Channel 6 magazine recently spoke to Krishnan Sakotai and Vijaya Krishnan about how Healthy Mother began and the Midwifery Model of Care they are pioneering in India. Here is the link to the article
More and more recent research and systematic reviews are reinforcing the conclusion that breast feeding and human milk are the reference gold standards for infant feeding and nutrition. The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, and breastfeeding for upto 2 years as long as it is mutually beneficial to mother and baby. [...]
“Can we bathe our newborn baby?” This is one of the most common questions that comes up immediately after birth at our Healthy Mother Natural Birthing Center. While a massage and bath do lots of good in babies, we recommend that the first bath be delayed for at least a few hours, preferably 24 hours. [...]
Warren Buffet’s legendary right hand man Charlie Munger delivered the 2007 USC Graduation speech in which he said The highest form a civilization can reach is a seamless web of deserved trust. Not much procedure, just totally reliable people correctly trusting one another. When you as expectant couples seek out a hospital or maternity center [...]
Here is a great comparison between the Midwifery Model of Care and the Obstetric Model of Care which I found here. In India too the obstetric model looks at pregnancy and birth as a medical crisis fraught with risk. That is why we have such high rates of c-section (80%) and why there is so [...]
As more and more hospitals offer epidural analgesia during labor for pain relief, and more and more mothers accept it as a “must-have”, it is important that you become fully informed re: all the pros and cons about choosing to have one. Over and above other well-known adverse effects such as lowered blood pressure in [...]
At Healthy Mother we advocate and practice Midwifery Model of Care which has many benefits over conventional “medical model”. This excerpt from review of the different models of care published by Cochrane Collaboration summarizes the conclusions of a study conducted for this purpose. I am quoting below verbatim the summary of this review: Midwife-led care [...]
The following picture put out by March of Dimes is a great way of impressing upon mothers to “challenge” their doctors if they are forced to be induced at 37 weeks. Study after study has proven that absent any evident medical problem babies need minimum of 39 weeks or till the time of spontaneous birth [...]
During antenatal checkups mother, her husband and family should be made at ease and made to feel that we as health care providers are here to support her. Typically most care providers hurry through their consultations and do not encourage questions of mothers and fathers. We think this is not good care practice. The Healthy [...]
Following is a very telling excerpt from the book ” Where there is no midwife: Birth and Loss in rural India” by Sara Pinto (c) Berghahn Books…. While their kids run around us on the grass between their house and the fields Pushpadevi and her sister-in-law, women from the untouchable Pasi jati tell me about [...]