Natural Beginning Birth Center Blog

The perpetual question:  Where is my pregnancy glow? Pregnancy hormones can wreak havoc on one’s usual skin balance causing some complexions to become oily and acne prone.   With the increasing number of beauty products and regimes out there, it is hard to discern which are safe to use with pregnancy.  Products marketed at “natural” might appear to be harmless, however, the opposite might be true.  While some essential oils are perfectly safe to use with pregnancy, there are others that have potential risky side effects. Below is a cheat sheet of beauty products, ingredients, and services to avoid or use sparingly while pregnant: Retin-A, Retinol, and Retinyl Palmitate Retinoids are found in all types of skin care products from anti-aging moisturizers to acne creams to hyperpigmentation treatments.  They are a type of vitamin A that speeds up cell division (quickening your skin’s renewal) and prevents skin collagen from breaking down. ...

Nutrition with Pregnancy Nutrition and diet is the one thing that we can control with our pregnancy. Good nutrition is key for a healthy pregnancy. We cannot stress enough that it is important to eat a diet loaded with healthy foods and limit junk food during pregnancy. Everyday consume the following: · 10 to 12 glasses of water · Fruits and veggies: 6 to 8 servings per day including two leafy greens, one yellow and one orange · Whole grains: 2 to 4 servings · Calcium rich foods: 2 to 4 servings per day · Protein foods: eggs, lean meat, fish, chicken, legumes: 2 to 4 servings per day · Flax seeds: 1 to 2 tablespoons ground Limit the following form your diet: · Refined sugars · White foods: White bread, rice, flour, potatoes · No more than one glass of fruit juice a day · Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil We believe that you can get all the nutrients you need for a healthy pregnancy by eating healthy foods. Here is a current research article abo...

The road to preparing for your natural childbirth at the birth center is long.  Between childbirth education and breastfeeding classes, infant care preparation, regular exercise, finding a doula —  so much is invested in your success at the birth center.     As midwives, we are often asked:  What is your transfer rate at Natural Beginning?   About 30% of our clients who opt for the birth center midway through pregnancy transfer to the hospital setting.     One half of our transfers include women whose pregnancy becomes high risk in the second half of her pregnancy.  Women  “ risk out ”  of the birth center for reasons like breech presentation, gestational diabetes requiring medication, high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia.   Our  high risk  mamas are still cared for by midwives and physicians in our unique collaborative care model.  Each provider at the practice of OBGYN North and N...

This blog is meant to offer helpful information and links to expecting women. Our goal at Natural Beginnings Birth Center is to support women during this time of immense change. We believe birth is normal and in treating it as such. Below is a great article about normal birth. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/the-most-scientific-birth-is-often-the-least-technological-birth/254420/#article-comments?utm_source=fbb

We’ve all heard the pregnancy-related old wives tales, but there are truly a lot of fascinating facts about those magically wild nine months you still might not know, even if you’re currently carrying a baby in your belly.  Right now 4% of women in the U.S. are pregnant. And, no matter when your baby makes an entrance, while it might feel like forever, there’s no way you’ll trump the world’s longest human pregnancy at a little over a year long.  It’s not just the belly that grows in pregnancy, a woman’s uterus expands to more than 500 times its normal size. In addition to her uterus, a woman’s feet and heart increase in size during pregnancy. Plus, women have about 50% more blood by week 20 of their pregnancy than they did before they conceived.  As if those weren’t enough changes, when a pregnant woman is full term, her placenta will produce more estrogen in a day than a typical woman would produce in three years! Moving on, to the incredible way o...

The article below, by Adrian Kulp, was originally written for TheBump.com and was posted today on the Sacramento Bee. The article quotes our very own, Dr. Sebestyen, in an informative article for expecting Dads. Enjoy! Lessons for a Labor Coach When it was my turn to coach my wife through the birth of our first, I wish I'd been better prepared. Case in point: As I rode the hospital elevator with another expectant dad, he asked me if I knew about "the bathing suit thing." What!? (More on that below.) Since I've been down that road three times now, allow me to share my experiences with you, along with some advice from the experts. YOU'VE GOT TO MAKE A PLAN And I'm not talking about an escape plan! (It's too late for that.) Before labor, sit down with your partner to map out how you want delivery day to go. To get started, research different hospitals, consult a doula or take a childbirth class together. Discuss what will make her feel positive a...

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in females in the United States and the second most common cause of cancer death in women. Approximately one-half of newly diagnosed breast cancers can be explained by known risk factors, such as age at menarche, first live birth, menopause, and proliferative breast disease. An additional 10% are associated with a positive family history. Risk factors for breast cancer may be modified by demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors.  So, what increases our risk? What can we change? What do have no control over?  Age:  the risk of breast cancer increases with older age.  In recent surveillance risk stratifies as such: Birth to age 39 - 1 in 203 women;  Age 40 to 59 - 1 in 27 women;  Age 60 to 69 - 1 in 28 women; Age 70 and older - 1 in 15 women;  Birth to death - 1 in 8 women. Female gender :  Breast cancer occurs 100 times more frequently in women than in men.  In the United ...

National Women’s Health Week kicked off on Mother’s Day and yesterday was National Women’s Checkup Day. These nationwide awareness campaigns happen every year in the month of May to encourage women to schedule their annual well-women visits.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests women set aside time to discuss their health habits, family history and goals for optimal health at their annual well-women visit. During these visits, women receive preventative care and necessary screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, cervical cancer and many other conditions.  People often confuse the well-woman exam as just a pap smear—but it is truly our opportunity as women to assess our whole health status. Well-women visits help identify diseases such as cervical precancers early, when they are easier to treat. They allow providers to teach preventative strategies that empower women to reduce their risk for illness. And now, under the Affordable Care Act, most...

Breast self exam has long been included with the standard instructions during the annual well woman exam. However, there are very few randomized trials examining the effectiveness of this routine.  One large study in China compared breast self exam (BSE) to a control group who did not do them. The BSE group was instructed in proper technique and received a review of those instructions at one and 5 years. They also had supervised exams every 6 months for 5 years.  The women were followed for 10 years and they found no difference between the two groups in breast cancer deaths but more benign breast lesions were diagnosed in the self-examination group.  Other studies also failed to find a benefit of regular BSE in the rate of breast cancer diagnosis, death, or tumor size. These studies also found an increased rate of biopsy for benign breast disease in the BSE groups. The findings of two other case controlled studies suggest that proper BSE technique is important. Despite t...

The best way to meet your nutritional needs is through a healthy, balanced diet.  However, you may still be missing some key nutrients.  Prenatal vitamins help to ensure pregnant women get the extra vitamins and minerals needed for the development of a healthy baby.  They also help to meet your nutritional needs when trying to conceive and while breastfeeding. Prenatal vitamins provide the same nutrients as standard multivitamins with extra folic acid and iron.  Folic acid is a B vitamin that helps to prevent neural tube defects – abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord. There is also evidence that supplemental folic acid during pregnancy may also lower the risk of other abnormalities like cleft lip and palate and heart defects. Taking folic acid may also decrease risk factors for preeclampsia. Iron is a mineral and is often deficient in the diet.  Supplemental iron aids in the production of hemoglobin, prevents anemia and decreases the risk of low birth...

At OB GYN North and Natural Beginning Birth Center , we see the value of the latest medical technology in improving your health and ensuring you have the safest and least invasive obstetric and gynecological care.  Therefore, we continue to invest our time and resources in having access to some of the most recent improvements in technology like 3D ultrasounds, laparoscopic and robotic surgery, and wireless electronic fetal monitoring. Ultrasound What is ultrasound? Ultrasound is a technique to make images of the baby in the uterus (womb) by using sound waves (far beyond the range of human hearing). The ultrasound begins by placing gel over your abdomen to help the ultrasonographer get a picture of the baby. Then a transducer (scanning device) is moved lightly over your abdomen making sound waves that pass through the abdomen and uterus. These sound waves bounce off the developing baby and are sent back to the transducer. The information that comes back to the transducer g...