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Strollerderby
Is your newborn baby safer rooming-in or staying in the nursery that first night?
After a full day of labor and delivery, new mom Zelia Blomfield was exhausted. She had just given birth to her baby daughter, Bela Maddison Lee Heidrich and kept the baby in the hospital bed while she began to breastfeed. She fell asleep and when she woke up just an hour later, her daughter had been smothered.
Blomfield is now filing charges against the hospital and claims that her midwife helped position her newborn baby at her breast. She also says the midwife told her it was OK for her to fall asleep. Blomfield believes it was the hospital staff’s responsibility to check in on her to keep the baby safe.
More control for moms in labor?
A study presented a the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine annual meeting yesterday tells us that when a woman is in control of her epidural, she will give herself less of a drug dose than when the dose is automatic. And that’s a good thing.
The researchers studied pregnant women who were randomly assigned to three groups: one given a standard continuous infusion of anesthesia (the most common set up during labor), a continuous infusion with mom-control additional option, and patient-controlled anesthesia only.
When mom had control, things turned out better all around (see details below). So why don’t women in labor and delivery have more direct say in their anesthesia? Continue reading »
Was a bicycle part of your birth plan?
One soon-to-be mom didn’t let a little thing like labor stop her from getting in a bike ride. Susie Weber, 41, of Menasha, Wisconsin biked one full mile to the hospital while in labor, and she didn’t find anything really unique about it. Her husband, Paul, was biking alongside her all the way. At age 41, she was also considered high risk, but received prior approval from her obstetrician for the final bike ride.
Weber maintains that she leads such an active life (one that includes regular 5 mile long bike rides) so this was nothing very unusual. Weber biked to at least 10 of her prenatal appointments. A pilot with United Airlines for the past 12 years, she was accustomed to being under pressure.
How important was it for you to capture the first five minutes of your child's life on video?
Would you sacrifice the photo memory of your child’s first minutes of life for your doctor or hospital? Some moms may have to do just that if they deliver in hospitals with photo restrictions.
A hospital in Maryland has imposed a photo and video ban for expectant moms during delivery. At Meritus Medical Center, photos can be taken leading up to delivery, but the actual birth cannot be taped and no photos can be taken until five minutes after the baby is born.
You can imagine, it has many area moms up in arms, and forced to make some tough decisions, especially if their obstetrician only delivers at that hospital.
Um, is this a Volvo?
The scene is a common one. A nervous couple en route to the hospital which will deliver their unborn baby. Such was the case last Thursday in Lancashire, England as Matthew Waddington negotiated rush-hour traffic, desperately hoping to get his wife, Rachel Cornwell, to Royal Balckburn Hospital in time.
The couple had originally hoped to have their child at Burnley General Hospital, which is nearer to their home. But when they telephoned the hospital to inform them that Rachel had gone into labor, they were told that Burnley was full and that the couple might have to go to another hospital. So it was decided that Rachel and Matthew would wait as long as possible before heading to Balckburn in the event they could procure a spot at Burnley.
Apparently they pushed the envelope a touch too far.
What to do when the living room turns into a birthing center and the kids are home? Let them watch!
Our very own Madeline Holler did – and she recounts her home birth in a piece on Salon that induced me (ahem) to laugh out loud more than once.
Madeline’s daughters – Beatrice, 7, and 3-year-old Frances – both vehemently agreed that they did NOT want to watch their little brother being born. But Madeline, like a lot of busy moms with two kids, sort of kind of didn’t really have time to make plans for her girls to be elsewhere during the birth. And besides, Madeline admits, she secretly wanted the girls to attend the birth, as “sort of a health class video meant to supplement the textbook and lectures.” A real-live medical demo that had her daughters running into their rooms and crying out of fear. Giving birth is a miracle, right? Continue reading »
Childbirth still risky for too many moms
Today the World Health Organization reported that mortality rates in childbirth are still far above the targets set by the United Nations.
1,000 women pass away every day during delivery. The study did show a 34 percent decrease over the last two decades — a significant worldwide decline (in 1990, 546,000 women passed away while delivering a baby, whereas in 2008, it was 358,000). But this is still above U.N. targets, and to get on track would mean that between now and 2015, mortality rates would have to go down by 5.5 percent each year. They have gone down annually by only 2.3 percent so far.
What are the top reasons we still lose moms during childbirth? Continue reading »
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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