Breast Milk Is The Bomb!

Mother Nature designed the perfect complete nourishment for your newborn. Breast milk is a highly alkaline, nutritive, substance that contains immune factor, an impeccable balance of fats, DHA, protein water, and happy hormones that meet the nutritional demands and emotional needs of your baby while promoting bonding and neurological development.

Mindful eating during pregnancy, after birth and while breast-feeding is essential to maintain optimal health and wellness of a growing baby and new mother. Your diet during this finite period is of the utmost importance. The dietary requirements for a nursing mom are high. Nourish yourself with whole foods to support ample milk supply, adequate energy and hormonal balance.

Your little baby’s complex immune system
Every baby is born with passive immunity. This is the protection that your immune system provides for your little one throughout pregnancy. At birth, your baby has a supply of maternal antibodies that help protect against common childhood infections in the first months of life: coughs, colds, chicken pox, ear infections. During the second and third trimesters, the baby’s immune cells are forming but not able to work on their own. Around six months, your baby’s immune system will be able to produce its own antibodies and the timing is great because your passively acquired antibodies run out at about six months of life. This is one of the reasons why it is best to breast-feed exclusively for at least the first six months of life. The longer you breast-feed the better off your baby, so consider it an investment.

Your milk is the bomb!
Breast-feeding is the best protection against illness and support for the baby’s immune system that a mother can provide. Breast milk wards off illnesses common in formula-fed babies, provides protection against allergies and gastrointestinal infections. Your milk is a good source of highly absorbable minerals, antioxidants and other antibacterial substances that protect the baby against bacterial or viral infection. Your milk is also a top-notch source of essential fatty acids, which are vital to proper neurological development, immune development and growth. Not to mention that each time you breast-feed you are bonding with your baby. When you experience the letdown reflex your body also secretes oxytocin (the love and bonding hormone) and you and your baby fall in love. So your milk is literally a love potion.

Maintaining your milk factory
While breast-feeding you must make it a priority to look after yourself. Feeding and caring for your baby is awesome and it’s tiring too. It helps to have lots of healthy, nutrient-packed snacks around to provide you with energy. Fruit smoothies, green juice, nut and fruit bars, yogurt, nuts, porridges, soups, hummus and crackers, sandwiches and trail mix all help to provide sustainable energy throughout the day.

Drink adequate water. Your body requires a lot more water to make breast milk, which is mostly water. Avoiding chemical additives and excess sugar is always good too.

Eat at least five portions of fruit and veggies daily. This will provide the fiber, vitamins and phytonutrients needed by you and your baby. Having a fresh green juice or fruit smoothie in the morning is a great way to get an antioxidant boost!

Avoid taking stimulants while breast-feeding. Caffeine found in coffee, tea, sodas and chocolate can cause irritability and restlessness in you and your baby, so beware.

Protecting a formula-fed baby
For a number of reasons some mamas aren’t able to breast-feed exclusively. If formula milks are the only option or if you have to supplement for any reason, then this section will come in handy. Avoid cow’s milk-based formulas! Cow’s milk is designed to take a baby calf from 65 pounds to 600 pounds within one year. Why would you want to feed your child a hormone-laden substance that builds body mass at an alarming rate? You could opt for a vegetarian formula. There are also milk banks for moms interested in finding breast milk donors. Just be sure to compare the essential fatty acid profile of the formulas and choose the best option.

Add a quarter teaspoon of infant probiotic to your baby’s bottle once a day. This will provide some of the beneficial bacteria that is present in breast milk and protect against gastrointestinal infection.

Add a few drops of organic flaxseed oil into your baby’s bottle once daily to provide a source of omega-3 essential fatty acids. Rub the contents of a 500-mg evening primrose oil capsule onto your baby’s tummy after bath time to ensure a source of omega-6 essential fatty acids.

Avoid overfeeding with the bottle. Bottle-fed babies don’t have to work their jaws for the milk and often overeat. Fat cells are laid down in infancy and an overweight baby is likely to be an overweight adult.

Kiss your baby!
Okay, so by now you’re obsessed with your baby! Did you know that breast-feeding moms can protect their babies by providing tailor-made antibodies to the bacteria and viruses their babies come in contact with? You already have a plethora of antibodies that have been created throughout your life that protect you against certain diseases. Many are totally irrelevant to your newborn, but others will give your baby’s immune system a vital boost.

When you kiss your baby’s cheek, you are effectively sampling the bacteria and viruses on his face that he is about to ingest. The bacteria get transferred to your body where your immune system is stimulated to create specific antibodies to fight these pathogens. You then pass the tailor-made antibodies back to your baby through your breast milk. So each time the baby is at the breast he is inoculated. Keep kissing and nuzzling your baby. What a perfect miracle!

Your shrinking waistline
Hey Sugar, good news! Did you know that breast-feeding helps to contract the uterus back to its normal size? It also burns calories. Breast-feeding can burn up to 600 calories daily. Just from breast-feeding alone you can lose a pound every week. Breast-feeding is also linked to lower maternal weight gain.

Photo credit: nicora

Being a Mother and Entrepreneur

After two years of working full time on my company in the midst of giving birth to my daughter and raising my son, I finally launched Babo Botanicals in February 2010! The Babo brand is an organic hair, scalp, and skincare line for babies and children, made on an organic farm in upstate New York.

My Business Principles

The idea for developing Babo was motivated by a number of elements that are sacred to me. First and foremost, from the onset of starting a business, I wanted to incorporate my children into my work and business plan. They are my idea generators. The name and bunny logo are inspired by my son’s security bunny that he calls “Babo.”

Another principle in my creation of Babo is my belief in healthy and safe personal choices for parents. When I read that my Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) was advocating a bill – the Safe Baby Products Act of 2009 – to ensure safer personal care products for children, my belief was reinforced that mothers like me need alternatives for our kids. I grew up using common drugstore baby brands like many of us, and I seem to be fine (so far), but I wanted better care for my children. I wanted to create a line of hair, scalp, and skincare products for babies and children to help protect them from all of the toxic chemicals they are exposed to these days.

I am also passionate about community involvement and wanted my business to reflect that. The two years I spent in Paraguay as part of the Peace Corps immersed me in a unique cultural experience that elicited my passion for nature, the environment, and organic farming. Currently, I have aligned myself with two community centers which are part of The Educational Alliance, a non-profit in downtown New York City. This year, we will implement some youth programs which turn their community center rooftops into gardens. The children will learn to grow their own vegetables and about their nutritional value. A portion of the proceeds from all Babo Botanicals’ newborn gift sets help fund this wonderful project, because for every birth, a new seed should be planted.

Start-Up Concerns

From the start, some family members tried to dissuade me – and believe me, they were acting out of interest for my wellbeing! How was I to manage starting a company while raising two small children? How would I establish a competitive advantage in a category dominated by some very heavy hitters? I was repeatedly advised to stay at my current job, encouraged to execute my vision in a more structured, secure environment. But as any entrepreneur will tell you, the desire to be independent and realize your vision can be all-consuming.

I knew it would take years and many late nights to bring the project to fruition, but time flies when it’s a labor of love. I tapped all of my resources from my years in the beauty industry. Having a mother who is delighted to babysit her grandchildren each week helped with time management.

I called on the far reaches of my professional network, swallowing my pride and asking for favors. Many people were skeptical of my vision. Those I ended up working with contributed ideas, support, and services at a percentage of their usual fee because they were as passionate about the project as I was.

The Launch Process

Mothers have been a cornerstone of my brand development. The target audience for my line has always been parent and child, but I never would have guessed to what degree mothers would become my network of support, ideation, and product evolution. At the concept stage for my brand, I sent questionnaires to moms soliciting feedback on product names, ingredient call outs, and packaging design. Later, I tapped my network to have over 100 families test the products on their own kids. I also did focus groups with children – asking families at the park what they thought of the packaging and fragrance. I had fun meeting new people, and still today I get daily inquiries about my project and progress – and I can actually show them how they influenced it!

Business Operations – The Reality

The demands on my time have increased exponentially. With entrepreneurism comes the freedom I craved but also entrapment to perfection. And with two small children (1 1/2 and 3 years old), I probably get even less sleep because my third baby, Babo, keeps me up most of the night.

My main working hours are after the kids are asleep. That is the only time I can find absolute peace and quiet (and when most work with my team occurs). Incidentally, an important lesson I learned has been to hire moms who have worked in the corporate world. They are expert – reliable and talented. But they also understand when your child is screaming in the background or you show up to a meeting with throw-up on your shoulder. We all get that professionalism is inseparable from certain “mommyisms.” We are Mommy Professionals.

I’ve learned to stay true to my vision in the face of rejection. If someone doesn’t believe in what you’re doing, take their advice and move on. Even those that don’t have faith can be valuable sources of feedback and insight. I’m eternally grateful for the bright spots of support I gained from those that encouraged me and bought into my vision. Moms have natural perseverance. Maybe it’s our maternal instinct. Passion is what has driven me in spite of the pitfalls I encountered along the way.

I feel blessed to be able to work from home, and that my craft revolves around my biggest priorities today – my children. But as demand grows, it will be a challenge to find a work/home balance again because, as any entrepreneur will tell you, your business takes on a life of its own and requires that you be there every second to love and nurture it – whether or not you’re a mommy.

Kate Solomon is the founder of Babo Botanicals, a line of the highest quality, purest hair, scalp, and skincare products for babies and kids; and a mother to Rush and Seka. Kate is an avid supporter of local New York City urban greenmarkets and community centers, which are part of downtown non-profit The Educational Alliance.

Part 2: Seven Tips to a Blissful Birth

Photo credit: Timothi Graham

If you are pregnant or want to support someone who is please take these 7 tips to a blissful birth journey and add them to your arsenal. Remember to practice what you preach and that will make you even more effective in assisting the mother-to-be.

Ways to Support the pregnant goddess:

1. Holding sacred space- a woman must feel safe in order to give birth, if the conditions are such that she is anxious or afraid, the labor will be stalled. This is often the case in hospital settings where the medical providers do not allow time, space, and ancestral ritual journey in birth to take place. If you are hooked up to monitors and getting poked and prodded under florescent light in a cool and sterile room every 5 minutes, it’s not likely you would feel safe. Create a setting whether you are birthing at home, in the birth center, or in a hospital where the mother can relax and feel safe and carry out her birth ritual.

Ways to create sacred space include: lighting candles, burning incense, playing soothing slow music, run a warm bath, chanting, kissing your partner, putting a sign on the door- knock before entering.

2. Encourage Sound- we spend so much of our lives focused on being quiet, in school, in church, at work, in transit. We are constantly being told to shut up. When are we ever given permission to make noise- during sex and birth. It is every important for a pregnant woman to make sounds to connect with what is happening in her pelvic bowl. Sound amplifies sensation and really helps during labor. The hardwiring for our mouth and throat is directly connected to our pelvic floor and sacred passageway (birth canal). When you open and relax the muscles in the mouth and throat and make low and deep bellowing sounds, you also relax the muscles of the pelvic floor and make birth easier for both mom and baby. Conversely, if mommy tightens her jaws, scrunches up her face and closes her throat, the pelvic floor muscles will follow. Sound is a gift so use it.

Ways to incorporate sound include: taking deep breaths and sighing long on the exhale, deep Ahhh sounds, Oohhh sounds, the birth sound- Om can be chanted as well.

3. Practice Deep Breathing- your breath is an amazing bridge between the conscious and unconscious because the respiratory system is both voluntary and involuntary. You don’t have to remind yourself to breathe, it just happens. But when we are mindful of our breathing we can tap into an energy in the unconscious realm. What ever state you are in, your breath will follow. If you are anxious your breath will be quick and shallow, if you are calm and relaxed your breath will be long deep. You can also breathe to encourage different states. If you want the breath to take you to a relaxed state you can start breathing long deep full breaths and it will send signals to the brain to calming you down. This is so helpful for birthing women because the deep breath along with the sound enhances the trance state during labor. Women can not journey into their labor in a Beta brain wave state, or regular consciousness. They must enter an altered state of consciousness for the cascade of hormones to descend and the primal state to turn on.

Ways to incorporate deep breathing include- bringing soothing familiar scents into the room and taking long slow deep full inhales through the nose and exhaling through the mouth(as it releases some of the internal heat energy)

4. Get Moving- Staying in a static position is a sure way to slow down the labor process. Moving around during labor is primal. Its part of how we manage the intense surges of energy in the body. Finding ways to move the body to promote comfort and and opening is key during labor. All of those prenatal yoga hip opening exercises, spinal flexions, rolls. Movement not only encourages the baby to move down it feels good for mommy too. Walking and hip swaying are especially helpful as women create more wiggle room in their pelvis and squatting increases the pelvic opening by 30%, which doesn’t sound like a lot but when you are pushing out a baby, it’s tremendous.

Helpful ways to get moving include: slow dancing, walking, hip rolls, cat/cow, squatting, showering,

5. Practice Visualization Exercises- Visualization exercises are a part of every major spiritual practice as a tool to support entry into an altered state. I mentioned that women can not give birth in a normal state of consciousness- when thinking about their dry cleaning, their phone bill, or whether or not they look fat, etc. This sort of jumpy linear thinking is our brain operating on beta waves and when we are in that state we are not producing the cocktail of hormones that we need to progress in labor. The mundane has to be transcended for a mother to begin the ancestral ritual journey that takes her into her birth trance. This also includes fear. Fearful thoughts will shut labor down, so powerful visualizations are key. The shift from Beta waves to Alpha waves where the mother enters an altered state is much like when we enter into meditation, or a good daydream, that’s the place where labor begins and from there the brain waves can lead to deeper altered states. Why this is important to know is because there is so much distraction around women these days no matter where they are birthing. Having a set of tools to transcend the mundane and the fear will help labor progress naturally.

Tools for visualization exercises- practice envisioning the baby moving down the birth canal at each contraction, find a few symbols that can help anchor you into the space ie, lotus blossoms, the ocean, candle light

6. Offer TLC through Touch- Touch transmits feeling and intention. If you can place loving hands on a woman and also know when to not touch her it is a huge asset. At certain stages of labor touch is very helpful. Caressing while sharing calming and affirmative words of support are very helpful at certain stages of labor. Be observant and see what the moment calls for: foot rub, sacral massage, caressing the forehead, etc. Our emotional energy field will transmit what we are experiencing onto others. Pregnant women are so sensitive in labor and can pick up on any frenetic, or ungrounded energy around them. Make sure to calm yourself and be prepared to learn and serve.

7. Practice Affirmations- Courage is feeling the fear and rising to the occasion anyway. When we encourage with loving words we help others move beyond fear, inspire them to keep the faith, and keep on moving. Affirmations are positive phrases. Speak in this love language of encouragement to help support the mommy-to-be.

Some affirmations include: Your body is wise and can birth your baby. You are beautiful and strong.

Part 1: Honoring the Pregnant Goddess

Photo credit: Timothi Graham

The energy that infuses the web of life is vast and continuous. It is a dance of duality: between light and darkness, sun and moon, Shiva and Shakti. This ancient dance of opposites is what animates our living energetic universe. It’s responsible for all living things in our experiential reality. The conjoining of this male and female energy gives rise to a new generation, new possibility and continuum. “Sexual energy and birth energy are one in the same,” as my brilliant teacher Sheri Winston says, “hormonally, neurologically, and energetically.”

Birth is our rite of passage. We must reclaim it as the world of obstetrics is doing everything possible to take the power away from our most fundamental and sacred experience-birth. What an incredible phenomena. Every second of every day someone on the planet is giving birth. Bringing new life into the world is the most sacred experience. But more often than I’d like to imagine women are not experiencing the empowering and sacred birth experience, which is their rite of passage and their baby’s birth rite. Most people don’t even realize the depth of labor until they have experienced it and when you go to a deep place in your birth or support someone through their labor experience you gain something intangible but expansive that you didn’t have before. When you travel to what I like to call “the underbelly of the moon”, you are tuned into an experience that is ancestral and takes you along a journey that all of us took to get here. Down the sacred passageway of the divine and into the external world.

As a wellness maven in the arena of women’s health and in particular during the childbearing years I am fascinated by the magic of the female body and what it can do. In our monthly cycle attuned to rhythms governed by lunar energy, having the ability to conceive, birth, and nourish new life. It’s very empowering if we perceive our life cycles as vehicles for transformation. I’m alarmed by the growing number of unnecessary C-sections, low birth weight, and even the rise in infertility amongst otherwise seemingly healthy women. There is a disconnect with the divine energy- the Shakti (female)essence.

I have been holding space for women in nutrition, culinary, labor support, offering workshops in yoga techniques for labor, teaching prenatal yoga classes and have been invited to be present at some births which was an honor. Most recently I decided to take the journey as a Doula and was awarded HPC Community Doula Fellowship and look forward to offering educational support, advocacy, emotional support, and tools for women to get out of their heads and drop into their bodies in pregnancy. I want women to trust that their sacred anatomy was crafted perfectly for this experience of birth, bliss, and bonding.

I want to share some known observations from my personal experience and from other birth providers, and mothers that are helpful for women as they transition into motherhood. Remember not only are they giving birth to the baby but the baby is birthing the pregnant goddess into motherhood. Each is offering the other a divine experience that is designed to bond them for life.

Coming up tomorrow: Latham’s 7 Tips to a Blissful Birth