My Baby and I

Maternity Care in the UK ‘fails women’

maria — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:06:00 +0000

I recently came across an article on the BBC news website which describes the varying standards of NHS care for women during pregnancy and birth.

I am lucky that I had a positive birthing experience in my local community hospital (although, much to the disgust of the community, it is set to close in the next year). However, the difference in care across the UK first became apparent to me when I was told at my first ante natal appointment that a 12 week dating scan was not routine in the area I lived. I was furious as, after having several friends in different parts of the country have one, I was expecting one too. It is a similar situation for the nuchal fold scan, which is offered in some areas and not others, is free in some areas and over ÂÂÂ£100 in others.

So I guess the BBC news article should not have been ‘news’ to me at all, and is probably not too much of a surprise to most people, given the great variety in standards of care as a whole across the NHS in the UK.

‘Tis the Season to be ….Irritable

maria — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:00:11 +0000

Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it. Before Christmas I read with interest some magazine articles with tips on how to enjoy the first Christmas with your baby. ‘How hard can it be?’ I thought. When I told my other ‘mummy’ friends and my health visitor that we were hosting Christmas with a household of about 10 people descending on us, they looked at me in horror and as if I were totally mad. ‘Oh, its okay’, I would say, ‘my husband will be doing the cooking so it will be great’. Oh how little did I know!

Although my husband did do the cooking, it meant he spent a fair amount of his time in the kitchen on Christmas morning rather than seeing his little boy open his presents (By ‘open’ I mean play with the wrapping paper!) All the extra attention and stimulation meant that my son missed his normal nap times and ended up tired and irritable later on, with my husband and I trying every trick in the book to try to relax him and get him to sleep. He was also not interested in feeding for most of the day which resulted in me worrying and him making up for lost feeds in the night time.

So next year I think we will be aiming to have a quieter time and will gratefully accept any offers for other people to be the hosts. Then I’ll only have to deal with my husband being irritable as he’s not in charge of the cooking!

Hang Your Baby Up?

maria — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:36:40 +0000

I spotted this new idea for a baby carrier over on TrendInsiders blog.

It is an infant carrier that you can use to hang your baby up over a door or cubicle, for example when in public toilets or changing rooms, or perhaps even at home.

Part of me feels its a great idea, as it can be a difficult job going to the toilet when one is out shopping alone with one’s baby.

However, another part of me questions the safety aspect of hanging a baby from any kind of door or cubicle divider, and I feel its yet another gadget or gizmo to add to the hundreds that we have in the western world that we could live without.

What do you think?

Welcome To Phentermine Hcl Org

The Drinks Are On Veronika

maria — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:49:04 +0000

I was browsing the web recently when I came across a site promoting a new breastfeeding book. ‘The Drinks Are on Me’ is by Veronika Robinson and claims to tell you ‘everything your mother never told you about breastfeeding’ The site promoting the book also has a useful link to youtube where a clip shows a taster of some of the issues covered in the book.

The author of the book also runs the bi-monthly magazine ‘The Mother’, which I recently read a copy of. The magazine covers issues such as co-sleeping, natural pregnancy and birth, and full-term breastfeeding. While I agree with the ethos of the magazine I felt some of the issues and articles were a bit too extreme for me in places.

Veronika Robinson appeared on the C4 programme ‘Extraordinary Breastfeeding’, which was aired in January 2006. She discussed the extended breastfeeding of one of her children at 8 years of age. She also has a blog which I will aim to review in another post.

You can hear Veronika Robinson speak about her new book and life experiences as a mother, magazine editor and breastfeeding counsellor in January 2008 in Bristol. I am hoping to attend the talk and will be reviewing her book once I have read it.

Makeover of The Mother

maria — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:40:32 +0000

I read over on Veronika Robinson’s Blog that the website of The Mother magazine, of which she is the editor, has had a makeover. I first read a copy of the magazine back in the Autumn and although I liked what it was trying to achieve I felt it was perhaps too extreme for me in places. However, after reading books such as The Continuum Concept and Three In a Bed, and hearing Veronika speak at her book launch, I decided to subscribe and have since become a fan. The magazine is a non-mainstream publication that promotes issues such as natural birth and parenting, long term breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and eco friendly products.

Feeding Rooms - All is Forgiven!

maria — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:35:15 +0000

Okay, I admit it – feeding rooms can be handy and useful. Up until recently I dismissed them as being a waste of space and would not use them as a matter of principle; why should I be ‘locked’ away to feed my baby when I have a legal right to breast feed in public and would much rather do so than sit alone staring at a blank wall for 15 minutes (or much longer).

However, my husband and I were grabbing a quick cuppa in a supermarket cafe on our mega Christmas shopping day, when our little one needed a change of nappy. So off I went to the changing room come feeding room. During the change my son started to wriggle and become unsettled and I knew hunger was looming. I hurried to get the task done as quickly as I could but he was crying very soon and, spotting a chair in the corner, I made the decision to feed him there and then rather than struggle past all the Christmas shoppers to get back to our seats in the cafe.

This turned out to be a very good decision on my part. Firstly, compared to the cafe’s ‘greasy spoon’ style chairs this was like sitting on a throne, with an arm on which to rest my arm and a padded cushion under my bottom. Secondly, as my son had a bit of a cold and stuffy nose he kept coming up for air and coughing and spluttering at regular intervals, not a great advert for breastfeeding. Thirdly, there was much noise and distraction in the cafe. As he is sometimes easily distracted during a feed these days it prevented any embarrassing exposure when he stopped to look at around at what was going on and meant he could eat his lunch in peace.

I still do not intend to use a feeding room on a regular basis, but on the odd occasion they can be quite handy!

Baby Sign Language

maria — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:23:06 +0000

I attended a post natal workshop today which included a session about Sing and Sign. Baby signing is a relatively new idea and one that is gradually gaining in popularity. It is based on the premise that babies understand a lot from a very young age and have a desire to communicate. But as their speech develops much later that their comprehension this can cause frustration for the baby and his carers. However, their physical development is further advanced, meaning they are able to sign before they can speak.

Babies as young as 6 months can start learning to sign. The benefits of signing include being able to understand your baby better, enhancing early vocabulary, building confidence and self-esteem, and stimulating intellectual development.

Sing and Sign is a UK franchise that teaches baby signing through songs, making learning fun. They run weekly classes with each session being themed around an activity, such as meal time, bath time, bedtime etc. The company also sell a range of DVDs and videos to enhance and reinforce the signs and songs at home.

You can find out more on the Sing and Sign website and I’ll post a review after I have been to my first class in January.

Book Review: Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect and Communicate with Your Baby by Tracy Hogg.

maria — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:13:53 +0000

Secrets of the Baby Whisperer is a book about tuning into your baby’s needs. It was written by Tracy Hogg in 2001 and went on to become a New York Times best seller.

I enjoyed the quiz about what kind of baby you have and imagine it would be very reassuring for parents who found themselves with a more ‘difficult’ baby. I also liked her suggestions about talking to your baby about what is happening or going to happen to him. But the most interesting sections were the ones describing EASY and SLOW.

EASY stands for Eat, Activity, Sleep and Your time, describing the routine for babies that the author recommends. Although I believe this is a good idea in principle, I would have welcomed more in depth hints and tips as to how to get ones baby into the routine. SLOW stands for Stop, Listen, Observe and What’s Up, offering a useful way of trying to work out what your baby is telling you.

One downside of the book for me was that Hogg gave me the impression that she was more against breastfeeding that for it. However despite this, she did quote some interesting points about breastfeeding that even other breastfeeding books I have read seem to miss.

Overall I found Secrets of The Baby Whisperer enjoyable and easy to read, and a book that can be read from cover to cover or be used to dip in and out of at one’s leisure.

Breastfed Babies Have A Higher IQ

maria — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 20:54:00 +0000

Its official – breastfed babies have a higher IQ on average than bottle fed babies (well tell us something we didn’t know!). You can read further details in this article from The Daily Mail.

Baby Expert Is No Expert

maria — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:12:18 +0000

I was horrified and shocked to read numerous articles that claim that Claire Verity, a maternity nurse featured on the recent C4 Bringing Up Baby series is a fraud.

On the programme Claire Verity used some extreme measures; she repeatedly claimed that all babies needed was a strict routine. Her methods included putting the baby out in the garden for hours on end, restricting the amount of cuddling allowed, strict 4 hourly feeds and leaving babies to cry.

Many mothers (and fathers) I recently spoke to about the series were upset and horrified by the way the babies were treated by her in the programme. There has been also an outcry from some of Britain’s leading child related organisations, including the NCT (National Childbirth Trust) and the NSPCC.

Despite never having children herself Verity promoted herself as a maternity nurse with years of experience in dealing with hundreds of babies. She claimed to hold diplomas in childcare and pre-school practice, which the universities claim to have no record of.

You can read more in this article.