News — birth

My midwife and antenatal class had recommended a TENS for non-medical pain relief (avoiding medical interventions was my strong preference, given how light headed morphine can make me and how keen I was to labour in the birthing pool, which would not be possible with an epidural).  I looked into a couple of hire services online and am so glad that I chose Natal Care - the machine arrived promptly, was very easy to set up and test, and it was a great relief that it came with a return envelope so I knew sending it back would be a...

All the LOVE for this feedback from Catalina. Empowering! "Thank you so much for your service. The Tens machine was amazing and I had it on for 13 hours of my 16 hour labour (2nd baby). I managed to give birth with no other pain relief which is what I wanted. It was so empowering and gave me control to work with my body and contractions and manage the pain better. My little girl Aria came into the world on the 1st of Sept and we couldn't be more happy. Thanks again!!" Catalina TENS Hire anywhere in NZ: www.tenshire.co.nz

I am super happy to share our birth story….. The birth of little Julia went so much better than I could have possibly imagined. Being our first bub we weren't sure what to expect during birth and having heard our fair share of horror stories, I had become pretty nervous in my last weeks of pregnancy. I certainly didn't expect to birth at home and without any medication at all. My first contraction was at about 2:30am, at least the first one to be strong enough to wake me up was. From then, I was having contractions every 40-30mins or so,...

COLOSTRUM ... liquid GOLD! Here's 8 things you may not know about Colostrum... 1. Your breasts start to produce colostrum during pregnancy. 2. Colostrum is high in carbohydrates, high in protein, high in antibodies, and low in fat (as human newborns may find fat difficult to digest). 3. Newborns have very small digestive systems, and colostrum delivers its nutrients in a very concentrated low-volume form. 4. Colostrum has a mild laxative effect, encouraging the passing of the baby's first stool, which is called meconium. 5. Colostrum contains large numbers of antibodies called "secretory immunoglobulin" (IgA) that help protect the mucous membranes...