Social media promotes and popularize a quick ‘bouncing back’ into life after having a baby. However, as a midwife I’ve seen the wonderful and far-reaching benefits of slowing down after your birth for a few weeks of physical and emotion restoration. The postpartum window is a precious and critical time for mother and baby to recover and settle in. And it helps the entire family to adapt to your new little family member too. Here are eight starting points that help protect you during your postpartum period…..

The ‘Hands and Knees’ position is instinctively assumed by women in labor all the time. And sometimes it’s suggested that women go farther, into yoga’s ‘Child’s Pose.’ But the Reset Position is quite different, and it could save your next labor a great many hours.  It opens the pelvis wide, and provides an opportunity for the baby to back OUT of the pelvis and REPOSITION itself. It works MIRACLES!

Because of their shared, women-centered maternity health perspectives, midwives and doulas often appreciate each other’s work and may be at births together.  Doulas assist mothers in positioning, provide emotional support and encouragement and act as an advocate for their individual birth plans, regardless of who is their health care provider. Midwives may also do these things, but are actually delivering (or "catching") the babies, and are responsible for the health care and safety of the mother/baby dyad in labor and birth. 

Heartburn is such a pain! It’s caused when hydrochloric acid (HCL), which is used by the stomach to digest food, backs up into the esophagus and irritates sensitive tissues. This creates a burning sensation in the stomach or chest, and pain behind the breastbone. It’s certainly not fun for any of the 60+ million Americans that suffer with it, but as midwives hear from our clients every day, it’s the absolute bane of pregnancy.

Pregnant mamas have two complicating factors that make them more likely to suffer from heartburn.

Most importantly, it’s the mama who ‘delivers’ her baby! She grows her baby, and she births it; I do mean vaginally or surgically. The process of birth, all births, encompasses our body, mind and spirit. And, mother-babies may be assisted in their births by a range primary care professionals such as OB’s and Midwives, as well as their partners/spouses, friends, and professional doulas. Women have choice in their birth attendants and birth locations, even towards the end of their pregnancies, or within insurance boundaries, hospital proximity, or tight budgets.