Birth Matters Virginia

Breastmilk helps children fulfill their genetic destiny

Stem cells could be the secret reason why breast is best

Scientist says mother's milk may play vital role in helping children 'fulfil their genetic destiny'

By Susie Mesure

""Breast milk is the only adult tissue where more than one type of stem cell has been discovered. That is very unique and implies a lot about the impressive bioactivity of breast milk and the consequential benefits to the breastfed infant," said Dr Cregan, who is speaking at Unicef's Baby Friendly Initiative conference this week. His research has isolated adult stem cells of epithelial (mammary) and immune origin, with "very preliminary evidence" that breast milk also contains stem cells that promotes the growth of muscle and bone tissue."

 

Read the full article from The Independent, click here.   
 

Spend A Day with Ina May!

Spend the Day with Ina May Gaskin

Fall Fundraiser
Join us Saturday, December 5, 2009 for a day with Ina May!

Choose from two exciting educational opportunities:
An Afternoon Workshop
12:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Duke University East Campus
East Duke BLDG 204B
Ina May will speak about:
* Managing Shoulder Dystocia
* Normalizing Breech Birth
Registration is $75

An Evening Lecture
7:00 pm
Duke University East Campus
White Lecture Hall - 1308 Campus Drive
Ina May will speak about:
* Reducing Infant Mortality Rates in North Carolina
* Safe Motherhood Across Ethnic Lines
* Safe Motherhood Quilt on Display
* Free CEUs Available
Registration is $20 at the door or $15 in advance.

All funds benefit N.C. Midwives. Please consider at extra donation to support the legislative effort to license Certified Professional Midwives in North Carolina.
Share this event with friends printing fliers HERE

Sponsored by Duke University Women's Center, The Big Push for Midwives, NC
Friends of Midwives, NC Midwives Alliance, PreciousArrows.com
Contact Marnie Cooper Priest for more information. [email protected]gmail.com or 919.740.7396

REGISTRATION
If you want to pay by check, click HERE for a printable registration form and then send it and check payable to NCMA (NC Midwives Alliance) to:
A Day with Ina May Gaskin
c/o Kate Katahdin
1824 Rustica Drive
Durham, NC 27713
(919) 598-9619
[email protected]s.com

If you want to pay online, please complete the form HERE. After completing the form you will be directed to a payment page.
NO tickets will be mailed. Your name will be on a roster at the registration desk.

Ms. Ina May Gaskin is an internationally known activist, speaker and author on pregnancy, childbirth, and maternal & infant mortality. A homebirth midwife for more than three decades, she has been called the "Mother of all Midwives", and has been credited with the resurgence of midwifery in the US. Ms. Gaskin is the founder and director of The Farm Midwifery Center in Tennessee, and author of Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, Spiritual Midwifery and recently, Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding. She also developed the Gaskin Maneuver, a technique for resolving shoulder dystocia during childbirth.

Marnie Cooper-Priest won Ms Gaskin's visit and lecture through a Big Push for Midwifery contest. Inviting the public to hear her speak is a fund-raising and awareness-raising gift for the confederation of organizations in NC working to license CPMs. Come and share the prize, and continue the big push for CPM licensure here in North Carolina!

Presented by the North Carolina Midwives Alliance and Duke University Women's Center, and sponsored by The Big Push for Midwifery

Funds will go toward lobbying and working with the NC legislature on a licensing bill for Certified Professional Midwives, national licensing of midwives, and the NC Midwives Alliance.

The North Carolina Midwives Alliance (NCMA) seeks to promote unity, cooperation, and communication among midwives statewide. NCMA also strives to provide opportunities for information exchange, continuing education, peer review and support, while helping to ensure the highest quality of care for women and families seeking midwifery services.

The Duke University Women's Center promotes the full participation and agency of women students at Duke through mentorship, leadership, and programming that addresses gender violence, equity and social justice.

Family Maternity Center of Northern Neck

A note from the Richmond Birth Community:

Hi, I just wanted to give everyone an update on the Family Maternity Center of the Northern Neck.  We hope to open in April 2010, and they are building the facility now at 11540 Mary Ball Road, Lancaster, Va., which is about an hour and a half from Richmond.

We will offer the midwifery model of care, and births for low risk women in our three birthing rooms.  We will also operate a clinic for women and children of all ages.  We will accept all insurances, Medicaid, and self-pay, and offer a sliding fee scale. We will have two nurse-midwives to begin with, and offer CenteringPregnancy, which is group prenatal care. We have already established mechanisms for transfer with area hospitals.

 

I am currently offering prenatal care in a temporary location at Dr. Hamilton's office in KIlmarnock, VA. I have been a nurse-midwife for fifteen years, and was doing hospital births for most of them.  Last year I worked at a birth center for several months, and now I am committed to out-of-hospital birth.  The Family Maternity Center of the Northern Neck will be a beautiful facility in an area where women have few choices in maternity care.

 

Our website is currently being updated, but it is at  www.fmcnn.org, or contact me directly. I am excited about the coming year!

 

Jessica

What Doctors Don't Tell You About C-sections

By Cara Birnbaum, for CNN Health.com

November 11, 2009

"I was six months pregnant when a smiling stranger on a bus asked where I was delivering. Within minutes, this woman was sharing intimate details of her own birthing experience -- the water breaking, the contractions that failed to get closer together, and the way her doctor deftly sewed up the four-inch incision from her Caesarean section. "I'm telling you, this guy was good," she said. "Next time, I'm just scheduling my C-section. None of this pushing stuff."

I reached my stop before I could probe her for more specifics. But, I have to admit, her ringing endorsement made C-sections seem pretty appealing. After all, for most of us, the thought of pushing a baby through a centimeters-wide opening is at least daunting, if not downright terrifying. And, the fact is, a C-section is so routine these days that many regard it as simply an alternative to vaginal delivery, not major abdominal surgery.

Except that's exactly what it is. And today, one in three babies is born via C-section, according to the most recent data -- a 50 percent increase over the previous decade. "We think the rate is going to go up even more," says Hope Ricciotti, M.D., associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts."

To read the full article, including the reasons C-sections continues to thrive despite the risks and what every woman needs to know, click here.

Placenta Workshop

 Northern Virginia Midwifery Presents

Ingestion of the placenta: an essential element of the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum continuum

Saturday, December 15th at 10 AM in Arlington, VA

 

The lost custom of ingesting the placenta post partum is returning to birthing women.  The purpose of this hands-on workshop is to inform attendees about the benefits of placenta consumption and the familiarize attendees with placenta preparation techniques.

 

The placenta may be prepared raw or dried and encapsulated for consumption.  This workshop will discuss both ingesting the placenta raw as well as encapsulated.  We will take placentas and cut them up as one would in preparation for raw consumption or for encapsulation.

 

Bring your own placenta!  You may take the pieces home and re-freeze them for spring planting.  If you need a placenta to practice on for the workshop, please state so when you register.  You will need to bring a sharp pair of sturdy scissors.

 

Corinne Hilton, Placental Encapsulation Specialist, will be available to add to the discussion.

 

The fee for this three hour workshop is $15.  To register, send an E-mail to [email protected].  Payment is expected at the time of registration (paypal and snail mail instructions for sending payment will be sent in response to your E-mail).

 

See you on December 5th!

 

This is NOT a Birth Matters Virginia Event.

2009 Awards Event Survey

Please take a moment to let us know how we can make next year's award ceremony even better!

Download BMVSurvey

When you're done, simply e-mail your response to us at [email protected]!  Hurry!  Survey deadline is December 15, 2009!

If the above does not work, you can also cut and paste the form below into an E-mail. 

2009 Awards Event Photos!

  

Thanks to Patience Salgado for taking some wonderful photos during this year's event.  To catch a glimpse of the awesome shots, check out Patience's photostream here.  Thanks, Patience!

You can see even more photos from Therese and Gina here.  There are some really neat shots in this batch, so don't miss out!

MANA Releases Homebirth Data

A note from Peggy Garland, Administrative Director - Division of Research:

I am pleased to announce the availability of data from the MANA Statistics Project. We have completed review of almost 13,000 records from late 2004 through the end of 2007. This data was collected through the online version of the data form (referred to as the 2.0 version) initially used for the CPM 2000 study, published in the BMJ in 2005.

The form was extensively revised with input from a distinguished panel of advisors.  The resulting 3.0 form version went online in May 2009. From that date, all new pregnancies were prospectively logged on the new form. Data on those pregnancies that were not completed by May will be completed on the 2.0 form, the last of which is expected by the spring of 2010. Once those records are completed by the midwives, we expect another 10,000 records will become available for research, spanning 2008-2009. Data is transferred to approved researchers as .sav files, but other formats are possible.

Applications will now be accepted for research access to 2004-2007 data. We are also accepting applications for access to 3.0 form data to be collected for prospective studies.  To view and download a Handbook describing the data, the data forms, data review procedures, the policies and procedures governing access, as well as application materials, please go to:
http://mana. org/statform. html

I would also like to inform you that I have resigned as the Administrative Director of the Midwives Alliance DIvision of Research after 5 years in that position. My place will be taken on an interim basis by Melissa Cheyney, LM, CPM, PhD. She can be reached at [email protected] org if you have any questions.
Best wishes,
Peggy

2009 Awards Event Declared a Huge Success!

This year's awards event was absolutely fabulous.  There were over 100 attendees who came out to help us honor Leslie Fehan and Sara Krivanec.  Thier acceptance speeches were heartful and memorable.  Leslie's video was awe-inspiring and Sara's personal accounts were very touching.  These women were truly deserving of recognition!

Robbie Davis-Floyd's presentation "Birth Models That Work" was engaging and educational.  It revealed the "secrets" of birth practices all over the world that make their models of birth care successful for all involved.  It was amazing to see how women in other parts of the world are treated compared to what most mothers in America are being offered during their child-bearing years.

The silent auction was fantastic with items being graciously donated by businesses from all over the state.  Attendees were able to bid on everything from chocolate baskets to portrait sessions, legal services to crib bedding!  There were so many wonderful items and the sale of each and every one went to support Birth Matters Virginia. 

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers.  So many women and husbands and children helped to make this event wonderful.  However you contributed, we appreciate it!

  Come out in 2010 to see us even bigger and better than ever!

Your Baby Cries in English!

A new study finds that newborns cry in their native language.  Their cries follow patterns inherent in their mothers' and father's own tongues.

"...when scientists recorded and analyzed the cries of 60 healthy newborns when they were three to five days old — 30 born into French-speaking families, 30 into German-speaking ones — their analysis revealed clear differences in the melodies of their cries based on their native tongue.

The way babies imitate melody patterns relies just on a command over their voiceboxes they had before birth, instead of the more advanced control of their vocal tracts they need for vowel sounds. As such, they can begin mimicking their mothers "at that early age," said researcher Kathleen Wermke, a medical anthropologist at the University of Würzburg in Germany."

 

To learn more about your baby's awesome abilities and to read the complete article, click here.