Dolphin as a Doula?

[image credit: http://www.livescience.com ] 

When the news of a woman planning to give birth while swimming with dolphins came across my email, I thought it was a joke…it’s not. Adam and Heather Barrington, a couple from North Carolina, are planning to travel to Hawaii for the birth of their baby in July. They are working with the Sirius Institute, which touts that giving birth while swimming with dolphins can have many benefits. According to them, “dolphins are able to heal or improve a wide range of medical conditions.” Now, I haven’t done tons of research on this, but I imagine that if a dolphin were able to totally heal someone of a major medical condition, we’d hear about it. I do know that dolphins can provide a lot of therapeutic benefits to people with autism, Down’s syndrome, Alzheimer’s, etc… 

We do know there are benefits to water birth. Giving birth in the water has been shown to shorten the first stage of labor, be a natural way to reduce the amount of pain a woman experiences, reduce tearing, and have a calming effect on both mom and baby (water birth babies often don’t cry when they are delivered as most babies born “on land” do). I suppose Sirius’ idea is that: waterbirth (good) + dolphins (good) = amazing, healing water birth experience for mom (great). 

Sounds great on paper, but when you break it down…I’m not sold. According to Discovery, dolphins are known for doing some pretty terrible things. Dolphins are wild animals; predators that in fact, have been known to kill other animals. They are strong, quick, and very agile. The dolphins that Sirius is talking about using for births are “free dolphins,” meaning they are untamed. They are dolphins in the wild who “are curious about pregnant women and often come to check them out.” According to Medical Daily, “To make any claim that a dolphin-assisted birth is beneficial to mother and child, a researcher would need to unravel the many factors involved in order to tease out the potential effects of the presence of dolphins,” Despite this, Sirius claims that they receive 3-4 requests per week from people asking about birthing with dolphins. “Some of the reported occurrences include a mother and a baby playing with the dolphins within 45 minutes of the birth,” claims the site, “another instance of a free dolphin escorting a newborn human baby to the surface for its first breath.” They claim that wild dolphins will come into shallower pools, massaging the mother to help deliver the child. Despite all of that, when it comes down to it, Sirius has yet to actually have a woman go through with their dolphin assisted birth. “We haven’t gotten there yet.” said one of their founders, Paradise (Star) Newland.

Will the Barringtons go through with it? Would you? 

Why Wear Your Baby?

[Photo from http://www.lucky-baby.com ]

A study was released in mid-April in the Current Biology journal concluding that there are actual biological changes that occur in infants when they are carried. As parents, we all know that when our babies cry, picking them up is a great way to calm them. But, it can be very frustrating when we put our babies back down and they immediately start crying again. This frustration leaves a lot of parents feeling like their babies are almost manipulating them, and it leads to a lot of babies left to “cry-it-out” when their parents just can’t handle it anymore.

Biologically, though, there is a reason that our babies want to be in our arms.

Carrying your baby reduces their crying, obviously. It also reduces their body movements (flailing), which saves them precious calories. It reduces their heart-rate, their respiration rate, and allows their cerebellum to relax, creating a parasympathetic response of well-being. When babies are left to cry, their cerebellum sends the signal that the baby is in danger, which causes the fight-or-flight response to kick in: adrenaline surges, and the stress hormone called cortisol goes up. Studies have shown that high levels of this hormone can effect developing brains, causing a decrease in memory and cognitive ability. In the study, they observed these occurrences in both mice, and humans. In mice, if they injected them with a substance that slowed their relaxation response to carrying, the maternal response slowed as well. Meaning, if your baby DIDN’T respond by relaxing and crying less, biologically, you would be less likely to respond to them and protect them. It’s all science, folks. Babies cry because they want to be protected, and they feel protected when their mothers (or primary care-givers) hold them and carry them. The less crying that occurs, the better their little brains develop.

So why baby-wearing?

I don’t know about you, but I certainly can’t carry my kid around all day long and do nothing else. I mean, I could, but my house would be a mess, we wouldn’t have food on the table, and no one would have clean underwear.

Babywearing allows a baby/toddler to be close to their mom, and feel that “response of well-being,” while also allowing their mom to have her hands free to do whatever else she needs to do.

Babywearing was a life-saver to me, especially when Belle was little, and even now. Most evenings, I cook dinner with her in a sling on my hip, or in the Ergo on my back. I am able to cook, clean, walk the dog, and do whatever else I needed to do without having to put her down and worry about her crying.

You may be saying, “but my baby doesn’t like to be worn!” …and that’s totally okay. Not every single baby is going to respond the exact same way. If your kid is happier in a swing, or chair, or on a blanket on the floor, more power to you. Biologically, though, the majority of babies have the strong desire to be held close to their parents. Babywearing allows that to happen, while keeping our lives moving. If you haven’t tried it, give it a shot!

My personal favorite carriers are the Moby Wrap for infants, and the Ergo for older babies/toddlers. What are your favorite carriers? What have you been able to do thanks to wearing your baby?

Welcome!

Welcome to the Water Cooler! This is the place where news is shared, and people talk. I’m glad you’re here!

After my daughter was born, I stepped back from marketing myself as a doula, and only took on repeat clients. Now that Annabelle is older, more confident, and less breast-fed (hah!) I’m excited to be putting myself back out there. Come on over and visit my new website: http://www.jillrackow.com.

The Water Cooler will be updated with evidence-based articles about birth, babies, and breastfeeding, in the hopes of helping to educate women and their partners in order to take control of their health-care. If you have any questions, or anything you’d like to see discussed here, please comment and let me know. Here’s to good discussions!