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Pregnancy
August 24, 2010
Austin pregnancy spa opens this month
Edited to reflect that car seat information will be handed out. No inspections will be done at the event.
When you are pregnant, some days all you really want is a good back rub.
Well, at Blooming Pregnancy Spa and Imaging Center in Southwest Austin you can get that and much more. The new spa (5601 Brodie Lane, Suite 640. 892-0808, bloomingpregnancyspa.com) offers therapeutic massage, manicures, pedicures, skin treatments, waxing and 3D/4D ultrasounds by certified technicians (you must be under a doctor’s care and have their permission. A report is also sent back to your physician regarding measurements and position.)
The spa’s grand opening event is Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., featuring prenatal yoga instruction, an ice cream and pickle social, tips on newborn photography and child safety seat information.
“After working with pregnant women for years as a massage therapist, I realized that it can be really hard to find a good therapist. Some don’t use firm enough touch because they are scared to work on pregnant women, others ask women to wait until their second trimester. I wanted to give women a place to go,” says owner Patti Justice.
Justice says the the ultrasound component is about bonding, but cautions that “it’s not just for fun.” While the service is considered a limited diagnostic ultrasound, if the technicians notice something unusual like low fluid levels, they will alert your doctor.
The list of available packages on the website is a little overwhelming, but a few interesting things to note: If the gender determination is wrong, the spa will refund the cost of your ultrasound (not the cost of all the pink items that should be blue) and Tuesday mornings are baby days, which means that pre-crawling babies are welcome while you get your pedicure.
Even if you aren’t expecting, the spa does various group packages and sells gift certificates for services that make great baby shower gifts.
Photo: Amber Snow Photography
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March 11, 2010
Fewer women allowed to attempt VBACs
A new government panel is cautioning that more women than ever are being denied the chance to have a vaginal delivery after having had a C-section.
WASHINGTON — Too many pregnant women who want to avoid a repeat cesarean delivery are being denied the chance, concludes a government panel that urged doctors to rethink litigation-spurred policies that have swung the pendulum back toward the days of “once a C-section, always a C-section.”Fifteen years ago, nearly 3 in 10 women who had a first C-section were able to deliver their next baby vaginally, a trend called VBAC for “vaginal birth after cesarean.”
Now that rate has dropped to 1 in 10, in part because a third of hospitals and half of physicians ban women from attempting VBAC, a panel of specialists convened by the National Institutes of Health said Wednesday.
But VBAC remains a safe alternative for the right candidates, and when those women try labor, between 60 percent and 80 percent of the time they do give birth vaginally, the NIH panel concluded. It urged that doctors offer mothers-to-be an unbiased look at the pros and cons, so they can decide for themselves.
With baby No. 3, I wasn’t denied the chance of having a VBAC, but even at the first appointments when I told my doctor that I wanted to have a VBAC and it appeared that I would be a good candidate for one, she asked me if I was sure. Maybe she wasn’t insinuating that she would rather I have a C-section and just wanted me to understand the risks, but I didn’t interpret it that way.
I recognized that there was a good chance I would end up with a C-section and I recognized that a VBAC carried additional risks, but I wanted to give it my best shot.
As we got closer and closer to due date, my doc (who delivered my first two babies) asked if I still was sure I didn’t want to go ahead and schedule a C-section? I held steady.
A less informed (or less beligerent) mom might have caved, and I probably would have if I hadn’t already given birth twice previously (the first one was a vaginal delivery) and had that third-time around assuredness.
But at my checkup at 38 weeks, the nurse practitioner noted that it felt like baby was bottom down. She tried her best not to alarm me and scheduled an ultrasound for confirmation. I began sputtering out questions about what it would mean for my plans for vaginal delivery, but she told me not to worry. I asked if they would consider turning the baby, and she told me yes.
The next day, ultrasound confirmed my fears. Baby was in a frank breech, and no, there would be no turning the baby because of the risks of rupturing from the first C-section.
I was devastated. For days. I began all sorts of research on turning baby. I did head stands in a pool. I tried yoga. I tried herbs. I made myself nutty wondering what made my baby turn. My doctor said she would let me go to 41 weeks to give baby a chance to turn.
But at 40 weeks, I scheduled the C-section and had a healthy baby girl. I wasn’t happy about the C-section, but I was happy that at least for some of those 40 weeks, I had the choice.
What has your VBAC experience been?
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December 15, 2009
ParentsConnect hosts online baby shower
Expecting and want more baby swag?
Check out ParentsConnect’s online baby shower tomorrow (Dec. 16). Susan Newton, The Shower Diva, will be online hosting games from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and prizes will be awarded.
This online celebration is the first of several seasonal ParentsConnect baby showers, so if you aren’t quite due yet, there will be other chances.
Billed as the world’s largest baby shower (more than 2,000 people had RSVP’d by Tuesday afternoon), the festivities are part of Nickelodeon’s efforts to capture kids from the womb on up through the ‘tween years.
You can RSVP today for the shower and invite your buddies. The mom with the most friends at the shower wins a stroller.
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October 6, 2009
Babies come with paperwork
There might not be a manual for how to care for a new baby, but the little darlings do come with their share of paperwork. The hospital will take care of getting a social security number sent to you, but that is about it.
Here’s a list of things of things to consider shortly after you leave the hospital:
1) Health insurance
This is the biggie. Even if you are still in a postpartum fog, make sure you add Baby to whatever insurance plan you or your partner have. You do not have to wait until your employer’s annual enrollment period, since a new baby is considered a change of life event.
Be sure and do it ASAP, even if you had an uncomplicated home birth or birthing center delivery. You never know when the kid will spike a fever — it is flu season. And pretty much any fever above 100.4 degrees in an infant under two months old will earn you a trip to Dell Children’s Medical Center.
2. Birth Certificate
Even though you will fill out the forms for Baby’s birth certificate at the hospital, you still have to request (and pay for) an actual copy. The cost is $22 each and fortunately there is an online option now with www.vitalchek.com. (With Ayanna my husband had to go down to the county offices to get hers two years ago.) Get more than one, and stick one in a safe deposit box with copies of your other important documents.
3. Bank account
Baby probably won’t be earning her keep for a while, but relatives will often send checks in the kid’s name. You might as well start a savings account to deposit christening gifts, birthday and other holiday checks. Most banks have saving programs for kids that you can link to your primary online accounts with that institution. This feature has come in handy when relatives send cash gifts. Rather than make a special trip to the bank or ATM to deposit a $20 bill, my husband will use the cash as lunch money, and I will transfer $20 electronically to Ayanna’s account.
4.College savings
Eighteen years seem like a long time, but have you seen the cost of college these days? Again, grandparents and other relatives often feel moved by the sight of a wobbly baby and want to contribute a gift that will be meaningful in the future. Virtually ever state, including Texas, offers some sort of prepaid college plan as well as a 529, a special college savings account.
But it may pay to comparison shop, the Texas program has gone through several changes recently to improve its returns, but it still isn’t in the top five nationally. And since Texas doesn’t have an income tax, there isn’t the same tax advantage to participating in your state’s plan as elsewhere.
- Lastly, if there is any chance you’ll be traveling in the next year, go ahead and file for a passport. Even infants need passports these days to go to Mexico. I know a family who had to cancel their trip to the Carribbean because they didn’t realize that even the toddlers needed to have a passport. They can take some time to process, so go ahead and do it as soon as you are up to it. Here’s the State Departments rules on minors and passports.
Now, I’m off to the bank. Elizabeth needs a savings account.
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August 3, 2009
A lot to like about group prenatal visits
Check out today’s story by health reporter Mary Ann Roser about a growing trend in group prenatal visits.
Medical experts say that practice, which is being tested out locally at Austin’s People’s Community Clinic, can reduce the rate of premature births and the complications that can accompany them.
To my mind, it’s a no-brainer. In fact, I was talking to my husband a few weeks ago about how I wished there was a support group for women diagnosed gestational diabetes.
My specialist is very good — but basically I was handed a folder on diet, had a 30 minute conversation with a nutritionist and was told to “stick with it for the sake of my baby.”
Food is complicated, as the multitude of studies on obesity show. And nutrition is one of the biggest factors in sustaining a healthy pregnancy, so much so that gestational diabetes is one of the most common complications.
Once diagnosed, women are asked to follow a very specific diet —limiting, but not excluding carbs, and keeping a close watch on their blood sugar levels, often four times daily. This is hard enough when not dealing with hormones, exhaustion and nausea, but can seem impossible during pregnancy, especially if there are other family members who need to be fed.
I’m in my second go-round of gestational diabetes, and last time I shed a lot of tears trying to figure out how to keep my levels in check. Since then, the things that I have learned from my online community about planning meals for kids, recipes that even the most carb-loving husband will like and the existence of sugar-free popsicles have gone a long way to making this experience less of a burden and more successful than during my pregnancy with Ayanna.
I fully expected to be on medication by now, but I’ve been able to avoid it so far by making tweaks to my diet, and all my ultrasounds suggest that No. 2 is doing well. I still may wind up on meds in the next six weeks, but I feel much more in control of my destiny and will know that I did everything in my power to prevent it.
Support groups or “mommy clubs” aren’t just about sharing information. Women tend to need to talk about their successes as well as their failures. Having a group to talk to when you “cheat” is a key part of many weight loss programs and can give you the encouragement you need to keep going and get back on the wagon.
Reading pregnancy books is just not the same as talking to someone in the middle of pregnancy to answer the question “Is this normal?” or “Should I be worried?”
So here’s hoping that more providers take notice of the group model, not just for low-income women, but other high-risk groups. There’s a reason why women, especially first time moms, have flocked to sites like BabyCenter.com. and iVillage. But replicating a piece of that in real life would be so much better.
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July 24, 2009
A trial run with two kids
Even though I’m in the closing months of my pregnancy, every now and then I wonder “What have I gotten myself into. Do I really think I can wrangle and infant AND a toddler?”
So, I had an ulterior motive when I offered to baby sit for a co-worker’s 4 1/2-month-old daughter last night. I figured we all, toddler included, needed a little practice with a baby in the house.
The verdict: It can be done and as a bonus, we discovered that my husband and I apparently didn’t lose as many brain cells as we thought from sleep deprivation the first time around. We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves. And, reading “I’m Going to be a Big Sister” a few hundred times to Ayanna may, in fact, pay off come September.
Of course, little Eleanor began to howl as soon as she realized that her mother and father were departing. We tried rocking, bouncing and cooing. I asked Ayanna to bring me some of her rattles to show the baby and she did, just like in her book. At 2-years-old, Ayanna seemed not particularly bothered by the crying itself, but she did want to know why the baby was crying.
Next we dragged out our infant swing, which we had pulled down from the attic and washed over the weekend. Baby Nirvana.
We did have to tell Ayanna a couple of times that only adults can push the swing, since she wanted to help it along. But it bought us time to eat dinner (frozen lasagna and salad) and get Ayanna cleaned up and ready for bed.
Just as we were settling in for story time, Eleanor remembered that she was starving. So Dave had to do the storytime honors, which resulted in some whining on Ayanna’s part (Dave brushes teeth. I read stories), while I warmed a bottle while trying to balance poor Eleanor in one hand and my gigantic watermelon belly.
To the rocking chair with the bottle we went, which was all good until the milk ran out. Eleanor still wanted to slurp on something and it took us a while to discover the pacifier in the diaper bag. The poor kid was worn out, but could not get comfortable to go to sleep again. This time the swing had lost its charm, so we were going to have to do something else.
Dave and I decided to use the only other trick we could remember: swaddling. (Remember those gigantic blankets I wrote about a couple of weeks ago? Well they were washed and ready to go.) So we wrapped Eleanor up like a burrito and he took over the rocking in the chair, and in 15 minutes she was out like a light and deposited in the Pack-N-Play.
The toddler? Completely asleep as well. Despite her long history has a light sleeper, apparently Ayanna decided that a baby crying was not worth staying awake for. So by 9:30 p.m. the house was quiet, the dishes were done and all the mess picked up. Not exactly a cake walk, but nothing with babies ever is.
We’ll see how the real deal shakes out in a few weeks. But our big lesson from last night? Go with what you know.
Did you do a “practice run” before adding a second kid? How’d it go?
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June 16, 2009
Seton launches BabyTalk site
The folks at the Seton Family of Hospitals have launched a new web site for expectant and new moms.
SetonBabyTalk has links to special-interest forums, “find a doctor” search, resource center and a section that describes Seton’s maternity services, as well as birthing facility amenities.
The site also has its own “site mom,” Austin mom and event planner Melanie Dodds, who delivered her son at Seton Medical Center of Austin.
Here’s a section from her site intro:
When I’m not doting on the baby, planning parties, and pretending to be Superwoman (which leaves about 2.3 seconds of the day) I am regaling friends and family (and now you!) with information on all things baby, including, but not limited to the best breast pump, why beagles should be nowhere near poopie diapers, and what pregnancy, labor and childbirth is really like, leaving out all of the sunshine and lollipops the proverbial “they” try to sell you.
As an extra bonus, Seton is running a $5,000 contest for subscribers to the website, although you can look at the offerings without subscribing (it’s free) but can’t participate in the forums. Eligibility for the contest includes delivering a baby during 2009.
Not delivering at Seton? No matter, you can still sign up. But if you want info from the other maternity powerhouse in town at St. David’s, they have a weekly newsletter for moms to be and deliver info targeted to specific due dates. This week (No. 28 for me) has a lot of info about preemies and a report on a study about the potential benefits of breastfeeding for a mother’s heart.
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June 8, 2009
I'm hot -- and not in a good way
When I first announced that I was pregnant, the first question people asked was “When are you due?”
The answer of mid-September elicited gasps and sympathetic groans.
“You’ll be pregnant all summer, poor thing. What were you thinking?”
I was thinking our whole family can’t have a May or June birthday (May 10, May 31 and June 1). I was thinking that the timing was right, with Ayanna being just more than 2 years old when No. 2 arrives. I was thinking that people always exaggerate to pregnant women about how awful it’s going to be — the morning sickness, the delivery, the postpartum period. People always give the worst case scenario. Besides, I’ve lived in Texas for more than 15 years, how bad could it be?
Well, after this weekend, I’m inclined to agree that it really is THAT bad.
On Saturday evening we decided to take in an evening concert at Symphony Square to see Joe McDermott with Ayanna. (Great show, btw. He really knows how to get the kids moving without boring the grownups to tears.)
It was 7 p.m. and we were half in the shade and still I sweltered for two hours, sweating like a stuck pig. My clothes were wet, my bra was wet. It was gross.
On Sunday we we went to a friend’s party for her 3-year-old son. Lots of activities inside and out. Ayanna became infatuated with the slide and swing outside and so I sweated some more. Gah!
I was convinced we had hit some sort of record, but I just checked the National Weather Service and with highs of 92 and 94 degrees on Saturday and Sunday, not so much. It’s June. It’s Austin.
I should be able to deal. But no, I whined and whined to my husband about how ungodly hot it was and he, correctly, humored me and agreed that it was awful.
I suspected something was awry with my internal temperature gauge the other night when Dave said “Is it cold in here to you?” at the exact moment I was wondering with the air conditioner was set properly in the house.
It’s only June. I have three more months of this. So I’ve narrowed my options to the following:
1) Buy a gigantic, inflatable baby pool and sit in it all weekend long, add ice cubes for good measure and let the toddler pour water on me for fun. We have tall fence so no one has to see me in my hugely pregnant bathing suit.
2) Crank the AC from its reasonable 78 degrees to 72 and hope we win the lottery to pay off our summer electricity bill.
3) Buy three cases of sugar-free popsicles and stash half at home and half at the office, since it takes almost my entire commute for my car to cool to a reasonable temperature.
4) Try to convince my doctor to write a note that prohibits me from leaving the house for the next three months.
OK. So I’m exaggerating slightly. But I am opening the floor for suggestions. Please tell this pregnant woman how to beat the heat.
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May 30, 2009
New weight-gain recommendations for pregnant women
The Institute of Medicine has set new recommendations for weight gain for women. The numbers specifically change the recommendations for obese women.
The new guidelines update recommendations the Institute of Medicine made in 1990 and reflect changing U.S. demographics, particularly the surge in the number of Americans who are overweight or obese. Healthy American women at a normal weight for their height (BMI of 18.5 to 24.9) should gain 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy, the new guidelines state. Underweight women (BMI less than 18.5) should gain more, 28 to 40 pounds, and overweight women (BMI of 25 to 29.9) should gain less, 15 to 25 pounds. These ranges match the 1990 guidelines, but the report also specifies a new range for obese women (BMI greater than 30) that limits their gain to 11 to 20 pounds. BMI is based on a person’s weight and height; for example, a 5-foot-6-inch woman weighing between 115 and 154 pounds has a normal BMI. Individuals can determine their BMI using this online calculator: www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/.
Weight and pregnancy can be a touchy subject for women. I gained 40 with my first child and 35 with my second. With the first kid, the doctor was worried, I was gaining too much and he would be too big (yet he clocked in at 6 pounds, 4 ounces). With the second kid, the doctor worried I wasn’t gaining enough and that the baby was too small (and she was only 5 pounds, 7 ounces). But both kids were healthy and I dropped most of the weight by three months, all by nine months.
Is weight too much of an issue with pregnancy?
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March 25, 2009
What to wear when pregnant
Fashionista I am not. However during pregnancy Round 2, I’ve found that I’ve learned a few things about maternity wear.
1) Designer items are usually better, although the price tag can be prohibitive.
If it weren’t for Target’s Liz Lange, Motherhood Maternity, or Old Navy most women would have to stay home from work after their fourth month, because outfitting that huge belly is an expensive undertaking.
I splurged during my first pregnancy on a pair of boutique jeans by Japanese Weekend at Special Addition and they were my favorite pair of clothing by far. They didn’t bind at the belly, they didn’t make the rest of my body look like a sack, the elastic didn’t shift and the denim was sturdy.
2) Don’t be too proud to borrow or shop used clothing stores.
My circle of mom friends have saved my life and my wallet. We’ve been shipping our boxes of maternity clothes from house to house for years. There is something in those boxes for everyone, regardless of taste, season or size.
I’m on the tall side and a difference size this pregnancy than the last, so I supplemented those boxes last week with a stop by my neighborhood Goodwill and Rock-a-bye Baby (a Northwest Austin consignment shop that sells kid and maternity clothes). I scored four pairs of work pants (two new with tags, on from Liz Lange’s more upscale line at Nordstrom’s), two work dresses and a top for about $50.
3) Buy cotton when you can
One of the most common pregnancy ailments is itchy skin, and synthetic materials can make it worse. This is especially true of belly bands and undergarments. I spent more than I should last time on fancy maternity/nursing bras that were synthetic and regretted it. (Word on the street is that Wal-Mart sells some great 100 percent cotton nursing bras. I’m intrigued enough to check this out for myself.)
4) Be yourself
Even if your entire maternity wardrobe is hand me downs, buy few things that are “you.” I knew we were trying to save money while pregnant with Ayanna, but I got a little down about wearing things that were serviceable but not necessarily my taste.
It was hard enough to look at my beached whale self, but adding the fact that I wasn’t “at home” in my clothes were more than I could take. This was especially true when getting ready for church or those nice outings like my anniversary. Even if you don’t go out often, get two outfits that make you feel really good, not just presentable.
Any tips you want to share?
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March 12, 2009
Toddlers are heavy lifting
I found my OB/GYN by chance.
During my last pregnancy I fully intended to give birth at the local birthing center. Of course, that was before I got gestational diabetes, started taking blood sugar meds and became “high-risk” at 36 weeks.
Finding an OB when you are 36 weeks pregnant is nerve wracking, and you pretty much have to take what you get. Luckily I liked who the midwives found for me, and we’re sticking with her for Baby No. 2.
So at my 13-week check up this week, we talked about lifting restrictions. I spent a sizable chunk of my last pregnancy in pretty serious back and pelvic pain, and would like to minimize that if possible this time around.
Easy, she says. “Limit it to 20 pounds or less.”
I snorted. My toddler is 27 pounds. Oh boy.
She offered some good suggestions. Letting Ayanna climb on my lap. Getting down to her level, rather than pulling her up to mine. We have already bought a toddler bed, so the crib is going away this weekend anyway. (Yeah, you’ll hear how that goes next week.)
But as a practical matter, not lifting her is really hard work.
My kid is not much for climbing. She likes both feet firmly on the ground. I tried to get her to climb out of her car seat yesterday after unlatching her and she looked down in all directions, considered my request carefully and then said, “No, up,” with arms outreached. She progressed to crying as I tried to show her how to flip herself over to get out of the chair.
Then there’s the changing table, the booster seat for meals, the counter that she likes to sit so she can watch me cook. And then there are cold rainy days like today, where we would get drenched if I relied on her toddler legs to get from the car to the grocery store doors.
This is going to take some work, and we may have to move the changing pad to the floor. Any other tips?
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February 24, 2009
Fertility treatments and Octomom
Since the birth of Nadya’s Suleman’s octuplets in California, the subject of assisted reproduction and invitro fertilization has been in the headlines daily.
Much of the press has focused on the mental health of Suleman, now a mother of 14 and known in tabloids as ‘Octomom’, and whether her doctors followed appropriate guidelines.
Thirty-one years after the birth of the first IVF baby, assisted reproduction has not only become fairly routine in this country, but as Washington Post reporter Liza Munday argues on NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’ it has changed the American landscape, including the way hospitals are built.
If you have the time, you should listen to the entire show. The interview talks about how assisted reproduction and the accompanying spike in high order multiples are improving medicine’s ability to deal with preemies. But it also tackles the myriad of ethical choices doctors and potential parents make with each treatment, even if “only” fertility drugs are used.
And then there’s the question of what to do with the “leftover” frozen embyos. According to Munday, while parents originally say that they will donate embryos to other childless couples, they usually back out once they realize that their biological children will have full siblings growing up in an unknown family.
In some cases, families can no longer pay the storage fees and doctors are unclear ethically and legally what the appropriate thing to do with the embryos.
What has gotten lost in the the Suleman feeding frenzy is that most women who pursue assisted reproduction are ordinary. They are not on food stamps and they do not already have six children.
But they still have choices to make when two embryos twin, not necessarily the result of IVF, and become three or four, increasing the risk to mom and babies.
What’s your take on assisted reproduction and why?
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January 28, 2009
How many babies can fit in one uterus?
No, this is not a joke gone awry.
But yesterday’s news of a California mom giving birth to live octuplets does raise the question: How many babies can fit in one woman?
In the case of the octuplets, the mom and her doctor’s thought she was only carrying seven. But even seven is rare, and apparently the eighth was “hiding” in one of the horns of the uterus.
So the folks at Slate.com were inspired to try to answer the question.
Here’s the essence of the explanation:
The limit isn’t so much the number of babies as their volume and weight. In general, once the total weight of the babies inside reaches about 12 pounds, the uterus goes into labor. The greater the number of fetuses, the earlier the labor will occur.
But the article does go on to answer important questions like “Don’t they get tangled up in there?” and mentions an unconfirmed case of decaplets in Brazil.
Ouch.
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January 7, 2009
Most popular day to have baby? Wednesday
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control have released its final report on births for 2006. Most of the news stories, like this one from the Associated Press have focused on the rising birth rates among teen mothers, with Mississippi beating Texas this year for the title of “State with the most teen births.”
But the report covers all facets of pregnancy and childbirth, including C-section rates and birth weights. There are some other interesting national data in the report, including:
Labor was induced for 22.5 percent of births. That’s double the rate of inductions in 1990.
C-section births rose 3 percent from 2005 to 31.1 percent of all births. That’s 50 percent more C-sections than in 1996.
The twin birth rate was actually stable in 2006, perhaps marking the end of the spike in multiple births. The rate of triplet births also decreased from 2005.
The most common day to deliver a baby in 2006 was Wednesday. (The most common day had been Tuesday since 2000)
About a fifth of women gain more than 40 pounds during pregnancy. Thirteen percent of mothers gained less than 16 pounds.
In the states that track VBACs (vaginal births after C-section), the rate declined 9 percent from 2005.
For the full report, go here.
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November 17, 2008
CDC: In vitro can increase risk of certain birth defects
A CDC study released today suggests that infants conceived through in vitro and other types of fertility treatments are two to four times more likely to have certain types of birth defects.
The study looked at pregnancies that resulted in single births and included only fertility treatments where both the egg and sperm were handled. The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, showed increased risk for certain types of heart defects, gastrointestinal problems and cleft palate.
The CDC press release stresses that the risk of defects is small and the study results are based on data from 281 births conceived with Assisted Reproductive Technology and 14,095 conceived without infertility treatments. The study did not include treatments where only the sperm is handled or where women take medication to stimulate the ovaries.
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November 15, 2008
Seton maternity tour goes over big
Now that’s a baby shower.
This weekend I went to check out Seton Medical Center’s Baby Shower that gave a expecting moms (and those pondering expecting) a chance to see the new postpartum ward, part of a $40 million construction project.
One thing on the tour took my breath away (and that of the pregnant women on the tour with me) - the showers are truly huge. The new modern tile showers in all 30 postpartum room have shower benches and movable spray attachments. The rest of the bathroom and the room was equally huge. But the shower was the most impressive.
“I may never want to go home,” said mom-to-be Jessica Ventura, who will likely be among the first to inhabit one of those enormous rooms. She’s due in January and was taking the grand tour on Saturday with her husband. The ward is schedule to open for business in December.
I don’t remember much about those hazy postpartum days, but I do remember my hospital bathroom. Small, squeezed and cramped, trying to figure out exactly how I was supposed to use the sitz bath they gave me. I was so happy to have that first shower after Ayanna’s birth that I didn’t complain much, but I was more than ready to go home two days later.
Each of the bathrooms in the new Seton wing are big enough to accommodate a wheelchair and IV pump in the sink, shower and toilet areas. Postpartum heaven.
Other high points:
Full length couches with additional padding for beds long enough to sleep a grown man.
Flat panel TVs in each room, angled to mom can see it and so can dad, presumably sleeping on the couch.
Bassinet space so you don’t have the move the baby every time mom wants to get out bed.
Children’s waiting area so kids have something to do while grown ups work on bring their newest sibling. (Kids are also welcome in the delivery rooms if parents want.)
Kitchens (officially nourishment centers) for visitors, staff and moms to get coffee, snacks, tea during their stay.
After the tour I talked to Sharon Perry, director of maternity services, about the new model of care with babies rooming in with their mothers has changed the way they do things at a hospital that delivers 4,500 babies each year. I was surprised to find out that even with the new model, even the nursery is bigger.
“If every parent on the wing decides they need a break or need to get some sleep,” we have room to accommodate all of those babies,” she said. “It’s whatever the patient needs.”
In addition to wanting to better accommodate visitors and longer patient stays due to C-sections (maternity services bring in a nice chunk of change and the competition at St. David’s is redoing their rooms too), the bigger rooms serve a medical purpose. The hospital winds up serving lots of special needs maternity categories - more moms in wheelchairs, more multiple births and moms with fairly complex medical needs. All of which require more space for medical attendants and equipment.
And they aren’t done sprucing things up at Seton. Once the new rooms are open, they’ll go to work on the labor and delivery rooms. Those bathrooms are getting bigger too.
And any woman who has tried to wedge an IV pole in a tiny hospital bathroom while having contractions in one of those awful hospital gowns will agree - bigger is better.
For more pictures from the Seton Baby Shower go to the jump.
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August 8, 2008
Diabetic and pregnant? The combination can be tricky
My friend knew that having diabetes would make pregnancy a challenge. We’ll call her L for now, since her co-workers don’t know that she’s pregnant yet.
Diagnosed with Type I diabetes while in college, she’s already in a high risk group and controlling her blood sugar has been troublesome enough that she has an insulin pump — a portable device about the size of a deck of cards that delivers insulin through an implanted port.
L is hardly alone. Since 1999, the number of women with pre-existing diabetes (not the same as gestational) who became pregnant has doubled. Part of the reason is that diabetes rates in general climbing, but the other is that doctors are no longer telling diabetics that they can’t have babies.
L, 37, was shocked when her endocrinologist told her to go for it when she and her husband started talking about having kids.
The road so far has been tricky. Pregnancy affects every woman’s body chemistry and can even cause temporary diabetes, so keeping her blood sugar steady has been a challenge and will get harder as the baby gets bigger. She has to test her blood even more consistently than before and regardless of what she may be craving she still has to watch her carbohydrates while still getting adequate nutrition. Failure to do so increases the changes of complications for her and the baby, plus ups the chances of birth defects.
The most surprising so far is that as her waistline expands its become more difficult to accommodate her insulin pump which usually attaches to the waistbands of her pants. The maternity waist bands are either too soft, or press the pump into her skin, neither is ideal and forget maternity dresses.
Finding maternity clothes are hard enough without trying to figure out where to put a pump that she still needs to access 6 to 8 times a day, sometimes in public.
L and I went hunting for solutions yesterday and found everything from buying a special bra, to wearing it on a thigh band. Both are uncomfortable, but solve the problem of having too much tubing exposed and risk getting caught on a doorknob — ouch.
Our current thought, which she tested yesterday, is to attach the pump to some adjustable ribbons to wear it like a long necklace. That way she can adjust the length depending on her shirts neckline and the fit around the bust.
Anyone else hear of any solutions? Or have any other practical tips for managing diabetes while pregnant?
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July 16, 2008
Midwife decision means more choices for moms
There was great rejoicing this week in the midwife/doula community with the announcement that midwives would be allowed to deliver babies at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center. See health reporter Mary Ann Roser’s story for more details.
When I was pregnant with Ayanna I looked into the alternatives outside of a traditional hospital birth and was depressed by the options in Austin. Because it was my first pregnancy, my husband and I were very uncomfortable with the idea of home birth and I was only able to locate two birthing centers in town that would accept our insurance — despite th fact that the company paid 100 percent for birthing center care.
Meanwhile I heard fantastic tales of friends who gave birth in hospitals in places like Washington, D.C., and Houston with the help of midwives, who understood the desire to try to have low-intervention deliveries. Most of my friends in Austin had at least one emergency C-section, something I was anxious to avoid if at all possible.
Long story short, I was transfered from the Austin Area Birthing Center and their wonderful midwives at 36 weeks — thwarted by gestational diabetes. That meant a mad scramble to find an obstetrician (and a doula) that would take me because I was suddenly high risk.
Midwives aren’t for everyone, but at least Austin has more choices now. Would you be more likely to use a midwife for your next birth if you could do so in a hospital environment?
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June 20, 2008
Reports: Teens make pact to get pregnant
Teens in Massachusetts apparently were doing high-fives when the found out they got positive pregnancy results, according to this Associated Press story.
At least 17 teens, all under the age of 16, in one high school in a small fishing community have turned up pregnant, apparently part of some sort pact among friends. One of the fathers is reported to be a 24-year-old homeless man.
There’s so much wrong with this that it’s hard to know where to start. But the story says that two school health center officials have resigned to protest resistance to the confidential distribution of contraception. But if the pregnancies are “planned,” so to speak, it seems that more widely available contraception wouldn’t stem this particular problem.
Perhaps Texas does know what it’s doing with its new required parenting classes for high-school students.
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June 11, 2008
Margarita Mama - fun drinks while pregnant
I like a good margarita just like any girl. But while I was pregnant I made do with an un-inventive sampling of non-alcoholic beers and an occasional treat from local bartenders who knew how to sate a pregnant woman’s drink lust.
Two standouts were at McCormick & Schmick’s on Congress and the Melting Pot on U.S. 183.
My happy hour drink at McCormick & Schmick’s was fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and tonic water, which was surprisingly delicious and sweet. And at the Melting Pot, I was brewed a lovely strawberry non-alcoholic seltzer. Unfortunately I did not get the recipe, so I can’t replicate it for you here.
But there is something similar called a “Strawberry Stork” in the new book “Margarita Mama” by new mom Alyssa Gusenoff. The book is 96 pages of drink recipes that are 100 percent alcohol-free. Recipes include versions of mudslides, mojitos, cosmopolitans and mimosas, plus some more outlandish concoctions, including something called The Raging Hormone.
If you want to test the margarita recipe, check out The Well Mom, which has it posted.
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May 9, 2008
Mom expecting 18th child
The family that has received a good bit of attention for their large family, including a television series, is apparently about to get even bigger.
Michelle Duggar, a 41-year-old mom to 17 kids, is expecting again. Due on New Year’s Day, according to AP.
The family is currently filming another installment in their series on for Discovery Health. There have been several, including “On the Road with 16 Children” which follows the family on vacation.
The family, which lives in rural Arkansas, is deeply religious, and Michelle and her husband, Jim Bob, have said they will keep having children as long as God allows it.
All the kids have chores and the older ones have helped build the family’s new house. Did I mention the family is debt free?
Here are some interesting facts gleaned from the Discovery Health Web site:
- Michelle’s been pregnant for 135 months of her life.
- Average number of months between Duggar births is 18.
- Estimated number of Duggar diapers to date is 90,000.
- The Duggars do approximately 200 loads of laundry each month.
- The Duggars feed their entire brood for less than $2,000 per month.
- The only person in the Duggar family whose name doesn’t start with “J” is Mom — Michelle.
- Every Duggar child learns to play both violin and piano.
- The family organizes their household chores by assigning “jurisdictions,” so everyone knows exactly what their daily responsibilities are.
- The Duggars estimate all the family members combined have worked approximately 39,000 total hours building their new house.
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March 11, 2008
Alaska governor shocks state with baby news
After the home pregnancy test comes up positive, there are decisions to be made. Who do you tell, and who do you not?
In the case of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, she decided to keep the news hush-hush for seven months. Impressive on all sorts of fronts. By the time I was 7 months along, I was big as a house and people were making popping jokes.
Of course, Palin has four children already, so it’s not like this was her first go-round.
To tell or not to tell does have workplace complications. One of my co-workers was commenting how waiting that long somehow suggests that it is still shameful to be pregnant and in charge.
Some female executives who wait as long as possible would say that it’s worth staying mum rather than having to talk about your personal life when you are trying to focus on the business at hand. Suddenly a woman goes from being to a highly competent professional to being asked if you mind having your belly rubbed.
Of course, other high-profile pregnant politicians have embraced it, such as when Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift was pregnant with twins. She managed to generate sharp criticism after the babies were born for asking her aides to baby-sit, among other things.
So how long did you wait to tell work? And why?
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February 29, 2008
Inducing a Leap Day baby
I was curious in all the hubbub over Leap Day birthdays, whether or not it was a popular day for inductions.
So I called the folks at Seton Medical Center, who put me in touch with first-time mom to-be Niki Taylor. She called me from the delivery room, hopeful that she only had a few hours to go. (And yes, the epidural was on.)
She says she was convinced by her husband, J.R., to go ahead and induce on Feb. 29 — one week ahead of her due date.
“He thought it would be fun,” she said.
The birthday plan: Celebrate most years on Feb. 28 and then have a big blow-out every four years.
“It could be a big trip or a big party. It just depends,” Taylor said. The West Austin couple had been in the labor delivery room since this morning and she said she was told she’d be holding their little boy in a couple of hours.
Taylor was one of three moms scheduled to be induced at Seton today. According to Seton spokeswoman Matilda Sanchez, usually the maternity ward there has eight inductions a day.
Stay tuned: Taylor said I could update readers on the happy arrival.
ETA: Jagori Taylor was born by C-section at 6:13 p.m Feb. 29. Happy Birthday!
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January 23, 2008
Austin makes list of top places to be preggers
Apparently if you are gonna have a baby, Austin is a pretty good place to do so, according to Fit Pregnancy magazine. The magazine’s annual survey results hit the stands this week, with Austin ranked as No. 9 in the top places to have a baby.
The top spot went to Austin’s rival in virtual all lifestyle issues: Portland. Also, ahead of us are Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle.
This is the first year that Austin made the Top Ten, partly because the survey was able to get more city-specific data. Last year all the Texas cities bombed, largely because of the state’s high C-section rate.
This year, Austin gets good scores for safety, birthing options. maternal and infant health risk and stroller friendliness. The picture isn’t as rosy when it comes to day care and breastfeeding.
According to the survey, only 7.1 percent of women in town exclusively breastfeed (meaning no formula, solids or other liquids) until 6 months. That puts us in 8th lowest in the 50 cities they surveyed and the national average is 12.1 percent. (Apparently being tops in the country during the breastfeeding challenge didn’t count.)
We took a hit on breastfeeding even though the city is lousy with lactation consultants — 40 lactation consultants for every 10,000 live births, the 6th highest ratio in the survey.
I talked to the editor-in-chief of the magazine to get a better explanation for the “F+” we earned on day care. The state day care laws may be partly to blame, said Peg Moline. Texas doesn’t require national-level background checks on day-care workers (and only recently started to do so for public school educators.)
Our long commute times and traffic congestion, also play a role.
“Commute times show some of the pressures that families feel and it can affect their day-care choices,” Moline said.
What to do with the rankings? Moving isn’t required, Moline said, although stranger things have happened.
“Really it’s to help pregnant women to see what an ideal situation looks like and also to be able to seek those things in their communities,” she said
For full report cards on Austin and the 49 other cities go here.
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January 10, 2008
DIY deliveries
“Good Morning America” had a segment this morning on the rise in unassisted home births nationally. The reason: more women are opting out of hospital births because of concerns about epidurals, increased C-section rates and restrictions on the ability to move during labor.
The woman featured (on her fourth birth) says she was able to monitor the baby’s heartbeat herself and delivered her baby into a birthing tub in her bedroom. I have to say I was impressed that she had the presence of mind to be able to execute all of that, while in the throes of labor.
I had planned on going med free and delivering at a local birthing center until complications from gestational diabetes required me to deliver at St. David’s Hospital (an excellent experience despite my original plans, but that’s a story for another day).
Even so, I can’t imagine having the fortitude and mental clarity to all the things the story described.
In Texas, there’s a lag in the vital statistics records, so the most recent numbers available are from 2004. But hospital births have remained fairly steady between 2001 and 2004 at slightly more than 99 percent of births.
It’s unclear how many women had home births without medical assistance and on purpose, since the state numbers include EMS deliveries and those unfortunate souls who gave birth in taxi cabs. But even so in 2004 that was less than 1 percent.
For the record, if you want a home birth it is possible to have a home birth in Texas with a midwife attending to make sure nothing goes awry. And most medical professionals discourage unassisted home births, especially in cases of first births and births after C-sections or other complications.
Have you delivered with out medical help or would you consider going it alone?
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