How to birth a baby - Lamaze Jamestown, North Dakota

After having a baby vaginally your pelvic floor can well...be bent out of shape (so to speak). Whether you had an episiotomy, a natural tear, or your perineum stretched beautifully, the muscles have been stretched and damaged and will need some recovery time. Consequences of this damage include urinary incontinence, anal incontinence, perineal pain, pelvic pain and pelvic organ prolapse. So how do you get back in shape? Well like any type of training you need to exercise your pelvic floor muscles by doing Kegel exercises!! I found this wonderful site where you can download a cheeky song that gives you full instructions. Do the Kegel! It is a great song that will stay with you to remind you to do your exercises. This applies to pre- and post-natal. Anytime is a good time for Kegel exercises. In my personal experience, I had no idea that you can go to a physical therapist to get help with this problem. For several months I went to Apex Physical Therapy in West Fargo for therapy on...

I am starting my first Lamaze class in October. Classes will be held at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Jamestown, North Dakota. The class will be one night a week for six weeks. Each class will be 2 hours long (likely 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.). I am still working out the exact day of the week with the church. What you can expect from my class. Learn about how to take care of your pregnant body. Changes in your body during pregnancy, labor, birth, and breastfeeding.  How your partner can help guide you through labor. Questions to ask your care giver about your pregnancy and your care. How to build the birth experience you want. How to use your BRAIN when making decisions about your care. Comfort measures to take to have an un-medicated birth. Techniques to help you decide on optional interventions. Surviving the first few days with baby. So please email me if you are interested in attending this class. I'm excited to take this next step. lamazejamestown@gmail.com

I've decided to go to the Lamaze International Conference ! I wasn't sure if it would work out because it is in October. That is a tough month for me to be gone from home...well because I have a husband who loves to hunt ducks and October is prime duck time in North Dakota. But, the conference is in West Palm, in my home state of Florida and I have resources down there to help get me there. I decided to take the kids with me. Now this may be the end of me, traveling alone with both kids will be a challenge. But they can stay with my parents in Barefoot Bay while I go down to West Palm for the conference. I'm also going to stay with a friend in Lake Worth to help me save on costs. So here I go! Another step in this journey. See you in Florida in October!

I passed my Lamaze Certification exam! I am so excited. I was also offered a space to teach my classes at the local Lutheran Church. My goal is to start my first class in October. I am now working on developing my curriculum for my classes. I would love to have a Yoga practice incorporated in the class somehow as well. Yoga really helped me during my pregnancy and birth and I'd like to share that option with my students. My interactions with the labor and delivery staff at Jamestown Regional Medical Center have been positive, yet unsuccessful. The nursing director there told me that they weren't interested in taking on a Lamaze Childbirth Educator at this time. I'm fine with that. The nursing director did say that she would help refer patients my way for education and that I could work with them to do some shadowing of a labor and delivery nurse. So, I'm on my way. One more step completed. Now onto the hard stuff.

Well I took the Lamaze certification exam on April 13! I am excited to be done with the exam, but I don't feel great about how I did. I felt like I was prepared, but the questions just threw me. They were worded oddly and I don't think I always chose the correct answer. I am terrible at standardized multiple choice tests. A lot of the questions asked you to chose the MOST important answer when to me it seemed like all the answers were important. Anyway, I am continuing on my progress to begin teaching. I test taught some friends of mine the birth comfort measures lesson. They also asked me to attend their birth. So I am excited about that. I heard back from the local Hospital and they aren't interested in hiring a Lamaze instructor at this time. They also declined to give me a teaching space. However, the Lutheran church in town has offered me the use of their space. I'm not sure how it will work, but it is free and a big space for couples to be able to pra...

When you open up to another woman about a miscarriage chances are she may have had one too. No one really speaks about them, but they happen more often than you may think. I'm not a professional, but personally I can think of 6 other women in my life who I know have had at least one miscarriage. Two women have had multiple. There may be more of my friends who have had one and haven't opened up to me. With myself included in that number, that seems like a lot of miscarriages. Having a miscarriage is a very personal thing between the woman and her partner. Each women experiences it in her own personal way but for me, it was painful physically and emotionally. I didn't share my experience with many others at the time, maybe because I didn't know exactly how to express it, but I am willing to share now. Especially since I've found out that miscarriages are more common than I thought. And then there are Sam and Nia. They very publicly shared the news of their pregna...

This is a great video showing how the baby progresses down the birth canal.