Karrissa McNamara Midwife

29/08/2023

Comfy easy way to feed baby. Notice mum semi reclined and relaxed and baby flared nostril means not being smooshed and relaxed into mama.

26/07/2022

Yes, first time māmās can have home births 🙌

25/07/2022

Not many people know what this room is. This is the C-Section L&D room. Looks quite scary doesn’t it?

- THE CESAREAN... It's the only large surgery, where you have 7 layers opened, and you're expected to stand up 6 hours later, taking responsibility for one more person; not to mention the contractions of the uterus to portray, healing, and breastfeeding. 💞

A C-Section requires courage. It is a show of bravery, sacrifice, and mothering in its purest form. It’s the willingness to lay down your body and risk your life so that your child may be born.

The war scar from a C-Section is something we will have forever. Something that stays with us and reminds us of our beautiful babies we brought into this world❤️

📷 and 🖊 Danielle Lynn

22/07/2022

Skin to skin as soon as possible on the day of birth with the other parent has proven to rewire their brain encouraging dopamine and oxytocin release and lowering testosterone and cortisol ( Most articles used the term father but I would envisage they would mean the non birthing partner that would also serve to raise and protect the pēpi) ❤️

Scientists have discovered an odorless scent molecule called hexadecanal, or HEX, that is released by humans and impacts aggressive behavior. The HEX molecule is the most abundant molecule released on the newborn baby's head. The researchers found that this molecule reduced aggression in males (biologically important as infanticide is a relatively common event in the mammalian world) and increased aggression in females (key to infant protection). We have shared with parents that when they are skin to skin with their newborn they should remove the baby's hat to allow them to inhale the scent of their newborn as it elicits an entire range of activity in the parental brain. This is one more reason to take a deep sniff! (Mishor et al., 2022)

Source: Eva Mishor et al, Sniffing the human body volatile hexadecanal blocks aggression in men but triggers aggression in women, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg1530

21/07/2022

13/07/2022

😁

Authenticity if the most professional thing you can do. No one wants a fake midwife because of the deep relationship there. So yes sometimes when we chat with you- we are somewhere in this realm.

15/06/2022

"The way we treat women during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum, and the institutional options of care we provide them within health systems, directly reflect the way we value women in our societies.

In too many settings we are ignoring the benefits of midwifery models of care, degrading the status of midwives, and removing financing from midwifery services and education, under the guise of safety that ignores physiology and women's chances for optimal mental and physical health."

This quote is from a paper just published in the Lancet.

It's titled, "Supporting midwifery is the answer to the wicked problems in maternity care."

It's by Hannah Dahlen and colleagues.

It's freely available, you can see it at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(22)00183-8/fulltext

And I highly recommend reading it and then telling your friends and colleagues about it.

07/06/2022

Kia Ora e te whānau a Hapū Wānanga
I am needing 5 volunteers- wāhine &/or tama who has attended wānanga at any stage to be interviewed for a short period via phone this Wednesday, any time you chose. Hit me up if your keen Ngā mihi mahana Tawera 🥰

06/06/2022

Happy international homebirth day!
(One of my favourite homebirths with a couple amazing people I was so privileged to be asked to be their midwife)
Have a homebirth and even your beloved pets can support you! 😍
Also love love love the look of “we done this together” when baby finally arrives in dads hands 🥰🥰

12/05/2022

Women are often told not to breastfeed their baby to sleep as they’ll be making a rod for their own back/spoiling their baby/baby will develop associations of sleep only if breastfeeding etc etc⁣
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All of the above is complete twaddle! ⁣
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Breastfeeding your baby to sleep or for comfort is normal, healthy and is a good thing to do 😊⁣
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It’s also one of the best tools you have - it’s your super power and I can’t see a logical reason why you wouldn’t use it 🦹‍♀️👶💗⁣
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Breastmilk also contains sleep inducing hormones which are higher at night so it’s actually quite difficult for baby not to fall asleep whilst feeding 😴 ⁣
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If it’s working for you and your family then enjoy it 🤱🏻💗⁣