How long do prenatals last?
Prenatals typically last anywhere from 1-2 hours.
What do we do during a prenatal?
For the purpose of writing this out, I will divide the clinical aspects of the prenatal from the interpersonal aspects. In reality, all parts of our meetings together are interwoven, connected and integrated into creating a loving, safe environment in which mama and family is nurtured and everyone feels comfortable expressing, emoting and sharing. It is essential for me that trust between us is tended like a garden~ sown, watered, weeded, picked clean of pests and harvested. This goes hand in hand with tending to your belief in yourself as a woman, a mama and a birther as well as trusting birth in general.
Clinical:
*basic urinalysis
*blood pressure
*hemoglobin check, as needed
*palpation~ externally feeling the size and shape of your uterus; feeling your baby's growth and position; connecting with your baby
*measuring fundal height~ I measure, in centimeters, the distance between the top of your pubic bone and the top of your uterus (known as the fundus)
*listen to baby's heart; count beats per minute~ I use a fetoscope for this. I choose not to use a doppler. (Doppler use is another blog topic soon to come)
Nutritional Guidance:
I focus on nutrition because I believe it is the backbone of a healthy mama and therefore healthy baby. I encourage eating whole foods and every color of the rainbow. I share recipes and ideas for meals and snacks. I believe that eating healthfully is the single most important step a woman can take towards walking down the path of a comfortable glowing pregnancy and an optimal birth outcome. Choosing what you eat is one of the extrinsic factors affecting your pregnancy, your baby and your birth that you can control.
Getting to know one another/tending mutual trust:
As I discussed earlier, this is a key part of prenatal nurturance. When I invite people into my home to bear witness to my birth, I want to feel so very comfy with them. When I attend others births, I want to feel so very comfy with them. Much time is spent getting to know one another and sowing those seeds of trust. Together we become partners and comrades on this journey.
Information sharing:
I share any amount of information and answer what questions I can about all things pertaining to pregnancy and birth. If I don't know the answer to a question you ask, I'll say so. I'll research it with you. I'll learn and relearn. I'll say, "Thank you for teaching me that."
I'll eat up any information you and your family share with me.
Lending library:
I have books and videos I loan out to whomever is interested.
Laughter:
Very important clinical piece of prenatal nurturance.
"Laughter"
When the first baby laughed for the first
time the laugh broke into a thousand
pieces and they all went skipping about
and that was the beginning of the fairies.
~J.M. Barrie
And so much more than I can not put into words...
This evening as my family arrived home after an all day outing in a nearby town, my daughter exclaimed that "We went to a place where they make jam and papa bought A LOT of it." When I asked if perhaps he was hungry when they were there, she replied, "No. There were just many delicious samples and we tried them all." I thought, that's what I want to do, gather together midwives and we can give out free samples of prenatal nurturance. mmmmmmmm, delicious.
An hour and a half of deliciousness or a 10 minute intake of high tech space food?
Which would you choose?
6 comments:
Ah the importance of prenatals!!!
As a doula, and midwife apprentice I agree with you about how important prenatal nurturance is. In fact, I feel that the nuturing we birth attendants do in prenatals is the most helpful thing we do for families. At the birth, the mama does her work, I can support, but ultimately my main job at birth is to stay out of mama's way so she can do her job uninterupted. The prenatal guidance, encouragement, and nurturing given by midwives such as yourself is one of the main things that makes it possible for women to birth resplendent in their own power, unafraid and simply uninterupted.
I really love the way that you express your thoughts with words- they seem to come directly from your heart. Nurturance is the only thing that i remember during my prenatals-not my BP reading or anything else, like measurements...just how kind I was treated and how open I was able to be.
Can't wait to read more of your writings...
Shine On!!!!
I have watched many moms as they meet with their care provider. I have noticed the difference in how they feel afterwards whether it has been a close and comforting visit or if they feel rushed and not heard. It is one of the reasons some moms work with me as a birth doula, to answer all of their questions and to nurture them in the way that they wished their care provider would. I will remember your words as I move forward on my own path as a midwife.
Hi Brenda,
This is Bianca is Wichita.
This was a touching post. Just what I needed to read right now.
The struggle for me is in encouraging responsibility for the things we eat without being preachy or insensitive. How true it is that nutrition is the basis of healthy pregnancies.
Hello Bianca~
Nice to hear from you.
As for nutritional guidance, I work with many different folks who eat(or don't eat) many different kinds of foods. Though I do hold a whole foods diet as the ideal for mamas, babies, papas... just everyone, including the planet, I realize, that for some, eating whole foods is a leap and sometimes a financial, emotional challenge. I suggest many simple doable meals requiring basic food and a sensible budget. I believe nutrition is one of those very important external factors a woman can have some say over. There are also the intrinsic factors, such as healing previous birth trauma and other emotional tender spots that are just as important as what a woman eats. This is also a large part of prenatal nurturance.
I hope all is well in Wichita.
Love
Brenda
Hello mamasara~
And hats off to you for being there for women, providing the loving substance of prenatal goodness.
Love Brenda
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