Pregnancy & Birth Kailua Kona HI

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Welcome to the pregnancy & birth section. These articles will provide you topics such as birth preparation, birth activism, waterbirth, homebirth, among other topics to give you a better understanding what to expect and what to do when it comes to child birth

Newest Topics

Reviewing Birthing Choices

In week 20 we talked about the idea of creating a birth plan. If you haven’t done one of these, it isn’t too late. It is a great idea to think it all through again and be sure you are really comfortable with all the different decisions you have made.

Birth after Cesarean: A Primer for Success

Although VBACS--vaginal births after cesarean--have been occurring all over the US in small numbers for most of this century, the medical profession now welcomes them with unprecedented enthusiasm.

Prenatal Yoga Classes

Prenatal yoga classes teach a gentler form of yoga that is done with modified yoga poses. Prenatal yoga can improve comfort during pregnancy by improving women’s balance and circulation, and helps prepare women for the birthing process through breathing techniques and increased flexibility. See below for related articles and yoga studios in Kailua Kona, HI that give access to qualified prenatal yoga instructors who teach prenatal yoga classes.

Music for New Mamas

Music, like birth, is an enigma. Neuroscientists can’t pin down a specific part of the brain that is dedicated to music. Music moves like an apparition through our brain, lighting up neural circuits here, disappearing, then reappearing elsewhere to work its magic.

Saying No to Episiotomy

Episiotomy is the most common surgical procedure performed in the US. However, it is not necessary and it brings complications to the body at the same time. Read on.

All Topics

A VBAC

Five years ago I experienced a classic interventionist birth under the care of a highly respected obstetrician at one of the best hospitals in town, boasting state-of-the-art technology and home-like birthing rooms. As someone who appreciates doctors and their commitment to serving the public, I was confused by the way my labor was handled. No sooner was I admitted to the hospital than I was given a hospital gown, enema, catheter, IV, and internal monitor. To my surprise I was not allowed to eat or drink, and I received frequent internal exams to check my progress.

Baby-Care Tips for Disabled Mums

Baby-care can be more difficult for disabled mums, here are some tips about childbirth, taking care of new-born babies and toddlers for disabled mums.

Benefits of a Doula

Doula enhances the laboring woman's process along with the psychological and physical benefits of labor support, there are significant financial advantages.

Birth after Cesarean: A Primer for Success

Although VBACS--vaginal births after cesarean--have been occurring all over the US in small numbers for most of this century, the medical profession now welcomes them with unprecedented enthusiasm.

Birthing Again: A VBAC Experience

I lay on my bed in a square of moonlight, resting. Emma, only seven hours old, slept next to me, her hands folded together as if in meditation. Only my heart's pounding--not with anxiety, but with joy and power--broke the calm. Just hours ago, I had birthed this baby.

Blessings of Homebirth

I measured a little big, but that had been the case with my son as well. Several people joked to me about possibly carrying twins, yet when my practitioners checked me, they both only heard one heartbeat.

Candles Not Required

I am not the product of hippie parents and I don't consider myself righteous. I am not an atheist, a liberal, or a neofeminist in Kailua Kona. I am not crazy nor am I from Mars. Yet these are typical assumptions people make when I tell them that my child was born at home. Intentionally.

Choosing a Place for Your Baby's Birth

Why choose the birth setting before even deciding if you want to have a midwife or a doctor? Studies have shown that a feeling of comfort and safety in your surroundings might be the biggest contribution to a smooth labor—and the best way to reduce the need for medical interventions.

Choosing Your Birth Practitioner

After choosing the place for your baby's birth, your next important decision will be choosing the person who will care for you during the next nine months and attend the birth.

Consider a Home Birth

Every pregnancy has its own irresistible cravings (lemon squares, red licorice, grapefruit juice), and this time mine was home. That night I dreamed that I was showing Shannon around my house.

Couvades

Some anthropologists believe couvade rituals were established during the transition from maternal to paternal law in various cultures, representing a kind of paternity rite and giving the father social recognition for his parenting role. It is also thought that the couvade was observed less in cultures with strong social preferences for a single partner, or a marriage tie, perhaps because the fatherhood bond was more obvious here.

Diagnostic Tests of the Third Trimester

The subject of testing in pregnancy is one that often causes women anxiety, sometimes in ways they are not even consciously aware of. The information that follows is provided because many health practitioners emphasize testing in pregnancy, and therefore it is helpful for women to know the facts about these tests. As always, though, it is best to keep reminding yourself that the conditions these tests screen for are rare, and even when the conditions are present, they are treatable. Read for more.

Evaluating the Health of a Newborn

A few infants get newborn hemorrhagic disease soon after birth, a potentially life-threatening disorder that causes severe bleeding. Other infants, about 1 in 17,000, get this same disease later, between 2 and 12 weeks of life. Because of this risk, it has become general practice to give all newborns a vitamin K injection shortly after birth, whether or not that infant is in a high-risk category for hemorrhagic disease.

Gentle C-Section

Michel Odent MD Due to my narrower than usual pelvic outlet, our second child will have to be delivered via cesarean. The best way to deviate as little as possible from the physiological model of birth would be that the medical team is comfortable with the principle of an elective in-labor cesarean.

Getting Ready for the Baby

You are likely to find that you don’t need as much as advertisers might like you to believe. You may want to have fun decorating a room for the baby, buying beautiful furniture, soft carpets, and an army of stuffed animals. This is not a requirement, however, and many of us will find it easier to hold off on too many purchases until we have had the baby and know more about what works best for us.

Herbs to Avoid when Pregnant

There are several herbs that should not be used during pregnancy, except under the direction of a trained herbal specialist, and many that have not been adequately studied as of yet. Here are some kinds of herbs you should avoid using when pregnant.

Homebirth at the Hospital

There are five steps to help you realize your desire for a home-like, natural and painless childbirth at the hospital. I speak about a painless childbirth, because I have experienced it firsthand, and so have many of my clients, friends and fellow doulas. Here are the five steps.

How Much does Diet Matter during Pregnancy?

Now you are eating for two,” goes the old cliché. This is true, but for many women in Kailua Kona that could mean getting even more obsessed about eating and having more guilt when they don’t do it “properly.” If you eat a hot fudge sundae, are you harming your growing baby?

International Library of Birth Truths

Birth, the staged production taking place each night at St. Paul's Auditorium tells eight fictionalized birth stories. The CSMC 'Red Tent' offers the opportunity to share our own community's birth stories, bringing the art of the play to the reality of our community experience.

Making a Decision about Amniocentesis

Amniocentesis is a procedure in which some of the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby is removed from the mother's uterus. This test is used to obtain information about the baby's genetic makeup and the potential for genetically inherited diseases. It can also determine the gender of the baby.

Midwives and Doulas

When we enter the birth setting with love in our hearts and the willingness to be open and receptive, the outcome is a natural and painless childbirth.

Mommy Lit and Medicalized Birth

Over the last few years, the publishing industry in Kailua Kona has given birth to a new genre: mommy lit. But now mommy lit is facing attacks. Read on to learn more information in the following article.

Mothering Magazine Ask the Experts - Bob Sears

A good physical exam in Kailua Kona every few months is important—there are a variety of health and physical problems that can come up that a parent wouldn't always notice. Since these problems aren't common, you could argue that checkups are a waste of time and money for everyone who has a normal checkup.

Music for New Mamas

Natural Parenting Toolbox - Common Herbs for Children

Here are some common herbs in Kailua Kona and their health benefits for children. Read on for more information.

Natural Parenting Toolbox - The Natural First Aid Kit

In the following article, there are some good treatments to have on hand for general first aid care at home in Kailua Kona. Read on to learn more information about these herbal remedy.

Natural Remedies for Morning Sickness

New research has found that because women with morning sickness don't feel like eating or drinking, they may find themselves dehydrated, which could be compounding and creating the symptoms of morning sickness and impairing prenatal health.

Pain & Childbirth

It’s understandable that you might be afraid of the unknown, but your experience of pain in labor may be more within your control than you realize. The amount of pain you feel during labor is affected by your perceptions of pain in general, and your beliefs about pregnancy and birth in particular. A supportive environment during pregnancy can help you to change these perceptions so that you feel more ready for a natural birth, which is, by definition, drug-free.

Passing HIV through Childbirth

The impulse to help new life get off to the best possible start is present in all of us. It has taken a tragic twist, however, for the HIV-positive mothers whose struggles are described by Susan Gerhard in this issue of Mothering. Health officials, in the sincere belief that they are furthering the fight against AIDS, are coercing pregnant mothers into being tested for HIV.

Pregnancy and Birth Media Reviews

Tales from Women on the Joys, Fears, Pleasures, and Pains of Giving Birth Naturally Edited by Janet Schwegel, 39 women shareinspiring accounts of unmedicated births - even hypnobirths. Stories areorganized according to attending caregivers: physicians, midwives, and doulas, with the last chapter dedicated to unassisted births.

Prenatal Testing and Informed Consent

Birth goes best if it is not intruded upon by strange people and strange events. It goes best when a woman feels safe enough and free enough to abandon herself to the process.

Prenatal Yoga Classes

Returning Gifts After Stillbirth

If I were you I would have explained that the request hurt my feelings, that I treasured those gifts as memories of my baby, and that I might need them in the future for another child of my own or perhaps choose eventually to give them to a friend.

Reviewing Birthing Choices

Saying No to Episiotomy

Episiotomy is the most common surgical procedure performed in the US. However, it is not necessary and it brings complications to the body at the same time. Read on.

The Bradley Method

The Bradley Method is the philosophy and set of techniques taught by the American Academy of Husband-Coached Childbirth (AAHCC). Its simple aim, through relaxation, breathing, and visualization, is a birth free of the interventions frequently offered to women in the different stages of childbirth: fetal monitors, drug-induced labor, anesthesia, , and cesarean section. The Bradley Method's other defining feature, the husband's active participation in the delivery, is critical to this overall goal of an intervention-free birth.

The First Stage of Labor

Once you are having regular contractions, you are considered to be in true (or active) labor. The duration and distance between contractions will differ from labor to labor, but they may be around 5 minutes apart or less. You cervix will, at this point, probably be dilated to about 3 or 4 centimeters. You are entering the first stage of labor. Here are some tips of waht you should do during this period.

The Language of Birth

In describing the experience of the body in labor, words such as cramps and contractions seem more precise than pains . Perhaps, for some people, these words aren't strong enough to evoke the extreme experience that labor can be; perhaps, for them, pain is the only word that adequately describes labor. But for me, a writer always in search of the right word, pain just doesn't quite fit. It's not that I'm trying to downplay the physical challenge of labor.

The Role of the Placenta

Weighing about a sixth of the baby's body weight, the placenta has a vital role to play in the uterus, nourishing the growing fetus but also protecting it by filtering out harmful substances. Many Western midwives often seem uneasy around the placenta, fearing it may remain partially attached to the uterine wall, preventing the uterus from contracting evenly to close off the blood vessels.

The Second Stage of Labor

In reality, few women in Kailua Kona experience such a clear-cut transition to the second stage of labor. Technically speaking, the second stage begins when the cervix is fully dilated at 10 centimeters. The transition into the second stage, however, begins somewhere between 8 and 10 centimeters of dilation.

The Spiritual Midwife

Spiritual midwifery recognize that each and every birth is the birth of the christ child. The midwife's job is to do her best to bring both the mother and child through their passage alive and well and to see that the sacrament of birth is kept Holy.

Use of Marijuana During Pregnancy

Dozens of studies have compared the newborn babies of women who used marijuana during pregnancy with the babies of women who did not. Mainly, they have looked for differences in birth weight, birth length, head circumference, chest circumference, gestational age, neurological development, and physical abnormalities.

Water and Pregnancy, Birth and Infancy

Water covers 70 percent of the earth, and makes up 60 percent of our bodies as adults and 85 percent of a baby's body. The salty primordial sea gave rise to much of life on earth, just as each of us gestated in the watery amniotic fluid of our mother's womb before birth.

What to Avoid While You Are Pregnant

Are you living a life that is compatible with the growth of a new human being in Kailua Kona? Now is the time to start questioning your health practices. Part of this early time of celebration of your new pregnant state includes taking stock of your lifestyle.

Young Pregnant Mom, Self-Cutting

As a healer, it must be unnerving for you to see scars "from her shoulders to her wrists," making you wonder how someone who may be psychologically fragile will handle labor, birthing, and mothering.