Take action against Disposable Diapers.

So here is the deal folks: Our planet can no longer absorb all the disposable diapers we are using.  Choosing cloth diapers is no longer a choice it is an obligation.  You may think I am saying this because Everything Birth offers a wide range of cloth diapering supplies.  But, that is not the case at all.  Actually, our choice to sell cloth diapers stems from our deep rooted conviction to rid the planet of as many disposable diapers as possible.   So if for some reason you are one of the families that does not use cloth diapers, just give it a try.  Just one cloth diaper used after your child poops can easily save over 200 pounds of disposables from ending up in a landfill.  Once you see how easy it is, add some more and more cloth until you have phased out the nasty disposables.

There really is no excuse.  There should be no argument at all.  Get over your reluctance because using cloth diapers is something you can do to clean up the mess our throwaway society is generating. Disposables take 250-500 years to decompose and they make up 50% of a households rubbish.  Do not wait.  Switch to cloth today.

Disposable diapers are Bad for Health:

Read this informative article:Acute respiratory effects of diaper emissions. results demonstrate that some types of disposable diapers emit mixtures of chemicals that are toxic to the respiratory tract. Disposable diapers should be considered as one of the factors that might cause or exacerbate asthmatic conditions.

Disposable Diapers are Bad for our Environment:

The time it takes for the plastics in disposable diapers to decompose can take 6 lifetimes or more. The Chlorinated byproducts of this decompsition can find its way into the soil and public water supplies. Average babies in America will use approximately 6,000-10,000 diapers from birth to underwear years. An average cloth diapered baby will need no more than 2-3 dozen cloth diapers. This dramatic decrease in volume alone proves that cloth diapers are better for our environment. The fact that Americans spend billions each year on disposable diapers, despite the environmental risks, is why so many special interest groups and corporations are against cloth reuseable. (Diapers: Cloth VS Disposable. Is There Really An Environmental Reason To Switch?)

The instructions on a disposable diaper package advice that all fecal matter should be deposited in the toilet before discarding, yet less than one half of one percent of all waste from single-use diapers goes into the sewage system.^{4 (Real Diaper Association)}

Change the world. Choose a Midwife.

Health Care Reform is happening. Yea!  Now it is more important than ever to show support for out of hospital birth practices.  It is up to you to let your beliefs and convictions be known.  Spread the word.

Watch this video of Dr. David Anderson’s speech on the economics of out of hospital birth practices.

Contact your elected officials and press this topic. Again and again and again……..

Sign up here for news and action alerts from the good folks at  The Midwives and Mothers in Action (MAMA) Campaign.

Choose Certified Professional Midwives .  CPM’s have the power to turn around the current norms of how babies are welcomed into our world.  Healthier mothers, less birth interventions, and peaceful beginnings for our babies.   

Birthing Naturally

Affirmations can be so empowering.

My body knows how to birth my baby.
My baby knows how to be born.
I relax and fully turn my birthing over to nature.
I am safe even though I may be scared.
I put all fear aside and welcome my baby with happiness and joy.

A woman’s body was designed to give birth. Our incredible womb and cervix have super powers to perform a seemingly impossible task. Thousands of babies are born every day without the use of interventions. And this has been going on since the beginning of time. If I could share only one bit of advice to a mother to be, it would be to trust your body.
Trust that when you are in labor your body will know what to do. Just know that if you are healthy and supported with love, nature will be your auto pilot. Set your fears aside.

I trust my body to know what it is to do.                                                                                                                                                                     I am a wonderful mother.

One of my midwives wrote these affirmations down for me when I was expecting my third child. I was preparing for a VBAC at home and I too needed to be reminded of what we as women were made to accomplish. We create life.

Midwives support birthing naturally. If you are pregnant and would like to know more about choosing a midwife, here is a link for you.  http://mana.org/memberlist.html

Supportive Postnatal Products.

So many people these days will tell you all of the things you need to be prepared to have a baby. The breast pump and bottles, a crib, a changing table, the list goes on and on. To some, the necessity of these items are debatable, to others they would be lost with out them. But in reality all your baby needs is you and your breast. And all you need is to be as relaxed and open as possible.

I was a little lost preparing for my first birth.  I was lucky enough to have a midwife who was anti consumer and the only thing she encouraged us to get was a king sized family bed.  So many family members, co-workers, friends, even strangers felt it was their duty to enlighten me to the necessities for having a baby.  Being a first time mother I found it hard to tune it all out.  They were just trying to help.  I was so young and had no idea what was going to happen next.

Here is a list of five low cost items that were not suggested to me, but were certainly the most helpful items I had after the birth of my babies.
1. Nipple cream and plain tea bags.
No one told me how much my nipples would hurt when I started breast feeding. I am not saying this to scare any of you, the pain goes away quickly. But your nipples can get very dry and cracked. Soak the tea bags in water as warm as you can take. Soak your nipples with the tea bags and then pat dry.  The tannins in the tea and the heat are healing.  Apply a good all natural nipple cream such as Lansinoh lanolin.  That will sooth the sensitive skin, and it will be safe for your baby to nurse.
2.A Sitz bath and sitz bath herbs.
These items were essential after my son was born naturally. It felt so good to sit and sooth my soreness and bottom. I also used the sitz bath herb water in my peri bottle for quick relief.
3.Reusable underpad.
This is kind of a funny one, but having a baby can be messy. This pad was useful for me to move around the house wherever I wanted to sit postpartum. Instead of a changing table, use the underpad.  It is great for throwing down wherever you need to change a diaper. It also protected the family bed through roto virus with twin 10 month olds. And we are still using the underpad to get my son through sleeping all night without a diaper. This is a most useful item.
4.Perineal Cold Compress
The name says it all. You will heal quicker if you use these. And use them often. They come in both instant and reusable. I still use the reusable compress for the inevitable bumps and bruises my kids get.
5.Nursing tea and Loose Leaf Chamomile tea.
The nursing tea was invaluable during those growth spurts when baby just can’t get enough and you feel like you just can’t produce enough to satisfy your little one. A nice strong cup of chamomile tea is so wonderful to help you and your baby relax when nothing else seems to work.

Bless

Surprise twins and VBAC at home.

Above picture is me Jessica Teesdale with my husband Jeff and three children Josephine, Eliza and Hutch.

When Crystal asked me to take over the blog for Everything Birth my first thought was “What would I have to say?” The more I thought about it, and the more I work at Everything Birth, the more I realized how much the products we sell resonate with my life.

From the moment I realized I was pregnant I knew I would seek the guidance of a midwife. My midwives gave me the confidence to trust my body and intuition as a woman. I refused most prenatal testing and sailed through a healthy normal pregnancy. At 37 weeks we went to our first weekly visit.  My midwife Laura laid her hands on me and said “Either your baby has two heads, or you are going to have twins.”  SURPRISE!!!  At that moment I chose to have an ultrasound and it revealed that one was breech and one was vertex. The breech twin had cord wrapped around her neck.  After two weeks of no labor and about 6 midwives planning to attend the home birth, we were risked out and sent down the path of cesarean birth. I was never induced and never actually went into labor.  At 39.5 weeks I was prepped for surgery and within 3 hours I had two healthy 6 pound baby girls.  It was one of the happiest days of my life.

My girls nursed until they were two. We used cloth diapers and I cooked all of their baby food. I learned a lot about mothering in those years, but I still felt like I would not be complete until I experienced natural childbirth. In March 2006 we found out we were pregnant again.

Preparing for a VBAC at home was not as easy as my first pregnancy. I experienced many more emotions and I had two incredibly active toddlers to chase around. With the help from Laura again, my goal was clear, stay healthy and conquer my fears about birth. In November 2006 after a 29 hour labor, my son was born via water birth in the comfort of our home.

After twins the first time around, nursing, cloth diapers, and the food mill were a no brainer.  Now the prefolds and Bummies are in a box, and everyone eats solids, but every birth kit I pack brings me right back to the excitement and anticipation I felt preparing for my homebirths.  And every diaper we ship to you is packed by a mama who has changed and laundered thousands of nappies.

My son will be three in November and my daughters started kindergarden this fall. We strive to live a simple, low impact lifestyle. We make an effort to teach our children to love the planet, love others, and love themselves.  My goal in writing this blog is to share with you what Everything Birth means to me.  I will be drawing on my experiences of of birthing, as a mama, and a natural products aficionado.  I hope you all enjoy what I have to share with you.

Bless,

Jessica Teesdale

Choosing Homeopathy for your Child.

There are so many choices to make when you become a new parent. When your child becomes ill those choices get even more complicated. With all of the news of airborne illnesses these days, it is getting harder and harder to know what to do. Homeopathic Remedies offer another tool in your parenting toolbox so you can rest assured that your choices are safe, nontoxic, and all natural.
Deciding to use homeopathic remedies for my children was easy. First of all the tablets dissolve instantly in your mouth, they have a slightly sweet flavor, and they provided me with quick and noticeable changes in whatever symptoms my child is having. Irritability from teething, fever, vomiting, you name it and there is a remedy for it.  Secondly, there are few interactions with other conventional medicines. And lastly, it is comforting to know that homeopathy has been around for over a century.  Your great grandmother had access to some of these remedies.  In the year 1903 Homeopathy was the standard medical practice in the United States.
Here is an informative article to read if you need further convincing.
http://www.nesh.com/main/nhc/choosing.html

Right now at Everything Birth, inc. we are having 15-40% off all homeopathic remedies and remedy kits.
I would say that the Hyland’s Kids Kit is a must have for every new or parent to be. If you really want to cover all your bases, the Remedy Chest is the way to go. “Hyland’s pharmacists have carefully chosen a set of 29 unique homeopathic medicines (plus an extra bottle of Arnica Montana) that apply to the widest range of everyday ailments, from coughs and colds to headaches and nervous tension.” (www.hylands.com). If you just want to get started you should try Calms Forté 4 Kids™, Hyland’s Teething Tablets, Hyland’s C-Plus Cold Tablets, and Hyland’s Bumps ‘n Bruises™

Midwives on Missions of Service

Midwifesupplies.com releases its latest “Cause of the Month.”  I am thrilled at the response we have been getting and love being able to give back to the midwifery community!

blessings,

crystal white

Website: http://www.globalmidwives.org/

MOMS
215 Tenth Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118

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Midwives on Missions of Service is non-profit organization whose purpose is to improve maternal/child health and maternity outcomes through education and service.

How we fulfill our mission:

* Prepare women to educate and support their communities, especially the pregnant women in those communities
* Train women in the skills and knowledge they need to support local women in normal birth
* Promote effective maternity care to all women

We serve marginalized women. We have a vision of improving women’s and children’s lives by helping provide excellent maternity care. We stay focused on preparing women to support their communities skillfully. With our experience in effective management, we also think creatively. We act responsibly with the trust our donors and clients have given us. We like to have fun, not taking ourselves too seriously, while taking MOMS’ work very seriously.

We work in Sierra Leone, West Africa, the poorest nation on earth. You may have seen “Blood Diamond” – we work about 50 miles from where that story took place. While the country is at peace, the devastation has left the people homeless and hopeless. Sierra Leone’s maternal mortality rate is about 2%; mortality for children under five is over 35%, with about three-fourths of those deaths occurring in the first year.

But the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) continue to tend the women in the villages, without enough food, soap, or gloves. We train the TBAs to find the root causes of problems affecting women, problems like malaria, malnutrition, and disease, and work to solve them. We also help forge links with the country’s limited system of clinics, to use them as effectively as possible. We teach the TBAs safer delivery techniques, emphasizing prenatal care and referrals as needed, and ways to support lactation. Also in our curriculum are sessions on STIs, sanitation, family planning, and nutrition.

MOMS is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) – so gifts are tax deductible. MOMS is not aligned with any faith tradition; however, our board, volunteers, and supporters tend to be involved because of their spiritual values.

Bamboo Fabric or Not?

So the question comes up about whether bamboo fabric is actually bamboo fabric in light of the FTC’s latest article about bamboo textiles touted by some companies.  The issue around labeling, country of origin, and materials is a valid one, and one that requires further investigation.  If bamboo fabric, or fabric containing bamboo is processed as rayon, then the manufacturer should label it as “rayon”, rather than as “bamboo fabric.”

Having bamboo as an alternative to cotton for absorbency in cloth diapers has been a great find in the past years.  Hemp is another plant that lends itself to similar qualities of bamboo and both have shown to be more absorbent over use.  But ensuring that our products are manufactured in a green way from start to finish is paramount to me.  So I am on a fact-finding mission this week. 

The bamboo/cotton blend fabric which i have started to use to make my own diapers is soft, and super absorbent.  I will be continuing my conversation with the source of the fabric to determine the manufacturing process as well. 

Textile World wrote a great article about Green Manufacturing, FTC regulations, and how bamboo in some instances has been mislabeled.  Determining the source of the fabric, the processing, and the labeling as such will be most important.

Midwife To Be Program- Cause of the Month

Midwifesupplies.com is doing it again!  We have a found a group worthy of everyone’s support!  Midwife to Be is an education program designed for Home Birth Midwives.  Through this program, there is the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic where the students work hands on with birth and women’s health care.  The supplies are limited, so donations are welcome and for the month of August, your donations will go to the Midwife to Be program in addition to a portion of the profits from MidwifeSupplies.com for the month of August!

 

 

Midwife-To-Be Midwifery Outreach Program - Hands on trips to the Dominican Republic for Midwives, students and helpers. We are working in Labor & Delivery in the local co. hospitals that have many needs.Woman all go natural and labor alone. Come get hands on experience and be a blessing.

We stay at a local Lady Pastor’s ocean villa. Opportunities are also there to visit and help at local church and also very poor Haiti village (in the D. R.). We give out food and toys to the kids. Donations of all kinds needed. We have in the past brought everything from sheets for the bed (1/2 of the beds have a sheet). Chucks (like gold there) we give 1-2 a birth. Instruments. (have seen clamp fall off baby and cause it to bleed because of it being old). Ambu bags (they have very few) Dopplers-and fetoscopes most hospitals have none!

Drs use stethascopes for FHR. We give baby packs to all the moms (blanket outfit hat diaper soap) and use the items usually minutes after the birth! Babies can sometimes be laying there cold for their first 1/2 hr. They then get mom and sometimes go home in a few hrs. We also take baby pictures and give to moms, so as you can imagine, there are many needs and we can also use many helpers of all kinds. You can also see alot of complications/c-sec etc that you may not see in the states. Ones ready for catches can get hands on deliverys. LMs there to precept but at this tima NARMS isn’t letting us count them for Narms Lic. Newborn exams are done too.

If your lead to bless the sweet ladies of the D.R. Contact us for more info.

 

To order items to be donated to this program go to their wish list  and be sure toenter this organization’s address into the “Ship To” portion at check out.
 

Address to enter at checkout for Ship To:

Lisa Aman LM
120 Barbrey Dr
Easley, SC 29640

Phone: 864-836-8982
Website: www.midwifetobe.com

Finding your village

Motherhood can be a lonely walk sometimes.  Babies cry, toddlers fight, kids push boundaries, teens revolt- and our job is to simply take a breath, love them, and support them through their growth.  No judgment, unconditional love.  And when they are angry, we take as much of that anger as we can.  When they are sad, we cry tears for them.  When they are sick, we feel their pain.

How do we as moms get through all of this?-  Hopefully we find our village.  Our group of like-minded moms who can share our stories, our fears, our happiness, and our children. 

Villages can shift too- when i was pregnant the first time, my village consisted of other pregnant moms- particularly other first time moms from our childbirth class and my yoga classes.  When you haven’t had a baby yet, there is still this vast unknown that seems to connect moms-to-be in a way that no one can explain- it’s just there.

Once my first active boy was 3, my village consited of other toddler moms, looking for, yearning for, a “play group”.  A chance to have purpose outside of changing cloth diapers and nursing.  A chance to have adult conversation while our toddlers bounced between games.  A chance to make yummy fabulous adult-friendly food-  and EAT IT! 

Ultimately, kids grow and you may find a need to seek out others in your village or look beyond.  Don’t limit yourself, find your support, and hold onto what feels right!  Find you village, and embrace it!  Motherhood doesn’t have to be lonely!

Mothering has a fabulous network in their discussions boards if you are new to your area and seeking out other moms too!