Helllllloooo!!! And man have I missed blogging. It’s significantly more fun than graduate school. To start us back off, here’s a well overdue Friday Five (and we are covering way more than five!). It’s camping/summer/hunting season up in Alaska and we have plans to do just that over the next few weeks. Bring on the pretty mountains, wildlife and endless sunny nights. I’ve also been staying sane by reading any chance I get to do anything that’s not graduate school. I recently finished two books that need recommending ASAP: The Lovely War by Julie Berry and Harry’s Trees by Jon Cohen. Both fast, entertaining reads – although I still have a book hangover from The Lovely War and want to read anything else Julie Berry has written.

1. It’s summertime…are you protecting your sweet babes from the sun? Read on here to make sure your little one has all the sun protection they need!

2. Are you staying up to date on vaccines during the pandemic? Worldwide, delays in vaccine campaigns are becoming the norm and children are the ones who suffer. Most immunization clinics and pediatric offices still recommend vaccinations on schedule despite the pandemic. Read more about world concerns here. If you’re really interested, read Dr. Atul Gawande’s book Better – he goes into detail about how he accompanied a public health official in India on a campaign to prevent a polio outbreak – it was fascinating to read about. And in general, he is an outstanding writer.

3. The FDA approved a new non-hormonal contraceptive gel in May called Phexxi. It’s similar to a spermicide. Each gel applicator contains 90 mg of lactic acid, 50 mg of citric acid, and 20 mg of potassium bitartrate – the idea is that the combination gel changes the pH of the vagina and thus make a less habitable environment for the sperm. The FDA cautions use in women with a history of urinary tract or kidney infections. Read more about the drug here from the 14 page label – of note, you can use vaginal yeast creams (miconazole) or other vaginal treatments for vaginitis (metronidazole) concurrently according to the FDA.

4. Think we’ll have a baby boom in the winter and spring? Think again. This article talks about historical pandemics and economic times of hardship with subsequent drops in birth rates. I thought it was interesting since many people seem to predict it’s going to be a busy winter time…

5. New dietary recommendations from the US Dietary Guidelines for pregnant and lactating women? Yes please! Apparently a guideline specifically for these two populations is in the works and I could not be more excited. I did a lot of my Masters work on gestational weight gain in the obese population and let me tell you – we have good evidence on what you should and should not be gaining. However, 50% of women gain excessive weight during their pregnancy?! This leads to a whole host of issues during labor and postpartum. Additionally, breastfeeding women are working extremely had on a metabolic level to make and produce milk for their babes – a metabolic effort that can continue for years. Most breastfeeding women have no idea what they should be eating or drinking and the maternity system absolutely fails women in this area. I don’t know what will come of these recommendations but I am glad to see there is come critical thinking at the higher levels of nutrition.

Other goodies!

• Are you a preceptor to other nurses or student midwives? Ya’ll, precepting is HARD! Check out this article on some insights for precepting…
• This post about 101 meals to take to new mamas!
• This article on pain management in labor
• This article on placentas in COVID-19 patients
• Did you know the placenta can contract on its own? According to this study done on 34 healthy women and 13 women with pre-eclampsia, on MRI studies, the placentas in the pre-eclamptic women appeared to contract on their own to help move blood flow through the placenta – something different than a normal uterine or Braxton-Hicks contraction.

The BOOKS page was updated with some new book recommendations! RESOURCES page was updated with a bunch of contraception resources – thank you Doctorate project for those endless hours of research and reading.

Stay tuned for Monday – we’ve got a birth story of a lovely lady that I had the personal honor of helping birth her second babe!

Let me know your book recommendations for the summer! Did anyone find a good summer reading guide they recommend? I’m currently into the third book of a sci-fi trilogy called Nyxia. Think Hunger Games in space….

Happy Friday!

Jamie