How to birth a baby - Lamaze Jamestown, North Dakota

I am thoroughly intrigued by breech babies. I have a friend who gave birth to a breech baby vaginally in a time and place when that just isn't done. Today if babies are breech they are delivered by cesarean with no questions asked. The art and medical procedure of delivering a breech baby vaginally is dieing out. It isn't being taught and it isn't being practiced. My friend's situation was unique in that her physician and the nurses didn't realize the baby was breech until they saw the baby's bottom coming out. By then it was too late for the alternative and her doctor safely guided her through pushing and delivering a healthy little one. I was happy for her, and even happier for her doctor (who incidentally was also my doctor for my second baby). This doctor now has that experience. This doctor has delivered a breech baby and hopefully can and will deliver more in the future. Three types of breech presentation:  Frank breech where the baby's bottom is

I am the type of person who needs information. When I get interested in a subject I find resources and learn all I can. When I got pregnant I didn’t know much. I mean, I knew the basics on the biology of the whole thing, but I didn’t know how childbirth was actually going to go. I knew there would be choices to make but I didn’t have the information to decide on which choices would be best for me. So I read and sought more education. I found a philosophy of birth that fit my desires. I also sought a care provider who was amenable to the options I was choosing. I took the childbirth class at the local hospital, but didn’t feel like they gave me the tools to have the birth I wanted. I won’t lie, there are many childbirth information sources out there that create fear and are not based on evidence. Many images presented on TV, in movies, and on YouTube show women giving birth in scary, chaotic situations that would make you question why anyone would decide to have a baby at all. Here

I can't wait to get back to my class and use some of the things I've learned. Friday at the Lamaze 2016 conference I attended a session "Design your Lamaze classes to maximize learning." It was fabulous! I have so many great ideas to put into practice and I learned a great way to structure my lessons so that my students will not only learn better but retain the information better. There is another session about the "flipped" classroom that I am excited about too. I am having some trouble deciding between certain sessions and I attended one today that I didn't get much out of and probably would have been better off going to a different one. Overall I'm gaining a lot and will need to take some time to process everything when I get home. Lamaze truly is a fabulous organization and I happy I chose this route. Here are some new friends I made including the current president Maria Brooks. She is at the end of her term and a new president will be electe

Today was a long day at the Lamaze conference, but a good one full of wonderful stuff. I attended a breastfeeding workshop today. It had "professional" in the title, so it was targeted to a level a little beyond mine, but that didn't bother me. I enjoyed being exposed to the information and although there was some jargon and acronyms that I didn't quite follow, I liked the in depth lessons about breastfeeding that I feel I can bring back to my classes. Allison Walsh was the presenter and she did a good job of covering the multitude of information. I really enjoyed one of the last modules where she talked about challenges with breastfeeding premature infants and those who need to be cared for in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). I feel like my breastfeeding experience was fairly smooth, I mean compared to the plethora of problems I could have had. I now have a broader knowledge to give to my students that will hopefully help them overcome some challenges they

My first Lamaze class series is off to a great start. I have two couples in fairly different places in their pregnancies. It is wonderful to get their different perspectives on the stages they are experiencing. These people have agreed to be my guinea pigs so I can test out my material and get my rhythm established for how I will teach future classes. The biggest thing I learned from my first class session was that I planned on packing too much information into that session. Two hours is a lot of time to fill, I know this because I've had trouble filling 15 and 30 minutes for other speaking engagements I've done with my other job. Also, it is a lot of time to fill with just lecture. Luckily teaching childbirth and pregnancy information can be interactive and I've tried to incorporate those kinds of things where ever I can. But, lecture is a bit unavoidable and I'm hoping I can break things up enough to keep everyone's interest. The session tonight is all abo

Having support during pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and breastfeeding is so important. As with other things in life, if you don't have encouragement and love behind you it will be hard to attain your goals. For me attaining my goal of becoming a childbirth educator wouldn't have been possible if my husband hadn't been behind me. Support during labor and childbirth has positive out comes that cascade into bonding and loving the baby. Having a Doula is one form of support that has benefits all around from healthy outcomes for mom and baby to economic benefits that decrease the costs of having a baby. It has been said that "If a doula were a drug it would be unethical not to offer it." Choices in Childbirth is an organization advocating for Doula care to be covered by Medicaid and private insurance. I'm in agreement with this effort. When you have someone with you advocating for your well being during labor, it can take the worry off of you so you can focu