Month: October 2013

All babies have an innate instinct towards breastfeeding. Babies are naturally born knowing the way to the breast. What gets lost in the ability to successfully breastfeed is often the lack of support for mothers.

Babies know how to signal to the mother when they are hungry and when they are full. They know how to regulate the breast milk and make adjustments so that they get their individual nutritional needs met. Feeding in shorted periods can make more liquid / more water and longer feedings make for thicker nutrient milk.

Read moreBreastfeeding and the Doula

Studies are showing 25%-35% of women within the United States are reporting that their births were traumatic. This indicates that approximately 1 in 4 women report their birth as traumatic. That is 1,400,000 women a year in the United States are suffering with trauma symptoms after childbirth. Between 1.5% and 9% of those women develop the full blown symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. That is somewhere between 60,000 -360,000 American women who develop PTSD after childbirth. Between 1.5% and 3% of women who experienced a ‘normal’ ‘non-traumatic looking’ birth develop Post Traumatic Stress Affects which a milder form of PTSD.  3.2% women who get PTSD symptoms after childbirth that do not have any history of mental health and do not fall into any high risk categories for developing PTSD.  To differentiate even further, there is a real difference between PTSD and Postpartum Depression. Treatments are different. PTSD is an extreme form of anxiety disorder and treatments for Postpartum Depression are not successful for PTSD. <?

Read morePTSD From Childbirth and the Doula