Birthing Class VIII : Take Him Home!

We had our last birthing class this week (sad face.) I brought my camera so I could get a picture of everyone pre-baby. Here are the ladies:

 Here are the fellas:

 Here are the ladies with our Instructor:

We started our final class by watching a clip from a video where they did an experiment with 72 pregnant women. The first group of 36 women, after giving birth, had their babies taken away to get bathed, weighed, etc. and then were given back to their mamas. The second group of 36 had their babies placed on their abdomen directly after birth. Our instructor just had us watch one baby from the second group. In this second group they did not have the mothers or nurses assist the baby to the breast to nurse they just put the baby on the mothers tummy. The baby we saw somehow wriggled it's way up making a woodpeckers attempt to find the mothers nipple (mouth wide open, head bobbing/pecking on various places around the mothers chest...Mike does a great impression of this.) And fairly quickly it did and it started nursing away. It was pretty amazing. Our instructor said that all of these babies eventually made it to nursing all on their own without any assistance, some took longer than  others but some were extremely expeditious. It reminds me that we have this animal instinct just like lions and tigers and bears (oh my.) I was in awe.The instructor said, "Breasts are little miracles." In my case they are BIG miracles. Ha! See it for yourself - Here is a video showing a baby finding his mama's nipple on it's own. They place the babe on the mom's chest at minute 2:30.

We talked about all the usual procedures and tests that the baby goes through after birth like temperature, eye drops (which are only necessary if the mother has an STD), Vitamin K shot which I want to do more research on...it's to prevent Hemmorrhagic Disease of the Newborn (HDN) which sounds horrifying and which will effect 1 out of 400,000 babies (according to the instructor...I did some research and found other stats, like, 1.8 out of 100,000 for breastfed babies.) I have also heard that this shot could be the cause of leukemia in children but I have no idea where I heard that so I will look into it. O.K. I did some research and I found a great little article from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association via Dr. Ben Kim's website. Their numbers aren't really in favor for not giving the shot or for giving the shot but they do offer a better solution that I will talk to the midwife about at my next appointment. Read that snippet here:

"A Better Solution

The breastfed infant can be supplemented with several low oral doses of liquid vitamin K9 (possibly 200 micrograms per week for 5 weeks, totaling 1 milligram, even more gradual introduction may be better). Alternatively, the nursing mother can take vitamin K supplements daily or twice weekly for 10 weeks. (Supplementation of the pregnant mother does not alter fetal levels but supplementation of the nursing mother does increase breast milk and infant levels.)

Either of these provides a much safer rate of vitamin K supplementation. Maternal supplementation of 2.5 mg per day, recommended by one author, provides a higher level of vitamin K through breast milk than does formula (10), and may be much more than necessary.

Formula provides 10 times the U.S. recommended daily allowance," and this RDA is about 2 times the level in unsupplemented human milk. One milligram per day for 10 weeks for mother provides a cumulative extra 1 milligram to her infant over the important period and seems reasonable. Neither mother nor infant require supplementation if the infant is injected at birth. (11)"

We talked about jaundice and taking a blood sugar test to check for hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia (especially if the baby is bigger.) Making sure the baby is feeding and pooping/peeing is important in in these two instances because it will help flush out these things. A PKU test and a thyroid test will also be administered, if not the day of the birth then during one of the home visits.

We went over things that I may experience and can do after giving birth. One thing is to massage my uterus to help it firm back up which will lessen the bleeding. I read that breastfeeding usually causes the uterus to contract but the instructor said that this doesn't always happen in new mothers. So massaging our tummies can help bring our uteruses (uteri?) back to pre-baby size. The bleeding after birth is called lochia. Lochia starts out red then turns pink and then white. If it turns back to red that means that you are not resting and recuperating enough. The baby mama needs to take it really easy for the first two weeks in order to heal up quickly, other wise your healing time will take longer. Your perineum, stitches or not, may be tender. No cycling or horseback riding for me! Waaaah!!! They make us pee and poop before we go home just to make sure all is well downstairs. We should drink a lot of water especially when nursing because the baby will suck everything out of you. (not really...but close, apparently.)

We also talked about what to do with the baby when we go home with him. Because we have no clue what to do. Any advice would be helpful. Really and truly. Imagine Mike and I as parents! We're trying to make sense of it ourselves. The instructor said to make sure that he is peeing and pooping and eating. Those are the essentials. For boys she told us to remember when changing diapers, "Ding Dong Down." Which means what it means and it keeps the urine in the diaper (for the most part) rather than up and out of the diaper. Good to know, good to know. Apparently babies don't get very dirty because they aren't very mobile...we will try not to drop him in a mud puddle. So, full on baths are not necessary in the beginning. The dirtiest bits will be the pee/poop area which she said we can just wipe with a warm wash cloth, soap isn't even necessary. Who woulda thunk? Which makes sense because we grown ups only wipe down there with dry pieces of thin paper. She said that it'll get dirty under the baby's chin from dripping milk and to wipe under there and in between the chubflabs (I made up that word) so that he won't get a yeast infection there. No one wants a yeast infection on their chin! I will make sure Thunder Bear has a sparkling chin and chubflabs. We will also have to wipe his hands and feet from time to time (from all that grabbing with his hands and wee prehensile feet.) The umbilical cord is another reason for not doing full on baths at first. We will have to tend to the healing belly button with a clean cloth and water and we can even use rubbing alcohol to speed up the drying of the cord stump. She said that when we do these little sponge baths to make sure that he is warm. So, either a warm room or wrap him up in a blanket or towel and wash one limb or part at a time. She said we can wash his hair if we want and he might even really bliss out over this. She recommends swaddling him and holding him over the sink while you pour warm water over his wee head of hair (if he has any.) She said that once the cord stump falls off and there are no more scabby bits that we can finally bathe the little one. She recommends taking the baby in the bath with you and holding him on his back while he "floats" around in there. That sounds glorious. Our instructor's children must have loved this because she recommended doing this right after birth as well like I mentioned in this post. I hope he is a water baby because that sounds so nice. She mentioned Harvey Karp's Happiest Baby on  the Block technique that I posted way back when:

Here are his techniques, A.K.A. the 5 Ss (esses):

• Swaddling: Tight swaddling provides the continuous touching and support your baby is used to experiencing within the womb.
• Side/stomach position: The infant is placed on their left side to assist in digestion, or on their stomach to provide reassuring support. “But never use the stomach position for putting your baby to sleep,” cautions Karp. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is linked to stomach-down sleep positions. When a baby is in a stomach down position do not leave them even for a moment.
• Shushing sounds: These imitate the continual whooshing sound made by the blood flowing through arteries near the womb.
• Swinging: Newborns are used to the swinging motions within their mother’s womb, so entering the gravity driven world of the outside is like a sailor adapting to land after nine months at sea. “It’s disorienting and unnatural,” says Karp. Rocking, car rides, and other swinging movements all can help.
• Sucking: “Sucking has its effects deep within the nervous system,” notes Karp, “and triggers the calming reflex and releases natural chemicals within the brain.”

Our instructor said that,

"Everyone's needs can be met!" 

So we must not only pay attention to the baby but to ourselves and to each other. I'm glad that she reminded us of that because I can only imagine that we'll forget to take care of ourselves amidst this newness.

Mike and I learned so much from this 8 week course. It instilled confidence in me and it also made me feel more confident in Mike as a birth partner, I think he will be great and I actually think I can do this!