The Birth Lounge Blog

What You Really Need to Know About Formula and How to Choose the Right One for Your Baby Ignore the labels, it’s all about the ingredients The red-bolded words “anti-colic remedy” on the front of a formula tub can seem pretty promising when you’re standing in the formula isle of Target after several evenings with a fussy baby. This is exactly what the manufacturer intends when marketing their formula brands to parents. They knowingly get paid by targeting vulnerable new moms who are sleep deprived and desperate. Formula brands will advertise products made specifically for things like reducing spit up and gas or to help improve sleep. But, like most things baby related, it’s not a “one size fits all” solution. The ingredients and how they react to your baby’s specific dietary and digestives needs are most important to understand when you’re in the process of choosing a formula. And I say process because you are most likely going to need to change formulas at least once or twice, and t...

America Needs More Black Providers Being Black in America is hard, but giving birth while Black in America is downright deadly. The United States of America is one of the richest countries on the planet and has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality..how does that happen? For a country that attracts talent from all over the world, there seems to be a disconnect in the intelligence and the results. Black birthing people in American are three to four times more likely to die due to a pregnancy-related complication than white birthers, and if you are in NYC—that increases your risk even more.  You can read more about the Maternal Health Crisis in America here. What Needs to Change? Well, that’s a 7 layer dip plus some, but a great place to start is increasing access to Black and brown doctors for Black and brown patients. This does not mean that Black and brown people should only be seen by Black and brown doctors, but that they have that as an option if they would like. Becau...

An Inside look at Obstetrical Violence (Derived from a podcast conversation with Tranquility By HeHe team members HeHe Stewart and Caitlin LeBeau in Episode 136 of The Birth Lounge Podcast, find it here !) Have you ever heard the term “obstetrical violence” and wondered what it meant? Or maybe you envisioned this blatant act of disrespect or an assault of sorts. These are both examples of obstetrical violence, but there is another side to it, too. A sneaky side. We're going to share a few instances of medical manipulation in the birth room. Not always aggressive, not violent. And that is a tactic- they are trying to get you to do what they want. Which is so hard to say because we are conditioned to trust our doctors, we want to trust our doctors. This isn’t about batting heads- this is about questioning, looking into research/evidence, looking into policies so you know if they are being influenced/pressured. Have that open communication if you can. You can say, 'That's not...

Food First Nutrition with Ryan Kipping ( Derived from Ep. 148 of The Birth Lounge Podcast ) Today Ryann Kipping, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Certified Lactation Educator, and Author of The Feel-Good Pregnancy Cookbook is here to break down how to get the majority of your crucial vitamins and minerals from food first! So many foods can be solutions to problems that pop up in pregnancy--constipation, nausea, heartburn. Ryann is sharing how to find the perfect prenatal, how to spot 3rd party testing, and how to identify trustworthy brands! Diet culture is crazy right now. It's hard enough to eat when you aren't pregnant to figure out what to eat when you aren't pregnant. Then when you throw a pregnancy in the mix there's like so much confusion. There's so many do's and don'ts floating around. One source says something and another source says something completely different. That is why I'm here- to clear that confusion and make you feel confident. ...

The Beginning of Home Birth with Kaitlyn Fusco ( Derived from Episode 142 of the Birth Lounge Podcast ) Today, we are chatting with Katelyn Fusco, Host of Happy Home Birth Podcast. We are covering home birth and how birth has transformed over the years. Katelyn is sharing who is right for home birth and the top home birth myths. We are also diving into stickier topics like the business side of birth and how legislation can impact women’s health. We shine a spotlight on consent and continuity of care as well. I'll hand it over now for Katelyn's thoughts! We are so ingrained now, especially in the United States, to think that birth is a medical event that just has to take place in the hospital. I mean, that's just in our minds. I know growing up, that's how it was for me. My mom had all three of her children as C-sections. So when I was growing up, I thought, 'Okay, well, I'll have C-sections for my babies. Birth is surgery the end'. I don't think I'm ...

When Checking in Hinders the Process Today I'm going to be talking about when checking in, actually hinders the process. Now specifically, I'll be talking about birth today, but I think you're going to find this makes sense in other places of your life too. So specifically when, when hindering the birth process, I want you to think about physiological, from a natural standpoint, from an undisturbed undisrupted standpoint. So if we were to allow your body and your baby to do its own thing. Cervical Checks So the first place that I often see checking in disrupting our natural processes is that vaginal checks in the later part of pregnancy. So it used to be routine. And I mean, it still is routine in a lot of places to do vaginal checks starting at 37 weeks. However, the science is actually pretty clear that there's no benefit to having cervical exams before 40 or 41 weeks. Now this all goes back to your due date, right? And we know that first time babies are more likely g...

Your Responsibility in Labor I am bringing you my takeaway from recent births today on the blog. All of them had a layer of nature that we could not control, which is something I talk about all the time. You can control 90% of labor and birth, but that other 10% is nature. That's life, right? Those are the pieces that no matter how hard we try as humans or even medical professionals, we'll never be able to control nature. Nature will always kind of reign above us, because it's nature. We are the smaller beings when we think about nature and humans, humans actually depend on nature. Nature does not depend on humans. Nature will always have this way of playing its hand in birth. So your responsibility with that 10% is not to give up on it. Your responsibility is to know what could happen within that 10% of birth. To understand what your options are at each of those places. When you find yourself in some of those situations, because remember it's inevitable, nature will a...