Another roundup of links that first appeared on Williamsburg Mothering’s Facebook page – “LIKE” Williamsburg Mothering on Facebook to get the latest links as soon as they’re up!  

• The Most Scientific Birth Is Often the Least Technological Birth.  In America, we “confuse science and technology. [We] think that what it means to be a scientific doctor is to bring to bear the maximum amount of technology on any given patient… In fact, if you look at scientific studies of birth, you find over and over again that many technological interventions increase risk to the mother and child rather than decreasing it.” (The Atlantic)

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  Image via SpinningBabies.com

  Rest Smart: Posture in Pregnancy for Optimal Fetal Positioning.  When baby is in an optimal position for birth, labor is shorter and easier. During pregnancy — especially your 3rd trimester — help move your baby into that optimal position with the exercises, positions, and information at SpinningBabies.com, a must-visit site! For example, while sitting, be sure to keep your knees lower than hip-level, and your belly lower than your hips. This means no slouching on the couch! =) Instead, sit on a birth ball, Swedish chair, or on a kitchen chair facing backwards. (Spinning Babies)

• Rethinking Puree Pouches.  We’d gotten in the habit of giving B a fruit-and-veggie pouch each day as a snack, but now I am reconsidering. How interesting that over time, pouches can actually drive kids to reject real fruits and veggies, since the taste and mouthfeel of purees are so different from that of the real deal? And, I like her “Rotation Rule” — no identical foods two days in a row — too. Who knew that “variety is the only thing researchers have consistently found that counters the inclination toddlers have to narrow what they eat”? (Fooducate)

• New Report Places A Monetary Value on Stay-at-Home Moms.  Each week, a stay-at-home-mom puts in an “almost 95 hour work week worth nearly $113,000 per year. A working mom should add about $67,000 to her current salary for the nearly 58 hours she puts in at home.” (All Things Mothering, Market Watch, and Salary.com)

• The Last Days of Pregnancy: A Place of In-Between. Mamas in the final weeks and days of your pregnancies, this beautiful reflection is for you. (Mothering)

LOCAL NEWS

Big news for home birth fans in Williamsburg!  CPM Bridget Pelkey of Williamsburg Homebirth (formerly Eva Birth Services) is opening an office on Jamestown Road in Jamestowne Professional Park! She’ll offer birth services, childbirth ed classes, and a meeting group for home birth moms.  Visit her website and Facebook page for more information on the upcoming Grand Opening!

We have four additional great home birth CPMs who serve our area (Bettie Sheets of Full of Grace Birth Services based in Gloucester, Terri Hewitt and Jenny Derugen of Seven Cities Midwifery Care based in VA Beach, and Kim Mosny of Home Birth Midwifery Service based in Richmond), but it is exciting to now have a Williamsburg-based home birth practice!