Internacional Mother Baby Childbirth Iniciative

The audience consists of consumers, students, professionals, organizations and government representatives

Dec 2010: Mazy Zwart was in Belo Horizonte talking about the Midwifery Model of Care, homebirth in Holland and her work as a midwife in Portugal. Canadian researcher Hélène Vadeboncouer spoke of the International Mother Baby Iniciative and the demonstration site here in Brazil, Hospital Sofia Feldman. I spoke as a doula, childbirth educator, activist and mother. I also served as translator during the week. Something that became very clear is the overwhelming need for more prenatal Childbirth Education for women in Brazil. Women must have more access to regular prenatal education so that they may know the choices available to them and their rights.


Mary, Alex, Helene

Dec 2010: Mary Awart esteve em Belo Horizonte para falar sobre o Midwifery Model of Care (Modelo de Atenção Humanizada), sobre o Parto Domiciliar Planejado na Holanda e sobre o seu trabalho em Portugal. A pesquisadora canadense Hélène Vadeboncouer contou sobre a Iniciativa Internacional Mãe Bebê, o Hospital Sofia Feldman servirá como local de demonstração. Eu falei sobre minha visão como doula, educadora perinatal, ativista e mãe. Eu também servi como tradutora durante a semana. Algo que ficou bem claro é a necessidade de oferecer mais cursos Educação Perinatal para mulheres no Brasil. Mulheres precisam ter acesso regular à educação prenatal para que possam conhecer suas opções e seus direitos.





Links:
Movimento Bh pelo Parto Normal
Humpar (Parto Humanizado em Portugal) Mary Zwart
IMBCI

Hospital Sofia Feldman

Baby Blessings!

Me, Gabriela Marina and Dr. João makes Doula + Expat Baby + OB

I get to hold the baby! Another reason why I LOVE my job!

Gabi is so cool she chose a holiday to make her grand entrance.

April 21st, 2009 [Dia de Tiradentes]

Read this amazing birth story and see lovely pics taken by lucky old me at mom´s blog.

click below

Gabriela Marina is here!

UnneCesareans

Birth has become overly medicalized in Brazil.

Sure, that is a true statement for almost any country in the world. As we look at the rates of unnecessary interventions and abuse of technology, from cesareans to inductions to institutional violence, we have begun to ask ourselves what we can do to change this reality.

It is my hope that in sharing the birth practices of Brazil others may put this information to good use, consciously asking questions and adapting strategies that work to the needs of their communities. Let us remember that our cultural beliefs, fears and myths play a big part in maternal and perinatal health. It is only human to fear that which we do not understand.

Brazil is a country of women who live in diverse birth realities. Although it is accepted as a fact that 99% of pregnant women receive care in hospital, this is not true. Women in the poorest and most remote areas of the North, Northeast and Amazon Rainforest areas of Brazil may have to travel great distances to get to a hospital. Thus, in these areas due to this and local cultural women are still largely attended by Traditional Midwives at home.

Now, in the large metropolitan cities women do have easir acess to hospitals. The care in maternity hospitals is largely medicalized. A large number of births are c-sections (some hospitals rate up to 99%), the births that do end up being vaginal are most likely to include a cascade of rotine interventions from oxytocin (pitocin), shaving of the pubic area, epidural anesthesia, forceps, episiotomy and mother-baby seperation.

I have been involved with what is called being called the Humanization of Birth movement, both locally and internationally. When we used the term Humanization, it can mean different thing to differnt people but focuses on care that is respectful and based on the best scientific evidence available [evidence-based practices]. My role as an educator and doula is to offer options to women, to offer resources for risk veresus benefit of interventions and to support women´s autonomy to choose the birth they want.

Birth philosophy is life philosophy. We give birth the way we to live our lives.

Birth, Culture, Brazil

Privade Hospitals X Public Hospitals

Brazil is a country divided by social and economical disparity. It is also one of the world champions of cesarean rates, maintaing a national rate of around 40% c-section. That´s bad but not that bad, one might think, many other countries are showing similarly high rates. Then we see what the numbers really say.

Women who give birth in Public, government-funded, hospitals face a 37% c-section rate.

Women who give birth in Private, either by private insurance or out-of-pocket payment, face an 80% c-section rate.


In my personal experience through researching birth practices throughout the country I have heard of many hospitals with 99% c-section rates. People ask me how that´s possible, the answer is simple:

Women have scheduled cesareans before they ever get a chance to go into labor and possibly have a vaginal birth.

This happens usually around 38 weeks, which has been linked to the rise in prematurity, since some babies may not be "ready" to be born at the time of the c-section. It is also common for women to be told by their ob/gyn to chose the date for their c-section during their 1st pre-natal visit based solely on their due date.

These women are in large part not educated on the risks versus benefits involved with choosing a scheduled c-section before the onset of labor. And this is has become a matter of public health since it not only effects their own births but the whole ,aternity health care system. With c-sections are the norm hospital staff does not come in contact with normal childbirth on a daily bases.

Steps to Humanize Birth

From the article "Fish Can´t See Water: The Need to Humanize Birth" by Marsden Wagner

1: Education is Power. Offer quality childbirth education for women.
2: Promote evidence based maternity care practices.
3: Informed choice in primary care giver for women. Advocate for Midwives as well as Doctors.
4: Alternative birth place options such as birth centers and homebirth.
5: Integrate out-of-hospital and in-hospital birth care and practitioners.
6: Evolve new social and political forms for the medical profession and care.
7: Respect and work with nature and with the woman and family (Woman-Family-Centered Care).
8: Turn control of care over to the people (Birth as Women´s and Human Rights)

Dallas Girl and Boy from Beagá

Here They Are!

Ananda and Nathan

My Most Wonderful and Lovely Children

a.k.a Dallas Girl and Boy from Beagá

They are all dressed up for Festa Junina [June Party], a tradicional party celebrated in the month of June, thus the name. Also known as Festa de São João [Saint John´s Party], Brazilian culture is still highly influenced by the Catholic Church even though this is not a religious celebration. There is no culture of separation of church and state in Brazil, so spirituality is inter-woven into daily life. The party includes special yummy foods, kids and adults dress-up like country folk [see pic above] and do line-dancing.

I just want to make it clear that they don´t dress like this everyday. He really is that silly and she really is that sweet.

My personal experience with the Baby Name Game worked out wonderfully. I love the names we chose for the kids and they do too, all is well. I had a huge list of possible baby names both times. We did not find out baby´s sex during pregnancy. We thought that it would be an added extra bonus to see on baby´s actual birth day if we´d been blessed with a girl or a boy. So both pregnancies were gender-neutral and I loved it. It felt great to just be able to love baby without knowing if it was a boy or girl.

With Ananda I just knew that was her name as soon as I heard it during my pregnancy. Mother´s intuition is to be trusted. She still gets the usual question, Amanda? Now she´s perfectly comfortable with clearing it up. "Not Amanda, Ananda." I have to admit it got alot easier after the Amazing Ananda doll came out.

With Nathan, I had to see his face to choose a name, so I called him "rapaz" [guy] for the first 20-some days of his life. His birth was so fantastic but post-partum adjustment was what you could call PUNK. [more on that later, this post is about baby naming] I had to trust my intuition and respect my own time to integrate the experience. It´s perfectly okay to wait days to choose a name, if you need the time.

In choosing my kid´s names it was important to me that they have less popular names with deep spiritual meaning. Oh, and the names had to also be easy to read/write/say in both Portuguese and English.

Ananda is from Sânscrit meaning Bliss.

Nathan is from Hebrew meaning Gift from God.

And they are.

Baby blessings,

Alex

p.s. Alessandra, Alexandra and other variants of Alexander origined from Alexander the Great and means Protector of Humankind.

Love letters are why I LOVE this job!

I have to share the love. I was so humbled and touched to receive this e-mail from a pregnant mom this week. I have removed names for privacy reasons.

Dear Alessandra!

I received your contact info from the lovely Expat Mom who sang your praises as a doula. We are a Canadian-Hungarian couple hoping to settle in Brazil with big dreams and are coming there in March to establish our first nest and give birth to our first child, due at the end of May. We would love to speak with you about the possibility of you being our beloved doula. From what she described, you would be a dream come true for us.

With much love,

Pregnant Mom



How wonderful is that?! Opening your inbox in the morning to find a love letter.

Love & gratitude always,
Alex

The Expat Baby Name Game [Part I]

Having a Brazilian baby when you and/or your partner is from a different country does have its perks. Choosing a name is not one of them! Don´t worry, we´ll get to the perks later. If your family is multi-cultural like mine, you´re likely to struggle a bit with choosing a name for your baby.

1. WOW! We´re having a baby!
Being pregnant is already such an adventure and having a baby is this beautiful blessing. So why burst my bubbly with choosing a name that is going to work in 2 or 3 languages?! This is a process that may take longer and will be more cross-culture sensitive than for most couples.

2. How do you pronounce that?
You can test the pronunciation of possible baby names on your local/native friends and family. They will be overjoyed to repeat names one thousand names over and they will surely research and sugggest their favorite names. This exchange can be very funny, especially when you get names that sound like words in your native language. Some will sound nice to the ear while some names will actually make you cringe.

3. How do you spell that?
A letter is just a symbol that represents a sound. When you choose a nice sounding name you may have to adjust spelling or if spelling is too complicated to adapt you may decide to choose another name altogether. Try to imagine your child as a preschooler learning to spell their own name. How do you imagine it will be?

4. Nicknames?
A person will have many names that will follow them throughout their lifetime. Birth names, childhood nicknames, married named, chosen nicknames. Brazil is a nickname crazy culture, most people have a nickname - by choice or by popular demand. Somenames have several nicknames, take my name Alessandra, possible nicknames: Alê, Lelê, Lelé, Leka, Lê. I go by Alex, go figure.

More thoughts on the Expat Baby Name soon.

Having a Baby in Brazil

So you´re having a baby in Brazil?

Congratulations!

You´d like to know what your choices are?
You or your partner speak little or no Portuguese?
You and your patner want childbirth education and support in English?

It is an honor to be of service in this special moment in your lives!
How can I be of help?

Contact me for a free complementary 30 minute consultation.
On-line via skype, by phone or in-person in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais.

About me:
My name is Alessandra, or Alex for short. I´m a mom just like you. I´m a Brazilian-American, born in Minas Gerais [Mineira], raised in the US [mostly South Florida], Wonder Mom to the Wonder Duo - 9 year old Dallas Girl [Ananda] and 6 year old Boy from Beagá [Nathan].

I am a doula, childbirth educator and holistic therapist serving expats in Brazil. I offer support on-line and am willing to travel to other cities to provide services. Having gone through the experience myself as a mom giving birth in 2 different cultures and as a childbirth professional, I seek to make the experience as easy and positive as possible.

I have a blog in Portuguese, with a link in English:
http://alex-doula.blogspot.com/