After being away for so long for me to post two days in a row is hard to believe, but this post is so important I have to share it everywhere I can!
New Birth Midwifery
is very excited to share a landmark study conducted by MANA (Midwives
Alliance of North America) of nearly 17,000 midwife led courses of care.
Here are the highlights, but please take the time to click on the link
to read the full article and please share this important information!
For planned home births with a midwife in attendance, key outcomes include:
-Over 93% women had a normal physiologic birth
-A cesarean rate of 5%
-Only 2.5% of babies admitted to the NICU in the first six weeks of life
-87% of women with previous cesareans had their babies vaginally
-Of the 10.9% of women who transferred from home to hospital during
labor, the majority moved for non-emergent reasons, like a slow,
non-progressing labor, or maternal exhaustion
-At six weeks postpartum, nearly all babies were breastfed
http://www.mana.org/blog/home-birth-safety-outcomes
Friday, January 31, 2014
Thursday, January 30, 2014
A new Midwife with New Birth Midwifery!!
New
Birth Midwifery is very excited to announce the addition of a new
midwife to the team! Eileen Kirk is a CPM and a graduate from National
College. Jenny met Eileen while visiting the Philippines in February
2013 and felt an immediate connection with her.
Take a look at her bio to learn more about her.
Eileen M Kirk, CPM
My name is Eileen Kirk and I am a Certified Professional Midwife. My journey into midwifery is still very recent, but my life passions have lined up well with this profession. At a young age my heart went out to the hurting and broken, especially young women and children. I hated to see injustice and watch people suffer. I have a very caring heart and people’s happiness is important to me. I love celebrating life and being apart of the ups and downs that come. I have always loved building friendships and connecting with people.
With that being said one of my dear friends invited me to be part of her birth in 2010. She was a first time mom and had a long, difficult birth with a tremendous amount of back
labor. At this point I knew absolutely nothing about birth or how to help and unfortunately her care providers were not helpful at all. This experience stirred in me a passion to learn about pregnancy, birth, and how I can help women
in such an intense time. This led me on a search for midwifery schools which didn’t take very long for me. I found a two-year intensive program located in the Philippines. This caught my interest quickly because I always wanted to study abroad and experience life in another culture.
As a young adult I went on several mission trips and enjoyed
gaining a different perspective on life outside the United States. My studies went really well in the Philippines and I gained a lot of hands on experience. I cared for many women that were malnourished and suffered from extreme poverty. I was able to attend over 200 births and was the primary midwife for 90 births. I completed my schooling through Newlife International School of Midwifery in July 2013 (accredited through National College of Midwifery) and passed the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) Board Exam in August of 2013. In January 2014 I joined New Birth Midwifery and will begin my career. I love being a midwife and I still can’t believe that I get to do this as my job!
Take a look at her bio to learn more about her.
Eileen M Kirk, CPM
My name is Eileen Kirk and I am a Certified Professional Midwife. My journey into midwifery is still very recent, but my life passions have lined up well with this profession. At a young age my heart went out to the hurting and broken, especially young women and children. I hated to see injustice and watch people suffer. I have a very caring heart and people’s happiness is important to me. I love celebrating life and being apart of the ups and downs that come. I have always loved building friendships and connecting with people.
With that being said one of my dear friends invited me to be part of her birth in 2010. She was a first time mom and had a long, difficult birth with a tremendous amount of back
labor. At this point I knew absolutely nothing about birth or how to help and unfortunately her care providers were not helpful at all. This experience stirred in me a passion to learn about pregnancy, birth, and how I can help women
in such an intense time. This led me on a search for midwifery schools which didn’t take very long for me. I found a two-year intensive program located in the Philippines. This caught my interest quickly because I always wanted to study abroad and experience life in another culture.
As a young adult I went on several mission trips and enjoyed
gaining a different perspective on life outside the United States. My studies went really well in the Philippines and I gained a lot of hands on experience. I cared for many women that were malnourished and suffered from extreme poverty. I was able to attend over 200 births and was the primary midwife for 90 births. I completed my schooling through Newlife International School of Midwifery in July 2013 (accredited through National College of Midwifery) and passed the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) Board Exam in August of 2013. In January 2014 I joined New Birth Midwifery and will begin my career. I love being a midwife and I still can’t believe that I get to do this as my job!
Friday, May 17, 2013
A call to Balance
I went to moms group on Wednesday at church and it was about keeping your schedule more open not committing to too much - even if the things are good things we can burn out when we take our focus off Jesus. It's so funny because this message of course isn't a new one, but surprisingly a message heard before in a different season of life hit me in a new way in this season.
There are always different seasons in life where commitments need to increase and decrease but I do think God gave me a slow month of May and June - one birth in the beginning of May and one coming up at the end of June so I could focus more on my family and regain some balance in my life. I went from barely surviving and keeping my house just picked up enough to pass to last night pulling everything out of my pantry to make it look attractive to buyers when we get it put on the market next month.
One thing that hit me hard on Wednesday was the different approaches to TV watching that my husband and I have. I grew up on the mission field where tv shows were Inspector Gadget watched every few months when a new tape (yes tape) was sent over in the mail from the US where my Aunt Michelle had so lovingly recorded as many episodes as she could. We would watch them over and over until they were memorized but that really didn't take long. And because the tv was a solid 1/2 hour drive away at the main center, mostly we played outside with our friends. My husband grew up with the TV being on most of the time, and so hopefully as we journey this path together we can create a nice balance between the two.
That being said, it is much easier to move to the side of too much TV than stay on the side of none at all. We have a TV in our bedroom and our daughter although she sleeps in her own room (she is two) she will wake up around 6:45 or 7am and want to climb in bed with us. Since neither my husband or I are ready to get up quite yet, we have been turning on the TV to give us 15 more minutes of sleep. It had been bothering me for some time that this was our routine especially since I felt like it slipped into our day more regularly then - while I made breakfast I would watch a show, then while she napped and I did chores I would watch a show and so on so forth, with E watching a show in the late afternoon while I made dinner. It might not sound like a lot (or it might sound like way too much if you grew up like me!) but my heart was being stirred to spend more time with Jesus and somehow days were passing and I was barely finding the time to utter quick prayers as I was doing other things.
Yesterday instead of watching a show to get 15 more minutes of sleep we got up when E got restless and had breakfast. I sat with her and ate too all the while had the prayer room live playing on the ipad instead of a show which I felt stirred my heart to be more loving towards my family and remember that my life is not my own. Then we went outside and played, had an appointment where the older kids played more with her while I talked to my client then she napped and I got caught up on some work then we went out to do some errands before coming home, having dinner and playing in the hot tub.
Today so far as started off the same - and I hope that this can be our new routine. Of course, in the time it took me to write this I have changed a poopy diaper, changed the batteries in a toy for my daughter, entertained her and loved on her. So - my quiet time is not so quiet, but again, life has many seasons and I am sure that this time is going to be one I will have many fond memories of so I plan to be proactive in enjoying them now.
There are always different seasons in life where commitments need to increase and decrease but I do think God gave me a slow month of May and June - one birth in the beginning of May and one coming up at the end of June so I could focus more on my family and regain some balance in my life. I went from barely surviving and keeping my house just picked up enough to pass to last night pulling everything out of my pantry to make it look attractive to buyers when we get it put on the market next month.
One thing that hit me hard on Wednesday was the different approaches to TV watching that my husband and I have. I grew up on the mission field where tv shows were Inspector Gadget watched every few months when a new tape (yes tape) was sent over in the mail from the US where my Aunt Michelle had so lovingly recorded as many episodes as she could. We would watch them over and over until they were memorized but that really didn't take long. And because the tv was a solid 1/2 hour drive away at the main center, mostly we played outside with our friends. My husband grew up with the TV being on most of the time, and so hopefully as we journey this path together we can create a nice balance between the two.
That being said, it is much easier to move to the side of too much TV than stay on the side of none at all. We have a TV in our bedroom and our daughter although she sleeps in her own room (she is two) she will wake up around 6:45 or 7am and want to climb in bed with us. Since neither my husband or I are ready to get up quite yet, we have been turning on the TV to give us 15 more minutes of sleep. It had been bothering me for some time that this was our routine especially since I felt like it slipped into our day more regularly then - while I made breakfast I would watch a show, then while she napped and I did chores I would watch a show and so on so forth, with E watching a show in the late afternoon while I made dinner. It might not sound like a lot (or it might sound like way too much if you grew up like me!) but my heart was being stirred to spend more time with Jesus and somehow days were passing and I was barely finding the time to utter quick prayers as I was doing other things.
Yesterday instead of watching a show to get 15 more minutes of sleep we got up when E got restless and had breakfast. I sat with her and ate too all the while had the prayer room live playing on the ipad instead of a show which I felt stirred my heart to be more loving towards my family and remember that my life is not my own. Then we went outside and played, had an appointment where the older kids played more with her while I talked to my client then she napped and I got caught up on some work then we went out to do some errands before coming home, having dinner and playing in the hot tub.
Today so far as started off the same - and I hope that this can be our new routine. Of course, in the time it took me to write this I have changed a poopy diaper, changed the batteries in a toy for my daughter, entertained her and loved on her. So - my quiet time is not so quiet, but again, life has many seasons and I am sure that this time is going to be one I will have many fond memories of so I plan to be proactive in enjoying them now.
Friday, April 20, 2012
"Just In Case..."
Yesterday I was having a nice chat with a good friend who is in the birth world and so when we get together, naturally the conversation moves towards birth. While we were talking, she mentioned that a friend of hers was planning to go to one hospital but after thinking through her options chose a different one because her original choice didn't have a level 2 NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and so if her baby had any more serious complications she would be separated from her baby since she would be in one hospital and her baby would be in another.
One one hand that makes sense. On the other, as I have had more time to think about that - both as a midwife and a mom who delivered a baby in the hospital after planning my whole pregnancy to be at home (my daughter was born too early) I wouldn't plan my birth setting around a "just in case" scenario.
Ok - here is my opinion that could be contradictory. I believe that planning where you deliver around the "just in case" thought process is like not planning to get divorced from the person you are going to marry and are very much in love with, but getting a pre-nuptual agreement "just in case."
One one hand that makes sense. On the other, as I have had more time to think about that - both as a midwife and a mom who delivered a baby in the hospital after planning my whole pregnancy to be at home (my daughter was born too early) I wouldn't plan my birth setting around a "just in case" scenario.
Ok - here is my opinion that could be contradictory. I believe that planning where you deliver around the "just in case" thought process is like not planning to get divorced from the person you are going to marry and are very much in love with, but getting a pre-nuptual agreement "just in case."
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Sometimes you just need a day off...
Last night was rough. Eleanor has been sick once before, but not teething at the same time and I guess both at the same time was just too much for her little body to handle. We went to small group last night and had a good time - she played with the other little girls there and stayed up way past her bedtime without being crabby even! Then, on the ride home, she feel asleep almost immediately. I thought to myself, "Great! She will transition to her crib easily and we can make it an early night!" Wrong.
I rocked her to sleep when she woke up when we arrived at home, and it was a process getting her back to sleep but nothing unusual for a teething baby with a slight cold.
But then the real fun started at 12:30am - like it always does. I tried everything. Finally I brought her down to our bed (which I never do) hoping I could cuddle her to bed, but she just wanted to play. So - we went back up stairs. I laid blankets down and laid down myself on the floor thinking she would just fall asleep seeing as there was nothing to do. Wrong again. She found cords and proceeded to chew on them! Yikes. So I put her in her crib and again laid down on her floor. Screamed.
So, in desperation, we went for a car ride at 2am. She feel asleep before we had been driving for 10 minutes. I got her back in the house, carried her in her (not so light) car seat managing not to wake her up and set her on the floor in her room. Before I had the chance to close her door - the dog shook making his tags on his collar jingle. She woke up. So - again we went out. This time it took a bit longer to get her to sleep. But she finally did fall asleep and I opened the windows in the car, covered her with a blanket, brought her monitor out to the garage and went to bed myself feeling a bit bad at my unorthodox way of putting my child to bed.
She slept for 2 hours. Then I brought her upstairs, made her a bottle, tried a few different things and she seemed to be calm. She normally falls asleep on her own when it's the wee hours of the morning and in fact I slept for 1/2 an hour but then she woke up screaming. My husband then went up to try and try as he might she would only stay asleep in his arms.
So I went up and scooped her up and we both slept off and on in the papason chair in the living room. She threw up once but I think that was just from her overexerting herself and not sleeping enough so we got cleaned up and slept some more. At 7:30 am she was awake and crawled around playing while I slept for another hour.
Then my nanny arrived, and seriously I could have hugged her! She only comes over once or twice a week, but if ever there was a day I needed her it was today! I handed her the baby, explained the situation and that I wouldn't be going to my midwifery meeting that morning but back to bed and I was gone.
I slept for 2 blissful hours, showered, did a home visit for a client of mine, got a coffee and then got my nails done. Frivolous I know, but sometimes, you need to. Lucky for me I had a groupon for just that - a mani/pedi - that was expiring soon so I managed to sneak in an appointment. Now I have beautiful fingernails and toenails and came home to a sleeping baby. Bliss.
I have to admit that I have nannied for some SAHM's before and although I was grateful for the job and the extra cash, I wondered what they did that made them need a nanny when they didn't have another job besides raising their kids. Although I don't think I would have a nanny if I wasn't also doing midwifery part time besides raising my daughter - I was sure grateful to be able to check out for 8 hours today.
But then the real fun started at 12:30am - like it always does. I tried everything. Finally I brought her down to our bed (which I never do) hoping I could cuddle her to bed, but she just wanted to play. So - we went back up stairs. I laid blankets down and laid down myself on the floor thinking she would just fall asleep seeing as there was nothing to do. Wrong again. She found cords and proceeded to chew on them! Yikes. So I put her in her crib and again laid down on her floor. Screamed.
So, in desperation, we went for a car ride at 2am. She feel asleep before we had been driving for 10 minutes. I got her back in the house, carried her in her (not so light) car seat managing not to wake her up and set her on the floor in her room. Before I had the chance to close her door - the dog shook making his tags on his collar jingle. She woke up. So - again we went out. This time it took a bit longer to get her to sleep. But she finally did fall asleep and I opened the windows in the car, covered her with a blanket, brought her monitor out to the garage and went to bed myself feeling a bit bad at my unorthodox way of putting my child to bed.
She slept for 2 hours. Then I brought her upstairs, made her a bottle, tried a few different things and she seemed to be calm. She normally falls asleep on her own when it's the wee hours of the morning and in fact I slept for 1/2 an hour but then she woke up screaming. My husband then went up to try and try as he might she would only stay asleep in his arms.
So I went up and scooped her up and we both slept off and on in the papason chair in the living room. She threw up once but I think that was just from her overexerting herself and not sleeping enough so we got cleaned up and slept some more. At 7:30 am she was awake and crawled around playing while I slept for another hour.
Then my nanny arrived, and seriously I could have hugged her! She only comes over once or twice a week, but if ever there was a day I needed her it was today! I handed her the baby, explained the situation and that I wouldn't be going to my midwifery meeting that morning but back to bed and I was gone.
I slept for 2 blissful hours, showered, did a home visit for a client of mine, got a coffee and then got my nails done. Frivolous I know, but sometimes, you need to. Lucky for me I had a groupon for just that - a mani/pedi - that was expiring soon so I managed to sneak in an appointment. Now I have beautiful fingernails and toenails and came home to a sleeping baby. Bliss.
I have to admit that I have nannied for some SAHM's before and although I was grateful for the job and the extra cash, I wondered what they did that made them need a nanny when they didn't have another job besides raising their kids. Although I don't think I would have a nanny if I wasn't also doing midwifery part time besides raising my daughter - I was sure grateful to be able to check out for 8 hours today.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Birth Marathon!
Birth is a beautiful thing - no matter if it happens so fast you barely have time to put your thoughts in an order that makes any sense at all, or so slowly you want to pull your hair out because you don't know what's keeping this little one from joining his family!
I was about to leave my house on Wednesday morning to start gentle labor induction (read breast pump and herbs and environmental helps etc)to encourage labor to really kick into gear when I get a call from my other client that she is in labor - oh and by the way - she lives 35 minutes from me and the contractions are only a few minutes apart and she has a history of going fast!
So plans change quickly to us (my assistant and I) going to my other client's house and not too surprisingly everything is all done and mom and baby are happily tucked into bed a little after noon so after we get some lunch and debrief the birth, we call my first client and ask if she still wants us to come over today or wait until tomorrow.
She wants us to come today still. So we go around 3pm and as long as the breast pump is going she is having strong contractions but otherwise they almost completely stop. The labor pattern is so mystifying that I end up calling my dear midwife friend from the Philippines to talk through the situation since she had attended a woman in a similar situation not too long ago.
In the end, we all decide it's for the best to go to bed at 1:30am. Baby had been in a good position, but then at one point shifted and as long as mom was in a running start position he was fine, otherwise not. We all slept and then woke up around 7am the next morning.
Around 10:30 we found a wonderful chiropractor who was willing to come out and help baby get into a better position and so with some adjustments and a little acupuncture and breast pump action labor finally got going and strong!
Soon after we were joined by a handsome little man and joy permeated the room as all the hard work finally paid off.
Thank you Lord for beautiful births.
I was about to leave my house on Wednesday morning to start gentle labor induction (read breast pump and herbs and environmental helps etc)to encourage labor to really kick into gear when I get a call from my other client that she is in labor - oh and by the way - she lives 35 minutes from me and the contractions are only a few minutes apart and she has a history of going fast!
So plans change quickly to us (my assistant and I) going to my other client's house and not too surprisingly everything is all done and mom and baby are happily tucked into bed a little after noon so after we get some lunch and debrief the birth, we call my first client and ask if she still wants us to come over today or wait until tomorrow.
She wants us to come today still. So we go around 3pm and as long as the breast pump is going she is having strong contractions but otherwise they almost completely stop. The labor pattern is so mystifying that I end up calling my dear midwife friend from the Philippines to talk through the situation since she had attended a woman in a similar situation not too long ago.
In the end, we all decide it's for the best to go to bed at 1:30am. Baby had been in a good position, but then at one point shifted and as long as mom was in a running start position he was fine, otherwise not. We all slept and then woke up around 7am the next morning.
Around 10:30 we found a wonderful chiropractor who was willing to come out and help baby get into a better position and so with some adjustments and a little acupuncture and breast pump action labor finally got going and strong!
Soon after we were joined by a handsome little man and joy permeated the room as all the hard work finally paid off.
Thank you Lord for beautiful births.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Baby Constipation
If you thought it was unpleasant for you to be constipated, let me tell you - it all takes on a new meaning when your 7 month old baby is the one having troubles. She can't say what's bothering her - just that things aren't right. One night - the night we hit google big time asking for remedies - she woke up from a sound sleep and just looked at us sadly before bursting into tears. Talk about ripping a parent in two! That night we found ways to help her fix it and continued to have to help her (mostly with qtip covered in a lubricant) while I searched for the reason why this might be happening. I thought for sure it had something to do with the fact that I could barely get her to drink 20oz of milk when she was supposed to get between 20 and 28 so I would try harder to get her to drink more, but when she didn't want it there was nothing I could do.
I had already completely eliminated bananas from her diet and tried to make her cereal more soupy but she wouldn't eat it if it was too liquidy. Then, we went to my in-laws in Iowa for Christmas and I didn't want to bring a 1/2 empty box of baby cereal with me so I bought a new box while at Target. I was giving her Gerber brand cereal - not rice, oatmeal and whole grain so I thought I was doing good, but then because the box was smaller, I bought the Good Earth brand. I gave that to her and once she got that in her system the constipation totally disapeared! I love accidental discoveries like that and I hope that this post will help another mom struggling with the same issue figure out the problem faster for her baby.
I had already completely eliminated bananas from her diet and tried to make her cereal more soupy but she wouldn't eat it if it was too liquidy. Then, we went to my in-laws in Iowa for Christmas and I didn't want to bring a 1/2 empty box of baby cereal with me so I bought a new box while at Target. I was giving her Gerber brand cereal - not rice, oatmeal and whole grain so I thought I was doing good, but then because the box was smaller, I bought the Good Earth brand. I gave that to her and once she got that in her system the constipation totally disapeared! I love accidental discoveries like that and I hope that this post will help another mom struggling with the same issue figure out the problem faster for her baby.
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