(this is not meant as medical advice, this is to remind moms everywhere that you have rights…. choose to use them!  Trust your body!  Choose care givers who trust your body!  Make educated decisions.  Care providers give you information… you have to decipher it and choose how to use it, ask questions, get answers you are satisfied with, if you aren’t satisfied remember it is never to late to change to a new care provider or you can choose to just say NO!)

SO many moms today are being told they are having BIG babies.  Some are being told this from their 20 week ultrasound.  Some moms are getting routine late term ultrasound  and then told the baby is getting “too big”

This seems to be a tactic to convince moms to get induced or to schedule a cesarean.

What can you do if you are told you have a big baby?

1.  Do your Research (here are some links to get you started)

Big Baby Bull page – This page has links to more information, definition of big baby, accuracy of ultrasounds, cesarean or induction choices.  There are also a lot of stories from moms, L&D nurses and a video too.

There is a whole website on Big Babies.  I love this quote from the site.

I heard a great analogy from an obstetrician once, that likened trying to predict the size of a baby before birth, by ultrasound, to trying to guess the weight of a man, sitting in a bath full of water, in the room next door by measuring his waist and thigh bone. When you look at it like that it really does become apparent how ludicrous these gross measures we use are!

2.  Get a Second Opinion

Some OBs do a LOT of cesareans and inductions because of “big babies” but maybe this is just an excuse so they can plan births.

A Labor and Delivery nurse shares a story about a mom who has a cesarean because of a suspected big baby – “near 9 pounds” (which isn’t really even BIG) and the baby ends up being 7 pounds 9 ounces.   It turns out this is an OB who uses this “scare tactic” a lot!  The nurse covers really well the truth about the ability to determine the size of babies before birth.

Here is another story of a “big baby” who turned out to be small.

3.  Follow your Intuition

What do YOU think?  Before your care provider said you were having a big baby, before they said there may be issues…. How were you feeling?

How are you feeling now?  Don’t let FEAR be a factor in your choice.  It is hard to figure out what your intuition is saying when you are full of fear.  How can you let go of that fear?  Here are some ideas.

But what if the baby IS big?

Well, guess what – Fat smushes and lots of big babies are born vaginally!  2 of my babies were 9 pounds.  Here is a great positive vaginal birth story of an 11 pound 5 ounce baby.    Here is another one of a 12 pound 9 ounce baby born vaginally.   Here is another great one.  My wife had an 11+ pound baby at home!

Jill, who has the Unnecesarean Blog wrote about her experience and how she avoided an unnecesary cesarean by educating herself and fighting for her right to have a vaginal birth.  She refused to be scared by OB’s before or during her birth!

Here is a great video by moms who were told they were unable to birth big babies and went on to birth BIGGER babies vaginally.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFVkDV45MM]

To inspire you more, here is a video of a mom singing during the birth of her 10 pound baby.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3WA9iHz5ww]

Part of it is having a care provider who isn’t scared of birth.  Part of it is believing in your body and your baby.

Only YOU know what is the best choice for you.  For some it may be induction, for some it may be cesarean but for most it will be waiting until their baby decides it is time to be born.  That may take guts to say no, it may mean changing care providers, it may take sacrifice.  Remember, this is not meant as medical advice, it is to remind moms everywhere that you have rights…. choose to use them!  It is YOUR body and YOUR birth.

Someone is writing a book about Childbirth Carreers.  She has a survey that she wants workers to fill out. 

If you work in the childbirth field, please go fill it out.  It only took about 5-10 minutes.

I have 2 spots open.  If you are interested please e-mail me.    

Spots are all filled! 

Have you heard that Miami’s cesarean rate is over 40%?  That is SO crazy.  There was an article in a paper of a mom who decided natural birth would be a way to help her avoid a cesarean.  She used HypnoBirthing to help her prepare for her birth.  Here is a link to her story. 

I hope it encourages moms who read this story to look into using hypnosis for birth!

I love numbers.  So I keep statistics of my student’s births and my doula clients births.  (All of my doula clients have been my students)  I love being a doula and going to births, sharing this amazing moment with these families!

Here is a run down of 3 years of doulaing.  I have had 19 doula clients.

Cesarean rate 21% (1 emergency cesarean at 34 weeks, 1 emergency during birth and possibly due to interventions, 1 planned due to breech baby, 1 maternal exhaustion after “failed” induction)

WAY better than the national of 30%.  The power of education!  I am glad that I was able to be these mom’s doulas.  Cesarean moms need doulas too!

The rest of the statistics don’t include the cesarean moms.

So of the moms who had vaginal births looking at epidural/un-medicated:

Stats of vaginal birth moms regarding comfort:

Just because I was curios I did stats of vaginal birth moms who had NO pitocin

What can you learn from this?

Hypnobabies works!  73% comfortable births and 81% of moms with no pitocin were comfortable.  The moms who had discomfort had a reason; posterior baby, SPD, really fast birth or pitocin.  The education moms get about normal birth and the pros and cons of intervention helps them to make positive choices.  The relaxation and hypnosis tools helps them to stay comfortable.  These things together help moms avoid cesareans, unless they are truly medically needed!

44% of my Hypnobabies Students hire me as their doula.  Actually if I didn’t travel so much 58% would have hired me.  (I refer a lot of my students out, because their births conflict with my vacations.)  So if you are a doula, become an Independent Childbirth Instructor!  It is a great way to find doula clients.  You build a wonderful relationship during the classes and it is just a wonderful way to help families!  It is also easier that being a doula, because you can schedule it!

Strangely it appears that my doula clients are more likely to have a cesarean than if they just take my class.  I certainly didn’t do anything to cause their cesareans.  They all would have had one anyway, even if I wasn’t their doula.  All I can think of is that these moms needed a doula and it worked out that I was there for them.

Also, let your birthing time begin on its own.  If you choose to be induced, know you can still do it un-medicated!  I have seen it done!  J  4 moms who had comfortable births did have pitocin.  They really were active in monitoring how quickly the nurse turned the pitocin up.  Slower is better.

I love numbers.  So I keep statistics of my students births and my doula clients births.

Of course they are so much more than numbers to me (especially my doula clients, when I am at their births and see how amazing they do).

Here is a run down of 3 years of teaching Hypnobabies.  So these are all of my students.

I have taught 43 couples.

Cesarean rate 11.5%  (if I take out my 2 VBAC moms who were undermined by their OBs it is 7.5%)  WAY better than the national of 30%.  The power of education!

The rest of the statistics don’t include the cesarean moms.

So of the moms who had vaginal births looking at epidural/un-medicated:

So of the moms who had vaginal births with NO Pitocin (30 moms) looking at epidural/un-medicated:

Stats of vaginal birth moms regarding comfort:

Just because I was curious I did comfort stats of vaginal birth moms who had NO pitocin:

What can you learn from this?

Hypnobabies works! 68% comfortable births and 80% of moms with no pitocin were comfortable.

The moms who had discomfort had a reason; posterior baby, malpositioned baby, SPD or pitocin.

The education moms get about normal birth and the pros and cons of intervention helps them to make positive choices.  The relaxation and hypnosis tools helps them to stay comfortable and reprogam their minds about birth.  These things together help moms avoid cesareans, unless they are truly medically needed!  These things also help moms stay comfortable during their birth and give them tools to manage any discomfort they do have.

Also, when possible let your birthing time begin on its own.  If you choose to be induced, know you can still do it un-medicated!  I have seen it done!  :)

4 moms who had comfortable births did have pitocin.  They really were active in monitoring how quickly the nurse turned the pitocin up.  Slower is better.  The nurses like to turn it up every 20 minutes.  This isn’t a race to see how quickly we can force the baby out.

I attended an induction on Monday.  I need to check with the mom if it is ok for me to share her story.  She was AMAZING! 

Induction with pitocin

A posterior baby

First time mom

She did it with no medication and was really amazing!