Abundant Joy Doula Services, LLC

11/03/2025

10/03/2025

Are you pregnant and have been told that your baby is too big or too small? Do they want to induce you or give you a caesarean because of it? This episode is a compilation of the information shared on this podcast over a year ago in the big babies, small babies episodes. It’s been given revamp to....

03/03/2025

“A woman with a higher BMI is more likely to have a longer pregnancy than someone with a lower BMI.

This can mean that more women with a higher BMI are advised to have induction for post-dates pregnancy relative to those with a lower BMI.

Women with a higher BMI are also more likely than women with a lower BMI to be given an inaccurate due date if they have a scan to date their pregnancy.

This is particularly ironic and frustrating as we know that larger women have more scans.”

I wrote these words when I looked at the question of which women were most likely to get an inaccurate due date.

And one of the key groups affected by this is women with a high BMI.

If you'd like to find out more, you can read the blog post at https://www.sarawickham.com/research-updates/whos-most-likely-to-get-an-inaccurate-due-date/

And if you or someone you love has a higher BMI and would like some friendly, kind, and evidence-based help navigating their pregnancy and birth decisions, take a look at my book.

It's at https://www.sarawickham.com/plus-size-pregnancy

27/02/2025

23/02/2025

This eye ointment, applied within minutes of birth -- erythromycin in the US -- is intended to prevent blindness caused by gonorrhea infection. If you do not have gonorrhea, your baby is not at risk. Many mothers are not told why it is used or whether or not their baby is at risk.

This practice started in the late 1800s, when gonorrhea was common and blindness occurred frequently in newborns. A doctor began using silver nitrate at birth and blindness dropped significantly.

If a mother has untreated gonorrhea, there is a 30 - 50% chance her baby will contract it. Premature babies, waters ruptured early in labor, sepsis during birth, maternal fever in labor and other factors increase the risk.

If a baby does contract the infection, blindness can occur in as little as 24 hours. Gonorrhea often presents with non-specific symptoms and can be asymptomatic. This is why the mainstream treats every baby -- just in case.

However, there are some risks associated with the eye ointment. Many other developed countries do not treat prophylactically and do not have higher rates of gonorrhea-induced conjunctivitis. Gonorrhea rates are increasing in the population, but many cases are antibiotic-resistant, and typical prophylaxis strategies may fail.

Doctors may also recommend the ointment to protect against other forms of neonatal conjunctivitis, but there's not strong evidence that this is helpful, and the other causes don't typically lead to blindness or have serious complications.

The bottom line? Informed choice. Many babies are not at risk and a blanket recommendation is not helpful or evidence-based.

21/02/2025

Feeding to sleep is the easiest way to help your baby to sleep. Feeding to sleep by breast or bottle releases oxytocin and calming hormones for daytime and night time sleep.

Nighttime breastmilk has melatonin and sleepy neuropeptides that facilitate sleep and unique nighttime neurotransmitters that build the infant brain. We don’t want to take away nighttime milk from developing babies.

For breastfeeding moms, you also get benefits of oxytocin and prolactin from feeding at night. This helps you get back to sleep faster and sleep better.

Many doctors (including my own) and sleep training myths say babies need to stop feeding at night and/or stop feeding to sleep by 4 or 6 months. This makes life harder for babies and parents. It takes away important brain building benefits of nighttime milk for babies and it can put breastfeeding mother’s milk supply and mental health at risk.

Medical professionals are supposed to protect brain development, breastfeeding and mental health but they harm it with these recommendations.

So please know feeding to sleep is the way humans and all mammals on Earth help their babies to sleep. For all sleep. And all of these babies grow up happy, healthy and with beautiful brains 🧠

How long did you feed your baby overnight or how long do you plan to?

19/02/2025

This is one of the most important issues I can teach clients. Sometimes we are up against their past birth experiences, previous providers, and even extended family as we repattern expectations and how to approach healthy pregnancies.

One of my favorite quotes ever was written by a dear client, a VBAC mom and physician herself, in a referral after her first homebirth (of several).

“The birth itself was amazing - being at home was so peaceful and easy (and fast!)  My prior hospital birth was really hard “work”, going through a long labor with multiple interferences, procedures, medications, then an unplanned c-section, caring for a newborn after major surgery...  I really experienced that when obstructions are removed, how the body and mind will work efficiently and safely.  Beth and her assistant supported me and the normal processes of labor and birth so that our baby and I were far more comfortable, safe, healthy, and cared for than in a hospital.”

I hope you have had the opportunity to experience Birth without unnecessary disruptions… It does take a lot of work to accomplish that these days.♥️

17/02/2025

Pregnant? Make this your home screen. Babies are very visual, including preborn. this position is “LOA“, which tends to be ideal for most women’s pelvises.

I’ve had a couple of breech babies turn head down after just a couple days of their mama’s looking at this picture, before they even got to all the exercise exercises.