Naomi's Empowering Birth and Breastfeeding and Mothering

25/09/2025

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✨👶🏽 Did you know that pregnancy doesn’t just grow a baby… it reshapes the entire inside of the body?! 🤯💡

Here’s how the organs shift as the uterus expands to full term:

🫁 Lungs & diaphragm → Pushed upward, making it harder to catch your breath 😮‍💨
🍔 Stomach → Moves higher and gets squeezed, which is why heartburn & nausea can happen 🤢🔥
🍪 Intestines → Shift up and around the baby, getting tucked away in every available space 🌀
🩸 Bladder → Flattened & compressed beneath the uterus, which explains the endless bathroom trips 🚽💦
🫀 Liver & pancreas → Nudged up toward the ribs, changing how digestion and blood flow feel 🩺
🍑 Re**um → Pressed back and down, adding to constipation struggles 🚫💩

All of this happens while the uterus grows from the size of a 🍊 orange to a 🏀 basketball (and beyond!).

💪🏽 The body is absolutely phenomenal in the way it adapts, shifts, and makes room for new life. 🌎💖

-Love,
Badassmotherbirther

24/09/2025

24/09/2025

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Via Dance with me in the Heart

17/09/2025

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12/09/2025

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How amazing is this? ❤️❤️❤️

12/09/2025

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Induction of labour is absolutely the right decision for some women, and absolutely not the right decision for others.

Some women are delighted that they had their labour induced, and some regret this decision for decades.

It is for those reasons that we encourage everyone to get lots of information about induction of labour or any other birth intervention before making a decision.

If you'd like to look at one of my books, then great.

In 'Inducing labour: making informed decisions,’ I talk through the issues in a balanced way and describe the process of induction.

‘In Your Own Time: how western medicine controls the start of labour and why this needs to stop’ goes a bit deeper. I look more into the history and politics and look at the issues for those told they are “at risk.”

Rachel Reed and Henci Goer have fab books on this topic as well.

Like many of my colleagues, my primary concern is that you get good information from a credible source (which does not usually mean the mass media, social media influencers or those without any qualifications or experience) and are able to make the decision that is right for you.

Loads more info at https://www.sarawickham.com/iol

04/09/2025

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🌟 Why Pushing on Your Back Hurts More 🌟

By full term, the whole “package” of pregnancy, like the uterus, baby, placenta, and amniotic fluid is surprisingly heavy. Here’s the breakdown:

📊 Average Weights at Term (around 40 weeks)
• 👶 Baby: ~7–8 lbs (3.2–3.6 kg) on average
• 🌸 Placenta: ~1.5 lbs (0.7 kg)
• 💧 Amniotic fluid: ~2 lbs (0.9 kg)
• 🫀 Uterus itself: ~2 lbs (0.9 kg) (it starts at just ~2 ounces pre-pregnancy!)
• 🩸 Extra blood & fluids within uterus area: ~2–3 lbs

➡️ Total weight carried in and by the uterus: ~13–16 lbs

When a parent is asked to push in a flat or semi-reclined position, here’s what’s really happening ⤵️

💥 Pressure on the Sacrum
➡️ The sacrum (tailbone area) is meant to move backward during birth, giving the baby more room.
➡️ Lying flat pins it against the bed, narrowing the outlet and adding painful pressure to the lower back.

💥 Circulation Gets Compromised
➡️ The heavy uterus presses on the vena cava (a major vein), which can reduce blood flow.
➡️ This may cause dizziness, nausea, or even dips in baby’s heart rate.

💥 Less Help from Gravity
➡️ On your back, you’re pushing uphill.
➡️ In upright or forward positions, gravity works WITH you, not against you.

✨ Better Options ✨
✅ Side-lying 🤰
✅ Hands & knees 🙌
✅ Squatting 🧎‍♀️
✅ Kneeling forward 🧘

These positions:
🌈 Free the sacrum
🌈 Take pressure off the back
🌈 Improve blood flow
🌈 Often make pushing more instinctive and effective

💡 Birth isn’t meant to be forced flat on your back. Movement + gravity + choice = more space, less pain, safer birth 💪👶💖

If you feel good on your back then that’s ok, too! But this should not be the default from your providers or forced!

-Love,
Badassmotherbirther

01/09/2025

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💠 THE RHOMBUS OF MICHAELIS 💠
◇
This area of the pelvis is formed by the lower lumbar vertebrae, the sacrum, and a ligament that extends from the skull to the sacrum. It’s often described as taking the shape of a kite.
◇
When the cervix is fully dilated in an undisturbed, physiological birth, the body often shows signs that the baby is moving down:
❤️ Reaching up to hold on.
❤️ The back arching.
❤️ The head tipping back.
❤️ Hands pressing against the back of the pelvis.
◇
These movements happen as the “kite” shifts backward, widening the pelvis and allowing the muscles to open. This adjustment creates crucial extra space for the baby’s shoulders to rotate and descend.
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Experienced traditional midwives may not feel compelled to check the cervix at this stage. They recognize these behaviors as natural signs of descent and know birth is close when the mother begins to “open her back.”
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Recognizing these instinctive patterns means we can trust the process, protect the mother’s space, and avoid unnecessary interventions.
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Sometimes, simply seeing is more powerful than touching. Unwanted hands can interrupt, intrude, and slow the flow of labor.
◇
-Love,
Flor Cruz

27/08/2025

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