For the Week Ending March 4, 2018
Watch the new vlog “Joey’s Baby Diaries” sponsored by Pregistry. It is hilarious! You will also learn one or two things about how pregnancy feels!
Midwifery “emphasizes community-based care, close relationships between providers and patients, prenatal and postpartum wellness, and avoiding unnecessary interventions that can spiral into dangerous complications,” said Jennie Joseph, a British-trained midwife who runs Commonsense Childbirth, a Florida birthing center and maternal care nonprofit. And a new study has just demonstrated that states and countries that use more midwives have reduced rates of maternal and neonatal death. Read more here.
This is important for you because whether or not you have access to an OB/GYN, a midwife might be a great option for your birth.
The Annals of Improbable Research is the journal and organization behind the yearly tongue-in-cheek First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. This year, they granted an Ig Nobel award to research, published in the prestigious journal Nature, entitled “Why Pregnant Women Don’t Tip Over.” Basically – women have more flexible vertebrae than men. Read more here.
This is important for you because it’s a reminder that every single aspect of pregnancy is amazing.
This year’s flu season is no joke. Pregnant women, young children, and babies can be especially vulnerable, and the CDC says that the flu shot is safe and that it is not too late to get one. Read more here.
This is important for you because if you have not yet gotten flu shot this season, it is still important to do so.
The first thousand days of life – so approximately until kids turn three – is an essential window for brain development. Babies learn all the time, from all types of stimuli. But sometimes it is hard for parents to take advantage of these learning opportunities – especially if they are poor, and chronically stressed, and short on time. Many states have programs to help parents out during this key period, helping them to interact with their babies and giving those babies the tools they will need to succeed throughout their lives. Read more here.
This is important for you because home visit programs can give you great resources to make sure you make the most of all the teaching and learning moments you get with your baby.
The most popular article on The Pulse this week was Why Is Maternal Mortality Rate In The U.S. So High. Such a great question. Most of these deaths are preventable; many of them are due to inadequate pre and postnatal care and obesity. Black women have even higher rates of maternal mortality than white women. Read it here.
