Elena Vogel: Lactation Educator

Lactation consultants are a vital part of the healthcare system. Together with the rest of the healthcare team they make sure that mother and baby's care as a breastfeeding pair is complete. The International Board Certified Lactation Consultant represents the "gold standard" in lactation consultant credentialing. Lactation consultants who carry the credentials IBCLC behind their names are specially trained and qualified to assist with every aspect of breastfeeding. I chose the topic of lactation consulting because I feel strongly about being a breastfeeding advocate. I believe that those in the healthcare field, especially the people involved in woman’s health and pediatrics should be knowledgeable

Annika the Doula is a full-service doula agency that is located in Northeast, Minneapolis. Annika the Doula is serving the Twin Cities metro area. Their doula services include 2 prenatal visits, unlimited prenatal phone, text and e-mail support, continuous emotional, physical and informational support during the client’s labor, 1-2 postpartum visits, and placenta encapsulation. Annika is a DONA-certified birth doula.

Doulas of Orlando is a birth doula agency that is located in Orlando, Florida. Doulas of Orlando is working for the best birth experience. Their services include doula packages, childbirth education, and placenta encapsulation. Doulas of Orlando offers maternity classes, maternity and birth photography, and 3D/4D ultrasounds. Their doula is M. Luna Jauregui, CD(DONA), CLC. M. Luna Jauregui, CD(DONA), CLC is bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish. Her qualifications as a doula include Certified Birth and Postpartum Doula via DONA international, Rebozo Certified under Instructor Gena Kirby, Sacred Bengkung belly binding certification, and more. M. Luna Jauregui, CD(DONA), CLC has been a Healthy Children Certified Lactation Counselor in

Birth Hands Doula Service is a full-service doula agency that is located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Birth Hands Doula Service serves the Piedmont area of North Carolina including Greensboro, Burlington, Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Durham. Their goal is to render a well rounded, woman-centered care throughout the entire pregnancy, birth, and early postpartum. This care constitutes education, advocacy, emotional, and physical support for the women, the parents, their families, and their desired support team. Their services include labor and birth support, birth plan consultation, birth partner support, recording the client’s birth story, blessingway or baby shower celebration, and postpartum support services. The doula of Birth Hands

A labor and delviery nurse has vast knowledge of the process and methods that are required for delivery and bring a new life into the world and is educated with the responsibilities of assiting the new born babies with their medical issues. Considering all the responsibilites needed to take on this career, such as assisting women with complications within the pregnancy, delivering a newborn and managing post birth issuses, the nurse must be professional in his or her work at all times. All people wishing to pursue the career of being a Labor and Delivery Nurse must also have good analytical skills, as part of there job to montior and analyze the mother and child (CollegeAtlas.org).

Childbirth is one of the greatest privileges on the earth anyone could have and we, as women, should feel proud to be major contributors for it. Thus, a mother has to play a key role in aiding the healthcare workers to mitigate the health crisis associated with childbirth by performing her duties faithfully. One such associated health crisis is “Premature (preterm) birth” which occurs when the baby is born too early, before 37 weeks of gestational period (CDC, 2015). The rate of preterm birth ranges from 5% to 18% of babies born across 184 countries (WHO, 2015).

As a doula, I provide educational, physical, and emotional support to clients in a unique and customizable manner. This past year I have continued my education and gained valuable experience by supporting multiple families throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and into postpartum.

For hundred of years, women have wrestled with their womanhood, bodies, and what it means to be a woman in our society. Being a woman comes with a wonderful and empowering responsibility--giving birth. What sets us aside from other countries is that the process and expectations of giving birth has changed in our society; coming from midwifery, as it has always been since the early times, to hospitals where it is now expected to give birth at. Midwifery was a common practice in delivering babies in

Motherline, LLC is a full-service doula agency that is located in Cary, North Carolina. Their services include postpartum doula services, placenta encapsulation services, and belly binding services. Their postpartum care involves newborn care and education, new mother care and postpartum recovery, both physical and emotional, breastfeeding and/or bottle-feeding support, support during unique postpartum challenges such as colic/reflux, birth of multiples, or postpartum mood disorders, plus more. The owner and founder of Motherline, LLC, Kelly Rutan is a DONA Certified Postpartum Doula.

As of 2013, around 353,000 babies were born in one day, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Be Fruitful and Multiply). Delivering babies is very difficult and strenuous, luckily labor and delivery nurses are trained to help care for the mother during the process of welcoming her newborn into the world safely. Labor and delivery nurses play a very crucial role in helping the delivery of babies and bringing safety and peace to the mother. I am choosing to pursue a career as a labor and delivery nurse because they get to provide care to babies, they get paid well, and they get to assist in the delivery process.

Radiant Goddess Birth Services is a birth doula agency that is located in Asheville, North Carolina. Radiant Goddess Birth Services offers birth doula services, placenta and postpartum services, and prenatal consultation. As their birth doula, they will render birth education and preparation, birth planning, comfort measures, suggest position change, provide reassurance and encouragement, assist the client with negotiation of her preferences for birth if what she wants and the hospital wants differ. The methods for encapsulation they conduct include the raw method, wherein the placenta is not heated in any way before dehydration, as well as basic heated/steamed, a traditional Chinese medicine inspired method. The doula of Radiant Goddess Birth

Next, a non-hospital birth usually has midwifery or Doula. Midwifery is a profession in which providers take care of pregnant women during her labor and birth and during the postpartum period. Assisting the mother with the child after it is born. According to “Human Sexuality: Diversity in Contemporary America,” midwives attends the majority of births. Midwives are qualified for routine deliveries and minor medical emergencies; often operating as part of a medical term. As Cara Muhlhahn, a certified nurse midwife stated in “Business of Being Born,” she would rather be in the home of the patient so she would feel comfortable. And most women who have midwives are comfortable because they are in the privacy of their own home giving birth to their child and they feel empowered instead of the powerless vibe in a hospital. A Doula, on the other hand, does not have to make clinical decisions. Doulas offer emotional support and manage pain using massage, acupressure, and birthing positions; making it easier for the mother to cope with her complications. According to “Mothering the Mother: How a Doula Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier and Healthier Birth,” a Doula is a Greek word that literally means a woman who has experience that can help other women. Klaus Kennell and others who have researched the effects of the doula's presence during childbirth have come to define the term as a woman with experience in childbirth who will give the laboring mother emotional, physical and

Breastfeeding is not only a lifestyle choice but also an important health care choice. Any amount of time that a mother can do it will help both her and the baby. Many benefits of breast milk are noted for mothers, babies, and others. Breast milk has disease-fighting cells called antibodies that help protect infants from germs, illness, and even SIDS. Infant formula cannot match the perfect chemical composition of human milk, specifically the cells, hormones, and antibodies that fight disease. The private practice of lactation

This is the beginning of the mother’s involvement with the midwife. This is an opportunity for both parties to establish a personal relationship, partnership. This is where education exchange can occur, recognition of responsibilities, options and choices are determined which are supported and discussed with the mother and her supporters. (Pairman, 2010, pg. 431-432)

Statistical Product and Service Solutions for Windows (SPSS) 12.0 software package and SAS 8.0 software. SPSS 12.0 was used for all statistical analysis except linear regression which used SAS 8.0.