Twenty-two years ago today my life was about to change.  I hon­estly had no idea how soon the change would come or what sur­prises it would bring. Twenty-two years ago tonight I ate Chi­nese food and went to sleep and kept dream­ing about weird sen­sa­tions. In the morn­ing I ate a bowl of Lucky Charms and it slowly started to dawn on me that I might be in labor. And it scared me to my core.

Twenty-two years ago on March 20th I did what I thought I absolutely could not do — I gave birth to a baby. That sounds so sim­ple, so trite when I read it on the com­puter screen. Let me say it again: I did what I thought I absolutely could not do:   I.   GAVE BIRTH.   TO.  A.  BABY!!!!  My baby, my Alyson. (more…)

From time to time, one is for­tu­nate to meet some­one that leaves foot­prints on the heart.

Carol Ford

For those of us at Colum­bia Cen­ter, this per­son was Carol Ford. Carol was Colum­bia Center’s Direc­tor of Patient Ser­vices for the past seven years, and was an OB staff nurse with Colum­bia Hos­pi­tal for the 31 years prior to that. Carol saw many changes in child­birth dur­ing her career — from not allow­ing fathers in the deliv­ery room to elec­tronic fetal mon­i­tor­ing to nat­ural child­birth and family-centered care. But one thing remained con­stant — Carol was a tal­ented and com­pas­sion­ate nurse. She sup­ported count­less fam­i­lies through labor and birth, includ­ing many of her own coworkers.

Carol Ford (right)

Through­out the years, Carol was a valu­able role model, a tire­less men­tor, a “mother” to many and a good friend.

We wish Carol all the best in her new endeav­ors and extend our heart­felt grat­i­tude to her for her numer­ous con­tri­bu­tions to our orga­ni­za­tion and the fam­i­lies we serve.

Since Sep­tem­ber we’ve held two Sling Flings at Colum­bia Cen­ter because it’s an impor­tant topic and many folks don’t real­ize that using a sling, car­rier or wrap can be a great way to care for your baby. At both events we emphasized—just as we would with any other product—safety. In fact, we gave out “safety tip sheets” at the events. We believe that safety and babies is always pri­or­ity one.

I wasn’t sur­prised this week when I saw that the Con­sumer Prod­uct Safety Com­mis­sion (CPSC) will prob­a­bly be issu­ing a warn­ing on slings. After all, they are sup­posed to be the gov­ern­men­tal agency that is look­ing out for the safety of our most pre­cious resources. But since Tues­day, March 2, 2010 their head has been say­ing how dan­ger­ous these prod­ucts are and that their warn­ing would be com­ing out last week. I have seen noth­ing more than a week later from them that is infor­ma­tional, edu­ca­tional or helps par­ents to know what to do. I was taken aback that they didn’t empha­size that this is an issue of edu­cat­ing the pub­lic. To cre­ate this level of worry and then not fol­low through right away is irre­spon­si­ble. (more…)

Tonight, along with many Amer­i­cans, I watched “The Office” as Pam and Jim had their baby. I laughed a lot and thought about how com­edy is based on truth and how there was much to learn from this episode. Here’s my list of “Top 10 Things I Learned From Pam and Jim’s Birth”:

1. Labor and birth are nor­mal. It might not be your own “every­day” nor­mal, but it’s meant to work. And most of the time it does.
2. Dis­trac­tion can be help­ful in labor. Focus­ing on a movie, a game, going for a walk, etc., gives you a chance to let labor do its work and gives your mind a break.
3. Lis­ten to your body. Your body was so smart that it grew a whole other per­son. It doesn’t get “dumb” in labor. Your body will guide you to do what is needed to help your baby into the world.
4. It’s really a mir­a­cle. It sounds so corny, but it’s true: grow­ing a baby and giv­ing birth IS a mir­a­cle. How can you not believe it is when you see your incred­i­ble, gor­geous, and yummy baby in your arms?
5. Breast­feed­ing can have chal­lenges in the begin­ning. It’s a rela­tion­ship and it takes time to find the rhythm of give and take in any rela­tion­ship. Give your­self and your baby time.
6. One minute you feel on top of the world and the next you feel incom­pe­tent. Again, this is a new per­son in your life. Parts of par­ent­ing are so pre­cious and oth­ers are more frus­trat­ing than you ever imag­ined. In a few days you will be a cham­pion diaper-changer and baby-soother. In the mean­time, the more upset the baby gets, the calmer you will want to become. It really does help, I promise.
7. New­borns need to be held. A lot. Seriously——A LOT!!! They were held 24 hours a day prior to birth. They need your warmth, your voice and your heart­beat. You can’t spoil a new­born — they have needs, not wants.
8. Hav­ing a new baby means you will some­times snap at one another. It’s ok. Cou­ples often think that they will NEVER raise their voices or lose their tem­pers. Babies cre­ate amaz­ing highs as well as amaz­ing stress. Rec­og­nize that you can love one another and still get grumpy. Nobody’s per­fect, even if they want to be. You’ll laugh about it later — honest.
9. Allow friends and fam­ily to bring you food. You have a lot to learn in the early days and weeks. The peo­ple who care about you want to help and you need to eat. It’s per­fect! Let them bring you food. It may be the only way you get a hot meal in the first month.
10. Take a few moments just to enjoy it. The begin­ning of par­ent­hood has a really fast, steep learn­ing curve. Give your­selves per­mis­sion do noth­ing else but sit and stare at this sweet baby. You need to smell that incred­i­ble baby aroma every time you snug­gle them under your chin. Do what we here at Colum­bia Cen­ter rec­om­mend for par­ents and their babies: Cud­dle, Rock, Repeat…