My Expert Midwife
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As smooth as a baby’s bottom. How to keep your newborn baby’s skin healthy.
Read more →When your baby is born, they are making the transition from intra-uterine life (inside you) to extra-uterine life (into the outside world). Your baby is coming from a dark, sterile, closed environment where they were surrounded by water, into a brightly lit, spacious, dry environment where they will encounter many different bacteria. As a result of this and the exposure to chemicals and irritants in our modern world, up to 50% of babies will develop nappy rash at least once. Your baby’s skin The skin is the largest and most important organ of the human body, as it provides a...
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Kangaroo Care for your baby
Read more →Kangaroo care is known to improve outcomes for premature babies and can be encouraged in neonatal units from as early as baby’s being born at 26 weeks gestation. Kangaroo care can also be used for your full-term baby and continued after your baby is no longer needing special care. What is kangaroo care? The name originates, quite simply, from kangaroos, who give birth to extremely underdeveloped babies (joeys) the size of jellybeans, which then crawl into their mother’s pouch to continue the rest of their development, for around 7 months. The pouch provides the joey with the perfect environment for...
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Your mental health in pregnancy
Read more →Perinatal mental health is the umbrella term for all mental health conditions around pregnancy, including the year after birth. You may also hear terms such as prenatal/antenatal depression and postnatal depression (PND) mentioned, which refer to specific times during your pregnancy or after the birth of your baby. Mental health conditions, in general, are spoken about much more freely than they used to be, with people now being openly encouraged to talk about their feelings and discuss what is troubling them. Mental health problems are now known to increase during pregnancy and in the postnatal period. You may find that...
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What is VBAC?
Read more →VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean section) is when a woman has a baby vaginally after previously having an emergency or elective (planned) caesarean section. Provided there are no other medical complications with you or your baby, it is much safer to plan for a vaginal birth even if you have had more than one c-section previously. Caesarean sections carry a higher risk of increased blood loss and infection rates than vaginal births, as well as increasing the chances of having problems with your placenta in any future pregnancies. For some women, a desire to give birth vaginally is very strong after a...
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As smooth as a baby’s bottom. How to keep your newborn baby’s skin healthy.
Read more →When your baby is born, they are making the transition from intra-uterine life (inside you) to extra-uterine life (into the outside world). Your baby is coming from a dark, sterile, closed environment where they were surrounded by water, into a brightly lit, spacious, dry environment where they will encounter many different bacteria. As a result of this and the exposure to chemicals and irritants in our modern world, up to 50% of babies will develop nappy rash at least once. Your baby’s skin The skin is the largest and most important organ of the human body, as it provides...
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8-12 weeks of pregnancy
Read more →You are still in the 1st trimester of your pregnancy but your baby is transforming rapidly. Once you have reached 11 weeks of pregnancy, your baby is no longer referred to medically as an embryo and the term fetus is used from now until birth. Once you reach 12 weeks of pregnancy your baby has all their internal structures in formed and in place and is now ready to grow bigger during the next two trimesters. At week 8 of your pregnancy your baby is developing webbed hands and feet. Your baby is making movements but you wont be...
