Science & Sensibility

We took a holiday hiatus from our blog carnivals on Lamaze’s Six Healthy Birth Practices. But now it’s time to finish what we’ve started. Three down, three to go. We’ve heard what bloggers had to say about letting labor begin on its own, movement in labor, and continuous labor support. Next up?

Avoid interventions that are not medically necessary.

This is a huge topic, and I expect quite a range of submissions. The interventions Lamaze addresses in our Healthy Birth Practice Paper are intravenous lines, restrictions on food and drink, continuous electronic fetal monitoring, artificial rupture of the membranes, pharmacologic augmentation of labor, epidural analgesia, and episiotomy. You can blog on these or other interventions, it’s up to you. Here are some resources from Lamaze to get you thinking.

• The Healthy Birth Practice Paper, written by Judith Lothian, RN, PhD, LCCE, FACCE
• The Healthy Birth Your Way handout on labor interventions, produced by InJoy Birth & Parenting Videos in partnership with Lamaze International
• The companion birth planning worksheet.
• Our Healthy Birth Your Way video

Participation in the Healthy Birth Blog Carnival is easy:

1.  If you are a blogger, write a blog post on the Carnival theme (Avoid interventions that are not medically necessary). Post it on your blog by Monday, February 1. Make sure the post links back to this blog post, to the Healthy Birth Practice Paper, or to the video above. You may also submit a previously written post, as long as the information is still current.
2.  Send an email with a link to your post to amyromano [at] lamaze dot org.
3.  If you do not have a blog but would like to participate, you may submit a guest post for consideration by emailing it to me.
4.  I will compile and post the Blog Carnival here at Science & Sensibility.

Amy Romano Uncategorized Healthy Birth Blog Carnivals, interventions

We’ve had two successful Healthy Birth Carnivals and it’s time to make it to the half-way point through Lamaze’s Six Healthy Birth Practices. We’ve heard what bloggers had to say about letting labor begin on its own and movement in labor. Next up?

Bring a loved one, friend, or doula for continuous support.

Here are some Lamaze resources to get you thinking about continuous support in labor:

• The Healthy Birth Practice Paper, written by Jeanne Green, MT, CD(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, and Barbara A. Hotelling, MSN, CD(DONA), LCCE, FACCE
• The Healthy Birth Your Way handout on continuous support in labor, produced by InJoy Birth & Parenting Videos in partnership with Lamaze International
• Companion tip sheets, Creating a Support Team and Finding a Doula
• Our Healthy Birth Your Way video

Participation in the Healthy Birth Blog Carnival is easy:

1.  If you are a blogger, write a blog post on the Carnival theme (Bring a loved one, friend, or doula for continuous support). Post it on your blog by Monday, November 23. Make sure the post links back to this blog post, to the Healthy Birth Practice Paper, or to the video above. You may also submit a previously written post, as long as the information is still current.
2.  Send an email with a link to your post to amyromano [at] lamaze dot org.
3.  If you do not have a blog but would like to participate, you may submit a guest post by emailing it to me.
4.  I will compile and post the Blog Carnival here at Science & Sensibility the week of November 30.

Amy Romano Uncategorized continuous support, doulas, Healthy Birth Blog Carnivals

Last week, bloggers weighed in on different aspects of how labor begins and provided what I think is a treasure trove of evidence and wisdom on the subject. Now we’re ready to move on to Lamaze’s second Healthy Birth Practice:

Walk, move around, and change positions throughout labor

Here are some Lamaze resources to get you thinking about how movement affects labor and birth.

• The Healthy Birth Practice Paper, written by Teri Shilling, MS, CD(DONA), IBCLC, LCCE, FACCE
• The Healthy Birth Your Way handout on movement in labor (PDF), produced by Lamaze International and InJoy Birth & Parenting Videos
• Companion tip sheets, “Maintaining Freedom of Movement” (PDF) and “Positions for Labor” (PDF)
• Our Healthy Birth Your Way Video:

Participation in the Healthy Birth Blog Carnival is easy:

1. If you are a blogger, write a blog post on the Carnival theme (Walk, move around, and change positions throughout labor). Post it on your blog by Sunday, October 25. Make sure the post links back to this blog post, to the Healthy Birth Practice Paper, or to the Mother’s Advocate video. You may also submit a previously written post, as long as the information is still current.
2. Send an email with a link to your post to amyromano [at] lamaze dot org.
3. If you do not have a blog but would like to participate, you may submit a guest post by emailing it to me.
4. I will compile and post the Blog Carnival here at Science & Sensibility the week of October 26.

Amy Romano Uncategorized announcements, freedom of movement, Healthy Birth Blog Carnivals

Launched in 2004 to summarize the evidence for a healthy, safe, and natural approach to labor and birth care, Lamaze’s Care Practice Papers, have just undergone their second update. Now referred to as  The Six Lamaze Healthy Birth Practices, the latest update incorporates current evidence as well as more clear language that we know will resonate with women more effectively. These papers supplement the video series and handouts launched earlier this summer in partnership with InJoy Birth & Parenting Videos, and are trustworthy resources for women as well as childbirth educators and other birth professionals.

Each of the Healthy Birth Practices is supported by decades of high quality research. I like to think of the practices as “the basic needs of childbearing women.” Some women will need high tech monitoring and intervention to birth safely, but the standard should be care that supports and facilitates the normal physiologic processes, intervening with the safest, most effective, and least disruptive approach only when a medical need arises and with fully informed consent.

Routinely depriving women of The Healthy Birth Practices makes birth unnecesarily difficult, and complications more likely.  Got it? Good.

So here they are! Drumroll, please…

1. Let labor begin on its own - lead author Debby Amis, RN, BSN, CD(DONA), LCCE, FACCE

2. Walk, move around, and change positions throughout labor - lead author Teri Shilling, MS, CD(DONA), IBCLC, LCCE, FACCE

3. Bring a loved one, friend, or doula for continuous support - lead authors Jeanne Green, MT, CD(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, and Barbara A. Hotelling, MSN, CD(DONA), LCCE, FACCE

4. Avoid interventions that are not medically necessary - lead author Judith A. Lothian, RN, PhD, LCCE, FACCE

5. Avoid giving birth on the back and follow the body’s urges to push - lead author Joyce DiFranco, RN, BSN, LCCE, FACCE

6. Keep mother and baby together – it’s best for mother, baby, and breastfeeding – lead author Jeannette Crenshaw, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, IBCLC, LCCE, FACCE

Amy Romano Uncategorized announcements, childbirth education, continuous support, freedom of movement, Healthy Birth Practices, induction, interventions, lamaze, no separation, safety, second stage

The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) has been leading the fight for physiologic care in the second stage of labor. Next week AWHONN will host a webinar for nurses, presented by one of the leading second stage care researchers, Joyce Roberts, CNM, PhD, FACNM, FAAN. Here’s the information.

Register now for this 75-minute educational webinar focused on current evidence-based information about the benefits of upright positioning and delayed and non-directed pushing. Strategies for implementation of these techniques, including preparation and education of the mother for the second stage of labor also will be presented.

Webinar: Nursing Care and Management of the Second Stage of Labor

When:  August 4, 2009 1 PM ET

Presented by: AWHONN and Joyce Roberts, CNM, PhD, FACNM, FAAN. Dr. Roberts is a former Professor of Nursing in the School of Medicine, Dept of OB/GYN at the University of Michigan and former President of the American College of Nurse Midwives.

Register Now!
Book a conference room with a computer and Internet connection and invite your registered and advanced practice perinatal nurses, OBs and family practice physicians to enhance their expertise. Pay just one connection fee, regardless of how many attend. One contact hour of CNE will be available to attendees of the live event. A live Q&A will follow the presentation. Handouts will be provided.

Amy Romano Uncategorized announcements, nurses, second stage