There are lots of pregnancy and birth myths out there, and research often proves them wrong. Well a new one was recently debunked: feeding formula to your newborn doesn’t increase parents’ sleep. Here’s the abstract:
About breastfeeding and sleep
: J Perinat Neonatal Nurs. 2007 Jul-Sep;21(3):200-6.
Breast-feeding increases sleep duration of new parents.
Doan T, Gardiner A, Gay CL, Lee KA. Department of Family Health Care Nursing, School of Nursing, University of California at San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
OBJECTIVES: This study describes sleep patterns for mothers and fathers after the birth of their first child and compares exclusive breast-feeding families with parents who used supplementation during the evening or night at 3 months postpartum.
METHODS: As part of a randomized clinical trial, the study utilized infant feeding and sleep data at 3 months postpartum from 133 new mothers and fathers. Infant feeding type (breast milk or formula) was determined from parent diaries. Sleep was measured objectively using wrist actigraphy and subjectively using diaries. Lee’s General Sleep Disturbance Scale was
used to estimate perceived sleep disturbance.
RESULTS: Parents of infants who were breastfed in the evening and/or at night slept an average of 40-45 minutes more than parents of infants given formula. Parents of infants given formula at night also self-reported more sleep disturbance than parents of infants who were exclusively breast-fed at night.
CONCLUSIONS: Parents who supplement their infant feeding with formula under the impression that they will get more sleep should be encouraged to continue breast-feeding because sleep loss of more than 30 minutes each night can begin to affect daytime functioning, particularly in those parents who return to work.
Thanks to Teri Shilling (my Lamaze mentor) for the news.
I’ve been reading a book given to me called “Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life“. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Bhuddist monk from Vietnam who was (and is) instrumental in the peace movement. It is a helpful guide for true life happiness in our day to day moments.
But assuming Thich Nhat Hanh has very little exposure to childbirth education, I’m surprised to find I find much to help pregnant women. It’s philosophy – that staying in the moment and finding joy and truth in it – is really the key to birthing. Without any knowledge of natural birth comfort measures, Thich Nhat Hanh explains why techniques such as breath awareness, rhythm, walking meditation and focused awareness (such as quaker listening) work. It’s a very easy read with extremely short, easy-to-digest chapters. I recommend it to all pregnant women.
Many of you might have noticed that my website has been down for a week or so. Never fear – I haven’t quit the doula work. After some website tech support frustrations and runaround in regards to my threeriversdoula.com URL, by website is back, and updated with a new name: Three Rivers Birth Services. This is to signify that my business is growing: I’m now offering independent childbirth education in addition to birth doula services. Update your links to www.threeriversbirth.com!
Also – just a quick update: For the rest of this year, my doula services are booked except for October. If you have an October due date, or are due in 2009 and are looking for a doula, give me a call or email me! Otherwise I’ll pass on the names of other qualified and capable doulas in the area.
Today I was directed to an AOL article called “Seven Cool Careers You’ve Never Heard Of“, which tagged “doula” as number three. Here’s the quote:
Birth doulas advise on birthing techniques and serve as the mother’s advocate during labor. Postpartum doulas assist with emotional and physical recovery from childbirth and teach coping skills to new parents. You don’t need a college degree to become a doula, but to be competitive in the field you should be certified by Doulas of North America (www.dona.org). The median fee for a birth doula is $700 per birth.
How to get a jump-start: Get to know established midwives and doulas in your area and ask if you can witness a birth or postpartum counseling session to see if the field’s for you.
They got some of the info on what a doula does right, but they left out the area where doulas can make the most difference – providing emotional support. There are several organizations that certify doulas, although DONA is the largest and is my certifying organization. Also it is sad but true that my career choice is still something most people have never heard of, even though I think it is one of the most important jobs in the whole world. Great to see publicity for doulas!