Category Archives: HealthEast

Prenatal Health Workshop with a Certified Nurse Midwife

If you had the chance to sit down with a fabulous HealthEast midwife who delivers tons of babies at local hospitals, wouldn’t you jump at the chance?

Absolutely, right? We thought so!

Now’s your chance. There are still a few spots left in Carrie Frantzich’s Thursday (7/19) Healthy Beginnings Pregnancy class, 7:30-9:30 p.m., at Blooma (Minneapolis).

Whether you’re already pregnant or just thinking of getting pregnant, you’ll be privvy to pregnancy tips and a Q&A with a certified nurse midwife who wants to give you the confidence and insight you need to make informed, holistic choices regarding your prenatal care.

Here are a few of the topics Carrie plans to cover (and feel free to come with your own questions, too!):

  • How to choose a care provider
  • Which prenatal tests are right for you
  • What are remedies for nausea, constipation, headaches, etc
  • Which vitamins and supplements should you take
  • Is it safe to have sex
  • Healthy weight gain, nutrition and exercise
  • Toxins and environmental concerns

Reserve your spot today and we’ll see you Thursday!

Love,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

 

 

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Water birth in the Twin Cities

The first family to have a waterbirth at Abbott.

Blooma loves hearing about and sharing the latest options in birth throughout the Twin Cities. So when we learned that waterbirth recently became an option at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, we had to give a little cheer!

A Coon Rapids mom claimed the honor of the first mom to deliver in a tub there, welcoming baby girl Kaelyn on Sept. 15.

“I can’t imagine what it would have been like without the water,” said the mom, Aimee. “It was so relaxing and a huge pain management tool.”

Most women who’ve experienced waterbirth say they couldn’t imagine it any other way. The benefits are immeasurable: easier movement during labor and delivery, natural pain relief, warmth and relaxation. And for baby, an “easier, more gentle transition from mother’s womb to an external ‘womb’ of water that is weightless, warm, wet and soft.”

Blooma families, we’d love to hear from you about your waterbirth experiences: What would you say to couples considering waterbirth? And where did you deliver?

If you’re deciding where to have your baby and birthing in the water is something you’re interested in, see below for other places in the Twin Cities metro that offer waterbirth. Your options are homebirth midwives, birth centers and various hospitals.

When making your decision, be sure to ask your specific care provider if he/she does water birth, how comfortable he/she (and the group) is with waterbirth, and what the success rate is of water births for the given group and/or hospital.

Hospitals:

• HCMC Midwives (Minneapolis)

• St. Joseph’s Hospital (St. Paul)

• Woodwinds Health Campus (Woodbury)

• Regions Hospital (St. Paul)

• Hudson Hospital (Hudson, WI)

Freestanding Birth Centers:

• Health Foundations Family Health & Birth Center (St. Paul)

• Morning Star Birth Center (St. Louis Park)

We’ve also heard that the midwives at Methodist Hospital plan to add water birth as an option sometime in 2012. If we’ve missed listing any other waterbirth resources, please let us know! And to learn more about waterbirth, head over to Waterbirth International for a slew of great info!

Love,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

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Blooma Birth Story: Rhiannon + Natalie

Sarah, Julie, and Blooma Staff,

I wanted to share a little bit of my daugher’s birth story—especially since it began at Blooma!

My water broke—just a little bit—Saturday, October 23rd during Meredyth’s prenatal class.  There was really not much action until that night around midnight, when my water broke again (that can happen, right?) and contractions picked up and became almost regular.  We tried to get some sleep, and assumed things would pick up some more in the morning.

The contractions actually became less frequent the next day, and we did a bunch of things to pass the time—went to Target, baked cookies for my brother, and went to the mall.  We were supposed to go to the hospital Monday morning since my water had been broken so long, but Sunday evening I realized that what I had thought was the world’s largest mucus plug might actually be meconium in my amniotic fluid.

We rushed to the hospital and I was induced Monday morning.  Obviously I had wanted to avoid induction, so that was hard (my midwife says: “Wow, this was a really nice birth plan…”).

When I started laboring through the more intense contractions, my midwives and doula could not believe how I was able to listen to my body and move into good laboring positions.  I’m sure I would not have been able to do that if I hadn’t attended so many classes at Blooma.

In the end, Natalie never changed positions and was almost totally posterior when she was delivered after a long, difficult, and painful labor.  Regardless, I am so glad I was introduced to Blooma early in my pregnancy, for so many reasons—staying healthy (me and baby), general education about pregnancy and birth, meeting other pregnant women and commiserating about the things we’re all going through together, etc.

Check out Natalie's supta baddha konasana!

Natalie had a rough start—for one thing, her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, causing her heart rate to drop every time I pushed.  Then when she was born she had a lot of meconium in her lungs and it took some time before she was able to breathe.  She recovered quickly though, and is doing fantastic now.  My husband and I are totally in love with her.

Also, my husband and I can’t say enough good things about the Healtheast midwives and St. Joe’s hospital staff.  I ended up with an episiotomy, but I think at most places I would have had a C-section with all the complications (her being posterior, the meconium, and heart rate issues).

The midwives were also amazing about helping me process my birth experience, which I felt pretty traumatized by immediately after.  So, if anyone is looking for a hospital, we would absolutely recommend St. Joe’s and the midwives.

Take care, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing some of you again at BYOB!

Rhiannon

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