BC`s registered midwives need your help!

Me & my midwife Tracy, less than an hour before Brontë's birth.

Midwives provided all my prenatal care & attended the births of both my children. Every step of the way I was cared for with respect & I recommend anyone choose a midwife as their maternity care provider. It's not just about my overwhelmingly positive personal experience, however, that makes me an advocate for midwifery. Research has shown time & again that midwifery produces wonderful results: lower c-section rates, lower incidence of pre-term births, not to mention less time in hospital. Midwifery also costs our health care system significantly less than maternity care provided by doctors.





So why do BC's midwives need your help? Well, on January 23rd they launched a New Vision for Midwifery and Maternity care in British Columbia.

Their new vision is about supporting midwives to work to their full potential & assist in the delivery of 35% of the births in BC by 2020, to increase access to maternity care in rural communities & improve health outcomes for women & newborns, while reducing health care costs – something all British Columbians can support!



To keep the momentum going, we need to spread the word & generate support for this new vision, so the general public & provincial government take notice of the campaign.

Here’s how you can help--it won’t take long:


First – Learn

Visit www.bcmidwives.com and read their Vision.

• Learn about how we want BC to increase midwife-assisted births from 16% today to 35% by 2020. Learn how this one change can mean a savings of $60 million dollars to the health care system by 2020.
• Learn about how women in the care of midwives experience a lower rate of preterm births; a lower rate of c-sections and other interventions, and require less time in hospitals.
• Learn about how midwives provide women with a high level of safe, personal care during the most important experiences of their life.
• Watch the available videos and hear Professor Elaine Carty talk about the benefits of midwifery care or hear Dr. Klein discuss the importance of expanding access to midwifery services and others. 

Second – Share

• Use your social networks to talk about what you have learned.
• Tweet this message to your followers. “I support the BC Midwives new vision for maternity care” http://bit.ly/1hPxI3x #BCPoli #BCMidwives
• Use Facebook & Twitter to share these videos:
• The Benefits of Midwifery with Prof. Elaine Carty
• Dr. Klein discussing the need for improved access to maternity care
• A New Vision for Midwifery & Maternity Care in BC with Ganga Jolicoeur [Director of the Midwives Association of BC]
• One Woman’s Experience with Midwifery Care by Sally Mennill
• Modern Midwives: Experts in Pregnancy, Birth & Postpartum Care with Registered Midwife Kelly Hayes [Vice President of the Midwives Association of BC]
• AND MOST IMPORTANT, Let government know you support the Vision! Send an epost card to your local MLA. 

Third, Recruit!

Talk to your friends & family about the importance of midwifery & how they can help.

Thank you! Change starts here - it starts with people like you who let their voices be heard.

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2013 Resolutions: The Score

Last year, in early January, I wrote a list of anti-resolutions, sort of: 10 Things I Have No Intention of Changing in 2013. It was playing along with the Listicles topic of that week, but I was also giving myself a break on resolutions because of another reason, which you can figure out with some simple math. Bronte was born in early September, so on January 6... :)

Nonetheless, I looked back through my list to see how I did on not changing any of the ten things. Here's my rundown: 

1. Eating pretty much whatever I want. I know dieting is on the resolutions list for a lot of people & I don't mean to put you down for that. I didn't go on a diet when I was pregnant--unless you count eating more ice cream, chocolate, chips & pretty much more of everything--a diet.
2. Using social media every day. Yup, definitely didn't miss a day. I may try to manage my social media usage a little more this year, so I don't feel like I'm on so often that I may as well just get an implant.
3. Staying in my pyjamas & bathrobe well into the afternoon on lazy days. Yup, definitely did a lot of this. Now that Bronte's born, getting out of my pyjamas before noon on days we don't have to go out really seems like an accomplishment.
4. I'm going to keep trying to exercise an average of 40 minutes a day. This one I did fail at. I didn't excercise more than 40 minutes a day, but I'm pretty sure I didn't make the 40-minute average most of the year. Again, I use Bronte as my excuse. 
5. My hair colour. Didn't dye my hair--though I was tempted to at least use some temporary colour on it, as I have no dress codes to follow these days.
6. Eating out.  We did eat out quite a bit... until September. Then the restaurant eating nearly ceased. Getting all four of us ready & out the door to a restaurant is just a bit daunting at dinner time. We did snack at cafes a lot, but that's about it. Now that Bronte's older & a bit more predictable in terms of feeding times, I think we'll resume our weekly sushi dinners out.
7. Wearing whatever I feel like. I had the excuse of being pregnant so people would give me a pass on what I was wearing, but I still managed some stylish-yet-comfy outfits thanks to lovely maternity hand-me-downs & the wonders of spandex.
8. Watching crappy reality TV. Yup. Definitely nailed this one. 
9. Having a fairly disorganized house. Our house did not get more organized over the course of 2013, nope. Again, I plead pregnancy & newborn as my excuse.
10. Writing Listicles! I was pretty consistent with joining in the fun, but sort of dropped out in the last few months. I do like the weekly challenge of coming up with a list according to someone else's topic though. Will have to add this in to my resolutions for 2014.

So, all in all, it looks like writing out a list of things I'm NOT going to change worked out quite well for me. Did you write resolutions for 2013? If so, how'd you do? If not, do you think you will this year? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!

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Meet ___

"Can I hold the baby, Mama?" at BC Women's

Whoops! This post was intended to stay in my drafts folder but got auto published. Sorry about that. Since it's here, rather than deleting it & leaving you with a 'Sorry, page not found' message if you clicked through from a tweet or FB post of the link, I'll take it as an opportunity to say a HUGE THANK YOU to some people who deserve awards for their supporting roles in the past few days:

• Linnaeus for being such a wonderful big brother already.
• Oliver for being here through everything & getting us to the hospital safely in our Modo car.
• Lisa, Dan & Lucy for taking such great care of Sprout---including his very first sleepover without his parents--while his little sister took her time deciding when to be born.
• Andrea & Tracy (two of our team of midwives) for being there at this wee one's birth.
• Candace & Lori (the rest of team one at the Midwifery Group) for great prenatal care.
• Jackie Dives (birth doula & photographer) for the moral support & incredible photos of the big event (sneak peek of our birth photos here).
• BC Women's & Children's Hospital staff for doing their jobs so well
• All the rest of our family & friends who provided moral support by phone, Facebook & Twitter when I was surprised by a long, slow-moving early labour.

THANK YOU again!

(& I didn't change the title of this post because, no, we still don't have a name for her yet!)

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Review: Pea to Pumpkin Pregnancy Journal

 As a blogger, you probably could have guessed that I like to write. I've kept journals on & off since I was ten--it's just part of who I am. I know not everyone loves putting pen to paper like I do, but during pregnancy, a time of such change in your body, your emotions & your life as a whole, journaling is so important.

Pea to Pumpkin, by Geralyn Broder Murray, is an illustrated pregnancy journal that's a great option for mamas-to-be who are a little short on time or writing inspiration. The journal makes it easy to write a page each week along the way, with sweet little prompts about things you are probably thinking about anyway & space for photos or ultrasound images.

It's not a tell-all, scare-you-with-things-to-worry-about journal like some that I've seen. Pea to Pumpkin's illustrations will just leave you thinking about the various rotund fruits & veggies that are approximately the same size as your baby each week, plus what you want for the child once they're born. It isn't a place to keep track of your midwife appointments or test results or weight, because years from now, is that really what you'll want to have on paper? By the end of your pregnancy, you'll have a lovely collection of memories to show your child in the future & look back on yourself.

Here's a little preview of the book from YouTube:


You can pick up Pea to Pumpkin at lots of bookstores, Babies R Us or online here.

Visit the Pea to Pumpkin Website for more information & a whole section of inspirational art, like their Facebook page for updates, or check out the visuals on Pinterest.


About the Author/Illustrator (from peatopumpkin.com)

A copywriter and associate creative director for over a decade, Geralyn Broder Murray has worked for advertising agencies big and small throughout California and on brands including Princess Cruises, Amtrak, Amazon, ScholarShare, PAC-12, Sutter Health, California Department of Public Health, SAFE Credit Union, Lucky Supermarkets, Goodwill and many more. Most recently, she has helmed the creative messaging behind California’s College Savings Plan, ScholarShare.

Geralyn is also a blogger, a sketcher and the author of Random House’s The Light at the End of the Diaper Pail and From Pea to Pumpkin: A Pregnancy Journal, released from Sourcebooks in March 2013. She lives with her wonderful husband, two somewhat angelic children and two not-so-angelic dogs in Northern California. Geralyn can be reached at gmbroder@yahoo.com or on Twitter as @GeralynBMurray.

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of Pea to Pumpkin but was not otherwise compensated for this post.

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Review: Expert Tools on Baby Name Wizard

I've been a fan of Baby Name Wizard for years. I can't for the life of me remember where I heard about the site, as it was several years ago. I started following the Baby Name Wizard blog, written by Laura Wattenberg, not just for ideas of what to name Sprout, but because it's really interesting. Even if you've already named your children, dog, cat, fish & boat, it's interesting to discuss naming trends & look at the origins of names.

One of the best things about Baby Name Wizard is the tools available on the site. Namefinder, Namipedia, Name Voyager & Name Mapper all allow you to look at names in a different way, for free.

Namefinder allows you to search a vast database of names by gender, first letter, number of letters, popularity, origins, etc. So much easier to use than those baby name books that basically work like a phone directory!

Namipedia gives you the origins & pronunciation of each name, as you'd expect from any baby name book. Where it gets better than that is the crowd-sourced information on famous people with the name, nicknames & even sibling names that go with it.

Name Voyager is probably one of my favourite tools, though it's the simplest. It gives you a graph showing the popularity names, based on US data since the 1800s. Try typing in your name, or better yet, the first few letters to see similar names, & see what happens!

Name Mapper is also a great visual tool, showing the popularity of names in the US by state.

If you're truly a name geek or, perhaps expecting a baby, you can subscribe to the Expert Tools to get even more functions:

Expert Name Finder uses data & algorithms exclusive to Baby Name Wizard to learn about your taste, suggesting names that "match,” while you guide it with expert controls including the starting letters, length & even connotations of the name. You can check out a demontration video here.

Name Matchmaker works to help you find names that you like by giving examples & narrowing down the selection for you. It's pretty amazing & the demonstration video here explains far better than I can how it all works.

Name Voyager Expert is a visual tool that allows you to see a graph showing the popularity of names in the US. You can find combinations of letters anywhere within a name, for exmaple all names with a "Q" in them, or ending in "-ette." Or you can narrow your search based on name popularity, past & present.

This is just a brief synopsis of what Baby Name Wizard can do--if you've made it this far in my post without heading over there already, you really should! & if you are seriously looking for a baby name--try subscribing for a trimester, nine months or annually!


Visit Baby Name Wizard, follow them on Facebook or Twitter too!


Disclaimer: I received a free subscription to Expert Name tools with Baby Name Wizard in return for writing a review of the service.

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Ticking off the To Do list

This pregnancy, I have been pretty relaxed about preparing for baby. I haven't picked up a single book, though I've read some articles & bought Sprout a few books to help prepare him for his sister's arrival. I spent far less time making cute weensy little baby duds, since most of the ones I spent so much time on last time around only fit long enough to wear once or twice.

I left most of the practical stuff until last week, when I remembered that at 37 weeks, I was considered term, so having a hospital bag packed, a car seat borrowed & some newborn size clothes would probably make sense. After a few calls & emails, it all arrived in short order (thanks to my wonderful sister & cousins). Since then I couldn't resist a little sewing, creating a couple of newborn gowns out of old t-shirts, embellishing a couple of onesies & sewing a new carrier for use at the swimming pool.

I keep remembering a few more things I need to get to, however. Clearing space in our bedroom for the bassinet, which also needs to be reassembled is top of the list. I also need to move the change table space from Sprout's room to my dresser so middle-of-the-night diaper duty won't wake him up. Hauling a few more things out of deep storage, like the playard (I think this might be baby's best chance of avoiding being stepped on) & the swing are up there too. & I remembered yesterday that we lost our change pad somewhere in the last year, so I decided to make a new one.

But mostly it's just a waiting game. When will she arrive? How are we going to get Sprout to his first week of preschool (starting Tuesday!) if she does arrive a few days early? I hope I go into labour when Oli's here, because the 30-60 minute commute to get here (depending on if he cycles, gets a cab or if the bridge is backed up) makes me a little nervous...

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