In honour of World Breastfeeding Week I want to explore a bit the emotional landscape of breastfeeding challenges.

In a story I have seen repeated all too often, my early months of breastfeeding featured an achingly low milk supply, conflicting professional advice, and well-meaning but deeply hurtful commentary.  This blessed time in my life also included a not-so-nice dose of postpartum depression, a rented scale to measure intake, a supplementary nursing system, formula, goats milk, a variety of herbs and medications, and the requisite hospital grade pump that became a good friend.

It was hard.  Hard,yes, to wake up every 2- 3 hours for a pre-feed-weigh-in, breastfeed, supplemental feed, pump, post-weigh-in, and diaper change.  That was hard.  I ached for the simplicity of putting my babe to breast and simply knowing that he was being amply nourished.

Harder, however, was the emotional journey of acceptance that this was my reality…

Click Here to Read the rest at Mothering.com

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Now it’s our turn! 

Please help us win the 2010 SavvyMom Top Mom Entrepreneur Award.

From my beginning as a stay-at-home mom teaching the occasional class, to our present team of 14 fabulous women & seven locations, I am in awe of what the past seven years of growth have brought us, and the potential for what lays ahead.

In recent years we have witnessed dramatic changes to the landscape of childbirth and family support.  The advent of social media has transformed how we as a business are able to interact with our wider community.  We have big dreams for Mama Renew & Dancing Star Birth – and this award will allow us to take big steps forward in the realm of online education and support.

If each and every one of you casts just one vote, we have a very real chance of winning.  If you have a friend or partner who could vote as well, invite them to join you!   So please, take just a few minutes to cast a vote for us, and on behalf of all the families we dream of supporting in the years to come.

THANK YOU!

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To vote you will be asked to join SavvyMom.  They have great resources for you to enjoy, or you can easily unsubscribe after voting.

www.dancingstarbirth.ca & www.mamarenew.ca

They call it nesting – this overpowering urge that women have to clear, clean & organize in the final days before birth. It doesn’t take long postpartum to understand why we nest . . . .

Turns out we spend a lot of time at home as new mothers. Having a precious new life in our home brings a new level of awareness to our surroundings. That pile of papers that you’ve been ignoring for months? Now you find yourself staring right at it as you sit nestled on the couch feeding your baby. It was easier to ignore when life was moving faster…

Click Here to Read More

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Welcome to RENEW

featuring one self-care inspiration

and links to our latest blog postings.

One short inspiring RENEW every other week
No more, no less, sweet & simple.

A busy time, yes, but also one when we are deeply aware of the importance of family and tradition, and the cycle of the seasons.  As we navigate the holiday parties and gift lists, our sense of connection with the fundamental rhythm of the season can be diminished.

It is interesting to note that in labour, a core coping approach for most women involves some element of rhythm.  Rocking, moaning, swaying, breath, each of these offers a sense of ritual, a grounding in something that feels solid in the midst of the unknown.

In this busy holiday season we also long for rhythm, seeking some sense of connection with our foundation of family and tradition.  In her book Seven Times the Sun, Shea Darian writes:

“The rhythm of family is a crucial catalyst in restoring the rhythm of the world.”

Perhaps our best response to the whirlwind of the holiday season is to return to our first rhythms, those of our family.  A daily family walk,  bedtime songs, faith traditions & pizza night.  Each of these helps to create a safe space in which we and our children can feel held in rhythm with our needs rather than drawn into the needs of the world around us.

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How do you create rhythm within your family?

click here to comment!

What is True About Birth?

What is true about birth? Take a moment to reflect on this question.  What have you learned from family and friends, your culture, the media, books?  What do you know to be absolutely true?

We ask this question at the beginning of each Birthing From Within prenatal class, and the answers are perhaps the most important things to know about birth.

1.  A baby will be born.

We may not know how it will be born, or whether it will be healthy, but a baby will be born and we will be parents.

2. Birth is a natural process.

Approximately 300,000 women around the world give birth every day.  Our bodies are designed to birth babies.

3. Birth is unpredictable.

Despite our best wishes and intentions, birth often looks different than we would have hoped for or imagined.

4.  Having a baby is life-changing.

The moment we meet our baby something new is born within us.

While simple, these truths are not always easy to accept. Most of us find it difficult to believe that…

Read the rest of our musings on these truths at yoyobelly.  Enjoy!

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What do you know to be true about birth?

click here to comment!

As doulas, we wear many hats and learn the art of many crafts.

We are teachers, we are students, we are listeners and we are talkers.

We massage, we meditate, we motivate. We are windows and we are brick walls.

As doulas, we sit and knit in corners or rock and roar like tigers.

We hold hands, we rub backs, we sit in dark corners of strange houses

and hold naked women while they cry on us.

Weep on us.

Throw up on us.

We are heater – uppers and cooler – downers, we are professional tea makers.

We knead, we navigate, we negotiate. We are pillars and we are ladders.

As doulas, we quietly advocate…brick…by…brick.

We make room – for these women, we hold space so they can breathe, so they can focus, so they can trust.

And they look to us.

And Trust in us.

by Carli Spielman, Birth Doula in the Fraser Valley of BC, www.thedivinechild.com

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We came across a fabulous quote today on the White Hot Truth website of Style Statement co-author, Danielle LaPorte:

If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it,

then what you are undergoes a transformation

- J. Krishnamurti

The journey to personal renewal is a slow one.  There are no easy answers.  At the very core of it is the exchange of ideas and perspectives within the group that allow us to begin to understand what and where we are.  We begin to see more clearly the patterns we reenact over and over again without stopping to take a closer look to understand why.

Allowing ourselves to be fully present where we Are rather the focusing on where we Wish were were is not easy.  There is a nice parallel here to be drawn with our use of the labyrinth in Birthing From Within prenatal classes. Through the symbolism of the “laborinth” we begin to understand that the key to birthing in awareness is to be fully present in the moment as it is.

Having a clear picture of where we are headed (healthy birth, balanced life, better nutrition, love rekindled…each of us has our own path to walk) is of course important.  Even more important, however, is the gift of a deeper understanding of where we are, thereby transforming our experience of the terrain we are on, and making room for us to take the next step and discover a new way of being right around the next bend.

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At this particular bend in the path, what is happening for you?

Take a close look at the terrain you are on.

What do you need in this moment?

click here to comment!

Where there is a group of women gathered, there is generally chocolate.  It is rare for us to mentor a Mama Renew group without some chocolate being shared among participants.   We  bring it out of our bags with that conspiratorial and anticipatory glow of the satisfaction to come.

There are lots of reasons that most women love chocolate, and there is of course a whole realm of research focused on our relationship with it.   Our favourite is the research that shows it is good for us, like the study in 2004 in which women who ate chocolate every day in pregnancy had happier babies.

Another study from 2oo8 found that chocolate consumption in pregnancy could help prevent preclampsia, a serious complication.  Now of course the researcher felt compelled to add that the “results do not mean pregnant women can eat all the chocolate they want”  She further warns us that “excess consumption of all sweets can lead to weight gain and other health problems” !

So…if you’re looking to engage in some seriously delicious self-care, we suggest you attend the upcoming Chocolate Bliss Workshop at Heart Centre Yoga in Burnaby.

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CHOCOLATE BLISS WORKSHOP

Learn how chocolate can be healthy and indulge in healthy whole food chocolate recipes guilt-free. This workshop covers: history of the cocao bean, the nutritional differences between milk chocolate, dark chocolate and raw cacao, and why cacao is considered a superfood. Food sampling, interactive cooking demo, and free recipes. Come on an empty stomach, be prepared to experience chocolate bliss!

Presenter: Farah Nazarali

Farah Moolji Nazarali is a Yoga Instructor, Laughter Leader, and Culinary Artist. Through her small business- the Smiling Yogi, she aspires to help people to lead healthy, active, and joyful lives.

Saturday, February 7, 2009 3:00pm to 5:00pm

$35.00 Please pre-register/pre-pay

To learn more, visit the event Facebook Page or the Heart Centre Yoga website

Life as a Parent

Ask any expectant mom or dad what advice they hear the most and the answer is usually: “Everything is going to change.” Other favourites? “Get some sleep while you still can,” “Just you wait,” and the ever cheerful, “Life as you know it is about to end!”

To many, these pronouncements are received with a unique blend of hopeful denial, mild dread, and utter delight. We like sleeping through the night, traveling on a whim, and a good slow morning coffee and paper. At the same time, we eagerly anticipate the feeling of holding our child in our arms.

We know the changes are coming, we just don’t know what they will be like for us. It is hard to imagine life as a parent until you’re on the other side. We learn through experience – all the imagination in the world cannot equal the intuitive knowing that emerges as we hold our babies for the first time.

You can read the whole article here on Babyvibe.

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What about you?  How has parenthood changed your life?

click here to comment!