Empowering women to take control of their mental and physical health by sharing personal stories, practical medical information and guidance.
All in Postpartum
85% of parents hold their baby on their left hip even if they are left-handed! The Journal of Biology Letters found that “handedness bore no difference in cradling bias.”
Too much or too little? That question summarizes the dilemma across the board in obstetrics. Are we doing too much or too little to protect and support mom and baby? Electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) is one more topic in which we thought we were doing too little by only listening to a baby’s heartbeat intermittently and then we overshot by implementing continuous electronic monitoring (cEFM) for majority of U.S women delivering in hospitals. Learn more about cEFM and what it means for you in labor!
Did your pediatrician tell you to start supplementing because your baby isn’t gaining enough weight? Hearing those words can be frustrating, disappointing, and unhelpful! Slow weight gain may not in itself be the actual problem, but a manifestation of some other factor that should be checked first. What I mean by this is, if your baby isn’t gaining weight the solution isn’t ONLY to supplement. We need to figure out what else may be causing slow weight gain in your infant- the slow weight gain is a symptom of some other condition. Slow weight gain can be caused by a factor in the mother, infant, or both!
If your baby was born between 34-36 6/7 weeks they might be a little bit tiny, a little bit sleepy, and a little bit uncoordinated. Preterm, later preterm, or growth restricted babies may lack mature feeding skills, strength, and stamina to express and transfer enough milk from mom.
My goal in this post is to give you easy tips to help nurture your baby’s growing brain during their first year of life. The first year of life is when majority of brain growth occurs! Babies are born with only 25% of their brain volume and over the course of the next 12 months their brain will triple in size! A baby’s brain grows by 1% every day for the first 3 months of life.
Flavor preferences start in utero! What you eat will impact how your infant experiences food and which food flavors they are drawn to.
Finding out you have a new brain may require a strong drink.
A study published by Nature Neuroscience reveals that there is remodeling of the brain during pregnancy, and this remodeling can last for at least 2 years after giving birth!
You didn’t lose your body because it didn’t go anywhere, but it changed, and so did you. Your body, your mind, and your spirit won’t be the same after pregnancy and birth.
Understanding the basic principles of nutrition can help you navigate the myriad of dietary advice one can find online. Proper diet is essential for all phases of life, including pregnancy, and the fundamental principles remain the same across their lifespan.
Humans need more than 40 different nutrients to maintain optimal health. These nutrients are classified as either macronutrient (which includes fats, carbohydrates, and protein) or micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).
A galactagogue is any type of herb or medication that increases milk supply. There are a variety of reasons women use galactagogues, but the main reason is to treat low milk supply.
