Choosing to Breastfeed

Choosing to breastfeed is one of the most beneficial decisions a new mother can make for her baby, herself, and even her family. Breastmilk is the most perfect infant food, sustaining the baby’s health and nourishment single-handedly for the first six months of life. The physical and emotional benefits remain with the baby throughout his life.

Breastfeeding is also the best way for mom to help her post-pregnancy body and mind. The breastfeeding relationship is beneficial to her health, her parenting, and her baby. The family unit benefits from breastfeeding as well.
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Preparing for Birth

What’s the best way to prepare for giving birth? Especially if you’ve never done it before?

Some would take the more external approach, pointing in the direction of childbirth education classes, specific books or in taking a hospital tour. But when you have not experienced birth (and even if you have), the best way to prepare is very inward.

The most obvious “inward” way to prepare your body is to get it ready by practicing optimal nutrition during pregnancy. Everything that goes into your body has the potential to help or harm your baby, and like an athlete preparing for a race, what you put into your body does affect how it will behave during labor.
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Vitamin K/Vitamin K Deficiency of the Newborn

Vitamin K is synthesized in the gut, and is responsible for (among many things) the clotting of blood. Compared to adult levels, all babies are born with a “deficiency” of vitamin K. This is the way ALL babies are made, and there is likely a very good reason for it. One possible reason is that because vitamin K helps cells multiply (like as the baby is forming and growing), a surplus of vitamin K might contribute to the overgrowth of cells which we have come to know as cancer. In any case, should we be supplementing a newborn’s body with an overload of any vitamin or mineral? What might the long term effects of this be?
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The Salt Myth

I’d bet that many of you reading this have been told by your doctor to limit your salt intake during pregnancy. My studies and experience have taught me that not only is this mostly false, but the average caregiver out there imparts so little information about nutrition to their clients that even good advice can be misinterpreted.

When you hear that salt is “bad” in pregnancy, it’s not a completely false statement. There are many kinds of salt- from iodized salt, to sodium bicarbonate to monosodium glutamate to completely unrefined, pure sea salt. All of these “salts” are not created equally, and what needs to be part of the salt/pregnancy discussion is what type of salt you are using.
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Great Smoothie Recipe for Pregnancy

I have been pregnant three times, and I know how I’m not the only one that felt like I was eating the same things, day in and day out. I see pregnant women on a regular basis, and I am always looking at their diets, trying to come up with suggestions to add even more healthful calories and protein to their diets. Instead of just suggesting more eggs or more greens, I have been compiling a “pregnancy cookbook”. Below is one of my favorite recipes.
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My Thoughts on Vitamin K

When considering the vitamin K shot for a newborn, it is wise to look at the facts and evidence out there before making a decision. I believe that this, like any standard protocol, must be questioned and understood as fully as possible by the parents.

There is a lot of conflicting information out there about the AAP recommended vitamin K shot at birth.
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Postpartum: After the Baby’s Birth

In today’s society, here in the US, the postaprtum time is one of the most neglected and overlooked part of the childbearing cycle. How often do we, as brand new moms, head back to work within weeks? How often do we think that the perfect gift for a new baby is clothes, when the family might really need some help with their other children or a few meals made?

Did you know that in other cultures and countries, the time after a baby is born is treated so much differently than we treat it here? Here are just a few postpartum practices from around the globe, taken from Robin Lim’s wonderful book, “After the Baby’s Birth.”
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Breastfeeding Tips

Nursing is the best way to feed your baby, and the benefits you will both get from this relationship are numerous! But if you think breastfeeding is a piece of cake, don’t be discouraged when it proves to be harder than it looks. Educate yourself ahead of time by reading books and talking to other nursing moms. Here are just a few pointers to get you started in the right direction-
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Gestational Diabetes

What is it?
Also called “gestational carbohydrate intolerance”, “abnormal carbohydrate metabolism” or type 3 diabetes, gestational diabetes is a transient condition that occurs and is diagnosed only during pregnancy. The word “diabetes” was used (instead of “glucose intolerance”) so that insurance companies would cover costs. GD is quite different than “true” diabetes (which comes with its own set of risks in pregnancy).
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Misconceptions: Truth, Lies and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood

According to Wikipedia, a misconception “happens when a person believes in a concept that is objectively false”. This is the premise of Naomi Wolf’s Misconceptions: Truth, Lies and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood. Wolf brings to the surface many relevant points about how “backwards” we are here in America when it comes to birthing and raising our children.
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