Ramona Women's Clinic

Redefining Your Holiday Spirit

Whether you’re spending this holiday season in maternity pants or your first set of matching pajamas, odds are this year is looking far different from those prior. While its easy to get caught up in the consumer driven rat-race we call the holidays, easy to be offended by the “eating for two” dinner comments, and equally easy to be consumed by postpartum anxiety at the sight of your baby being passed around like the sweet potato side dish; you are encouraged to take this season to establish traditions that are intentional and unique to your family.

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Ramona Women's Clinic

Healing & Health in Postpartum for the New Mom

Healing and Health in Postpartum for the New Mom.

 

The postpartum period is referred to as the fourth trimester for good reason, as the drastic changes your body undergoes continue after birth. Though challenging in its own ways, the postpartum transition can be just as trying if not more so than the previous three trimesters. While the hormonal and physical changes of pregnancy increase gradually with the size of your belly; the fourth trimester begins the minute delivery ends and to put it gently there’s nothing gradual about it. This is arguably one of the most vulnerable seasons of life, so the prioritization of your health in this period is something to prepare for.

Postpartum has become characterized by the emotional rollercoaster that results from the hormone regulation, sleep deprivation, and the overwhelming information overload of learning to nurse and care for a helpless baby. While these are all valid characteristics of the season, what’s often overlooked is the importance of combating these challenges with the prioritization of Moms’ health to minimize the effects.

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Car seat safety
Ramona Women's Clinic

Child Safety Awareness Month

Child Safety Awareness Month

 

Can you believe we’ve reached the ninth month of the year?!? September is observed as Baby Safety Awareness Month, a month where retailers, doctors, and all others in positions that influence parents and caregivers are encouraged to highlight baby safety. Since the month-long awareness originated from “Expectant Mothers Day,” it seems fitting that we share with our expecting mothers. “Baby Safety” is broad and commonly a source of anxiety for new and expecting mothers who will all but wrap their babies in bubble wrap in order to protect them from the world. (Which would be a suffocation hazard.) So instead of overwhelming you with an overabundance of information that could be packed into such a topic, let’s look at three areas of baby safety that you CAN control; car seats, sleep, and baby-proofing.
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Ramona Women's Clinic

Honoring Breastfeeding Awareness Month

The wonder of breastfeeding is a process that perfectly depicts the intention in God’s flawless design.

·       The maternal powers are not merely instinctual but in fact physical.

·       Our bodies are able to produce an ever-changing source of nutrients specifically tailored to the current needs of our baby.

If that doesn’t leave you breathlessly in awe of the maternal design, I don’t know what will. Understandably when you’re engorged and milk soaked at 2 am, it’s a little harder to appreciate, but a gift nonetheless.

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Ramona Women's Clinic

The Italics That Should be in Every Birth Plan 

Whether you’ve spent hours meticulously mapping out your birth plan, or yours simply consists of the word “EPIDURAL”, there are three truths and reminders that should be italicised and included in each birth plan.

 

  1. Labor is unpredictable

This truth cannot be emphasized enough. Not only is every labor experience different from the next, but your experience may differ from the one you’ve come to expect through your nine months of anticipation. As much as we all want our labor to go according to our expectations, with minimal surprises, very rarely will our experience perfectly reflect that which we’ve been imagining. Often our preconceived expectations can inhibit our experience and mindset if we allow ourselves to be consumed by disappointment when reality doesn’t perfectly align with said expectations. This is why the unpredictability of labor should be expected and accounted for in each birth plan. Even if your plan relies simply on an epidural; sometimes epidurals fail, only work on one side, or you arrive at the hospital and are too far along to even receive an epidural. Such unpredictability can be expected in each and every labor experience.

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Ramona Women's Clinic

Women’s History Month

March is Women’s History Month and we are Ramona Women’s Clinic.  Therefore, I felt it would be perfect timing to lift each other up as women in the community.

My favorite woman in history is Mary, Queen of Scots.  I know, she is not relevant to us here today but I find her life to be one of strength and in the end, she did what she felt she needed to do to survive.  Oh, perhaps she is more relevant for today than I thought!

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