By Nancy Albrecht, RN, BSN, IBCLC Do you know a pregnant or new mama? Ask her how she is doing, how she is really doing. LISTEN to what she says: no matter how many people you think are supporting her, there are often way too few who ask and listen. Everyone wants to know how the baby is: how baby is growing and moving or how baby is sleeping, eating, pooping, etc???. Nobody is asking mom if she’s getting rest; if she’s eating regularly; if she gets to take a shower when she needs or wants to. Ask her how much she slept last night. Ask her what she ate today. Ask her if she is okay. Be prepared if she says NO. During May, Maternal Mental Health Awareness month, we want all families to know that mood disorders in pregnancy and postpartum are real, unintentional, and treatable. Women of every culture, age, income level and race can develop symptoms during pregnancy or the first 12 months after childbirth. Baby blues may affect most new moms, but the blues are mild, brief, and last less than 2 weeks. 1 in 7 mothers experience depression or anxiety during pregnancy or postpartum: severe symptoms that persist longer than 2 weeks. Symptoms may include feeling sad, angry, or confused, having extreme anxiety or scary thoughts, feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, or guilty, having difficulty bonding with the baby, having lack of interest in usual activities, or having thoughts of hurting yourself or those around you. The most common time when new moms recognize postpartum depression or anxiety is when the baby is three to four months old. If you or a new mom that you know are having trouble coping with the transition to pregnancy or motherhood, please ask for help. Treatment is available and most women recover fully with treatment.  A 3-point approach works best for most women: individual therapy, medical evaluation with medication, if needed or desired, and a support group. WBWC offers a support group, Coping with Motherhood, on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month, 10:30 am – Noon. It’s mother-to-mother support, facilitated by Nancy Albrecht RN, MA, IBCLC. Coping with Motherhood is free and confidential for any pregnant woman or new mother who is struggling with a perinatal mood difficulty. Email Nancy at nancy@ncbirthcenter.org if you have any concerns or questions about your mood or the group. Other resources … Read More

Part 2: Entertainment By Claire Caprioli Welcome back! Now that you are prepared for the physical mayhem that could occur on a road trip, you can learn how to avoid the horrors of boredom. You know, the whining, complaining, muttering, bickering, screaming, crying, regression, and eventual total reversion to basic Neanderthal behavior. And that’s just from the driver. Truthfully, in an otherwise healthy family, there are few things more stressful than unhappy children confined in a car. There. Is. No. Escape. Fortunately, with a little legwork and less than $10 per kid, you can have a (relatively) peaceful and happy trip arriving at your destination with most, or even all, of your hair still attached to your scalp. All purchases can be made in one trip at Target, Walmart, Dollar Store, and the like. Here are suggestions for toddlers to teens. For each child: 1) A lidded container, somewhere between 8×11 inches and 15×12 inches and 3-6 inches deep. Bigger is too bulky and smaller is not useful as a lap desk. This doesn’t need to be Rubbermaid’s finest, it just needs a flat lid that clicks on and off easily. In each container you put #2-7 below. 2) Any combo of a NEW activity book, coloring book, doodle pad, construction paper, lined notebook, book 3) Stickers, with which to decorate their own personal travel bins 4) Pencils and colored pencils (and/or markers if you trust your kids not to draw all over the car) Note: Crayons will melt in a hot car, and overly sharp pencils break easily. 5) A small toy or surprise (no noise-makers or make-shift swords!) This could be a small stuffed animal, plastic doo-dad, or better yet an easy craft with felt or origami paper. For something from home, take an old clean sock and a marker for your kid to make into a puppet. 6) A couple napkins, a wet wipe, a ziplock sandwich bag (for easy to seal garbage) 7) 2 or 3 healthy and not-so-healthy treats. I like life savers, granola bars, a small box of raisins, a stick or two of gum, fruit snacks. Pez dispensers can be a big hit, too. Note: Chocolate will melt! Nothing messy/sticky or that poses a big choking hazard (gumballs, popcorn, etc.) Okay, this is the good part. If done correctly, you will get major fun parent points for hitting the HAPPY KID TRIFECTA: surprise, … Read More

By Bradley Bethel If I could make one recommendation to every expectant dad, it would be this: accompany your partner to her prenatal appointments (with her permission, of course). For many of us men, pregnancy seems like an unfathomable mystery. Obviously, if we’re about to be become dads, we know something about how a woman becomes pregnant — that’s the easy part. Beyond that, however, society does little to help us understand pregnancy itself or how to support our partners through the process. For generations, we’ve been socialized according to gender norms that minimize men’s role during pregnancy and keep us ignorant about it. No wonder we’re often bewildered by the whole experience. Unlike the days of Call the Midwife, men are now welcome, even expected, to be with their partners during labor. Yet often our only preparation is a short series of weekly childbirth classes. Somehow, in six weeks, we’re supposed to undo a lifetime of exposure to sensationalized, frightening media depictions of childbirth and then feel prepared to assume the role of a calm, supporting partner. When my spouse, Tracy, became pregnant two years ago, I was eager to become a dad. But like most expectant fathers, I was anxious about my role during childbirth. Would I be able to provide adequate support to Tracy while she labors? What if something were to go wrong? Would I know what decision to make? How could I possibly remain calm and supportive through something as seemingly terrifying as childbirth? Fortunately, by the time Tracy woke me up on a Thursday morning several months later to tell me today is the day, my fears had subsided, and I felt ready to provide the support she needed. My change in confidence began when I accompanied Tracy to her first prenatal appointment with a nurse-midwife at the Women’s Birth & Wellness Center. Midwife means “with women.” Midwifery is a fundamentally woman-centered approach to maternity care, based on respect for women’s bodies and women’s autonomy over their bodies. Many women who choose midwifery-based care describe it as empowering. Sitting by Tracy’s side at her first appointment, I found it empowering, too. And so I decided to go with her to every one of her prenatal appointments after that. At each appointment, we learned what was going on with our developing baby and Tracy’s body. As my understanding of the whole process grew, I felt … Read More

What is Community Prenatal Care? Community prenatal care (CPC) at Women’s Birth & Wellness Center is a unique program designed to meet the needs of the family delivering in a birth center. CPC is inspired by an evidence-based/researched model of delivering prenatal care to women in a group setting. After two individual prenatal visits in the clinic, you begin monthly group visits from 16-20 weeks in your pregnancy until your due date. You will know the dates of all six of the group sessions in advance. You will also have regular visits in the clinic between group sessions. Why Community Prenatal Care? CPC is woman-focused, enhances a woman’s ability to make decisions regarding her own care, and encourages the social support that is so critical to successful out-of-hospital birth. You also receive the benefits of one-to-one care and meeting all the WBWC providers during your regular clinic visits. For the family planning a birth center birth, the group sessions offer the opportunity to meet with like-minded women and partners who have made the same choice. Having a forum for discussing questions and concerns about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and parenting provides you with a supportive community which will enhance your pregnancy and birth experience and build your confidence in your ability to birth, feed, and parent your baby. In community, you have the opportunity to challenge the traditional philosophy of birth that treats pregnancy and birth as disease states, embraces technology, and builds fear. You will help to empower each other with confidence in your body’s knowledge and wisdom, trust in your ability to cope with pain, and belief that you know more about your body and your baby than “experts” do. What happens at group? A group of six to ten women with similar due dates meet for six monthly sessions for 90 minutes in an informal setting with two WBWC co-facilitators: a midwife, who rotates, and a nurse, who will be the same for all sessions. Partners may participate as well. You check and record your own weight, blood pressure, and weeks of pregnancy and keep a copy of the information in your “chart”. Growth of the uterus and fetal heart tones are checked by the midwife in a private area of the group space. You will only be apart from the group for three minutes for the tummy checks! The group sessions follow a syllabus but the majority … Read More