Ridge Meadows Doula Services

Your experienced Doula Collective (Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows and beyond!)

10 things I miss about breastfeeding

 

To celebrate World Breastfeeding Week I thought I should blog…. But I wasn’t breastfeeding anymore?! What do I blog about? I miss breastfeeding…. Wait, I miss breastfeeding. Brilliant. It was hard for me to determine why or what parts of breastfeeding I miss because there were so many. So I compiled them into 10 points. Enjoy.

 

1) Convenience—– When your baby is hungry you want to feed them as soon as you can. With breast milk it is always there, always the right temperature. No sanitizing bottles at 3:30am, just roll over and feed. Awesome!

2) Milk Coma Smiles—– Have you ever looked down at a milk coma induced baby who is smiling at you, and not had your heart melt?! I doubt it.

3) Miracle Milk—–In our house diaper rash, pink eye, ear infection, nasal congestion, eczema and skin conditions were all healed with breast milk. ***Please remember I am not a doctor and you may want to consult with a medical professional***

4) Healthy Baby + a Happy Mama—– Mia was rarely sick. Breast feeding is known to build a strong immune systems in babies. This is because breast milk has natural antibodies that help babies develop immunity against illness and disease.

5) Educating People—– I had more conversations about birth and breastfeeding with single male friends than I would have ever thought. I educated them and my other friends as I was on my breastfeeding journey. I answered questions as to ” Why this long?” “Why is breast milk so healthy?” “How do you ever leave your baby?” and so on. We had respectful conversations and I shared the importance of breastfeeding with people that simply didn’t know.

6) Soothing baby—– If you don’t know what’s wrong 9 times out of 10 the baby wants to breastfeed. Whether they are hungry, want you close or need to soothe, the breast often works. A great piece of advice my midwife shared with me was “there are many parents bouncing a baby down the hall at 4am and what they really need is another 5 minutes on the breast”. Those words of wisdom saved me.

7) Naturally empowering—–My body can provide all the nutrients my daughter needs, as much as she needs and when she needed it. Supply and demand. A woman’s body is amazing, celebrate it ladies!

8) Saving Cash—– No bottles, no formula, no cost. Sure I spent money on a pump (that I should have rented because I didn’t need it after Mia was 6 weeks) and I bought washable breast pads for those leaky moments. Formula (low end of cost) is 0.12 cents an once., that is $1224.72 a year. (source- kellyMom) http://kellymom.com/pregnancy/bf-prep/bfcostbenefits/#formulacosts

9) I was more rested —–We chose to bed share in our house. Besides being attachment parents, it was convenient. When Mia woke, I rolled over and fed her. She barely woke at night, I barely woke, we were all in zombie type states and it worked for us. We did this for 2 years. At age 2 she had her own room and would walk down the hall for an early morning feeding. It was mutually agreed (my husband, myself and Mia) and it worked for us.

10) Cuddles —– Once Mia was mobile she was far too interested in exploring than cuddling. Still at 3.5, I get a few cuddles when she is hurt, but other than that she is on the move. When I was breastfeeding I got the added bonus of sneaking in the cuddle time without her knowing. She fed, I got a cuddle, we both were happy.

 

There were times when I thought I was done.  I wanted more freedom and I felt “touched-out”. This is when I knew I needed some alone time, my husband stepped in and I cared for myself. 2.5 years was a long time, but the percentage of my life I spent breastfeeding is minimal. Enjoy it while you can ladies, you won’t be breastfeeding forever.

Have you “liked” my Facebook Page? https://www.facebook.com/RidgeMeadowsDoulaServices

 

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My Birth Story

As a doula, I look back on my birth and dream of what it could have been. I know my birth experience was the way it was for many reasons. The day it happened, the time of day, the reason I had a hospital birth and not a home birth and the people I had with me were all sequenced that way on purpose.

My birth story has many chapters, but today I will keep in short. One day I am sure I will dive into the details.

My daughter was due December 30th 2009, but fitting to Mia’s personality, she took her own sweet time and was encouraged (via Pitocin) to be born on January 11th. I chose this day because the midwife I was most connected with was on call and if I was going to have a hospital birth and not a home birth, I wanted people around me I was comfortable with. Along with Sylvia I had my husband, friend Jenn and my mother-in-law.

I was induced shortly after 8am, was able to walk around a short time and then things started moving around noon. My husband was on massage duty and was applying pressure to my hips (now trained as a doula I know he was applying a double hip squeeze) as I had a contraction. My support person had just birthed her 3rd child at home 6 months prior and knew exactly what I needed before I knew it. I had a cold cloth on my face, neck and forehead between waves and sips of water and “labour aide” given to my from a straw while I rested between contractions. PS- This really is only good cold! My mother-in-law was encouraging everyone to eat and making sure all the hospital staff were doing their best work, she demanded informed choices and for me to be part of the decision making process. My body just knew what to do. I pushed when I needed to push, I rested when I needed to rest. Not once was I checked by my midwife, she encouraged me to listen to my body. At around 2pm Sylvia (my midwife) told me I was already pushing… I had no idea, I was just in the zone. This is when I asked to be checked….. being a first time birther, I was starting to get nervous about pushing, anxious to birth and excited to meet my daughter. being an experienced midwife, Sylvia was right. I was 10cm dilated and ready to push. 4 hours later I was still pushing and still on Pitocin, baby was doing ok, but I was really beat.

This is where everything happened so fast, the pitocin machine was beeping, something strange was happening and it was not giving the proper dosage and my pushing was not as effective. Suddenly there was an OBGYN in the room with team. I consented to the vacuum. A large difference from the serene home birth I had planned. Being educated on the subject I knew the fact that I was essentially strapped to the bed and already having the intervention of Induction along with pushing for 4 hours the likelihood of the vacuum, forceps or caesarean were increasing. In moments, the vacuum was on, baby was born, the cord was cut (little delayed cord clamping) and the OBGYN flew out like a flash leaving Mia with me.

Mia was on my chest, I cried, Jonathan cried,my support person cried, the Midwife had a happy smirk and my mother-in-law was doing her best not to cry. Mia was born… healthy, alert and perfect. January 11th 2010.

I had a long amount of skin to skin with Mia as well as breastfeeding initiation within the first hour… 2 key points on the crumpled up, re-wrote birth plan I really wanted.

Are there things I would have changed, sure. But I made informed choices along the way… There was no coercion or fear. I knew my body was amazing and I knew by baby was coming out of my vagina.

Business cards are in!

Woohoo! my business cards are in. Now to share with friends, co-workers and the local midwifery.

I’m not in love with them but they are good for a first timer business owner. next time I’d likely make the font a bit bigger and lose the grey (hard to read). The positives are my logo rocks! Who wants one?

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I already have a midwife, do I need a doula?

Iv’e heard the question asked in many different ways time and time again….

 

“I have a midwife, do I need a doula”

I have a doula, do I need a midwife?”

“what is the difference between a midwife and a doula”

 

The difference is sizable, midwives and doulas have entirely different training and roles in your birth. As I explain the differences I want to be clear that both midwives and doula have many, many more examples of what they do than I will provide right now. Im hoping to make this blog post clear and simple so you the reader will know the difference.

 

Your Midwives will…

  • Run prenatal tests
  • Advise you on health during pregnancy, birth and postpartum
  • Monitor you and baby during prenatally, during labour and birth and for 6 weeks postpartum
  • Perform physical examinations prenatally, during labour and postpartum

**Please note-  Midwifes in Canada are all licensed medical Professionals.**

 

Your Birth Doula will:

  • Meet you before the birth and establish a realationship with the mom and dad
  • Help you articulate your vision for your birth (birth plan)
  • Refer you to resources in the community (for prenatal and postpartum)
  • Do their best to keep you and your partner relaxed and calm in labour
  • Use a variation of massage and grounding tequniques during labour
  • Suggest postitions for you in labour and during birth
  • Reminding hospital staff about the mothers birth plan
  • Provide postpartum emotional support and help with breastfeeding initiation.

Some Doulas (ME! ME!) are also trained as a postpartum doula. Read more about Doulas  https://ridgemeadowsdoulaservices.com/?page_id=125

 

Your Postpartum Doula will:

A Postpartum Doula

  • Offer education, companionship and nonjudgmental support after the baby is born
  • Assists with newborn care and family adjustment
  • Offers evidence-based information on infant feeding, emotional and physical recovery from birth, infant soothing and coping skills for new parents and makes appropriate referrals when necessary
  • Assist with basic household chores and meal preparation
  • Assists with breastfeeding

 

If you have any questions or concerns, contact me. I can share about what I do personally, my experience, training etc. More importantly I can see if I am the right doula for you.

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Why only one?

 

 

Something I’ve been hearing more and more often is “when are you having another baby?” My daughter is 3.5 years and I can tell acquaintances and clients at work are on ‘baby bump spotting’. Continuously judging my belly and really I just skipped my run for the day and had an extra helping of dinner the night before.

My answer is often “not anytime soon” or “I get my baby fix with my doula clients”… On occasion I get really adamant people who are insisting I am not being the best mother to Mia because I’m not giving her a sibling. I mean, is it really their business? They don’t know my personal life, my family life or my health issues I have been working through for the last 4.5 years (edit- 7.5 years). They don’t know I had a hysterectomy a year ago because i had cancer. And do they need to? Part of me wants to say “I’d love to but I’m missing my uterus” (spiteful maybe?!) The other part of me wants run away and cry and the 3rd part wants to educate. I want to educate people about cancer below the belt and I want people to get regular pap testing. I want to educate people on the challenge it was to get pregnant and the fact that many other woman have a challenging time as well for varying reasons…. And lastly educate people on being happy, content and mindful of their own lives and kiss all the sweet children they have been blessed to have.

 

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Edit- June 2016 and Mia is 6.5 years old. She now has the knowledge of anatomy to know that Mommy doesn’t have a uterus and proudly shares this with alone that will listen. Do her friends or class mates know what a uterus is?! Probably not, but after spending some time with Mia, she will teach them.