Month: May 2017

Uncategorized

Effective Birth Plans

schmidtkathryn

Effective Birth Plans

You’re talking to your best friend who made a birth plan for her first child and she says    “ Don’t make a birth plan, they never work out!” “ Birth never goes as planned”  So you think to yourself, Oh ok I won’t make one.

True, most birth plans don’t “work”. However an effective birth plan is just a guide line of how you hope your birth goes. Writing a birth plan does not mean your birth will be on point to a T with said plan. Remember a birth plan is like a road map. A road map can have detours. Detours, you will be ready for because of your birth plan.  An effective plan provides answers to your wishes if they arise. It helps your partner, nurses, and Dr, remember your wishes so they do not need to interrupt you mid contraction. Along with that having a written plan doesn’t mean the staff wont check with you for a procedure. Your birth plan also does not guarantee a certain birth experience.

So how do you make an effective birth plan? As you read, watch and learn about labor, delivery, and postpartum, write down what you want for your own birth. Research your options for each procedure and policy at your hospital. Also make sure you write down what you don’t want or hope to avoid. A birth plan can look like the one below, (feel free to print and use), you can write your own wishes, or you can schedule a birth plan writing session with me and receive a visual birth plan.

I like to play the “what if” game with my clients, it helps them with writing a plan. If they don’t want to write a plan we still play the game so they understand their options. So many things happen when you give birth. I love helping my clients learn their options for their birth experience. The majority of moms talking to a pregnant mom, mainly talk about the pain from labor and suggest receiving an epidural. Which is fantastic for pain relief but did you know this is not the only option for pain relief? Labor, Delivery and your newborn come with many different options, knowing them and making your choice helps you have a more satisfying birth experience.

For more information on pain relief and birth plans contact The Nurturing Doula.

Click the link for more information on visual birth plans.

Katy Schmidt
thenurturingdoula@hotmail.com
805-791-8325

facebook.com/KSThe.Nurturing.Doula

Birth PlanBirth plan 2

 

 

all, pregnancy

Baby’s making my back hurt!

schmidtkathryn

“Chiropractic care is health maintenance of the spinal column, discs, related nerves and bone geometry without drugs or surgery. It   involves the art and science of adjusting misaligned joints of the body, especially of the spine, which reduces spinal nerve stress and therefore promotes health throughout the body.” (http://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancy-health/chiropractic-care-during-pregnancy/ )

Chiropractic care during pregnancy can be very beneficial. Make sure you speak to your health care provider before beginning any chiropractic care. Some benefits of chiropractic’s during pregnancy are maintaining a healthier pregnancy, a balance in your pelvis, can possibly control symptoms of nausea, may reduce your labor and delivery time, and can relieve back, neck and joint pain. With a balanced pelvis your baby has room for development and room to move into the optimal position for birth. Also this may make a breech or posterior presentation at birth less likely. If your baby is not in the optimal fetal position your Chiropractor may suggest the Webster Technique.

The Webster Technique is a chiropractic sacral adjustment to help align the mothers pelvis and nervous system function.

Which balances the pelvic muscles and ligaments, reducing torsion in the uterus. Originally this technique was used to help a baby get into the optimal position.  Recent studies have shown this technique has more than just positioning benefits. This technique may help with sleep, low back pain, relaxation in the mother, and a possibility of a quicker labor and delivery. It is important to know that the Webster Technique is not guaranteed to change the position of the baby. It simply allows the baby the room it needs to turn. Some Chiropractors do this adjustment 3-4 times before calling it quits. There could be an underlying cause to the Webster Technique not working for you and your baby.

I talked with my go-to chiropractor in Lapeer, Dr Teresa Cummings, about chiropractic care in pregnancy.

This is what she had to say.

“Chiropractic can be valuable throughout all the stages of pregnancy. It can help with the aches and pains of a normal pregnancy. Chiropractic can help decrease pelvic pain, sciatic pain, rib pain, back and neck pain, and headaches. By keeping your pelvis and sacrum in the proper alignment it may also help make labor and delivery a little easier.

There is also a chiropractic technique called Webster’s Technique which helps the correction of breach babies. With Webster’s Technique the chiropractor adjusts the sacrum and releases the round ligament on the opposite side. This allows the uterus to come into a more neutral position allowing baby to turn.”

Chiropractic care is as important in pregnancy as when you aren’t pregnant. Take care of yourself!

Katy Schmidt
thenurturingdoula@hotmail.com
805-791-8325

facebook.com/KSThe.Nurturing.Doula