babywearing | The Nurturing Root

Babywearing: The Holiday Helper

December 7, 2018 by Carmen Calvo

With the holiday season in full-tilt, those of you with new babies may be feeling a bit hesitant about taking your little ones to holiday gatherings or to community events. Concerns range from not wanting Aunt Susan to sneak your baby a taste of that pumpkin pie to trying to avoid kisses from every well-meaning friend and family member.

Prevent the Pass-Around
Of course you want to show off your little bundle, but you want to do it on your terms. It feels uncomfortable to have baby being passed around from person-to-person. Cue babywearing! People are far less likely to reach out for baby when baby is snugly wrapped or strapped to Mom or Dad. It offers an unspoken barrier stopping people from requesting a chance to hold baby since it’s clear that baby is very comfortable and secure. This gives the caregiver the ability to offer baby up for a snuggle if one so desires rather than having to refuse the request or even worse, oblige the request even though it’s not what you want to do.

Don’t Miss Feedings
With the hustle and bustle of holiday events, it’s far easier to accidentally skip a feeding. As babies get a bit older and more easily distracted, all the noise and goings-on of a holiday celebration could result in baby bypassing her typical feeding cues. While baby might not even fuss at the missed feeding, a nursing mom may experience engorged breasts and even risk mastitis. With baby held closely in a wrap, sling, or carrier, the physical proximity helps keep caregiver and baby attuned to feeding needs.

Do Miss Unwanted Feedings
There’s always that one relative who feels it necessary to give baby “just a little taste” of the whipped cream or “just a pinch” of Grandma’s beloved holiday cookie. It’s frustrating to find out, after-the-fact, that your baby has been given something that his sensitive gut might not be ready for yet. Thankfully, with baby comfortably enjoying the party secured to your chest, no one can sneak an unwanted taste to your baby.

Avoid Overstimulation
Babywearing provides a grounding experience for baby: the rhythmic sound of the wearer’s breathing, the steady heartbeat, and the gentle movement. All these things offer baby a familiar, safe, and comfortable environment even when the surroundings may be totally unfamiliar. It even allows baby to snuggle in for a much-needed nap with music and laughter and chatting in the background.

Babywearing is the ultimate holiday helper. You can attend your holiday event with the peace of mind knowing baby is cozy, comfortable, and insulated from unwelcomed circumstances. Even better, you can keep baby close with your hands totally free. That means more trips through the buffet line for you. That alone is a reason to celebrate! Happy holidays!

5 reasons you should be practicing tummy time with your baby

September 19, 2018 by Kristie Graybill

What exactly is Tummy Time?

Tummy Time is the ability for a baby to hold his/her head up without assistance. This skill is important for a baby to properly develop. You can begin as early as two weeks after baby is born.

How do I do it?

All you need is a flat surface and a small mat. Place baby on belly and allow baby to strengthen neck and back muscles for 3-5 minutes at a time. Increase time as baby gets stronger. Place small toys in front of baby or get down on his/her level to play.

What are the benefits?

*Increases hand/eye coordination: Babies are typically staring at the ceiling but Tummy Time allows babies to have a different perspective. Tummy Time strengthens different muscles that don’t get worked when they are on their backs. They also have a better range of movement and motion that allows them to reach and grasp for objects.

*Aids in Gross Motor Development: When placing baby on their bellies, they will kick and push and this is precisely what helps with gross motor development. It will also be the stepping-stone to crawling, standing up and even walking.

*Fosters Independence: While skin-to-skin with caregivers is so very vital for baby’s development, this practice also helps baby to realize that he/she can be independent. Of course, babies on their tummies should be supervised at all times but baby can explore and learn without your help when on their bellies.

*Stimulates Senses: Because baby is so close to the ground, he/she is able to focus their eyes on what’s in front of them. Baby is able to turn neck when hearing sounds. Baby can touch and grab for toys in front of them.

*Builds Endurance: Tummy Time will make your baby stronger and stronger. He/She will be able to last longer and longer each time. It’s similar to running a marathon. With practice and endurance, baby will be moving in no time.

As your baby gets older, try to give him/her around 15 minutes a day on tummies.

What Is A Postpartum Doula?

September 7, 2017 by Carmen Calvo

Short answer; a postpartum doula is a cross between your mythical, awesomely helpful mother-in-law, and an expert baby whisperer! But seriously, a postpartum doula is a trained parenting, infant, and postnatal support professional. She provides education and assistance to families during the newborn period. This type of postpartum practitioner has a wealth of specialized experience and education, to help you adjust to parenthood. Think of a postpartum doula as your personalized parenting coach. Her goal is to help your family learn about normal newborn behavior, baby care techniques, infant sleep, postnatal recovery, breast and infant feeding techniques. There are really two avenues of support, a postpartum doula will provide. In the most traditional sense, a postpartum doula will help with a family-centered approach, or she can care for a growing family, by providing infant-focused care.

With a family-centered approach, a postpartum doula can guide, educate, and assist you through the parenting process. She may help you learn how to breastfeed with ease and confidence, answer questions you may have about feeding, diapering, bathing, grooming, and calming baby, and assist you with babywearing tips and techniques. Additionally, she may help you with meal planning and preparation, household organization, and give you access to trusted parenting and infant resources and referrals.

A postpartum doula can also help your family with infant-focused care. Within this framework, your doula serves as a newborn specialist. She will be attentive to all of your baby’s needs, so you can properly rest and recover, after birth. Infant-focused care is particularly helpful to parents who are wanting assistance during the evening and overnight hours. Your postpartum doula will provide dedicated newborn care, so you can have the most restorative sleep, knowing a skilled professional is attending to all of your baby’s desires.

If you want personalized support, guidance, and resources to help you make the best decisions for your new family, consider hiring a postpartum doula! To learn more about how a postpartum doula provides practical support to families during the transition to parenthood, read this article. Also check out The Relievery’s practitioner resource directory, or Doula Match, to find a postpartum professional in your area.

*This post was first published on THE RELIEVERY*

The Nurturing Root is honored to support and educate Northeast Ohio families. We provide Birth Boot Camp childbirth education, holistic newborn care classes, in-home placenta encapsulation services, and family-centered postpartum doula support. If you are looking to have a healthy pregnancy, amazing birth, and gentle postpartum recovery experience, contact us! We also welcome you to join our FREE Facebook community, Cleveland Holistic Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting. This is a great space for families and professionals interested in a variety of natural birth and parenting topics

Breastfeeding While Back to Work

March 20, 2017 by Carmen Calvo

Written by Katy Linda, IBCLC

Breastfeeding while back to work. It’s one of those things so many parents worry about. How do you manage it all?

You figure out what works best for you. Just like nearly every other facet of parenting, there is no one size fits all approach to returning to work and managing milk supply.

When you are confident that breastfeeding is going well, you can start pumping and adding a bottle feeding every few days to your feeding times. You don’t need to give your baby a bottle every day, just every few days to keep your baby familiar with the bottle. When you’re ready, here are some resources for choosing a good bottle for your baby.

The other thing you will need is a good breast pump. A double electric pump should be covered by your insurance company under the Affordable Care Act. Having extra membranes, valves, and tubing is generally recommended just in case your parts wear out. Changing the small rubber pieces is recommended every 90 days.

Having flanges that fit well will help you pump without discomfort as well as maximize your pump output. Your pump manufacturer should have options on sizes and there are other options, such as Freemies or Pumpin Pal Flanges to give you a variety of options to find the right fit. In a proper fitting flange, the breast should fit tight against the funnel part of the flange, and the tunnel should allow for the nipple and a little bit of areola to enter. You should not have rubbing on the side, and there shouldn’t be a large amount of space for nipple to swell.

You’ll want to start pumping around the same time you start introducing a bottle. Pumping after you feed your baby means you won’t get a whole bottle’s worth of milk, but it also means you are not taking the easy-to-get milk from a breast your baby is ready to feed from. If you can pump 2 or 3 times, you should have a bottle worth of milk. This can be collected over 2 – 3 days if needed.

Many moms feel most comfortable with a freezer stash of milk. You don’t need to have hundreds of ounces taking up the entire freezer. Having a day or two worth of milk to be a back-up plan, just in case something happens is plenty.

When you return to work you will want to pump around the times your baby would typically eat. This may or may not work with your work schedule, so do your best. Ideally pumping every 2 – 3 hours will help maintain supply and get you the milk your baby will need while you were away.

Typical intake for a baby is 1 – 1.5 ounces per hour, so you will want to try to keep this in mind as your overall output. There are many techniques that can be useful to help maximize output, depending upon your situation. For some moms, having a photo of their baby or something that smells like their baby can help with output. For others, distraction from the task at hand is much more effective. Music, reading, or working on emails are all options for some women. Employing hands on pumping techniques, where you use your hands to provide massage and help move milk can also be useful in maximizing your pumping efforts.

In order to make the process faster, as long as you don’t have any nipple damage, cracks, cuts, etc, you can store your pump parts in the refrigerator and just clean them daily. Washing parts can be time consuming, this can make the process faster so that you are missing less working time. Parts can be washed with soap and water, or even with sterilizing steam bags in the microwave.

Breastmilk is good for 7 days in the fridge, 6 months in the freezer compartment of the fridge, and 12 months in a chest freezer. There are many methods to store breastmilk. Typically feeding your baby the freshest milk possible is recommended. You can feed them the milk you have pumped the previous day, and a few times a week take a bag of milk to put in the freezer and take the oldest bag out of the freezer to feed your baby. This keeps your freezer stash as fresh as possible, while giving your baby mostly fresh milk.

Balancing the hurdles of leaving work to pump with the desire to provide the very best for your baby can be challenging. Know that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Every drop of breastmilk you provide for your baby matters and makes a difference.

Katy Linda, is an IBCLC and owner of The BF Den. She serves Central Maryland and lives in Baltimore with her husband and 4 children.

5 Ways Partners Can Bond With Their Breastfed Baby

August 3, 2017August 3, 2016 by Alayna Spratley

By Alayna Spratley

During this first week of August, we celebrate World Breastfeeding Week. This global awareness initiative is coordinated by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), an international network of organizations working to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. Learn about World Breastfeeding Week 2016 here.

In honor of World Breastfeeding Week here are five ways fathers and non-nursing parents can bond with their breastfed babies:

Skin To Skin Contact

Holding a newborn baby on your bare chest has so many benefits beyond the obvious snuggles. Skin to skin contact helps normalize baby’s body temperature and glucose levels; heart and respiratory rates also stabilize.

Babywearing

Successfully carrying an infant in a sling, wrap, or a Soft Structured Carrier (SSC) is life changing! Most babies love to nestle on mom or dad’s chest. Wearing baby provides the physical closeness infants need while freeing a caregiver’s hands to participate in daily activities. It is so empowering to accomplish any task while babywearing.

Co-Sleeping

Co-sleeping is a superb way to feel deeply connected to baby, while getting a more restful night’s sleep.

Movement

Inside mom, babies spend approximately nine months in motion. So it is no surprise that they crave similar movement once born. Rock, sway, or bounce (I suggest using a Pilates ball) that baby! You will help soothe, calm, and lull your infant to sleep.

Rituals

When baby starts having a more predictable rhythm, have dad start a short daily routine. A morning ritual could include taking baby upon waking, changing a diaper and clothes, and wearing her while making breakfast. An evening routine, that implements several bonding strategies, could include a taking a bath, enjoying some skin to skin time, and having a cuddle in the rocking chair.

Supporting breastfeeding is a cultural responsibility that begins in the home.

We want all families committed to breastfeeding to succeed. If you reside in the Baltimore area, we offer postpartum services to help all family members be included, confident, and supported throughout the nursing journey.

Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

Breast+Skin+Sling: An interview with Austin Rees

September 5, 2016June 9, 2016 by Carmen Calvo

My guest on the blog today is Austin Rees. Austin is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and a Certified Babywearing Consultant through the Center for Babywearing Studies. She is the owner of Breast+Skin+Sling, and the co-founder of Sacred Milk. Austin prepares mothers prenatally with the foundations of breastfeeding, skin-to-skin, and babywearing. She facilitates personalized ceremonies to celebrate life’s transitions. Austin also provides one-on-one babywearing consultations in our community. (featured image credit: Kate’s Takes)

It is common today for parents to take a birthing class. Why should parents seek out a breastfeeding and babywearing class before the baby arrives?

An out of hospital birth class is essential to gaining the information on how to facilitate the process of birth and know your choices in birth. Skin-to-skin, and the breast crawl (infant independently moves to the breast to nurse) occurs immediately after birth. Understanding how to facilitate this instinctual experience before the birth is beneficial. I find mothers profit from the knowledge and foundations of how Milk works, the importance of skin-to-skin, along with an understanding of the normal newborn before the baby arrives. With this knowledge I have witnessed mothers step into motherhood trusting their bodies, their babies, and their Milk. I help mothers discover their innate instincts and wisdom so they enter their unique Milk relationship secure, confident, supported, and connected to their baby. Armed with the knowledge of how to initiate a good start is key to avoiding difficulties. I observed working with mothers postpartum that a majority of the issues they experienced could have been prevented if they had the proper information before the baby arrived. Babywearing can also start immediately, and knowing how to comfortably and confidently use a carrier can be a valuable tool.

Babywearing is commonly seen around the city. How would you react if you see someone wearing a baby improperly while at the store?

I am always excited to see another parent or caregiver wearing their baby while I am out. I usually try to make eye contact or say, “It’s great to see you wearing your baby.” If I notice someone wearing their baby and the straps are twisted, or it does not look to the carrier direction guidelines I may observe to see if they are interested in striking up a conversation. When I engage with someone who is wearing I ask how they feel. If they are happy and comfortable, I praise their excitement. If they say this is great, but xyz, I will share some babywearing tips that may help that situation.
motherblessing baltimore

On your website it lists you offer facilitating ceremonies for families in the DC/MD/VA area. What are some reasons for someone to reach out to you to create a ceremony for themselves or someone else?

I enjoy designing personalized ceremonies to create a circle of support for someone. I have been facilitating Mother Blessings for pregnant or adopting women for 10 years. In place of a traditional baby shower, a Mother Blessing is a special ceremony designed to acknowledge, honor, and celebrate a woman’s journey into Motherhood. Family, friends, and mothers contact me to create a ceremony and provide a loving place where the honored mother can explore the challenges and joys that lie before her as she approaches childbirth or adoption, and mothering her first or multiple children.

I also facilitate Birth Story Ceremonies; a place where a mother can experience deep listening, and allow the power of sharing her story to heal, celebrate, grieve, release, process and acknowledge her experience, her journey. These are designed to make way for the mother to experience her birth story. We open our heart and commit our undivided attention to her. This allows her to fully express her experience, reflect upon it, and take the steps she needs to move forward. We step aside and create a safe space so she has complete control, and unconditional support.

A Weaning Ceremony is a time we can come together to honor a Mother’s Milk relationship. We make way for the mother to experience her Milk story by opening our heart and committing our undivided attention. This allows her to fully express her experience, reflect upon it, and take the steps she needs to move forward. We step aside and create a safe space so she has complete control, and unconditional support.

I also create customized ceremonies. Recently I designed one for a special woman who was about to undergo radiation for breast cancer. We designed activities that supported releasing fears, created personal power, and we weaved a web of support, pledging our assistance throughout her treatment and beyond.

Sacred Milk is a sister program under the Sacred Living Movement. Can you share what is the Sacred Living Movement, and more about your involvement with Sacred Milk and Sacred Pregnancy?
Sacred Milk Baltimore

Photo credit: Kalimana Birth Films

The Sacred Living Movement acknowledges all aspects of our life’s journey need to be honored, and embraced with reverence and respect. The Sacred Living Movement was designed to bring back the age-old tradition of women sitting with one another during a time of transition, witnessing each other’s process and BEING there for one another. We have a local, active Sacred Living Movement Maryland group.

Sara Goff and I created Sacred Milk after attending a Sacred Pregnancy retreat. Sacred Milk is a movement inspiring women to trust their bodies, their baby’s and their Milk. Our mission is to nourish the wholeness of each mother’s journey and shift our culture to see Milk as a holistic practice, rather than simply a feeding choice. In the last century our culture has been saturated by marketing that has conditioned us to see breasts as sexual, and human milk as just a food source. The Journey to Milk program is focused on opening space for women to remember their innate wisdom and then surround themselves with a supportive community. Milk is instinctual, natural, normal, and necessary. That doesn’t mean it’s easy or filled with bliss. Milk is not something that can be fully learned from a book or taught on the internet. Milk cannot be told. Milk must be modeled, supported and nourished in community because it is a way of living not a way of feeding.

I recently co-hosted a Sacred Pregnancy + Sacred Milk 2-day mini retreat for pregnant mothers in our community. It was a gorgeous event full of women showing up and witnessing to each other. In September I will be facilitating a retreat to certify Sacred Pregnancy instructors in Nashville, TN. I am excited for more women to have the option to attend these classes or retreats prenatally.

Austin is such wonderful resource for mothers and families in our area and has such a beautiful way of bringing our community together. If you are looking for breastfeeding or babywearing education in the Baltimore or surrounding area, you can contact Austin here.

Pin It on Pinterest