You are NOT powerless in RSV season! During the respiratory season, pregnant women and moms are especially alert to the risk of RSV for their babies, but there are many option beyond “being worried or getting the RSV vaccine.”

Here are 3 powerful preventions and some RSV vaccine info to help you be more empowered in your choices, and keep your babies safe and healthy.

A healthier new year makes everything better! These simple five ideas are powerful starting points, and are offer improvements to everyone regardless of where you are on your healthy journey.

Nothing really tops simple prevention and prompt action as our first line of defense when we feel like we might be getting sick. It’s tempting to ignore the hints, but responding promptly is not only simple, cheap, and effective, but it saves massive amounts of time and suffering over the long term! When you have a hint that illness might be brewing, here are 7 actions you can take which have been successful in my family about 80-90% of the time.

There’s a great advantage to having a few natural therapies for earaches in your medicine chest, as they can often help relieve pain even more quickly than antibiotics. The most effective long-term results are often found with lifestyle and dietary changes, and also in strengthening your kids’ immune systems so their healthy microbiome (an inner terrain not altered or reduced from antibiotics) is able to robustly respond to viral and bacterial pathogens.

Gift-giving lists are not my usual thing, but you’ll love the unique gems on this one. These are incredible treasures I’ve found over the years for my boys as they’ve grown up. I’ve always tried to prioritize imagination, playfulness, fun, and quality materials for longevity and aesthetics. Many of these companies are smaller scaler, family-owned, or are proud of being ‘Made in the USA;’ plan accordingly because they may need human time to arrive (as opposed to Prime time).

The ‘Hands and Knees’ position is instinctively assumed by women in labor all the time. And sometimes it’s suggested that women go farther, into yoga’s ‘Child’s Pose.’ But the Reset Position is quite different, and it could save your next labor a great many hours.  It opens the pelvis wide, and provides an opportunity for the baby to back OUT of the pelvis and REPOSITION itself. It works MIRACLES!

At our house, the squash seeds are even more popular than the pretty orange vegetables; the kids wolf them down while waiting for dinner. Roasted squash seeds are super easy to make, so when squash and pumpkins begin to debut in your Autumn market, let the fun begin! The fresher and the smaller the seeds, the tastier they are to eat…..

Because of their shared, women-centered maternity health perspectives, midwives and doulas often appreciate each other’s work and may be at births together.  Doulas assist mothers in positioning, provide emotional support and encouragement and act as an advocate for their individual birth plans, regardless of who is their health care provider. Midwives may also do these things, but are actually delivering (or "catching") the babies, and are responsible for the health care and safety of the mother/baby dyad in labor and birth. 

As a midwife, I’ve spent considerable amount of time with young parents to-be in their springtime season. In this hopeful chapter, they often expect to birth their baby and mostly get back to their busy lives with a baby in tow. “But babies,” I tell them, “are not on iPhone time.” I teach them that we need to slow down for our babies, and take the time to be with these fresh little humans. Pretty consistently, the mothers who take the time to spend the first few weeks a little more quietly with their babies on their chests, especially with some “skin-to-skin” time, seem to ‘luck out’ more often with calm, bright-eyed babies who pretty comfortably settle into life along side their families....

One of the primary keys to having an efficient and effective labor is having the unborn baby well-positioned in mama's pelvis. And if this seems to not be the case, based on how labor is moving along (or not), remember that to move the baby, move the mama! By understanding this general concept, anyone can effectively help their baby along in a way that fits their personality, their birth setting, and their labor circumstances.