Yay Friday! Was this week super fast for anyone else? I feel like I blinked from Sunday night to today. Time passes quickly with little though! I always think about the quote: “The days are long, but the years are short.” It only takes a few scrolls through my phone’s photos to see how fast babes grow.
Also, you guys LOVED Chelsea’s birth stories! Thank you for reading them, sharing them and for all the amazing comments. Please consider sharing your story as well by contacting me at: amidwifenation@gmail.com.
The Five is busy (as usual) so let’s get to it!
1. Reading Challenge for 2021
What are you reading for 2021? I love to follow Modern Mrs. Darcy’s reading challenges each year. I think it challenges me to look for trends and themes among the books I choose to read versus just reading through a running TBR (to-be-read) list. The Modern Mrs. Darcy team put together a great challenge this year – a list that is tailored to you! If you’ve listened to her podcast, the challenge is similar to how she interviews guests on the podcast, but you fill out the questions yourself. They also included the prompts from the past 5 years in case you want to choose combination of those – or, if your brain is simply without any extra time or creativity from 2020’s marathon of depletion, there are lists to choose from such as “Read for Comfort,” “Learn New Things…” Check out all of the details and sign up for her challenge here.
2. Mark your calendars for this upcoming webinar on February 16th:
Supporting Your Units During COVID-19: A Q&A with Frontline Perinatal Leaders
We’re not through the pandemic yet, folks. Let’s focus on ways to strengthen our forces and mend the cracks in the foundations. Sign up here!
The risk center is a worldwide call center available at 1-806-352-2519 to help physicians, nurses, lactation consultants and mothers globally to evaluate the risk to infants from exposure to drugs and to keep mamas breastfeeding.
The center has received many calls about the COVID vaccine. They have a webpage here with the information. I found this statement most helpful on thier page since I am currently breastfeeding and chose to get the vaccine while breastfeeding:
As for breastfeeding, little or none of these vaccine components would ever reach the milk compartment, or even be transferred into human milk. Even if they were, they would simply be digested like any other protein by the infant. It is our opinion, that the present group of vaccines are probably going to be quite safe for breastfeeding mothers. The infant may even gain a small amount of maternal IgG in the breastmilk, which may even be beneficial.
4. Increasing your exercise time by just 8 minutes in the first trimester may help reduce your chances of getting diabetes! The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week during pregnancy and postpartum periods (that’s 30 minutes, 5 days a week). This article showed that women that exercise 38 minutes instead of the recommended 30 minutes had a reduced chance of getting diabetes!
5. A book authored by a midwife! I listened to a Journey to Midwifery podcast this past week in which Aubre Tompkins was interviewed (it’s a lovely interview and I highly recommend the listen!). But she talks about the book and why she wrote it! i ordered a copy to read and will add it to the list of books I recommend for patients!
Other goodies…
- January was National Birth Defects Prevention Month – this site offers some great resources and tools women and providers can use free of charge!
- This was one of my favorites reads of last week: Could we increase screening rates for mammograms by capitalizing on when the patient is inpatient? In other words, you go to the hospital for something else and are due for a screening. The hospital or facility completes your mammogram while you are there! It’s not a solution for everyone, but it is a good idea to consider ways to offer concurrent care needs at a single point of access by the patient.
- This article on other ways to bring revenue to your midwifery practice. Births don’t necessarily equal more money because of the global fee…
- This 2018 article about midwifery in the United States…it’s a little older but worth the read.
- Could statistical models analyze your electronic health record and predict your risk for gestational diabetes? According to a Chinese study, possibly. There are risk factors in your chart that could aid in earlier diagnosis and management – think a diagnosis in the first trimester versus second or third trimesters. Read the article here.
- This article on Modern Mrs. Darcey about how to manage your TBR list:
The RESOURCES and BOOKS pages were both updated this week! What else would you guys like to see on the resource page? What do you find yourself googling?
Happy weekend!
Jamie
1 year ago on the blog…Student spotlight: What to do between graduation and your first job?
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