The Social Security Administration has released the top baby names for boys and girls so far for 2011.

In the SSA press release, they note a return to girls’ names that were hot in the mid-20th century, like Isabella, Ava and Chloe. Based on this occurrence, they venture a prediction about what the royal couple’s first child will be called. “We note the excitement about the recent royal wedding and suggest there may be a Princess Elizabeth, Frances, Valerie, or Dorothy in the future,” SSA writes.

Can pregnancy influence your ability to observe or persecutive the paranormal?

My experience with motherhood is restricted to research and theory, so I can’t answer that question from a personal perspective. I can shed a different light on the matter… in hypnotherapy there is a technique called natal regression. Basically, the client regresses to the pregnancy period for deeper insights into thoughts or beliefs that the client adopted during this time. Before trying this technique I was a skeptic. I honestly thought that I would regress into nothingness and twiddle my thumbs at the boring turn of “non-events”. What I found, upon regressing to the natal state, was information from the night of conception, as well as an event during gestation (where I felt my mother worrying about finances), and then the birth…where I felt the tightness of the birth canal and a feeling of suffocation. When a fellow hypnotherapist asked me to focus on the first person I saw in the delivery room, it wasn’t human. My eyes were drawn to a spirit form, which is the best way I can explain it – someone or something who was there to watch over me. I felt completely comfortable in its presence.

Why is natal regression important? It is thought that, during the pregnancy, a mother’s thoughts and feelings will transfer to the child. The child, at this point, has no way of distinguishing between the mother’s “stuff” and his or her own, so everything is accepted as a personal experience (natal regression is the process of reversing some of these limiting or negative beliefs, if there are any…some people experience only love and a profound feeling of acceptance from their families, which is equally powerful).

Any emotion of the mother’s has the ability to transfer to the unborn child, and so it is especially important for women to take care of themselves during pregnancy. Try to remove any outside stress and remain positive and nurturing (even in your thoughts about yourself, women). For the hypnobeginning portion of my courses (hypnosis for a natural childbirth), we watched a video of a fetus. The baby cringed as it listened to sounds of a man and woman arguing, and then it jumped in the womb when something crashed in the background.

As a father, you have the awesome privilege of being there for your unborn child in more ways than you might realize. What you say to your wife – and the emotion behind those words – are interpreted on some level by your child. In many circles within the clinical hypnosis community, it is believed that the soul of the child actually chooses its parents before coming to earth. Thousands of regressions to the interlife state support this, but that is only an opinion and like any belief, you can accept or reject this.

This is just a little of what I have gathered over the years. Your experience will be beautiful in its own way…enjoy every moment.

Here is a story from the LA Times

Fewer pregnant women and their partners are attending prenatal education classes these days and appear to be quietly following whatever advice the doctor or midwife recommends, researchers said Monday.

Doctors, led by Dr. Michael Klein of the Child & Family Research Institute and University of British Columbia, surveyed 1,318 healthy pregnant women. They found many seemingly unprepared to make their own decisions regarding childbirth options, such as whether to have natural childbirth or a Cesarean section.

Fewer than 30% of the women, all first-time mothers, said they had attended prenatal childbirth classes. Many said they used the Internet or books to become informed about childbirth. Still, a shockingly high number could not answer basic questions regarding the pros, cons or safety issues associated with epidurals, episiotomies, Cesareans and other childbirth options. The women who were receiving obstetrical care from midwives tended to be more informed about their options compared with women receiving care from a medical doctor.

“[E]ven late in pregnancy, many women reported uncertainty about benefits and risks of common procedures used in childbirth,” Klein said in a news release. “This is worrisome because a lack of knowledge affects their ability to engage in informed discussions with their caregivers.”

The study was published in the June issue of Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada.

The type of provider mattered greatly in terms of what kind of care women received. The researchers published a related study in May in the journal Birth that showed younger obstetricians were much more likely to favor the routine use of epidurals and expressed more concerns about the safety of vaginal birth compared with older obstetricians. The younger obstetricians seemed to view C-sections as the preferred option for childbirth, the authors noted. In the United States, efforts have begun to reduce C-section rates. About one-third of all U.S. women have a surgical birth.

I have found the opposite to be true among women who network socially with other women online and in person.

Some couples get very excited about finding out the sex of their baby. Others do not want to find out. Both scenarios have their perks. Finding out your baby’s gender in advance gives you the opportunity to plan a baby nursery and pick out gender specific baby clothes. Still, not finding out, has it’s own appeal. Some prefer the surprise factor of not finding out or want to keep things more natural. The tricky part comes when one parent wants to find out the baby’s gender and the other does not. What is the best thing to do to make both parents happy?

Here are some tips from other mommies on how to win the Ultrasound War.

You really want to know and he doesn’t.

Slip the ultrasound tech a $20 with a note on it that says “I really do want to know. Write the results in my chart”.
Bring a video tape to record the ultrasound, then analyze the tape frame by frame till you see your baby’s private parts. Then play these parts for your friends twenty times until they tell you what you want to hear.

Scream and pout in the doctor’s office until your husband is so embarrassed that he lets you have your way.
You really don’t want to know and he does.

Slip the ultrasound tech a little note that says “make my baby’s parts magically disappear” while you smile and say, “Yes, we are really hoping that our baby shows his parts at this appointment”.

Conveniently have preggo brain and forget to ask the doctor what the gender is. This only works if your husband is the shy type that won’t ask on his own.

Bribe him with sex or money. That usually works.

When these tips don’t work here are some more practical ones.

1. Brainstorm – Put your thinking caps on. Do some brainstorming and try to come up with fair solutions. Write down all your ideas or talk about them. Maybe he has an idea that you hadn’t thought of that would be fair for both of you.

2. Negotiate – If you can’t agree negotiate. Try a little give and take on some other issues. Consider caving on the extra money you wanted to spend on your baby’s nursery in exchange for finding out the baby’s gender. Or if you don’t want to find out and he does, you could let him have his way on what type of baby name you will choose. There are so many different choices that come up during pregnancy. Negotiating will help you both to feel like you have a say in things.

3. Compromise – A common solution to the ultrasound/gender dispute is to have one partner find out and the other not find out. As difficult as this sounds, it is really not such a big deal. Couples do this all the time. You can have the ultrasound tech write your baby’s gender on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope. Variations to this idea: Have your partner and you both agree not to tell the other if you look at the envelope. This way you don’t know if the other knows. With this idea you both have to be faithful to keep the other’s wishes.

4. Procrastinate – Sometimes waiting till the day of the ultrasound to decide is okay. A lot of times even the partner that thinks he/she does not want to find out suddenly changes his/her mind at the last minute or vice versa. Wait and see how things go. There is no need to be stressed. If you are still not sure, tell the tech you are not sure and ask her if she would mind writing something in your records until you make up your mind.

5. Ask around – Ask other people what they did. See how your friends and family members handled the situation. Maybe someone will influence your decision or give you some ideas you hadn’t though about.

6. Take turns – If you plan on having more than one child, you can always take turns on finding out the gender. A lot of couples have found this a good solution to the problem.

Source

If you are choosing to have a natural birth without pain medication, here are some tips from Lamaze International to help you have a smooth and natural birth. Talk with your support person beforehand to let them know what your plan is for the birth. Remember to listen to your body’s cues and rhythm. Having a natural birth can happen, but make sure that you are prepared for medical intervention.

1. Find a place that will support your choice of a natural birth. Whether this is at a hospital, home, or in a birth center, choose a place that supports your choice of birth.

2. Look for a healthcare provider that will support you in your choice of having a natural birth. Many women have found that the care provided by midwives and doulas includes more labor support and less medical intervention.

3. Do not request or agree to induction of labor unless it is medically necessary to do so. It is a good idea to let your body go into labor on its own, because that is the best sign that your baby is ready to be born. Give your body time to find its own pace and rhythm during labor and don’t focus on the clock. Don’t use any medications such as Pitocin to speed your labor.

4. Try moving during labor. You will be much more comfortable if you are able to move around freely, and your labor will progress much quicker. If you stay upright and respond to the pain of your labor by changing positions, your baby will move through the birth canal easily. Try different positions such as rocking, straddling a chair, lunging, walking, and slow dancing with a partner.

Labor & Delivery

5. Aside from your partner, consider who else you want to support you during labor and birth. You might want to hire a doula to give you and your partner emotional and physical support.

6. Ask that your baby’s heartbeat be monitored intermittently instead of all the time so that belts, cords, or wires do not tie you to a machine or a specific place.

7. Follow your instincts and eat and drink as your body tells you. If you drink plenty of fluids during labor, it will give you energy and keep you from getting dehydrated.

8. Try to use non-medical pain management strategies. Many women like to get into a warm bath and showers to relieve pain. Practice using birth balls, massage, hot and cold packs, aromatherapy, and focused breathing to help you deal with painful contractions.

9. If you can, avoid giving birth on your back. Use an upright position such as sitting, squatting, or standing to give birth. This will increase the effectiveness of your contractions and enable you to work with gravity. Push when your body tells you to and ask your support persons to give you only quiet encouragement.

10. Have your baby with you right after you give birth. Skin-to-skin contact keeps your baby warm and helps to regulate your baby’s heartbeat and breathing. Staying with your baby in the same room will help you to get to know each other, and it lets you respond to early feeding cues and get breastfeeding off to a good start.

If problems arise, ask questions about the risks and the benefits of any recommended intervention. Understand that sometimes labor and birth don’t go as expected. If you’re involved with decisions about your care and have good labor support, you’re more likely to be satisfied with the birth, even if medical interventions are necessary.