Disclaimer: 

The material included in this blog is for informational purposes only. It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The viewer should always consult her or his healthcare provider to determine the appropriateness of the information for their own situation.  Krystyna and Bruss Bowman and Bowman House, LLC accept no liability for the content of this site, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.  This blog and related videos contain information about our classes available in Chandler, AZ and Payson, AZ and is not the official website of The Bradley Method®. The views contained in this video and on our blog do not necessarily reflect those of The Bradley Method® or the American Academy of Husband-Coached Childbirth®.

 

Birthing From Within and Bradley Method® natural childbirth classes offered in Arizona: convenient to Chandler, Tempe, Ahwatukee, Gilbert, Mesa, Scottsdale, Payson

Club Mom-Me Spring Family Fest: 

Club MomMe is a social, educational and wellness community for moms and moms-to-be.  They provide a place for women to meet each other, make friends, learn about pregnancy and motherhood, and share unique experiences together.  All attendees at each event receive a gift bag and a chance to win great giveaways like strollers, car seats, gear and more!  

SPB is very excited to announce that we will be at the Club MomMe OC Spring Fest event.  In case you cannot attend in person, you can follow us on Twitter for live-tweets from the event, see views from the inside the event on Instagram, and we will be sharing presenter notes in future blog posts.

Here is our virtual interview with Aubrye Foote, Vice President of Club MomMe Orange County, with your inside scoop on the event coming up this Saturday, June 7, 2014.

​AF: This year we've added our Daddy Lounge with fun activities, a Style Lounge where you can see and shop for different clothing, bags, etc. and added some interactive areas for the kids.  Spring Fest truly is an event where you can learn about parenthood, explore products & gear, sample goodies during the event and in the *huge* gift bags you'll take home, and connect with not only experts but other famili​es as well.

​AF: We wanted our Family Fests to be something every member of the family could enjoy and what better way for Dad to have a good time then to set him up with a fantastic microbrew (Beach City Brewery) and a taco bar! 

Of course MomMes and Babies are welcome to enjoy the Daddy Lounge. Besides, we're having Micro Kickboard races and diaper changing races that MomMes will just LOVE to watch and a craft where littles can decorate a tumbler for Daddy for Father's Day from Daddy & Company. 

​AF: At Spring Fest, families can listen to various speakers and panels such as Dr. Harvey Karp, ​Natural Parenting Panel, Entrepreneurship for Parents Panel, Healthy Child Healthy World's Understanding Labels workshop, Daddy Panel, and the Hot Baby & Toddler Products session.​ They'll be able to see and shop at exhibitors ranging from baby/toddler products & gear, clothing, skincare, ​food and more. 

We have an Activity Zone with lots of amazing activities for the little ones, a Pamper Lounge where you can enjoy a manicure, a hand massage and juice bar, a Daddy Lounge by Daddy & Company with a microbrew and races with prizes, a Style Lounge featuring gorgeous clothing & bags and last but not least the Lansinoh Lactation Lounge where MomMes can go to nurse or break away to feed & change their babies.

 

​AF: There's the main speakers/panels and as a part of each session parents get the opportunity to ask whatever questions they have! I encourage them to do so because these speakers are fabulous! In addition to those sessions, I would recommend that families take advantage of having the ability to see and test new products on the market, learn about what's available to them, visit with the local resources to make parenthood easier and even do some shopping to take these great products home. 

Not only that, but MomMes ... take some time in the Pamper Lounge and get a manicure or hand massage while Daddy and the little one are off kicking a soccer ball. 

​AF: The great part about Spring Fest is that we have 4 different craft areas, musicians that are performing for the kids, Super Soccer Stars soccer area, a face painter, balloon artist and Urban Sitters will be there to keep an eye on the little ones should MomMe and Daddy need some help. ​We wanted parents to be able to enjoy the event, but also have the kids enjoy it as well. That's why we set up so many activities in our Activity Zone to keep those "active" ones happy. They may not even want to leave!!

AF: The levels that are still available are: 

Each ticket level receives an amazing amount of "swag" that they get to take home. The VIP level ticket has a gift bag worth over $500 and the Celeb ticket has almost $1,000 worth of items. With that, I'd have to say the Celeb ticket is the best value, but you can't go wrong with any of them!​

​AF: Our biggest passion in what we do is being able to bring resources to parents that they may not have access to on their own. At Family Fest we are able to bring all of that together in one location. Currently we have our Spring Fest in Orange County and Fall Fest is Los Angeles, but our long term vision for our Family Fests is to be able to expand them into other areas in the US ​so that we can provide these fantastic speakers and brands to an even greater number of families. 

Thank you, Aubrye, for giving our readers the inside scoop on the event!  To learn more about the speakers and panels, please visit the event website HERE http://clubmommeevents.com/.

If you would like to win the Family Ticket which includes 2 Adults and one gift bag with a ton of product & goodies, please leave a comment below and tell me which is your *must see* session.  I will choose a winner on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 at noon.  The winner will be selected by Random.org by assigning each comment a number in order of receipt and letting the Random Number Generator choose a winning number.  Please be sure to leave me your email address in the comment so that the Media MomMe can email you your Family Ticket.

The technique is designed to recreate the essential elements of the experience of living in the womb. The first three months of life Karp calls the “fourth trimester”. Karp believes there is a “calming reflex” that causes babies to instantly relax when they are given clues that they are safe inside the womb. There are five parts of the technique he calls the “five S’s”. Then comes the Toddler stage. Baby calming is great, but before you know it your tot will be 8 months old! That’s the perfect time to start this clever approach to boost cooperation – build patience – and stop tantrums before they begin happening!

As moms we have always been savvy leaders, innovators, and jugglers who make executive management decisions on a daily, if not hourly basis. While we may have extensive professional training, the jobs available to us may not fit our needs, family demands, or fulfill our passions. The same, many times, goes for dads who are looking to have an active role in parenthood. For both, if we are going to spend time away from our families, it better be worth it!

With emerging trends in business, innovative new technology, social media, and the shifting cultural expectations about careers and work/life balance, presents the perfect opportunity for a new generation of entrepreneurs or “mompreneurs”.

There is no roadmap for establishing a business or career that you’re passionate about AND supports motherhood. You often have to create it yourself, which can be a daunting task.

Join us to be inspired, motivated and moved to become a Mompreneur yourself, and learn how our panelists started on their journey to becoming Mompreneurs!

Healthy Child Healthy World is hosting its second annual Educational Workshop at Spring Fest, “Understanding Labels,” to help the public navigate this increasingly ambiguous landscape. The event will welcome top experts and personalities in the consumer products and environmental health space to address label confusion and coach attendees on how to effectively read labels, what “red flags” to watch for, ingredients to question, and how to be a smarter, more conscious shopper. 

Natural parenting is based on a desire to live and parent responsively and
consciously. While families may define it differently, there are several principles that are widely agreed to be part of this lifestyle. These are ideals that natural parents tend to hold … even if we don’t always live up to all of them. Attachment/Responsive Parenting, Breastfeeding, Ecological Responsibility, Holistic Health Practices, Natural Learning, Living a Healthy Lifestyle and more are areas these amazing speakers will cover.

Then you’ll love Club MomMe’s Daddy Panel!! We will discuss the changes men experience as they become dads, how to meet other dad friends so you don’t feel so lonely in your new role and have someone to vent to and get advice from. How to understand what your wife is going through during pregnancy and breastfeeding and supporting her. Learn how to change a diaper, swaddle and carry baby, without being told you are doing it wrong. And some other topics just for DadDes!

This is the Panel where Dads will become DadDes!

Club MomMe & Favored.by are bringing their ever-popular products events to Spring Fest! Join us as we share the NEWEST, COOLEST & HOTTEST Baby & Toddler Products on the market! From the latest stroller trends, toys, educational products, gear to make life easier as a parent, state-of-the-art technology, amazing innovations and more!

Check out the latest Baby & Toddler Products and Gear + WIN them! We GIVE AWAY almost all featured products at the end of the talk!!

Club MomMe gets the hottest NEW products and we are sharing them first with you! Find out what new products are worth checking out and will make your life easier

We just had our class on Second Stage last Friday.  One of the coaches made the observation that all the birth videos we are watching show women pushing on their backs...right!?!

 

Therein lies the quandary of being an instructor within the parameters of our current video library.  We keep trying to convince our students to film their births, especially those that push in non-traditional positions, and then share them with us so that we can use them for class instruction.  We have yet to have one student take us up on the request.

<< (Here is a picture from the pushing phase from our homebirth...our video will never be seen outside our home!)

 

The optimal pushing position is a squat.  It is still used as the “elimination” position in many cultures, for childbirth and otherwise.  It opens the outlet of the pelvis.  It shortens the birth canal.  If the mother feels like this is productive and the baby is doing well in this position, what’s not to love? 

 

Many care providers do not care for it because a true squat on the floor or on a bed with the assistance of a squat bar does not allow for them “to see” what is happening as the baby is being born.  With the advent of anesthesia, women couldn’t get into this position and/or hold this position for any length of time…so the supine position became “the” birthing position.

 

You can imitate a squat on a bed by getting into what is considered “the classic” position – with assistance, mama can pull her knees up towards her shoulder.  The challenge with the classic pushing position is that although it imitates a squat by opening and shortening to some degree, it does not allow for gravity to work with the baby to move them down.  In addition, depending on the angle of the mother, the weight of the baby pushing down could stretch the perineum enough to tear it.

 

Here are some other positions for you to consider in which you can still imitate a squat and allow the care provider to see the baby being born:

 

All three of these allow for a mother to imitate a squat during the pushing through a contraction, and for a restful position between contractions.  You can see them illustrated with explanations HERE

 

If you had a vaginal birth, which position did you use?  Did you like your pushing position?  Why or why not?

 

It’s hard to believe…and I know, I say this every three months – Time Flies!  We are almost finished with another class series.  As we get ready to send another set of Papas and Pods off into the world to prepare for the arrival of their Sweet Peas, I wanted to write our “Wish List” for their Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby outcome.

What we hope you will remember:

As a couple, you lovingly conceived your child.  You have attended a trimester of Bradley Method® classes together to learn about the normal, low-risk process of pregnancy, labor and birth.  Trust in the information you learned together; use the communication skills you learned and practiced in class.  Fill your toolbox full of comfort measures and relaxation techniques with daily practice.  All that information will be available when you need it.  

As long as mom and baby are doing well in labor, and as long as your care provider supports you, then mamas are free to eat, drink, move, sleep, and use a shower or tub as needed.  Both of you have an inner voice, an instinct that will tell you what your body/ your partner needs and what needs to happen to stay the course you planned and prepared for.  

Mamas:  If you want to allow your labor to stay healthy and low risk, you need to rest.  Along with that, you need to eat when you are hungry, and drink *before* you are thirsty. Dr. Bradley called the woman in labor an, “obstetrical athlete”.  In order to perform with peak strength and stamina, a mother has the best opportunity for the outcome she wants if she has rested, is full of bioavailable fuel, and is hydrated to the point of efficiency for all the hormones that are at work during the process of labor.  She has set herself up for an intervention-free outcome.  If the mother gets too tired and too weak, then she and her partner will be making different choices.  

Coaches:  You need to sleep because you will not have the surge of endorphins that mama gets for her “second wind”.  You will be laboring just as long as mama is – so take care of yourself so you can support her.  Remember to take a few phone numbers of assistant coaches that you can call in for back up, if and when you need reinforcements to run errands or energize your labor.

Coaches:  Your words, your touch, and your love are “the something” she needs. Always have three options available in the back of your mind when you offer a comfort measure – one of them will resonate with your partner.  Know which relaxation exercises your partner likes, and have few more in your toolbox to use if/when those stop working.  Remember the core of her that attracted you to your partner in the first place?  Remind her of that when she needs encouragement.  You are about to see raw female energy – embrace it and help her find the courage to surrender to the energy of labor that needs no intervention or help from the conscious mind.

Whether you are at home, a birth center, or the hospital, you will come to decision points in your labor.  There are two separate pages in the workbook where we outline questions for informed consent and provide a study help for families to evaluate which path they would want to take if and when they face those decision points in their labor.  If you forget your workbook and/or memorizing the list of questions is not “in the cards”, we wish you will remember these three “magic questions”:

Is Mom okay?  (“YES”)

Is Baby okay?  (“YES”)

Since they are both okay, may we just have some more time?  (Usually, “NEGOTIATE”)

If there is no medical reason for an intervention, patience is often the choice that our students make in the interest of avoiding a cascade of interventions: agreeing to one intervention may lead to another, to another, etc.

All the couples that complete our Bradley™ series attend with the intention of having an intervention-free birth.  Very rarely, you get a “NO” answer to one of the, “Are they okay,” questions.  In your case, it may become apparent that you need to go down a different path for a Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby outcome.  Please take it – there are no medals for having a natural birth at all costs.  You will not regret the choices that are made out of love for the mother and child in order to ensure that they are both well after labor and birth.  You may need time to process your birth story, however, having a Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby is the outcome we wish for all of our families.

A normal, low-risk labor and birth is followed by a period of euphoria before reality sets in.  If you have some interventions and/or a cesarean, there may be a mix of euphoria and grieving for the birth you did not have.  

Then, reality sets in:  you have a new life that is completely dependent on you.  I have written in more detail about the postpartum period 

HERE.  Please seek out resources and a community to help you through the first six months to a year – you are not alone!  Your Bradley™ classmates are one source of community.  Beyond that, there are support groups for breastfeeding, postpartum depression, cesarean recovery, and more.

Sleep is essential for Mama so that she can heal, make milk, and have the emotional reserves to make the transition to being a mother of one, two, three+ children.  Coaches, you need to sleep so that can put your happy face on and be helpful when she wakes up for the night feedings, the extra stops at the store on the way home from work, and anything else that mama may ask of you as you both transition to life as parents.

Your child will not have words to express themselves for several months.  You are your child’s best advocate.  Consumerism continues beyond your pregnancy and birth.  Newborn procedures, infant standards of care, parenting choices:  these are all part of your “new normal”.  Which choices work for your family?  There is no book that is a manual for raising your child.  Your child is your best teacher.  Look to the books for ideas; use the ones that work for your family and toss out the rest of them.  You two are the best resource – your baby carries your genetic code – trust the process and the genes.  You will know how to best parent your child when you honor and respect them as human beings first.  We invite you to parent from a place of love now and forever.

We hope you enjoy the romp across the internet as you get to know all our social media platforms!  The first three readers to complete the scavenger hunt will win one of the following:

Rules:

Follow the clues, complete the tasks, and send in your answers to [email protected]  The winners will be determined according to accuracy and the time stamp on their email.  

We understand that not everyone participates in all social platforms.  If you do not have an account, you can send a text to 602-684-6567 to receive a text clue to help you complete the task for that social platform.  Maximum two clues per player.

Blog Clue:  

Check out our Birthday Blog Post.  Leave us a comment on the blog and tell me your favorite idea, or do you have one you would add? 

Facebook Clue:  

Write down the birthdates and gender of the babies from our February birth announcements.  

Instagram Clue: 

Find the birthday idea picture – what are the three letters featured in the Party Memento idea?  While you are here, can you “follow” us so we can return the follow?  

Google+ Clue:
Would you be kind enough to +1 our page?  It’s lonely and would like some more love – thanks!  Anyone with a gmail account automatically has Google+ - look at the top left-hand corner of your email page.  If you do not have a gmail account and don't want to sign up for one, send me a text (602.684.6567) to let me know you are using this clue as one of your freebie text clues.  

Pinterest Clue:

Did you find our new blog posts Board?  You are good.  Check out our March "Doula of the Month", Dianne Hamre, who helps families have memorable Birth-Days.  When you send me your “hunt” email – tell me what your favorite SPB Pinterest board is, and why.  

Twitter Clue:

Please tweet us @sweetpeabirths and hashtag #sweetpeabirths so that I can follow you! #scavengerhunt all done

LINK LIST

Blog Post

http://www.sweetpeabirths.com/blog/2013/01/29/5-Ideas-for-First-Birthdays.aspx

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/SweetPeaBirths

Instagram 

http://instagram.com/sweetpeabirths

Google+ Page

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/103895057626839861964/103895057626839861964/posts

Pinterest Boards

http://pinterest.com/sweetpeabirth/

Twitter 

https://twitter.com/sweetpeabirths