Are you pregnant? Have you thought about having a doula with you? Do you know what they do?
Check out Hamilton Doula Group to discover how a doula can help you have a fantastic birth - no matter what kind of birth you want to have!
Picking Prenatal Care - Midwives
Join us for the first in our series on how to pick prenatal care in Hamilton. Find out the pros and cons of midwives and how you can get a midwife to care for you during your pregnancy.
Picking Prenatal Care: OBs
Learn all about how Obstetricians can help you when you are pregnant. Learn the pros and cons and how to get one.
Picking Prenatal Care - FPs
Learn all about how Family Practioners can help you when you are pregnant. Learn the pros and cons and how to get one.
Tips For New Parents: Poop
In our Tips For New Parents series we examine some issues you may not learn about stuff you never thought you`d need or want to know! Today we're talking about poop! Learn all about baby poop and some tips for how to handle it.
Great Images: Transition
This mother is in transitional labour. Her husband holds her hand firmly as she rests on her side with a cool cloth on her forehead and hypnosis tracks quickly playing in her ear.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Video - Doulas!
Are you pregnant? Have you thought about having a doula with you? Do you know what they do?
Check out Hamilton Doula Group to discover how a doula can help you have a fantastic birth - no matter what kind of birth you want to have!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Tips for New Parents: Poop
Meconium is the name of the stuff your baby will poop out shortly after birth. Rarely, some babies have their first poop during birth and when this happens your baby will be closely monitored to make sure it doesn’t present any problems. Most of the time, though, your baby will begin pooping out meconium within a few hours of birth.
It is a colour green so deep it appears black. It is glossy like solid green car oil. It is so sticky that wiping it off is a real pain, especially for new parents who are trying to be gentle with their newborn.
Here are a couple tips for making cleaning up meconium a breeze:
Lubricate Baby’s Bum
Shortly after birth, rub some oil on your baby’s bottom and the meconium will wipe off quickly and easily. That means less less wipes used, less rubbing and fewer chances to irritate your new baby’s sensitive bottom. Good oils to use:
Protecting Cloth Diapers
Cloth diapers are growing in popularity: they are economical, earth friendly and a lot easier than they used to be. People like to keep their diapers looking as nice as possible for many reasons and meconium can ruin a snow white diaper forever. To save your cloth diapers, use a liner. You can buy liners at ReDiaper on Ottawa St in Hamilton and even most large retailers with baby departments. Liners are disposable and come on roll like toilet paper. If you don’t have any liners with you at home or the hospital when your baby is born, you can use toilet paper.
Sun For Stains
If you get meconium on any clothes or cloth diapers, wash normally (never bleach diapers or wash/dry them using fabric softeners) and hang to dry outside in the sun. The sun is a great bleacher! This is the secret weapon of cloth diapering moms who want to keep their diapers nice and white.
Meconium will be fully passed when breastfeeding is well established and your milk is fully in. Colostrum has a laxitive effect on babies, amongst it’s other great tricks, and frequent nursing will make sure baby is getting rid of the meconium well. The glossy black looking poops will begin to look more minty green and softer as your milk comes in on days 3, 4 and 5 after birth. The poop will become progressively yellower and have what we call seeds in it: small solid white lumps.
Eventually your baby’s poop will look like mustard with white seeds throughout.
It is a colour green so deep it appears black. It is glossy like solid green car oil. It is so sticky that wiping it off is a real pain, especially for new parents who are trying to be gentle with their newborn.
Here are a couple tips for making cleaning up meconium a breeze:
Lubricate Baby’s Bum
Shortly after birth, rub some oil on your baby’s bottom and the meconium will wipe off quickly and easily. That means less less wipes used, less rubbing and fewer chances to irritate your new baby’s sensitive bottom. Good oils to use:
- Olive oil
- Coconut oil
- Grape Seed oil
- Petroleum jelly
Protecting Cloth Diapers
Cloth diapers are growing in popularity: they are economical, earth friendly and a lot easier than they used to be. People like to keep their diapers looking as nice as possible for many reasons and meconium can ruin a snow white diaper forever. To save your cloth diapers, use a liner. You can buy liners at ReDiaper on Ottawa St in Hamilton and even most large retailers with baby departments. Liners are disposable and come on roll like toilet paper. If you don’t have any liners with you at home or the hospital when your baby is born, you can use toilet paper.
Sun For Stains
If you get meconium on any clothes or cloth diapers, wash normally (never bleach diapers or wash/dry them using fabric softeners) and hang to dry outside in the sun. The sun is a great bleacher! This is the secret weapon of cloth diapering moms who want to keep their diapers nice and white.
Meconium will be fully passed when breastfeeding is well established and your milk is fully in. Colostrum has a laxitive effect on babies, amongst it’s other great tricks, and frequent nursing will make sure baby is getting rid of the meconium well. The glossy black looking poops will begin to look more minty green and softer as your milk comes in on days 3, 4 and 5 after birth. The poop will become progressively yellower and have what we call seeds in it: small solid white lumps.
Eventually your baby’s poop will look like mustard with white seeds throughout.
Affirmations: Things Turn Out Best
"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."
John Wooden
John Wooden
Birth Registration and Birth Certificates
Back when I had my babies, you had to remember, in the weeks after your baby was born, to go to City Hall and pay for a birth registration application. If your baby needed special care after birth or you had breastfeeding or mothering challenges that required lots of focus, remembering to submit the appropriate paperwork at City Hall may very well have completely slipped your mind.
In this era of online and telephone payments and digital applications, when you don’t even need to buy a physical ticket to get on a plane, walking into City Hall may totally fall off the radar.
Thank goodness the various branches of the government have gotten their acts together and put the entire birth registration process online. Now, after you nurse your new baby and put her down for a sleep in the middle of the night, you can log on to the government website and submit all the info to register for her birth and order a birth certificate.
In this era of online and telephone payments and digital applications, when you don’t even need to buy a physical ticket to get on a plane, walking into City Hall may totally fall off the radar.
Thank goodness the various branches of the government have gotten their acts together and put the entire birth registration process online. Now, after you nurse your new baby and put her down for a sleep in the middle of the night, you can log on to the government website and submit all the info to register for her birth and order a birth certificate.
Treating Pregnancy Pain
During pregnancy, it’s common to experience pain in your back, in your hips and in your pubic bone. Usually not all at once!
The back pain is usually in the lower back. Pregnant women experience more sacral pain, sciatica and general muscle tenderness than usual. If chiropractics and massage therapy aren’t working for you, you can consider working with an Osteopath.
Recently a client told me that her excruciating sacral pain was eliminated after visiting an osteopath. I always love hearing an enthusiastic recommendation for different services around town, so I’ll pass on the listing to you.
Linda Kosokowsky - Osteopath
5 York St, Dundas, ON L9H1L3
905-975-1238
The back pain is usually in the lower back. Pregnant women experience more sacral pain, sciatica and general muscle tenderness than usual. If chiropractics and massage therapy aren’t working for you, you can consider working with an Osteopath.
Recently a client told me that her excruciating sacral pain was eliminated after visiting an osteopath. I always love hearing an enthusiastic recommendation for different services around town, so I’ll pass on the listing to you.
Linda Kosokowsky - Osteopath
5 York St, Dundas, ON L9H1L3
905-975-1238
Affirmations: Most Beautiful Creatures
"Aside from new babies, new mothers must be the most beautiful creatures on earth."
Terry Guillemets
Terry Guillemets
