Austin Birthing Center

Baby Love:  an hour a week to learn loving techniques for the health and wellness of your baby!

Every Tuesday 6-7 pm at AABC’s Wm. Cannon location

New moms (dads are welcome, too!) with babies up to 6 months old are welcome to join our circle each week to learn and practice baby massage and yoga.  Both baby and Mom benefit from the experience of loving touch…..

~baby feels loved and valued, which allows self esteem and confidence to develop

~Mom develops sensitivity in understanding baby’s needs which also builds confidence in herself as a parent

Everyone enjoys a respite of relaxation and intimacy from the busy world. Meet other Moms, have fun, and develop healthy habits early in your baby’s life.

Contact AABC at 243-8066 for more information.

There has been much confusion over the past few years about whether birthing professionals outside hospitals could safely handle vaginal births after cesarians (VBACs). The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the leading nonprofit organization for physicians specializing in women’s health, has stated that VBACs can be safely managed by accredited birthing centers. The American Association of Birthing Centers, the leading nonprofit organization representing birthing centers in the U.S., agrees with ACOG that birthing centers such as Austin Area Birthing Center that meet stringent requirements for accreditation are qualified to give care to women who want a natural birth despite having had one or two previous births by cesarian section. Austin ABC is the only accredited birthing center in Central Texas and routinely provides care for women who want a VBAC.

Austin ABC has developed a new series of birthing classes inspired by today’s most popular birth education approaches. Starting June 17, “New Trends” will provide a mix of empowering tools to help expectant mothers have good birthing experiences. The new classes reflect current trends in the teaching of pregnancy care and birthing as found in the Bradley method, “Birthing From Within”, hypnobirthing, and other modern approaches.   AABC’s New Trends classes are meant to complement AABC’s other free classes (early pregnancy care, “Birth In A Nutshell”, birthing yoga, breastfeeding) but may be taken as a stand alone course. The tools include lots of information about prenatal care, labor and birth, and postpartum care; relaxation techniques; visualization; affirmation; and relationship building with other moms in your group. The birthing tools will be presented in an interactive setting and include reading, lectures, videos and group participation in four two-hour sessions. Each session will begin with an opportunity for moms to give input, provide feedback, and share among the group. Taught at AABC’s Duval location, the classes help set expectations for what a client will encounter during her experience with AABC, including interaction with the staff and information on how different birthing variations are handled. There will also be opportunities to practice different birthing positions with the birthing tubs, birthing stool and birthing ball. Finally, the classes teach postpartum self-care, which is important for birthing center clients and helps build a better foundation for success after the birth.

Local mosaic artist Aly Winningham has completed a beautiful custom work for AABC’s South Austin center. The work was inspired by AABC’s logo, which depicts a mother and her newborn baby. The new mosaic will be installed between the Folklife and Art Gallery rooms.

To see more of Aly Winningham’s work, visit http://www.terrafirmastudios.com/.

American Association of Birth Centers Newsmakers

“No Woman No Cry” US Television Broadcast Premiere
May 7th Featuring THE BIRTH PLACE

The Birth Place (Winter Garden, FL) is featured in the new documentary movie “No Woman, No Cry” to be premiered on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) on Saturday, May 7th at 9:30 p.m. (ET/PT) the evening before Mother’s Day.

The film is a great opportunity to to invite your friends, your family, your moms group or whomever you choose to have a watch party and watch it together. Download a Watch Party Kit at Every Mother Counts. The film will be rebroadcast on Sunday, May 8th at 12:30 AM (ET/PT) and 1:00 PM (ET/PT). (Another option is to TIVO/DVR the film to watch later).

Produced and directed by first-time filmmaker Christy Turlington Burns, the emotionally charged film “No Woman, No Cry” follows the stories of women in Tanzania, Bangladesh, Guatemala and the United States as they face critical junctures in their pregnancies. It tells the personal stories of pregnant women and their caregivers in four countries as they try to avoid becoming maternal mortality statistics. Turlington puts audiences in the shoes of a young Maasai mother who has gone into labor and must walk five miles to the nearest clinic; a pregnant women in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh too ashamed to seek care; a pregnant obstetrician helping women who have no choice but to undergo illegal and dangerous abortions in Guatemala; and Jennie Joseph’s midwifery practice in central Florida she serves pregnant women who are denied prenatal care because they are uninsured.

The film explores the barriers millions of women face when trying to access critical care throughout their pregnancies and while delivering, along with the often simple solutions that could save their lives.

Turlington Burns, a mother, activist, women’s health advocate and fashion icon, made the film in conjunction with Every Mother Counts (EMC), a five-year outreach campaign she founded in 2010 that is dedicated to improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality around the world by engaging the public, raising awareness and driving action. Learn more at www.everymothercounts.org

Each of Austin Area Birthing Center’s two locations has three large birthing tubs that our moms often find as a great way to relax during labor, while about a third of our clients choose to have water births for their baby. AABC pioneered water birthing in Central Texas and have more experience with it than any other practice in the area. To ensure that our moms get a virtually endless supply of hot water for the tubs, we have multiple industrial-size water heaters in each center. He’s a shot of the three tanks at our William Cannon Location.

For more information on water birth, call us at 346-3224.

Since opening six years ago, AABC’s Duval Rd. location has had among its three beautiful birthing suites the stylish Santa Fe room. Owner Jean Stokes and designer Billy Kuykendahl have collaborated once again to transform that suite to the Spanish-themed Barcelona Room.

Check out a photo gallery of the new room on AABC’s Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php#!/album.php?id=84706209118&aid=300959

Although six years is not a really long time considering how old the City Santa Fe is, we decided that
our Duval location could use a fresh update following the popularity of the trendy new Austin ABC South.
We didn’t want our moms at the original location to feel left out…so…the new Barcelona room is fast becoming
beautiful.

The pink clay-colored walls that have seen thousands of births became periwinkle blue. The pine furniture was OUT the door and found itself in the bedrooms of our midwives’ kids.  A large European antique wardrobe and bed were IN. Here is a photo of the tile guys wrapping gorgeous glass tile around the birthing tub. Our moms were happy to see we also added handles to the tubs to make the second stage of labor easier. Check back soon to see the newest room at Austin Area Birthing Center.

Eating the Placenta After Giving Birth – Is It Tasty OR Taboo?
By enslavedbyfaeries <http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/enslavedbyfaeries>

Ewww, Why Do People Eat Placenta?

Eating human body parts may be considered taboo, but there are some people
who do consume the placenta after giving birth to their baby. Some cultures
believe that eating the placenta prevents postpartum depression and other
health problems that are associated with childbirth. Most mammals eat their
own placenta, which helps the mammary cells to eject the milk for the newborn
and also helps to clean and shrink the uterus after giving birth. Today,
most medical professionals agree that there is no medical reason for well-
nourished mothers to eat their baby’s placenta, but some do believe that it
holds the medicinal power, vitamins, minerals and perfectly balanced
hormones to help the mother recover from childbirth and avoid the postpartum
“baby blues”. If you are too squeamish to eat the placenta it can even be
dried and encapsulated  <http://www.squidoo.com/eat-human-placenta> as a
nutritional supplement.

Our own Vicki Meinhardt performs this service for interested clients. Phone
our South location to speak with Vicki.