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Review: Moby Wrap

Mar27

Several months ago, I was sent a sample Moby Wrap. I was absolutely delighted to receive the Moby, because amongst my friends and LLL Group members, a Moby Wrap is hands-down the number one pick for babywearing with an infant. I have a variety of slings and other baby carriers available in my demonstration bag to show parents during the final week of classes, but I did not have a wrap-style carrier (though I was always sure to mention that parents rave about wrap carriers!). I’m so pleased to actually have one available for parents to practice with.

The Moby Wrap is very versatile and can be used in a variety of positions from birth until over two years old. The fabric is soft and nice and hugs the baby closely and securely into your body. The knit of the fabric is also lightweight enough that you do not get roasting hot while wearing the carrier. A Moby Wrap is a long piece of breathable cotton fabric that is “wrapped around the wearer to create a safe, custom-fitted and versatile baby carrier.” Another benefit is that it can be used for “kangaroo care” with premature babies or any baby needing special care.

Babies that are “worn” cry much less frequently and parents can be hands-free to go about daily tasks while still being in close contact with their babies. When my first son was a baby, I was only half-joking when I would say that I would not be able to live without my baby carrier. With my second baby, I greatly appreciated being able to grocery shop while comfortably nursing him and still having both hands available to push the cart!

Recent negative press about slings has made me all the more determined to share the benefits and joys of babywearing with parents in my birth classes. (Reports about sling dangers are referring to a specific type of “bag” type sling [see more here], not to carriers like the Moby Wrap.)  I am currently working with very young parents for a series of prenatal classes and I am eager to introduce them to babywearing and to show them how a Moby Wrap can help them bond with their baby!

New Post…

Mar20

I spent quite some time writing a new post yesterday and then it disappeared without a trace! I like to make a post here at least once a week, so I’m going to have to just link to the other post I wrote yesterday as part of the Women’s History Month blog carnival from Birth Activist. Birth Activist was the very first birth blog I ever started reading and the blog that sparked my own interest in blogging (a couple of years later).

In addition to teaching the Young Parents classes, which is a new venture for me, I also start teaching my second college class next week. This one is at a college branch about an hour from me, so I’m going to be doing a lot of driving in addition to all the preparation work. I think blogging is going to have to slip down my list of priorities for a while and so I may not be making new posts for a little while—I hope my readers don’t abandon me! Have no fear, I’ve managed to work birth activism into my class in a very appropriate way—I’m going to show them the Reducing Infant Mortality film and possibily The Doula Story as well, during my section of the class on teen pregnancy.

How to Meditate with a Baby…

Feb23

How to meditate with a baby…

Lie down in a comfortable place.
Latch baby on.
Feel your bodies relax and become
Suffused with peace.
Rest your nose in his hair.
Inhale.

By Molly Remer
1/10/08

Previously published in New Beginnings and in Compleat Mother. I decided that I need to remember to post some of the things that I’ve written and had published various places. This poem popped into my head one afternoon when I was nursing Z to sleep during an illness—he’d been wanting to nurse A LOT and I had spent a lot of time doing so during a several day time period.

Giveaway! Simple Wishes Hands-Free Pumping Bra

Feb16

This giveaway is now closed. Summer was the winner! Congratulations!

I’m excited to have a Simple Wishes Hands-Free Pumping Bustier to give away this week! A lot of mothers combine breastfeeding with working (and pumping at work). As one of my friends (a mother of infant twins) phrased  it recently, you have to be a “multi-tasking phenom.” A bra like this would be a helpful addition to the multi-tasker’s skill set 🙂 I wish that all mothers would have the freedom and flexibility at work to be able to sit down and really take a few minutes “time out” to pump for their babies. However, this is not the reality that a lot of mothers experience in the workplace and that is where a “bustier” like Simple Wishes can definitely come in handy! The company was founded by four sisters and has formed a recent partnership with WIC. According to the company’s website:

Using a breast pump is significantly easier with the Bustier, as it allows moms to pump hands-free. Pumping hands-free encourages and supports moms to:

• Promote the use of a breast pump for greater length of time (ideally six to 12 months), by minimizing user frustration.

• Reduce the duration of each pumping session

• Double pump—pump both breasts simultaneously

• Massage breasts, relax, and think of their baby while expressing

I have a light pink Simple Wishes to give away this week (contest ends on Saturday the 20th at noon). One of the cool things about this bra is that the ribcage band is adjustable up to 10 inches, so you can get a “custom” fit. The one I have to give away is a size L up to XXL. I have taken the bustier out of the package to look at, but it is brand new and never worn (though the seal is opened from my having examined it). To enter to win, you have several choices. For the basic entry, just leave a comment (making sure I have some way to contact you from it if you win). For bonus entries, do one (or all) of the following:

Tummy Tub Mini-Review

Dec16

When my two children were babies, I struggled through many a bath with them in a shallow little white plastic baby tub. It was hard to keep the baby warm in the water and it was also hard on my back to lean over the big bathtub to bathe them. We actually preferred sink baths (which are quite messy). Bathing together in a big tub was not an option because we didn’t have one available.

So, I was delighted to recently discover a new type of tub for infants and to receive one for review purposes—The Tummy Tub has an appearance similar to large bucket with a flared out top. It can hold a nice level of water to keep the baby comfortable, but still safe. The idea is that it duplicates some of the elements of being in the womb for babies, thus making the bathing experience more pleasant for everyone. You can also purchase a separate little stool/stand for the Tummy Tub so that you can sit comfortably with it instead of leaning over and straining your back.

I’m pleased to have this new resource available to show to my clients. During our last week of classes when we cover postpartum, newborn care, and breastfeeding, I bring along a variety of products to demonstrate and let parents see and touch and experiment with hands-on. I bring a variety of baby carriers, plenty of cloth diapers, and now a Tummy Tub as well.

The Pregnant “Glow”

May16

Earlier this year I read the book A Dozen Invisible Pieces by a childbirth educator and mother of three. In it, she explains “the glow” that pregnant women have and I really liked her description:

[during all her pregnancies] I felt a special sense of energy exuding from within me…That energy, I believe, is what makes pregnant women so magnetic to those around them. It is what encourages the unsolicited comment and pearls of wisdom that acquaintances and strangers pawn off on pregnant women. It is what elicits a sense of awe from others who have yet to experiences pregnancy either themselves or with a life partner.

This alluring force is what prompts someone to place their uninvited hand on a pregnant woman’s rapidly expanding belly. Why do some people feel comfortable, and perfectly within their right, to reach out and touch, pat, or rub a pregnant woman’s abdomen? I believe it is because on a basic, evolutionary level, they yearn to absorb, or at least connect with, some of that mystical pregnant energy.

I think this explains it! I felt really “magic” when I was pregnant. It is one of the things that is so special about being pregnant–that feeling of being magic. When I was 39 weeks pregnant with my second, I told some of my friends at playgroup (who were saying, “this is probably the last time we’ll see you pregnant!”) that I wasn’t quite ready to be done feeling magic yet! I think the “glow” comes from that inner sense of magic.

Another Healthy Mother/Healthy Baby Quote

Mar12

Since my previous post just touched on this issue, I wanted to share another quote. This one is from the Winter 2008 issue of Midwifery Today in an article titled From the Homefront to the Frontlines:

“Although the popularly desired outcome is ‘Healthy mother, healthy baby,’ I think there is room in that equation for ‘Happy, non-traumatized, empowered and elated mother and baby.'”

I completely agree!

Baby Carriers

Nov24

During the last week of my classes, I usually talk briefly about different types of baby carriers. I bring along a pouch (New Native), an adjustable pouch (Mamma’s Milk), a sling (Maya Wrap), a mei tai (I made), and my Ergo (structured soft pack). I enjoy each of these carriers for different reasons, but if I had to pick one for a favorite, it would have to be my Ergo. I love that thing (still use it occasionally with my 2.5 year old). We wore it hard and often and it is a little worse for wear now. I’m a huge fan.

I just saw a contest to win an Ergo on the Northwest Mom Finds blog. Check it out here.

There is another contest here at the babywearing blog Along for the Ride.

And, there is a contest to win a Second Womb ring sling on this blog (which is where I learned of the two contests above). My first baby LIVED in a ring sling. I used to think I would actually die without it. I know that sounds extreme, but I would carry him in it almost all day and as I did so, I would occasionally think to myself, “what if I didn’t have this sling?” My answer: “I might die.” (I may have been dealing with a little PPD, in hindsight!)

Speaking of baby carriers, we are lucky enough to have a newly opened local store in the Rolla/St. James area that sells various baby carriers.

Do Epidurals Impact Breastfeeding?

May10

There was a question recently on a list I belong to about the impact of epidurals on breastfeeding. The person asking the question had been told by several hospital based childbirth educators that epidurals do not “cross the placenta’ and thus do not have an impact on the baby. Since this is an issue of concern, I thought I’d share some of my response/thoughts regarding this question here. I was happy to hear Linda J. Smith speak at the LLLI conference luncheon session about this very issue–the impact of birth practices on breastfeeding–and she covered a ton of material about the impact of epidurals on breastfeeding (she also wrote a book on the same topic with the late Mary Kroeger). There is some good information, though much less complete, on her site. The biggest problems with epidurals are the impact on the mother rather than the baby, though the medications used in epidurals DO cross the placenta and get to the baby, they are much less seriously impactful than IV or IM narcotics. An epidural refers to the means of medication delivery not what is actually being delivered into the body, so it is hard to say definitively that one has no effect, because different anesthesiologists use different “cocktails” of drugs in their epidurals. They usually use bupivacaine as the anesthetic, but there are opoids included as well, such as *morphine* or other related opoids like that.

All the books I have as a CBE say that medications used in epidurals do make it to the baby, but effects vary. Most effects are connected to what is happening to mom—i.e. mother gets a fever as a side effect of the meds and that stresses baby. Fluid overloading leads to more fluid in baby’s lungs, etc. The main breastfeeding impact on the mother’s side is excess fluid retention in the breasts due to the fluid “bolus” administered prior to an epidural. Baby is a little sleepy following birth and then can’t latch to severely swollen breasts (which are not “normally” engorged, but excessively so due to excess fluid), and so it goes. You often hear from mothers that their nipples are “too flat” for the baby to latch on to and as you probe further you find that the flatness has NOTHING to do with the mother’s true anatomy, but has to do with that excess fluid. Women are so programmed to look inward and blame themselves for problems that it is really unfortunate (like mothers who “aren’t making enough milk” when it is really a pump with bad suction).

Basically most breastfeeding problems that have to do with birth practices are not correctly attributed to the source—the birth practices—and are instead blamed on the mother (“flat nipples”), the baby (“lazy suck”), or breastfeeding (“sometimes it just doesn’t work out”).


Birth Experience or Healthy Baby?

Feb20

As you may have read in many blogs in the birth world, ACOG issued a press release this month opposing the choice of homebirth for women. One of the quotes towards the end of the release, “Choosing to deliver a baby at home, however, is to place the process of giving birth over the goal of having a healthy baby,” is a sentiment that I see expressed fairly frequently and I’d like to explore it a little. I do not think these two things are mutually exclusive by any means. I say, why not BOTH? A “good experience”/process of giving birth AND healthy baby–these two things can, should, and do go together. Many of the elements that make up a good experience are also things that are best for the baby–as I said, the two concepts are not mutually exclusive, instead they reinforce and contribute to each other! Most of the time, taking good care of a mother in birth (i.e. contributing to her “good birth experience”) is the very best thing you can do to take care of her baby. Babies do not need to be “rescued” from their mother’s bodies–healthy mothers help lead to healthy babies! Women and babies BOTH deserve a good birth experience.


I also question whether ANY mother actually considers this a choice, or makes this choice. Erica Lyon, quoted in the book Pushed, speaks eloquently on this topic:

“…The goal is to have a healthy baby. ‘This phrase is used over and over and over to shut down women’s requests,’ she [Erica Lyon] says. ‘The context needs to be that the goal is a healthy mom. Because mothers never make decisions without thinking about that healthy baby. And to suggest otherwise is insulting and degrading and disrespectful’…What’s best for women is best for babies. and what’s best for women and babies is minimally invasive births that are physically, emotionally, and socially supported. This is not the kind of experience that most women have. In the age of evidence based medicine, women need to know that standard American maternity care is not primarily driven by their health and well-being or by the health and well-being of their babies. Care is constrained and determined by liability and financial considerations, by a provider’s licensing regulations and malpractice insurer. The evidence often has nothing to do with it.” (emphasis mine)