Friday Five (#6)

Happy Friday! It has been such a COLD week in Alaska. I’m ready for the temperature to be above zero. Please and thank you. This is a busy Friday Five. I stumbled across a lot of different fun things this week and wanted to share all the goodies!

This page contains Amazon affiliate links for some recommended products. This means A Midwife Nation may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. All profits from affiliate links support A Midwife Nation’s mission to make midwifery the standard of care for women everywhere. Thank you in advance for the support and happy reading!

1. Spinning Babies is one of my favorite resources for patients, providers and nurses alike. I was wandering around their website in an effort to update the RESOURCES page and stumbled on two videos on their homepage. The Daily Essentials video looks lovely (I might even buy a copy for only $16.99), but the Spinning Babies Parent Class DVD looks equally awesome. SO MANY of my patients DO NOT prepare for labor. Patients are unprepared for a number of reasons. Childbirth and parenting classes are often limited by where you live. Sometimes time is a factor and people can’t attend a weekly class. Sometimes people claim they aren’t “readers” and don’t want to read childbirth books. Ultimately, if you don’t prepare, fear sinks into the birth process. I don’t have any affiliation with the company but I can spot a good video instantly! Has anyone used either of their videos? Let me know your thoughts?! On another note, on my labor and delivery unit, we use spinning babies often to help rotate babies all the time!

2. The Human Placenta Project. Yup, you read that correctly. I’ve been following the project since 2016 because I’m fascinated with the placenta. There is so much about the placenta that is unknown because the nature of where it is inside the mama limits invasive studies, and what it is doing until the moment of birth (basically everything for the baby!). It’s amazing. Want to learn more about placentas or the project? Check out their site here and their fact sheet here. Want to go down the rabbit hole I did? Check out the news articles published on the Project, or this article published in an engineering journal. And now I’m going to go refill my coffee in an effort to stop reading about placentas…

3. My most used cookbook in my house has a sister cookbook being published in one week! This Friday Five is more of a PSA if you will – but if anyone wants an easier way to feed their household – this is it! The husband and I work long shifts sometimes, or, we have a long day and just want an easy (but home cooked) meal to put on the table. The cookbook From Freezer to Table has been a weekly staple in my life over the past 3 years. I make the tomato soup, butternut squash soup, chicken broth, foil packs, and fried chicken ALL THE TIME! The recipes are so good and they are good for you. The best part – the recipes are tailored so that you can double the recipe, eat one and freeze one – and viola! You have achieved a home cooked meal for dinner that night and a yummy one to have sometime in the future! Even more, I actually give this book away as a baby gift to expecting mamas. All the onesies in the world can’t stave off the hunger of a mama with a newborn! Okay, so the real reason for this long winded praise – the authors are releasing their new cookbook, From Freezer to Cooker, aimed at recipes in the instant pot. I just preordered mine and cannot wait for it to arrive on my doorstep. Full disclosure – I volunteered to be on the recipe team for the cookbook about two years ago and had a blast vetting the recipes for the authors! I didn’t receive any compensation or anything – I just loved their first cookbook so much! Okay, PSA over. Thank you for obliging me!

4. Human milk banks. I read Melinda Gate’s book last year called The Moment of Lift. I highly recommend it for a number of reasons. I listened to it on audiobook and it’s read by Melinda herself. I thought it would be a book about her relationship with Bill Gates, but the book was so much more than I anticipated and only mentioned Bill a few times! Melinda talks a lot about global health and the barriers to improving global health. She tells many stories of her experiences around the world and how each culture provided unique circumstances before health interventions could be considered or offered. I personally had no idea she was so involved in global health. One of the examples she talks about are human milk banks in India. This 2016 article talks about the banks in India, but this statement from the article summarizes the benefits of a milk bank best: “Wherever there is a NICU there is an absolute need for a human milk bank.” I had no idea where milk banks are in the United States and I had to look it up (see map below). I found out there is a Human Milk Bank Association of North America! In 2018, there were 6.5 MILLION OUNCES of breastmilk donated to babies in the United States and Canada. So, so amazing. This makes my heart so happy. Has anyone used a milk bank before? What was your experience like? Want to establish a milk bank in your community – read more here!

5. This last one is totally unrelated to all things midwifery. But it’s just downright funny. Saturday Night Live put out a Macy’s Children’s Clothing Ad that we have been watching nonstop at our house (for a month). If you’ve seen it, but want another laugh – check it out here. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a watch (or two…) and a great way to start the weekend!