From the WBWC Blog:

Month: April 2019

Let’s Celebrate Maureen!

After over 30 years of service and tireless dedication to midwifery, women’s health and the nonprofit community, Maureen Darcey has retired. Please help us honor Maureen as she receives the governor’s highest award, The Order of the Long Leaf Pine.  All are welcome to join us for a celebration at the Rigmor House on April 20th from 1-5 p.m. A buffet of NC BBQ and all the fixins’ will be served at 1:30 p.m. If you play, bring an instrument. If you sing, bring your voice. If you have a story to share, bring your memories. Love, hugs, and joy are the order of the day, and we expect to have them in abundance as we celebrate Maureen! You may also wish to make a tax-deductible donation to Women’s Birth and Wellness Center’s “Dorothy B. Sullivan Fund” as we carry on Maureen’s vision for our “home-grown, home-owned” practice serving women and families in our community. The “Dorothy B. Sullivan Fund” is an endowment named after Maureen’s mother which directly helps the birth center continue to provide its invaluable services. You can donate now by clicking here. Thank you so much for your support! View the Evite

Iris’s Birth Story

By Missy Swanson As a mom of three WBWC babies and a nurse who had attended a few hundred WBWC births, I thought I had seen and done it all. Then along came Iris to show me just how unpredictable birth can be. My fourth pregnancy was pretty straightforward. I felt sure I was having a girl and was looking forward to having another daughter to balance out the family. My blood tests and ultrasounds were all normal. However, as I approached 35 weeks, the baby kept flipping out of a head-down position. My third child had also liked to play that game, but he had settled down to vertex around 39 weeks and stayed. This child had other ideas. I did all the baby-turning things (moxibustion, acupuncture, inversions., etc.), and sometimes she was vertex, but she never stayed. Every time I came to work, I had the midwife put her hands on my belly. Every time, the baby was in a different position. Sometimes she’d be breech at the beginning of a shift and transverse by the end. My due date was September 1. We made a plan to schedule a version followed by a midwifery induction on September 7. As luck would have it, the baby was vertex on September 7, so I got to skip the version. My cervix was essentially closed, but Sarah bound up my belly and sent me home with a regimen of herbs and castor oil, and hopes of an easy birth. Sarah had been at all of my labors and caught two of the three. Those babies also had to be induced with castor oil, and although that part was disgusting, my labors were quick. My parents came to take care of the big kids, and my husband Andy and I had a nice morning to ourselves. We went for a walk, listened to music, and relaxed. After a few hours of herbs, the contractions kicked in a bit. I finally got the nerve to take the castor oil around 3 PM. By 5 PM, the contractions weren’t very strong, but I headed over the birth center to get checked and make sure the baby was still vertex. Sure enough, she was still head down, and I was 4 centimeters dilated! Sarah swept my cervix, and we headed home to eat dinner with the family. Shortly after dinner, the castor oil kicked … Read More

It’s Not Always Easy…

By Ashley Gatling “It’s easy,” they say….”it’s natural,” they say…”you have big breasts, that’ll make everything so much better!”  From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I knew I was going to breastfeed.  I imagined giving birth, my baby laying on my stomach and crawling towards my breast, latching like a champ and just thriving for the next 24 months with no issues! Then reality hit. Thanksgiving Day 2017, we welcomed Ashton Luke into the world. It was the most amazing labor: peaceful and quick, totally unlike what is said to be the “normal” labor for first time moms. But what came after labor, that was the true beast.  I hemorrhaged pretty badly, causing me to lose 1.5 liters of blood, which resulted in me needing lots of fluids. The fluids caused me to swell, which made latching extremely difficult for baby boy, but he did it!  We left WBWC with him latching pretty well!  Day two, I’m thinking we are going strong. He hadn’t lost too much weight at our home visit.  He had been sleeping pretty well. I figured it was safe to say that I was killing it at this mom thing…. Until Day 5. I knew that everyone said all we needed to do was Sleep, Pee, Eat, Nurse and Drink, but that was LITERALLY ALL I did!  HE NEVER STOPPED NURSING, and if he wasn’t nursing he was screaming! It was torture, but I thought it was normal, babies cry, this was of course the 4th trimester.  But I started to feel as though I was losing my mind. My son would nurse for forty-five minutes to an hour, fall asleep, then wake up thirty minutes later wanting to nurse again. It was a never ending cycle of dread and pain.  I was constantly told that breastfeeding shouldn’t hurt, but every time we nursed I sat on the edge of my chair, clenching my teeth.    I finally realized that I couldn’t do this alone. I decided to pay a visit to the amazing Rebecca Costello!  Luckily, we were able to be seen the next day. I explained what was going on, how nursing hurt and seemed to never end.  Rebecca checked us both out and did a weighted feed. Ashton wasn’t transferring much milk while nursing; after nursing over 40 minutes he was moving barely an ounce. We went home with new … Read More

New Arrivals

*Alexander “Xander” Pierce Wheeler – January 23 – 6 lbs., 13 oz. Aden Munoz– February 1 – 7 lbs., 14 oz. Lyla Harper Corey – February 2 – 9 lbs., 8 oz. *Calvin James Irwin – February 5 – 7 lbs., 10 oz. Matrim Thomas Wolfenbarger – February 5 – 7 lbs., 0.5 oz. Kumari Akaśa Johnson – February 8 – 5 lbs., 12 oz. Giavonna Gail Fearrington – February 8 – 6 lbs., 13.5 oz. *Tecumseh Vann Davis Warren – February 9 – 8 lbs., 2.5 oz. Oscar Grady Matta – February 9 – 7 lbs., 6 oz. *Hart Christopher Adamo – February 10 – 8 lbs., 12 oz. Ezra Joseph Lane – February 11 – 9 lbs., 13 oz. Michael Archie Clements – February 11 – 8 lbs., 13 oz. *Alexander James Lohman – February 12 – 8 lbs., 11 oz. Gerard Simpson – February 17 – 7 lbs., 2.5 oz. Rye Luna Rush – February 18 – 7 lbs., 7.5 oz. Emerson William Groseclose – February 18 – 8 lbs., 3 oz. Fletcher Declan Fritsch – February 18 – 7 lbs, 11 oz. Gianna Marina Chavez – February 24 – 7 lbs., 9.5 oz. Aila Rose – February 24 – 9 lbs., 1 oz. *Luna June Jankowski – February 25 – 9 lbs., 1 oz. Margaret Diane Stephens– February 27 – 7 lbs., 2 oz. February Stats Total babies born: 37 Biggest baby: 10 lbs., 3 oz. Smallest baby: 3 lbs., 8 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, 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!

Fresh, Locally-Grown Flowers for Mother’s Day!

Order a Mother’s Day bouquet for someone you love! Featuring fresh cut flowers from local growers. Mother’s Day pre-order bouquets will be available for pick up at Women’s Birth and Wellness Center Boutique on Sat, May 11th (the day before Mother’s Day). For more information and to place an order, please visit https://www.alimdonnelly.com/

Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga at Triangle Yoga

Prenatal Yoga (Sunday at 12:30pm) focuses on postures that are appropriate for pregnant women with an emphasis on connecting with the baby, breathing, relaxation, and muscle toning. Benefits include building stamina, strength, balance, soothing the nervous system, releasing tension in the lower and upper back and preparing you for labor through conscious breathing. No experience necessary. Postnatal Yoga (Tuesday at 12:30pm) helps new and returning mothers stay centered, strong and aware during their first months together. Bring your little one from as young as 4 weeks to this nurturing class. The majority of the class is for moms and we also do baby yoga incorporating poses that help baby with digestion and development. Common postpartum and baby handling/carrying issues, are addressed with toning, core strength, and stretching. No experience necessary. No experience necessary, drop-ins welcome! PRENATAL YOGA’s Elyse Ribbons structures her prenatal classes to offer a well-rounded safe combination of poses for strength, flexibility, and endurance with opportunities to increase mental awareness and time for bonding and sharing expectations POSTNATAL YOGA’s Brianna Bennett is a certified yoga teacher, and works at Women’s Birth & Wellness Center. As a new mom, she is forever grateful to her son for the opportunity to learn from his youthful wisdom as she leads her yoga classes!