Archive for the ‘Scientific Studies’ Category


Building better breast milk

I think we’ve all heard about how consuming lots of omega-3 fats (through fish and plant sources) will benefit our babies’ brains and our own emotional health, but there are other ways to improve the quality of the milk we produce for our babies. Here are just a few of them…

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Doula ripples

Did you know that the benefits of having a doula’s assistance don’t end at birth? There are significant ripples that impact a woman, her baby, and her relationship with her baby’s father.

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Dolphins and birth plans

Given how protective I feel of my pregnant and laboring loved ones, I suppose it’s no surprise I grew up with such an affinity for dolphins. I wish I could circle protectively around them throughout their pregnancies and births as the dolphins do. Maybe if I ever start an official doula business, I’ll have a dolphin logo? (Click over to read the full post.)

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God takes the pain away?

Women’s minds and spirits are more open during pregnancy than perhaps at any other time. As I’ve pondered the power of spiritual meditation over the past few weeks, I have come to feel more and more strongly that it is precisely this type of preparation that most modern women are lacking as they approach childbirth. We read magazines and books about the logistics of pregnancy and childbirth, we may take classes on how to cope with labor through a variety of means, but it is rare to find books or resources for spiritual childbirth preparation. Spiritual meditation far surpasses relaxation and non-spiritual meditation in studies of pain, stress, and anxiety. What a powerful tool most of us are missing! (Click over to read the full post…)

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Improving fetal monitoring

My sister emailed me a link to an article about electronic fetal monitoring this morning: “Unnecessary C-sections performed due to fetal heart rate system” from KSL.com. The article explains: “Maternal-fetal medicine specialists believe fetal heart rate patterns may not be a good indicator of a baby’s health, and may lead to such unnecessary interventions and higher health care costs.” I’ve heard this many times before in my own research, so I was glad to see it getting more attention in the mainstream media. While it’s definitely important to ensure our babies are weathering labor well, the current system of monitoring and interpreting eletronic fetal monitor tracings definitely needs to be improved. I blogged about this issue in July of 2009 on my old blog. Here’s a re-post… (click over to read the full post)

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Mate selection

You already know that I love new baby smells and believe that our sense of smell plays an important role in the bonding process. Since making this discovery a couple of years ago, I have thought off and on about the subject as news stories or ideas have come up on my radar. Then, a couple of days ago, I had an experience that brought smell and bonding onto my radar again.

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Old school Birth Faith

I was just scanning through some posts on my old blog, reliving blogging memories… sigh. Maybe you’re new here and didn’t know I used to post over in Blogger (2007-2010). It’s sort of crazy to me that I’ve been blogging for longer than I spent in college. And, honestly, I’ve learned and grown more since I started blogging than I think I learned and grew in all those years of higher education! Ha. Starting my blog was, most definitely, one of the best things I ever did for myself, my family, and (I hope) for all you wonderful readers who think that reading what I have to say is worth your time. I love you!

Here are some fun old Blogger posts (and excerpts to entice you), if you’ve got some time to kill and want a peek into my blogging past. From more recent to oldest…

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Treasure box

If you find yourself feeling dissatisfied with your level of postpartum marital bliss, you’re not alone. This is normal. Even after babies #2, 3, 4 or more. But, of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about it. (Click over to read more…)

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Healing your home

So… air pollution. We hear so much about the global warming debate, but we rarely hear about how toxins in our air may be impacting human health and happiness. This subject has been on my mind a lot over the past week, and I felt impressed to do some digging about it. How are those toxins impacting pregnant women and their babies? And how can we protect ourselves? (Click over to read the full post…)

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The Science of Parenting

Another re-post from the archive…. I’m catching-up on some things I’ve been wanting to write posts about for months. Like a book I checked-out from the library ages ago… I heard about The Science of Parenting by Dr. Margot Sunderland (director of education and training at the Centre for Child Mental Health in London) in a Canadian news article with the headline ‘Crying it out’ may damage baby’s brain. Now that’s a heavy headline, eh? I was definitely intrigued, so I decided to dig further into this. It took me weeks to read it (bit by bit while nursing), but I finally finished last month some time. (Click over to read the full post…)

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PMS Tips

I’m starting to wonder whether I’ll ever have time for writing/research again. But, in the meantime, I decided to break my blog silence with some posts from the old archive. This awesome post from Organic Mama Cafe really got me thinking about preparing for the return of my monthly cycle sometime in the next year. I love how OrganicMama compares us as women to the beautiful, changing moon: “Every month, not just once or twice a year, she retreats into darkness before returning to the her fullest brilliance. As a woman, I need a similar reprieve every month to access the most brilliant parts of myself, spiritually, physically and mentally.” I definitely want to incorporate a time of renewal and introspection into my own monthly routine when the time comes. So, with all of that menstrual cycle stuff in mind, I’d like to re-post “PMS Tips,” a January 2010 post from my old blog.

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Building a better bond

As I’ve been preparing for the birth of our fourth child, I have been thinking a lot about that moment immediately following the birth, wondering how I will feel, and hoping I’ll finally be able to experience that sudden, ecstatic, euphoric, intense love for my child that I’ve never previously felt (at least not immediately). At the same time I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment by expecting or hoping for it too much. It’s a tough balance to figure out. (Click over to read the full post…)

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Busca’s birthing brew

As I’ve brainstormed what I wanted to consume in labor over the last few months, I determined that I wanted to include things that would…

* Provide a nutritious energy source
* Help me stay hydrated
* Promote labor progress
* Protect me from hemorrhage

It’s also my plan to drink this concoction every day for the remainder of my pregnancy to prime myself and my baby for the birth process. So I’ve known all along that I also wanted to include ingredients that would help prepare my body and my baby for the journey ahead. (Click over to read the full post.)

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Nesting and Prolactin

On Monday I started “nesting.” A sudden urgency to prepare for the arrival of baby #4 hit me like a ton of bricks. . . . I couldn’t help wondering, as I busied myself, is this “nesting” thing just a logical consequence of my realizing how little time I have left before my baby arrives, could it simply be that I’m motivated by the New Year and its attendant resolutions, or is there really something within my body chemistry triggering my need to ready our nest?

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Intuitive dreams

Apparently, a small study conducted by researchers as Johns Hopkins University found that “women who rely on dreams and emotions to guess their babies’ sex have a surprisingly good chance of being correct.” Within their study group (45 well-educated pregnant women) were seventeen who had a “feeling” about the sex of their baby. Only four of those women were wrong. And, of the eight women who had dreamed about their baby’s gender, “every single one of them was on the money.” (Click over to read about my 5-year-old’s awesome dream last night, and my ramblings about baby dreams, etc.)

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