however you choose to labor and give birth, our job is to monitor mother and baby unobtrusively so you can do what YOU need to do give birth in the way that feels best to you.
Listening to heart tones happens WITH you...while you labor. We move with you and work together to ensure our monitoring is effective while as unobtrusive as possible.
These are just some of the ways birth belongs to the families we serve.
Happy VBAC mom!
Oct
Belly-mapping or Belly-Art?
Baby Place mom, Megan and son Emerson doing some belly-mapping?
Have you ever wondered how those babies fit in there? Moms ask us all the time to show us how their baby is “hanging out” so we thought we would help you get an idea of it on your own. ”Belly-mapping” is a process for parents to have fun “mapping” the position of their baby in mom’s belly. For more information as well as printable handouts for parents. Check out the Spinning Babies website and have a little fun predicting position!
Megan Waldal and son Emerson decided to celebrate the coming of a little baby sister (or will it be a brother?) by letting Emerson put some of his soon to be famous art on mama’s belly. Too Cute! Great work Emerson! (What a great name for an artist!)
Both Emerson and his sister, Layla, were born at the Baby Place.
Emerson shows off his artwork
Aug
Get your “breastfeeding game on” with this unique new book
Breastfeeding with Comfort & Joy
This book is the perfect blend of images and information. The concept is unique–use photos of real mothers and babies doing just that…breastfeeding with comfort and joy. These images are so reassuring, so inspiring, the fact that they are also instructional feels almost subliminal. Author, Laura Keegan, RN, F.N.P. covers the basics like latch, positions, how often to feed baby, engorgement and the like, but she also covers breastfeeding twins and, our favorite, the importance of skin-to-skin contact.
This is a beautiful book and would make a wonderful gift for a new mother. It is available only through the author’s website and blog
04Aug
Booby-Trapped, Life-saving Devices
It happens everyday. From the subtle and subliminal messaging that occurs when formula companies get your name off a baby shower registry and send you coupons for formula while you are still pregnant, to the far reaching social discomfort and disapproval breastfeeding mothers experience when they try to breastfeed their babies anywhere but in the privacy of their own home.
*Booby-traps* are everywhere for the breastfeeding mother-baby, but if Best for Babes has anything to say about it, that is going to change! Just read their mission statement:
“To help moms beat the “Booby Traps” the cultural & institutional barriers that prevent moms from achieving their personal breastfeeding goals. To inspire, prepare & empower™ moms. To give breastfeeding a makeover and give moms the solutions they need to make it work!”
This new organization’s website is chock full of great information about breastfeeding, but mostly, we find it inspiring and celebratory snd just plain FUN. Check out Best for Babes instructions for new moms to ensure they are ready to “Get Your Best Game On, Girlfriend!”
What Booby Traps have you experienced and how did you overcome them?
24Jul
A Blog is Born
Well here it is… the new Baby Place Midwives & Birth Center website. Much like a baby, this website has been gestating a very long time. A vision of ours for several years now, the final creation was a fantastically fun undertaking and we are thrilled with the result. And much like the joyous announcement of a new baby, we are pleased and proud to finally launch this site.
We want to thank so many of our Baby Place families for sharing their private moments with us so we could share them with you. All the photos on this website are of real Baby Place families (except one–but the dad and mom are brother and sister-in-law to two other Baby Place families and we couldn’t resist).
We are grateful to the professional photographers who agreed to share their talent with us by allowing us to use the photos they took of a few of our families over the years. Much thanks to Kam Taylor who has blessed us with her photos in our birth center, took early photos of our center and who has created cherished memories for many Baby Place families through her portraits. Thank you to Lindy English who brought her amazing eye and spectacular lens to capture our new and updated birth suites so we could share them with you. Thanks as well to Diana Palmer of Yan Photography and Katy Sharratt for allowing us to use the images they took of two of our Baby Place families.
Thank you also goes to birth doulas, Kyndal May, Jennifer Clover and Sheila Taylor for capturing those cherished moments in births so that the family will have those memories forever, all while providing amazing labor support at the same time.
Like babies, parenting, and life, this website is ever-changing. We will constantly be updating…sharing information, posting photos and announcements, so, if you are a Baby Place family, and you have a favorite professional photographer we invite you to have them contact us to share a photo of your family in our Families Gallery. We also invite Baby Place families, and their birth doulas to submit a testimonial or photo. We will post new photos and birth stories or testimonials periodically along with the latest news, events and relative research and information so please, stop back and visit and sign up for our so we can stay in touch!