Co-Sleeping…Recommendations from Health Organizations

http://www.uppitysciencechick.com/KKTtearsheet_FINALrevised.pdf

There are many advantages to sleeping near your baby. Your baby settles more easily. It is also easier for you to rest while still meeting your baby’s nighttime needs. Sleeping with or near your baby makes breastfeeding easy. In fact, mothers who sleep near their babies are able to breastfeed for a longer time (Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, 2008; UNICEF, 2005).

What Does Sleeping Near Your Baby Include?

Sleeping near your baby includes having your baby sleep:

• In your bed,

• In a crib or bassinet in the same room with you, or

• In a co-sleeper that is attached to the side of your bed.

How Common is Sleeping Near Your Baby?

Mothers all over the world sleep with or next to their babies. Even in the U.S., approximately half of American parents sleep with their children either all or part of the night (McKenna, 2004).

What Health Organizations are Saying

In the past few years, three major health organizations have noted that sleeping near your baby can reduce the risk of SIDS, especially during the first few months of life.

According to the recent statement on breastfeeding by the American Academy of Pediatrics (2005): Mothers and babies should sleep in proximity to each other to facilitate breastfeeding (p. 500).

The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (2008) states that: Some forms of parent-child co-sleeping provides physical protection for the infant against cold and extends the duration of breastfeeding, thus improvingthe chances of survival of the slowly developing human infant (p. 38).

Similarly, UNICEF (2005) recommends sleeping near your baby to prevent SIDS and facilitate breastfeeding. Bringing your baby into bed with you means you can breastfeed in comfort. This may be why mothers who share a bed with their babies tend to breastfeed for longer than those who don’t (p. 2).

(continued at link…)

It’s National Midwife Week!

http://www.midwife.org/National-Midwifery-Week

Every year, more than 300,000 US women partner with midwives to navigate birth, puberty, menopause, and other normal life stages. But millions more don’t have midwives in their area or are simply unaware that midwives are available. During National Midwifery Week 2011, we’re asking women to join Team Midwife—a social media-driven campaign that gives midwifery clients a way to support their midwives and raise awareness of the profession in their community.

We have an ambitious vision that by 2020, 20% of births in the United States will be attended by midwives. Every day, ACNM staff, volunteer leaders, and members are working to bring this vision to life. But we can’t do it without your help. Will you spread the word about Team Midwife to help us bring midwifery to millions of women?

Resources for Midwives  (continued at link…)

Placenta Consumption on the Rise

by Fox Charlotte

Story Created: Sep 29, 2011 at 11:02 PM EDT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Lucas is Lisa Johnson’s fourth baby.  After her third, she battled postpartum depression.  Hoping to avoid that this time around, the Fort Mill, SC mom consumed her placenta.  She says, “I definitely did not deal with any postpartum blues with him.”

There are different ways women can consume their placentas but most commonly, they are encapsulated.  First the placenta is steamed, then dehydrated, then ground up into a powder, then put into a pill.  “It’s just full of hormones, vitamins, iron, all kinds of good stuff that helps them feel really good postpartum,” says Christina Gabbard aka “Carolina Placenta Lady.”  She is a certified placenta encapsulation specialist.

When she first started her business two years ago, it was slow going.  “Now I’m easily seeing four or five clients a week,” says Gabbard.

continued….

http://www.foxcharlotte.com/news/sc-news/Placenta-Consumption-on-the-Rise–130827703.html

Doula Annie shares an article on Placenta Encapsulation

The Benefits of Eating Placenta by Jereka Hunt

Placenta consumption, known as placentophagy, is a not a popular practice in Western society but has been a part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for thousands of years. It has been used to alleviate anxiety and fatigue, replace lost iron and nutrients in postpartum women and even as treatment for sexual dysfunction among men. Though it is treated as human biological waste in American society, it is revered, valued and respected in many cultures around the world. Elaborate burial ceremonies for the placenta are practiced by the Navajo of the American Southwest as well as the Maoris of New Zealand. In select Siberian cultures, if a child becomes sick, the placenta burial site is treated, altered or even switched in hopes of curing the child.

continued….

http://www.doulaannie.com/2011/03/placenta-encapsulation/