From the WBWC Blog:

Month: August 2012

New Arrivals

*Gabriel Christopher Slaughter – 7 lbs., 14 oz. – February 1 *Judah Stone Schoenherr – 7 lbs. – May 29 *Noelani Reese Puryear – 6 lbs., 15 oz. – June 26 Madelyn Ava Chin – 8 lbs., 9 oz. – July 2  Luke Isaiah Carr – 8 lbs., 1 oz. – July 4 *Navah Kalai Terrell – 5 lbs., 9 oz. – July Joseph Caspian Ransom – 6 lbs., 15 oz. – July 5 *Lola Sumac Matijasevic Khirikhan – 7 lbs., 11 oz. – July 5 Lukas Maynard McVey – 11 lbs., 1 oz. – July 10 Amelia Jane Elizabeth Goldman – 7 lbs., 2 oz. – July 11 Jeremiah Benjamin Jamal Williamson – 7 lbs., 1 oz. – July 13 Desmond Sydney Doherty – 7 lbs., 14 oz. – July 14 Sophia Lynn Clark – 6 lbs., 8 oz. – July 15 *Savannah Aliese Cousett-Keyser – 6 lbs., 10 oz. – July 16 Joseph Weldon Foster III – 8 lbs., 14 oz. – July 16 *Gabriella Grace Matsumoto – 8 lbs., 10oz. – July 17 Alejandro Luis Irizarry Baker – 7 lbs., 1 oz. – July 21 Eva Sofia Rycerz – 7 lbs., 7 oz. – July 25 Luca Robert Stokes – 7 lbs., 11 oz. – July 29 *pictured above Welcome to world, sweet babies!  If you’d like your baby’s birth announced in the newsletter, send an email to missy_swanson@hotmail.com.  Include baby’s name, weight, and birthdate; you can also attach a photo.  We’d like to hear from all WBWC moms, whether you delivered at the birth center or UNC!  

Spotlight: Heather Hogan, CNM

Please join us in welcoming Heather Hogan, CNM, back to WBWC!  Heather, who has cared for women at the Birth Center both as a nurse and a midwifery student, joined our team of midwives in July. Before starting on the path to becoming a midwife, Heather worked as a massage therapist.  After she realized that midwifery was her true calling, she began nursing school at UNC-Greensboro.  There, she was an active member of the association of nursing students and was elected class president.  She was also inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau international nursing honor society and received the undergraduate leadership award. Heather graduated with honors from UNCG in 2005 and began her career as an RN in the neuro-intensive care unit at Moses Cone Hospital, where she provided specialized care to recovering stroke and trauma victims.  In 2006, she came to work at WBWC as a nurse.  She says, “I knew when I wanted to be a midwife that I wanted to eventually work in an out-of-hospital setting. I really feel that healthy women should have the right to birth outside of the hospital if that is what feels best for them.”  She gained invaluable experience caring for laboring women at the Birth Center, which she was able to put to use in her midwifery studies at Frontier Nursing University.  In 2009, she spent a clinical rotation as a student midwife at WBWC. She graduated from Frontier with her Master’s of Science in Nursing with a concentration in Midwifery later that year. After graduation, Heather moved to rural New York and began work with the National Health Service Corps.  She served as a midwife at a small community hospital. “I was the first midwife to have been granted hospital privileges there, so it was a huge learning experience for me and the staff there.” She provided midwifery care for a medically underserved population and also continued to grow her own family.  Heather and her husband Trey have three young children: Eleanor (6), James (3), and Kentley (15 months).  When she’s not busy catching babies, her favorite pastime is spending time with her family. “I love just being with my kids. I try to keep things low-pressure around our house, so we spend a lot of time just exploring nature and their interests as they arise. I try not to plan a whole lot, and let them lead when we are together.”   … Read More

Recipe: Grilled Summer Fruit

By Claire C. McKiernan Getting tired of the same old summer fruits, but want to make the most of them while they last? Ingredients: Firm peaches, plums, or nectarines Brown sugar Optional toppings: goat cheese, Greek yogurt, vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream 1)    Halve and remove the pits from the fruits. 2)    Place a teaspoon of brown sugar in the concave area where the pit used to be (this will help sweeten and caramelize the fruit). 3)    Place cut side down on a very hot grill until the fruit begins to soften (maybe 5 minutes). 4)    Turn each piece over and move to a cooler spot on the grill. If using cheese, fill with goat cheese and allow to begin to melt, and, if necessary, allow the fruit to soften some more (it shouldn’t fall apart, but it should be easy to cut with a fork or spoon). 5)    Cool a few minutes and serve as is or with yogurt, vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream.

News from the WBWC Board

by Kaaren Haldeman           Hello WBWC and happy almost-fall! At our last meeting on July 18, the Board approved our final lease, including the use of Suite 206. Many thanks to Bruce Nelson, Vice-Chair, and Brianna Honea for the extra extra hours they put in to finalize this work! Several of us met in the suite yesterday and it looks fantastic! Thanks to the staff who helped move furniture and arrange a warm and inviting atmosphere.           We would like to thank Brianna and Maureen Darcey for all of their extraordinary work toward our re-accreditation during the weekend of July 28. Long hours of preparation and hosting went into this very important work.          The Board also learned of the new addition to the WBWC family, Heather Hogan, CNM. Welcome, Heather! We look forward to meeting you soon and hope your transition has been a great one.             Please stay tuned for a board-staff social event when we can introduce the full board to our staff and put faces to all of our names!            Finally, we are looking for a CPA to join our board, so if anyone is interested or you know of someone whom we might contact, please email me, Kaaren Haldeman, at kaargav@gmail.com

Attention January Moms-to-Be!

      Are you due in January and interested in taking part in Group Prenatal Care at WBWC? Well, it’s not too late!  We still need two more mamas to complete our January Group.  The first session will take place Wednesday, September 5 at 3:00 PM.  If you’d like to join the Group, please call us at (919) 933-3301. Whether you’re an experienced mom or a first-timer, Group Prenatal Care is a great way to meet other like-minded women, learn a lot, and stay healthy during your pregnancy.  We really want to keep our Group going!

Bizarre to Basic Birth Control

by Claire C. McKiernan           Did you know that if you attach a spider’s egg to your body with deer hide before sunrise it will prevent pregnancy for a year? Well, it won’t. If you can get your hands on the kidney of a mule and mix it with the urine of a eunuch, that won’t do much good, either. Good luck finding a eunuch, anyway. I didn’t make up these bizarre concoctions, but they were believed to be effective means of birth control more than 2,000 years ago (think Cleopatra’s day). Interestingly, around the same time, women were also prescribed herbal remedies that included poplar, juniper berries, and giant fennel, which actually do have some qualities to reduce the chances of conception (but don’t try this at home). Condoms, albeit ones made from fish bladders or animal intestines, are even older, dating to at least 1000 BC.           Ancient vaginal suppositories were used that killed sperm or blocked it from entering the cervix; crocodile dung was a favorite base for these concoctions. Rudimentary diaphragms were also common: African women used plugs of grass; Islamic, Greek, and Egyptian women employed honey and oil moistened wool; Japanese women used balls of bamboo paper; and ancient Jewish women preferred silk-wrapped sea sponges with a string attached. Obviously, the idea of birth control isn’t, even remotely, a new idea.           The ineffective rhythm method has also been in use for thousands of years, but people not only employed the rigid time frame of the rhythm method, but also had little understanding of when a woman might be fertile during her cycle. For example, from 2,000 years ago until as late as 1920, it was believed that fertility was highest at the time of menstruation!           How about other free, no-ingredients-needed, birth control? From medieval times through today the method of withdrawal (coitus interruptus, or “pulling out”) has been very popular.  Applying pressure and forcing the semen into the bladder rather than through the urethra (coitus obstructus) was recommended in Sanskrit texts, and avoiding ejaculation entirely (coitus reservatus) was also used by Hindus. I can’t find statistics on the last two, but keep in mind that, according to the World Bank, the 2011 population of India was 1, 241,491, 960, and India is slightly more than 1/3 the size of the U.S. (I’m just saying…) As for withdrawal, the efficacy rates are between 70-95% … Read More

Donation Needed!

Do you have an old TV/DVD player that you’d like to get rid of? Consider donating it to the Birth Center!  We’re expanding our office space to include the suite across the hall from our current location, and we’re looking for a combination TV/DVD player that we can use to show patient education materials in our new offices.  If you have one you’d like to donate, give us a call at (919) 933-3301, or let someone at the front desk know.  Thanks for your generosity!

How Madeline Harris Spring Was Born

by Natalie Spring Monday, February 2, 2009 Madeline was born at 41 weeks weighing in at a healthy 10 pounds. While she lingered in utero for a bit longer, when she decided it was time to be born she hurried on out in less than three hours. I took the day off of work on the day Madeline was born. I had an appointment with the midwives, and I didn’t want to go into work and deal with the “so you haven’t had the baby yet” and “when are they going to induce you” conversations. Instead, I stayed home and cleaned, took a short nap on the couch, ran errands, and just generally tried to tire myself out. At my appointment Leigh Ann declared that I was indeed “a good four” and that she was rather stingy on her centimeters, so I should expect the baby anytime. I told her I wasn’t getting my hopes up, but okay. She reminded me to call the midwives if I started having contractions so that they could eat/rest in preparation for a middle-of-the-night labor. I dismissively agreed. When I arrived at 5:45 p.m. to pick up my partner Harris from work I realized I might be in labor. Up until this point I thought I was just a miserable 41-weeks-pregnant woman who had gained 50 pounds and was having a hard time at life. We were chatting with his coworkers when I realized that I was really having contractions and not cramps. I tried to time one on the lab timer, but while I counted 25 seconds, the lab counter timed it at 45 seconds. They all thought I was joking when I said I was having the baby that night, and they  kept on with their experiments. About five minutes later when Harris was done, another contraction had already started. We got back to his desk, I explained that I was having contractions and that HE should probably drive us home. As he drove through traffic,I was focused on getting home and lying down for a nap. Once we got home I was only able to rest for about 2 minutes before I felt like I was going to lose my milkshake. I moved to the bathroom, and Harris brought me pillows and a blanket. Contractions started coming quickly and were starting in my abdomen and then moving to my back very … Read More