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Calgary has some amazing visionary women! One of those women is Jannette Festival, Executive Director of Calgary Mothers’ Milk Bank Association. In September 2010, Jannette Festival RN, IBCLC was working at the Foothills Hospital in the postpartum unit. A mother from Nelson, BC had a baby girl on the unit in palliative care. While caring for the girl and her …
We are all social creatures at heart. We all want to belong, to be treated as equals and to be respected. We are happiest when we are accepted and supported by our families and communities, by our workplaces and in our social arenas. Being publicly shamed and belittled can be devastating. Being shamed for a human act as natural as …
At birth, our babies are born with a brain one-quarter the size of our adult brains. In the first year of life, our brains nearly double in size. By the time we are three, our brain has tripled in size. Critical brain growth happens in the first moments, the first days, weeks and months of life. Knowing we are growing …
Tongue and lip tie (often abbreviated to TT/LT) have become buzzwords among lactation consultants bloggers and new mothers. For many these are strange new words despite the fact that it is a relatively common condition. Treating tongue tie fell out of medical favour in the early 1950s. In breastfeeding circles, it was talked about occasionally, but until recently few health …
It seems a month doesn’t go by in Calgary without a report in the news media or on social media that a woman and child have been asked to move, or to cover up, while breastfeeding in public. Recent incidents include: complaints from other patrons when a woman breastfed her baby while watching a film at a local theatre, a …
On July 29th 2007 seated in my doctor’s office holding my husband Paul’s hand tightly, we received the news that we were expecting. I met the wonderful news with tears of Joy, amazement, and tears of fear. This was indeed a miracle pregnancy and a miracle baby. Only a year before in June of 2006 my Husband and junior high …
The journey of my pregnancy and birth with my third child was one of anticipation, joy, excitement, grief, anxiety, fear, and most of all healing. I became pregnant for the fourth time in May 2008, three months after our second daughter, Gabrielle, was stillborn at 26 weeks gestation. She had a chromosomal condition known as Turner’s syndrome which meant …
Almost five years have passed since I learned the true meaning of helplessness. An evening that started with a romantic comedy and some popcorn quickly turned into an emotional prizefight in which I was being battered. Learned instincts tell men to fight back in these types of situations, but there was no opponent to be seen. My inability to fight …
Our first answered prayer, a beautiful little girl named Kailie Sera Jolene was born on June 21, 2003. Although I had had my appendix removed when I was 18.5 weeks pregnant with her, my pregnancy, labor and delivery was absolutely wonderful. We had midwives and had labored at home and then given birth at the hospital, but went home to …
Giving birth is one of the most normal everyday kind of things, while at the same time so miraculous. I still get spun out by the fact that a birthing woman’s body is the exact spot in the universe that splits open and allows a new soul to come into this existence. I feel so honoured that I get to …
