Belly Beginnings - Resources-Pregnancy

Resources—Pregnancy

Care Provider and Birth Place Choices:

One of the most important steps to having a comforting pregnancy and the birth you want is to be sure you trust your care providers. This is one case where the pocketbook’s needs aren’t important. I promise you, you will remember your birth experience for the rest of your life. You have the power and authority to change providers at any time – even in labor. Listen to your heart.

Here in the Denver, Colorado area we have choices! There are several hospitals, even a Baby Friendly one at Good Samaritan in Lafayette and a few working on earning that recognition. We have an honest to goodness freestanding birth center at Mountain Midwifery. We also have an amazing group of homebirth midwives. Registration for homebirth midwives can be found here. They are legally allowed to catch VBAC babies too! Jean is willing to come to the Eastern plain homes for those out along the I-70 corridor.

Prenatal Tests:

Ultrasound has become very common today, but it hasn’t been proven safe. Although better than X-rays that were used in the past (and we were told safe, until ultrasound came along), changes still happen to the baby. Temperatures rise and cell growth is altered. Babies who are exposed to ultrasound are more likely to be left handed – not that that’s a bad thing, but something is being changed. You may want to do some homework on this before submitting. Be aware that doplers and electronic fetal monitors use ultrasound also – in fact, a dopler uses a more focused form. There is more information at www.mothering.com as well.

The test for Gestational Diabetes can do more harm than good; please look into it before dumping sugar water into your blood stream.

Group B Strep is another common test; make sure you know your options. Giving 1 out of 3 laboring women antibiotics may not be in the best interest for anyone.

General Pregnancy Resources:

Test your knowledge about maternity care with Consumer Report’s Health Quiz.

Having a well-positioned baby is key to an easier labor and birth. Spinning Babies great ideas on knowing how baby is facing, and how to fix it if needed. Chiropractic care, acupuncture, and massage can really help with this—and just about everything in pregnancy.

Gentle Birth has an amazing amount of information on any topic for pregnancy, labor, birth, and newborn care. It’s one of my favorite resources.

Lily Pie is a cute place that will create an HTML signature for you that will track when baby’s due date is. Just be careful, it really should be a due month, not a date, so don’t focus too much on that one box on the calendar! Babies can’t read. =)

Predicting the baby’s gender can be fun and here’s one for baby’s eye color.

Angel in the Waters is a cute online book about a baby in the womb.