Thoughts from the Indiana Perinatal Nurses Conference

I wanted to post a blog from the Indiana Perinatal Nurses Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. I am helping at the Perinatal Education Association Inc booth today and have met some wonderful and caring people who have stopped by. Which gave me the thought, who are the people you are about to trust with the most important people in your life?

Most guys may not give a lot of thought about the people who will be caring for your partner and new born child. Heck they are the professionals, it will be fine, right? But it is something you need to consider when choosing caregivers. I think we guys should take an active role in helping our partner in deciding on her caregivers, it can make all the difference in the birth experience and the new beginning your new family will have.

Don't be afraid to ask questions! Do your homework, research what is going on with your partner and the birth process and if you have questions ASK. I know we are careful in so many other areas when we choose a service provider. A car mechanic, plumber, electrician, we always like to hear from other guys and get referrals. Why shouldn't we do this with our children to be and their mothers?

Food for Thought (or Thinking about Feeding)

I was wondering what other fathers or fathers-to-be are thinking of the breastfeeding issue. In following the back and forth issue of breastfeeding, I thought I would weigh in from a (hopefully) thoughtful and logical approach.

I guess the best way to start is to take a basic engineering approach. Women are designed, either by evolution or creation (but that is an entirely different discussion), to create nourishment for babies. I don’t see how anyone could argue differently. While you could argue it is not fair breastfeeding has been solely placed with a woman it still does not change the basic fact. While modern chemistry has produced an additional way of feeding babies, is it really a better way than what is designed for them? I have a hard time thinking it is.
Let’s take a look.

1. Colostrum is a thick, yellowish milk secreted by a woman's breast in the first several days after delivery. It has increased concentration of calcium, potassium, proteins, fat-soluble vitamins, minerals and antibodies. The volume is approximately 100 cc's (3 oz.) in a 24-hour period. Due to its high concentration of antibodies, this milk is particularly valuable for infants in preventing infection.
2. A mother’s milk is not a one size fits all. As a baby develops their dietary needs change. It is difficult to copy the progression of the quality of milk and quantity of substances from colostrum to mature milk and from milk for a newborn vs. milk for a 12 month old.
3. Multiple studies show that children who have been breastfed had significantly higher IQs even when other factors such as social class and mother's education level are controlled.
4. Chemical analysis shows that breastmilk is rich in such defense factors as immunoglobulins, lactoferrin, enzymes, macrophages, lymphocytes and bifidus factor - all of these are NOT found in other mammalian milk.

(Thanks to childbirthtoday.blogspot.com for the info)

So, while I am sure there are times when bottle feeding needs to be a choice for numerous reasons, why would you want your son or daughter to get “the next best thing”? The mother of your child will need your support no matter which method of feeding the two of you chose.

Talking to your unborn baby

Here is a thought, I wonder how may of you guys believe your unborn child can hear you talk to them in the womb? I talked to my wife’s belly many a night.

There is some science behind this (of course SCIENCE). Noises from outside your body are more muffled but they also make it through surprisingly clearly, says Robert Abrams, a fetal physiologist in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at University of Florida. Low frequency sounds, such as those above middle C, tend to be more audible than higher frequency ones. Men's voices, for instance, come through clearer than women's, and music also is easily recognizable.

I think this is a great thing to do to begin to interact with your child. There are plenty of opportunities later, but why wait?

Beginnings

I would like to use this first entry on my blog to explain a bit about myself and my thoughts behind this blog.

You may be wondering why someone with no medical background much less a background in childbirth would have a blog on childbirth. Is this guy some self-proclaimed medical genius at best – crackpot at worst you may be asking yourself? Rest assured I am neither (least I don’t think so).

Let me tell you, no one is more surprised at this endeavor than I am. I am a rocket scientist by training and profession. With my wife, the love of my life, we have two wonderful daughters. I was with my wife for both births, and along with a total of 18 months of pregnancy, it was the most fascinating thing I have ever witnessed…The growth and birth of a human being.

Two births you ask? Wow, what a wealth of information this guy must have (with just a bit of sarcasm). Well hang on there is more. My wife of nearly 31 years is a registered nurse and has been a childbirth educator for almost the same amount of time. She is also a doula and a doula trainer. She has served on the boards of many national and international childbirth organizations. She has started her own company, Perinatal Education Associates, Inc. to provide information to other childbirth professionals and expectant parents. I am very proud of her. Through the years I have learned a lot about childbirth though her, at first listening to Lamaze classes she taught in our home (something to be said about repetition in learning) to currently helping with her business. Over the years, we have had many discussions about childbirth and rockets as each of us takes an interest in the other’s work. I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about childbirth. I know my wife has more knowledge about rockets than she ever wanted.

I graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical engineering and the University of Southern California with a M.S. degree in Systems Management. I served in the Air Force working on various space and missile programs at launch sites in California and Florida. I have served with the United Nations as a Missile Inspector in Iraq after the Gulf War. After retiring from the Air Force in 1995, I have continued to work for various companies as a Principal Engineer in space or avionics companies.

Rocket scientists have a natural curiosity. When my daughters were little and we would take them to a theme park, while they were enjoying the rides, I would analyze how the ride worked. I guess some would call that being a “geek”. My wife really gets tired of me calculating everything, but this natural curiosity is where the genesis for the idea for this blog came from.

With all the medical intervention during childbirth, I began to wonder how our species ever procreated before the advent of modern medicine. Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating going out into a field to give birth and I have nothing against the medical profession. I just wondered why is it women seemingly can no longer give birth without a team of doctors, nurses, and technicians. Birth, I thought was a natural event, not an illness requiring a lot of medical intervention. That danged natural curiosity thing again.

At any rate, I would like to use this forum to bring up and hopefully have dialogue with others on childbirth and how it affects the women we love.