What My Grandfather Almost Failed to Share with Me!

I have been blessed with knowing my grandparents. Really knowing them. In fact, I lived with them part-time while completing my internship during graduate school.
We've had many conversations, yet it wasn't until a few years back that my grandfather shared with me something that no one else in the family ever knew.

During a visit back to Massachusetts I sat on that all too familiar, comfy couch at my grandparent's house. My grandfather asked me what the word "doula" meant, after I shared with him some of my current life happenings. When he heard the word "baby" he said, "Oh, yeah, that's what my mom did. She delivered all the babies in the town where we lived."

Now, a doula isn't exactly a midwife. She is there to emotionally support the laboring woman. But it is pretty close to being a midwife, isn't it? I began to wonder if working with pregnancy and birthing wasn't something that was handed down to me from my very own Great-Grandmother! It must be in my bones to do this work!

My grandfather told me he remembered as a child driving his mother in a horse and buggy to a birth. He also remembered boiling water on the stove. I still can not believe that I would not have ever known this information had my grandfather not shared it.

I learned a big lesson that day. We think we know people. We think we know our own family. Life is just full of surprises. And my surprise that day has allowed me to embrace the idea that my great-grandmother's inner-wisdom is pouring through me with every client I encounter....

Ever mindful,
Lisa

Receiving Help From My Village

I think I have a lot of villages. There's my kids baseball community. There's my yoga community. There's our church community. All these villages seem to help keep our family ticking.

My parents just left from an extended vacation. We see them 3x a year, being 3,000 miles apart. With my parents afar, those villages listed above seem to be why my family needs villages.

Growing up, all my grandparents lived in the same town as many of my aunts/uncles/cousins. My parents made the big move, and raised myself and my brothers 1 hour away from their extended family. This may have started the trend towards becoming independent, but the need for a village would never be forgotten.

I am so grateful to all those that help my family. The postal worker pets my dog when he delivers our mail. She LOVES him! So many moms help bring my kids to/from school when I have a client or work that sometimes keeps me from these duties. Rides to swim practice, neighborhood block parties, food for when I was recovering from my ACL surgery 1 year ago all remind me of the many ways I feel blessed to have my "villages."

What is a Doula? Read on...

I found an old file that I thought I would share about my decision to be a doula (another word that most people don't know the meaning of)! "Doula" really means companion in Greek. How wonderful my journey has been to work with my clients prenatally and then be there with them to witness one of the most important moments in their life.

Read on about my "doula" letter.


I wanted to share with you what happened last week! After saying "No" to many pregnant clients over the years, I finally agreed to be a birth doula. I was afraid that I would be too sleep-deprived (I was right). I was afraid that I wouldn't have the support of my husband and friends (I was wrong).
You see, I need to be at these births. My IBP training has helped me with my own presence and I can therefore truly be in the moment for my clients.

One tool that I used for my client was for her to draw an imaginary circle around her hospital bed. This served as a boundary for her to find her center, go within, and do what she needed to do to meet her baby. My client became aware of how her energy would go "out" each time someone talked or a new person walked into the room. With her energy focused "outward" her pelvis would literally shut down, thus slowing the labor process. The circle became the one place where she could pull inward.

She used the circle to also contain the plethora of feelings that would surface with each contraction. The predominating feeling was... FEAR! We worked on her breathing, and this is where my prenatal yoga teaching really took hold. My client was able to connect the importance of taking long, deep breaths in order to effect her parasympathetic nervous system. Because she chose to be hooked up to a monitor, my client was able to see her blood pressure lower right before her eyes!

I myself witnessed the connection I had made with my client's baby. Because this woman had attended my prenatal yoga classes, I had the opportunity to teach some of the good mother messages. The baby received such messages as "I love you" this each time I talked to the baby who was ready to be born. My client had a fetal monitor on and every time I talked the baby's heart beat got stronger and louder.

I went with my intuition and followed my client's lead as to what she wanted for her baby's birth. I began massaging my client's feet/toes. Each time I did so she would get a stronger contraction. She said, "Keep doing that." When her little girl finally came into the world, I began telling her how hard she worked to get here and how happy we were to finally meet her. You wouldn't believe it. This baby turned her head around to see me!
This was all the evidence that I needed to know that I am on this planet to help women have safer, undisturbed births. Ones where love shines through instead of fear.
Thanks for listening. And, as my children keep growing, I will do this more and more. If you ever have a friend that wants what I have to offer, please send them my way.

What Do You Call This Kind of Poem?

Several months ago I went to a seminar on journaling. I wrote the following poem taking the letter "A" of the alphabet and went all the way to the letter "R".
Read on and please... will someone tell me what this kind of poem is called?


****This photo is on my website (somewhere). I can't believe how little my boys look! I am grateful for the love we shared with each other the day this photo was taken...





~~~~BIRTH AS A MINDFUL BEGINNING~~~

All
Babies
Care and
Desire a world that
Embraces,
Fights for and
Gives a chance for a
Heart-Centered birth.
I'll
Just
Know that
LOVE is what
Makes this cycle of life possible.
Now is the time to
Open our minds to the
Possibilities,
Questions and
Revelations that only a birth can bring.

~~~~Copyright 2009, Lisa Pedersen, www.mindfulbeginnings.com~~~~~

Ricki Lake Is a Passionate Woman

I helped coordinate a screening of the movie, "The Business of Being Born" this past Friday evening. There were close to 50 people there. Some pregnant couples, some moms who are way past the baby/diaper stage, some interested in women's health. They all came and watched the movie with wider eyes than normal. They saw Ricki Lake allow herself to be completely vulnerable on the camera and tell a story of how birth is becoming a business where it's being "done" to women, instead of women finding themselves empowered to make their own choices.

There were some women who wanted or had, like Ricki with her 2nd baby, a home birth. There was history shared about the lack of midwifery presence in the U.S., as opposed to other industrialized countries (Japan having an 80% midwifery presence).

Asking the question "why" is an important one in order to make informed choices in regards to birthing babies, taking our children to their pediatricians, selecting foods for our family to eat, etc., etc...
Home birth may not be for everyone. However, as Paul Crane, OB/GYN stated at another panel presentation: "Why can't we bring the home birth to the hospital?"
I would add that it is our baby's birthright to come into the world filled with love.
A room where his/her mom births in awareness. This is the right start for one's future.

I'm curious to see what these babies will look like when they grow up, having been birthed with this love. What a wonderful world it will be (thanks, Nat King Cole)!

Mindfully,
Lisa

Smelling Like a Skunk While "Salsa-ing"

Okay, talk about staying present in the moment.
My dog was inadvertently sprayed by a skunk. While bathing her, I, in turn picked up "remnant" smells. And then I went salsa dancing with my husband.
The smell could have distracted us, or those around us.
Instead, we laughed and moved on.
I'm kind of getting used to the smell and think the universe is just testing me to see how I react when life throws a curve ball.
I think I passed the test today.
And I am grateful for my first ever "skunk-salsa" dance.

Smiles,
Lisa

Taking Time for Love

In my inbox, from my husband was the following e.e. cummings poem:


i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you


You see, my husband reminds me with poems like these, that our love for each other is never finished. There's always another chapter to be written, and if I stop the writing, I stop (although momentarily) the flow of love between us.

I have so much going on in my day with clients, my kids, my own exercise, etc..
These poems remind me to be mindful and take the time to love. When I look back on my life and all the chapters we wrote together, I know and trust that my husband and I will feel thankful for the time we fostered together. And I know that our kids will be all the better for it!

With a mindful heart,
Lisa

My Favorite Pediatrician

My favorite pediatrician, Jay Gordon, M.D., recently sent me his newsletter regarding the swine flu. After reading, you will understand that any additional stress in our lives can also contribute to illness, etc..

Read on:
The New York Times reported this week that the World Health Organization raised the Swine Flu alert level to phase 5, one level below all-out global pandemic. "All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans," warns Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the W.H.O. Phase 5 hasn't been declared since the Avian Influenza in 2005.This should make you feel better, unless you or someone you know came down with the Avian Flu.Two salient characteristics of a virus are transmissibility and virulence.This H1N1 so-called "Swine Flu" virus, like almost all influenza A, is VERY transmissible. Similar to colds, stomach bugs, chicken pox and more
BUT---Unless it's a virulent (i.e. vicious, dangerous, killer-type) strain of influenza, the answer for most of us can be "so what?" And the CDC certainly seems to be saying that this virus lacks those characteristics. Not to be too facile about the 10, 20 or 30 thousand deaths that influenza causes in an average year, but that translates into a very small percentage of our population. For instance, influenza is fatal to about 35,000 Americans every year. Nine out of ten of these fatalities occur in people over age 65-70, and a huge percentage (nobody quite agrees) occurs in people with underlying medical issues like heart disease, lung disease or immune compromise. Illness and deaths in otherwise healthy people will always occur and make the best news stories, but this is an inaccurate portrayal of influenza. Stephen Hume's article in the Vancouver Sun perhaps says it best: "'Eighty-one dead in Mexico; U.S. declares emergency,' read one of the headlines Sunday. Yes, 81 dead in Mexico is something to grieve and is cause for public concern. Each one of those dead represents the anguish of a family. Yet, as the aphorism goes, one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. It's confusing the statistic for the tragedy that exaggerates fear." (Emphasis added.)This virus will spread all over, create panic, be identified as the cause of many, many, many more deaths than it actually causes and then will fade away with the real data gathered over the next year or more.Today or tomorrow... Just to say it again, this flu poses no great threat to you or your family.
Best,Jay Gordon, MD FAAP

always mindful,
Lisa