How To Bourne

 In graduate school for anesthesia, I did one of my large projects on the topic of the Gentle Cesarean. I presented the topic at multiple conferences to rooms of people who were a little confused about why this was an anesthesia topic. The truth is that every person in the room for a cesarean needs to be on board for an idea like this in order for it to work.  It can also be any member of the birth team that pitches this idea and gets buy in from the rest of the team. Often, the person pitching this idea will be the patient.  Below, I have included the major concepts for a Gentle Cesarean, why this method is important, and how you can talk to your provider about this birth option.  This is a pretty academic post since it is mostly made of a graduate paper. Feel free to leave any questions or check the references at the bottom for more information.  What is a Gentle Cesarean? Vaginal birth offers benefits to the mother and baby that cesarean births do not innatel...

Going back to work after having a baby can be so stressful.  My first day back to the hospital after four months out, I got a call from our nanny that baby was refusing bottles and hadn't had any milk since I left.  Six hours ago.  I agonized about what to do with this stubborn baby.  One of my colleagues heard me complaining and told me to just go home and nurse him.  They would cover for me for thirty minutes.   He tried to do the same thing the next day.  We just waited him out.  Finally, he got thirsty enough to take the bottle.  I learned a couple of lessons from this.  The first, that a baby will eat if they are hungry.  They won't starve before they will drink from a bottle. The second, that I need to introduce the bottle earlier than the day I go back to work.  If you are choosing to breastfeed, there are a few things you can do to make this transition back to work much easier.  1.) Establish a milk stash....

 I went to the Korean Spa with my daughter yesterday.  If you haven't experienced a Korean Spa- find one near you! It is a series of pools of different temperatures with jets that massage different parts of your body. There is usually a set of co-ed pools in one area and a set of gender separated pools in the locker room that is mandatory nudity because they don't want bathing suits messing up their pool systems.  They also have a huge co-ed room with lots of saunas and sweat lounges to just relax.  It can be very awkward your first time getting in a pool with a bunch of naked ladies and then you develop a sense of empowerment and freedom.  I like taking my daughter every few years to help her understand that we are all unique in our bodies and they aren't something we should be ashamed of.  It isn't everyone's cup of tea but I love it.  Anyway, in all of the five hours I was away from my baby, I developed a painful lump in my breast. I immediately kne...