New Arrivals

Left to right: Laura Williams, Saibh Bradley, Eleanor Roybal, Cadel Strummer

Everett Grey Edmiston – 8 lbs., 14 oz. – October 16

Cadel Strummer Jahannia – 7 lbs., 7 oz. - December 28

August Edward Stohrer – 6 lbs., 13 oz. – February 2

Opal Kate Dudek – 7 lbs. – February 3

Eleanor Dae Roybal – 8 lbs., 4 oz. – February 4

Orin Desmond Englebretson – 9 lbs., 3 oz. – February 8

Link Blount Pelto – 7 lbs. – February 8

Saibh Róisín Shannon Bradley – 8 lbs., 15 oz. – February 9

Owen Vincent Welsh - 10 lbs., 1 oz. – February 10

Micah McAlister Stewart – 10 lbs., 5 oz. – February 11

Omri Elias Baehr – 7 lbs., 6 oz. – February 12

Laura Claire Williams - 8 lbs. – February 19

Michelle Caroline Warner – 7 lbs. – February 19

Macaulay Anna Mitchell – 9 lbs., 3 oz. – February 20

Emmeline Jewel Eason – 8 lbs., 8 oz. – February 21

Yusuf Michael Griffin – 7 lbs., 8 oz. – February 26

Boone Campton Mayfield – 10 lbs, 2 oz. – February 26

*Yes, you read that correctly – there were 3 babies born in February who weighed more than 10 pounds!*

If you would like your baby's birth announced in the newsletter, send an e-mail to missy_swanson@hotmail.com. Be sure to include your baby's name, weight, and birthdate; feel free to attach a picture! We'd like to hear from all WBWC moms, whether your baby was born at the Birth Center or UNC.

Spotlight: WBWC's Nurse Practitioners

Deborah Adler, WHNP, and Rachel VanBree, FNP/WHNP

Just because you're not pregnant doesn't mean you can't get your primary care at WBWC! Our two nurse practitioners, Rachel VanBree, FNP/WHNP, and Deborah Adler, WHNP, provide a full spectrum of well-woman care for women from puberty to post-menopause. In addition to your annual PAP test and gynecological exam, you can also get a complete yearly physical with our NPs. Deborah and Rachel also treat respiratory and urinary tract infections, as well as minor gynecological problems; prescribe medications and order lab work; provide menopause consultation and support; and assist with family planning and birth control needs -- in short, anything you would need from a primary care provider.
      Both Deborah and Rachel have extensive backgrounds in Women's Health.  Deborah started her career with a psychology degree and spent time working on a research study on premature babies.  She changed paths, however, and earned her Master's degree as a Women's Heatlh Nurse Practitioner from Vanderbilt University in 1998.  She worked for several years as a WHNP in an outpatient clinic in Durham, seeing a wide range of patients, from menarche through menopause.  In 2002, she moved with her husband to California, where she worked at an inner-city hospital as labor and delivery nurse and at a clinic as a NP.  She later moved to Tennessee, where she taught at East Tennessee State University, and gave birth to her daughter.  Deborah moved back to NC in 2006. She gave birth to her son in 2007 at WBWC with the loving guidance of Maureen and Ellen.  She taught online nursing classes before joining the WBWC staff in August 2010.  She's currently working on her Lactation Consultant certification, and will sit for the exam this summer. You'll find Deborah in the WBWC on Fridays.
     Rachel entered the health care field as a nurse in the intensive care unit.  After a few years, she began working as a labor and delivery nurse, both at the hospital and at WBWC.  Her experiences working with laboring women at WBWC encouraged her to pursue graduate studies in women's health, and she earned her Family Nurse Practitioner/Women's Health Nurse Practitioner degree from UNC Chapel Hill in 2004.  As an NP at the Chatham County Health Department, Rachel provided primary and obstetric care for a variety of patients.  Rachel gave birth to her first daughter at WBWC in 2008, with the guidance of Maureen and Jewell.  She returned to WBWC as a Family and Women's Health Nurse Practitioner in October 2008.  In 2010, she was back to being a WBWC patient, and gave birth to her second daughter!  She's now back in the WBWC clinic, seeing patients four days a week.
    Visit our clinic and see how our woman-centered primary care differs from what you may have come to expect from other types of care providers.  Our knowledgeable, experienced Nurse Practitioners are available for appointments in the WBWC clinic to provide sensitive, personalized care for women in all stages of life. 

Recipe: Dal

Emily Joubert, CNM, one of our resident cooking enthusiasts, has shared with us her tasty dal recipe.  This flavorful lentil dish that provides you with lots of fiber, iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium - all important nutrients for growing a baby or maintaining a healthy lifestyle!

2 cups yellow lentils

½ tsp dried red chile pepper

2 tsp mustard seeds

4 tbsp vegetable oil

2 plum tomatoes, chopped

2-inch piece fresh ginger

1 Serrano or other spicy green chile

2 cloves garlic

½ cup cilantro, chopped

salt

• Rinse lentils under cool running water. Place lentils and dried red chile in a heavy bottomed pot. Cover with 2 inches of salted water. Bring to a simmer. Cook until lentils are tender but not mush, about 25 minutes; add more water if needed while simmering.
• While the lentils are cooking, grate ginger and finely dice the Serrano chile. When the lentils are just tender, add the tomatoes.
• In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium high heat until hot. Add mustard seeds carefully, as some will pop out of the pan!
• Once the mustard seeds have popped, about 1 minute, add the ginger and chile. Sauté until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
• Add mustard seed mixture to lentils, adjust salt and simmer for about 15 more minutes. Add more water if the mixture seems dry. Turn off the heat and stir in the cilantro.
• Serve with jasmine or Basmati rice.

Serves 6

Child Abuse Awareness in April

by Brianna Honea

Women’s Birth & Wellness Center is a member of NC Prevent Child Abuse. In the month of April, we will plant a pinwheel garden to help boost community-wide public awareness. Birth center children are welcome to help “plant” the pinwheels on our front lawn. The planting will begin in April. Stop by the Birth Center for a pinwheel to plant.

My Third Birth Story

By Claire C. McKiernan

          Three kids in four years? It was about to happen to me. I was more than ready to meet this baby, partly given the fact that one of my organs (or maybe the baby’s foot) had been rammed up against my rib for the entire last month of pregnancy causing incredible discomfort.

My third labor began after a homemade meal at my mom’s house on February 21, 2007. Around 5pm I began having cramping sensations that came, got stronger, and then faded. I didn’t immediately recognize it as a contraction since my first two labors had not begun that way, and my first two babies had been a few days past their due dates (this was a few days before my due date). However, as cramps were coming every 15 minutes, I realized: THIS IS IT. Between 6-7pm the contractions were 7-8 minutes apart and lasting up to a minute.

          As I sat on my parents’ couch timing contractions, I remember my husband having an unhurried conversation with my Dad. Mike had taken to heart what one of the midwives had told us: the first baby often takes the longest, the second is the fastest, and the third baby somewhere between the two. Babies, of course, don’t know this rule.

          By 7pm my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and I had convinced Mike to run back home to grab our last minute items, and take care of important things like moving the homemade cheesecake from the freezer to the fridge so we could celebrate the birth when we eventually returned home.

Meanwhile, my mother raced to get things ready for my 4-year-old and 16-month-old so they could settle down with my Dad for the evening.  My mom had been with me for the first two labors, and I wanted her for the third. Mike returned with our bags and stock supply of food and drinks, and helped me into the car. We got to the WBWC by about 8:15pm, and I was in the tub soon after. In the space of an hour I went from 6 cm to 9 cm dilated.

 I had requested and received the same room where my first two children were born.  I found it comforting to be in the same tub where I had given birth some 16 months earlier. My midwife was Heather, and I was lucky enough to have two nurses, Amy and Jill. My husband rubbed my back through my hard contractions as best he could while I was sitting or sideways in the tub. Then, as I discovered in the past, once the pushing stage was upon me, there was no holding back. I had a very fast, though quite uncomfortable, pushing stage.

At 10:45pm, I was so relieved to have that baby placed on my chest, that I deliberately waited a minute or two before we looked to see whether we had another girl or another boy. I remember just soaking in that moment, holding my newborn, not knowing the gender, and just being so in love and so grateful to finally have this child in my arms. My husband cut the cord, and then we looked together to delightfully discover that we had another son!

 I was told that I labored beautifully, and Jill told me it was the first water birth she had seen, and she would always remember it.  I was grateful for the kind words, as, from my point of view, it was definitely a harder (if speedier) labor than my second one, and that had come as quite a surprise! In addition, the placenta took a full half hour to come out which caused a slight stir (by this time Maureen had stopped by to check on me, in addition to the other three women being there) and some painful pushing on my abdomen. This was by far the worst part of the labor. It seemed like an unbearable nuisance that I had done all my work and just wanted to relax with my husband and son, and instead I was being poked and prodded to encourage the placenta to come out. Thankfully, the placenta finally came out with a little tugging and a lot of my pushing - just when I thought my pushing stage was over!

Shortly thereafter, Mike and I were resting blissfully with Peter on the same bed where we had rested those first hours with our first two children. Peter Gregory weighed an even 10 lbs, just one ounce larger than his big brother had been. He was 22.5 inches long, had lovely round cheeks, and was as red as a lobster (the redness went away within a week or so). I alternately nursed, cuddled, rested, and made phone calls.

In the morning, my mother helped me to shower. This is something she had to coax me to do with the first two births, but I looked forward to it for the third. There is nothing like that first shower after giving birth. Sure, you are sore and tired and you just want to go home, but for me, that shower (with help from someone standing outside the curtain) has the power to cleanse, refresh, soothe, and revitalize. It not only helped prepare me physically for the hour-long ride home, but also gave me a bit of a mental boost.  

At 10am, with a deep breath that contained a mixture of satisfaction, excitement, and nervousness, we headed home to face life as parents outnumbered by children!

Express Yourself!

     Our WBWC lactation consultants have put together a new monthly breast pumping class called Express Yourself! This class will take place on the 4th Thursday evening of each month. The first one will be held April 26th at 7 PM at the WBWC Boutique. The cost is $10. Breastfeeding Basics is a prerequisite.  For more information, or to register for the class, stop by the front desk or call us at (919) 933-3301.

“HUG Your Baby”: Reading Your Baby’s Body Language

Jan Tedder, BSN, FNP, IBCLC

UNC Family Medicine Center

Chapel Hill, NC

jtedder@unch.unc.edu

919-923-8295

The first few weeks of a baby’s life is exhilarating, magical, precious and, at times, overwhelming. The HUG Your Baby educational session I offer at WBWC is an effort to give expectant and new parents tools and techniques to prevent and solve problems around a newborn’s eating, sleeping, crying, and attachment.

Here Jessica and Bill (not real names) share their experience with the HUG Your Baby ideas and resources.

New parents, Jessica and Bill, had attended the HUG Your Baby program at the WBWC. But, that was two months ago – a lifetime ago since the birth of their newborn!  Today they are in my office for their newborn’s first checkup. Mom seems anxious.
    
     “I put her to my breast, but she falls back asleep,” Jessica sighs deeply.  “When she seems sleepy, I lay her down. Then her eyes spring open and she seems to wake up.  I can’t tell what she’ll do next!”

These parents, like most new parents, are confused about what “Zone” their baby is in.

The HUG describes three newborn Zones: the Resting Zone (the sleeping baby), the Ready Zone (the baby ready to eat or play), and the Rebooting Zone (the fussy or crying baby). Babies move between these Zones many times throughout the day, and sometimes within the same hour! Zone organization reflects the baby’s developing neurological system. New babies, and especially babies who are born early or with physical challenges, are still developing clear and distinct Zone cycles. Parents can learn to “read” their baby’s Zones and help her move to the best Zone for eating, sleeping, and playing.

After reviewing the information they had previously seen on the HUG DVD, Jessica is smiling when she sees me the following week. “Now, when it’s time for my baby to eat,” she says, “I get her to the Ready Zone.” With considerable enthusiasm, she continues. “I undress her and put her against my chest, skin-to-skin. She squirms and opens her eyes.  I sway her gently or let her suck my finger a minute until I see her eyes brighten up to that Ready Zone.”

Next Jessica describes helping her baby to sleep. “I’ve learned that she has two types of sleep: light and deep. In light sleep she wiggles and squirms.  Her eyes flash open and she makes those sweet, baby sounds. If it’s not eating time, I lean over the cradle and talk quietly to her.  In a few minutes she gets still and quiet again, her breathing slows, and I see I’ve helped her back to that deep Resting Zone.” 

“Now and then,” Bill chimes in, “we hesitate a moment before we respond to our baby in light sleep.  Sometimes, within a few minutes, she’ll go back to that deep Resting Zone all by herself.  She’s so smart, and we get another hour of sleep!”

Bill shows me how he uses this Zone information to play with his little one. “When she has eaten and rested, I swaddle her and hold her face up toward mine -- like this,” he explains bringing her to a 45 degree angle about eight inches from his face.  In this position, the baby’s eyes brighten, her breathing gets regular, and her movement decreases. Bill points out that this is her Ready Zone.  “She’s ready to watch me shake her new rattle or listen to me sing her favorite song.”

While early days of parenting are filled with tender moments and new-found love, these days can also be challenging.  Reading a baby’s Zones and helping her get from one Zone to another will make these days easier and more fun for all. Watch for the upcoming article, “When Your Baby Sends Out an SOS – Sign of Over-Stimulation.”

Sign up for this class at the WBWC.  Go to www.hugyourbaby.org to watch the HUG video clips, read the HUG Your Baby Blog, and/or request the free parent E-Newsletter.

News from the Board

by Kaaren Haldeman    
    
     We officially voted in our seven new board members at our first full board meeting on March 21. We have a great new group that is eager to begin working for the WBWC! In keeping with our goals for enhanced board development, we will all be attending a half-day board orientation March 31 at the Stone House in Mebane. We look forward to introducing everyone to staff in the coming months--pictures and bios are on the way. Happy Spring, everyone!

What's New at the Boutique

International Women's Day

by Martha C. Carlough, MD, MPH 

    
     March 8th was the 101st time International Women’s day has been celebrated (first marked in 1910 in Germany by a political leader of the Social Demographic party). What began as a political movement has become an opportunity to annually mark progress (and lack of) towards better health and equity for girls and women around the globe.
    But as we all know, there is still a lot that needs to be done. In the words of Dr. Mahmoud Fathalla, Founder of the WHO Safer Motherhood Initiative: “Women are not dying because of diseases and problems we cannot treat, they are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving.”

Ten key facts (according to WHO, UN, UNESCO, UNAIDS  and UNICEF):

1.    There are currently 17 countries with women as head of government, head of state, or both, which, according to the UN, has more than doubled since 2005 but there are still six countries where women are not allowed to vote (Bhutan, Lebanon, Brunei, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Vatican City) and women hold only 17% of parliamentary seats worldwide.

2.    Approximately 358,000 women die annually of complications during pregnancy or childbirth, which represents a decline of almost one-third in the last 15 years, but is still far less than the 5% decline annually that would be needed to reach MDG5 (the reduction of maternal deaths by 75% by 2015).  Though not preventable, most of these deaths are avoidable, as the necessary medical interventions exist. The key obstacle is pregnant women's lack of access to quality care before, during, and after childbirth.

3.    On average, women live six to eight years longer than men, but there continue to be vast geographic discrepancies with life expectancy of more than 80 years for women in 35 countries, and less than fifty years still in others (largely Sub-Saharan Africa)

4.    Globally, cardiovascular disease, which is widely considered a male problem, is the leading cause of death for women overall (and responsible for 40% of deaths to women over 60 years of age). For women of reproductive age, HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death.

5.    In 2010, UNAIDS estimated that of the 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS, half are women. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where 75% of people living with HIV/AIDS are, there are an estimated 12 million women with HIV/AIDS (compared to 8.2 million men)

6.    About 16 million girls aged between 15 and 19 give birth each year, accounting for more than 10% of all births. In most countries, the risk of maternal death is twice as high for an adolescent mother as for other pregnant women.

7.    Of the world’s 774 million illiterate adults, 64% are women. There are more girls in school today than ever before, but of the 72 million children worldwide who are not in school, 67% are girls.

8.    Women work two-thirds of the world‘s working hours, produce half of the world‘s food, yet earn only 10% of the world‘s income and own less than 1% of the world‘s property. Although data varies between countries, around the world women earn on average 20% less than men.

9.    An estimated one million girls enter the sex trade each year, and four million women and girls are trafficked.

10.  Globally, approximately one-third of women or girls are beaten or sexually abused in their lifetime.

Tell Me Your Food Cravings!

By Claire C. McKiernan

     I am working on a future article about the weird and wonderful food cravings of moms-to-be (both past and present). Please feel free to email me at cmckiernan@yahoo.com . Title your email 'WBWC: Cravings.'  You can also post your craving on our blog or Facebook page.

     I will not use any names in the article! However, if you have a specific anecdote to share and want me to use your name, let me know.  Thanks!