Postpartum You

09/09/2022

Interesting!

Queen Elizabeth after her fourth Homebirth

Her Majesty was the first royal woman to have her husband accompany her at childbirth when she welcomed her fourth child Prince Edward with Prince Philip present.
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"The Queen, by then aged 37, had asked him to be there; she'd been keenly reading women's magazines that stressed the importance of involving fathers in childbirth and had become fascinated by the idea. Thus Philip became the first royal father in modern history to witness the birth of his child.”
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Like her mother, the Queen gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles, at home via caesarean, after a 30 hour labor, but went on to have three VBACs although with scopolamine.
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Eventually Charles was born by a Caesarean section in a music room in Buckingham Palace which had been converted into a theatre. She was attended by Obstetricians Sir William Gilliatt and Sir John Peel, and also midwife Helen Rowe, who was thought to be present for all the births. Caesarean sections were also less common in the general public at that time; in the 1950s only around 3% were caesarean section. It would have been of some concern that the Queen required one.
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The midwife Helen Rowe was known to be present as letters written to her by the Queen were discovered after her death. There is an irony in this as, in 1970, Sir John Peel, the queen’s obstetrician, was lead author of the report “Domiciliary midwifery and maternity bed needs”, which recommended 100% of births should be in a hospital.
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There have been considerable changes that have taken place in maternity services since the births of the Queen’s children. The accessibility of research and information is only one thing! The Queen, in all her experiences as a woman and mother in the role, has paved the way for royal births to be different and opened the door for many of her subjects to challenge the status quo at the time. The importance of looking back in history to see how we have got to where we are should not be overlooked and I challenge others to investigate history of our profession over the past 70 years.
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From

02/08/2022

22/07/2022

Thanks Tamika Newman - Lactation Consultant

🧑‍⚕️ Sharing again as I have noticed a new ‘trend’ amongst health care practitioners who are selling ‘programs’ aimed at new mothers to encourage them to space out feeds for their babies. This misinformation is terribly confusing for families especially when they are at their most vulnerable.

👉The evidence surrounding scheduled feeds have been around for quite a long time, yet I frequently hear of mum’s being told to “stretch out the feed to 3/4th hourly so the baby is ‘hungry’ and takes a full feed” along with babies needing a ‘rest and digest’ window.

🛑 This information is dangerous for a number of reasons! If a baby isn’t gaining weight adequately it’s time for a complete oral/feeding function assessment to find the root cause of the issues and then be provided with a plan to be supported appropriately.

🤱 When you come back to evolution and biology - breastmilk is designed to be completely digested quickly (around 90 mins) to ensure mother/baby have frequent contact to maintain milk production and feed that ever growing brain as well as keeping baby safe.