Calm Yoga

It can be very helpful to have an image of what your baby may experiencing during birth.

If you need information to make your case for a Vaginal Birth after a Caesarean you have the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on your side. This Los Angeles Times published This Story which also sites the March report by the National Institutes of Health. The Caesarean rate for hospitals in the United States is between 30 and 40 percent.

This came in my mailbox today!

Hi Kim! My name is Jennifer, and I was in your prenatal yoga class over the summer. I am the one who is a kindergarten teacher…hopefully you remember me!

Anyway, I just wanted to express to you my extreme thankfulness and gratitude for a wonderful yoga session. I really enjoyed how you talked a lot about the birthing experience and gave helpful hints about delivery as well. I think that I had told you that with my first pregnancy, my water broke and then I did not go into labor on my own. They put me on Pitocin, and I just couldn’t handle the intense contractions that came with that drug and eventually I requested the epidural (against what I had originally hoped for).

After taking your class, I was reinspired to have a completely natural, drug-free delivery. My husband and I did not take any refresher birthing classes, nor did we have much time to practice our breathing techniques and everything else with our 2 1/2 year old daughter running around, so I was very nervous.

On Sunday, September 6, my water broke at 2:00 in the morning. I was already having some contractions the evening before, and when my water broke the contractions really escalated. We got to Henry Mayo hospital just after 3:00 in the morning (after dropping my daughter off with my brother). My husband was an absolute AMAZING labor coach! At 5:23am (just about 2 hours after arriving to the hospital), our wonderful son Luke was born. And I did it with absolutely NO drugs! It was the most amazing feeling, and I am so excited and proud that I chose to do it that way. The pushing was SO much easier, and I feel like I have recovered so much more quickly this time…what a difference!

So, I wanted to thank you so much for your inspiration and appreciate how grateful I am that you really stressed a “natural” delivery in our talks at class. I will always remember your terrific advice about questioning everything, and I will forward on this useful information to everyone I know going through pregnancy. I feel like I had the absolute BEST birthing experience ever, and I just want to tell everyone my positive experience (thanks to you!!).

Have a wonderful next yoga session, and thanks again for EVERYTHING!!!

Love, Jennifer

What is a Kegel?

Your pelvic-floor muscles act as a sling for the bladder, uterus and rectum. One of the most important long-term health recommendations for healing and recovering after birth is to do Kegel exercises. Kegels help keep your pelvic-floor muscles strong during pregnancy, help get them back in shape after delivery and possibly prevent urinary incontinence as you age.

How to do a Kegel:

Stop the flow of urine the next time you’re emptying your bladder. This will let you know what muscles to use. To do a Kegel, squeeze and hold those same muscles for 10 seconds and then slowly release. Squeeze again and release. Do 20 repetitions 5 times each day. As these muscles become stronger you can hold for 5 or 10 seconds each time.

When to do Kegel Exercises:

Anytime! Since you are contracting and releasing Internal Muscles no one will notice when you are actively engaging these pelvic floor muscles. You can do them anytime. In order not to miss a day, find something that you do often such as sitting at a red light, watching t.v. or unloading the dishwasher and let that be your signal to work those core muscles and Kegel away!

From Los Angeles Times, Online Edition August 24, 2007

Here’s how to avoid having a C-section unless you absolutely need it — in such medical emergencies as umbilical cord prolapse, which cuts off the baby’s oxygen, or placenta previa, when the placenta blocks the cervix so that the baby can’t be born naturally.

1. Don’t get induced unless medically necessary

Years of study have shown that inducing labor often leads to a C-section.
“If you decide to have an induction because your obstetrician is going out of town, or because your husband is going out of town, that may seem like a bona fide reason, but you’ll pay the price with an increased rate in C-sections,” said Dr. Michael Klein, emeritus professor of family practice and pediatrics at the University of British Columbia, who’s studied C-sections.
Klein says studies of first-time moms show that 44 percent of those who are induced end up with a C-section but that only 8 percent of those who go into labor spontaneously end up with a C-section. Doctors say many times, inducing women way before the cervix is ready can lead to unproductive labor, which then necessitates a C-section.

2. Labor at home until you’re approximately 3 centimeters dilated

Dr. Elliott Main, director of obstetric quality at Sutter Health in California, said encouraging moms to stay at home in early labor is one way his hospital has been able to keep C-section rates steady while nationally the rate keeps climbing every year.
Why would laboring at home help fend off a C-section?
Part of it has to do with the way mothers feel. “Anxiety can slow down labor,” he said. “And nobody likes being in a hospital. It’s a strange room and there are lots of strange people and some of them are coming at you with needles.”
Hospitals themselves are often to blame, he said. Too often medical staffs intervene unnecessarily in early laboring with pain medications, monitors, and other techniques, which can slow labor down, according to Main. “Even in the best-meaning hospitals, these kinds of practices happen,” Main said.
At Sutter hospitals, “We say it’s totally fine to come in and be checked, but that you should understand why it may be safer for you to be at home for a while,” he said.

3. Choose your hospital, and your practitioner, carefully

If having a vaginal birth is important to you, shop for a doctor and a hospital with low C-section rates. “Let’s say one hospital has an 18 percent C-section rate, and another one is 45 percent. Which door you walk into will have a profound effect on what happens to you,” said Carol Sakala, director of programs at Childbirth Connection, a nonprofit group. You can find out the rates by checking with the doctor’s office and the hospital.

4. In the delivery room, ask questions if your practitioner says you need a C-section

Some situations are true emergencies, and a C-section is necessary within minutes to save the baby’s life. “That’s not a time to negotiate,” said Dr. Timothy R.B. Johnson, chair of obstetrics at the University of Michigan.
But in other situations, parents should ask questions about whether a C-section is absolutely necessary, he says. For example, if a doctor says the baby is too big to deliver vaginally, “There’s a conversation to be had. You can ask, ‘Doctor, are you sure the baby’s too big? How big?’” Johnson said. “Our ability to guess size is not absolute. I’ve had babies I thought were 11 pounds that turned out to be 7 pounds. Doctors get humbled on a regular basis.”

5. Get a doula

After her own disappointing birth experience, Barbara Stratton became a doula. Doulas, or birth assistants, can help advocate for a mother when she’s in labor.