From the WBWC Blog:

Month: December 2017

The Birth of Iris Aleta

Most mamas can push their babies easily through the birth canal, but midwives are always prepared for that big baby whose shoulders are a tight fit. This is the beautiful story of one of those rare babies. We hope you will hear the message: Believe in your body, listen to your heart, trust your midwife! by Morgan Vuznytsya My pregnancy was no easy one. From all-day nausea up to 26 weeks along with four viruses and surviving the NC summer with a toddler, it was quite the adventure! But knowing it was my last pregnancy I soaked up every little kick and hiccup I felt inside my belly while pondering if I was carrying a little boy or a girl. Every time I would dream of my baby, it was always a girl as her birthday approached. As a second-time mom and birth doula, I did all the things to prepare and felt good about the upcoming birth. The only tiny fear that kept rising up in the back of my mind was shoulder dystocia. One of my second trimester prenatals with one of the midwives, Belinda, turned into a long therapy session where she let me talk about all my concerns and reassured me that whether my fear was from being a doula who had experienced different birth situations or if it was my intuition, my body was capable and I was in good knowledgeable hands with the midwives.   Come 34 weeks my Braxton Hicks were becoming very regular, especially with activity, and started to make me nervous. I ended up going to UNC after having them come every 3-5 minutes and last a minute with cramps when up and moving around, but thankfully I wasn’t dilated and was told just to take it easy. I did my best to ignore them and not stress over preterm labor while my mom and grandma pulled together to help out with household chores so I could lay low.   By 36 weeks I was having real prodromal contractions every night and would wake at the peak of them while thinking, “nope. Not happening little one! We are birthing at the birth center!” and go back to sleep. Once we hit 37 weeks I felt so relieved! My husband and I went on a dinner date to celebrate and during our date I felt those prodromal-like contractions again (thanks oxytocin!). I … Read More

Birth Announcements

Dolores Cogburn Morris – November 2 – 9 lbs., 13 oz. *Troy David Leonard – November 4 – 6 lbs., 9 oz. Annapurna Rose Dominic– November 4 – 7 lbs.,1 oz. Mila Stefania Kleindienst – November 4 – 8 lbs., 1 oz. Israel Grant Watson – November 8 – 8 lbs., 5 oz. Holly Joy Cadence – November 9 – 9 lbs., 9 oz. Maura Jane Eddy – November 12 – 7 lbs., 8 oz. Rylee Carmyn Saia – November 12 – 7 lbs., 2 oz. George Taddeo di Girolamo – November 13 – 8 lbs., 4.5 oz. Isabella Esther Sheridan – November 14 – 7 lbs., 7 oz. Aidan Amier Banks – November 16 – 6 lbs., 13 oz. *Joziah Dean Young – November 17 – 7 lbs., 10 oz. Caroline Marie Sasser – November 19 – 8 lbs., 12.5 oz. *Ashton Luke Gatling – November 23 – 7 lbs., 11.5 oz. Darren Ramon Williams – November 29 – 6 lbs., 14.5 oz.   To be included in this celebratory list, please email Missy at missy@ncbirthcenter.org with your baby’s birth announcement information that includes  their name, date of birth, and birth weight as well as a photo, if available. If you would like to send us your birth story along with photos, we are happy to include that in a future newsletter! Also, if you have a printed birth announcement to share, we’d love to have a copy to  add to our bulletin board in the clinic! 

The Dorothy B. Sullivan Memorial Fund at WBWC

By Maureen Darcey, CNM On March 30th of this year, my mom, Dorothy B. Sullivan (a.k.a. Grandma Buddy) passed away.As I was packing up her apartment, I found this card, hand-painted by one of her patients. Dear Mrs. Sullivan, Though we only know each other by flashlight, I feel that I want to say thank you for your nightly services. From the very first night of my illness, I sensed something wonderful about you – and I still cannot describe what it is. I only know that I looked forward to your presence as you took my pulse, temperature and evaluated my needs…during the nights of the past 6 days. When I am home in my own bed tonight I shall think of you. You have taught me much about nursing…somehow you have told me that it is more than a job.  May the dawn always fill you with light to see you though each day and night. This note summed up the woman, the mother, the wife, the RN, the aunt, the neighbor my mother was. My whole life, I wanted to be a nurse, just like my mom. She was one of the hardest working women I ever met. She worked 25 years of nights in order to be home during the day, in case we needed her. My parents were “co-parenting” before it was fashionable! The telephone was her umbilical cord to the world where she kept up with friends from 70-80 years ago, aunts in nursing homes, cousins at home, and all her children, grandchildren, and great-grandkids. To honor her memory, I have started the Dorothy B. Sullivan Memorial Fund at WBWC. She wasn’t quite sure of my desires to become a midwife, but once I graduated and started working in birth centers, she was my biggest supporter! Please consider donating to help us continue our “homegrown, home-owned” practice for women in our community. Your tax-deductible contribution will go towards the endowment in my mother’s name that directly helps the birth center continue to provide its invaluable services.  You can donate now by clicking here. Please specify that you want your gift to go to the Dorothy B. Sullivan Memorial Fund. Thank you so much for your support!

Great Outcomes from Strong Start & WBWC

From 2013-2016, WBWC participated in the 3-year Strong Start grant and WBWC patients who were Medicaid recipients, and who identified as low-income, received extra support including assistance from our peer counselors, Sofia Marks & Tracey Jones.  WBWC Strong Start patients were also given access to free breastfeeding education classes and received free breastfeeding pillows.  And like all WBWC patients, our Strong Start moms received time-intensive, high-touch, low tech midwifery care.  WBWC is the only birth center in the Triangle that accepts Medicaid patients.   The AABC Strong Start for Mothers and Newborns was a multi-year federal grant awarded to the American Association of Birth Centers in 2013. It studied the birth center model of care as a means to reduce the rate of preterm birth for vulnerable populations. Outcomes have been overwhelmingly good including lower cesarean rates, higher rates of breastfeeding and higher rates of satisfaction with their care. Learn more about these phenomenal outcomes. If we can lower these complications, we can decrease infant mortality and maternal mortality and reduce disparities. We are proud to be actively improving the lives of women and their families and grateful to serve our community through the work we do. With gratitude,   Brianna Bennett Business Director Women’s Birth & Wellness Center

Spotlight: Jennifer Mohamed, RN

Jennifer was born in Durham and has had the pleasure of living all around the beautiful state of North Carolina. She obtained her Nursing degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After delivering her first son in the Peach Room, Jennifer knew she would ultimately want to work at the Women’s Birth & Wellness Center helping other families bring their babies into the world in such a wonderful atmosphere. Four years later, after her second Peach Room birth, Jennifer decided to make the move, leaving the Special Care Nursery and coming aboard the WBWC team as a Labor and Delivery Nurse. In her free time, Jennifer enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband and boys, reading, and coffee.

MILC Moment: Preventing Holiday Mastitis

Calls about mastitis tend to increase over the holidays. Changes in routine, travel, sleep disruptions, stress, and missed feedings can all contribute to getting engorged, getting a plugged duct, and/or getting mastitis. When you get a plugged duct, it may start as a little lump in the breast. It may feel a little tender, and the skin over it might look more pink or red. If it doesn’t get better, it may get bigger and the congestion may start to spread to other areas of your breast. More of the skin might look red. You might feel body aches or chills, or get a low grade fever. If the congestion still doesn’t go away, you might start feeling worse – like you have the flu, with a high fever. At that point, you should definitely be calling WBWC (or your OB care provider) – “Help! I think I have mastitis!” A round of antibiotics will usually clear up mastitis pretty quickly. But we like to avoid antibiotics if we can, and of course we like to avoid you getting sick! Could we prevent a bad case of mastitis? Sometimes, we can! First is to take care of yourself over the holidays. Keep nursing your baby frequently, don’t skimp on sleep, and do whatever you can to minimize the stress that can come along with the holiday season. If you do start to have issues, it’s good to know that very frequent nursing or pumping often does the trick. If you have a really stubborn spot that won’t clear, all you need may be just your hands – massaging to clear out those congested areas before your breasts get really inflamed. If you’re getting a plugged duct, or if you feel like your plugged duct is getting worse, check out this video for techniques on how to massage and hand express to help clear your breasts: https://vimeo.com/65196007 The Boutique also sells a “Happy Ducts” herbal tincture to help in clearing breast congestion. All the WBWC LCs, and many of the midwives and nurses, have been trained on how to do breast massage to help clear plugged ducts and breast congestion. If you feel like a plugged duct is getting worse, and you’re not able to clear it yourself, you can call for an appointment to get some hands-on help. If you believe you are getting mastitis, or have mastitis, you should always call … Read More

Healing Magic at the WBWC Boutique: Voluptuous V

By Allison Koch, CNM Since the government has now forbidden the CDC from making documents and reports that refer to science and evidence and discuss things like fetuses and transgender persons, this article will talk about none of those things – though I could. Instead I prefer to talk about magic and healing and the healing magic that is available to us at the WBWC Boutique every single day. My plan is to profile some of the magical healing remedies available at the boutique over the next several months and educate you about what they can do for you! Botanical medicine comes from healing traditions that are steeped in centuries old wisdom (mostly from women healers) working with plants that were well-known, handled carefully, often prayed over and treated with great respect for their healing properties and gratitude for their gifts. I know it sounds a little “woo-woo” but there really is something about crafting a remedy while putting all your thoughts and intention into its healing purpose. For those of us who knit, crochet or quilt, for example, there is a healing purpose “intended” right into that piece while you make it. That’s what prayer shawls are. They wrap the recipient in prayers for their recovery and/or well-being. There are books devoted to the healing power of intention – and many experiments that prove the possibility of sending healing energies, such as love, gratitude, or forgiveness. And what a great intention! One such book is the classic by Lynne McTaggert called The Field, and that could be another kind of field trip. Botanical medicine made in a mindful way serves the same kind of healing purpose. This is one of the intangibles that makes studying herbal treatments hard to quantify. Different healers will grow the plant under different conditions, and even if prepared according to a recipe, it will still carry the magic signature and intention of a particular herbalist. Voluptuous V is a botanical product created by Paula Youmell, a holistic nurse who is also an herbalist, author, and health educator. Paula realized that “personal lubricants” are commonly used by women to address the problem of vaginal tissues thinning at menopause, which, by the way, is a universal experience of menopause. Most lubricants are not made from natural ingredients, friendly to the delicate ecosystem of the vagina. Concerned about this, she created something healthy and safe for use … Read More