White Rock South Surrey Doula Services

Rapidfire promo for my new book, Jungle Night (coming March 23 from Workman Publishing.) Project evolved in collaboration with the impossibly great Yo-Yo Ma. FR...EE DOWNLOAD with every book. (This whole quirky project was SO FUN!!!) You can preorder from an independent bookstore: tinyurl.com/rh3s9ee6 or from amazon: tinyurl.com/36hrmr57 See more

A study was recently published in the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology entitled ‘Associations between consumption of coffee ...and caffeinated soft drinks and late stillbirthFindings from the Midland and North of England stillbirth case-control study’. The media were quick to jump in with headlines such as ‘Just one cup of coffee a day during pregnancy may raise the risk of stillbirth’. Really? Is coffee that dangerous? Not on an individual level, no. After seeing this article, muttering a lot and sending several exasperated emails about the way this study was publicised and the anxiety it could cause pregnant women, we this is Amy Brown and sarawickham.com - thought we’d point out the differences between the headlines and what the study actually looked like and hopefully put minds at rest. As diligent writers we note our conflict of interest and (sad) funding statements at the end of the of article.

Why do we bang on about the importance of the early years so much? Multiple reasons! Here's another..... bit of a long post, but some topics are harder to cond...ense.... This is all about CO-regulation (connecting with others) and SELF-regulation (connecting with yourself). The ability to self-regulate well as an adult is affected by how well we were co-regulated as a baby. Sound like mumbo jumbo? CO-regulation in this sense, refers to a parents ability to tune in and interpret what their baby's physical and emotional needs are in that moment, and to then respond in a way that connects with baby, allowing baby's overloaded immature brain to get back to a calmer state. The adult body quite literally physically regulates the baby body with closeness, touch, words and tone of voice. It's an incredibly powerful system, but sadly one that is so often robbed by ill informed and out of date books/practitioners who recommend the opposite to parents leaving parents feeling de-skilled, guilty and lacking confidence. You're designed to co-regulate. Actually we all are, even as adults. No one thrives when they have to manage the hardest parts of their life alone. Babies in distress are crying out for co-regulation. "This is too much for me right now. I need external help. If you help me now I'll be better able to help myself later on when I'm bigger." Babies who are left to cry and eventually go silent are not self-regulating. They can't. Babies are unable to meet their own physical and emotional needs. What people often don't realise is that the ability to self-regulate well as an adult starts with how your parents regulated you in infancy. SELF-regulation is your ability to interpret your own needs and specific emotions day to day and then respond to yourself with kindness and get yourself to a place of feeling internally comfortable again, even if situations remain difficult or circumstances have not changed. Effective self-regulation is what helps you manage the inevitable ups and downs of life. A lack of it is what causes people to struggle. Babies do not self-regulate yet. Toddlers do not self-regulate yet. Children do not self-regulate yet (although they are slightly more able to but only small and the amount will vary hugely child to child depending on their temperament). Immature brains need ongoing adult help to figure out what's going on and be helped to feel comfortable again. That's co-regulation in action which leads to the ability to self-regulate later. If you were not co-regulated in the ways you needed as a child you may not know how you do this as an adult. You may not be in tune with yourself. You may find it hard to pin point what's going on. You may not know how to respond to yourself kindly and with compassion when you're struggling (unless you're doing well you might just be hard on yourself all the time). You may just find emotions really awkward and uncomfortable and want to avoid feeling things where possible. You may find it hard to co-regulate with other adults due to all of the above. Babies who felt someone was really there for them and interpreted their emotions and needs well in the early years (*not early months, early YEARS!), will be better able to interpret their own needs and emotions when they're grown up. This is what the world desperately needs. Babies who were responded to in their distress with kindness and connection, will be better able to be kind to themselves as adults, even when they're feeling rubbish. This is where mental health can significantly improve in just one generation. This hard work you're doing now tuning in, it really isn't for nothing.

We can't plan for every scenario, but these are some good things to talk about.

There is some uncertainty as to what links exist between cannabis use and poor birth outcomes and child development. The Perinatal Wellbeing Research Team led b...y Dr. Hamideh Bayrampour is conducting a study to collect preliminary data on cannabis use during pregnancy and its links with newborn’ development. Any pregnant person, aged 19 years or older, with a BC Services Card or CareCare, and who plans to deliver in BC Women’s hospital is eligible to participate! For more information about the Prenatal Cannabis Exposure and Early Developmental Outcomes (PreCeeDo) Study and to participate/share participation information, visit www.midwifery.ubc.ca/preceedo