I am working on a follow-up to my Celebrate
Yourself article for next month. Tell me in which expected and unexpected ways
your body changed during or after pregnancy. Please email me at cmckiernan@yahoo.com
with
the subject title “WBWC: Body” (or something similar, so I know it’s not spam).
I will not use any names in the article! Thanks!
Monday, October 29, 2012
Saturday, October 27, 2012
New Arrivals
*Lucia Ellen Noykos – 7 lbs., 13 oz. – June 26
*Rachel Lorelai Chavez – 8 lbs., 15 oz. – August 18
*Calvin Patrick Herr – 7 lbs., 7oz. – August 22
*Agata Emilia Misior – 8 lbs., 8 oz. – August 27
*Clayton Anderson Jablonski – 7 lbs., 1 oz. – August 30
Cora Sayre Bachhuber – 9 lbs., 8 oz. – September 1
Baby Boy Beeler Furtado – 6 lbs., 11 oz. – September 2
Evan
Rodriguez – 9 lbs., 9 oz. – September 8
Silas Copeland Raye – 9 lbs., 3 oz. – September 8
Finn Pearce Carter – 8 lbs., 15 oz. – September 9
Reed Avery Currin – 9 lbs., 8 oz. – September 10
Odin Antonio Ruiz – 9 lbs., 4 oz. – September 10
Evan Michael Pasquale – 9 lbs., 14 oz. – September
11
Emerson Wade Hadley – 6 lbs., 2 oz. – September 12
Josephine Lorraine Higgins – 9 lbs., 12 oz. – September
12
Madison Brylee Miller – 9 lbs., 1 oz. – September 13
Grady Lee McCutcheon – 9 lbs., 4 oz. – September 13
*Solomon David Hollowell – 7 lbs., 5 oz. – September 15
Eloise Elizabeth Green – 6 lbs., 15 oz. – September
16
*Elliott Ruth McKelvey – 8 lbs., 15 oz. – September
16
Henry Winther Bennett – 7 lbs., 7 oz. – September 16
Kendall Claire Ann Lloyd – 7 lbs., 10 oz. – September
18
Abigail Charity Bradley – 8 lbs., 4 oz. – September 20
Juliet Leonard Howell Peréz – 7 lbs., 4 oz. – September 20
Andrew Levi Seagroves – 9 lbs. – September 21
Fletcher Khalil Pineo – 8 lbs., 4 oz. – September 26
*Lillian Sophia Mangione – 8 lbs., 4 oz. – September 26
Jonah Reay Willson – 7 lbs., 11 oz. – September 27
*Laali Singh Lindsley – 8 lbs., 7 oz. – September 30
Cora Josephine Tinkler – 8 lbs., 4 oz. – September 30
Birth story of Cillian Luke Bradburn
by Casey Bradburn
When I found out I was pregnant I was
excited but also a little shocked and scared. We had barely even been trying
for a few weeks. And we weren't even really trying; we were just finally to the
point where we figured if it happened it would be great and we wouldn't try to
inhibit it anymore. My immediate family members have had numerous issues with
pregnancies so I thought it would take quite a while to get pregnant. I guess I
thought wrong. My husband, Cole, and I now joke that we are probably so fertile
that all Cole has to do is wink at me from across the room and I'll likely get
pregnant again.
With the good news I called my
parents, brother, and sister. They all live 15 hours away so telling them in
person wasn't really an option. I was nervous to tell my sister, who is ten
years my senior, and had been having trouble getting pregnant. After a long
pause she finally told me that she had just found out that she, too, was
pregnant and due the day after I was. Our mother had been begging for
grandbabies for well over a decade and my sister and I talked about how crazy
it would be for our kids to possibly be born in the same week. My sister didn't
want to tell anyone else about her pregnancy yet and get their hopes up too
soon. I also thought this would be best because our mother's name is Joy and
she certainly lives up to it with her excessively jovial tendencies. The sheer
thought of how chipper she would be to hear that she had her first two
grandchildren on the way at the same time sort of gave me a headache.
Now that the immediate family had been
informed the next step was to figure out how and where we wanted to give birth.
The biggest decision was to figure out whether I wanted to go with a hospital
birth, home birth, or birthing center. I did a lot of self searching as to what
I wanted the birth to be like. Cole and I try to avoid all medicines and
interventions when possible so we knew we would like the birth of our child to
be natural. Also, the last thing I wanted to do was to be lying on my back in a
hospital with my feet in those horrendous stirrups and with a ton of devices
hooked up all over my body. No thanks. After doing our due diligence
researching the safety and philosophy of going with a traditional hospital
birth versus using a midwife, we decided that a midwife would be a better fit
for us. The birth center had great reviews and I liked the thought that
they were close to and had privileges at the nearby UNC hospital in case any
major complications did arise.
We took a tour of the birth center
when I was around seven weeks pregnant. On the way back to work I nearly
freaked out by myself in the car thinking that this was real. And it was
probably going to hurt pretty badly. That was not a fun realization to have
sneak up on me when I wasn’t expecting it to get so real so quickly. Then I
decided that I just wasn't going to be pregnant anymore. I would somehow wish
it away and we'd try again later when I was more prepared. My mind went back
and forth and I finally somehow calmed myself down by telling myself that a.)
pregnant ladies sometimes go straight crazy and often can't think sensibly and
b.) some of my ridiculous friends have competently given birth so it really was
something I could manage (sometimes I'm a jerk). But seriously, if 20 bazillion
ladies had given birth in the past then I certainly could too. I am
strong-willed and stubborn and I was suddenly determined to absolutely dominate
this birth. Actually, this determination didn't come until much later on,
but thankfully it did or else my birth story would likely be very different.
Cole and I spent the next months
enjoying our last days as non-parents. Our friend Wes basically moved in with
us to design and paint our son's very detailed Zelda nursery (which is awesome,
went viral, and became very popular in the video gaming community). When we
weren’t working or spending time at home with Wes we were staying busy. We were
taking a 12 week Bradley Method birthing class, reading a lot of pregnancy
books, buying all the baby essentials, trying to agree on what kind of parents
we wanted to be, and making promises to each other that our relationship would
remain a top priority. And, of course, we were spending an increasing amount of
time at the birth center as the months went on. I enjoyed the appointments with
the different midwives and always looked forward the most to hearing my little
man's heartbeat—fast and strong. We seemed to have the most appointments with
three midwives: Emily, Maureen, and Kate. After having a couple of appointments
in a row with Kate, Cole had a feeling early on that she would be the one on
call when I went into labor. I dismissed his feeling, figuring that there was a
one in six chance for any of the midwives and that our son would ultimately
choose. It all just depended upon which
day he decided to grace us with his arrival.
Around 38 weeks I finally went through
the nesting phase which Cole was pretty sure would never happen because in the
11 or 12 years we’ve been together he has never seen me become Suzy Homemaker.
I also wanted to go through all my pregnancy books again and mentally prepare
for what seemed like it was going to be a marathon when I sometimes didn't even
feel ready for a 5k. At the 39 week appointment, on June 29, I told Emily that
I was pretty sure my son was going to come soon. Cole and I left the birth
center and I texted my sister to see how her 39 week appointment went, which
was also that morning. She immediately called me and said that her water just
broke at her appointment and she was waiting for contractions to start and was
heading to the hospital.
I was concerned about her and my future niece,
so I woke up at 5am the next day, Saturday June 30, and started a text
conversation with my sister-in-law since she was at the hospital, too. I tried
to wake up Cole, who had promised to make breakfast, but he was exhausted and
said he would make it in a couple of hours. We both easily went back to sleep.
Then just before 9am I got up and my
water immediately broke with a gush. Holy ish! My sister and I were going to
possibly have our babies on the same day. I started walking around the
neighborhood until there was too much liquid and it was dripping down my
leg (labor is super sexy like that sometimes). Cole called the birth center and
Kate was indeed on call that day, just as he suspected. My contractions hadn't
started quite yet but Kate said they generally do soon after the water breaks.
We had planned that as soon as the contractions started being consistently
between 2-3 minutes apart we should head over. Considering the fact that my mom
and sister both had very long first labors, I figured that I'd be the same way
and it would probably be much later that night before it was time to go to the
birth center.
Contractions started sometime
around 10:30a.m. Cole and I were excited and spent a lot of time trying to
compile a music playlist for the labor. I soon decided I'd had enough with the
playlist since my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. Then
my body decided it needed to suddenly rid itself of everything I had eaten that
day. Uh-oh, I remembered hearing something in our birthing class about that meaning
labor was progressing. I had always heard how long labors usually lasted with a
first child so I was surprised at how fast everything was moving along. One
good thing that I had going for myself was that I was getting adjusted by a
chiropractor, which generally makes labor go more quickly, but this still
seemed to be moving almost too quickly.
By 3:30pm my contractions were very
strong and more painful. They had been around 3 minutes apart for
close to an hour and had just started getting closer together. That week broke
heat records and each day was between 102 and 108 degrees. That was certainly
fun while nine months pregnant. Of course, as luck would have it, my company
car for that time was a black car with black leather. Cole loaded the car and
started the engine so it could cool off. We figured we'd call the birth center and
head in. We called and talked to Kate again and she advised getting in the bathtub
for a while to see if that slowed everything down. I was just ready to have my
child but I got in the tub to see what happened. In the bathtub the
contractions were still painful but they felt a little more manageable. I've
always had the ability to fall asleep in really awkward places so in the few
moments between the contractions I was so calm and at peace with everything
that I was falling asleep in my bathtub. Then I realized that I had no idea
where my husband was. I remember
screaming at him to come time my contractions for me. He came in and sat on the
toilet beside me and I would hit his leg to inform him when to start and
stop the timer (you remember the part about labor being super sexy, right?).
The first few contractions slowed down but then they quickly sped back up. The
last one was under two minutes and we thought it was time to call back and get
ourselves to the birth center. I called Kate back and after she asked a few
questions she told us to head in.
Cole repacked and restarted the car then
realized that our dog probably needed to eat and go out right then or else we'd
have to ask one or two friends who had keys to our house if they were available
and could take him out later. I remember half-yelling at Cole, "You can
take him out but I'm not kidding when I say that you need to hurry your
@$$ up about it."
Finally, everything was taken care of
and we were on the way for the 50 minute drive to the birth center. New parents
are never the smartest and for some reason we had put the car seat in the base
behind me which made the front seat completely vertical. I couldn't imagine
being any more uncomfortable. In the car was the first time I really had the
thought that maybe I didn’t want to go through this naturally and drug-free. I
somehow had the peace of mind to realize that I must be close to second
stage labor if that was how I was feeling and I intrinsically knew I could
accomplish this feat.
We arrived at the birth center just
before 6pm where Kate and Lydia were waiting for us. Kate checked me and I was
already at 9cm dilated. No wonder I was miserable on the car ride; I was going
through transition during the drive. I definitely don't recommend that! Soon my
body was starting to push on its own which was quite a strange feeling. Kate
asked how I felt in the bathtub at home and I said that I was relaxed and kept
falling asleep. We figured maybe I'd be most comfortable in the bathtub so I
tried to move to it. I remember being past the point of caring about anything
other than having my baby. I had a sports bra and a really cute bikini top in
my bag, but didn't even think about grabbing them. I just stripped down and got
in the tub. Jeez, what a sight to see. I
was a completely naked and fat pregnant lady with a few light tan lines and a
lot of large, reddish-purple stretch marks. Let me just tell you that I have the
utmost respect for anyone who can deal with that mess all day.
Once I was in the bathtub, just like
that, it was time to start pushing. To me, pushing didn't hurt nearly as badly;
it was more of a relief and gave a purpose to the contractions and something to
focus on. I pushed for less than an hour and only the last few pushes, when the
baby’s head was crowning, were really painful for me. But then guess
what happened at 7:21pm-- my son, Cillian Luke Bradburn, was born and
that pain was gone. It was replaced with my son in my arms and an exciting
new world ahead of me. I got to hold my amazing baby boy and
watch my proud husband shed a few tears of amazement. Within an
hour after Cillian was born I was back to my normal jokester self. Within a few weeks I wondered what I ever did
before the little man was a part of my life.
I certainly don't feel like I could
have gone through the labor and delivery as easily without the support and
encouragement from Cole and Kate. I’m telling you, though, once you've
accomplished that—once you’ve been
coherently aware of and physically in charge of your birthing process—the whole
world is suddenly within your grasp and you're empowered enough to realize that
absolutely anything is possible.
To
sum it up with a quote, “Labor is hard work. It hurts. And you can do it.”
Spotlight: Mariah Velazquez CNM
Mariah
was born and raised in Chapel Hill, but moved to Charlotte for a while before realizing
she belonged back home. She returned to Chapel Hill two years ago. She
completed her undergraduate degree at UNC Charlotte and her graduate midwifery
degree at Frontier Nursing University.
Married
to her high school sweetheart for the past six years, Mariah has a son, Kaiden
(5) and a daughter Lilia (3). Lilia was born at home, and Mariah is due with
her third baby at the end of March! Mariah enjoys spending all of her time off
with her lovely family.
What does Mariah like
best about the WBWC?
“I love the heart of
WBWC. I have never seen another practice that truly cares so much about their
clients. I love being out of hospital and practicing true midwifery care. I
feel privileged to be a part of the practice, and I really cannot picture
myself working anywhere else now.”
Bean Recipe
recommended by Marcelaine Tanner
This is my favorite recipe for beans. I got it
from my sister-in-law, who shared it on our family recipe blog, heritagerecipes.blogspot.com.
I used to think beans were bland, but with this combination of spices I am
happy to eat them all by themselves for lunch. You can use the beans in any
recipe that calls for beans. Beans also freeze well. I make a double batch and
freeze the beans in one-cup portions, which I pull out whenever I need them for
a recipe.
2 cups pinto beans (or any beans), sorted and
washed
2 tsp. granulated garlic powder
1 tsp. parsley
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried cilantro (or 1 1/2 tsp. fresh cilantro)
1/4 tsp. cumin seeds
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
6 cups water
6 bouillon cubes, either chicken or beef
2 tsp. crystallized ginger, chopped (or 1/8 tsp. ginger)--the ginger helps reduce the gas-producing effect of beans
2 tsp. granulated garlic powder
1 tsp. parsley
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried cilantro (or 1 1/2 tsp. fresh cilantro)
1/4 tsp. cumin seeds
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
6 cups water
6 bouillon cubes, either chicken or beef
2 tsp. crystallized ginger, chopped (or 1/8 tsp. ginger)--the ginger helps reduce the gas-producing effect of beans
Rinse the beans--the easiest way to do this is to
put them in a colander and spray them with the sprayer on your sink. Soak the
beans. You can do this by placing them in plenty of water and leaving them for
about eight hours. A faster way is to put the beans in a pot on the stove with
6 cups of water, bring it to a boil, then turn the stove off and let the beans
sit for 1-2 hours.
After soaking the beans, rinse them again. Return
the beans to the pot and add all the spices and the 6 cups of water. Bring to a
boil, then reduce the heat so that the water is just simmering (I turn the knob
to 1 or 2 on my stove). Let the beans cook until they are soft--usually this
takes 1 1/2 hours, but it depends on the beans.
If you want refried beans, mash the beans using a mixer, blender, or potato masher, adding a little of the cooking water if needed.
News from the WBWC Board
by
Kaaren Haldeman
Our Moment of Truth Campaign
Many women are not having important conversations
with their health care providers about how to maintain their health during
pregnancy (62%) or about preparing for motherhood (80%), according to new
research released by the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM). Results
from this new survey show a major gap in what women say they want from their
health care and what women are getting across a spectrum of health needs.
To improve the dialogue, the WBWC is proud to
announce Our Moment of Truth™: A New Understanding of Midwifery Care.
Through this national truth-telling campaign, ACNM aims to raise the bar
for women’s health and re-introduce midwives and midwifery care as important
options that should be the norm for women’s health care services in the United
States.
Midwives are critically important in providing
care to women from adolescence to beyond menopause, but their expert knowledge
of women’s health is often overlooked. Even though the general public often
associates midwives exclusively with maternity care, many women visit a midwife
for a range of services before and after pregnancy. This is just one of the
many truths that Our Moment of Truth™ aims to reveal.
The WBWC is spreading the word! We hope that you
too will consider getting involved in this important initiative to inspire
women across the country to become active decision makers in their health care.
Visit the Our Moment of
Truth™ website at http://ourmomentoftruth.midwife.org for more information and
an overview of survey findings. Or leave a comment to share your moment of
truth.
Celebrate Yourself!
by Claire C.
McKiernan
Did you know that October 11th was the first
official United Nations Day of the Girl? The day was meant to call attention to
all girls, whether they are up against the rules of their society, a lack of
access to health care and education, a school bully, an eating disorder, or any
of a number of horrors faced by girls--and women--everywhere.
This topic naturally leads me to your spider veins. Or
flabby belly, or stretch marks, or that weird third eye that developed on your
forehead in your third trimester. Pregnancy changes a woman’s body and instead
of embracing it, we fight it, deny it, and mourn over it. What does this teach
our daughters (and sons, for that matter)? What does it communicate to our
partners and to society about women?
Many things about pregnancy, child birth, and post
pregnancy are not sexy. They are not meant to be. You are not, after all,
designed for the mere pleasures of man any more than he should be purely
designed for yours. But pregnancy, child birth, and post pregnancy IS beautiful.
These moments contain a beauty that is rich in their femininity as well as in
their strength. And learning to love your body in spite of the weird and
unexpected changes it endures can be a part of this strength. These changes
depict the unique story of you and your transformation into motherhood.
I’ll get the party started and describe a few strange
things that I experienced in pregnancy:
I grew a mole. Sometime in the third trimester of my
first pregnancy, a protruding ugly thing, about the size of a half a currant
raisin emerged on my temple. I accidentally swiped it with my finger nail
during the throes of labor and bled like a stuck pig all over the pillow. I
returned home with a baby in my arms and a bandage on the side of my head. Thankfully, the mole did not grow back.
I sprouted wisdom teeth. With each pregnancy, somewhere
in my 2nd trimester, I sprouted a wisdom tooth: four pregnancies,
four wisdom teeth. I’d like to say they provided me with extra wisdom, but they
mostly required extra time to keep clean, one kept carving into my cheek and
giving me canker sores, I developed a cavity in another one, and I wound up
needing them all extracted.
My feet grew. After my first pregnancy, my feet grew a
half size requiring me to ditch every shoe I owned and purchase new ones. Some
people might see this as a great opportunity, but I hate shopping, so this was
no fun for me. After my fourth pregnancy, some seven years later, my feet
somehow returned to their original size. Go figure. I now own both sizes,
depending on the shoe.
My hair changed. After my first pregnancy, my hair turned
a darker brown. It no longer gets natural auburn highlights in the summer sun,
but I like the richness of it, so, that was a pleasant change. In my fourth
pregnancy it became thick and coarse, giving me volume I had always dreamed of.
I never liked my limp, fine hair, and now suddenly I had thicker, coarser
hairs. You know what? I hated it. It felt like I was brushing someone else’s
hair. It felt rough in comparison to the hair I had always had. Less than a
year after the birth, it returned to normal (still quite dark). That brief
encounter with the hair I had always thought I wanted was a turning point for
me. Suddenly I realized that the hair I had always seen as limp and fine might
actually be seen as shiny and silky-soft. I loved it for the first time and realized I
should have loved it all along.
Of course, I experienced less oddball changes, some of
which are permanent features. I went through the mourning stage and the futile
attempts to erase the signs that my body had been through a metamorphosis in
order to produce a thriving healthy child. But then, over time (and after the
hair experience), something wonderful happened. I started putting a good spin
on changes that have occurred, including stretch marks, which, on a good day, I
can even SMILE about because they remind me of the babies I once held within my
expanding belly.
Next time you look in the mirror and see something you’d
rather not see, take the time to reflect (a pun—haha!) on why this change
bothers you. Should it? Or is it that you just need time to get acquainted with
yourself, accept yourself, and embrace the fact that your body shows off some of
your life experiences?
So, what changes have you experienced? Common or quirky, temporary
or lasting, positive or not-so-positive, these changes make us beautiful,
strong women. If you want your daughters to feel that way about themselves and
your sons to view women in this way, then it starts with how we view ourselves.
Send some emails my way at cmckiernan@yahoo.com, and I’ll write a follow-up
article (I won’t use names) celebrating the various changes our bodies have
gone through in order to keep the human race alive!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)