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In This Issue
About Birth
Tactile and Emotional Support During Labor: The Doula
Our Charis Family
Christi Jones (CCE, CD) and Aimee Roberts (CCE, CD)
Charis Cuisine
Wonders of Watermelon
About
Babies
Ways Dads Can Bond With Their Baby
Tidbits
from Ebony
Through A Father's Eyes in Ebony
To
enjoy past newsletters, visit the archives:
Newsletter Archives
Update
Our address
Charis Childbirth, Inc.
P.O. Box 6900
North Port, FL 34290
It's
been over a year since Charis headquarters moved to
Florida. If you use our old Virginia Beach address, your mail will
not reach us as the post office is no longer forwarding mail.
Be sure to mail your yearly membership fees to the Florida address!
Look us up
Charis
and our
Midwifery Scholarship Fund
Mark Your
Calendars
Childbirth Education
Series
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Presented by:
Christi Jones (CCE, CD) and Aimee Roberts (CCE, CD)
Weekend Intensive:
June 18th & 19th or August 27th &
28th
Lunch
Included
6 Week Class
every
Wednesday, July 21st - August 25 th
Cost
$150.00
For more information call (757)270-0437
To register and visit our website:
http://www.birthinsightva.com
E-mail:
info@birthinsightva.com
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Attention Aspiring
Midwives!
You will love the flexible, thorough,
distance academics course offered through Charis Childbirth!
Check
it out!
Want to serve childbearing families as a Certified Doula or
Childbirth Educator?
Become trained and certified through Charis Childbirth!
Take a look
at our unique certification process!
If you seek a school that offers the convenience of
self-paced distance learning, personal mentors for each student, a
commitment to the highest excellence in education, a family-like
network of students and birth professionals, and education from a
Christian perspective, Charis may be just the right fit for you!
For more information
Visit the Charis Web site
for course description and outline.
"Deep relaxation, surrender, letting go"
When midwives are asked to disclose the secret of giving birth with
relative ease, these are the words we choose. More than metaphors
for coping, these responses are based on physiological
imperatives..."
~Elizabeth Davis
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Our
Director's Heart
Learning, Growing, &
Changing One’s Mind
I don’t
know about you, but I have very strong opinions about things and I
base those opinions on the evidence I see in this world. I make
choices and decisions based on what I have learned throughout life.
I’m not one to be easily swayed. Sometimes, however, I learn new
things that challenge my currently held beliefs and cause me to dig
deeper and learn even more so I can once again be confident in what
I believe and do.
Until recently, I held a belief that it was safe for a mom to drink
a little alcohol to help her relax and rest when she was
experiencing long, prodromal labor that was ineffective and
exhausting. I based my belief that it was safe on the fact that many
midwives I greatly respect have been doing it for a very long time
with no apparent bad effects. It has been my experience and theirs
that a woman in non-productive labor who has a little wine will
relax and doze off for awhile and wake up with renewed strength and
energy and in active, productive labor. I have believed that this
saved them from potential surgery.
Now, after attending a conference recently on the effects of alcohol
on an unborn baby, I am not sure if I would still recommend it. You
see, when a mom drinks alcohol, the effects on the baby are as if
the baby had been given fifteen times the amount of alcohol the
mother drank. I won’t go into all the physiology here, but it has to
do with the baby’s immature liver and the fact that the alcohol
continues to circulate in the baby’s system and remains in the
amniotic fluid for a long time. The baby literally experiences
alcohol poisoning. The “risks” associated with the alcohol have
changed in my mind.
A dilemma remains that there is no information out there that
compares the risks of giving a mom a sleeping pill, IV pain
medications, or another intervention and the risks of giving a mom a
half glass of wine. By choosing any of the possible hospital
interventions, are we setting moms up for a Cesarean? Would a little
wine carry less risk to the baby than other interventions? I don’t
have these answers.
We know that there is NO drug (over-the counter, prescription, or
otherwise) that has been proven safe for an unborn baby.
So, until I have more facts, I will no longer recommend alcohol to
help a mom relax and rest during long, exhausting prodromal labor.
I’m now inclined to call an acupuncturist or to use homeopathics
which don’t produce the ill-effects on baby.
I would love for all of you to ponder this issue along with me. If
you are a midwife, think about how you may handle things when the
mom is completely worn out and you “know” that all she needs is to
let go, relax, and maybe get a little sleep so her labor can become
more productive. If you are a doula, what will you recommend to your
client in that situation?
From now on, I am going to stress to my clients how very dangerous
ANY amount of alcohol is to an unborn baby at ANY point in
pregnancy. I have heard some people say, “I’m in my third trimester.
What harm could it do to have a beer?” It is true that the bulk of
the formation of organs and features takes place in the beginning of
pregnancy; but the end of pregnancy is when so much of the baby’s
brain development takes place, making it even more important to
avoid alcohol at that time.
The effects of alcohol are not just evident as fetal alcohol
syndrome (FAS), but there is also a range of effects called fetal
alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). These kids with FASD are often
misdiagnosed with autism, ADHD, and other things, and are often the
ones that do not respond as expected to the usual treatments for
those problems.
Please take the time to learn more so that you are able to equip
your clients to make wise choices during their pregnancies.
Toward happy, healthy moms and babies,
Kristin Schuchmann
Executive Director, Charis Childbirth
Contact Us
Charis Childbirth
P.O. Box 6900
North Port, FL 34290
www.charischildbirth.org
Kristin Schuchmann ~
Executive Director
Cell (941)441-6410
http://happyhealthyliving.wordpress.com/
Susan Oshel ~ Director of Midwifery Studies
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Grants
and other funding for the expansion of the Charis ministry
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For
the Charis Childbirth Educator, Doula, and Midwifery students:
sharp minds to learn, opportunities for lots of hands-on learning
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For
the Charis CE’s, doulas, and midwives: rest, peace, protection,
wisdom, discernment
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For
the Charis missionaries and humanitarian workers: protection,
peace, divine guidance, financial provision
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For our directors and administration: Wisdom,
guidance, energy, and
provision from God as Charis enters this season of growth
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