OmMama Pregnancy Pipeline
Issue No. 12
May 2008
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Letter from Leslie
What's New
Birth Story
Yoga Tip: Settting Yourself Up For Sleep
Two New Documentaries
Guide to Safe Plastics
St. James Armenian Soup Recipe
Featured Community Service Organization
Resources
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Suggestion Box:

Any classes you'd like to see offered? Topics covered? Questions answered? Send them here: info@ommama.com

 

Dear Friends,

There is a lot of good stuff popping up along with the flowers and Richmond’s notorious pollen this May. First things last, please check out our Community Service Organization. The Mother’s Gift Circle will be collecting new and lightly used babystuff for Richmond’s teen moms next week in the Cary Court parking lot. Your donations are greatly appreciated.

This month’s Yoga Tip shows how to set yourself up for comfortable sleep. Also in the newsletter are announcements about two new documentaries on childbirth and a guide to safer plastics. As always, our Inspiration section is full of birth stories from our students. And my mother shares a great recipe for a soup that is full of flavor and goodness.

Enjoy this wonderful weather!

Namaste,

Leslie

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What's New
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Birth Story

Anna Jane M.

I woke up Tuesday morning April 22nd, 5 days past my due date and prayed that today would be the day. I was scheduled to go in Wednesday night and was not feeling at peace with the anticipated induction.. . .

Read Full Birth Story

Setting yourself up for sleep.

Getting comfortable for sleep can become challenging as your baby takes up more and more of your internal space, making it difficult to shift positions and placing a pull on your lower back. Check out these photos for a demonstration of side-lying Savasana that can be adapted for sleep using pillows instead of yoga props.


Shown is a basic set-up for side lying Savasana which uses a minimum of props: a block (or pillow) for your head, a blanket to cushion your torso, a rolled-up blanket to support your belly and upper arm, and a bolster to support your upper leg.


Lie down on the set-up with lower armpit even with the top of the blanket: this creates a channel that takes some pressure off your lower arm, which can become compressed when resting or sleeping in a side-lying position. Bring the rolled up blanket underneath your belly slightly, to reduce the pull of the belly on your lower back. Your upper arm cradles the blanket. Then bend your upper leg and rest it on the bolster (or alternatively, place the bolster between your legs). Settle in and let go.
When setting up for sleep at night or naptime, use pillows instead of yoga props to ease yourself into a well supported position.

 

Prenatal Article

Changing the way we perceive childbirth:
Two new documentaries

The images of childbirth we see in our culture lean toward the dramatic and the absurd: Hugh Grant and his laboring girlfriend careening through the streets of San Francisco in an SUV as if in a high speed chase. Or the caricature of the hysterical woman out of control with pain screeching at her partner. It’s a laugh a minute. And certainly sells in the cinema and on the Baby Channel. But these images are oh so different from the reality of what I have experienced over nine plus years of attending births.

My experience tells me that birth is not nearly so dramatic in an adrenaline rush kind of way as it is transformative in a deepening kind of way. The drama is not so much external as internal: the rich experience unfolding within the laboring mother’s heart and mind. Childbirth is one of the most significant rites of passage a woman gets to go through and still be able to talk about on the other side. In my experience, women who report feeling satisfied about their birth experiences have had labors that were accompanied by privacy, a lack of interruptions, patience, love, and devotion. Tenderness. These are qualities that don’t play out well in a media environment that goes for sound bites and punchy action.

There are a couple of opportunities available now that examine the experience of birth from more intimate and thought provoking perspectives. The documentary The Business of Being Born is now out on DVD, and is available though Netflix.  This film, produced by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, played at Richmond at the Byrd Theatre in February and is receiving rave reviews across the country.

And on May 16, the acclaimed ABC-TV news show “20/20” airing a segment from another documentary film, Orgasmic Birth, as part of its Mother’s Day program. Debra Pascali-Bonaro, producer/director of the new film Orgasmic Birth will be interviewed, as will women’s health advocate Christiane Northrup, MD, and Amber Hartnell, whose birth is featured in the film. I encourage you to take a look at these films, which provide a refreshing contrast to the ways birth is treated in popular culture. And please let me know what you think!
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Postnatal Article

Guide to Safe Plastics

The postnatal classes are all abuzz with concerns about the toxin Bisphenol A and its presence in plastics we use to feed our babies and ourselves. I was dismayed to find that the re-usable water bottle I’d just purchased from an eco-friendly store was made out of the worst kind of plastic. Former prenatal student Jennifer Johnson, mother to Olivia and Liam, sent this link to an Oregon site that has a great cheat sheet and walletcard you can take with you when heading out to make purchases:

Tiny Footprints

St. James Armenian Soup

Here’s a soup my mother the food writer adapted from one we had at the Armenian Food Festival a few years ago. So simple. So good. Sumac, a dark brick red in color, gives a sour taste in this soup and other Middle Eastern dishes. You can pick up sumac and dried mint at the Mediterranean Bakery. Lacking sumac, lemon juice works, if you use 1/4 lemon per bowl at time of serving.

Makes about 8 cups, enough for 4 to 6 servings

  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 quarts (8 cups) vegetable or chicken broth, or water
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste (optional)
  • 3/4 cup lentils, picked over & washed
  • 1/3 cup bulgar
  • 2 tablespoons crushed dried mint or 2 teaspoons dried dill weed
  • 2 to 3 teaspoons sumac (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cracked red pepper flakes
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 bunch spinach, stemmed, washed, drained and chopped
  • Lemon quarters

In large saucepan or Dutch oven, sauté onion in oil until lightly browned, stirring often. Stir in garlic and cook another minute or two. Add broth and tomato paste, bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in lentils, bulgar, mint, sumac, oregano and red pepper; bring again to a boil over medium heat. Turn heat to low, cover and simmer until lentils are tender and bulgar is mushy, 20 to 35 minutes, depending on type of lentils. Taste and add salt.

Chop spinach coarsely, stir into simmering soup and cook just until wilted, about 2 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and serve hot. With pita bread. And possibly crumbled feta cheese. Alternatively, you can place the chopped spinach in serving bowls and ladle hot soup over it to wilt individual servings.

 

Featured Community Service Organization

Mother’s Gift Circle
How many stuffed animals does a baby need?

At least one.

You can bring joy to Richmond’s most vulnerable new families by re-gifting a baby item you don’t want or need.

At any given moment hundreds of Richmond teens are facing the challenges of pregnancy, and in addition to the normal challenges these girls often face fear, shame, loneliness, poverty, homelessness, and violence.

Mother’s Gift Circle collects, wraps and distributes baby gifts through the Department of Public Health. In addition to spreading joy, these presents help keep girls involved in programs that educate about pre-natal health, labor, caring for a newborn, birth control and the importance of staying in school. You can help. Mother’s Gift Circle is in constant need of:

  • New and truly like-new clothes, toys, and baby accoutrements
  • Lightly used gift bags, tissue paper and ribbons

Bring your donations to the Cary Court parking lot:

  • Tuesday, May 13th from 5:30 – 6:30 pm  OR
  • Saturday, May 17th from 10 – 11:00 am

Don’t have extras? Visit the Children’s Market & Exchange in Carytown to purchase and donate items.

We thank you in advance for your generosity.

Mothers Gift Circle 804-795-7443

Prenatal & Postnatal Resources

OmMama’s website features one of the best compilation of local and national resources for expecting and new families. Click here to view our online resource list.

Do you provide a service or business of interest to childbearing families in the Richmond Metropolitan area that you would like to list here? Please email info@ommama.com for information about our listing guidelines.