Top 8 Supplements for Pregnancy- My Picks

The majority of women who choose to birth at home have a healthy and varied diet. If they do not feel the need to take any supplements I support them in this choice and I require none in my practice. For thousands of years women have grown healthy babies. Many others wonder what else they can or should take to help them have a healthy baby, to feel well during the pregnancy, have enough energy for birth, and to recover quickly post partum. Below you will will find the eight most common supplements I recommend to my clients.

1. Whole Food Prenatal
The two brands that I recommend are Rainbow Light Prenatal and New Chapter Perfect Prenatal.

As a general rule I recommend Rainbow Light because it is just one pill per day. I know when I was pregnant I struggled to even remember to take one pill a day never mind three. Rainbow Light does however contain Red Raspberry Leaf which some women are sensitive to so keep that in mind. New Chapter is also wonderful and easy on the stomach. It needs to be taken 3 times per day but contains no Red Raspberry Leaf.

2. Vitamin D

There are many symptoms associated to low vitamin D levels that are often attributed to pregnancy. 

These are common issues from low vitamin D levels:

• Fatigue
• General muscle pain and weakness
• Muscle cramps
• Joint pain
• Chronic pain
• Weight gain
• High blood pressure
• Restless sleep
• Poor concentration
• Headaches
• Bladder problems
• Constipation or diarrhea

 Sunscreen, lack of foods high in vitamin D and lack of time spent outside contribute to our issues with not making enough vitamin D. Egg yolk, many types of oily fish and cod liver oil are good natural sources of vitamin D. Low vitamin D has also recently been linked in pregnancy to gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and low birth rate.

3. Omega-3- fatty acids

These good fats are very depleted from the mother during pregnancy because they are used in fetal eye and brain development. Depletion in the mom often leaves her feeling low on energy, depressed and nutrient starved.

4. Probiotic

Probiotics are live microorganisms, good bacteria, and by the millions they live naturally in the intestines. They are introduced to our bodies during birth and with out the we would be prone to infection, vitamin and mineral deficiencies and a weakened immune system. When the gut has enough good bacteria is prevents bad bacteria and helps protect us from infections. Studies show that mothers who increase their probiotic intake during pregnancy reduce their child's risk of allergies  They also loose their baby weight faster and have fewer yeast and thrush infections.

5. Chew-able Papaya Enzymes

Heartburn and indigestion is a common ailment during pregnancy. A raw enzyme in papaya can help. The Papain enzyme may assist in breaking down food in the stomach which may reduce heartburn, acid reflux and other gastrointestinal conditions.

6. Floridix

Anemia is common in pregnancy. Floradix contains an herbal based iron supplament which is easily absorbed and less likely to cause constimation that synthetic iron. Having a low hemoglobin count can leave you feeling tired and lethargic during pregnancy and can affect how you feel after loosing blood during your birth.

7. Chlorophyll

Consuming liquid chlorophyll during pregnancy, labor and postpartum can affect your energy levels, milk supply, safe detoxification, constipation and much more. Let's face it who doesn't need more greens in their diet. The mint flavor tastes great.

8. Red Raspberry Tea

Red raspberry leaf helps to tone and contract the uterus. Strengthening the uterine muscle to prepare for childbirth. It has a mild taste.

All of these supplements are included in my all inclusive midwifery package. Contact me to find out more about this option.

Haiti Days 6 and Days 7

Day 6- Tuesday

Woke up early and had breakfast. They prepared eggs with onions and peppers and pineapple. I skipped the eggs because peppers make my throat have issues. I had a piece of bread instead and a Luna bar. Midwifery meeting had me doing prenatals and being available for a birth if it came in with Marie as second. It was a very busy morning.  No labors came in so we just hung around the rest of the afternoon. A lunch of rice and beans and spaghetti for dinner.  We saw about 30 prenatals and 14 postpartums. I slept well outside again.

Below are the native staff midwives. 

Day 7- Wednesday

I woke up at 5 am to rooster crowing and the power was on so I moved to my indoor bed under a fan and slept two more hours.

 Claudin woke me up at 7 to say a labor was here. It was Mediline, the woman who was here last week with false labor and bleeding. We  sent her home with orders for a HIV and syphilis test, these are free, and an ultrasound. She was back with her ultrasound orders, was 4 cm and in labor but still no test results. The ultrasound showed low amniotic fluid, a low reactant and small baby and a mystery as far as where the bleeding came from. Still no test results and she still had syphilitic type sores all over her body. We asked her why she didn't get her tests done and she said she didn't want to.  Marie, Mary, and I discussed all of the options and mostly due to the fact that she was non compliant we  decided to transport her. We started an IV and her friends came to be her support at the hospital. They were really upset that we were taking her but calmed down after we shared the reasons and nodded their head in agreement. They got into the MBH ambulance and headed out.

 Only 18 prenatals this morning.  I saw two interesting cases today. The day I arrived they had just transported a mom in preterm labor at 30 weeks.  She showed up today for her regular prenatal. They gave her some mystery pills to take daily and sent her home. They told her to come back if she needed to push or to come to MBH. She was complaining the mystery pills gave her heart problems. We didn’t know what she was on and so had no advice for her. It was really difficult to not know what to do do help. It made me thankful for being back home where co-care exists and is just a phone call away.  I sent her home with magnesium and calcium for her irritable uterus and told her to come back every week. 

Another mom was breech and engaged at 35 weeks and a transverse baby at 36 weeks. A second time mom came in measuring 47 cm at 40 weeks. Major polyhydraminous confirmed by ultrasound with a small for gestational age baby. We referred her to the hospital for an induction. 

We saw several postpartum moms. 

 A good number of them birth at the hospital or at home but come here for care as neither the hospital or the TBA do postpartum care. I saw two different mothers. The first was there with her 8th child. A beautiful little girl. They were both healthy but I did some cord care. The TBA's and the hospital just tie off the cord, cut them keeping them very long usually between 3 and 6 inches, and stick a piece of cloth to them. They are often stinky and infected from being pulled on and not having enough air circulation after a few days. Traditionally women wrap their baby’s bellies to keep them strong and from having big bellies. They have a fear of large distended abdomens in children as this is a sign of malnutrition. The only real problem it causes is lack of circulation for the umbilical stump and over heating so we try to discourage it.  They also don't use waterproof diaper covers so the babies always feel wet. The second mom had a listless one month old. She said he, although he was dressed in a pink dress, hadn't nursed in over 24 hours. We took mom to a private room and had her strip off her shirt as well as stripping the baby to his diaper. He nursed right away and continued for the next hour. Mom complained that her breasts were too full and she couldn’t get him to nurse in the morning. We talked about nursing 8 to 12 times a day and hand expressing to help the baby latch on. I finally figured out after quite a few discussions that nursing 8-12 times a day means nothing to most people who do not have a watch. So much to my interpreters aggravation I got in the habit of saying

 "Nurse first thing in the morning, nurse after you gather water, nurse after your first meal, nurse after the baby sleeps, nurse before you make another meal, nurse when it is getting dark, nurse when it is completely dark, nurse when you need to get up to pee at night. Repeat, repeat, repeat."

 I think she just wanted formula and felt too tired, hot and sweaty to nurse her baby. I truthfully didn't blame her. It was hot. We asked her to return tomorrow so we could check on him. We were done early around noon. Martha and I have gotten pretty good at working together and sharing an interpreter. In the afternoon we walked to the gas station for snacks. This bottle of vodka cost half as much as a Snickers bar. Made me chuckle.

 I got chocolate of course, two snickers bars. I put one in the freezer and it disappeared. I was pretty sure it was one of the workers children who took it. I didn't make a big deal about it because really I didn't need two Snickers bars and that child really did. When I was at MBH the only thefts that had occurred were food. Laptops and Ipods lying around go untouched but a candy bar in the fridge is fair game. Lunch was quinoa and black beans dinner rice with beans and sausage. We sat around and joked and talked then headed to bed.

Day 4:Haiti

Day 4- Sunday

I was up most of the night with Kesseley and her baby girl but I decided to eat my pumpkin soup which was delicious.

 The history of pumpkin soup begins with the celebration of Haitian Independence in 1804. On Jan. 1, 1804, Haitians worked together to create a unique soup to celebrate their independence from the French Colonists. Until that time, the Colonists believed that the blacks under their rule could never work together to create anything. Today, the traditional pumpkin soup known as "soup joumou," is made and served to friends and family in Haiti in remembrance of their fight for freedom. While under French Colonial rule, Haitians were limited to eating a bland bread soup. They would not have been permitted to eat such an extravagant meal comprised of pumpkin, beef stock and other vegetables. This unique soup was created as a symbol of unity in the face of adversity. It was served to everyone at the first Independence celebration and Haitians continue this tradition today.  

 Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion.

I decided to go to the local Baptist church with Santo and Mary even though I was exhausted. There were about 60 people in a cement building. It had no door or glass windows just an opening for each. They were all dressed in their Sunday best. The children were very well behaved. Shockingly well behaved compared to American children. They were happy to sit on their mothers laps. Something I noticed that was different was how parents held sleeping babies. In the US babies are often held in the cradle position while they sleep or occasionally over a shoulder. In Haiti as they lay the child over their knees similarly to how you would position them for a spanking and they would happily fall asleep there. I saw one mother at the church scowl at a 6 or 7 year old boy several times as he was getting restless before she laid him over her knees and he fell asleep with his mother patting his back. It made a lot of since as Haiti is hot an humid and that position was far less body contact and much cooler as they could fan the child while they slept. 

Photo courtesy of latimes.com
There was about an hour of worship singing and prayer followed by the preacher asking Mary and  I to come up and say or sing something. We sang How Great Thou Art.  It is such a beautiful universal hymn. It brought tears to my eyes as we sang it. The smiles from all of the lovely people was well worth the embarrassment.

 

A guest speaker, and American missionary fluent in Creole, spoke for the next 2.5 hours. About 2 hours in I was just done with sitting on the cement bench. The way the speaker spoke was different than I am used to being preached at and while I was attentive for quite a bit of time it started to get to me after a while. That combined with smoke coming in from the nearby door drove me to go sit outside. There is not real sanitation set up in Haiti so in order to deal with the trash many people have trash burn piles regularly. It smells awful and makes the air very smoky but it is preferable to the alternative. 

There I watched a 4 year old boy fill up his water containers for his family. Each plastic container, similar to a very large vegetable oil container, held about 2 gallons of water and I couldn't help but think how my children complain when I ask them to carry one gallon of milk in from the car. He pumped and filled the containers but the pressure coming out of the faucet was so great it left a good 25% of the container empty. He remedied this solution by  proceededing to fill up the tiny caps with water and poor it into the container. 50 fill ups later the containers were perfectly filled and he lugged the water back home. His eyes never left mine. Clean water is probably the number one problem in Haiti. The water from the pumps still needs to be boiled to be safe.

The water at the clinic is all braught in large 5 gallon jugs and dispersed from a cooler. Water for toilets and washing comes from a well on the property. Electric pumps pump it to the roof and store it in large containers to be used later.

                         This is similar to the ones at the clinic.

Most people get almost all of their drinking water from little plastic bags filled with water. The huge disposable water bottles used in the US seem very wasteful in comparison.

Service let out and we headed home. Lunch was chicken, so delicious, rice, potatoes and salad. I then spent the next 3 hours napping in my favorite place on the love seat. It has a cross breeze so even when the power is off, which it was again, I can be cool enough to sleep. Claudin came and we did our Creole lessons with Martha and Mary. A little known secret about me is that I really struggle with foreign languages. I almost didn't graduate from college because I started and dropped Spanish 4 times. Ultimately I took American Sign Language from another school and had the credits transferred in. Between the foreign language, my cold and missing my family so much I was just in tears. Wondering if I made a huge mistake in coming here. When we are busy I felt better but these two days off with no clinic and no births were really difficult.  Dinner was a packet of tuna and a Luna bar since the cooks have Sunday nights off.  I started the night inside but there were three mosquitoes in my net that I couldn't catch and I knew I would be miserable in the morning. I took a Benadryl and slept wonderfully in my bed under the stars. 

I finally perfected my bed under the stars. I got a lot of flack about sleeping out side. Another volunteer claimed she was going to "Suck it up inside with the heat and the bugs because she would acclimate quicker and be a true Haitian." I thought she was crazy and sure enough I was the intelligent one. 

I would get ready for bed every night which was quite the order

 *drag out the matress

* use clothes pins to hand the mosquito net

*tuck net under the matress
*twist openings and use close pins to keep out mosquitoes and check for holes

* gather my supplies which included my Nook, Jounal,eye mask, ear plugs, water bottle, flash light and hand fan (yes I was a little high maintanence)

*spray myself with repellant

* fan myself incestinatly as the DEET ate away my skin and gave me the worst hot flashes ever

*cry a little bit and miss my family

* say a prayer and beg for strentgth

*stare at the stars until I slept or if it was raining pull my fleece blanket I brought with me over my head and ignore the wetness.

I slept out side from then on. It became quite the routine and as I settled in I watched all of my Haitian neighbors settle in with similar routines on their roofs. They would wave or say hello. So who was the crazy one? Who would acclimate quicker? I am an avid camper and often sleep outside but this was the longest consecutive length of time I slept under the stars. I felt very claustrophobic when I got home.