Friday Five (#44)

Well hello! I promise I’m still here. I had two trips to see family in New York and Tennessee that were back to back…and I took the three kids on the road by myself…for both trips. Hence the lack of posts this month!

But we’re back in the swing. It’s a great Five. This one is chock full of resources…so get those bookmarks ready to go.

I also have a midwife student that’s hanging with us at my current practice. It’s got my brain firing on stuff for students again – so I’ve been updating the MAKE MORE MIDWIVES and RESOURCES pages as I come across helpful sites and handy resources.

If you ever have a resource, website, or product that you recommend as a mama or a midwife, drop me an email or a DM on the insta and I’m happy to highlight it.

Okay, onto the Five!

1. Obesity management.

Say what? Yes, obesity management. It’s something we all need to know more about and this is the podcast to learn about it. Karlie is a PA-C with a strong passion to recognize the multi-faceted difficulties of treating obesity…it’s not just diet and exercise. You will not regret listening to her interview, especially if you are a provider. If you want to know more about Karlie, she has a website: https://www.gaininghealth.com/. I learned so much and Karlie is so eager to implement changes in obesity care nationwide.

If you’re looking for more courses on obesity management, there is an offering by the AANP here: https://www.aanp.org/practice/clinical-resources-for-nps/clinical-resources-by-therapeutic-area/obesity-and-weight-management.

I bookmarked the free CEs to complete sometime in the near future 🙂

Also, if you’re looking for a new podcast and you have any type of NP business that you run, or are interested in running, bookmark this podcast wherever you get your podcasts! I also added the link to the MAKE MORE MIDWIVES page.

2. The State of Obesity: Better Policies for A Healthier America 2021.

The report was published by Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. I did a lot of research on appropriate weight gain in the obese population of pregnant women during my Masters. And the statistics were concerning then. They’re even more concerning status post a pandemic. The report is long, but here are a couple facts worth highlighting:

16 states have obesity rates in 35% (or more) of their population. Before the year 2000, no state was over 25%.
More than half of adults in every state are overweight or obese.
Obesity rates for children have tripled – 19% of children are now obese.
Being overweight or obese is the main disqualifier for joining the military.

For any students, this might be a great resource for a paper or current project.

3. A free resource for STD education!

The modules are published by the Centers for Disease Control and the continuing education is free from the University of Washington. I also added this to the MAKE MORE MIDWIVES page in the section for midwives to find ideas on how to sharpen their skills and talents (or where the free CEs are).

4. This NHS website about pessaries.

I may have needed a little lift in the bladder area of late…so I was down a rabbit hole about pessaries for a little while. The site is a little outdated, but the information is as solid as you get. It’s a great refresher for those that don’t practice with pessaries often or need a little brush of the cobwebs! And definitely one to bookmark for students.

5. We talked Infant Loss and Awareness Month earlier this month but these are worth mentioning as well and were added to the RESOURCES page.

Beyond the Loss Podcast

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support (Canadian charitable organization)

A sweet way to remember your babe every day:

Other goodies…

This overview video from the United States Breastfeeding Committee on events from August and September. Disclaimer: I donate a little money every month to this organization because they are doing a lot of work that I don’t have time to do – but it’s such important work! If you only have a couple minutes, tune in at 10:30 for the PUMP Act update.

This new site: Trash the Pump and Dump. Straight from the site: “The goal of the Trash the Pump and Dump App is to 1. Explain the true situations when pump and dumping is recommended. (Note, there are very few!) 2. Bust myths regarding contraindications to breastfeeding/providing human milk.” Love this! Definitely worth the bookmark. And another opportunity to review that there are very few instances where pumping your milk and dumping it down the drain are recommended. I added this one to the growing list of breastfeeding resources on the RESOURCES page.

A new bill aimed at reducing stillbirth in the US. If you live in Washington state or are from Washington state, this is your representative! Contact Jaime here to offer support or give advice on the bill’s goals here!

ACNM offered two new handouts for COVID to share with your patients:

COVID-19 Vaccines

COVID-19

Lastly, Journey to Midwifery is back with the new season! I listened to Angela’s interview and she has some great thoughts on mentoring midwives. It’s really refreshing to hear her wisdom from her career – she offers a lot of really good tips about work-life balance, schedules, and how to navigate loving midwifery while living life.