Home Base-That's Where It's At!

You've punched that clock day after day for years now. You're expecting your first baby or maybe you have children already, and you wonder how you can spend more time at home while still earning a living. Home Base-That's Where It's At!

More and more women are turning their passions, interests and hobbies into viable home-based businesses. We all have something that we are good at and with the right preparation and determination, we can turn our expertise into cash. My passion and experience is in maternal health. So I've built my business around that. It started with one service and now includes 3 separate businesses all focusing on maternal health, specifically pregnancy, birth and postpartum. I'm a midwife, author of a pregnancy cookbook and sew eco-friendly baby accessories. Each one is a distinct business but they all work together.

So, how do you get started? First off, take a look around you. What do you do on a regular basis that you enjoy? It's my belief that the 1st rule of starting a business is loving what you do! That is what is going to get you out of bed every day to create, market and sell your product or service. Let's use cooking as an example. Each time there is a family get-together, a community event, a birthday, etc...you are called on to cook part or all of the meal. You enjoy cooking and love watching the smiles on the faces of those who are eating your food. Your food is delicious, people love it and surely will pay for it! Turn that love of cooking and your skills into a business. Offer catering for private parties or personal chef services, or if you have a specialty like cakes or cookies, sell those! The sky is the limit!

Getting the ball rolling is going to take more than ordering business cards from Vistaprint. Keep in mind that you will need some sort of marketing material to pass out to potential customers, so add that to your list. Do you need to be licensed or registered? Are you going to operate as a sole-proprietor or a business entity (corp, llc, llp)? Identify your target market (who will buy your product or service), how will you reach them, what tools or equipment do you need to get started (you probably already have the essentials), set a time frame to "launch" your business and stick to it!

One of the best things about working from home is having the ability to see your children grow and develop while building your own level of success. Work as much or as little as you need/want to. Is your goal to supplement the household income or to earn every dollar needed to provide for your family? Every start-up business has its obstacles. Success comes when you prepare, focus on the goal and show determination in making your dream of being self employed a reality. Many business come and go. Will yours be one of them?


Don't go and quit your job, just yet! Put your thoughts down on paper, get organized, take a business planning class or entrepreneurship seminar, fill your family members in on your plan and be confident in your decision. For a while you may have to keep that J.O.B. but keep your eye on the prize and you will achieve you goal!

It's Your Placenta, Do Not Discard!

Placentophagy, ingestion of placenta, has been practiced for centuries. It is still a common practice in most countries. Different countries have various rituals and beliefs about the amazing placenta. The Ibo of Nigeria and Ghana consider the placenta to be the baby's twin. certain regions of Siberia, the buried placenta is thought to be ill or uncomfortable if the baby becomes sick. Other ritual ideas could be to bury the placenta and plant a tree on the same spot.

The placenta is thought to be rich in nutrients that the mother needs to recover more readily from childbirth. In Italy, women have been known to eat parts of the placenta to help with lactation. Hungarian women bite the placenta to expedite the completion of labor. And knowledgeable midwives in this country have their birth mothers take bites of raw placenta to help stop hemorrhaging, due to its beneficial oxytocin content. The placenta is considered rich in iron and protein, which would be useful to women recovering from childbirth, and a particularly beneficial to vegetarian women.

Pregnancy is taxing on the body, even if the mother follows the best of health regimes. The theory behind placentophagy is that you are returning the nutrients lost during the birth process back to the body to aide in quick and smooth postpartum recovery.

The benefits of placenta encapsulation include:

*Decrease in baby blues and postpartum depression.
*Increase and enrich breastmilk.
*Increase in energy.
*Decrease in lochia, postpartum bleeding.
*Decrease iron deficiency.
*Decrease insomnia or sleep disorders.

The placenta's hormonal make-up is completely unique to the mother. No prescription, vitamin or herbal supplement can do what one placenta pill can.

So there you have it. Why would you want to throw away the placenta that has the very power to help you out so immensely postpartum? The placenta is truly a gift! Own it and indulge in it's natural power.

*Special thanks to the moms from CafeMom that contributed to this blog post*

Hello, Hello, How Does This Parenting Thing Work?!

Yep, everyone knows that my twins are my pride and joy. On any given day, I have a story to tell about something they said or the newest "cute" thing they've done. My life revolves highly around my family and I wouldn't have it any other way. So, what do I do when my "cute" 9 year olds push me to the limit and test me? I've seen hundreds of books written for the new parent, many of them I have in the lending library at my business Mother Nature's Belly, but not so many on the child who's not quite a teenager but not so much a baby anymore. What to do?

At home my boys will get right quick, when their dad or I give them the look. You know the look. It's the one your parents and grandparents gave you when you were acting up that said, "If you don't get right real quick, it's on!" I've been called old school a time or two. But my dilemna is how do I keep them on the "get right" path when mom and dad are away? They love to get loose when they think we are not looking and then play innocent when we find out about their antics. I think children have an internal gauge to cut up when they are outside of the house. I've seen, little "Nakia" and little "Malik" show their not so cute behinds in public!

So my husband and I highly value and utilize the rewards system. At what point, does that no longer have the desired effect? I tell you, I love my boys but some days I wonder, are they really acting like this?

Hello, Hello, how does this parenting thing work? Do you know?

Female Circumcision, Birth and The Midwife

Female circumcision may be a foreign concept to those of us born in the United States, however in many countries throughout Africa, female circumcision is considered a right of passage. A large percentage of young girls are circumcised every year. My purpose in writing this blog post is not to pass judgment on rituals of which I have no experience and little knowledge, but to share some insight into this practice from a midwifery and birth worker prospective.

I just watched a video showing the vaginal delivery of an infant born to a Gambian mother who experienced female circumcision! The mother has no clitoris and a great deal of scar tissue that actually shortened her vaginal opening. The scar was well healed, however the anatomical changes that occurred as a result of the circumcision made for a complicated birth of her baby girl. Although this is not a common issue that we as midwives in the US encounter, it is possible that throughout the course of one's midwifery career you may experience this. I serve a diverse population of women of color including women from the continent of Africa.

There are some practices that the MD used during the birth that I do not approve of but again, I am not going to elaborate on them as that is not the focus of this post.

What population do you serve? As a midwife, would you be able to serve a woman who has experienced this ritual without judgment?