Pregnancy Travel Tips

Are you planning one last getaway with your partner before your baby arrives? Maybe you planned that cruise to the Bahamas right before you found out you were pregnant? Or maybe you’re traveling for work? Travel can be stressful. Add in pregnancy and the stress level can climb. If you’re pregnant and traveling, there are

Let’s Get Cheesy

In the process of creating a birth plan, many new parents are surprised at how many choices and options are available to them. One of those options is delaying baby’s first bath. You may not have even thought about this before now and you may be wondering why anyone would ever want to delay cleaning

Three Tips for Surviving Each Trimester

Pregnancy is typically pretty uncomfortable and depending on where you’re at in your pregnancy you may be facing nausea, leg cramps, or an annoyingly itchy belly. In our childbirth education series we discuss many of these common “pregnancy complaints”. We also talk about when to expect them, why they happen, and what you can do

Five Questions Never to Ask

We have all probably heard one (or more) of these asked, or maybe we’ve asked them ourselves. After being a parent and working with pregnant individuals and families, we’ve learned which questions should never be asked. So, let’s make life a little more pleasant for everybody and just ban a few questions from our conversation–don’t

Choosing a Breast Pump

The First Pumps The first breast pumps were patented in the mid-19th century and designed to treat inverted nipples or to help babies who were incapable of nursing. But breast pumps have only been widely available to regular consumers for about twenty years; Medela released its first electric pump for in-home use in 1991. Before

Our Favorite Hormone

It is commonly referred to as the “love hormone” or “cuddle hormone” because it is released when snuggling with a loved one or a pet, during sex and in the throes of a new relationship. But such names simplify the effect of a very important hormone: oxytocin. What it Does In our childbirth education classes,

“OMG, I’d never do that…”

Never is a very powerful word, and one that most people tend to use a lot before they become parents. “I would NEVER get an epidural.” “I would NEVER let my child sleep in my bed.” “I will NEVER talk to my children the way my mother talked to me.” Sometimes we are able to

Get Moving!

The traditional TV and movie trope of a woman in labor inevitably shows her flat on her back in bed, struggling through the arduous task. But many women find movement during labor to be very helpful in reducing pain and shortening labor. Why does movement help and how can we maximize the amount we move?

Need a Jump?

As we discussed earlier, due dates are largely meaningless, so a lot of moms find themselves reaching their long-anticipated due date with no baby in sight! Some are able to let baby come on his or her own terms, but others might have personal or medical reasons for wanting to hurry the process on a