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Welcome to my Doula Blog! I hope you find it interesting and informative.

My name is Natalie. I am a wife, a mother of almost five boys, a doula, and a Hypnobabies Instructor! I'm passionate about childbirth and hope to help women realize the power that is in them to birth more normally and naturally. It's my goal to help women feel confident and comfortable during pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Yes, it is possible! It's also amazing, incredible, wonderful, empowering, and life changing.

As a doula, I am a trained professional who understands and trusts the process of birth. I provide continuous care for the laboring mother and her partner. Studies have shown that when doulas attend births, labors are shorter with fewer complications. I attend to women in labor to help ensure a safe and satisfying birth experience in both home and hospital settings. I draw on my knowledge and experience to provide emotional support, physical comfort and, as needed, communication with the other members of your birth team to make sure that you have the information that you need to make informed decisions in labor. I can provide reassurance and perspective to the laboring mother and her partner, make suggestions for labor progress, and help with relaxation, massage, positioning and other techniques for comfort.

Feel free to contact me at doulanataliesue@gmail.com.
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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Bathing Baby

In many hospitals, babies have their first baths in a central nursery with the nursing staff. Nurse researchers in Canada conducted an experiment to find out if babies could be safely bathed by their parents in the mother's hospital room. Half of the babies in the study had baths in the nursery and were then placed on warming tables. The other half were bathed by their parents and then placed skin-to-skin with their mothers. The parents kept their babies just as warm throughout the bath and afterwards. In fact, the only difference researchers observed was that use of the warming table actually increased the chance that the baby would become overheated after the bath. The parents who participated in their babies' first baths reported feeling more confident and said they enjoyed the experience.

Source: Medves, J. M. and O'Brien, B. (2004). The effect of bather and location of first bath on maintaining thermal stability in newborns.JOGNN – Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing, 33(2): 175-82.

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