HypnoBirthing Celebration
on Mon. Jan. 28
About 40 parents and parents-to-be came by With Child to shop, share stories and introduce their babies. We enjoyed refreshments while parents shared their wisdom and their challenges with other new and expectant parents. The room was abuzz with conversation.
It was an opportunity to meet the
HypnoBirthing community and a pleasure for me to meet your babies and
to meet some of my future clients.
One family came in from Orangeville; several others sent regrets saying that they had moved out of town or were home sick.
Babies arrived in car seats, strollers, and attached to their parents in carriers. One baby slept over his parent's shoulder most of the night; another was crawling. There were babies with full heads of hair, some with very little, and two redheads. Some were very interested in each other! One baby girl had a smile as full and happy as her dad's.
Seeing you as parents, meeting your babies and watching them grow, and listening to your stories of birth and parenting are the great rewards for my work. Thank you so much for coming.
With Child Owner Tina Martins offered her expert advice on baby products, cloth diapering and breastfeeding. And gave us 20% off! Thanks, Tina, for hosting!
I know several of you left orders with Tina. If you are looking for a particular item Tina may be able to get it for you. Call her at With Child to see if she has what you are looking for: 416-466-9693
I look forward to seeing many of you and your growing babies at our next celebration in the spring.
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If you're going to pray for potatoes, you'd better pick up a hoe.
Author Unknown |
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Next available 5 week series begin:
Thurs. Feb. 21
Tues Mar. 25
Mon. March 31
Thurs April 10
Learn more:
Having another baby?
Take your second HypnoBirthing class for half price! Attend as many classes as you like!
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The Business of Being Born
The Business of Being Born is a documentary film created by American actress Ricki Lake. After her disappointing first birth Lake set out to examine the American maternity system (with many parallels to the Canadian system) and discovered that birth is a business, with more focus on efficiency than the beauty of a natural process.
The film weaves intimate birth stories (including Lake's own homebirth) with historical, political and scientific perspectives and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system.
I saw this film at the fall HypnoBirthing Conference. It is a revealing look at how birth is approached at many hospitals.
Read more at: businessofbeingborn.com
This is an exclusive Toronto showing hosted by the Association of Ryerson Midwifery Students (ARMS)
Everyone is welcome.
Monday, February 11, 2008
7:30pm - 10:30pm
Ryerson University
40/50 Gould St.
Kerr Hall South (KHS) 239
Toronto
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2008 HypnoBirthing Stats
births: 3
unmedicated: 2
home births: 2
intact perineums: ?
The year has just begin and we are looking forward to more great births in 2008!
Please send in your
Birth Reports so that your birth is included in these stats!
And remember to announce your births to your classmates.
They are waiting to hear your news!
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HYPNOSIS HELPS!
Private hypnosis sessions to
enhance fertility
cope with medical conditions,
connect with her baby,
turn a breech baby,
release fears or anxiety, and
let go of disappointing birth memories.
To book an appointment
contact Jennifer at 416-462-1938 or jennifer@lifesjourney.ca
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Purchase a CD for yourself or a friend:
Birth with Calm and Confidence
Calm and Confidence for the New Mother
Destination Graduation
a great gift for your favourite university student.
These CDs are written
and recorded by Certified Hypnotist Jennifer Elliott
at Zoo Music
in Toronto
Available from
www.lifesjourney.ca
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Great websites
Rose blooming visualization
Watch a real rose unfold its petals and imagine your body doing the same:
Ecstatic birth
Go to www.joyinbirthing.com and click on painless childbirths, then choose ecstatic painless childbirth and watch a mother birth her baby with incredible joy.
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Greetings!
Commitment to Our Environment
In HypnoBirthing we focus on your baby's environment, both in utero and on the outside. We become aware that the unborn baby is a conscious being, affected by the stresses of his parents' world. The baby is also tuned to loving thoughts and caresses, calming sounds, and the sense that her parents are preparing for her arrival. Regular relaxation practice provides both baby and mother with an experience of peace, everyday. And practice with her partner ensures a sense that the parents are working together in harmony. What a wonderful experience your baby is having!
Expectant parents become aware of how their behaviours affect the baby's wellbeing and make changes to their lifestyles accordingly. And all these small adaptations provide a better, more reassuring environment for the growing unborn baby. The bond between parents and baby grows as each one is more aware of the other and the baby is assured that he or she is loved and well cared for.
We also become aware of the birth environment and how to make it a peaceful, welcoming one with dim lights, quiet voices and a minimum of procedures.
As you make these commitments to your baby consider also the commitment that you are making to the baby's bigger home, the Earth. Our environment is both outside us and within us. The
air outside is the same air we breathe in that circulates in our bodies
and supplies our blood and tissues with oxygen. The water in lakes and streams is
the same water we drink to replenish our bodies. And, of course, the
plants and animals are the same that nourish us as food. We are not
separate from our environment but rather, part of it. When we care for
it, we are caring for ourselves and our families.
We are all familiar with Climate change. Increasing CO2 emissions resulting in melting icecaps, droughts, endangered and extinct animals and rising oceans are threatening the habitat of all of us. The best science tells us that we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by about 70% by the year 2050 in order to stabilize the earth's climate in your baby's lifetime by the year 2100.
Earth Hour, a global movement, asks each of us to show our concern and commitment by turning off our power for one hour on Sat, March 29, 8-9 PM.
On March 29 I envision candlelit meals in restaurants and homes all over
Toronto. I imagine potlucks and community suppers in churches and community centres. I see candlelit parades and vigils downtown and in local neighbourhoods, and groups practicing yoga by candlelight. And a darkened city as we give the earth a sense of peace and pay it tribute.
In my Riverdale community we are planning a potluck dinner and candlelight parade through the neighbourhood. You are welcome to join us or to participate another way.
Earth Hour is sponsored by the City of Toronto, The Toronto Star, WWFCanada and Virgin Mobile. Watch the Star for weekly environmental challenges. And join the movement online at www.earthhour.org
I have watched negative birth trends be turned around as my clients again and again show their commitment to natural birth and bring their babies into the world peacefully and gently. I know this same commitment will turn the tide of climate change and bring us once more into harmony with the earth. It's up to us. It's for our bodies, our environment and our babies.
Jennifer HypnoBirthing Childbirth Educator
Past issues of Toronto HypnoBirthing News containing more birth stories, research and resources are now available on my website on my HypnpBirthing page or click below:
Archived Newsletters
To forward this email to a friend:
To change your address click SafeUnsubscribe at the bottom of this newsletter, then go to www.lifesjourney.ca and re-register for the newsletter.
Or simply click Unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive it.
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Mariana shares the power of positive thinking, and that wonderful discovery that birth is so normal that she can stay at home throughout.
The Birth of Adrian
Gerardo and I had a wonderful experience. I was due on December 2 but the baby came on the 26th of November.
I started to feel a little weird 3 days before. I was very sensitive, I had bloody show and I was very tired.
I started with irregular surges the 25th in the evening. At 3:00 am we called Andrea, our midwife . She came at 3:45 am and I was around 3 cm dilated.
When I was 6 cm I stopped progressing and Andrea released my membranes and labour started again. I was in active labor for about 10 hrs.
We planned a hospital birth but when I was 7 cm (time to go to the hospital) we decided to have the birth at home since everything was going very well.
I laboured in the shower, in the tub, on my bed, on the toilet and I finally birthed the baby on the birthing stool. I pushed for about 1 hr, and Adrian came out at 2:57 PM.
I paid a lot of attention to my breathing but the midwives asked me to push as well so I did both. It took one hour for the baby, and 8 minutes for the placenta, to come out.
Yes, it was very intense, but at the same time, wonderful.
Adrian was 7 lb 11oz and 50 cm.
Gerardo was amazing. He was very supportive and strong.
I focused and relaxed all the time and Gerardo worked very hard as well to help me. I definitely didn't get to the point where it was painless but I was always thinking that something wonderful was about to happen and it did!
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Lying-in is a tradition in many cultures of mothers and babies cocooning together with few distractions
for an extended period. Here Katherine Gyles describes her adjustment to this approach.
Shifting Out of Life to Enjoy Lying-in
During the hustle before my first mat leave to wrap up my final projects, my body began to yearn for some sign I was going to be able to make the shift to competent Mum. In spite of my growing babe, I didn't feel connected to the notion of me as Mum. My midwife's prescription for 15 days of lying-in was actually starting to grow on me - and I was floored.
Most women I've spoken with respond the same way. Fifteen days of blissful gazing into the eyes of your newborn, resting, nursing and finding that Zen Momma place reads like an idyllic start to a new life together. But who can actually stay in bed for 15 days?? You've got new grandparents clamoring at the door, a bundle of joy to show off and your brain is accustomed to multi-tasking 16 things. Lying-in is not for you, right?
Don't write it off so quickly.
Wrapping one's brain around the idea of spending 15 days in bed with an infant is a challenging proposition. Some women love the idea (especially second time mothers) but are naturally so centred in the business of living that they cannot imagine being able to manage that amount of time prone.
I can relate. Before my daughter was born, I was working as the Director of Marketing for a global consulting firm with responsibilities for a department, people, and in my mind accomplishing my annual goals in 6 months before I left on my maternity leave. As a results oriented person I excelled when I had a full plate, high expectations and people relying on me.
When my midwife told me she expected her clients to practice lying-in, it took me about 4 months to wrap my mind around the notion before being willing to commit fully to it. What I found as my pregnancy progressed was that I was less able to focus on things that used to be very important to me. By the ninth month, I was simply unwilling to focus on anything that was a chore because it was so glaringly obvious that I was swimming upstream - trying hard to push ahead on things that had somehow, simply fallen down the priority list. Something in me was changing and I was aware enough of myself to pay attention. But, still attached to my way of life to date, I didn't share these changes with anyone. I just got quiet with myself and tried to listen to what was going on.
By the time Kate arrived, I was excited and completely convinced that I was at the bottom of a very steep learning curve. Not only about the obvious stuff around caring for a newborn, but also around allowing myself to be changed by this tiny person. I knew that if the final weeks of pregnancy could move me off my high-functioning, results orientation, then the mother I was becoming had to allow herself to be fundamentally influenced by the experience of becoming a mother.
I had told my mother that we wanted to have 2 weeks to ourselves after the baby was born. She may have been offended or hurt, curious or dismissive of my choice, but she respected it, albeit a bit grudgingly. I got on the phone after Kate was born to tell everyone I loved personally about her amazing home birth arrival. In doing that, I got to share my excitement and joy, if only briefly. After the news was spread far and wide we shut the metaphorical door to the world and stopping engaging with the outside.
I wished for and wanted at times to talk with loved ones, but I tried to stay in the room with Kate. I can see in hindsight that I was giving myself to her. It felt akin to the moment in our wedding ceremony when I accepted fully and completely that I was giving myself into the care of my husband as he was giving himself up to me. In our first days together, Kate and I came to know one another and trust each other - we gave ourselves up fully and completely to our interdependence. I'm not sure that would have happened so quickly for us had I been distracted by housework, visitors or the energy of anyone else.
Modern life is so much about the busy-ness of living, yet we all know that it takes quiet and time to fully understand the deeper meaning of our daily interactions and living. Lying-in is a challenge to any woman who lives actively and engages in the world around her, because it requires you to unplug (from your ego, among other things) and to be present fully and completely. It invites you to tune out social expectations from family and friends, shed your own preconceived notions of life with a newborn and ignore the consumer culture's push to stay connected to modern life. It's tough stuff. But so is becoming a mother.
Katherine Gyles is surprisingly tuned into her now pre-school aged kids, as she maneuvers again through the business world and writes to hear herself think. She lives in Toronto and blogs about parenting at mommysgroove.com.
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Protection from Infection Found in
Vernix and Amniotic Fluid
A study of the properties and purposes of vernix, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2004, found immune substances present in both amniotic fluid and vernix (natural white cream covering the baby in utero). These immune substances were found to be effective in inhibiting the
growth of common perinatal pathogens, including group B Streptococcus, K pneumoniae, L monocytogenes, C albicans, and E coli. We know that routine artificial rupture of membranes
(release of membranes) increases the likelihood of intrauterine infection because it
eliminates the physical barrier (the amniotic sac) between the baby and
the mother's vaginal flora. This study suggests that keeping the baby bathed in amniotic fluid provides further protection from infection.
This study also questions early cleaning of
the baby because it removes vernix, which contains antimicrobial proteins that are
active against group B streptococcus and E. coli. Delaying the bath and
keeping the newborn together with his or her mother until breastfeeding
is established may prevent some cases of infections caused
by these bacteria. Breastfeeding further protects the baby as breastmilk contains immune proteins similar to those in amniotic fluid and breastmilk.
The natural continuum from the womb to your breast is nature's perfect design for optimal health of your baby.
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Ina May is considered the grandmother of modern North American Midwifery. She has been attending home births, mostly at her farm community in Tennessee, since the 1960s. Her first book, Spiritual Midwifery, is a classic in the natural birth movement. Her most recent book, Ina May's Guide to Chlldbirth, is full of birthing wisdom and inspiring stories. I love her Sphincter Law from page 170, abbreviated here.
The Sphincter Law
* Excretory, cervical and vaginal sphincters function best in an atmosphere of intimacy and privacy.
* These sphincters cannot be opened at will and do not respond well to commands (such as "Push!" or "Relax!").
* When a person's sphincter is in the process of opening it may suddenly close down if that person becomes upset, frightened, humiliated or self-conscious. Why? High levels of adrenaline in the bloodstream do not favor (sometimes they actually prevent) the opening of sphincters...
*The state of relaxation of the mouth and jaw is directly correlated to the ability of the cervix, the vagina, and the anus to open to full capacity. (...Remember this if you ever have hemorrhoids...)
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