My Unassisted Homebirth

Almost three weeks ago I birthed the most beautiful baby in my bedroom, one sunny afternoon. Now, having found the words, it is my pleasure sharing the full story and all the photographs from that day...

http://eleanorsuc.blogspot.com

Enjoy :)

Mother & Babe 2 weeks after birth

Midwifery Education For A Worthy Cause

As readers know I have been attending online midwifery classes with Gloria Lemay. Well, Glorious Gloria is launching another semester of classes this month, especially for Australians and New Zealanders. Best of all, the profits from this class are going to support South Australian Midwife Lisa Barrett's legal fees (for details on the case see here).

From Gloria's blog:

MIDWIFERY EDUCATION 101
Online Classes with Gloria Lemay on WizIQ

Private (except for Class 1) classes for birth workers

20 Classes of 60 min per session. Cost $140 (AUD) there will be a recording available if you miss a class.

Pay by Paypal in advance to http://www.homebirth.net.au/2010/08/the-definition-of-life-supreme-court.html Look for the “DONATE” Paypal button.

Once you have paid your fees, you will be sent the WizIQ login code for the class. It is your responsibility to show up on time for the class, ready to focus and willing to do homework that is assigned. You log on but do not need to use a phone line. You will be able to type questions or you can use a microphone to ask questions. If using a microphone, you will need to use earphones and not your speakers because the sound will bounce back.

WizIQ is free to register. www.wiziq.com The WizIQ company only puts reminders on their website so you’ll have to find a keep track of your time commitment by scheduling it in your personal agenda.

THIS COURSE IS ESPECIALLY TIMED FOR AUSTRALIAN, EUROPEAN, AFRICAN AND ASIAN STUDENTS It is a fundraiser for a legal challenge that is going on in Australia.

Monday evenings (in Australia, New Zealand), Monday morning in Europe and Africa.
(in N. America the times are midnight on the west coast and 3 a.m on the East Coast)

See World Clock for the time in your area
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=1&day=24&year=2011&hour=7&min=50&sec=0&p1=0

Jan 24 Common Obstetric Problems
Jan 31 Female Pelvis-anatomy and physiology
Feb 7 Medical Terminology
Feb 14 Prenatal Clinic visit
Feb 21 Palpation, Blood pressure
Feb 28 Rh negative blood type
Mar 7 Fetal circulation
Mar 14 Pregnancy Induced Hypertension
Mar 21 Cervix—effacement, dilation
Mar 28 Confident nutrition counseling
Apr 4 Gestational diabetes prevention, screening
Apr 11 Anemia and blood work
Apr 18 Water birth
Apr 25 Genetics for midwives
May 2 Perineum, preventing tears
May 9 Newborn exam
May 16 Placenta ( third stage safety, cut and clamp cord, examining)
May 23 Twins and breech presentations
May 31 Teaching childbirth education
June 6 Assessing dilation by observation of the woman’s external signals.

It is fine for more than one student to be listening and taking the class at any computer for the price of one. Most classes will have a handout and/or homework assignment. The class will have a yahoogroup for sharing ideas midweek. Please let me know if you have any questions. birth@uniserve.com
More info about using WizIQ on my blog, too. http://www.glorialemay.com/blog/?p=453
You’ll need a high speed computer connection and Flash player 9.0 or above.
Taught by:
Gloria Lemay, Vancouver BC
Related post: http://www.glorialemay.com/blog/?p=453

I'm transferring out of the classes I was doing (which resumed today) and am taking these instead, which are on at the much more convenient time of Monday nights at 6:50pm. Hope to see you there!

Placenta Essence: A Guide

I have long used the wonderful Bach Flower Essence and Australian Bush Flower Essence (ABFE) remedies. These are made (as their names suggest) from the essences of flowers. Certain flowers contain healing properties which can aid a person's emotional well being when harnessed. (For more about how flower essences are made and how they work see here). Placenta essence is the same, except created from the essence of a woman and baby's placenta, rather than a flower.

Placentas have amazing health benefits beyond their primary functions (which include: feeding babies in-utero, filtering out waste products from the womb and protecting the baby from some elements in the mother's system). I know women who have smelt, licked, sucked and cut off a piece of their placentas to consume to aid their postpartum recovery and stave off postpartum depression. These are also excellent ways of helping the body to stop bleeding after the placenta is born, if postpartum haemorrhage is a concern.

Other options include using a piece of placenta to make a placenta smoothie to be drunk. And encapsulating the placenta to take these healing pills for months to come.

I first became aware of the option of creating your own placenta essence thanks to a friend who found the information online and shared it on the Joyous Birth forums. I believe the info she found originally came from this site, and was created by a Canadian named Ril Giles.

As someone who who uses flower essences in daily life, the idea of making my own placenta essence appealed to me. I tweaked the original recipe because as a lotus birther I only wished to use a small portion of placenta to create my essence (and also because my use of flower essences has left me with a preference for brandy as a preserving agent, rather than vodka).

Materials:

• Piece of freshly born placenta (or whole placenta if you wish)
• Jar that the placenta can fit into
• Distilled water
• Brandy
• Sunlight
• Small dropper bottle
• Drinking water
  

*Note: because the recipe requires fresh placenta you will most likely require the assistance of a loved one to make your essence. You will be all consumed with holding and feeding your beautiful new bub.

Method:

• Cut a piece from your placenta, place in jar
• Cover the piece completely with distilled water
• Place the jar in the sun for 4 hours somewhere where it will not be disturbed (make sure it receives sunlight for the whole 4 hours)
  
• Remove the placenta piece from the jar
• Add enough brandy so that the contents of your jar are half placenta water and half brandy
  

We used an already lotus born placenta to make the essence. This placenta was three days old but remained moist because we wrapped it in a damp towel before wrapping it in waterproof material. You can see in the photos that the part of the umbilical cord that was touching the damp towel also remained soft and wet for the entire lotus transition, while the rest of the cord dried out and had to be removed from the placenta when it came time to freeze it.

Small piece of placenta in distilled water getting sunlight outdoors

After 4 hours the brandy is added

Mother tincture, the following week

Your essence is now complete as a concentrate or mother tincture and should be stored in a cool dark place. To make your dose (every day usable form) there are a few more steps:

• Fill half of your small dropper bottle with brandy
• Fill remaining half of dropper bottle with regular water
  
• Add 7 drops of the placenta water/mother tincture to the dropper bottle
  

Now your placenta essence is ready to take. My understanding (from having used ABFE dosages) is that you take 7 drops under the tongue, first thing in the morning and last thing at night, from your dosage bottle. You can also take some whenever you feel it might be helpful throughout the day.

For more about the wonderful ways you can use the healing power of placentas see:

Placenta Benefits

A lot of information about all things placenta related. This site offers encapsulation services as well as training for birth workers who would like to learn how to make placenta pills for the women they serve.

Placenta Disposal Suggestions

Includes a variety of recipes towards the bottom of the page, as well as placenta art suggestions, and placenta planting suggestions.

Lotus Birth
The practice of non-severance, to give your family a smooth transition into the world of new baby. Some women feel this makes other uses of the placenta impossible, but other women feel comfortable giving their babies lotus births, and removing some of the placenta to use for their own healing.

Special thanks to my partner for making this placenta essence and for taking photographs of the process for me, while I was in bed enjoying learning to feed my new baby.

Introducing Eleanor Carmel

Born 3:14pm December 29, unassisted after a 12 hour posterior labour. On January 1st she was lotus born sometime after 2am while we were sleeping. Post lotus birth she weighed 3.9kgs, so we suspect was over 4kg the day of her birth, when she was much chubbier.

She's breastfeeding like an expert and her big sister can't believe her luck now that Mumma's breasts are making so much milk! She told me that the boobie milk tastes like ''rainbow.'' The whole family is riding a lovely post birth high, head over heels in love with our newest member.

Full birth story here.