News from Whole Body Birth!

Hi all!

We're in the process of some major changes both for Whole Body Birth, and on a personal level, and I thought this might be the best way to share it all with you.

On the business side:

• I had a new logo and header designed for the business that really conveys the essence of what Whole Body Birth is all about!
• I also hired a web designer to fully redesign the site and bring all the functionality that I want you to be able to receive from www.wholebodybirth.com!
  
• My exceptional VA, Jacki, is redesigning my newsletter so that I can share relevant articles and information with you twice a month, and also have a format that includes a Reader's Highlights section - where I can feature your stories as well! The first issue will include two stories of courage and perseverence from two incredible women who were willing to trust their intuition and save their babies!
  

On a personal note, we found a lovely home in the northern region of the country, the Golan region, in an absolutely wonderful neighborhood and are in the process of moving in over the next week and a half or so!
And with around 10-12 weeks left until my baby is due, I am finally able to start the process of finding a homebirth midwife, and making the appropriate arrangements for a successful home birth.

With so much going on, and so much in-progress, I wanted to make sure you had a way of knowing how I can support you right now, even though my site is not yet updated!

• As I write this, I am building a resource list, and a network of professionals that can support you from pre-conception through kindergarten! They include: fertility experts, nutritionists, fitness and yoga experts, midwives, doulas, OB/GYNs for both normal and high risk pregnancies, peri-natalogists, NICU nurses, lactation specialists, parenting experts, experts and advisors in special needs children.... If you can immagine you'll need someone, they'll be accessible here! And you can be sure that if they are in my network they are vetted for mother-centered care. They are trustworthy, and informative, and have a balanced and evidence-based practice!
• While I am developing an incredible system to mentor women and couples through conception through birth, I will be hand-tailoring private mentoring packages to each individual woman and couple. For information about that and to set up your Initial Interview, email info@wholebodybeauty.com and put "Initial Interview" in the subject line.

Watch your inboxes for the next issue of Whole Body Birth online ezine to see some other very exciting announcements (like the HUGE world Telesummit coming this September!!)!
And if you're not already signed up to receive the e-zine, you can sign up right on our homepage at www.wholebodybirth.com

I can't wait to hear from you!!

In service and with love,
~Ayelet

We are all individuals! (I'm not)

It's a quote from a Monty Python movie... I do hope you're laughing!

Anyway, the point is that each and every one of us was created as an individual entity and although we are all connected at our source, our bodies and experiences contribute to the uniqueness of our personal journey.

This goes for every aspect of fertility, pregnancy, birth and post-partum as well.

The realization I had today was about gestation times. When you go to your first prenatal appointment, your care provider will ask you for the date of your last menstrual period (LMP) then they do some fancy math and arrive at a due date for you which they attempt to confirm in an ultrasound. If you're lucky, you're care provider may ask you if you know when you conceived or when you ovulated. But most often, your due date is determined as 40 weeks from your LMP.

Who cares? When does this become a problem?

It becomes a problem towards the end of pregnancy: anxiety over going past your due date, impatience, decisions about inductions, etc...

But we all actually gestate on our own individual schedule. And especially if you conceived on any day other than day 14 of that cycle, you will have an inaccurate due date.

So I've developed a theory about my own body over the past three pregnancies, and I am sharing it with you for the sake of showing how each and every woman, and each pregnancy is different.

So after experiencing life in the 3rd trimester 3 times now, I have some insight into the uniqueness of my body's gestational trends.

My babies were both born early - and even Tani who should probably not have been forced to be born at 36 weeks, would not have gone much past 37. And Odeliya was born at 38 wks. Well, here I am at 28wks and just 4 weeks ago I said to my husband that I could see actually making it to 40 wks this time, no big deal.

Then the minute I hit 26 weeks my body went into 3rd trimester mode - 2 weeks early! And since then i've been miserable. Tired, peeing every minute, lots of BH ctrx, low back pain, sciatica, reflux from everything... the works. I think our bodies are only designed to tolerate that for so long!

So my theory is that I just don't gestate for 40 weeks. I make babies that are ready to be born by 38 weeks, b/c my body goes into 3rd-trimester-mode at 26 weeks. And you know what? That's ok. I'm cool with that. It's all good!

Of course, they say 3rd babies will throw you for a loop every time, but we'll see!

I hope this inspires some of you to question your due dates if it is leading to external problems!

Ok, gotto go do some pelvic tilts to get this baby off my sciatic nerve!!

Love to you!
~Ayelet

How to make an "Informed Choice"

What does it mean to truly make an informed choice?

It gets very complicated when applied to pregnancy, birth and parenting, because if we are truly thinking, empowered women then we should be constantly questioning the sources of our information, and the biases they may have.

So attention empowered, enlightened, intelligent women! Here's an example of making an informed choice that is clear and will help you to determine what information you need about your pregnancy and childbirth choices to ensure that they are truly informed choices.

Imagine that you have a really bad cold. You head is fuzzy, you're congested, you haven't slept in 2 days, and your energy levels are pretty darn low.
It's 5pm on day 3 of this cold and you just have to get some sleep! So you go to your bathroom cabinet and open the door. You've tried the saline drops, you've upped your Vit C and Zinc intake, but tonight, the most important thing in your consciousness is just breathing so you can get to sleep. So you reach for the Benedryl.
Now, you know quite well that if you take the antihistamine which will dry you out and let you sleep, you are going to be a basketcase in the morning. It just makes you groggy for 24 hours and you know that.
So now you have to make a choice. You can choose to take the antihistamine and rearrange your schedule tomorrow so that you can take it easy and sleep off the drug, or you can choose to suffer with your congestion for one more night in the hopes that it starts clearing up tomorrow.

If you open your cabinet and grab the drugs and take them because they're OTC, and everyone takes it, without a second thought - and then in the morning you get up and drive to work and get into a fender-bender b/c your strangely and unexpectedly groggy - whose fault is that?
Was it the fault of the antihistamine? Or was it the result of an uninformed choice?!

It is just that simple with choices about your prenatal care, birthing and parenting. If you know all the risks and benefits associated with the choices you make, then you can make choices with confidence, because aside from truly being aware of all your options, you will also be able to make accommodations for any unwanted outcomes!

It is extremely important to note that this goes for making choices about having interventions as well as making choices to avoid them!

If you're wondering how you can get your hands on all that information about risks and benefits of each choice you make, the answers are now in ONE PLACE!! The Whole Body Birth & Baby Inner Circle is coming this week and you can be a part of it! Sign up for updates at www.wholebodybirth.com and be the first to get all the details!! BONUS: You'll also get a copy of the new Report: "The #1 Mistake Couples Make in Pregnancy and How YOU Can Avoid It!"

Love to each and every one of you and blessings on your journey!

Love,
Ayelet