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Health Foundations Blog
Amy Johnson-Grass - Monday, October 17, 2011
Early labor, also called latent or prodromal labor,
can be a tricky thing to navigate. Here are some tips from Health
Foundation's midwives to help you navigate early labor so you won't tire
out at the end.
Resist the urge to call family and friends immediately
and tell them you are in labor. A woman in labor should feel
unobserved. Lots of people around can create performance anxiety and
increase the time she is in early labor. Remember what Michel Odent
says, "The length of labor is usually proportional to the number of
people around".
Get plenty of rest . Get plenty of rest. GET PLENTY
OF REST. This cannot be stressed enough. Even if you wake up with
contractions, the rest you get in between is vital to conserving your
energy. Now is not the time to hike ten miles or tromp through the mall
for hours in an attempt to get labor going. You will just wear yourself
out and have that much less energy for active labor.
Be sure to eat well. And keep eating!
Whole grains and good sources of complex carbohydrates will serve you
well now. Nourish your self with healthy foods that will give your body
some reserved energy. Don't forget, you'll want foods that are easy to
digest so you can prevent heartburn and vomiting in later stages of
labor. Examples of foods to eat are oatmeal with honey, miso soup &
toast with peanut butter.
Stay well hydrated. You'll want to drink a minimum
of eight ounces of liquid with an energy source (such as tea with honey,
fruit juices, Emergen-C, etc) per hour. Try to stay away from citrus
and high acid juices because these can upset your stomach & cause
vomiting.
Ignore labor as long as possible. Focusing too much on these early contractions will make this period seem longer and longer. Don't time contractions...until
they make you take notice! Timing contractions for hours will make you
crazy! Make a plan in pregnancy for some early labor activities. Your
birth attendants don't mind some fresh bread or cookies. Make a plan
with your friend to watch some funny movies. Do some last minute
nesting. Knit or crochet the new baby a little hat. Distracting
activities that will consume your brain's attention are best for this
time.
Though this early stage of labor may take a long time, try to keep your spirits up. This is not all for nothing. Some things that happen in your body during this time are:
- The cervix is moving from a back-facing (posterior) position to a forward facing (anterior) position.
- The cervix is getting softer and softer in preparation to open up.
- The cervix is effacing (thinning out). It will need to be very thin before it can really open up wide.
- Your cervix is dilating . At this point in labor it is opening anywhere from 0 to 4 centimeters.
- You may lose your mucus plug at this stage as well, if you haven't already.
Early labor like this may last hours or may last days. Every body is
different. Celebrate the fact that you will soon look into your babies
eyes for the first time. Smooch with your partner and relish the last
pre-baby moments. This stage can last mere hours or maybe days long but
with lots of rest and good nutrition you'll be ready for the next stage,
the active stage. Remember, HF Midwives will be checking in with you
and reminding you of these important points as well.
Amy Johnson-Grass - Monday, October 10, 2011
Health Foundations is hosting an event for HF families & the community! Meet Ina May Gaskin in person! Come enjoy fabulous music by Billy McLaughlin, inspiring conversation and presentation by Ina May Gaskin, yummy food and sweet treats!
A book signing will be part of the event! Ina May will sign copies of her new book, "Birth Matters". Books will be available for sale for $15. Only one book will be signed per person. (credit cards, checks & exact cash will be accepted forms of payment)
Where: The Happy Gnome
498 Selby Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55102
When: November 13th from 4pm - 6pm
Tickets: $20 PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
Adults only please. Cash bar.
Ina May Gaskin
Ina May Gaskin, MA, CPM, is founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center, located near Summertown, Tennessee. Founded in 1971, by 1996, the Farm Midwifery Center had handled more than 2,600 births, with remarkably good outcomes. Gaskin herself has attended more than 1,200 births. She is the author of numerous books including Spiritual Midwifery, now in its fourth edition, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding, and Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesta. For 22 years she has published Birth Gazette, a quarterly covering health care, childbirth and midwifery issues. In 2003, she was chosen as a Visiting Fellow of Morse College, Yale University. She was President of Midwives’ Alliance of North America from 1996 to 2002. In 1997, she received the ASPO/Lamaze Irwin Chabon Award and the Tennessee Perinatal Association Recognition Award. In 2009, Thames Valley University in London presented Gaskin with an honorary doctorate in recognition of her work in demonstrating through midwifery and natural childbirth that women’s bodies still work as they were designed. In 2011, she received the first ever BEing BOLD Lifetime Achievement award from BOLD. She has been featured in several documentaries about birth, including Ricki Lake's ever-popular The Business of Being Born.
Billy McLaughlin
Billy McLaughlin is recognized internationally as a world-class guitarist, composer and inspirational performer who has appeared on Billboard’s TopTen Chart. Previously signed to Virgin Records’ Narada label, McLaughlin has 14 CD releases, 3 National Campus Entertainer of the Year Awards, 5 Minnesota Music Awards and his decades of national concert touring earned him the Hall of Fame Achievement Award. He resides in his home state of Minnesota where he is proudly raising two boys, both born at home.
Amy Johnson-Grass - Friday, September 23, 2011
Health Foundations Birth Center has been nominated for the 2011 Best of the Twin Cities Birth & Baby Awards! Follow this link to cast your vote! Winners will be announced at the Birth & Baby Expo on October 15th...an event not to miss!
Amy Johnson-Grass - Thursday, July 07, 2011
SAVE THE DATE all past and current Health Foundations families! Please
join us for our 1st Annual Family Picnic. Fun activities, great food
and fun company. More details to come!
Time: September 17, 2011 from 11am to 2pm
Location: Wabun Pavilion (A) in Minnehaha Park
Street: 4655 46th Street South
City/Town: Minneapolis, Minnesota 55417
Website or Map: http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_re…
Phone: 651.895.2520
Amy Johnson-Grass - Wednesday, July 06, 2011
 Rikki Lake and Abby Epstein are at it again. This time they are
making a four part documentary coming out starting later this year
called the "More Business of Being Born". These films are more like
educational films explaining what doulas are, discussing VBACs, and
generally geared towards educating pregnant women about their options.
Health Foundations Family Health
& Birth Center has partnered with Ricky Lake & her organization
My Best Birth to host a film screening of the "More Business of Being Born" on August 4th from 7-9pm. Tickets are $10. You must purchase them online on the event website.
The proceeds will be used to both finish the films and fund their
marketing and publicity. The ultimate goal is to make the information
found in their films, as well as on their website, available to as many
pregnant and soon-to-be-pregnant women as possible! As many of you
know, "The Business of Being Born", started SO SO SO many women thinking
about their options! This series will only expand on making important
information available to women and families.
I hope everyone can attend! You won't want to miss out on this fabulous evening. Follow Health Foundations Birth Center on facebook to keep up-to-date on the other fun things happening that evening! Hope to see you there!
More about the films:
Down on The Farm: Conversations with Legendary Midwife Ina May Gaskin
Follow
Executive Producer Ricki Lake and Director Abby Epstein to The Farm
Commune in Summertown, Tennessee, where pioneer midwife Ina May Gaskin
talks candidly about the latest birth trends. Gaskin, who was featured
in the original The Business of Being Born, sparked Lake’s initial
interest in home birth and has continued to inspire the filmmaking duo’s
advocacy efforts. Also on the journey is pregnant actress Kimberly
Williams-Paisley, who joins them in getting to know The Farm's famous
midwives and touring the picturesque birth cabins situated in the woods.
Bonus features on the DVD include additional interviews with Gaskin,
Williams-Paisley's emotional birth stories and a conversation with
Christy Turlington-Burns about her shared passion for improving maternal
mortality.
Amy Johnson-Grass - Sunday, June 19, 2011
CONTEST
Win a free photo session with Babies by Zane & a Health Foundations Water Bottle!
Details
The Contest starts June 20th, 2011 and ends midnight June 25th, 2011
Rules
- You need to be a patient with Health Foundations in St. Paul, MN
- Become a “fan” of Babies by Zane Facebook Page www.facebook.com/babiesbyzane
- Go to Babies by Zane Facebook page → albums → Health Foundations and submit a comment with your due date under the logo.
How to win?
Zane will use the random generator www.random.org on June 26th and the winner will be announced on Babies by Zane Facebook page.
What’s the prize?
One free newborn session with Babies by Zane and one Health Foundations water bottle.
Good luck everyone!
Amy Johnson-Grass - Sunday, June 12, 2011
Certified Nurse Midwife
Our busy practice is looking for a part-time CNM to join our team to
provide
services to both home and Birth Center clients. This is a full scope
practice
including prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, and well woman care. Join
our team
of one CPM and one CNM. We have a beautiful, comfortable, free standing
birth
center and provide a calm, relaxed setting for births. A minimum of two
years experience in
an out of hospital birth setting preferred. Nurturing, confident,
professional and flexible team player
with a passion for women’s health and birth center/home birth a must.
Flexible hours, reasonable call schedule.
On-Call Registered Nurse
Health Foundations Family Health & Birth Center
has an opening on our team for an RN to work as an on-call birth
assistant. Job duties include providing assistance to the midwifery
team
during births in the birth center and at home, providing postpartum
care after the birth, discharge teaching, and postpartum home visits to
mother-baby dyads.
Qualifications include a current State of Minnesota Nursing License to
practice as a Registered Nurse or license eligible. Excellent
communication skills, and at least one year experience in
an obstetrical setting is required. A warm, professional attitude and
high comfort level with birth, postpartum care and breastfeeding are
necessary. Current adult CPR
and neonatal resuscitation required. Lactation training and
certification is a plus. Additional training and
certifications are provided as required by the practice.
Amy Johnson-Grass - Friday, May 06, 2011
The Doula Internship Program is an example of Health
Foundations Family Health & Birth Center’s philosophy of “women
helping women”. The program creates a positive, three dimensional
exchange: The doula intern gains professional birth experience, Health
Foundations benefits from the intern’s volunteer activities, and Health
Foundations Midwifery families have complimentary doulas available to
serve them in labor.
Health Foundations provides a unique
opportunity to experience birth in a variety of settings. The doula
intern may provide labor support at an intimate home birth, a water
birth at the birth center, a primary c-section at the hospital, and
essentially all the birth scenarios in between (experience will primarily be in an out-of-hospital setting at either birth center or home births).
With the goal of supporting families in their personal choices, Health
Foundations utilizes a very modern model of care that combines natural
and medical childbirth techniques. The knowledgeable staff at Health
Foundations will share first-hand experiences to gently guide you
through a wide range of support techniques to comfort the mother-to-be.
The doula intern is given many
opportunities to develop perinatal knowledge in addition to providing
labor support. For example, volunteering during clinic hours, attending
the monthly Health Foundations Required Classes, and participating in
breastfeeding education opportunities are all ways that doula interns
interact with Health Foundations clients and gain valuable experience.
In addition to completing the forms necessary for doula certification,
the midwives and their assistants will also provide personalized
feedback regarding your performance as a doula.
The goal of the Doula Internship
Program is to develop dynamic and long-term relationships with the local
doula community, which is why only the most passionately dedicated
applicants will be considered for the program. The first step to be
becoming a doula intern is to review the contract and submit the
application to Health Foundations!
Intern graduates will be placed on
our exclusive doula referral list and website, which is provided to
women throughout the Twin Cities and surrounding counties.
Application packets will be
available starting May 10, 2011. The deadline for applications is June
1, 2011. Applicants will be contacted for an interview.
To receive an application packet contact:
Doula Internship Coordinator
Health Foundations Family Health & Birth Center
968 Grand Avenue
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105
P: 651.895.2520
Amy Johnson-Grass - Friday, May 06, 2011
What are the benefits of using a birth center?
Accredited birth centers provide:
- Relationship. Midwives build close
relationships with their clients. You know the midwife who will be attending your birth. In a hospital setting the provider attending your delivery is the on-call midwife. If it is a large group you may or may not know the provider you will see when you arrive at the hospital.
- A sense of control and involvement. You won't be subjected to any routine medical interventions.
- For
example, you won't automatically be hooked up to an IV. And instead of
continuous electronic fetal monitoring, which often requires you to stay
in bed with a belt strapped around your middle, a midwife or nurse will
monitor your baby's heartbeat intermittently with a handheld Doppler,
like the one your caregiver uses during prenatal visits.
- IVs,
oxygen, medication, and infant resuscitation equipment are available in
case they are needed. And after you give birth, no routine policies or
procedures require you to be separated from your baby. All of his or her
examinations take place next to you.
- A network of services
Accredited birth centers have arrangements with laboratories for
prenatal screening and other testing, with specialists for consultations
if necessary. They're also connected with obstetricians and a nearby
hospital in case you need to be transferred there during labor, birth,
or postpartum.
- Lots of encouragement to have a natural, drug-free birth.
The staff is trained to help coach you through labor and committed to
helping you have a drug-free natural birth.
- Freedom of movement and more.
You can move around freely, choose the position you'd like to be in for
labor and birth, and eat and drink during labor.
- Your pick of invitees.
Some hospitals limit how many people you can have at the birth, but at a
birth center, you get to decide who's with you. And if you'd like your
children to be there, they'll be warmly welcomed.
- Breastfeeding help and encouragement.
Birth centers make it a priority to provide breastfeeding education and
support during the prenatal period, for the duration of your stay after
you give birth, and in the postpartum period.
- A warm and comfortable physical environment.
You'll be in a homelike facility and room with a bed
large enough for you and your partner to share, and soothing decor. Most have whirlpool tubs you can chose to labor or deliver in.
- Birth
centers have kitchens where you can store or prepare food.
- Lower costs.
Because women who deliver in birth centers stay for a shorter
time and use fewer interventions, the average cost is about a third to half less
than a hospital birth.
Amy Johnson-Grass - Tuesday, April 26, 2011
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