Some things to consider adding to your birth plan
These are things to research and ask for whether you're delivering in a hospital, at home, or at a birthing center!
Delayed cord clamping
at least delay for 10 minutes. a good way to know that baby has the last 1/3 of their blood supply, is when their cord turns white and lengthens (wait for white). this allows baby to get all their necessary stem cells and nutrients to set them up for success
Immediate skin to skin bonding
The Baby’s temperature, breathing, and heart rate are regulated by mom. Immediate skin-to-skin bonding keeps babies warm, eases their transition earthside, your breath helps to colonize their sterile gut with friendly gut bacteria that they will use for the rest of their life. you are all they have ever known in their life, you are their comfort and home. all measurements and checks can be done in mom’s arms or can wait an hour or two.
Freedom to labor in any position
your body labors best when in an upright position. certain movements help to allow your pelvis open and blossom for baby. when we are in pain, it’s instinctual for us to move, don’t lie stagnant in bed. movement = progress. progress = better delivery. move positions approx. every 30 mins during labor.
Freedom to push + deliver in any position
Women’s birth canals are not straight, they are more at a 90-degree curve – to say the least. When women push and births on their backs, we are hindering the natural movement & the opening of their tailbone that’s necessary for birth. Every bit of force behind the pushes is being directed at your perineum, instead of pushing the baby down + out, this is why tearing is so common. Be sure to communicate with your birth attendant that you prefer to let your body tear naturally, rather than by episiotomy. And no perineal stretching, hands off! Your body knows how to stretch! Our bodies were meant to tear, not always is that necessary, though. When we tear naturally, the integrity of our muscles remains intact, when cut with an episiotomy, that muscular integrity is gone, so tears are much more severe in these cases. Sometimes we are coerced to push on our backs to make for better access for the care provider, not because it’s what naturally feels best. If your body wants to push on your back, then do it, listen to your body.
some Things to research
“Vit K is administered within the first 20 minutes of your newborn’s life. Let’s take a better look at what this shot is. Go to https://vaccine.guide/vaccine-inserts/vitamin-k/aquamephyton/ for the most common vit k used in the hospitals. See the black box warning for this specific one, due to the benzyl alcohol in it and the fatalities related to it. This is the strictest warning FDA can put on a medical product. Due to severe health & life-threatening risks. This injection was created after the vaccine hep b was put into the protocol in hospitals, due to one of the side effects being excessive bleeding and low platelet count, so in turn, they had to find a solution to thicken babies’ blood and add vit K for blood clotting properties.
All babies, and animals for that matter, are born with low levels of vit K for a beneficial, protective reason. In order to absorb vit K we have to have a functioning biliary & pancreas system. Your infant’s digestive system isn’t fully developed at birth which is why we give babies breast milk (and delay solids) until they’re at 6 months old, and why breast milk only contains a small amount of highly absorbable vit K. Too much vit K could tax the liver + cause brain damage (among other things). As baby ages & their digestive tract, mucosal lining, gut flora, & enzyme functions develop, baby is able to process more vit k. low levels at birth, now make sense.
Cord blood contains stem cells. Stem cells protect baby against excessive bleeding + performs any repairs needed inside an infant’s body. In order for baby to get this protective boost of stem cells, cord-cutting must be DELAYED and the blood needs to remain thin in order for the stem cells to travel + perform their functions. With this all being said, it makes sense to bypass baby’s gut & inject vit k right into the muscle, right? Except baby’s kidneys aren’t fully functional either.
Since 1985, the medical profession has known oral vit K to raise blood levels 300-9,000 times higher. The injectable vit K results in vitamin k levels 9,000 times thicker than adult blood. Now those amazing stem cells are moving through sludge, not nicely oiled blood vessels full of blood which can allow easy access to their whole body.
One of your vit k injectable options contains 9 mg of benzyl alcohol. What does benzyl alcohol do to the system? Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. Feelings of sleepiness, lack of desire to eat, respiratory depression, decreased oxygen stats and decreased heart rate. We know alcohol attacks the liver as well, this is why we have such a high rate of jaundice.
Option #2 contains 10 mg of polysorbate 80. This is documented in medical literature to cause premature ovarian failure and infertility. As well as opens up the blood-brain barrier (this is used in cancer patients to allow the radiation and medicine to reach the brain). In Jan 2016 the American College of Pediatrics spoke up about their concerns regarding the 50mcg of polysorbate 80 in Gardasil and the effects on children + teenagers’ fertility, as it was documented to cause premature ovarian failure. Gardasil = 50mcg polysorbate 80. Vitamin K = 10mg polysorbate 80.
Hep B shot:
This is the second shot that is protocol to inject your 20-minute-old infant with. Let’s take a peek at this, shall we? Hep B is a vaccine used to immunizing your infant against infection caused by all known types of hepatitis B virus. Causes: Hepatitis B virus spread by some body fluids. Ways to contract this virus: Intravenous drug use, sexual intercourse, or dialysis. Do these sound like the lifestyle of your newborn? if you, as the mother, do not have hep b yourself, then you have several other options to this vaccine.
The “safe” amount for that baby is only 25 mcg per day. In the infant dose of hep B for your baby on the day they’re born = .25 mg – .25 mg converted into mcg is 250. Exponentially higher than the “safe” dose.
Circumcision:
Watch “Elephant in the hospital” and “American Circumcision”
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198711193172105 pain and its effects in the human neonate and fetus Fine Touch Pressure Thresholds in The Adult Penis https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17378847/
Starting in the late 1800s, Victorian-era doctors began promoting foreskin-removal as a way to make boys stop pleasuring themselves. (It didn’t work) By the mid-20th century, routine medical (i.e., non-religious) amputation of baby boys’ foreskins had become a peculiar American phenomenon – fueled, no doubt, by the fact that health insurers paid for it.
Today, an estimated 80 million adult American men are missing a palm-sized area from their penises. Even with increased parental awareness – still, over half of all baby boys born in the U.S. are victims of a medical system that makes money from the procedure. But with the voices of aggrieved men becoming louder, and parents questioning the bogus medical claims that there’s something inherently unhealthy about the natural penis, circumcision rates continue to fall.
Most Americans, though, remain surprisingly unfamiliar with the intact penis. Parents who choose to keep their sons intact get little or – worse – the wrong information about how to care for their sons’ genitals. They don’t know that a tight or adherent foreskin (called physiologic phimosis) is normal in babies and boys, and that over time, the foreskin will loosen and separate naturally from the head of the penis. They don’t know that the average age of spontaneous foreskin retraction is actually around ten years of age, and that nobody should but the boy himself should try to hasten this process along.
Though ignorance and misinformation are widespread, the pediatric literature itself (including guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics) actually is clear: a baby’s foreskin should NEVER be forcibly retracted. Using force to pull back a boy’s foreskin is painful, and can cause swelling, bleeding and infection.
Circumcision in America today is different from circumcision from biblical times. In bible times, only the very tip of the foreskin was removed, not the separating of the foreskin from the glans. The intact penis is designed by our Creator to be healthier and cleaner. Would God really give us something that needs to be amputated within the first week of life? Maybe He created men with foreskins for a reason. For protection. For sexual pleasure when in the right context (approx. 100,000 nerve endings are removed by amputating the foreskin).
Over the years, circumcision has been used as a “cure-all” for several ailments, but all have been medically disproven. We don’t perform genital mutilation on girls to prevent against UTIs, so why for boys?
Your insurance no longer covers circumcision due to the fact, it is considered cosmetic surgery.
Swaddling - Moro reflex:
Swaddling restricts baby’s movement and prevents the Moro reflex (or startle reflex) from being expressed. This is one of the primitive reflexes that NEEDS to be expressed for baby’s brain to make connections with their body and to PROCESS the sensory information they are getting from the world around them (ever heard of Sensory Processing Disorder?).
Baby’s nervous system is trying to make sense of everything in the outside world (bright, loud, potentially scary/harmful) versus the inside world they were used to for 9+ months (dark, quiet, warm, safe). A new baby’s primitive reflexes are there to help them survive. Their brain is attempting to process all the information they are getting from their environment and their caregivers to figure out if they are safe or need to be in fight/flight/freeze mode.
The startle reflex in particular helps the baby process startling sensations (loud noise, sudden movement, waking up/falling asleep, etc.). When they are able to integrate this information, their brain learns that they can experience these sensations without imminent danger or harm. This lays the foundation for their brain’s understanding of all other sensory information like noise, touch, taste, smell, balance, vision. Without proper integration of the Moro/startle reflex, a child can develop an overreaction or hypersensitivity to sensory information. The Moro reflex starts in the womb at 9-12 weeks gestation and is ideally integrated (meaning baby does not startle easily or express the reflex) by 4 months old. This is the first primitive reflex to integrate, so it sets the stage for future nervous system development!
The first 3 months of a baby’s life are crucial in supporting their nervous system development. Starting it off on the right track will set them up for healthy development as they grow.
What to do if your baby or kiddo is having issues? Find yourself a pediatric chiropractor or occupational therapist asap!
