Sara Tumlison - Family Doula & Maternal Support Practitioner

09/23/2024

Hello. I'm back! 😅

After taking a leave from my business for some time to handle a multi-state move and then settling in to my new city of Bakersfield CA, I'm ready to re-launch my doula practice here. I'm working on many things to be able to offer services here, and I can't wait to start serving families again! Keep watch here if you're interested in following along or seeing what new services I will be offering.

Much love,
Sara Tumlison, Family Doula

09/06/2022

Have you had a c-section? Has anyone ever talked to you about c-section scar massage?

To Learn More Visit: http:\\www.InstituteforBirthHealing.com. If you've had a C-Section there are three major issues you can avoid by learning to massage...

08/24/2022

Have you ever wondered how a doula might support you as a birther? My training organization, BeboMia, put out a great blog post for World Doula Week back in March, but I thought you all might enjoy it!
"7 WAYS A DOULA CAN SUPPORT BIRTHERS AND FAMILIES"

Here are 7 ways a Doula can support birthers and families with evidence-based information: World Doula Week 2022.

05/11/2022

FINALLY! We have an explanation for SIDS, and can now go on to establish screening and effective prevention methods!

WORLD FIRST BREAKTHROUGH | Twenty nine years ago, Dr Carmel Harrington lost her baby, Damien, to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). From then on, she has dedicated her career to researching the condition and finding answers.

Today, she has achieved that goal, identifying the first biochemical marker that indicates a baby’s vulnerability to SIDS while they are still alive.

Together with researchers at our Hospital, Dr Harrington found levels of Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), an enzyme which plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, were significantly lower in babies who subsequently died of SIDS compared to living controls and other infant deaths.

The findings have the potential to be game-changing, opening up the possibility for intervention and finally giving answers to parents who have lost their children so tragically.

Read more about this groundbreaking study: https://www.schn.health.nsw.gov.au/news/articles/2022/05/world-first-breakthrough-could-prevent-sids

To support Dr Harrington’s research, visit www.mycause.com.au/p/184401/damiens-legacy

05/08/2022

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

05/07/2022

Excellent content from Nurture Neuroscience!
Infant brains are unique - not tiny adult brains.

The infant brain is unique. It is not a miniature version of an adult brain. This might seem obvious, yet our culture expects infant brains to accomplish many adult brain tasks.

Many people are influenced to expect infants, 0-3 years to learn to:

Be put down

Sleep alone

Self soothe or self regulate- go from a high stress state to a low stress state alone

Be independent - daytime and night time

Sleep 12 hour stretches overnight

Manage emotions alone

Parents are told they need to teach these things to babies. If they don’t, they are making their baby clingy and causing problems. Not true!

Infants can only begin to do these things when their prefrontal cortex starts to function at around age 3. These skills emerge slowly across childhood up to age 6 and beyond.

At each stage of development, it is only rational to expect an infant to use the brain circuits it has developed. We would not expect a 3 month old to use brain circuits that we know emerge in a 3 year old. It is comparable to asking someone who has only been exposed to English to summon the brain power and miraculously connect brain cells to understand French. Similarly we do not expect two 3 month old infants to have all of the same brain circuits. It takes time to develop complex brain circuitry and each infant’s brain makes circuits at its own pace.

Infants cannot use brain circuits they have not yet developed. We can support their brain development best by being responsive and nurturing. We don’t have to teach or force any of these things. When baby shows you they can do these things - that’s when they can do them.

When we attempt to teach infants complex concepts, it actually does accelerate their brain development but not in the way we want. When infants are taught developmentally inappropriate things, it can be stressful. It can accelerate the brain development of fear circuits.

04/11/2022

Getting a tie released is not the only step to regaining full range of motion of the tongue, and they don't magically learn how to feed correctly, either.

Trust this expert, Dr. Gaheri.

Tongue Tie Checklist

If you have a tongue-tied baby that has feeding problems, there is a defined list of what needs to happen to change the symptoms for the better.

1) A full feeding evaluation. This can be from an IBCLC, SLP or OT.
2) A full surgical release of the tongue. This means releasing the genioglossus muscle so it has full mobility. Sometimes, a simple anterior release can help, but that needs to be a discussion with the family.
3) Appropriate wound care to guide how the wound tries to heal (this wouldn't apply if just an anterior release was done). We want the wound to heal in a way that allows the tongue to move up towards the palate.
4) Postoperative suck training and feeding support.
5) If body tension is present, appropriate bodywork (this is the only one I feel isn’t a universal need).

You can’t pick and choose from this list and hope it gets better. You can’t have a release without guidance by a supportive feeding team. You can’t have support from a feeding team but have a poor surgical release of the tie. You can’t have support and a good release but ignore the wound care. It’s the whole package. This isn’t rocket science. It is, however, a strenuous process for everyone involved and we need to start acknowledging that. Just like an orthopedic surgeon demands physical therapy pre/post-surgery, the current medical model needs to start addressing this process for what it is: a surgery on an infant who needs guidance.

If there is a failure of improvement, then something in this list didn’t happen.

04/07/2022

Lots of variations here!

Tongue Tie Morphology

Decades ago, tongue tie was considered to be one thing: a tight band connecting the tip of the tongue to the top of the gumline. Over the last 15 years, we have increasing evidence that tongue ties can occur in different places. Here's a nice picture by Mikel Newman, DDS, a dentist in Indianapolis.

04/02/2022

As a postpartum doula, parents often ask me what kind of activities they should do with their baby. This reel is a great example of activities for a baby who is at least sitting independently. It says these are for sensory play, but the activities here are also engaging gross and fine motor skills and increasing coordination between your baby's brain and their body!

04/01/2022

Did you know?

A 2017 Iranian study of parents who had a traumatic birth found that those who received a face-to-face counseling session with a midwife (the primary maternity caregivers in Iran) within 48-72 hours after birth and a telephone session 4-6 weeks afterwards showed significant improvement of PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms!

Their study concluded that midwife-led counseling that placed an emphasis on the therapeutic relationship, acceptance of experiences, expression of emotions, reviewing labor management, increasing social support, and problem solving was effective at reducing the length and severity of perinatal mental health issues after a traumatic birth.

https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-020-2826-1