Helpful Hormones: a booklet for pregnant women.

If you are pregnant, know someone who is pregnant (or thinking about it) or provide care for pregnant women, then this is for you. Check out an incredible new resource: Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing: Evidence and Implications for Women, Babies, and Maternity Care, by Childbirth Connection, a program of the National Partnership for Women & Families. The report finds that a large body of evidence demonstrates that the hormonal physiology of childbearing has significant benefits for the health of mothers and babies and can optimize breastfeeding and maternal-infant attachment. But it concludes that common maternity care interventions may disturb hormonal processes, reduce their benefits, and create new challenges. Download the full report, executive summary, topline recommendations and more »

We also just released a new booklet for women and an infographic with tips on how women (and clinicians) can stay on the "pathway" that leads to a healthy birth.

Twins are born, but assume they are still in the womb.

“WHY IS NATURE always called Mother Nature? Perhaps it’s because like any mother, she quietly manages so much of our living without our ever realising there’s a woman at work.” "...So begins this ten-minute informational film produced by the Walt Disney Company in 1946, commissioned by hygiene company Kimberley Clark and shown to an estimated 100 million students in American schools. The oddly-charming video talks viewers through the pituitary gland, which is responsible for the production of human growth hormones – and, at the onset of puberty, the hormones that kickstart the menstruation process. Something of a landmark, the video is thought to have been the first mass-distributed film to use the word ‘vagina’ in its script. It doubled as a covert commercial ploy from Kimberley Clark: the companion book advocated the use of sanitary pads (an industry dominated by its Kotex products) instead of tampons (dominated by Procter & Gamble’s Tampax brand). We won’t discuss the rest of the video – spoiler alert, you know? – but rather leave it up to yourself to watch in your own time."

I am a Midwife Because...Part II

Trust Birth

Dear newly pregnant mom,

"You have just found out that a new life is becoming within you. Isn’t it amazing how a miracle can seem so normal and ordinary.

No matter how this journey started or how it ends – you are now a mother. The membership fee to remain in this worldwide sorority, is this only, unconditional love – for yourself and your baby. The birth of your baby, however it happens whether at home or in the O.R. is the final initiation, a rite of passage into this immense power of women.

This is your training period. The choices whether easy or difficult start now. This new life depends on you to do your best. And there will be many days when it seems like your best is not good enough. It is.

Use this time to read. Those who love you will want to shower you with love and advice. In these moments, ask them a list of their favorite and least favorite books – read them all. As you read, try not to read as a scholar who tries to retain every word but instead as an adventurer looking for gems of knowledge and wisdom – a hidden treasure. Read to increase your personal wisdom that lay deep within you. It’s ok if the books that resonate with you are on the black list of the most popular parenting site or moms groups – this just means that you will need to use faith and wisdom to walk this journey. Remember that it’s ok to have your specific personal needs and limitations. These make you special.

The birth of your baby matters. For many this will be one of the biggest initiations they will ever experience. You will need:

courage

strength

resolve

sacrifice

time

patience

endurance

kindness

anger

fear

acceptance

excitement

surprise

doubt

pain

laughter

quietness

relief

softness

sadness

trust

WISDOM

You need to feel all of this and more because these are qualities you will need as a mother. You need to know that the birth of your baby may or may not go as you plan. How it ends is not really the important lesson, but what you learn about yourself from how it ends. Will you take the lessons from your birth and allow them to make you a stronger, wiser woman and mother?

I suspect you might feel like this initiation is too big for you. It’s not. We allow you to be surrounded by love and experience. Ask for help. It’s the responsible decision to bring a guide with you on this journey you have never been on before. Asking for help is often more courageous than trying to walk into the unknown unprepared.

As you welcome your baby into the world. Trust yourself. Believe that whatever you are feeling or not feeling is normal – if it wasn’t, it would be different."

Do your best. Trust yourself. Welcome.

With open arms,
Your birth mentor,

Mama Sayana

Please be sure to inform and register your mommy friends for one of the
FREE car seat clinics being organized for General Motors.

General Motors Canada has hired Baby Car Seat
Experts Inc. and WeeWelcome.ca (founded by CityLine guest expert Maureen
Dennis) to help them organize six car seat clinics. CityLine host, Tracy
Moore will be present to help parents register and guide them.

Below are the dates and locations to all six GM car seat clinics.
There's limited space, so register now!

Saturday, September 10, ROY FOSS VAUGHAN 2 Auto Park Circle Woodbridge,
ON L4L 8R1

Saturday, September 17, ROY FOSS THORNHILL 7200 Yonge Street,
Thornhill, ON L4J 1V8

Saturday, September 24, MARKVILLE CHEVROLET BUICK GMC, 5336 Highway #7
Markham, ON L3P 1B9

Saturday, October 8, APPLEWOOD CHEVROLET CADILLAC BUICK GMC, 3000
Woodchester Drive Mississauga, ON L5L 2R4

Saturday, October 15, CITY BUICK CHEVROLET CADILLAC GMC, 1900 Victoria
Park Avenue Toronto, ON M1R 1T6

Saturday, October 22, COURTESY CHEVROLET 1635 The Queensway Toronto, ON
M8Z 1T8

Please call Lio for further details (647)993-7233

The natural caesarean: a woman-centred technique

Although much effort has gone into promoting early skin-to-skin contact and parental involvement at vaginal birth, caesarean birth remains entrenched in surgical and resuscitative rituals, which delay parental contact, impair maternal satisfaction and reduce breastfeeding. This video describes a 'natural' approach that mimics the situation at vaginal birth by allowing (i) the parents to watch the birth of their child as active participants (ii) slow delivery with physiological autoresuscitation and (iii) the baby to be transferred directly onto the mother's chest for early skin-to-skin. Studies are required into methods of reforming caesarean section, the most common operation worldwide.

Yogawoman

Yoga was brought to the west from India by a lineage of male teachers. Now there's a generation of women who are leading the way. They're strong, their inspiring and they're radically changing people's lives. YOGAWOMAN, a groundbreaking film, uncovering a global phenomenon that has changed the face of yoga forever.