As many of you have heard, earlier this week, a woman delivered 8 babies at once. Check out Inhabitots’ site to read more about what this new family may go through in order to breastfeed all EIGHT babies.

Earlier this month I met Suzanne Caesar, MA while we were both speaking on the Pregnant New Yorker Panel. Suzanne has been featured both on NY1 and the Discovery Health Channel for her amazing Maternal Dance Classes for mother’s to be. I myself am an enthusiastic advocate and fan of music & dance and their power to heal, evoke, soothe, especially during pregnancy and childbirth. So I was more than thrilled to learn about Suzanne’s brilliant program and new DVD Rhythm For Life – The Prenatal Belly Dance Workout. The DVD is divded into 4 sections that can be completed all at once or individually. Each segment contains modifications for mothers dependeing on their trimester.

Suzanne is a certified prenatal yoga and Healthy Moms® fitness specialist with a Master of Arts in Dance. She eloquently crafted a easy and fun program for expectant moms integrating the natural sensual moves of dance and sound to:

• Increases strength and energy levels

• Eases pregnancy discomforts

• Reduces stress

• Improves balance, coordination and posture

• Prepares for labor and delivery

• Suitable for all stages of pregnancy.

Listen to Suzanne here to learn more about Maternal Dance

When it comes to shopping for baby shower or new born gifts, it can be quite hard to bypass all of the cuteness out on market. It takes somewhat of a conscience effort to remember that babies, especially during their 1st six months, grow so rapidly, can produce a lot of laundry for their parents and only really require a few basic staple wardrobe items. Here are some great gift ideas that can help get your recipients off to a great organic start.

Premium
Organic Baby Bunch – Apricot by The Baby Bunch $70.00

Contains 100% organic undyed, unbleached cotton (1) bib, (1) t-shirt, (1) pair of socks, (1) hat and onesie , recycled paper and wood rosebuds and leave

Mid-tier
Organic Purely Natural Baby Essentials Basket $54.00

Contains an organic bamboo basket, wash cloths, (1) hat, (1) pair of booties and mitts,an organic teething toy, organic Earth Mama Angel Baby bottom balm and even the ribbon to wrap the basket is eco-friendly

Affordable
Organic Cotton Baby Gift Set $27.99

Contains a 100% organic cotton (1) onsie, (1) sleepsack, (1) long-sleeve bodysuit and (1) hat

(courtesy of Getty Images)

If you have only a few weeks left to your due date and your baby is still in a breech position, know that there are several ways to turn your baby back to a vertex position. Here are 3 of the most popular recommendations:

Acupuncture
In 1998, a landmark study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which found that up to 75% of women suffering from breech presentations before childbirth had fetuses that rotated to the normal position after receiving moxibustion at an acupuncture point on the Bladder meridian (which is on the pink toe). Moxibustion (Moxi) is a traditional Chinese medicine technique that involves the burning of mugwort, a small, spongy herb, to facilitate healing and is believe to stimulate the flow of the qi.

Music & Sound
Babies are drawn to the sound of their parents’ voice and outside soothing sounds such as music. If your baby appears to be in the breech position, have either your partner speak to you baby directly at your pubic bone and/or play soothing music at that same location. You can do this for however long you want per day (it’s also great for bonding) till your baby turns.

Tilts and Position Techniques
There are a variety of positions and exercises such as walking or breech tilts that will encourage your baby to turn. It is also important to drink a lot of water. The healthier your amniotic fluid levels, the more room there is for baby to float and turn.

I found a great clip on Youtube that recaps these recommendations . The director of Yoga Bellies on the West Coast goes over some tilts and positioning to aide in turning your baby. As well, the clip shows an example of a Moxi treatment. Have a look:

from The New Yorker

An article is coming out in next week’s New Yorker called Baby Food by Jill Lepore. Lepore cleverly weaves us through the frigid timeline of the changes and perspectives of breastfeeding within this so called modern society. From the Enlightenment doctors & philosophers’ of the mid 1700’s advocacy for nursing mothers to the security guards at LaGuardia airport dumping out a mother’s two-day supply of expressed milk due to airport regulations, Lepore holds the mirror up to our society and begs us to really look at our reflection as a human race (influenced by the Western Civilization). Is this what this is supposed to look like? I don’t think so.

For a while now, I have realized how devastating the effects of the industrial revolution have had on the human race. Our dependency on machines and detachment from the mechanics called human nature has had a whole sleuth of less than positive effects. I find it interesting that Lepore points out how in the 1887, around the time when the invention of artificial infant foods was introduced, and cows were proclaimed the new “wet nurse for the human race”, doctors at the time where convinced that women’s mammary glands were not working properly and influenced the women’s’ psyche. By the time reports came out that cow’s milk was causing illness and sometime deaths in newborns, women were convinced that their breast did not work and conducted using formula. Thankfully, by 1997, a statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that babies should exclusively intake breast milk for at least the 1st 6months of their life.

The article starts and ends talking about the growing popularity of expressing milk and the popularity of breast pumps. Though it still allows for infants to feed on their mother’s milk, the bonding benefits of breastfeeding are lost. Lepore does a great job at playing the devil’s advocate. A lot of cases where women express and pump are because they have no other choice for they have to return to work, others, well its growing to become a social norm. When will our society be truly breastfeeding friendly?

I definitely recommend reading this interesting article.

For most pediatricians and doctors, the winter season is the busiest time of the year. Though parents typically report the common flu and/or cold as the culprit, what is often overlooked as the cause to a child’s or adult’s symptoms, is the state of their indoor air-quality. Quite often, poor indoor air quality is the cause for prolonged illness, difficulty with sleeping and respiratory discomfort. A HEPA filter can filter out at least 99.97% of airborne particles. With a high efficiency silent HEPA-Air filter, the Airpod by Blueair is an intelligent solution for improving your indoor air quality.

Compared to those filters with comparable performance rates, the Airpod uses approximately 60% less material in its manufacturing process. The Airpod costs less to run than a single light bulb and it does not generate ozone by products like that of Sharper Image’s Ionic Breeze.

Air filtration units used for large areas of space (approx.200sq ft -600sq ft) range anywhere from $150 to $800. It can be quite an investment to purchase such units for every room in your house or apartment. The Airpod allows for good air quality in your smaller personal spaces and is ideal for travel. The sleek and compact design measures at 6.3″H x 6.3″W x 4.3″D and allows for easy mobility. The unit covers up to 50 sq. ft. and costs $99.95. This is one of the most economical products out on the market for its quality, design and function (several colorways are on sale at BlueAir). You can find a Graco® HEPA Air Purifier, which covers up to 160 sq ft for $59.99, but the Airpod is more aesthetically pleasing, compact and mobile.

Parents, take the Airpod to work with you so that you can filter out those unwanted particles floating in your office’s air. Sustaining your own good health is just as important as sustaining your child’s. As well, the Airpod is perfect for your child’s playroom/area. If you are unable to purchase an air filtration unit for the entire nursery room, the air pod can dock next to your baby’s crib while it’s sleeping and you can easily move it to where ever you go to nurse and cuddle with your baby.
The Airpod is available through a variety of online stores such as The Clean Bedroom and retailers such as Bed Bath and Beyond.

Because of the generosity of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Illinois, the Provena United Samaritans Medical Center in Chicago now has the Bilisoft LED Phototheraphy system. This innovative medical invention by GE is the only product of its kind which supports and promotes developmental care, enables infant-parent bonding such as breastfeeding and provides healing light for babies as they heal from severe cases of jaundice. The traditional units which treat such infants prevents parents from holding, touching, and unfortunately breastfeeding during treatment. (Mothers can still express their milk and have it feed to the baby through tubes).

Click here to learn more about this incredible technology.

According to the March of Dimes, nearly 60% of all newborns develop jaundice after birth. Jaundice is the yellow discoloration of baby’s skin and the whites of his or hers eyes. Usually, the discoloration arrives on the 2nd or so day after birth and then naturally goes away around day 8. The common form does not cause any discomfort for your infant or harm. There are some cases where a baby’s bilirubin levels (the cause of Jaundice) can peak to a severe rate and as a result pose a risk of brain damage to a baby. It is for this reason that your baby’s bilirubin level should be checked both before you leave the hospital/birthing center or if you are having a home birth, by your midwife and then 3 to 5 days after birth.

The exact cause(s) for these spiked levels still are being researched though there are some schools of thoughts that believe bilirubin levels are altered due to the clamping of the umbilical cord during birth. In 1996, the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed delaying the clamping of the cord, though for some reason, this is still a standard protocol in most American hospitals. Judith Mercer, a CNM published in the Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, concluded her study in 2001 and derived, “Early clamping of the umbilical cord at birth, a practice developed without adequate evidence, causes neonatal blood volume to vary 25-40%. Such massive change occurs at no other time in one’s life without serious consequences, even death. Early cord clamping may impede a successful transition and contribute to hypovolemic and hypoxic damage in vulnerable newborns.”

After learning about this research and that some midwives report seeing fewer cases of jaundice in babies born at home, I do wonder if the early clamping of the chord has a direct effect on the amount of bilirubin released into the baby’s system. For those cases where babies who were born at home and then developed jaundice, I wonder if in those cases the umbilical cord was wrapped around the neck of the baby. If anyone can comment on that, it would be interesting to hear your feed back.

To learn more about jaundice, click here.