Baby Grant recently returned to the SF Newborn Class with his proud parents for a baby bath demo. He arrived in a sling worn by his Dad, being soothed by sucking on his Dad’s pinky…pretty sweet sight, while setting a great example for the expectant couples about the extent that partners can participate in parenting a newborn. While we prepared the tubbie, his Mom happily held her naked little baby in her arms…no sooner had she said, “they pee all the time”, when he showered the front of her sweater! The class roared as Grant’s Dad scrambled for a dry towel…too funny!
* As seen on www.giggle.com

Walking through the doors of your home with your new baby is like walking on the moon-exhilarating and terrifying! This is why Sarah is now making house calls. Our office receives so many calls from frantic parents requesting further instruction and reassurance that everything is on track and they are doing fine, that she is now providing in-home post-partum consultation. For those living outside the Bay Area, she is available by phone to walk and talk you through common new parent challenges: feeding, sleeping, crying, soothing, support, relationship, safety, gear…the list goes on and on. www.mcmoylermethod.com

*Reprinted with permission from www.giggle.com

This Sunday’s NY Times featured an article about a lactation consultant (LC) in Brooklyn who has made a great impact on successfully assisting new mothers through the many challenges and hurdles that often accompany breastfeeding newborns. I loved her reality based approach: Rule 1, enjoy the baby. Rule 2, feed the baby. One new mother was quoted as saying through a frenzy of tears, after the blissful first week of her daughter’s life ended and reality set in ” I want to do this all naturally…I know other people have challenges, but not me because I do yoga!” The LC responded with “She’s OK, she’s nursing, she’s going to grow, and she’s beautiful.” She wants the baby to get the breast milk and the mom to enjoy the experience of feeding her baby…Rule 1, enjoy the baby. Rule 2, feed the baby…which sometimes can include the F word: formula…don’t lose your minds over this. At the end of the day, they are all going to kindergarten!

Hi Sarah!
We just wanted to thank you again for your class… what we learned
was (and still is) very helpful! Hard to pinpoint all the “best
parts,” but a few things that we were very thankful to have some perspective on in advance:

1. The labor breathing techniques. Again, due to Cathy’s situation,
we were both somewhat expecting (perhaps me more than her) to have a C- section with no labor at all. When her OB allowed her to labor, we
were obviously glad we’d paid attention to that part of the class!
Cathy specifically said the “primal, guttural, breathing” techniques were exactly what she needed at the time.

2. The partner’s/father’s role in the whole process. I really felt like we did this together from start to finish. I expected to feel like I was helping her do it versus us doing it together. Certainly easy for me to say considering I was in zero pain (haha)… but surprisingly, Cathy does agree. Very cool experience for us both.

3. Breastfeeding. Cathy learned a lot that was very helpful…
including, of course, that every nurse will have a different opinion
and you just need to find what works. She’s had some challenges
since then and has consulted many other books and a couple of
appointments with a lactation consultant at Newborn Connections.

Many other parts were great, of course too… just wanted to name a
few. Again, many thanks for your help! This is truly an awesome
experience and we are loving every minute of it (well, maybe not ALL of the crying minutes but we’re doing our best to keep those to a minimum… and he’s still cute then too!).

Just heard a highly respected physician speaking out about the rise in childhood diseases that had essentially been eradicated until recent years- the reason that there is a 20% increase in measles: some parents are opting to NOT vaccinate their children; “600 deaths a day from measles.” This is only one example of the misguided decision to not vaccinate; thereby increasing their risk, along with the rest of the population, to developing life threatening diseases.

He finished with this irony: there are parents who will risk life and limb by driving their cars to purchase organic vegetables for their families- and will NOT protect them from the real dangers of contracting one of these life threatening diseases…

Dear Sarah,
My husband and I had what I consider to be a perfect childbirth experience… and are now the proud parents of what I consider to be a perfect baby girl! She was born on January 21 and is the picture of health and beauty!

My intention was to have a drug-free labor… but my birth “plan” was more of a wish list than anything in the end. I was in labor for 23 hours. I labored at home for the first 7 hours and made it drug-free for another 12 hours at the hospital. Long story short, I stopped dilating at 6 cm and spent a solid 5 hours at that stage before they started Pitocin and I begged for an epidural.

I had always heard bad things about Pitocin - basically that hospitals push it in order to maximize how many babies they can deliver in a day by speeding each delivery up as much as possible. Something you said in your class though was so true that it stuck with me and changed my perspective on the issue. You said that the doctors and nurses have one motive - keeping each delivery safe for baby and mom. So when
Pitocin came up, I felt perfectly confident that it was necessary.
And I had my beautiful baby 4 hours later. (And she began breast feeding immediately following her delivery when they placed her on my chest - it was an AMAZING thing to watch her find her own way to food!)

Thank you for your class. It made a stressful day easier to put my trust the medical professionals caring for me and my baby. Plus, my husband was an awesome partner to me during the best and worst times of labor and I honestly believe he would have been clueless without your class (shh).

has arrived! Please click onto the link to meet his parents Evelyn and Jamie, who talked with me 2 weeks ago as they wait in anticipation for his arrival. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_0_I-NoYMk

Baby Julian is now one week old, a beautiful 9 lb.3 oz baby boy who “looks just like me when I was a baby!” says proud daddy Jamie. Evelyn’s biggest concern was breastfeeding- well, I am happy to report that she is nursing like a champ! They are in that unique place of adjusting to life with their new sweet boy, finding their footing, coming up from the fog of bliss and challenge; may all new families transition so well into new parenthood…

I recently tried to tell a lovely, older, Japanese woman in my yoga class how lovely she was- discovering that she does not speak English; I did my best with pantomime. Yesterday, I was downtown, and turned around to see her standing there with her adult daughter- we were both delighted to see each other. Her daughter interpreted for us and we were able to find out each other’s names. The daughter offered her business card and so I too gave her mine; the daughter looked at me and said: “Are you Sarah McMoyler?” “We took your class 3 years ago and loved it!” Six degrees of separation…the lovely woman from Yoga and I have officially met and I have reconnected with a graduate…

My first born called me last night; I immediately detected a note of excitement in his voice: “Hi Mom, I had the greatest day today!” He went on to tell me all about his first day of school- at college! He was trying to add a class, the professor had all the students anxious to get in, stand up and plead their case-why they should be selected to get into his class. Luke described how some were shy or hesitant as they presented their case…not only did Luke get in, but after class, the professor told him “you delivered a symphony!”
All parents know this feeling- when our kids make us smile and our hearts swell…Luke’s phone call propelled me back to his first smile, first steps, first day of kindergarten, learning to ride a bike…so many pictures…we love our children, grow them strong, in order to let them go, release them-so that they may go out into the world and write their own unique symphony…

Hi there,
My name is Christy, my husband and I took the two classes in November. We had our son, last Monday. We felt so prepared and armed with information by the time I went in to labor, one week early. Our labor and delivery went so well, we would love to share our story. In the past week, having him at home with us, we have utilized many of the baby-tricks we learned from Sarah. One huge lifesaver has been a small portable heating unit that we use when we are changing him, and when he is sleeping. He loves the white noise and gentle heat. We wouldn’t have known the secret had it not been for the class.

My favorite part of the class was the last hour when we met baby Taylor and her parents (whom I have run into since and immediately recognized…all that hair!), and they shared their story and their baby with us. I would love to sign up for the same experience, if you need parents for an upcoming class. I delivered vaginally and had an epidural. The recovery days in the hospital were a rude awakening for me since I didn’t feel pain during the delivery. I am breastfeeding now. The calming methods we learned (swaying and shushing loudly) have helped a lot.

Please let me know what you think. And thank you so much, we will be recommending the classes to everyone we know who is expecting!

* As seen on www.giggle.com