Breathing through Birth Doula

09/03/2025

Pushing on your back is for the doctor/midwifes comfort. If this is not YOUR comfort, it's your body, your baby, your choice.

🌟 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

09/02/2025

💥💥BREASTFEEDING MYTH 💥💥
"Many babies are lactose intolerant."

THIS IS NOT TRUE.
While many babies do have a hard time digesting cow’s milk or breast milk when mom is consuming cow’s milk, it is VERY RARE for a baby to be Lactose intolerant!

Human milk has approx. 10x the amount of lactose than cow’s milk. Lactose is the milk sugar, and the reason why human breast milk is so sweet.

What many human babies are reactive or intolerant of is the cow’s milk protein, not the sugar.

This is something that is meant to be digested by baby cows not human babies and very often they are unable to digest it, which can lead to fussiness, gas, and bowel irritation.

Since it is the protein and not the lactose that is almost always the problem, drinking lactose-free milk will not help. The only real solution is to remove cow’s milk from your diet.

This is something very important to keep in mind since it is so common and also what it used to make infant formula. 🤱❤️

**Note: Babies that are intolerant of cow's milk protein are also often intolerant of soy as well

Photo by .photography 📷

08/18/2025

"When a pediatrician today still tells parents to “just add cereal to the bottle,” it should raise a red flag. That advice is outdated and not aligned with current recommendations from the AAP, WHO, or CDC.
If your doctor is pushing it, it’s time to look for one who is committed to evidence-based, modern care."

This is one of those practices that just won’t seem to go away. Putting rice cereal or oatmeal in a baby’s bottle is still recommended by some pediatricians today, even though we have decades of research showing it’s unnecessary at best and harmful at worst.

In the 1950s and 60s, formula companies and doctors began pushing solids earlier and earlier. Parents were told babies would “sleep longer” if cereal was added to bottles. It was marketed as modern and convenient. But the truth is, this was industry-driven, not evidence-based. That advice has lingered for generations, and too many parents still hear it.

Here’s what the science tells us:

🌾 Choking Risk
Thickened bottles change the flow of milk. Babies aren’t developmentally ready to coordinate swallowing thicker textures until about 6 months. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warns that this increases the risk of choking and aspiration (milk going into the lungs).

🌾 Digestive System Immaturity
A baby’s gut is not ready for grains before 4–6 months. Introducing solids too early has been linked to higher risk of allergies, obesity, and gastrointestinal distress. Their tiny digestive system needs breastmilk or formula only.

🌾 Obesity and Overfeeding
Adding cereal to bottles increases calorie intake without giving babies the opportunity to regulate their own hunger cues. A study in Pediatrics (2011) showed that introducing solids before 4 months more than doubled the risk of obesity by age 3.

🌾 No Evidence It Improves Sleep
Multiple studies, including one from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (2015), show that cereal in bottles does not actually help babies sleep longer. Sleep development is neurological, not nutritional.

When a pediatrician today still tells parents to “just add cereal to the bottle,” it should raise a red flag. That advice is outdated and not aligned with current recommendations from the AAP, WHO, or CDC.

If your doctor is pushing it, it’s time to look for one who is committed to evidence-based, modern care.

07/27/2025

Watching you eat isn't a sign of readiness, neither is waking more or feeding more.
My son was i think 3 months or under here, we could sort of prop him up in a high chair with cushioning so we could all eat, and he loved watching and would have his hands in his mouth but no WAY was he ready.

We started solids at 6 months, he finally started eating at TEN MONTHS.

07/24/2025

I met a baby yesterday who's pediatrician prescribed an anti-acid blocking drug for "spitting up". Babies are increasingly being prescribed PPIs.

Infants who take PPIs in the first 6 months of life have an increased risk of breaking a bone, and the longer they take them, the greater the risk. PPIs have also been associated with increased risk of death, pancreatic cancer, Clostridium difficile, kidney disease, inability to produce stomach acid, stomach infections, cardiovascular events, and more.

Let's work together to find the ROOT cause of your babies spitting up, NOT do more harm than good to their little tummies.

07/15/2025

07/12/2025

Babies who are exposed to table foods too early in life have a higher degree of allergic reactions due to potential antigenic protein content of foods. There are lower reports of infections in breastfed infants and decreased allergy-related conditions like atopic eczema due to the permeability of a babies intestines.

Don't be in a rush to feed baby solid food. Wait at least 6 months until their gut is developmentally ready!

07/09/2025

Can you imagine what babies 1st moments are like? All new experiences and seeing mothers face for the first time! Coming into a space of peace ☮️ is a great gift to give your baby.

07/03/2025

Using HypnoBirthing for your birth prepares you for a calm, natural birth! Reach out to me for childbirth education and training!