Skin-to-Skin Contact: It's Not Just For Birth

More people are hearing about the benefits of skin-to-skin contact between babies and parents.  As a Certified Lactation Counselor, one of my favorite pieces of advice for new parents is to use skin-to-skin (STS) well beyond the moment of birth.  For babies, breastfeeding is a "full-body experience," and they need the sensory input of STS to let them know where they are in space, and to send a signal to their brains to begin latching correctly.  Babies also need to be able to use their hands to knead the breast, and STS helps raise levels of a mother's milk-making hormones.  If breastfeeding is not perfected after the first few days of life, by all means continue to use STS to help speed up the process!  Hope Parish and Daniela Jensen will be offering a FREE Webinar about STS, hosted by Isis Parenting, on Wednesday May 15, 2013 at 8:00 PM Eastern Time.  To register, visit https://cc.readytalk.com/r/yn3euqhwql6z.  Hope and Daniela are the creators of the NüRoo Pocket, a garment that holds baby STS for what is also known as "Kangaroo Care."  See below for more information about the Webinar, as well as the "Top 10 Myths of Kangaroo Care and STS" by Hope Parish and Daniela Jensen. 

A Mother's Depression: Advice for Fathers and Partners

I admire Sarah and Jean-Philippe Vine for their honesty in speaking about their experience with Sarah's postpartum depression.  Sarah is a doula who courageously told her story on her blog, in the hopes that it would help other mothers.  Her husband also chose to tell the story from his perspective, in order to help those who may be the partner of a mother suffering from postpartum mental illness.  Jean-Philippe Vine is an Animation Director whose professional work can be viewed here, and who wrote and illustrated the essay below about his family's postpartum experience.

Your "Postpartum Plan" Is As Important As Your Birth Plan

Many people have heard of writing a birth plan--and a postpartum plan can be just as important.  Mara Acel-Green, a psychotherapist specializing in postpartum depression and other perinatal mood disorders, has created the form below for families to use when choosing who will help them through the enormous changes of the postpartum time.  Some other resources I love are the sample postpartum plan at Dona.org, a post from That Wife which touches on the importance of planning who will help you with breastfeeding, and Molly Remer's account of pushing herself too hard during her postpartum.  Also see pages 220-221 of The Doula Guide to Birth for more information on postpartum plans.  I encourage all expectant parents to be able to answer the questions below provided by Mara Acel-Green, and be clear in advance who you will ask for help postpartum.