An Alternative to Breastfeeding

 There is agreement among healthcare professionals, infant food manufacturers and mothers that breastfeeding is the best choice for feeding infants during their first four to six months of life.

But, there are several reasons why a mother may not breastfeed her baby:

• • Medical or other health reasons may prevent a mother from breastfeeding.
• • Working outside the home makes it more difficult to breastfeed exclusively, especially if there is no support at her workplace for her to either bring her baby or to express and store her milk.

Tips on Breastfeeding

 Healthcare professionals, infant food manufacturers and mothers agree ... breastfeeding is the best choice for feeding infants during their first four to six months of life. It provides complete nutrition and helps to support the infant's immune system until it begins functioning on its own.

Breastfeeding is a natural process that enables each mother to nourish and nurture her baby. But breastfeeding is not always simple or easy. Learning the "whens" and the "hows" of breastfeeding will ensure a good start to a healthy relationship.

Childbirth Epidural

What it is:  Anesthesia administered to a laboring mother into the epidural space at the base of the spine to numb the lower body. It decreases or eliminates sensations to that area of the body.   

When they are used:  According to Holly Richardson, CD(DONA) of childbirth.org, "Nationwide, the overall rate runs consistently over 85%"  Epidurals are given to laboring women planning vaginal births based on her decision to receive one and they are also used in lieu of general anesthesia in the event of a cesarean section.  When I say 'based on her decision to receive one' I do not mean to imply that all or even most pregnant mothers are made aware of the benefits and drawbacks of the procedure.

Electronic Fetal Monitoring (EFM)

What it is:  There are two types,  external and internal.  External EFM is done by placing two straps around the laboring woman’s abdomen that measure fetal heart rate and uterine contractions.  Internal EFM is done after the membranes have ruptured (or been ruptured) by placing a small corkscrew shaped wire into the baby’s presenting part (head or buttocks) and a catheter placed into the cervix to measure uterine contractions.   

When they are used:  Once again it varies.  ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) recommends EFM be used intermittently, for 15 minutes every hour.  Some hospitals and physicians use them perpetually from admittance into the hospital and some do not use them at all, using instead a stethoscope to monitor heart tones in the undelivered baby.   

Childbirth Routine Procedures

There are many procedures that a laboring woman’s physician or hospital  may offer or even insist upon, varying from seemingly benign monitoring procedures to analgesia and anesthesia to birthing position.  Here we will take a look at some of the more routine procedures and their risks, benefits and reasons for being performed.  My purpose here is not to say that any of these procedures do not have their place in certain birthing situations, only to point out what possible risks and side-affects their routine use can lead to.

Childbirth Classes

Not all childbirth education classes are created equal.  Prepared childbirth offered by a hospital, birth center, or physician's group is typically a class teaching physiological changes during pregnancy and labor as well as information to prepare the couple for delivery in that particular setting.  It does not necessarily mean instruction in birth options.

There are three different types of childbirth educators that I am aware of:  the independent educator; the educator employed by a hospital or birth center; and the educator employed by a physician or group of physicians. 

Antibiotics Aside

Even so, some skeptics are beginning to question antibiotics’ near-universal use for AOM — including parents like Rebecca Keith, a Seattle mother of two, who has experienced firsthand antibiotics’ law of diminishing returns. Her son Alec, now five, began suffering frequent, painful episodes of acute otitis media when he was one. “For the first year, he was on amoxicillin a lot,” Keith recalls. “But after a while it stopped working. So we went through a string of others: Septra, Augmentin, Vantin, you name it. Sometimes he’d have to take three different drugs in a row before the infection would finally clear up.”