Massage mothers the mother. It restores energy from a depleted state by stimulating circulation and bringing tension to rest. Massage can ease the stress on weight bearing joints and help release the postural strains of pregnancy. It is not indicated when someone has a fever or infection, swollen vein, inflamed joint, vomiting or diarrhea or if the care giver advised against it.

Do keep your movements smooth and rhythmic, paying attention to mother’s nonverbal cues. You can apply light oil of her choice and keep your fingers together when you knead and stroke.

During early labor, the mother finds relief in a nice belly rub from the top of the womb down over the baby, then up the sides and encircling the baby to mildly stimulate the uterus.

During the last stage of labor, holding or pressing on the feet can bring relief from contractions.

After a contraction, a gentle hand on a stiff place may help mother to let go. Gentle nerve strokes down the arms loosen up shoulders that are raised high during contractions. Massage scalp, around eyes, and around legs and buttocks to release exhaustion and help keep your bottom loose.

During a contraction, apply pressure on the lower back to relieve a low back pain. Press hands (or arm or feet) in a V shape on the mother’s sacrum (lower back). Press outward from sacrum into buttocks. Mom should stay on hands and knees position with the partner’s applying hard pressure (using fist, palm or feet) to the sacrum. A warm water bottle covered with cloth can also be pressed on the lower back.

The following massage strokes can be effectively applied to many areas of the body:
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Effleurage is long, full handed strokes that apply broad, firm pressure in one direction and a softer resting pull back to the beginning of the stroke. Begin and end with an Effleurage.

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Petrissage is a kneading stroke using the following techniques: hands kneading alternately, hand over hand as in pulling up through the sides of the receiver’s torso, hands flat and pulling opposite to cause light friction and hands stroking apart like breaking bread is useful on the feet, hands and limbs.

•
Friction is moving in circles with one or two thumbs. One thumb circulates while the other hand rests nearby on mom’s body. This massage is useful in tension spots around the joints or in the muscle bellies.

•
Open Fist is applying pressure using the backs of the fingers in a long stroke down and away along the spinal muscles, harmstrings and side of the legs.

•
Nerve Strokes are soft strokes that are nice to end with on the whole body at the end of the massage.

•
Other famous strokes include rocking, drumming and holding points.

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Trust.strength.integrity.community solution minded. clients first.

My goal is helping one family at a time maximize wealth, minimize taxes, grow their retirement savings at 13.5% return ,safe,guaranteed and with access to funds when cancer , stroke or disability arise for funds up to $1.5M.

Help new business owners in financial planning and retirement/college planning, start their business with full field support and training. Join us in 50 US states. 408-854-1883 Connie Dello Buono, CA Life Lic 0G60621 408-854-1883 motherhealth@gmail.com 1708 Hallmark lane San Jose, CA 95124

The time of motherhood is an essential time to form the essential bonding and attachment that makes loving generations of people. Mothers who are nurtured during pregnancy will be better nurturers themselves. Seek the company of women believers in natural birth and conscious mothering and most especially your partner. Pray, meditate and visualize…

Let there be light
Each day is an opportunity to gather strength
To face the new role of motherhood
From whatever blessings we have
Let them help us to unveil the shrouded veil of fear
For at the end it is still God who turns on the light

It is in knowing what is expected during pregnancy, labor, and the first year of taking care of our baby that mothers feel the strength to carry on the new role. Be glad to join in the work of creation In the unfolding of a new life from the joining of a male and a female. Powered by the higher force, the same Almighty hand that brought forth our parents’ lives. And all our mothers and fathers before, a miracle of life grows within you.

“You with faith and hope, can bring and nurture the new life into the world. Pregnancy curves a new place in my being; all of me must unite and work to nurture and contain my baby.” Esperanza, a mother of six

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Each pregnancy is unique and brings in some special individuality and a new set of experiences. We as mothers can make it through the journey with grace and acceptance if we let ourselves listen to our bodies.

“The most important thing you should carry when you are pregnant is a happy disposition. Don’t allow any worries to weigh you down, for your baby breaths and feels with you.” Claudia, a mother of seven

Don’t be misled by advertising, by the routine medical practices in hospitals or by health care givers, by the current culture – entrenched ideas that tell us more of the unnatural ways of birthing by mothers and feeding babies.

Mothers know what is best for their bodies and their babies. Tuning in to their bodies and feeling their babies inside their wombs help them get the needed strength at the most intense part of their lives.

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Believe that you can surrender to the successful works of creation with wisdom and conscious preparation. Connect with mothers before us and with childbirth professionals (midwives, educators, labor support, doctors) and especially midwives who believe in our bodies.

From mothers around the world who care about other mothers, let’s examine what wisdom we can learn from them. The more we understand the needs of mothers and babies the more we become good parents. We take care of our babies the way we have been cared for by our parents and then more towards perfection as we apply ways that work better. Babies brings not only the intense happiness of being parents, they are also our genetic afterlife. We must acknowledge the importance of how we prepare ourselves as pregnant mothers and how we birth our babies, for they make up an important experience for babies and most of all for mothers.

As we look at the important changes in a woman and as we look into the eyes of babies, we will realize that motherhood is an important task and that babies are responsive to their environment. We can create a good environment for both mothers and babies by becoming aware of our decisions and choices from the time of conception onward.

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Pregnancy – a sacred experience

One day as I was strolling in downtown San Jose with my husband, a man bowed down in front of me. I was on my last trimester of pregnancy then. As I recall this episode to one of my mother friends who was raised in Russia, she related how in her culture people believed in the sacredness of fertility and pregnancy. I know that in the Philippines women who want to get pregnant sometimes flock to the street of a famous town to dance and sing to a patron saint. It is known that praying and chanting to the Saint brings not only fertility but a successful birth.

Over many generations we have changed in the way we view pregnancy and birth. Blessed are those mothers who are exposed to a culture which allows the woman’s body to use its full capacity to deliver babies. Some mothers have seen how other mothers breastfeed their babies as a natural part of mothering. We who have lived in the industrialized communities assigned the caring of pregnant mothers to the professional community of health care givers. We ridicule those who are old fashioned and traditional, knowing that our current knowledge is enough to make babies.

I who believe in technology, and my husband who is so progressive in many ways, have both struggled in planning for my pregnancies. Even my husband who believes in natural foods, protecting the environment, and the lesser use of technology did not agree with homebirth and midwives at first. But after learning that the midwifery model of care is what birthing women need, he changed his perception about midwives, who are really the keepers of natural birth, powers of women’s bodies during birth, breastfeeding, family bed, and conscious parenting. He even decisively agreed not to circumcise our son.

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For Mothers: Life is a set of choices that can either make or break our passage into a more rewarding one. As mothers you are endowed with the capacity to birth beyond your imagination.

My dear sister and friend don’t be surprised about the power of your body to birth life! Do you want to celebrate? Do you feel overwhelmed with the fact that you are carrying life in your womb? Are you scared or feeling some sense of responsibility? My friend, don’t be afraid, for your body is designed to carry life.

Know that there are resources around you that will help you nurture the life inside you. Talking to many grandmas, mothers, my own mother, midwives and other health care professionals prepared me for the coming of my new baby. Books (see Authors), support groups, childbirth classes, and my partner’s assistance in seeing to it that I get my daily exercise of pelvic rocks, walks, swims and excellent nutrition from natural sources provided the right environment for my new baby. Your new baby needs your positive energy and sense of well being.

Welcome to the world of mothers. Mother you will now be called. Isn’t it uplifting to know that you are carrying new life within you? In the months ahead of you, you will feel very sensitive emotionally and physically. This is because of the varying levels of hormones during your pregnancy. The nine months of pregnancy allows you to understand yourself and appreciate the strength that comes with carrying a growing life within you. Many first time mothers are anxious to deliver their babies and that’s ok.

Your partner

This period is an important time for yourself and your husband to bond to each other. This bonding will help you through the demands of caring for a newborn. Both you and your partner will feel the rewards of parenting which only you and your partner know. It is important that your partner should take part in your activities and plans. Your partner will then feel that sense of responsibility and will be an even better ally.

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The power of contractions, the pushing,
the opening of my body were all so raw and intense.
It takes strength and courage to trust our bodies
To listen to what our bodies tell us to do
To feel the baby’s way of communication
To let our partners be partners in labor
To let our faith guide us during labor and birth
To envelop our bodies with our love for our baby
To welcome labor and to give ourselves over to the task of birth
To embrace this fulfilling birth experience
Know that you have the strength to deliver a baby

All humanity are called to this task
And every time, birth succeeds as planned by the Creator.

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How are babies delivered into this world?

Most of the time with long labor, a lot of shouting, a painful lower back, and with difficulty only a mother knows. While so many other animals appear to produce their offspring with so little trouble, human birth takes some effort. In the upright position, women deliver their babies at home with the assistance of midwives in a calm atmosphere of trust in the birth process. In a loving environment without any sense of hurry and with the fullness of mother’s health, life unfolds.
Medical supervision and such high drama are present in the American way of birth.

Anxiety can cause prolonged labor and inefficient uterine contractions. Anxiety is present today in our present culture when mothers are rushed to a place and treated as if they are sick. Pregnancy is not a form of sickness. Birthing a baby is a natural rhythm of life. The midwifery model of care believes in the woman’s body and the natural process of birth and assists with the most humane care possible.

Around the world, three in every five births happen at home with a midwife. Labor is shorter and mother experience less pain after the birth. Many of these mothers birth in upright position, aided by midwives and doulas, and believe in the natural rhythm of birth.

The primitive mothers deliver babies at whatever environment they’re in and with so much simplicity. These mothers spend time in the fields working and caring for their children. They constantly move.

Today, mothers are well fed and are fit as they maintain their daily routine of working and exercise. We also have strong and healthy mothers in this generation as we had in the past. As mothers learn of their freedom to choose their care giver (Midwives) and the place to have their babies (Homebirth), more and more babies will be born full term, healthy, calm, and able to bond and breastfeed with ease.

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What can help you during a long labor?
•
Sitting backwards on the toilet to encourage the baby down.

•
Massaging the scalp to release endorphins.

•
Climbing up and down the stairs may shift the position of a baby stuck in position.

•
Keeping hydrated such asdrinking a smoothie with calcium/magnesium powder helps sustain energy. It also prevents more muscle aches.

•
Taking a shower standing or on hands and knees can help you cope with contractions.

When should you call your midwife or doctor when labor comes and what are the signs of labor?

The non-progressive Braxton-Hicks contractions felt during pregnancy (felt early during the first trimester for some mothers) become progressive during labor. These contractions are sometimes painful and prepare your body for birth. Effacement, or taking up, of the cervix may start in the latter two or three weeks (for first time mothers) of pregnancy due to strong Braxton-Hicks contractions.

Labor starts when the mother feels it with strong, regular contractions in the upper segment of the uterus. Labor starts when the fetus secretes the hormones (cortisol and androgen) in increasing levels giving a signal to mother’s body to produce (increasing quantity) the maternal hormones that stimulate labor (oestrogen, prostaglandin, oxytocin).

For first time mothers, call the doctor or midwife when contractions last 45-60 seconds and occur every 2-3 minutes but for second time mothers they should call their care givers when the contractions occur every 15 minutes. This time the bag of small amniotic fluid (containing placental membranes) rupture, a gush of water that is not salty to taste can be felt by the mother signaling that the baby is ready to come. Some mothers have their membranes ruptured early (for even days before the baby is born), so proper hygiene should be observed.

During the period of resting tone in between contractions, the mother should take a deep cleansing breath to provide adequate fetal oxygenation. For first time mothers, there is a show (days before the baby is born) which is a mucoid loss, slightly streaked with blood signalling the slow process of separation of the membranes around the cervix.

Use the upright position that you are comfortable with. Lying on the side with the head of the bed elevated can ease the pushing stage and at the same time might prevent a tear. Make sure that you listen to your body’s urge to push. Curved your back and with your chin on your chest and combine exhalation with bearing down (pushing). You can make any sounds you like even humming and singing can be effective. You can even close your eyes and visualize that your body is opening up. Don’t be in a hurry first time moms. It takes some time for the body to open up (couple of hours for most first time mothers). When the burning sensation is felt in your yoni (puss), that signals the coming of the baby. Receive the baby and make skin-to-skin contact and massage him/her with your hands.

After the birth, is a blissful feeling and this is the time that your adrenaline is high that it seems that you experience a feeling of euphoria. Cry if you feel like crying, your body had such a profound transformation in a short span of time that it compensates with the production of hormones to maintain its proper balance. Remember this day as your celebration of giving birth and your baby’s first breath of life outside your womb. Ease the baby’s transition from your womb to the outside world by giving your breast even for a week, a month, a year or many more years.

Labor of Love

We should follow the sensation of our baby

Our baby will guide us through the process

Our part is to provide the passage with calmness and strength

With courage to bear and follow wherever it may lead us

To feel the pressures as positive signs of giving life

As life unfolds slowly and adjusts to our own bodily functions

Our body is a vessel containing our baby and our baby’s world

We are given this load because we are given the grace to bear it.

Yield to the power of creation as you take part in the important creative process

Obey the dictates of your bodily urges as it makes

way for the baby’s birth

Without these sensations what could it be?

Your body is slowly opening up and you should take

the time to gather breath and wisdom

To contain the pain, for after this is a bliss

A celebration of a new life of which you are a participant

Be a willing hand in molding the new life within you

Your body is given the power to use all the energies within

To react in balance and harmony for every movement

For every action is a result of a reaction

The sole purpose is to provide the balance needed to birth the new life

The new life within is responding according to your body

Be gentle to your body, respond to it with all your love and power

You have the power to deliver, to give new life

What more can you ask but the endurance to take it all

Your faith will carry you to the perfection of a new life

Remain with focus and concentration as you await to

meet your baby’s eyes

Your baby is waiting for you

Be calm and gentle, have courage and faith

Everything will be for the good of both of you

and most of all of the new life

We should trust and cooperate with our body

Imagine God’s hands are doing the work for you

Faces of babies welcome another baby

Angel voices singing and responding for every sound that you make.

The Second Stage of labor

In that moment, much anticipated miracle,

I thought, “Dear God, I’ve delivered forth a fish!”

You whirled out of me like a flapping red snapper urgent to gulp air.

I duly recorded, it was the queerest sensation my inner thighs had ever known.

Nearly comical. Then I looked down upon your rushing forth in humbled awe, startled to find a tiny wet person, all new.

Robin Izer

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If  you suspect a mounting urinary tract infection, you can begin    nonallopathic therapy immediately. Most herbalists and midwives suggest:

• Eliminating     all dietary sugars (refined & unrefined)
• Plenty     of fluids (excluding coffee, black tea or sodas)
• Naturally     sweetened cranberry juice. Studies     in mice and humans have demonstrated cranberry’s ability to     interfere with bacterial adherence to uroepithelial surfaces. In     vitro studies using extracts of blueberries and cranberries have     shown possible antitumor activity.
• Vitamin     C with bioflavinoids (500 mg. every 2 to 3 hours)
• Uva     Ursi infusion (the only antiseptic herb that passes through the kidneys).

Prepare    by using 1 oz to 1 quart water and steep 10 hours. Drink one cup    every four hours the first two days when fighting an active or severe    infection. Continue treatment with at least 1 cup daily for three    days after all symptoms disappear. The dosage is one cup every 12    hours for prevention or mild infection. Do not take longer than 10    days at one time.

Reference:

Holistic    Midwifery, Volume 1 – Anne Frye. It is a comprehensive textbook for    midwives in homebirth practise. It is available from Labrys Press,    7528 NE Oregon St. Portland, OR 97213.

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Trust  Strength  Integrity Community  Solution minded Clients first

My goal is helping one family at a time maximize wealth, minimize taxes, grow their retirement savings at 13.5% return ,safe,guaranteed and with access to funds when cancer , stroke or disability arise for funds up to $1.5M.

Help new business owners in financial planning and retirement/college planning, start their business with full field support and training. Join us in 50 US states. 408-854-1883 Connie Dello Buono, CA Life Lic 0G60621 408-854-1883 motherhealth@gmail.com 1708 Hallmark lane San Jose, CA 95124

 

Premature labor occurs when gestation is less than 37 weeks. As the blood volume expands to 50-60% of the blood (especially for twins), there is a need for more protein, vitamin E and B, iron (not iron salts), water and other minerals.

Premature labor is most often due to poor nutrition which predisposes women to infections and other precipitating factors. Healthy, well-nourished women have intermittent, strong Braxton-hicks contractions from about 34 weeks (and often sooner), lasting until term. Sometimes these practice contractions last for hours at a time. Primary prevention includes: eating healthy food, stopping of smoking/alcohol consumption, treating vaginal infections and other infections early (urinary, kidney, etc.), preventing anemia, adequate prenatal care, avoiding prolonged standing or work-related stress and other emotional stress.

One friend of mine is a vegan, multigravid mother who delivered a full-term infant weighing 7 lbs. last August 1996 in Santa Cruz. She had two births with premature infants, both weighing 5 lb. at 36th weeks gestation. The third healthy full term baby had no problems with sucking and jaundice as compared to his two old brothers who were born at 36 weeks and had problems with sucking and jaundice.

When my friend was pregnant for her third child, she had episodes of nausea during the first trimester which she ignored and continued on eating healthy food. She educated herself in midwifery care and wellness to keep a healthy baby. She is herself a student midwife who saw two midwives for her regular prenatal visits. In the 16th week of her pregnancy, she felt strong cramping and mucus discharge. She is aware of her previous premature births, her low socioeconomic lifestyle, her platypelloid (unusual) pelvis and her short cervix, all precursors to premature births.

This time she rested when her body complained of pain after a heavy household chore, riding in a bike or a bout with a flu or infection. She had a body and foot massage and used 2 particular herbs (in capsule form) which can prevent a miscarriage: red raspberry and wild yam. She took the herbs for less than 10 days and in the 31st week of her pregnancy she felt strong and consistent contractions. Determined to have a full term baby, she was taking things slowly especially household chores, taking more rest and eating nutritious food and especially hydrating or drinking lots of filtered water every hour. She listened to her midwives and stopped breastfeeding her toddler when she learned of her pregnancy and stopped sex during the last trimester.

At 37 weeks and 3 days, she felt that labor was starting and called her midwives. Rocking herself on the chair for a few hours and staying on hands and knees few minutes before the baby came, she felt the pain which lasted for a good 15 minutes and she birthed a 7 pounds baby boy to her delight. When asked about her pregnancy and carrying a full term baby, she said she could have carried the baby even longer had she rested and worked with less stress.

Overall she is happy that all her tuning in to her body and providing proper nutrition for her baby inside her womb paid off in the end.

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Trust  Strength  Integrity Community  Solution minded Clients first

My goal is helping one family at a time maximize wealth, minimize taxes, grow their retirement savings at 13.5% return ,safe,guaranteed and with access to funds when cancer , stroke or disability arise for funds up to $1.5M.

Help new business owners in financial planning and retirement/college planning, start their business with full field support and training. Join us in 50 US states. 408-854-1883 Connie Dello Buono, CA Life Lic 0G60621 408-854-1883 motherhealth@gmail.com 1708 Hallmark lane San Jose, CA 95124