In The News: Lloydminster Meridian Booster, Alberta - May 18th 2010

I have been keeping an eye out for news articles I found interesting. I used to live in Alberta and so this article made me a bit surprised.

No Rise In Local Use of Doulas
http://www.meridianbooster.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2582131


As some of you may know May is "Doula Month". A month of promoting Doulas.

This article says that in Lloydminster, Alberta there are no mothers who use Doulas. In fact they haven't seen any at their hospital. My heart breaks for those mothers who could have used a Doulas assistance.

My favourite part of this whole article was the stats section:

Research has recently shown having a labour doula reduces overall cesarean rates by 50 per cent, the length of labour by 25 per cent, oxytocin by 40 per cent, pain medication by 30 per cent, the need for forceps by 40 per cent and the request for epidurals by 60 per cent

It's wonderful to think about how much help a Doula can offer.

Happy Reading
~Miranda

A Mothers Day tribute

This is how a friends Sunday Service for Mothers Day began

Happy Belated Mothers Day to everyone:

First Aid/Medical kits

Today I was going to post something profound... haha... but then my day got a bit turned around. While on our way to drop my oldest son off at school my husband came by us. He had just left as we did but he bikes so is alot faster than the little feet I keep pace with. When he came by us he showed off his new road rash. The poor guy fell. I raced to school almost pulling along my youngest and managed to get us to school after someone else. For those who don't know my kids this is a rare thing as normally Kyler is pulling me out the door to go to school. I had his friends father watch Kyler until the teacher came and raced home with my younger one.

We got home and I started to work on my husband. It's not that he had that much damage but it's more so that there was alot to clean up. After getting Quinton off playing with some toys I broke out the first aid/medication box. And here's where my thoughts led me too.

The importance of a first aid box. It doesn't have to be the kind the EMT's bring around but something that has a little of everything. For my family it might be different than yours. We have things for little kids (as in 2 and up) and adults.

Our first aid includes:

After Bite - kids and adults
Polysporin - kids and adults
Tylenol - kids (liquid) and adults (pills)
Advil - kids (liquid)
A bandage bag - kids (WTP or Character ones) and adults
Gravel - kids (liquid) and adults (pills)
Zinc lozenges - adults
Rubber gloves - Adult sizes - large and x large
"non stick" bandages and tape - large and medium
alcohol swabs - individually packaged
Tweezers
Straight needle
Tensor bandage - large one
Safety pins


I'm not saying this is a perfect First Aid box at all but it handles most of our problems at home. As you well know anything 'major' needs to be attended to by a health care professional.

Hopefully this will become something you keep in your household. Make sure it caters to what family members you have and their ages and medical needs. As always, I pray you don't have to use it too often. But for the times you do it's wonderful to have around.

I should also say I recommend that you take a first aid class. It is a great thing to have. You may want to check where you work, some work places will cover the cost for you to go.

May's Book Review

"The Mother of all Pregnancy Books" by Ann Douglas

You know how people say "it covers everything from A to Z"? Well this book does! Really!! Of all the books I had to read for my Doula Training with CAPPA Canada this one was my favourite. I love that Ann Douglas is a Canadian writer. I also love the fact that she seems so passionate about her work (www.motherofallbooks.com)

The Mother of All Pregnancy Book covers topics that are all over the board. Her chapters are titled:

1 - Are You Really Ready To Have A Baby?
2 - Your Pre-Game Plan
3 - Sperm, Meet Egg
4 - Missed Conceptions
5 - Winning at Baby Roulette
6 - Operation Healthy Baby
7 - The Worry Zone
8 - The Complaint Department
9 - To Test or Not To Test?
10 - Lights, Camera, Action!
11 - When Pregnancy Isn't Perfect
12 - Life After Baby

Each Chapter covers everything so well. My 'all time favourite' chapter of hers is Chapter 8 (The Complaint Department). This chapter is so wonderful because it really does cover everything from A to Z.... well Y (Yeast Infections). Some of the examples are Abdominal Muscle Separation, Bleeding and Spotting, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Food Aversion, Insomnia, Morning Sickness, Round Ligament Pain, Sweating, Urinary Incontinence, Varicose Veins, and Yeast Infections.

This book also has "extra" information. These little 'gems' are shown in a little insert on almost every page. From the introduction (where they are explained) they are:

Mom's the word: insights and advice from new and expectant parents.

Mother Wisdom: little know facts about pregnancy - including some really fun pop culture tidbits about giving birth Canadian-style!

Facts and Figures: Medical breakthroughs and note worth statistics related to pregnancy

From Here to Maternity: leads on a variety of pregnancy-related resources that you and your partner will definitely want to know about, 1-800 numbers, websites, freebies and more!

Another great feature is the "Appendix D - Directory of Organizations". This provides CANADIAN information. I cant' stress enough how great of a resource this is. A few examples of what it includes are: Breastfeeding, Infant Heath, Nutrition, Postpartum depression and working during pregnancy - occupation healthy and safety contacts for various jurisdictions. This last one has information for every province, territory in Canada. I like that!

Not only does all that incredible information come in one great package but most of the resources come with Internet address, and ways to contact these people (by phone, post mail). I personally enjoyed these websites more than anything else. I like that I can get the information while everyone else in the world seemed to be sleeping. I'm sure you pregnant Ladies understand what that is like being awake alot!

All in all its a great CANADIAN resource. I hope you will check it out!

Are you going to be or are a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM)?

I found this a few days ago and I couldn't resist. It's a link to an article about how much a SAHM could/should/would make if they got paid for it. At the bottom of the article you can click on their link and it brings you to the Mom Salary Wizard. Now if only I could get paid that much for doing my job. Check it out, just for fun:

Stay At Home Mom Salary

~Miranda

Cute! Breast Cancer

I saw this a few years ago and I love it! I hope you enjoy:

In The News: The Vancouver Sun ~ May 1st 2010

One of the many groups I follow on Facebook (CAPPA Canada) linked this article a few days ago. I hope you enjoy it.

Higher Daily doses of vitamin D lower risk of preterm births: study
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Higher%20daily%20doses%20vitamin%20lower%20risk%20preterm%20births%20study/2975305/story.html#ixzz0mmmgCVrG


I was surprised about how much 'more' they want pregnant woman to have for their vitamin D intake. When I was pregnant I don't remember being told to have any extra vitamin D than what was in my normal vitamins I was taking. I hope this has given you something to think about! If you are wondering make sure you talk to your OB/Doctor/Medical Professional about this.

Happy Reading.

~Miranda

About Me

I figured if I was starting a blog about my company I should give you a little bit of background information on me. I found a questionnaire online and figured it might be useful on here:


About myself:

Basic Information:

*Name - Miranda

*Age - 27, I will be 28 in October of 2010

*Location - Scarborough/Toronto, Ontario, Canada

*Family - My husband is a Computer Programmer. My oldest son is 5 and he is in JK at school. My youngest son is 3 and loves Dragons.

Random questions:

*What is your favourite television show? - I love a lot of TV shows. Since we don't have cable I watch them online. It does limit them a bit but generally my favourites are, and in no order, any NCIS, any CSI, Bones, Accidentally on Purpose, Glee and Parenthood 2010.

*Which is your favorite genre of movies? - I like comedy and romance. Just about everything else creeps me out, just a bit!

*Which is your favorite time of the day? - I have started training for a Triathlon and so my least favourite time is the morning, but I get so much done then (my training, getting the family up, fed, dressed, off to school) so I would have to say the morning!

*What is your most favorite place in this earth? - Wherever my family is.

*Why did you become a Labour Doula? - This question requires more than just a few word answer, heck I wrote an essay on it a few days ago, but generally I would have to say I became a Labour Doula so I could assist clients in having the birth they strive for. So many people I have met (including myself) have had hard births and they weren't even close to what we thought they would be like. Thankfully Doulas around the world are helping their clients to have the birth of their choice. That's why I became a Labour Doula.


Hopefully now that you know a bit more about me, I can get to know a bit more about you!

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Hearts To Hands Doula Services blog!

Congratulations on your Pregnancy! I hope you can enjoy every minute. I am here to help you in every way I can.

My purpose in writing this blog isn't to update it daily but is to inform you of different links I find, information that is important and resources I think you, as a mother, father, caregiver, health care professional should know about.

My goal, and who knows if this will happen as a busy mother, is to keep you up to date, allow you to get to know me a bit better and hopefully aid you any way I can.

Please feel free to look around my website www.heartstohands.ca If you have any questions at all please feel free to use the "Contact" section and I can get back to you as soon as possible.

Enjoy!