Childbirth

Love letter to the 24-hour-old mom

  She’s bleeding, wrecked, torn open. A body flipped inside out.Breasts warming, filling, stretching beyond their boundaries. There’s ice and heat, cramps and swelling, a long-awaited glass of red wine. She’s desperate for rest, for precious sleep, cobbling together broken hours, minutes, answering the cry. 9 months sustaining another, months more ahead of continued sustenance. We look at her, sleeping there, and we know this, don’t we? Her body, rearranged, recalibrated – so different. Her days, no longer following a familiar path. Her heart, vulnerable and exposed in a brand new way. Her entire life, spinning on a new axis, pointed in new directions. This is the 24-hour-old mama. And she was made for this. -The Labor Mama

The Fourth Trimester: A Denver Surrogate Shares Her Post-delivery Journey

Have you ever wondered about becoming a surrogate? For the past few months, we have followed Denver surrogate Kristi’s journey with ConceiveAbilities, a Denver egg donor and surrogacy agency that has helped thousands of families for nearly 25 years. In Part 1, Kristi shares why she became a surrogate and how much money a Denver surrogate at Conceiveabilities makes. In Part 2, Kristy explains the matching process with her intended family, pregnancy and delivery. Here in Part 3 of our series, Kristi talks about her recovery during the “Fourth Trimester” if she is still in contact with the baby’s family and her biggest life lesson after becoming a surrogate mother in Denver. Did you feel support and encouragement after delivery? My intended parents were very supportive after delivery, messagi...

Contest: This Bestselling Kids Game is a delight for the entire family

If there’s anything I’ve needed during the stress of COVID, it’s less adult responsibility and more silliness. Kids Against Maturity came into my life at the perfect time. This hilarious, award-winning game (voted 2020 Game of the Year by Creative Child Magazine) is both naughty and nice with great portable entertainment for family gatherings, travel and sleepovers for 3-10 players. The suggested age is 8+; my kids are 14 and 16.  My recommendation would be for ages 8-13 but we still had a lot of laughs playing it with an abundance of age-appropriate toilet humor for kids and witty layered innuendos for parents.   If you’ve played Apples to Apples, the premise of this game is very simple: All you need is to ‘be the worst to be the best.’ Each player ...

‘There’s no trophy in parenting’ post goes viral

There’s no trophy in parenting. That might seem like an obvious statement but if there really is no trophy, why do moms do so many things they may not even feel strongly about? When Ashley Gibson was giving birth to her third child, she “wasn’t dead set” on having an non-medicated birth. But as the pain progressed and Gibson debated whether an epidural was the right decision, her husband Brandon said four simple words. “There’s no trophy Ashley.” His sage wisdom has since gone viral with thousands of views and comments. 

Tips for cooking with babies or toddlers (or other cranky kids) underfoot

I had been a parent for about 5 minutes when I completely understood why they call the hour before dinner the “Toxic Hour.” Everyone is hungry. And tired. And cranky—including me. Can I see a show of hands if you cooked dinner last night with one hand while you balanced a fussy kid on your hip? Or shuffled around your kitchen with one clutching your leg? With just a teensy bit of planning, you can avoid mealtime meltdowns for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and other hungry kids. Here are some tricks to get dinner on the table faster and with less tears all around: 1) Start meal prep EARLY if you can. Chop, measure out ingredients, set out the stuff you’ll need. Even just setting the pot of water on the stove to start later for pasta is so much easier to do at naptime then with...

A Barrage of Half-Truths: Navigating the World of Advertising

Mom, we all do it. We let the kids watch television while we accomplish some task, make a phone call, or get a shower. But in some circles I run in, “children and television” are two words that immediately bring a glare of judgment. I mean the two words in combination, not separately… just to be clear. There is no doubt that television effects children whether they watch hours a day or only a few hours a month. There have been countless studies done on the subject by universities and independent organizations. Now can television be a positive for children too? Sure. For example, my kids love to watch Cyberchase on PBS. This show has a strong emphasis on math skill and I can tell that it has been as much about learning as it is entertainment for my young ones. But lately, I’ve b...

The Emily Effect: Family rises from tragedy in effort to help struggling mothers

The way Emily Cook Dyches died made the headlines, but her husband wants to make sure people understand the way she lived. He is now using her legacy to help other mothers dealing with perinatal mood disorders. On Feb. 24, Emily Dyches ran in front of a semitruck after her father tried to stop her. Emily had never experienced depression or anxiety before the birth of her fifth child. She loved being a mother and it wasn’t unusual for her husband to call during the day and hear laughter in her voice as she described not getting much done because she was too busy snuggling and playing with the kids. This is a must-watch story on the complex issue of perinatal mental health.

Let’s Hear it for C-Sections!

But I’m wearing my floral flats! That was the first thought that floated through my mind when I learned all my carefully-made birthing plans were out the window. Ridiculous, I know. But I had A PLAN, and wearing floral flats to the hospital was not part of it. I was a week overdue, and we were at a routine ultrasound. Except it wasn’t routine. The doctor put the wand on my giant belly, immediately directed me to roll over onto my side, then sprinted out of the room. Which is pretty disconcerting. Doctors, maybe don’t do that. He came back with my OB-GYN on the line who told me, quite calmly, that the baby’s heart rate was decelerated and that I was to go to the nearest hospital. Not the hospital where I’d registered and taken all my birthing classes? The one with the nice Jacuzzis for labo...

Seth Meyers’ hilarious play-by-play of wife’s labor

Late Night host Seth Meyers and his wife, Alexi Ashe, welcomed a baby, Ashe Olsen Meyers, on Easter Sunday. Don’t miss his hilarious play-by-play of his wife’s labor that includes almost giving birth in their Uber car, his wife repeatedly screaming  “I DON’T LIKE THIS!” out the window, bunny ears in the delivery room and so much more. Congratulations to the new family!

How new boutique birth center Baby+Company is empowering Denver moms

It is impossible to walk into Baby+Company and not leave inspired. To look at this new boutique birth center in an unassuming strip mall in Wheat Ridge, you’d assume it was just another baby clothing store so I was not prepared for the transformative, even reverent experience the moment I walked in the door. With warm, welcoming colors and a calm atmosphere, Baby+Company could not be more different than a sterile hospital environment. This birth center is about empowerment, education and relationships with the goal of creating a customized care plan based on Mom’s needs.  What is Baby+Company? Baby+Company is a growing network of birth centers designed for healthy women with low-risk pregnancies who are looking for an alternative to hospital-b...

Dumb Dinner Game Life Lessons

So I have started this new THING at dinner called “What would you do?” Because I’m always trying to find a way to inject a life lesson when my children are NOT in trouble, NOT tuning me out, and NOT crying so hard that my platitudes about how you should “never ever NEVER grab a cactus with your bare hands” tend to go unheard. For my kids, life lessons work best if they are game-like in nature. So it works like this: I set up a scenario and then ask the contestants, “What would you do?” My two oldest children, highly competitive in nature, work out their answers, trying to outdo the other in terms of overall impressiveness. They get graded on “Applicability.” “Creativity.” And there’s bonus points on “Brown-Nosing...

What You Need to Know About Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Delivery (VBAC)

Mothers who have given birth via cesarean delivery (C-section) are not automatically reserved to deliver the rest of their children in the same way. Many of my patients come to me asking about vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) as an option for their next delivery. I often field a number of questions from my patients regarding the viability and safety of VBAC. Here are a few of the most popular: Do I qualify for VBAC? Many of my patients who gave birth via C-section qualify for VBAC. Perhaps the most important qualification for VBAC is the type of incision made on the uterus during your previous delivery. Moms wanting to give birth vaginally after a C-section must have given birth with the assistance of a low transverse incision. Performed in a majority of C-sections, a low transverse inc...

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