For those of you who live in and around Bristol, this update on the home birth campaign may be of interest to you:

Supporting Home Birth

The Maternity Services Liaison Committee (MSLC), chaired by Pip A’Ness, will be holding a Home Birth Workshop on Monday 15^th March from 11am-2pm at the YMCA, Marsden Road, Clevedon, BS21 7NW. This event will be building on the work of the Bristol Health Services Plan’s “Normalising the Birth Experience” workstream set up to deliver the recommendations of the Maternity & Newborn Services Review.  Maternity service providers in Bristol are committed to achieving a 10% home birth rate by 2011 and to this end, we will be seeking ideas from service users as to how this can be achieved.  Please phone 0117 9841562 or email  Noshin.Emamiannaeini@bristolpct.nhs.uk if you wish to attend and comment on how we can encourage and support women and midwives in the promotion of home birth.  Lunch and a crèche are included.

An exciting and challenging target of Bristol’s Maternity Review (2008) is that we must achieve 40% midwife-led birth settings (including home) in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset by next year.  BCB and its Supporters inspired Bristol’s Maternity Review and Cossham Birth Centre so please lend your voice again at this crucial point to make even more happen in the promotion of normal midwife-led birth settings.

Thank you for your continued support.

For those of you based in and around Bristol, you may be interested in the latest update on the Birth Centre Update:

Dear Supporter

 If Cossham Birth Centre then why not South Bristol Birth Centre?

South Bristol Hospital at Hengrove is now going ahead.  For a year BCB has been having talks with NHS Bristol regarding the inclusion of a midwife-led birth centre. There has always been an interest for this at executive level but we need some clout from our Supporters to get South Bristol Birth Centre on the drawing board NOW and for its inclusion in Phase 2 of South Bristol Hospital’s plans. Women in South Bristol will then have the opportunity to labour and give birth near their own home. Please lend your voice once again to the BCB campaign: write with your support as soon as you can to Sue Learner (BCB Steering Group midwife), at 58, Bellevue Crescent, Bristol BS8 4TF or email  info@birthcentebristol.org.uk .

The development of Cossham Hospital is now well underway.  With the doors set to open in November 2011, midwives are now beginning to think about taking the first bookings just a year from now from women wishing to give birth at Cossham Birth Centre, Bristol’s first free-standing birth centre.  You can stay abreast of developments by visiting the Birth Centre Bristol news page.

 Thank you for your continued support.

Once the little blue line appears it seems that the whole world goes upside down.

As a new mum, you’re taken in in a whirlwind of events and emotions. Strangers and relatives alike give you advice on pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding (or not) and child-rearing. Their advice is often more driven by their own experiences than genuine interest in what YOU want. People feel the need to touch your bump. You are told to start shopping early, but not too early, there are hospital appointments to attend…

In the midst of all this, take the time to breathe. Pregnancy is a very special time in the life of a woman. Pregnancy is a sacred time.

Slow down. Take the time to think about yourself and your baby. Focus your attention on this new life growing inside you.

As new mothers, we are often encouraged to leave our health in the hands of health professionals but only YOU know THIS baby as intimately. By the time your baby is born, you have already spent nine months together, sleeping, eating, going to work, breathing together… Once you focus your attention on yourself, you can learn to listen and trust your instincts.

Listening and trusting your instincts can greatly help you during labour, birth and when your child is born.

Enjoy your pregnancy, it’s a very special time indeed.

A baby is born.

A mother is born.

Ethical gifts for Christmas

It is easy to fill the children’s Advent calendars and the Christmas stockings full junk, plastic toys which will discarded tomorrow, with of chocolate and sweets. I love looking for special ideas, little toys that will challenge their creativity and their skills. Toys that will give them hours of play for several months.

First on my list are definitely the Hama Beads, especially now that they are on special! The Hama beads stimulate children creativity with the various designs and colourful patterns. Hama beads also helps them develop finger dexterity, preparing them for writing. Children place the little beads on the peg board, then an adult irons them out, securing them in a lovely pattern.

The Lifecycle Layer Puzzle is an other adorable toy that your child will enjoy for hours. Each educational puzzle is built up in layers showing the different stages in the development of the creature, from egg through to adult. It challenges the child’s manipulation and problem solving skills.

The box of magnetic letters can be given as a whole or place a couple of letters in each day of the Advent calendar. The colourful letters are easy for toddlers to manipulate and an introduction to reading through play. They are made from sustainable wood to strict fair labour standards.

Stocking fillers can be a chance to make bath time fun, naturally! Wrap your baby in a blanket of bubbles with this natural baby bubble bath from Burt’s Bees is a mild, with soft vanilla extract scent.

Wooden Toy Fruit

Our kids also loved the wooden toy fruit, we placed a couple of fruit for a week in each day of the Advent calendar. They seemed excited to try to guess what the next day would bring. The wooden toy fruit are chunky enough for toddlers to handle. It was sweet to see big sister and little brother play together with these wooden toy fruit.

organic baby bedding

If you are looking for a new baby present, this traditional receiving blanket is a gorgeous gift. Disana organic baby bedding is as light as a feather and made of the most sumptuous organic merino wool. Pure wool helps regulate your baby’s temperature.

You can imagine resting with your newborn baby snuggled up against your chest or breastfeeding peacefully, with the organic wool blanket wrapped over you both.

If you drop off your baby at her childminder or nursery, you could wrap the blanket around you in the evening and give it to her in the morning. This way she will be able to keep your scent with her throughout the day.

The receiving blanket is big enough to use as organic bedding in baby’s crib or cot. Once your child has outgrown the blanket, she can use it to play with her dolls. Then it can be stored away safely to be passed on to a younger sibling or perhaps their own children.

What is a doula? Most people will answer that question with a blank stare. Some may reply with the misconception that a doula is some sort of newfangled birth guru, a trendy accessory for yummy mummies with too much time and money on their hands. In reality, the role performed by a doula is as old as the term itself (doula is an ancient Greek word meaning womanservant). A doula is a woman — usually a mother herself — who offers consistent emotional and practical support to a woman and her family around the time of pregnancy, childbirth, and the early postnatal period.

In most cultures, a pregnant woman can rely on female friends, relatives, and neighbours to help her ease the transition to motherhood, and until recently, that was still the case in the west. However, as our society has become more industrialised and ‘civilised’, families have become fragmented, and maternity care has become increasingly hospital-based and institutionalised. From the moment a woman sees those thin blue lines on her positive pregnancy test, she and her partner are faced with a barrage of choices and questions about how to proceed. A doula can guide the woman through those choices, providing her with information, compassion, expertise, and — last but not least — good humour.

The question remains, what does a doula actually do? The answer to that is as varied as the women who undertake the role of the doula itself. Most doulas will meet with the client at least three to four times during pregnancy to discuss any previous pregnancies and/or births, the creation of a birth plan if desired, the partner’s role during labour, methods of pain relief, and postnatal issues such as breastfeeding and sleep management. Some doulas also provide complementary therapies such as reiki, aromatherapy, or hypnobirthing. Typically, the doula will then be on call for the client two weeks before her due date (to two weeks after, or whenever the baby arrives).

The doula will, of course, be present for labour and birth, providing the mother with moral support, verbal encouragement, help with positions and pain relief, advocacy when dealing with the medical staff, and also a bit of support and encouragement for the partner (if he is present). The degree of postnatal care depends on the mother’s requirements; most ‘birth doulas’ will provide at least one postnatal visit, but there are also doulas who specialise in postnatal care and can visit the client regularly in the early days and weeks of motherhood.

Finally, the benefits of hiring a doula are as varied and diverse as the doulas themselves. Research has shown that the presence of a doula during labour can cut the chance of caesarean section or other surgical delivery, decrease the mother’s need for pharmacological pain relief, increase mother-baby bonding, and shorten the average duration of first-time labour. Perhaps more importantly, having the constant support of another woman trained in childbirth can boost the confidence of first-time mums, and help provide a healing experience for second-time mums who may have had a previously traumatic birth. That kind of satisfaction isn’t just the preserve of ‘yummy mummies’ — it’s the right of every woman who is making the life-changing transition to motherhood.

by Leah Hazard.

Leah is a mother of two, and works as a doula in Glasgow. She is the author of the Father’s Home Birth Handbook.

Contact Doula UK to learn more about childbirth support or hire a doula.

The Mother Magazine

I discovered The Mother magazine after my little girl was born and read it cover to cover without stopping. I was amazed by the thought-provoking views on pregnancy, birthing, breastfeeding, education, home-education, vaccination…

In a world where so many things make us doubt our skills as mothers and parents, where we are supposed to listen to so-called experts, supported by studies which often contradict each other, The Mother magazine brings a refreshing view: trust your instinct as a woman, as a mother, as a parent… Trust that we can follow our instinct to birth our children freely, to breastfeed them as long as they need it, that home education is a real option, that natural parenting and organic living aren’t just dreams …

Each editorial, article, story, recipe pushed me to challenge my preconceived ideas, to think things through for my children and my family. I don’t live by everything the Mother Magazine advocates. My children were born at home and breastfed until they gave up when they were ready, they were carried about in baby slings. Now they are in school, we aren’t vegetarians but what I love about The Mother magazine is being challenged to think more about our choices and to know that there are alternatives that I might want to explore at some point.

The Mother Magazine is in danger of closing, get your subscription now! If you are a business, consider advertising as well, their readers are loyal customers.

Here are some answers to questions I get asked by pregnant friends on a regular basis – they are based on my experiences though, and may be glaringly obvious to some people, but they were not to me! Please feel free to add to this list of useful tips in the comments section.

Clothes
Come in sizes according to weight and don’t last very long at all in the beginning. You will need a slightly larger size if you use real nappies. Some babygros have integral gloves that fold back – very useful for babies that want to scratch their faces off. Things that fasten at the front are easier than things that go over heads. All socks are sacrificial; they don’t stay on feet for long so I prefer things with feet for colder weather.
Nappies
Cloth nappies rock and I like the smell of the Weleda nappy cream which is brilliant stuff. It is a good idea to research nappies, and there are some helpful tips on this blog.

www.naturalnurseryblog.co.uk/how-easy-are-cloth-nappies-to-use

www.naturalnurseryblog.co.uk/why-use-cloth-nappies

Toys
My child at 3 month liked noisy things, mirrors and things he could hold with his tiny fingers. Brightly coloured board books are good too.  If you buy anything musical remember that you will have to listen to it too.

Feeding
I used a pump to express milk and I pumped in the morning while feeding after the small had triggered off the let down reflex. Thinking milky thoughts of waterfalls made the milk come out faster! My son never took to a bottle but he would use a sippy cup. Pumping was just in case of emergencies. I boiled cups and the pump to sterilise them, it’s not a hassle and I don’t think the sterilising equipment is really necessary, though it may make life a bit easier. I have read that the sterilising solution can increase the risk of thrush.
Sleeping
I had a Moses basket for small but didn’t like it ‘cos I had to peer in to check his breathing. I bought a cot because it seemed to be the thing to do but in the end decided that I am a fan of co-sleeping. There are guidelines for safe co-sleeping that are well worth looking at. Grobags are brilliant and my small sleept much longer when I got one.

Bathing
I think a bath thermometer is vital, what’s warm to me is boiling for the small. We shared the bath and he loved it. You also need a soft sponge and ducks!

I hope some of these hints are useful, I found it daunting and confusing trying to work out what I needed and what was clutter and I hope my tips can help you.

When the heat is on, life can become very hard when you are pregnant.  Instead of enjoying these long, hot August days, you may find yourself dreaming of igloos and frozen ice-caps, so try out these tricks to help you keep your cool when the temperature rises.

Continue reading this article.