Pregnancy, Parenthood & Playtime

Sunday will mark the beginning of Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week which will run from February 7th, to Valentines day, which I find fitting considering valentines day is always represented with hearts. It makes it easier to remember, don’t ya think?

But the reason I am taking the time to post about this because most do not know that CHD, short for Congenital Heart Defect, is the #1 birth defect in the United States.  It is estimated that 25,000 babies are born with CHD every year, and that works out to 1 out of every 115-150 births.  Another shocking number is, 10,830 babies are born daily in the US, meaning around 411 of them will be born with some form of CHD.

I didn’t really know much about CHD until I got on twitter in January and really got involved. I noticed lots of people that I already followed talking about CHD and Cora’s Story. So I set out to learn more about Cora and her story, and that is when I met her mother Kristine Brite.
Cora was born with an undetected CHD and passed away on December 6th 2009 while breastfeeding in her mothers arms.

Since the loss of Cora, Kristine, her mother has been struggling with losing a child, but becoming an activist for CHD and mandatory pulse oximetry testing on all newborns, which tests for CHD, hopefully helping prevent CHD from going unnoticed or undetected in any more babies.

Because I feel that this is such an important topic, I decided to kick of CHD Awareness Week with a special Momotics Radio show on Sunday at 3:00pm EST.  I know a lot of people will be watching the Super Bowl, including my husband and children, but I feel like this is such an important subject to talk about.  Myself, and Kristine Brite will be discussing Cora’s Story and how to help prevent others from going through this.

Join us!

Many people have probably heard of LLL or La Leche League if you have known or spoken about breastfeeding, and if you haven’t heard of them, today you are in luck! La Leche League is an international support group, focused on helping mothers breastfeed and have successful breastfeeding relationships. I feel this is especially important today because of the number of women who do not even attempt to breast feed their child after birth, when it is the best option available.

The stigma surrounding breasts in the United States has turned breastfeeding from a natural, and normal occurrence to something that is often shoved under the rug, or in a public bathroom so a mother is not seen feeding her baby, the way babies were meant to be fed.

The La Lache League’s mission statement is…

“La Leche League International strives to help mothers worldwide to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information, and education, and to promote a better understanding of breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and mother.”

While formula is a valid option for some, after numerous studies over the years, it is 4th best behind breastfeeding, expressed breast milk, and even donor breast milk.

The American Academy of Pediatricians recommends a baby be breastfed for at least the first 6 full months of their life to have the healthiest start possible for them. There are many breastfeeding misconceptions, and flat out myths floating around in the advice from our girlfriends, mothers, and even out own OB/GYN’s.
If you are interested in learning more about breastfeeding, you should check out or talk to a local Lactation Consultant or La Lache League.

In the past day I have heard a lot of speculation about Victoria Hope, the Shelton mother found dead yesterday afternoon after she apparently delivered triplets in her home. Lots of speculation as to why she would hide a pregnancy, or how she didn’t know she was pregnant, or even how she didn’t know there were three babies.
Well, after an autopsy today, it showed according to the Boston Herald, all three baby boys were stillborn, which I personally may attribute to lack of pre natal care, but there is more to the story clearly, as well as her death being from blood lost, most likely could have been a postpartum hemorrhage, or some other type of complication from delivering three babies alone in her home.

As the night went on last night, I learned that my husband, a Shelton native, and first responder in our town grew up with her, and even spoke with her recently about getting our two year old’s together.  Tori Hope, also was the mother of a 6 and 2 year old.

But my point is, today is a horribly sad day for family, and friends of this mother, and speculating, discussing, or making up accusations as to why this happened, what happened, and if she knew or didn’t know she was pregnant is not reliant.

A mother of two children is dead, and they are mourning the loss of their mother who they loved very much.
A boyfriend and father is mourning the loss of his love, and three sons who died.
A mother is mourning the loss of a daughter.
A father is mourning the loss of a daughter.

Stop speculating and whispering rumors around the internet which may become hurtful.
She was a person, and so were those babies, and all should be treated with respect and dignity.

Most know I am not the most…. handy in the kitchen, but when I get in there, I do a pretty damn good job! Well two nights ago I made a Peanut Butter Pie and made sure I took some pictures to make a nice recipe blog out of it for you guys. And it turned out delish!
2 – 8oz packages Cream Cheese, softened
1 – cup sugar
2/3 – cup creamy peanut butter
1 Container of Whipped Topping
Handful of Peanut Butter Cups (Reese)
1- chocolate oreo crust (but you can use whatever crust you wish)
Take your cream cheese (at room temperature) Sugar, and peanut butter, and mix together in a small bowl. Also, take a hand full of reese peanut butter cups and smash them up as much as you can. (Don’t you love my technical terms? LOL) And mix in the peanut butter cups.

Continue to mix until the pie filling is very smooth.

Then take your pie crust, and put your filling into the pie crust.

Once you have your pie crust filled, take the whipped topping and cover the top of the pie with the whipped topping completely.

Then take some more peanut butter cups crushed, and cover the top and TADA! There you have it! A beautiful and delicious no bake peanut butter pie!
Once you are finished assembling, your pie needs to be refrigerated for 3-4 hours before serving!

For a very long time, women have been encouraged not to eat while in labor, and once under hospital car, denied food until after the birth of their child and this became standard practice virtually all over The United States in the Obstetric model of care.
Well in recent days, a new study was released concluding that there is no evidence or benefit for low risk women to fast while they are in labor.

“Singata and colleagues systematically reviewed five studies involving more than 3100 pregnant that looked at the evidence for restricting food and drink in women who were considered unlikely to need anesthesia. One study looked at complete restriction versus giving women the freedom to eat and drink at will; two studies looked at water only versus giving women specific fluids and foods and two studies looked at water only versus giving women carbohydrate drinks.

The evidence showed no benefits or harms of restricting foods and fluids during labor in women at low risk of needing anesthesia.

Singata and colleagues acknowledge that many women may not feel like eating or drinking during labor. However, research has shown that some women find the food and drink restriction unpleasant. Poor nutritional balance may be also associated with longer and more painful labors. Drinking clear liquids in limited quantities has been found to bring comfort to women in labor and does not increase labor complications.

The researchers emphasize that they did not find any studies that assessed the risks of eating and drinking for women with a higher risk of needing anesthesia and so further research is need before specific recommendations can be made for this group.”

Which is something the midwife community, as well as the natural birth community has been saying just as long as the recommendation not to eat during labor has been common practice. And even some midwives who attend births in hospital settings under the Obstetric model of care actually encourage women to eat and drink as they desire while they are in labor.

Of course,  I do not blame any woman that doesn’t feel the need to eat, or does not need to eat while they are in labor either. Some of us have worse experiences with food and labor considering the large risk of vomiting while in labor. I can certainly say I was one of those women!

But just the fact that women now will be able to make their own choices and decisions in another aspect of their care is a huge development. Now we can only hope that hospitals will heed this advice and allow women to eat or drink as they please. I mean really, it is their body, labor, and care, they should be able to make their own choices!

Above Quote was taken from the Reuters news story on the Cochrane Study.

Come and join local birth professionals today to discuss the rising c-section rate in the state of Connecticut.

ICAN of Connecticut, along with Midwives, Pediatricians, Chiropractors, and others to discuss what the community can do to help lower these rates.

1:00pm at the Plumb Memorial Library in Shelton
Located at 65 Wooster Street, in the downstairs meeting room.

We hope to see you there!

I normally don’t get on about how much I hate these medical shows on TV, but last night really set me off. I was watching Private Practice, which comes on at 10pm on the ABC network, and the show was chock full of drama, which is probably in relation to the fact that they were losing a lot of viewers. I used to be a huge fan, but tehir bland and sometimes offensive story lines were really starting to play on me.  Last night sent me off the deep end though.

The first thing that really bothered me was the character they had on their show who was attempting what they called “natural childbirth”  this woman was basically a huge slap in the face to anyone who has had or wants to have a natural childbirth. She became the butt of the joke for the whole show.  The character was grinding on door frames, squatting around the office yelling and moaning like a animal in heat, causing a distraction to other patients, all the while discussing how she has been in labor for over 3 days, yada yada yada. To me, someone who has tried to have a natural childbirth, she was nothing more than a slap in the face, and trying to make a joke out of anyone who has had a natural birth. What bothered me even more was the way they treated this woman’s “birth plan” again like it was all just a big joke.
They continued to offer her drugs, and more drugs, oh, and drugs again.

Then here comes the shining Addison, main character, OB, neonatal surgeon, the whole nine yards. The “natural childbirth” woman asks for help, and she says “Well unless you want a c-section, there is nothing I can do for you”  Wha wha what?!?!?!??!?   While this pretty much is dead on for some of the OB’s out there, for them to actually put this on TV floored me!

But it doesn’t stop there. This show was just over board on things that would never happen, and things that bothered me.
Mothers trying to force their teen daughters to have abortions.
Mother drags her daughter into the room RIGHT as the “natural birth mother” gives birth to try and scare her.
Mother slaps daughter when she says she doesn’t want an abortion.

All in all, the whole show bothered me last night, but just like ABC wanted, they got the viewers and the ratings.

Moral of the story :

• Making fun of women who want to birth naturally is offensive.
• The script, actions, and lines of the natural childbirth mother were unrealistic and offensive.
• Forcing ANYONE despite their age to have an abortion, or to have a child against their will should be illegal and considered abuse.

I hope you write this down ABC!