Happy One Year! Giveaway

It has been one year since In Search of the Perfect Birth was published and our website and Facebook pages begun. It was a proud moment in my life and it’s been satisfying to know that my story resonated with so many of you.  I learned a lot from my own life and if anyone else is learning from my stories, I can be exponentially assured that this was not in vain. It is my privilege to have ever helped anyone because it gives my life added meaning. Thank you!!!

The Second Edition was just released earlier this month, and it’s better than before. Still the same book in content, it is more polished and hopefully an easier book to enjoy than before.

We are celebrating with a giveaway.

The following pages we are proud to announce as our honorary sponsors:

Unassisted Birth/Freebirth
Inside Vaccines

Our active contributing sponsor, we are happy to announce, is:

Pink Moon

Follow our simple Rafflecopter form here at our Facebook page for super easy entries/chances to win.

Prizes

1. The Grand Prize:

One signed copy, one of the last remaining, of the First Edition of my book, In Search of the Perfect Birth.

One Cloth Diaper (plus microfiber insert) from The Perfect Birth. Your choice of colors from the new Scholar line!

One (additional) Bamboo Insert from The Perfect Birth

   One pair of crocheted baby shoes by Pink Moon. Have a variety of colors to choose from (winner’s choice) and sizes are as follows:

***SIZES***
Newborn size fits foot up to 3″
0-3 Months fits foot up to 3 1/4″
3-6 Months fits foot up to 4″
6-12 Months fits foot up to 5″

One “Boobie Beanie” in your choice of size and color by Pink Moon!

1. Cream/Pink
2. Tan/Pink
3. Tan/Med Brown
4. Mocha/ Med Brown
5. Mocha/Dk. Brown
6. Chocolate/ Dk Brown
***SIZES***
Newborn size: 12-13″
3-6 months: 15-17″
6-12 months: 17-19″
child: 18-20″
tween: 19-21″

This grand prize above is SIX great gifts.
The following gifts are single gifts to other lucky potential winners.

2. One of the last remaining First Edition copies of the book, signed.

Have a variety of colors to choose from (winner’s choice) and sizes are as follows
***SIZES***
Newborn size fits foot up to 3″
0-3 Months fits foot up to 3 1/4″
3-6 Months fits foot up to 4″
6-12 Months fits foot up to 5″

3. 1 Cloth Diaper from The Perfect Birth. Color chosen for winner randomly; comes with a microfiber insert.

4. These crocheted baby boots from Pink Moon

5. A “Boobie Beanie” from Pink Moon, winner’s choice of color and size (see above).

So enter the Rafflecopter form NOW for a chance to win the Grand Prize of five prizes, or one of the other 4 single prizes! Many thanks for all who’ve supported me over the year. I promise that there is only more to come. Happy Birthday to Us!

How Knowing Your Body Can Help You Have a Better Birth Experience (Guest Post by Felicia)

 

Felicia’s kids

 

The following is a guest post from our friend Felicia, who is a doula. She runs the Facebook page Peaceful Baby Doula Service. She’s had SIX labors.  ~ Elizabeth

 

 

 

Knowing Your Body in General
Having basic knowledge about your body, especially your reproductive system is extremely helpful in aiding you in conceiving, pregnancy, labor, birth, breastfeeding, and postpartum experience. Listening to your body, and the signs that it gives you to communicate what is going on, or what it needs, will help you to have a better birth.

Pregnancy is a very important time and taking the opportunity to get in touch with your body will help the next 42 weeks go by faster, and with ease. Educating yourself about the normal birth process, knowing that all women’s bodies are different (so some women take a longer time to grow a baby), and trusting that your body is NOT faulty are very important things that need to be known in order to have a satisfying birth.

Felicia in labor. Home water birth is achievable for most women. Usually it just requires the right knowledge, planning, and support. At the minimum, it requires being in tune with your body and trusting your instinct.

Conceiving
During the period of trying to conceive, listening and paying attention to your body can make this period shorter and easier. Your body gives signs and you have symptoms of when the optimal time to conceive is. For more information about this, I recommend a really good book by Toni Weschler, Taking Charge Of Your Fertility.

The Cervix
Things like what your cervix is, what it feels like, normal complaints during pregnancy, and abnormal symptoms can all help ensure the future is more appeasing. Since your cervix plays a vital role in the birth of your baby, I find this is a very important aspect of the human body that is overlooked.

Felicia, seen here, is experienced in giving birth in hospitals and at home.

Most women rely on the doctor to tell them if their cervix is open, effaced, etc. — but they really don’t *understand* what this means, other than the day they are meeting baby is near. Most women don’t know that it’s ok to touch their OWN cervix and a doctor really never needs to check (but you can). Some are afraid they can hurt something trying to figure out their body, but since you are the one being touched, the likelihood of you hurting yourself is very minimal.

There is a higher chance of something going wrong with someone else (i.e., a doctor) having his hands in your vagina, because he doesn’t know what hurts, how hard to go, etc.

Knowing When to Ask For Help
Listening to your body can save you, on so many different levels. There are times when laboring women have listened to their bodies, and knowing that something was wrong sought out help-resulting in life-saving help for their selves, and their babies.

The end result: a perfect birth. May you all find yours.

Special Mother’s Day Report: The Mommy Wars Are Over!

(Worldwide, North American Mother’s Day 2012,
Associated Press) –

The news we have all been waiting for has finally arrived– the Mommy Wars are now officially over. Just in time for Americans to celebrate Mother’s Day this recent May 13th, we have received word that both sides of the Mommy Wars divide have agreed that no such war exists any longer and that peace talks and healthy discussions of differences are now fully in effect. Individuals will finally be treated as individuals, and not aligned-with purely for the groups which they claim to belong to. CNN reports that the groups themselves are in the process of dissolving, so as to eliminate divisiveness in the parenting communities.

May 13, 2012- President Barack Obama, acting as Commander in Chief, announces that the War between the Mothers has ended.

This news comes just weeks after extremists in the anti-AP and -NCB camp attempted to drop a bomb on the nation of Brazil. The intended target was missed, but the bomb hit the Atlantic Ocean, causing a series of complications which resulted in citizens near the shore losing power for about 20 minutes. Luckily, the Brazilians didn’t seem to notice.

Celebration takes place in the streets as sides have put down their arms. Instead, they have decided on flamboyant parades full of hugs and sisterhood. Membership cards to any particular group are being burned in the street with noted glee.

AP and NCB (“attachment parenting” and “natural childbirth”) leaders hired perennial Mommy favorite John Cusack to be present at anti-AP/NCB locales and hold his stereo over his head as a show of appreciation and gesture of good will. The song playing was Boyz II Men’s  “A Song For Mama“.

Ryan Gosling could not be reached for comment.

Although sides may still disagree, they no longer target one another with condescension and ideas such as, “you are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts”. Both sides have recognized finally and officially that “facts” are relative and subject to one’s trust in the source, and have agreed to only gently share views rather than to attack and aggressively go out of their way to debate. Information will continue to be shared on a “need to know” basis. All terrorism has been abolished. People of like mind will continue to convene at agreed-upon locations, free to practice their beliefs in peace and harmony and without fear of retaliation or subterfuge.

People seeking information on parenting from either generalized ideology will finally do their own research and be trusted to make their own grown-up decisions, rather than being sneakily tricked into drinking any kool-aid or bitterly indoctrinated. Interference of any sort will only be encouraged in cases of blatant child abuse;  speculation or sensationalism will be strictly prohibited in placing judgment, as there is now a “live and let live” peace treaty underway. Both sides have sworn to uphold values of consideration toward the feelings of people who differ, and to prize them as just as valuable and valid as their own feelings.

Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. It’s the dawn of a new day.

Save a Life: Give a Clean Birth Kit.

A lot of us who understand natural physiological birth know that birth isn’t as dangerous as most of us grew up thinking it was.  We know that past conditions for birthing women were poorer, which was the real culprit in maternal and neonatal fatalities– not the act of childbirth itself. Lack of access to clean water, nutrition, proper preventative medicine or care, extreme poverty… these were some of the things which caused birth to go bad in the “good old days”.

We take for granted that this doesn’t happen anymore. But it does.

Even the most naturally-minded, birth-trusting earth goddess mother has an uphill battle to face when the odds are stacked against her. That’s why this Mother’s Day, you might want to consider donating a clean birth kit to areas which we would consider third world… places like Papua New Guinea, where the maternal death rate is 1 in 7.

Adriel at The Mommyhood Memos wants us to know about Bloggers for Birth Kits. It’s great. You can either assemble your own birth kit and send it in, or you can donate in increments of $10. For only $2-3 dollars you can give a woman a birth kit with just the sterile essentials which could be life saving. You’ll be helping to stomp out the #1 issue in maternal death:  infection.

Clean Birth Kit specifics
1. Soap (for the birth attendant to wash her hands). Use a hotel-size soap or cut a regular bar of soap into 1/8-sized pieces. (Microwave the bar of soap for 30 seconds to soften it for cutting).
2. One pair of plastic gloves (for the birth attendant to wear).
3. Five squares of gauze (to wipe the mum’s perineum and baby’s eyes). Gauze pieces should be about 10×10 centimeters or 3×3 inches.
4. One blade (to cut the cord). You can buy individually wrapped sterile blades at the pharmacist or buy utility blades (much cheaper) at the hardware store. We teach the women to boil the blades for sterilization, so utility blades work just fine.
5. Three pieces of string (2 for tying the cord, 1 for “just in case”). String should be about 30 centimeters or 10 inches long.
6. One plastic sheet (for a clean birthing surface). Sheet should be approximately 1×1 meter or 1×1 yard and can be purchased at your hardware or paint store.
7. One sandwich-size ziplock bag (to pack the contents).

 

If you’d like to assemble your own, please ship to: Adriel Booker, Bloggers for Birth Kits, PO Box 6221, Townsville, Queensland, 4810, Australia

If you prefer to donate ($10 increments), click here. Please be sure to write “Bloggers for Birth Kits” in the box that says “additional comments” so the funds will be allocated properly!

And of course, if you can do nothing else, consider passing this on. Tweet it, Pin it, Facebook share it, share it with a group. Thanks.