Leslie tends to be fairly open, transparent, and asks a lot of people their opinions. She certainly did this when she was considering adding to her family as a 44 year-old, recently divorced, single Mom. She asked others: What are the implications to the kid? What about the family? What about the sibling, because Leslie had a 7-year-old daughter. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for July, 2009
Music. It’s therapeutic…
Music. It’s therapeutic, a mood lifter, a companion, a means of escape, a way to get in touch with our intuition, simply fun. Music can fulfill many purposes for us. I find that pregnant women often intentionally use music to help them feel good and get in touch with what they want.
I thought it would be fun to compile a list of our favorite songs to listen to during pregnancy!
What are your 3 favorite songs to listen to during pregnancy? Please leave a comment at the bottom of this blog entry by Wednesday, August 5th and share them with us.
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We’ll track the songs you share and put together a list. This list will then be made available as a Playlist on iTunes!
Have fun connecting with your music! And, thank you for sharing your favs.
How to Raise a Happy Child
Babycenter.com recently released an article about How to Raise a Happy Child. This article is centered on 2 to 4 year olds. My favorite “how tos” shared in the article include: let them struggle with problems, check in with your child, and be a role model. I think these not only relate to raising 2 to 4 year olds, but also to the healthy development of babies in the womb. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s Talk!
In Debra’s family, they talk about birth. The stories are passed down from generation to generation. Since Debra was a little girl she’s known that her great grandmother gave birth to 8 kids at home. She’d work at the family farm store all day and then when she would feel that it was about time, she’d come into her kitchen, dangle herself over the kitchen sink and give birth there. It was something that was talked about and handled in a real straightforward manner. The older siblings would know what was going on and in some instances helped catch their new younger siblings as they were born when the family doctors did not make it in time. It was not something to hide from the family. It was not considered too messy or intimate to be shared.
Debra also knew that her Grandmother used a birth room at her physician’s home to deliver her mother. And, she knows her Mom’s stories and how she (Debra) was born 20 minutes after her mother arrived at her birth room in the hospital. The details were discussed and celebrated in her family. For her big Italian family, it was a right of passage!
I think it’s amazing how many mothers and daughters – let alone full families – haven’t discussed the birth process. And, for some who gave birth between the approximate years of 1920 to 1940, they might not know their birth story. This was a time when many hospitals routinely put the expectant Moms under anesthetic and they woke up after their babies were delivered from their wombs. How strange and disorienting it seems to me now.
I’m excited that more and more of us giving birth are being very intentional about what we’re creating and are sharing our full stories: including the good, the disappointing and the miraculous! Let’s talk freely and openly. What a service to those around us.
And, I get that there are still stories and aspects of our experiences that we don’t always feel safe to share. We’re not sure they’ll be understood – at least not without a LOT of context. Or we’re afraid that we’ll be judged or be the recipient of an “ah gross” face because they feel we’ve just shared too much information. Birth is a beautiful, miraculous, creative experience. It’s also a bloody, goopy, and sometimes poopy experience!
Please join the conversation: What do you wish we all talked about more? What judgments are you most concerned about if you were to share it all?
