Hey Mama, let’s chat about blood sugars in pregnancy and the label that’s been given as gestational diabetes. I get a little frustrated with this and anything that attempts to negatively categorize a large group of women for the sake of money and it should be questioned. We should be all a little less willing to agree to this. What I do see is a lot of pregnant women who have crappy diets and lifestyles and true nutrition is really the furthest thing from reality for a multiple of complicated reasons. That coupled with care providers who don’t even address these issues. Honestly because t ..read more

Hey Mama, let’s chat about new baby essentials.These are my go-to’s for whenever you’re about to welcome a new baby. First of all we have Frankincense, put Frankincense on the crown of baby’s head with some fractionated coconut oil to help with cellular support and bonding. Then we have OnGuard, it’s a great oil to diffuse all of the time especially for winter babies to support the whole family’s immune system as well as any visitors you might have. Then I have Myrrh, I’ve nicknamed this the liquid Band Aid because that’s what it does, it seals off anything you don’t want in there. The be ..read more

Hey Mama, let’s talk about that postpartum hair loss. Losing all of that beautiful and luxurious pregnancy hair, freaking out about the handfuls coming out in the shower or every time you brush your hair. Believe me, I get it. This can actually happen when there’s an imbalance of hormones. Don’t worry though, it is totally normal thanks to an increased level of estrogen in your body when you are pregnant. Estrogen stops the hair in its resting place, so your hair that would normally fall out stays where it is, resulting in thicker beautiful hair in pregnancy. When you give birth the estro ..read more

Hey Mama, let’s talk about squatting. Someone asked me the other day if it was safe to squat in pregnancy and honestly I kind of chuckled. I’d never been asked that before, but she was pretty serious because her doctor told her it wasn’t safe. As silly as that sounds, let's set the record straight right now. It is perfectly safe to do squats while pregnant. In fact it’s not only safe, squatting is a natural movement that you should be able to do in all stages of life. You squat when you sit down, when you pick your kids up off the floor, when you pick your kids toys up off of the floor, w ..read more

Hey Mama, let’s talk about stretch marks. Have you been told to use cocoa butter or certain creams to help prevent stretch marks in pregnancy? Did you know that stretch marks are really small tears in the supporting layer of the tissue under your skin as it stretches really tight in pregnancy. There’s no strong evidence to support claims that cocoa butter and creams can prevent them. This is because stretch marks are due to the collagen in your skin and how well your skin stretches, which all comes down to genetics. Chances are if your mom or your sister had them, you will probably too. N ..read more

Hey Mama, let’s talk about a birth ball, yoga ball, or exercise ball, or whatever else you call it. Have you heard of using it as a birth ball? As a midwife I highly encourage all my moms to get one of these, they have so many benefits, such as relieving lower back pain, it encourages your baby to be in the optimal fetal position and it can increase blood flow in your uterus. They’re especially good for soothing a baby who has her nights and days mixed up. However, many women can buy the wrong size and sit in the wrong position and this negates any benefits that you’re trying to achieve ..read more

NICU Moms Part 2 After what seems like forever, the moment you’ve been waiting for, you finally get to hold your baby. It takes 4 or 5 nurses to maneuver all the wire, all of the tubing to place them in your arms skin to skin. You are in a place of pure joy and gratitude, with tears streaming, putting him back in that isolate and going home for the night seems impossible.  You’re leaving a part of your heart there. You feel guilty and sad and tears flow all of the way home, but you pull yourself together before going in the house to greet the rest of your family. Pumping, pumping, pu ..read more

Hey Mama, this little chat is for all you moms that started out with plan A and now you’re on plan N for NICU. Whether you had a premie, your baby is sick, you have genetic or chromosome things going on with your baby, It doesn’t matter, the feelings are still the same. 3 of my 4 daughters have been NICU moms. I’ve been a NICU grandma 3 times now and it stinks. You have waited to hold your baby your whole pregnancy and they whisk him off quickly without you even being able to see or hear him.  It’s hours before you finally get to go see your sweet little baby, you can touch him, but ..read more

Hey Mama, in part one we talked about oxytocin and exactly what that is, today we are going to talk about oxytocin and pitocin and the difference. Pitocin is a synthetic version of oxytocin, it’s a drug that mimics hormonal activity similar to oxytocin.  Today it is mostly used in labor for labor induction and for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage. While the two are similar, they are not the same, because pitocin is made in a lab your body doesn’t metabolize it the same as it would natural oxytocin. Your body responds much differently to it. With regular natural oxytocin contractio ..read more

Hey Mama, let’s have a conversation about Oxytocin. Oxytocin is your body’s way of giving you love, it even has a nickname as the love hormone. It plays a ginormous part in labor and birth. Oxytocin helps our bodies go into labor and stay in labor until we birth and even into your postpartum time. The strength of our contractions rely on oxytocin hormone. Oxytocin can be flowing perfectly while at home and then stress kicks in when it’s time to go to the hospital and our oxytocin is disrupted. This is when labor slows down and contractions space out. If stress disrupts oxytocin then you c ..read more