The Family Journey

There has obviously been miscommunication at some level regarding the Colorado Rockies’ policy on breastfeeding in their stadium. It will be interesting to see where this story goes in the coming days and weeks.

When I see stories like this, it makes me that much prouder of the local businesses who take part in our BreastFeeding Friendly Project. These businesses agree to support the nursing family. Please make it a priority to patronize these businesses, and when you stop in, be sure to tell them THANK YOU for being a BFF Business!

As part of our appreciation for the businesses that support breastfeeding, The Family Journey will highlight one per week. See below to learn more about the ways Dr. Caron supports the breastfeeding pair.

TFJ: What services do you provide or products do you offer?

Dr. Caron: I am a naturopathic doctor providing holistic health care to adults and children in Northern Colorado. I offer exams, including well-child visits, food allergy testing and other basic testing, homeopathic prescribing, herbal medicines, clinical nutrition and much more.

TFJ: How does your business support the nursing relationship?

Dr. Caron: First, I welcome children to accompany their parent or sibling to their visit if the parent desires it. Breastfeeding mamas never need to worry about leaving a baby with someone else when they have an appointment for themselves or another child.

Second, I actively encourage mamas to breastfeed on demand in the office. As a mother to three breastfed children myself, I know that babies don’t eat on schedule and I am certainly not offended by breastfeeding!

Third, for mothers who might be having difficulty with breastfeeding, I offer natural therapies which can support milk supply or heal sore nipples.

Fourth, I offer solutions for babies who may have food allergies or sensitivities which may be discouraging their mom from continuing to breastfeed. It can be a challenge to figure out which foods are responsible. I have a lot of experience with this kind of detective work!

Fifth, I have developed a network of providers who I can refer a breastfeeding mother to if needed. Whether they need a post-partum doula, a certified lactation consultant, an acupuncturist, or a medical doctor, I can help them find the right practitioner.

TFJ: Describe a situation when you feel your dedication to being a BreastFeeding Friendly business made a difference for a client/customer.

Dr. Caron: Many times a woman will seem unsure whether or not to nurse her child in the office. Maybe she is new to it, maybe she is worried about my comfort level, maybe she isn’t sure if it’s “appropriate” behavior for a doctor’s office. As soon as I say “Please, nurse whenever you need to!” I see the relief on her face, and we both get to enjoy a much happier baby. I regularly check ears, lungs, and skin while a little one is happily eating!

I also have children in my practice who were struggling with severe eczema, hives, reflux, or other symptoms when they first came to see me. I have been able to help their mothers adjust their diets in order to remove the offending foods. Once the foods are eliminated from the breastmilk, symptoms improve and in many cases resolve. It may be a simple idea, but it isn’t always an easy process, and it is sometimes nearly impossible for a new mom to do it all on her own.

Additional info

I am licensed in Oregon, as Colorado does not yet regulate naturopathic doctors. When it comes to unregulated providers, always know their training so that you know what kind of care you can expect. You can learn all about me and about naturopathic medicine on my website, www.drlorrainecaron.com .

Twice each year I offer Kids’ Wellness Weekends, with discounted well-child exams. Look for the next one in November!

I will be participating in a Health and Safety Fair at Cool Beans Playhouse on Saturday, May 22, 2010 from 3:00 – 5:00. There will be door prizes, giveaways, crafts, and more! This will be a fun learning event for the whole family. Only $5 per child and as always adults are FREE.

Look for me at another children’s health fair in August. I’ll have information coming soon on my website and Facebook page, www.facebook.com/Dr.Lorraine.Caron.ND .

If you’d enjoy a couple of quiet hours to listen and sketch, please join us!

Stephanie Rayburn, Birthing From Within Mentor, will tell the story of La Loba, a metaphor for picking up the pieces of ourselves after being scattered. After the story, participants will have the opportunity to use art as a means of self-discovery.

When: Monday, May 24th 6:30-8:30pm

Where: Lighthouse Chiropractic, 2601 S. Lemay Ave #15 Fort Collins, CO 80525

Who: Mothers and Fathers interested in exploring this theme through art. (Because we want to maintain a clear space for all to create, we ask that children not attend. If you are interested in attending, but are the parent of a newborn, please contact us and we’ll work to create a solution that meets everyone’s needs.)

Cost: $10 per participant. This fee covers all materials and you will leave with your creation.

How: Email Stephanie (mentor@birthpassages.com) to reserve your spot. Space is limited, so RSVP soon!

This BirthChat focuses on the sexual relationship between partners during pregnancy and after baby arrives. Husbands and partners are STRONGLY encouraged and WELCOME to attend. Lorin Spangler-Young and Rich Young, teachers of the Bradley Method will facilitate the discussion. Please feel free to bring questions and thoughts.

Free Childcare will be provided! Please RSVP to Keri at birthadvocate @ msn . com by 5/11 if you’d like to utilize this service. Limited slots available, please respond ASAP.

Date: Monday, May 17, 2010
Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: The Tap Room @ Catalyst, 3501 S. Shields Fort Collins

Here’s a great online resource for parents and professionals. Check out Birthing From Within’s online articles.

The Family Journey is becoming increasingly connected with other Colorado grassroots birth organizations. We are excited to share some of their very important events here:

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Long gone are the days when a father paced back and forth in a smoky hospital waiting room while his wife gave birth elsewhere, in a room full of strangers. This was the stereotype during the mid-twentieth century. Today, nearly 90% of fathers are present at the birth of their children. A lot is known about the changes a woman goes through as she becomes a mother, but what about the changes of a man into a dad?

London-based author Patrick Houser has much to say about becoming a dad. Houser will visit Colorado April 29 – May 8, 2010 on a state-wide tour, stopping in Denver, Salida, Grand Junction and Durango. His workshops, presentations and classes are designed to educate parents, birth professionals and healthcare providers on the importance of the father’s role in pregnancy, birth and early parenting. Says Houser, “The transition to fatherhood is one of the most significant and challenging experiences a man will ever face. In order to have a satisfying and successful experience, fathers must feel safe, supported and confident. To optimize the possibilities for our families, we need to provide appropriate educational, physical and emotional support for ‘father love’.”

And supporting ‘father love’ is Houser’s mission. Houser’s workshops and presentations engage participants in both new and timeless information: the idea that fathers go through significant hormonal changes in much the same way as their wives, that they too need support during these transitions in order to best support their families, and that they must attend to how they themselves were fathered.

Patrick pioneered conscious birthing with his son’s waterbirth in 1980–the first in the US–and went on to work as a social architect in the world of birth advocacy for 25 years. In 2006, he co-founded Fathers-To-Be International and works internationally with expectant and new dads, birthcare professionals and educators. He is the author of Fathers-To-Be Handbook: A Roadmap for the Transition to Fatherhood.

Birth professionals, healthcare providers, mothers, fathers and parents-to-be are all invited to attend any workshop or speaking engagement. Continuing Education credits are available for birth professionals. (4 L-CERPs have been approved through IBLCE. 4 CEU reciprocity has been offered and verified through NARM, DONA, CAPPA and ACBE.)

2010 Colorado FatherLove Tour Dates

Denver:

Birth Professional Workshop

Topic: Supporting Fathers in Pregnancy, Birth, Breastfeeding and Early Parenting

Date: April 29, 2010, 1 – 5:15 PM (Registration opens at 12:30 PM)

Location: St. Anthony Central Hospital, 4231 W. 16th Avenue, Denver, CO

Registration: At the Door, $45 general admission or $85 admission with CERPs or CEUs.

Register online for a DISCOUNT of $5 general admission/$10 admission with CERPs or CEUs. Online registration is available at www.wisdomwithinyourbody.org/fatherlovedenver and ENDS April 28th.

Community Presentation

Topic: When Dads Have Babies: The Science of FatherLove

Date: April 29, 2010, 7 – 8 PM

Location: St. Anthony Central Hospital, 4231 W. 16th Avenue, Denver, CO

Registration: Free and Open to the public. Walk-Ins Welcome. Donations appreciated.

Salida:

Birth Professional Workshop

Topic: Including Fathers in our Perinatal and Breastfeeding Language

Date: April 30, 2010, 10:30 AM – Noon (Registration opens at 10 AM)

Location: 2010 Reproductive Wellness Symposium, Salida Café and Roastery Community Room, 300 W. Sackett Ave., Salida, CO

Registration: $10 general admission/$50 admission with CERPs or CEUs. Register early for the full symposium weekend, or at the door for this individual workshop.

Full Symposium Weekend registration costs are $65 general admission/$105 admission with CERPs or CEUs. Early registration ends April 27, 2010. Register online at www.wisdomwithinyourbody.org.

Community Class

Topic: Proud Papas – Creating Community-Supported Fathers’ Groups

Date: May 1, 2010, 3 – 4 PM

Location: 2010 Reproductive Wellness Symposium, Salida Café and Roastery Community Room, 300 W. Sackett Ave., Salida, CO

Registration: Free and Open to the Public. Walk-Ins Welcome. Donations appreciated.

Birth Professional Workshop

Topic: Supporting Fathers in Pregnancy, Birth, Breastfeeding and Early Parenting

Date: May 2, 2010, 1 – 5:15 PM (Registration opens at 12:30 PM)

Location: 2010 Reproductive Wellness Symposium, Salida Café and Roastery Community Room, 300 W. Sackett Ave., Salida, CO

Registration: $20 general admission/$60 admission with CERPs or CEUs. Register early for the full symposium weekend, or at the door for this individual workshop.

Full Symposium registration $65 general admission/$105 admission with CERPs or CEUs. Early registration ends April 27, 2010. Register online at www.wisdomwithinyourbody.org.

Grand Junction:

Community Presentation

Topic: When Dads Have Babies: The Science of FatherLove

Date: May 5, 2010, 7 – 8:30 PM

Location: Coffee Muggers, 644 Main St, Grand Junction, CO

Registration: Free and Open to the Public, Walk-Ins Welcome. Donations appreciated.

Birth Professional Workshop

Topic: Supporting Fathers in Pregnancy, Birth, Breastfeeding and Early Parenting

Date: May 6, 1 – 5:15 PM (Registration opens at 12:30 PM)

Location: Koinonia Church, 730 25 Road, Grand Junction, CO

Registration: At the Door, $45 general admission/$70 admission with CERPs or CEUs.

Register online for a DISCOUNT of $5 general admission/$10 admission with CERPs or CEUs. Online registration is available at www.wisdomwithinyourbody.org/fatherlovejunction and ENDS May 5th.

Durango, CO:

Birth Professional Workshop

Topic: Supporting Fathers in Pregnancy, Birth, Breastfeeding and Early Parenting

Date: May 7, 1 – 5:15 PM (Registration opens at 12:30 PM)

Location: Serving Life Chiropractic, 1040 Main Ave. upstairs, Durango, CO

Registration: At the Door, $45 general admission/$70 admission with CERPs or CEUs.

Register online for a DISCOUNT of $5 general admission/$10 admission with CERPs or CEUs. Online registration is available at www.wisdomwithinyourbody.org/fatherlovedurango and ENDS May 6th.

Community Presentation

Topic: When Dads Have Babies: The Science of Father Love

Date: May 8, 10:30 – Noon

Location: The Durango Pregnancy Expo, Serving Life Chiropractic, 1040 Main Ave. upstairs, Durango, CO

Registration: $10; Contact Serving Life Chiropractic to register over the phone: 970-422-2032

Houser’s visit is hosted by a cooperative effort of Wisdom Within, Fathers-To-Be International, A Bump in the Road, Mountain Midwifery Center and BirthSmart.

Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you at one of these events!

Mamapedia, formerly Mamasource, has a great post from blogger Rachael Heiner, who watched Ricki Lake’s Film, The Business of Being Born. In the post, it says she doesn’t know if she’ll have more babies, but her bio shows she’s due in May 2010. It sounds like she’ll be asking a lot of questions from those caring for her.

Mamapedia can be a wonderful resource when you can’t get to (or don’t have the option to attend) in-person meetings like BirthChat, La Leche League, or other support groups. It’s an online forum for asking questions and sharing advice. What online resources do you utilize to stay connected to other moms?

This article from The Reader’s Digest, written by Eleanor Lake, was frustrating and enlightening. Here we are, 59 years later, and many of the same points are being disputed. Some of my favorite parts:

“Babies have always obstinately preferred their own mother to any cow, however contented. But during the past 25 years they have had to take a bottle and like it. Busy hospitals preferred to run through a crop of newborns on a routine ‘house formula’ delivered on a four-hour schedule, instead of encouraging the time-consuming art of breastfeeding.” This same statement has been mentioned at BirthChat – has nothing changed in five decades, or are we having to redo the work that our grandmothers did in the 50′s?

It appears that, even then, it was known that “breast-fed babies gain more consistently [[is this true nowadays?]], have fewer allergies, a longer natural immunity to many diseases, notably fewer skin and digestive disorders. More important still, the baby of a mother who enjoys nursing is likely to be bursting with good humor as well as pink-cheeked health.”

I was particularly surprised that this kind of information was presented as common sense. It seems we are still (or again) being told to overlook the perfection of the physiological processes of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and new parenthood. “For months, many organs of her [the mother] body — uterus, ovary, pituitary, nerves and blood stream as well as breasts — have been involved in a tremendous and intricate effort to produce milk. When a mother’s breasts are ‘dried up’ in the hospital, this process is cut short as abruptly as pregnancy is by a miscarriage. Dr. F. Charlotte Naish, British expert on the subject of breast feeding and herself the mother of five babies…”

[[Hold the phone! A mother of 5 babies AND a doctor in 1950? I have got to learn more about this woman.]]

“…points out that a new mother whose body is already trying to move from the cycle of pregnancy into the next natural one of lactation is thrown completely out of gear by skipping lactation altogether. Mothers of bottle-fed babies often complain of feeling dissatisfied, nervous and depressed. There are fewer cases of ‘maternity blues’ among nursing mothers.”

This part sheds light on the perception of women and mothers. Interestingly, some are still in this same situation (less the stilbestrol): “Mothers who have been brought up to believe that a clever girl can toss off a few babies while running the League of Women Voters, redecorating her house and giving the smartest dinners in town are due for a severe inner struggle when they try to slow down to the peaceful rhythm of breast feeding. A woman who can’t decide whether she was meant to be a mother, glamour girl or career woman will solve her inner conflict by having no milk or else by finding breast feeding painful and difficult.
“Most disappointed mothers, however, can blame our hospitals for their lack of breast milk. Some hospitals still give mothers stilbestrol — ‘drying-up pills’ — as routine, sometimes without even telling the mother. Many hospitals start supplementary feedings at the first sign that a new mother is not a positive artesian well of milk, even though experts say that babies will not nurse properly if they are given supplementary feedings.”

I really love this explanation for why ‘ad libbing’ (feeding on demand) made so much sense: “Life is a startling and even terrifying adventure to a newborn baby. To make him feel that this new world is a friendly and welcoming place, he needs a great deal of warm and intimate contact with this mother. During his first few weeks, especially, he wants the smell and feel of his mother, the closeness of her arms. Nursed and cuddled when he is hungry or upset, he begins to feel that the world is a pretty fine place after all.”

The article concludes by saying: “Like any other career, real motherhood demands a great deal of time at first. But it pays off a thousandfold later on, in happy and responsible children and in mature confident mothers, enjoying their motherhood.”

When our granddaughters stumble upon our breastfeeding advice books and articles, what will be different? The same? Do you find this unsettling or comforting?

get born, Empowering Sponsor of Northern Colorado BOLD 2009, has just launched a gorgeous new website, and along with it a special offer. Use the promotional code BACKTOSCHOOL and receive 15% off of one subscription, 20% off 2-4 subscriptions and 30% off five or more. get born makes a great gift for new moms, experienced moms, mainstream moms, alternative moms, and even grandmas – it truly is the uncensored voice of motherhood.

With Northern Colorado Birth On Labor Day on the horizon, we’re eager to see what other gems playwright Karen Brody is creating. She’s written a one act play called Michelle Obama: Taskmaster. If you’re going to be in Washington D.C. September 5th, check out the reading at the Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival!