Our purpose as your educational, information & resources site

is to teach classes, offer services and sell products designed to enhance
your pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenting experiences.

We serve parents of the greater Dallas/Ft Worth, Tx area.

Our belief is that pregnancy, birth & breastfeeding

are all normal, healthy processes that have the potential
for being peak experiences of a lifetime.

Our first responsibility is to you - the expectant parent,
offering information and techniques that are based on the latest research
that will help you to have the best possible birth experience
and to ease your transition from pregnancy to new parenthood.

Please browse the pages showing our Classes, Products
Services and Events, by clicking on the titles to your left.

New Pumping Workplace Requirements - July 2010

From the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division

Fact Sheet #73: Break Time for Nursing Mothers under the FLSA

excerpt:

This fact sheet provides general information on the break time
requirement for nursing mothers in the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”), which took effect when the PPACA
was signed into law on March 23, 2010 (P.L. 111-148).  This law
amended Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

General Requirements

Employers are required to provide “reasonable break time for an
employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after
the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the
milk.”  Employers are also required to provide “a place, other than a
bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from
coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to
express breast milk.”

The FLSA requirement of break time for nursing mothers to express
breast milk does not preempt State laws that provide greater
protections to employees (for example, providing compensated break
time, providing break time for exempt employees, or providing break
time beyond 1 year after the child’s birth).

New Guidelines from ACOG
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced
July 25, 2010, they have eased recommendations on having a vaginal birth after a previous cesarean (VBAC).

Previous guidelines were more conservative, citing uterine rupture as a
possible complication with a VBAC. According to ACOG, uterine rupture is rare, occurring in 0.5% to 0.9% of cases.
_____________

Vaginal Birth After a Cesarean (VBAC) success rate
is much higher than previously thought.

National Institute of Health Research: from PubMed.gov BJOG JAN 2010

Women requesting for a trial of vaginal delivery after two caesarean
sections should be counselled appropriately considering available data
of success rate 71.1%, uterine rupture rate 1.36% and of
a comparative maternal morbidity with repeat CS option.

Bottle-fed babies may eat more, study hints
Last Updated: 2010 - 05 -10 (10:17:57) -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies who are bottle-fed early on may consume more calories
later in infancy than babies who are exclusively breastfed, a study published Monday suggests.

Researchers found that among 1,250 infants followed for the first year of life, those who
were bottle-fed during their first six months -- whether formula or pumped breast milk --
showed less appetite "self-regulation" later in infancy.

The investigators say this so-called "bottle effect" could be one reason that studies have
found a correlation between breastfeeding and a lower risk of childhood obesity.
In most research on the question of whether and how breastfeeding might protect against
excessive weight gain, the focus has been on the components of breast milk.

For instance, breast milk contains certain hormones, including leptin and adiponectin,
which could help regulate infants' appetite and metabolism. But the new findings suggest
that the way infants are fed also matters, lead researcher Dr. Ruowei Li, of the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview.
That is, breastfeeding may encourage greater appetite self-regulation in the long term.

In this study, self-regulation was measured when the babies were 7, 9, 10 and 12 months old;
mothers were asked how often their babies drank an entire bottle or cup of milk
(formula or pumped breast milk). Li's team found that among infants who had been
exclusively breastfed during their first six months, 27 percent always or usually finished
their cup or bottle. That compared with 54 percent of babies who had been both
breast- and bottle-fed, and 68 percent of those who had been bottle-fed only.

When the researchers accounted for a number of variables -- like mothers' weight and
education, family income and race -- bottle-feeding itself was still linked to lesser self-regulation
later on in infancy. Babies who had had more than two-thirds of their feedings via bottle in early
infancy were twice as likely to routinely empty their milk cups as babies who'd had less
than one-third of their feedings via bottle. What's more, the pattern was seen
whether those early bottle-feedings contained formula or pumped breast milk.

Li pointed out that obesity is a complex matter, with factors ranging from genetic
susceptibility to social and economic factors, to exercise habits all coming into the equation.
But bottle-feeding may be one controllable early-life factor, she said.

It's not certain why breastfeeding might encourage better eating self-regulation. But Li
explained that when infants breastfeed, they are in control of how much milk they consume;
when parents bottle-feed, they may try to get the baby to empty the bottle each time.
It's possible that this interferes with infants' innate ability to regulate their
calorie intake in response to internal "appetite cues."

Many women who breastfeed use a breast pump at some point, particularly after
they return to work. Li suggested that parents who use bottles pay attention to
cues that their baby is full -- such as trying to push the bottle away with the tongue
or shaking the head to move away from the bottle.

"You don't have to push until the bottle is empty," she said. Further research,
according to Li, is needed to see whether early bottle-feeding is associated
with appetite self-regulation in older children as well.
SOURCE: Pediatrics, June 2010.

PREGNANT WOMEN - EDUCATE YOURSELF !

"ONE OF THE WAYS WE MEASURE HOW WE ARE DOING AS A NATION
IS OUR INFANT MORTALITY RATE. THE PRIMARY CAUSES OF
DEATH IN INFANCY IS BIRTH DEFECTS AND PREMATURITY." ... WATCH!

Reducing Infant Mortality
 
Click above to view this new video clip on
Healthier Pregnancies and Healthier Babies

from Debby Takikawa on Vimeo.

Click on this image and connect with Hale Publishing -

which offers many Breastfeeding Publications, including the very
helpful book, 'Medications and Mother's Milk' - along with
other books, study modules, videos / dvd's.

Dr. Hale also provides Professional Conferences

Help save a life by donating
your baby's cord blood -
at no cost to you!

Fund Free
Mammograms
> Click Here <