Postpartum
Health & Wellness
Postpartum
Matrescence
September 18, 2019
Motherhood starts here when it is real, when you're on the other side of birth and baby is in your arms, and you're trying to figure out everything that you need to do in real time. No matter how much preparation you do during your pregnancy or even before conception, it's not really real until baby is here, and you feel how huge it is to encompass being a mother and all the aspects of it.
It's as much an emotional and spiritual change as it is physical, and that is why I've made it my life's mission and my work to help women make this transition as seamlessly and gracefully as possible with true support, 360 degree support, and this allows the woman to truly heal from the inside out.
Having done this not at all with my first daughter, and then having truly practice the first 40 days with my second daughter, I am my own guinea pig and it is a testament to how honoring this tradition really can help you heal swiftly and fully and can heal parts of yourself that maybe you didn't even
Postpartum
Motherhood
September 18, 2019
For centuries families have relied on advice passed down from generation to generation on a vast number of things, and raising babies is one of them. Chances are when you were expecting you were given many tit-bits of information and advice to guide you through- whether they were helpful or not is another matter! The point is that we humans need that interaction, support, and guidance to help us build confidence and to feel empowered in our daily endeavors. For some parents, that might mean finding tools that help create closeness and comfort during the early weeks—like the Embrace Newborn Carrier which supports bonding while keeping baby snug and secure. And when it comes to raising a baby, nobody is born knowing it all. We learn from our parents, grandparents, friends, and communities. We then pass that knowledge on ourselves, because we want to help and because we know how valuable learned advice can be. With this in mind, I'd like to share with you some newborn sleep tips you need to
Postpartum
Motherhood
September 18, 2019
When your baby enters the world, she is transitioning from a cozy, dark, comforting womb to a state of constant bombardment of new experiences. Take a moment and imagine the amount of stimulation a new baby must feel. Each day is full of new sights and sounds, and all that activity can be taxing on a baby’s fragile nervous system.
One way parents can help provide a sense of calm and comfort is to establish routines to help baby wind down. Gentle daily rituals like skin-to-skin snuggles, warm baths, or holding baby in a soft newborn carrier like the Ergobaby Embrace can help ease baby into the world with comfort and familiarity. By repeating the same steps day after day, your baby becomes accustomed with what to expect and isn’t strained by having to learn something new.
Over time, you and your baby will begin to fall into a rhythm that becomes your own special ritual.
A ritual is more than a routine – a ritual is unique to you. It’s like an inside joke. Only you and your baby are “in” on
Postpartum
Motherhood
September 18, 2019
Slow ride. Take it Easy. When I think of the silly words of Foghat, the song somehow always makes me think of the ideal state of mind for what’s called the 4th trimester, the first three months of a baby’s life. The focus on the 4th trimester is not only nurturing the newborn baby but also the post partum care and mental health of the healing mother.
Let me take a step back for a moment. Human development is a well-studied and documented field. What’s indisputable is that human babies enter the world totally dependent on their caregivers. Experts continue to theorize as to why babies are born at the gestation period when they are born (at approximately 40 weeks.)
Some theories emanate from anthropologists who generally have thought that an infant’s brain must be sized against the pelvis length of the mother. Peter T. Ellison of Harvard University supports what he calls a metabolic crossover hypothesis, which is to say, “energetic constraints of both mother and fetus
Postpartum
Motherhood
September 18, 2019
We often hear the phrase “trust your instincts” but life as a new mother can be a puzzling time for knowing what impulse, gut feeling or knowledge is or is not coming from within. Life with a newborn is wonderful and equally daunting. The learning curve can feel more like a hair trigger jump directly upwards instead of a nice sloping curve. No matter how many books you read, classes you take or parents you talk to, becoming a mother in real time is a whole new ball game.
Up until that time when we walk through the portal from maiden to mother, everything is theoretical. With most topics concerning motherhood, it is layered and often paradoxical. So asking the question “how do we trust our instincts?” is not an easy answer that applies to all. We need to look at the time before we gave birth. Did you trust yourself? Did you grow up trusting others? All of our behaviors surrounding trust can be triggered as we become mothers. It can feel isolating and destabilizing as we charter unknown territory.
Postpartum
Motherhood
September 18, 2019
Why You’ll Never Forget That New Baby Smell (And Shouldn’t Try To!)
We have all heard about new car smells, but what about new baby smells? You know, that earthy, new baby smell, that one that causes dopamine to release in your brain and makes you feel so good - what is it? Smell can be the most potent sense to strike up an emotional response.
So, what exactly is that new baby smell?
The smell of a newborn is likely thought to be a combination of chemicals secreted through sweat glands, lingering amniotic fluid and vernix caseosa, the white cheese-like cream that covers babies at birth; all this combined, is thought to create a combination of intoxicating medley aroma that nature designed to pull you in. Whatever it is, that distinct smell provides a pathway to our brains and to ultimately our hearts and binds us to that little life in front of us. Although the newborn scent eventually fades (usually around six weeks of age) many parents (including this one) are
Postpartum
Motherhood
September 18, 2019
Why is asking for help so hard for us? I think we have it in the back of our mind that we should be able to take care of it all, we should be able to handle everything, and it feels really outside of our comfort zone to start asking for help.
So, if you are watching this, I'm guessing you probably have already done a little bit of research on the fourth trimester, you've done a little bit of research on postpartum and what your needs are going to be, and I'm sure by now one message keeps coming through again and again, and that is you have to ask for help, and you have to be open to receiving it.
So, I'd like to talk a little bit about why that's hard for us. Now, our ultimate goal is how to have a happy and healthy fourth trimester. So, this is a transition, especially when it's your first child, to going from being a fully functioning capable adult, you got all those adulting skills down, but now all of a sudden we're throwing parenting into the mix.
Right. So, Ergobaby asked me to talk
Postpartum
Motherhood
September 18, 2019
“The emotional labor pains of becoming a mother are far greater than the physical pangs of birth; these are the growing surges of your heart as it pushes out selfishness and fear and makes room for sacrifice and love. It is a private and silent birth of the soul, but it is no less holy than the event of childbirth—perhaps even more sacred.”—Joy Kusek A dear friend shared this quote with me about two weeks after I came home with my newborn baby. My heart was grasping for something, anything, that could help me define what the heck was going on with everything around and within me. This woman’s words defined this sweet and difficult season so perfectly. I became a mother by title when the test turned up positive. I looked like a mother-to-be for the better part of nine months. But I wasn’t a mother in my core—yet. The fourth trimester (giving birth and the few first months afterward) is a crash course, sink-or-swim, best thing ever but ohmygosh-it’s-hard introduction to motherhood.
Postpartum
Motherhood
April 24, 2018
Please tell us a little about yourself and what you do for work.
I'm mama to two young children living in Austin, Texas where I host a birth stories podcast called The Birth Hour. My mission with The Birth Hour is to encourage women to be informed about pregnancy and childbirth and know their options while creating a community for moms to support one another through pregnancy and motherhood. The podcast has grown rapidly since its launch in 2015 with over 4 million downloads and a supportive Instagram community. This year The Birth Hour launched it's first online course that prepares couples for everything from childbirth through newborn care and even going back to work after baby!
How did you get the idea to start The Birth Hour?
When I was pregnant with my eldest, my love of (OK obsession with) birth stories began. I would google birth stories and watch youtube videos of birth until 3AM many nights, which is not exactly the healthiest practice when you are growing a human in
Pregnancy & Birth
Postpartum
Motherhood
December 19, 2017
Body image is an issue that’s really close to my heart and I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how it affects new moms. It seems to me that women’s feelings about their postpartum bodies often get overlooked, likely because there’s rarely discussion about it. To start the conversation, I reached out to my amazing community of women, “Hey mama friends, I'm writing a piece about embracing your beautiful postpartum body. Would love to hear your experience!” The poignant, real responses I received from my friends made me cry. I chatted with each of them, thanking them for their honesty and asked if it would be okay to share their stories. They all graciously agreed. In the words of my pal Lindsey, “Anything in the name of female empowerment.” I’m so honored to share their strength, humor, and open-heartedness with you.
Lindsey
I think the first step is just like the first step in any change - acknowledging that your body is different and that it’s okay to hate it. It’s okay to hate your stretch