What are you doing to keep your sanity, stay healthy and prioritize your continued wellness during this busy season when competing priorities seem to leave you last on the list?! Ā I’ve created a Holiday Survival Guide and Wellness Challenge for the Bodies for Birth Community to help us all stay connected, healthy and calm! I encourage you to print a copy and keep it somewhere you will see if often. Ā Cross off each item as you go or continue this …
Happy 3rd Birthday, Willie: A retrospective birth story
November 3, 2016: Three years ago today was my son, Will’s due date, so it’s only fitting that I sit to write his birth story; a task I’ve been meaning to get to along with so many others for…well, approximately three years now! Ā As I begin, I know that my story today is not the same one I would have told on the day he was born, or in the early months or even on his first birthday. Time has …
What Foods Breastfeeding Mothers Need to Eat from Guest Contributor: Natalie Michele
The foods you pick while you breastfeed is just as important as your selections during pregnancy. There are certain foods, herbs, or supplements ā called galactagogues – that can help your breastmilk supply. On the other hand, there are other foods that should be avoided because they can decrease your breastmilk supply. Breastfeeding mothers are going to experience more cravings. I have found my cravings increase at night when my babies tend to nurse more. Breastmilk is thicker in the …
Embracing The Sacred Messiness of Parenthood from Guest Contributor, Natalie Joffe
As humans we find change and uncertainty uncomfortable.Ā Pregnancy and parenthood is a time of continual change, uncertainty and transition. Just as you adapt to one element of the process, it changes again. You donāt know what clothes to buy or wear because they might not fit in a week. You donāt know what plans to make, because you donāt know how your energy will be. Comparison is the thief of joy, and that is no different during pregnancy. Social …
Mindset of Health for New Moms: Video from Guest Contributor, Dr. Kelly Morrow-Baez, aka The FitShrink
In working with women throughout the perinatal time, I have begun to notice a common theme. I work with lots of postpartum moms from a few weeks postpartum to a few years. Ā Typical goals include weight loss, making time for self-care, getting stronger, regaining core connection, getting healthy (-ier) Ā prior to trying for baby number two, concerns with how to beat cravings, how to enjoy and incorporate a healthy diet again etc. There is a very common theme that I …
Motherhood and Self-Care Are Not Mutually Exclusive
Iāve been thinking a lot about self-care and what that means as I prepare for an upcoming presentation for a group of mothers. Ā Motherhood and self-care can feel mutually exclusive at times, so Iāve been digging deep into this topic.Ā I looked at a whole bunch of definitions of self-care and none of them really worked for me; none of them truly embodied my perspective on self-care. Ā So Iāve defined it for my use, for our use if it resonates …
“Water Keepers”: A Guest Post by Meg Heather Ford, ICEA Doula
Water Keepers Exploring the roles of doula, midwife and obstetrician in childbirth I recently supported one of my doula clients through her second birth, and was reminded of the overlapping yet very distinct roles of doula, midwife and obstetrician. The overlap, of course, lies in our shared outcome, which is a healthy mother and baby. The exact definition of āhealthyā however, I think differs depending on your role. An OB might define healthy as alive and able to bear children …
Why Parenting is Yoga for the Soul (and the Title I Didnāt Choose)
I had initially entitled this article āWhy Parenting is the Ultimate…Mind-F#@!ā Ā but it felt too harsh. Ā It felt angry and maybe even a little sad. Ā Iām neither of those things, but I am changed from and changing through parenthood. Ā And, this article is an attempt to capture the always present dichotomies of life as a parent, which in the happiest way, can feel like a āMind-F#@!ā sometimes. Or at least it does for me. Ā As a parent, you …
Mother’s Day Thoughts
In Between An indigo veil of early morning luminescence swaddles us in quiet I watch your tiny fingers contentedly paint the air and stroke my chest Our hands meet and move in unison and suddenly, vividly…I see you so many years from this moment Your rosebud mouth tugs playfully while your legs splay and kick With the promise of sleep lapping at your heels, you roll and sit and smile I breathe in the milky warmth of your yawns, of …
Getting Quiet
I took five minutes yesterday to get quiet. Ā One. Ā Two. Ā Three. Ā Four. Ā Five. Ā It felt like 40 and I swear it added a year back to my life. Ā I gained a sense of calm, peacefulness, a centeredness and focus I hadn’t felt in weeks or maybe months. Ā I took that calm with me on a jog and noticed the trees, the signs on buildings, the sun on the water, a homeless man in the woods, trash on the sidewalk, students …