Tag Archives: information

December 20, 2016 · 2:38 pm

Traveling with Baby: How to Prevent Baby from Crying on an Airplane

The idea of a long trip with your little one can be daunting. The professional postpartum doulas at No Barriers Birth compiled a list of solutions for infant discomfort during travel, so that you can feel confident and prepared!

Preventing Crying on the Plane

1. Relieve Ear Pressure Just like adults can alleviate pressure in their ears by chewing gum, babies also find relief in sucking and swallowing. Since turbulence may make breastfeeding difficult or dangerous, you might want to have a pacifier or bottle on hand. Tylenol given a half-hour before take-off and again before landing can also prevent pain (and screaming).

2. Prevent Overfeeding While feeding may soothe baby, feeding more than you normally would can cause painful bloating. Atmospheric pressure actually creates more air in your tummy, so substitute pacifiers and teething rings if baby is full and needs something calming.

3. Avoid sedatives Medications meant to make baby sleep often backfire and make your child overtired and irritable or even hyperactive. Instead bring a few new toys that baby has never seen for a nice distraction, or even headphones and calm music.

4. Temperature Planes can be freezing! A familiar blanket that smells like Mom or Dad can be a lifesaver.

Helpful Travel Tips

5. Avoid over-packing You can purchase packs of diapers, wipes, and formula when you reach your destination. For your travel day, it’s best to pack about one diaper for every hour of travel and possible delays (you certainly don’t want to run out at 30,000 feet!)

6. And if all else fails, do not let the haters get you down! Solicit the help of a flight attendant if someone is bothering you or making you upset. You deserve support, not judgment!

How Your Postpartum Doula Helps You Travel

Handling the details: She will make sure that nothing is left behind, from a car sun shade for shielding baby to resealable bags for dirty clothes and bibs. She will find the mother’s lounge at the airport and make sure a crib is set up in the hotel room, taking all of that worry off of your shoulders.
Dealing with the TSA: Have no fear when it comes to bringing breastmilk on a plane or transporting your stroller—your doula will double-check all of the rules and standards before you even book the flight. It will also be such a relief to have your doula’s extra set of hands to cart everything through the airport!
Taking care of yourself: Want to go on an outing with your family but baby needs a nap? Let holiday time be as restful, fun, and stress-free as possible by bringing your postpartum doula with you. Just like she does at home, she will enhance your experience, and make sure that you don’t miss out on anything!

-Blog post authored by Sally Stratmann, A professional Postpartum Doula at No Barriers Birth

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Why? Because Mistakes Do Happen

Why do we encapsulate in our clients home? Why do we provide our clients with everything they need to safely transport their own placenta? Why would we never, ever, ever take a placenta out of our client’s possession? Two reasons:

1. Mistakes happen.

One happened yesterday to a new mom (not our client) who entrusted her health and safety to a service provider who did not uphold the safest possible standards.

A mix up. Two containers resting on the counter. They look identical.

One is snatched up for a quick front-porch drop off at this newly postpartum woman’s home.

Only after taking several pills did this mom realize that they might not belong to her. And it was confirmed. She ingested another person’s organ.

Only after reaching out to the person who did the encapsulation did the service provider realize her other client also received the wrong pills.

Two mothers. Two newborn babies. Two huge questions:

Have I or my baby been exposed to something dangerous? Can I trust that these replacement pills are actually mine?”

No new mother should have to ask these questions during an already stressful time.

2. Your safety comes before our convenience. Every time.

Sure, I suppose that some encapsulators prefer to put your placenta on the stove while enjoying the convenience of simultaneously preparing a salad and chuck roast for dinner, or while stepping outside to bathe their dog, or even while prepping another client’s placenta over in the sink, or “insert productive tasks here” which one might be able to accomplish when placentas are processed in the encapsulator’s home. Maybe they don’t do those things. Hopefully not. But the truth is, mistakes do happen.

We have the ability to enact a protocol in our industry that eliminates this problem: client keeps placenta in her possession. Period. It’s quite simple really, and yet in our unregulated industry of placenta encapsulation, this faces much resistance from many encapsulators. Policies like “I always label the containers,” or “I don’t start the second placenta until I finish the first one” still leave room for human error. And good intentions aren’t good enough when it comes to exposure to blood borne pathogens.

When performing this service outside of the client’s home, any self-imposed procedural safeguards are not enough when an accident occurs, which obviously, they do occur. It is unacceptable that recklessness has increased this mother’s stress level during an already overwhelming time of bringing home a new baby. I can’t imagine that “good intentions” are good enough to any mother that this has happened to.

Our strict policy of only encapsulating in the clients home gives our undivided attention to our client and to her placenta, regardless of the extra miles or time that may be required of our Postpartum Placenta Specialists. It is absolutely the safest possible location for us to encapsulate your placenta and on your safety, we will make no compromise.

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I’m going to tear my what?!?

I’m sure you’ve heard stories about tearing when pushing during birth. Are you clenching your bottom together just thinking about it? Yeah, I’m not surprised. This is one of those possibilities in childbirth that everyone wants to avoid!

Let’s combat fear with facts.

The part of the body we are talking about is the perineum. This is the skin at the southern-most part of the vagina, facing the rectum. Its ability to stretch accommodates your baby descending and crowning.

Not all women tear in birth (YAY!) The truth is that while more than half of all vaginal births do result in some degree of tearing, most tears are minor enough that they heal within 7 to 10 days. The most common type of tear is a first degree tear which is usually repaired with just one or two stitches, and sometimes no stitches are needed at all.

Within a few minutes of birth, the doctor or midwife will check these tissues and repair any tears. Different types of tears will need different approaches for healing and soothing. The advice from your medical team could include OTC pain meds, using ice packs, witch hazel, epsom salts baths, or exposing the wound to air for better healing. The most severe injuries (3^rd and 4^th degree tears) occur in less than 2% of births, and when this occurs greater attention may be needed for complete healing.

Related to vaginal tearing is a procedure called an episiotomy. This is a small snip in the perineum to allow a little more space for the baby to descend. There was a time when episiotomies were routine, but that day has largely passed. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists no longer recommends episiotomies as a routine procedure, but it is good for you to know that instances can occur in birth when episiotomies can be a very useful tool in urgent situations.

Women are voicing to their care providers that they want their vaginas to remain as intact is possible. Now in East Texas hospitals, episiotomies are performed at fewer than 10% of all births.

Many are worried: “If I tear, does it mean sex will always be painful?”

Look: if we’re completely honest, sex is different for most couples after birth! A little discomfort in the early weeks of intimacy is to be expected but women should not have lasting pain, and most women don’t. If you do have lasting pain that isn’t improving, a talk with your doctor is in order. A referral to a pelvic floor physical therapist will help you develop a plan and work towards full recovery of the vagina and restoration of healthy sexual function.

If preventing a tear or episiotomy is important to you, a conversation with your doctor or midwife will help your team develop a plan to reduce the risk of injury to you perineum in birth.

Let’s dispel the fear even further and prepare for great success! More tips for preventing tears including practicing pushing positions and techniques, as well as effectively communicating your needs with your care provider are included in our Childbirth Education Class and our doulas are invaluable resources for this as you prepare for birth, too. Drop us a line!