Babies in Common

Recorded Wednesday, January 27, 2021.  Our guest today is a local nurse, homebirth mom and friend, Alicia Randall!

Alicia grew up an Army Brat, then served as a combat medic for the US Army, providing medical treatment for wounded soldiers during 2 Iraq tours in 2006 and 2010. She met her husband, also a veteran, while serving in the army in Iraq and they married in 2009.  

She now has three girls and shares with  us today all about her struggles with her first baby, a much easier breastfeeding journey with her second and then the unexpected challenges and triumphs with her third, including tongue tie, triple feeding , IBCLC care, bodywork and her suggestions for expectant and new parents.

Recorded Wednesday, January 20,  2021.  Our guest today is Dr. Prakash-Zawisza, an obstetrician-gynecologist who is now  the Medical Director of the MassHealth Payment and Care Delivery Innovation Division and the president-elect of the National Perinatal Association.  She talks with us today about being pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic (she is pregnant with her second baby) and her recommendations  for preparing for baby's arrival and the types of support one might set up for oneself.  She also shares  her perspectives on the COVID-19 vaccine.

You can learn more about Dr. Prakash-Zawisza's work with the National Perinatal Association at nationalperinatal.org.

Today is Wednesday, January 13th, 2021 and our guest today is Kara Coffin.  Kara is a mother of three children plus 2 dogs, 10 chickens and one fish! :)  She specializes in guiding pregnant people to co-create a toolkit of physical, emotional, chemical and spiritual supports to call upon throughout pregnancy, labor and postpartum that honors their autonomy. 
Kara holds a masters degree in Speech Language Pathology and used to work with individuals living with brain injury.  After having her first child, she blended that experience with her certifications as a personal trainer, perinatal fitness specialist and childbirth educator to create a coaching program that she’ll tell you more about today!

A free handout for listeners/viewers:
http://bit.ly/FitnessForBackandPelvicPain


And a helpful blog post from Kara:
https://karacoffin.com/phases-of-postpartum-recovery/

Recorded Wednesday, January 6th, 2021.

Our guest today is Yasmin is an IBCLC-lactation consultant in private practice in Mumbai, India.  Yasmin is also a biodynamic craniosacral practitioner, international speaker and filmmaker.   

During this episode we learn more about what inspired her to make her film, Untying Breastfeeding, and we talk about tongue ties, breastfeeding support, care providers' role in supporting breastfeeding and tongue tie release and much more.

Untying Breastfeeding is a a 59-minute documentary which investigates the narrative of the women who navigate through significant breastfeeding challenges due to the congenital birth anomaly called Tongue Tie and trace the arduous process of them encountering medical professionals who often have a dismissive, denigrative or prescriptive approach.  The narrative is juxtaposed with 16 experts from across the world who share the latest understanding/research about various factors about the apathetic factors and events that sabotage birth and breastfeeding.  These factors and events potentially have life-long implications for the health of humankind.

To watch the film yourself, as individual, you can stream it at home for just $5...

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ubsingle

There's another option to rent it to show to other professionals, see her website (above) for more information.

After listening to our show today, if you’d like to learn more about her and the film she made,
please visit her website, https://www.nourishandnurture.in

Recorded 12/30/20

Join us as we interview Aline Bourdeau, Melissa's Memere! Aline gave birth to four children and shares the details of what it was like to learn about menstruation, getting pregnant and giving birth before describing what birth was like in the 1950s (and 1960s).  You don't want to miss out on this episode--she's quite the storyteller and such a hoot!   Yes, it's a bit of a long episode but enjoy it over several listening sessions...you'll be glad you did!

In this episode, Melissa Anne DuBois, one of the childbirth educators here at Babies in Common and co-host of this Show, shares her birth story...she gave birth to her first child on Christmas Day 2012.   Join us for the holiday edition!  Some surprises included!
Happy Holidays to all!

Recorded on  Wednesday, December 16th, 2020. 
Our guest today is Sheryl White, a well-known baby sign language teacher in our area.  She’s also a certified infant massage instructor, Reiki Master and also received training in her father-in-law’s program, Dr. Burton White’s ‘New Parents as Teachers’ based on his book the First Three Years of Life. 

Sheryl has been teaching classes to parents, teachers, professionals and caregivers since 1999. Her role in the classes is to facilitate and help strengthen the relationship between an infant and their caregiver. She used baby sign language with all three of her children!

She has appeared in the business anthology "Expert Profiles" and dozens of media outlets including CBS Boston, The Boston Globe, Massage Magazine, MetroWest Daily News, School Library Journal (A national magazine) and many more.

During today's Show, we ask Sheryl 

~  how she got started with baby signing
~  why she teaches American Sign Language to babies instead of made-up signs.
~  what research says about the effect of ASL in regards to accelerating spoken language?
~  when the best time to start signing with your baby is and what if a family is already using more than one language at home
~  how teaching baby sign today compares to 20 years ago
~  to share one of her best success stories
~  to share her favorite sign
~  what other things she weaves into her classes 

You can find information about Sheryl and her offerings at http://www.babykneads.com

Recorded December 9, 2020
As we anticipate the upcoming online Birth Circle event, we thought it could be interesting for our audience to hear OUR birth stories. In this episode Melissa interviews Jeanette about her births (you'll hear one of Melissa's birth stories later this month).
To join a Birth Circle online event, see: https://www.babiesincommon.com/other-offerings/birth-circle

Recorded December 2, 2020

• Today is Wednesday, December 2nd, 2020 and today we’ll be talking about fertility and why paying attention to your overall health, nutrition, mindset and sleep can influence your ability to get pregnant.
• Our guest today is Sarah Clark, author of Fabulously Fertile--Supercharge Your Fertility Naturally.  You can learn more about Sarah and what she and her team do at http://www.fabfertile.com

 Topics Discussed:

1. Sarah's infertility diagnosis at 28 years old and diagnosed with “premature ovarian failure” and at same time had several other health issues. 
2. Chose to have children via donor eggs.
3. She continued to have health issues and eventually found functional nutrition and the realization of what was really going on  
4. Her top recommendations about increasing fertility.

Recorded Friday, November 13, 2020

Today we’ll be talking about the words we choose and why they matter, in the context of infant feeding and parenting.

Our guest today is my dear friend Renee Beebe, who is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in private practice in Seattle, Washington.  She’s been a lactation consultant for more than 20 years, doing home visits and working in a naturopathic physician’s office, where she sees families and assists with frenotomies.  She’s the proud mother of two grown women and in her spare time she loves to garden, play violin and hike in the nearby mountains. 

You can learn more about Renee at http://www.second9months.com.