So my life has totally changed in the last month or so.  I went from preparing to go to LA and jump right back into attending births as a senior apprentice midwife, to having it hit me like a ton of bricks that this isn't the right time in my life for me to become a midwife.  A lot happened in between - including all the ups and downs of trying to balance highly demanding birth work at a high volume birth center with being a mom and continuing to breastfeed my daughter whenever I had the chance to be with her, not to mention our terrible bout with thrush, which I'll talk about in a post later on. 

I think that this decision was literally the hardest decision I have ever had to make.  If you know me, you know that I was 4.5 years into midwifery school and was nearing the end.  I felt so close to being done with school and taking my exams, but in the end I just couldn't convince myself to put my calling as a midwife before my commitment to my daughter, my husband, and to be honest, to my own health and well being.

My plan now is to keep moving forward as a doula, pregnancy mentor, and birth educator - all roles that I absolutely love!  Birth work is my passion and no road block is going to keep me from being there to nurture and empower the women and families that I feel I am on this earth to serve.

It's funny, even though the last month has felt like an emotional roller coaster, I'm feeling very grateful.  I'm spending a lot of time thinking about how sacred pregnancy and birth are and how blessed I have been to be so intimately involved in the welcoming of so many new souls into this world.

As I reflect on my life purpose and my true goals, I see clearly that at the bottom of things is the calling to educate, support, and empower women during their pregnancies, births, and beyond; and to give them the opportunity to have a birth that not only goes quicker and smoother, but also has the potential to be safer than it would have been without the strategies I have to share. 

There's no way I can make the difference I want to make in women's lives and in the world unless I can somehow reach lots of women and simultaneously make the information and motivation I offer easily accessible.  So, that brings me to what I really want to share with you - or rather, remind you of if you are a friend or a regular on my blog!

As you may know, I have an awesome online program (it's all about how to nurture and nourish your body and soul so you can set yourself up for the happy and healthy birth of your dreams) that's absolutely packed with info, energy, and motivation.  Since it is online, it is easily accessible and can be used by women all over the country, and even the world, IF we can get the word out.  Here's the thing though, I need YOU to help me spread the word and make a difference!  If you believe in women, and babies, and birth, then just start talking about this.  The program literally has all the most important things that pregnant women need to hear and take to heart to have a chance at a peaceful, positive, empowering birth in out world today.

If you happen to be a doula or childbirth educator, let me tell you that having your clients use this program will almost surely make your job easier because not only does it spell out the most important things your clients and students need to know, but it provides both motivation and a system for staying organized and on track as they prepare their minds and bodies to give birth.  It pretty much sets them up for a quicker, easier, and even safer birth.  Plus, it gives them more reason to value their doulas/labor support people, and their birth educators.  You can either encourage them to invest in this and in themselves, or you might even consider giving it as a gift to your clients when they sign up with you (talk to me about a "bulk" rate if you are thinking about this option).

Whether you are a mom, a doula, a childbirth educator, or even just a friend reading my blog, by letting people know about this opportunity you are helping me empower women, support families, respect birth, and change the world - one nurtured mommy, one birth, and one baby at a time.

For more details click here:  3 Key Strategies to Get the Birth You Want 

Take it from someone who's been through being a new mom and learned from experience - not to mention heard from many other moms who gave a manual pump a chance, that they would never go back!  From one mama to another: go get yourself a hand pump and stick it in your purse, or your hospital bag if you haven't had your baby yet, right now so you'll always have all your bases covered - at least as far as pumping is concerned!

1. It is just so much smaller and more simple (read: less intimidating to the new - and sleepy - mom in you)

2. Much less expensive than those fancy shmancy electric pumps

3. The learning curve is easier with a hand pump

4. Many women get more milk, faster, with a hand pump than with an electric pump

5. There aren't a bazillion tubes and pieces to worry about and set up before you're ready to pump

6. You don't need to be near an outlet, or use batteries either, so you can literally pump anywhere (Trust me, I've done it - I've pumped in a neonatal resuscitation class because I couldn't miss anything but still needed to pump.  I even pumped in the bathroom in one of my client's rooms while she was in labor - it was great that I could pop in there, pump real quick, and get back to providing labor support in a flash!) 

7. You can pack it in your bag for the hospital so that just in case for whatever reason your baby doesn't get to be with you right away you can already start pumping and stimulating your milk production instead of waiting to see how long your baby will be away and if you're going to need a hospital grade pump.  Also in case it takes your busy nurse a while to get an order for a pump from the hospital, and then even longer for that pump to end up delivered to your room

8. If you are super engorged and so your baby is having a hard time latching, it is much easier to just grab your hand pump and express/pump a little milk to soften your breast just enough for your baby to be able to latch, instead of having to get your whole electric pump out and set up and ready to pump, with a hungry and crying baby right there waiting for his lunch

9. The first few times you are away from your baby for a few hours, toss your hand pump in your purse and take it along with you just in case you unexpectedly get painfully "full" or end up out longer than you expected.  Having that pump right there with you allows you to be so much more flexible without having to lug around a whole other bag with a heavy electric pump and all its parts and pieces (not to mention find somewhere discreet and comfortable to plug it in and pump wherever you happen to be)

10. You have direct control over how fast or how slow to pump.  The rhythm you find yourself pumping at may even be more similar to your baby's sucking pattern, so you could get more and better let-downs of milk than you might with an electric pump where you have to just keep playing with the settings

11. Whenever you travel by air and need to take your pump along, you can have your little hand pump right in your purse and airport security won't even have to check it out because it doesn't have a motor to make them suspicious

12. You won't feel like you're being "milked like a cow" because you'll be the one in control and doing the actual expressing/pumping

13. If you end up actually NEEDING an electric pump because you and your baby are unable to nurse and you are going to spend any time pumping exclusively, you'll want to be using a hospital grade pump anyway, so you'll be glad you didn't spend the money on a regular electric pump that's just going to sit in your closet (at least that's where my electric pump now lives - and yes I did need a hospital grade pump for the first week or so of my daughter's life)

If you're like me, you'll try your hand pump once and never look back!  If anyone had told me to just get a hand pump in the first place I would have skipped the electric pump altogether and maybe spent the money on something more essential (or more cute and fun!) instead.

Click here to see the hand pump I have.

Here's the one I might get in the future.  Not the best reviews in the world, but I've seen it in action and want it!

I still can't help but picture Lucille Ball in an I Love Lucy episode eating her sardines in ice cream every time I hear about pregnancy cravings.

We've all heard about crazy cravings (and if you read You’re Going To Eat That?!?!  Another post from The Nurturing Daddy, you've heard about my personal cravings!), but I bet you haven't put too much thought into what might be causing those cravings, have you?

Well, guess what, cravings can happen for a reason!  And as a student midwife I was put on the spot more than a couple times to decipher what was causing certain cravings.  The easiest and most common craving that I came across over and over again was peanut butter.  A woman who is craving peanut butter might be needing additional protein in her diet.  Not only that, but let's say she has been craving peanut butter and ice chips.  Her body is probably battling iron deficiency.  Craving ice is the classic sign, but peanut butter also has iron that is pretty easy for the body to absorb - easier even than an iron supplement, if I understand correctly.  So, if you are pregnant and craving ice you'll definitely want to get your iron levels checked ASAP.  And if you're craving peanut butter, and you're eating peanut butter as well as upping your overall protein intake but it doesn't seem to be helping, you might want to get your iron levels checked too. 

Other cravings that might be telling you that you need more protein in your diet are things like meat, fish, and dairy products.  You should generally be aiming for 80 grams of protein a day while you are pregnant - especially in your 2nd and 3rd trimesters; 60g is good if you are early in your pregnancy and dealing with morning sickness.  (On a side note, if this is you and you are currently battling morning sickness, check out my homepage here to find out how to get free access to my 3 step system to "Kick Your Morning Sickness to the Curb").

Back to the cravings....  So my guess is that if you, or me (with my gefilte fish and chocolate shake), or Lucy (with her sardines and ice cream) just HAD to have some salty fish with something sweet, we might have had a few things going on that our bodies were trying to tell us:

1) Craving something salty?  Your blood volume is rapidly expanding as it should be to prepare for giving birth, but your body needs adequate salt to be able to handle all that extra blood without putting too much strain on your kidneys and liver.

2) Craving fish or other protein-rich foods?  As I said above, you may need to up your protein to 60 to 80 grams a day, or even more like 100g if you have high blood pressure, have been warned that you are high risk for preeclampsia, or if you are carrying more than one baby in that womb of yours!

3) Craving sweets?  Your body might be dealing with an overgrowth of yeast, which is actually pretty common during pregnancy.  Want to know more about this one and tips to actually curb those sugar cravings and balance out the yeast in your body?  Just scroll on back up the page and sign up for the NM E-zine because this coming week's issue will feature an article about exactly that!  And last time I gave the advice I'm going to share with you in my article, the response I got was a text message from my client telling me that my advice was "genius" and it totally worked within just a few days!  So don't delay, just scroll on up there and enter your name and email, then click the "Keep me posted!" button - it's just that easy!

Greetings, my name is Jordan Gerson and I am Becky’s husband.  From time to time a blog post by me will be featured on the www.nurturedmommy.com blog site where I will share stories, experiences and tips that I have encountered or discovered during my role as a nurturing daddy.  For today’s post, I thought I would share what I experienced when we found out we would be becoming parents. 

I remember sitting in my school’s library working on finals when I got a call from Becky.  She was somewhat anxious because she had yet to get her period and thought she might be pregnant.  Now, this was nothing new.  There were often months where Becky was convinced that there was going to be a little Gerson on the way for at least a few hours.  The routine was almost always the same:

Becky:  “Do you think I could be pregnant?”

Me: “I don’t know.  Maybe.”

Becky: “I felt something right here a couple of days ago (points to someplace on her abdomen), I wonder if that was the egg implanting. What do you think?”

Me: “What the heck do I know?!?  I don’t have a uterus!  If you think you might be pregnant, let's get a pregnancy test.”

I would then get a pregnancy test, and sometimes run out for a second but soon enough things would start flowing and the visions of breastfeeding and burping would fade from our thoughts. 

This time when she called she said that things felt different than usual.  So I said, “well maybe you're pregnant, I’ll get a test on the way home.”  Becky wasn’t convinced but humored me and agreed to take a pregnancy test.

I walked in the door and handed her the test.  Becky took the stick in hand and headed into our teeny tiny bathroom.  When she finished going, she opened the door and handed me the test to read the results.  You know how when you watch on a television show or when someone is pregnant and you have to wait and wait and wait for the 3 minutes to be over so you can read the test.  Yeah well, not the case here.  As soon as the test entered my hand, the plus showed up immediately and two words entered my mind “Oh s&^%!!”

It was absolutely the happiest moment in my life to that point and the most terrifying.  Of course the only emotion I let my wife see was my sheer joy but my mind was racing with questions.  Were we ready for this?  How would this affect our marriage?  What is Becky’s pregnancy going to be like? Am I going to have to clean up poop all the time once we have a baby?  Will I still have time to rock out with my friends on Beatles Rock Band for the Wii?  The answer to the last two questions was “Yes” and “No” respectively.

My time to dwell on these questions was limited because my role as nurturing daddy had already begun and as it turned out Becky’s mind was also racing with questions and some doubts and that, coupled with the fact that all this was going on in her body, trumped my concern of dealing with poopy diapers and mastering Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.  It was my job to reassure her that having a baby was a blessing, that this is what we wanted and that everything was going to be ok. 

Being the partner of a pregnant woman is not an easy job, but it is more than worthwhile.  Being actively involved in my wife’s pregnancy gave me the feeling of being connected to her and my little player to be named later.  By feeding my wife, I knew I was helping to give nutrition to our little jelly bean. 

Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of times I wanted to pull my hair out, but being a nurturing daddy is a job I can’t wait to take on again (but first let me get in a few sessions of Beatles Rock Band).