Posted by Melissa Maimann on Mar 7, 2010 in
Birth Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
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The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) today released a new recommendation that all women who are pregnant, breast-feeding or considering pregnancy take an iodine supplement of 150 micrograms each day.
… “Women wanting to conceive, or who are already pregnant or breast-feeding, need a minimum of 250 micrograms of iodine each day for the baby’s brain and nervous system development,” …
“Australians now get more iodine in their diets following the mandatory fortification of bread last October, though it is still appropriate for women to supplement their diet with an additional 150 micrograms of iodine every day,” he said.
… “The body does not store iodine, so amounts taken in excess of the body’s requirements will simply be excreted by the kidneys.”
People with a known iodine deficiency, or who are concerned they may not be getting enough iodine, should consult their healthcare professional.
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: birth, Breastfeeding, Nutrition, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Feb 28, 2010 in
Obstetrics Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
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Endometriosis affects 10 percent of women of reproductive age, yet the condition remains one of the most neglected and underfunded fields of research in gynecology …
… the statistical association between endometriosis and infertility is beyond dispute. One well-cited study found a higher prevalence of endometriosis in infertile women (48 percent) than in fertile women undergoing tubal sterilization (5 percent) … infertile women are 6-8 times more likely to have endometriosis than fertile women.
… a new diagnostic staging tool has been proposed that predicts the chance of spontaneous pregnancy in those with surgically documented endometriosis who are treated without IVF … The EFI score ranges from 0-10, with 0 representing the poorest prognosis and 10 the best … those patients with scores of 0-3 could expect a cumulative pregnancy rate of 11.1 percent at 3 years, increasing to 68.3 percent for those with scores of 9-10.
… the most common symptoms of endometriosis were painful menstruation, painful intercourse, and incapacitating pain …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Complicated pregnancy or birth, IVF, Obstetrics, Preconception care
Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
informed consent and childbirth
Every woman who is competent to consent, has the right to refuse any or all professional care. Informed consent must be obtained prior to any procedure being performed.
how to minimise labour intervention in a hospital?
The best way to minimise intervention in a hospital is to be as well informed as you can possible be about all things related to pregnancy, labour, birth, breastfeeding and babies. Read widely, attend independent childbirth education classes and consider employing a private midwife to be with you throughout your labour. She can help you to decide if the proposed interventions are necessary in your situation, she can support you emotionally, mentally and physically and she can aso help to ensure that your birth plan is respected without a fuss.
Do any independent midwives in Sydney offer prenatal care for women who are planning to freebirth?
Yes! This service enables women to access antenatal care from a midwife without the midwife attending the birth. Postnatal care is available if needed.
Do you think there are advantages to continuous monitoring for low-risk women
In a word, no. Intermittent auscultation is the method of choice. Continuous monitoring will increase the chance of a caesarean with no benefit to the mother or baby.
How much is a private midwife
Prices range from $3000 – $6000. Melissa Maimann offers for her clients to pay by the hour, making the service one of the cheapest.
What is a good caesarean rate?
The World Health Organisation recommends that no more than 15% births need to be caesareans. The WHO argues that when caesarean rates exceed 15%, the risks to the mother and baby increase on the whole. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a hospital with a caesarean rate of less than 15%, but birth centres and private midwives have caresarean rates of less than 10-15%.
What is the best hospital in sydney for delivering babies?
It all depends what sort of birth experience you’re after! If you’re wanting a natural birth, home birth will be the best option. If you want a natural birth in a hospital setting, the best options would be birth centre or private midwifery care for a planned hospital birth. If you’re wanting to have intervention in your birth, a hospital birth would be best. If you choose an obstetrician, you’re far more likely to have a caesarean, episiotomy, epidural, forceps or vacuum. Choosing your care provider is the single most important decision you will make in birthing.
Is there a birth centre at westmead hospital?
No, there isn’t. If you’re after a natural birth, the best choice would be a home birth.
C section or natural delivery midwife?
Midwves cannot perform caesareans. If a caesarean was needed, the midwife would call a doctor in to perform it. Most caesareans that are performed are unnecessary and increase the risks to the mother and baby. A natural birth is the safest way to birth, and midwives are qualified specialists in natural birth.
giving birth after birth trauma
Private midwifery care will be really important so that you can have the same midwife all the way through pregnancy, birth and postnatally. It’s also important to debrief your last experience and come to a place where you feel safe to birth again.
high risk midwife sydney
Midwives are not qualified to care for high risk pregnancies. We refer these women onto obstetricians. In most cases, one or two consultations is all that is needed with the obstetrician and the midwife continues the care of the woman.
how many births proceed naturally
What a great question! It all depends what care provider you choose and where you have your baby. You see, if you choose a private midwife and birth at home, you have about a 95% chance of having a vaginal birth. If you birth in a private hospital, you have about a 33% chace of having an unassisted vaginal birth. In some hospitals, the caesarean rate is more than the vaginal birth rate! Sad but true.
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Babies, birth, Birth choices, birth debriefing, Birth trauma, Breastfeeding, Caesarean, childbirth education, Complicated pregnancy or birth, continuity of care, Epidural, exercise, fetal monitoring, freebirth, Home birth, hospital birth, intermittent auscultation, intervention, IVF, Maternity Services Review, midwife, Midwifery, Midwifery services, Normal Birth, Nutrition, Obstetrics, postnatal depression, Preconception care, Public and private hospitals, VBAC
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Feb 16, 2010 in
Birth,
Caesarean,
Midwifery,
Normal Birth,
Obstetrics Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
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Being overweight or obese increases a woman’s chances of having an extra-big baby …
Excess weight in and of itself also sharply increased a woman’s risk of pre-eclampsia …
Women have more difficulty delivering very large babies, while these newborns are also at risk of suffering injury during birth, including shoulder dislocation. While women who are overweight or obese are known to run a greater risk of having very large babies and experiencing other pregnancy complications, it has been difficult to separate out the effects of a mother’s weight from those of gestational diabetes …
This led them to investigate whether BMI … a standard measure of weight in relation to height used to gauge how fat or thin a person is — might influence pregnancy risks and fetal and newborn health, independently of a woman’s blood sugar levels.
… women with BMIs of 42 or greater … were at more than triple the risk of having an excessively large baby, compared to the thinnest women in the study …
The heaviest women’s risks of having a C-section were more than doubled, while their likelihood of pre-eclampsia was 14-fold greater than for the leanest women …
… dietary changes can effectively treat gestational diabetes for more than 90 percent of women with the condition.
“… treating gestational diabetes going forward is going to continue to be beneficial,” the researcher said. “We have much less evidence at this point as to how to neutralize or reduce the impact of overweight on pregnancy outcome.”
… it’s probably a woman’s weight before she gets pregnant, rather than how much she gains during pregnancy, that’s important in determining risk.
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Complicated pregnancy or birth, exercise, intervention, Normal Birth, Nutrition, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Jan 30, 2010 in
Birth,
Obstetrics Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
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The widespread use of … fertility drugs, not just high-tech laboratory procedures, likely plays a larger role than previously realized in the growing problem of premature births in the United States, because these drugs cause a high percentage of multiple births …
… controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) drugs — used to stimulate a woman’s ovaries to speed the maturity and multiply the production of eggs — accounts for four times more live births than assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) such as in vitro fertilization.
“Many people have focused on the role of ARTs in multiples and have not fully appreciated that fertility drugs alone are responsible for one out of every five multiple births,” … “COH drugs are widely prescribed, and some health care professionals … are not aware of the serious risks of fertility drugs to women and their babies. There is a very high possibility of multi-fetal pregnancy resulting from use of these drugs, and that brings a high risk of prematurity and lifelong health problems for the babies as a consequence.”
… About 60 percent of twins, more than 90 percent of triplets, and virtually all quadruplets and higher-order multiples are born prematurely … studies have also suggested that even infants born singly, but conceived with ovulation stimulation are at increased risk for preterm delivery than naturally conceived single births …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Complicated pregnancy or birth, IVF, Obstetrics, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Jan 23, 2010 in
Birth Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
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In recent years, there has been a large increase in the prevalence of overweight and obese women of childbearing age, with approximately 51% of non-pregnant women ages 20 to 39 being classified as overweight or obese.
… obesity in pregnant women is associated with pregnancy complications, birth defects, as well as a greater risk of childhood and adult obesity in infants born to obese mothers.
… obese women are more likely to have an infant with a neural tube defect, heart defects, or multiple anomalies than women with a normal BMI.
Obese pregnant women also put themselves at a higher risk of pregnancy complications, including gestational diabetes, hypertension, preeclampsia, induction of labor, cesarean delivery, and postpartum hemorrhage, compared with women with normal pregnancy body mass indexes.
… obesity among pregnant mothers is linked to childhood obesity in their infants. Obesity during pregnancy more than doubles the risk of obesity in children at two to four years of age …
The article emphasizes the need for women to consult with their healthcare providers about what their ideal pre-conception weight should be …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Complicated pregnancy or birth, exercise, Nutrition, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Dec 24, 2009 in
Midwifery,
Obstetrics Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email me or call 0400 418 448.
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smoking during pregnancy considerably increases the risk of having a child with behavioral problems. This is noticeable in children as young as three years of age.
… Mothers were categorized into light and heavy smokers, depending on how many cigarettes they smoked every day during pregnancy.
… they were asked to grade their three year old children’s behavior. They focused particularly on behavioral problems and hyperactivity-attention deficit disorders.
Behavioral conduct problems were based on answers to questions about:
• the child’s temper
• the frequency of physical fights
• bullying of other children
• being argumentative with adults
… boys whose mothers smoked throughout pregnancy were significantly more likely to have behavioral problems, be hyperactive, and have low attention spans than boys whose mothers did not.
Boys whose mothers smoked heavily throughout pregnancy were almost twice as likely to display behavioral problems … sons of light smokers … were almost 80 percent more likely to have hyperactivity-attention deficit disorders.
… daughters of … smokers were significantly more likely to display behavioral problems than girls whose mothers did not smoke.
… “Smoking during pregnancy may damage the developing structure and function of the fetal brain …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Complicated pregnancy or birth, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Dec 19, 2009 in
Birth,
Midwifery Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email me or call 0400 418 448.
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… anxiety in pregnant women impacts their babies’ size and gestational age. Specifically, women with more severe and chronic anxiety during pregnancy are more likely to have affected babies.
… Anxiety during the third trimester predicted women delivering significantly smaller babies. In the first and second trimesters, the effects of anxiety were significant only among those women who had severe anxiety …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Complicated pregnancy or birth, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Dec 4, 2009 in
Birth Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email me or call 0400 418 448.
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… a lack of pre-marital physical checks and pollution have pushed the number of Beijing babies with birth defects to 1.6 percent this year, twice as many as 10 years ago.
… the … reason for the increasing rate of birth defects is that couples do not have pre-marital physical examinations.
… Although the examination is free … public participation is generally low …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Complicated pregnancy or birth, hospital birth, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Nov 30, 2009 in
Midwifery Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email me or call 0400 418 448.
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… Health authorities keen to prevent birth defects and pregnancy complications that can arise from obesity, diabetes and poor lifestyle and nutrition habits will offer the advice in new state-government-funded clinics.
An experienced midwife will run the PLaN (preconception, lifestyle and nutrition) clinics.
A trial clinic opened at the Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick … the scheme has now been expanded to … Sydney Hospital.
Women … can have consultations by phone …
“They may need to have some blood tests, then sort out … weight loss,” … “… can we make sure they’re taking vitamins, taking folic acid before they get pregnant?
… If their BMI was above 30 … they may be referred to a dietitian.
Women would also be advised to quit smoking and drinking … and take folic acid to reduce the chance of having a baby with spina bifida …
… ” … increasing numbers of people are looking to have children and this service aims to help put them on a path to a healthy pregnancy before they conceive,” …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: exercise, midwife, Midwifery, Midwifery services, Nutrition, Preconception care