Health & Wellbeing

When my daughter was ten months old, after a particularly restless night with her awake every hour, I stood in my kitchen like a zombie preparing my three year old son’s breakfast. He had also woken up a couple of times that night. I was wrecked. My daughter was sitting at my feet digging around in the “tupperware” cupboard, keeping herself entertained.

So, this wasn’t part of anything. It wasn’t for Dry July, which is coming up in a few days. Maybe I should have waited a month before I started my alcohol free month so I could tie it into Dry July, because it is a great charity that raises money for cancer patient.

Lifting Cars and Other Stories Of Parental Strength *UPDATE* She’s had a good couple of weeks, and we have an appointment later in the month, so hopefully we’re moving forward with this.   We’ve all heard the stories of parents in a moment of crisis being able to use seemingly …

Maybe Baby People ask me all the time if we’re planning to have another baby, and I usually laugh at the thought – of course not. No. No no no. Absolutely not. I don’t want to go back there. Pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding – all behind me. Thank goodness for that! …

I’m going to be a massive pain right now and say I’m really good at losing weight. I’m brilliant at it. I’ve done it a few times and I always rock at the losing weight part of losing weight.Yay. Go me!

Home doctor services are incredibly important service for our community. They provide bulk billed, after hours, GP services in your home.There have been several times if we couldn't get a home visit doctor to come to us we would have unnecessarily taken our children to hospital.

I get you just want to help. I really do. This is no way a critism of anyone who's ever said any of these things to me. I really really understand you mean to be supportive, but sometimes it has the opposite affect.

When I had Postnatal Anxiety with my first baby 8 years ago (actually his birthday is on Saturday!) there was so many things I just didn’t know that I didn’t know. I didn’t expect to need to know.

Exactly how you give birth might not matter; a csection, vaginal birth, home birth, or in hospital, whether it was hands off birth or you had lots of intervention. What happened doesn't matter nearly as much as how you felt during and after giving birth.

Surely I can’t be the only person who’s thought:“I’d love my body if I weighed X amount”“I’d love my body if I wear X size clothing”“I’d love my body if it looked exactly how I want it to look.”

I read this article - Why I Refuse to Feel Guilty About Mum Guilt by Emily Hawker and I relate to every. Single. Word. of it. I knew I would from the title alone.As sick of feeling irrationally guilty about motherhood, I’m sick of being told I need to stop feeling guilty.

*Trigger Warning - Discusses Neonatal Death*

To the parents of the baby who passed away,

As a NICU nurse, I have cared for the family and their beloved baby on the day they have passed away so many times.

Codral ads scare me. You know the ones? Someone wakes up with a hideous cold or flu and rather than keeping their germy self home they take a cake to an office party.

In my group of friends, I was the first to become a mum at just 21 years old. As a 21 year old mother, I was just as clueless and scared as you probably are imagining. I learned a lot along the way and several years later,

On Wednesday some friends and I hosted a small Lunch Out Loud event at our local, family-friend Cherry Hill Tavern with a group of friends and their children.Lunch Out Loud is a new initiative by PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia) to raise awareness and funds to support and educate the community about Perinatal Depression and Anxiety.

Dyspraxia affects many children and can be devastating to parents and families to see throughout a child’s development. It holds children back, especially in an academic setting, and without intervention, can lean to lowered self esteem, poor academic grades, poor social skills and some mood disorders such as depression and anxiety.

It's Perinatal Depression and Anxiety Awareness Week, and rather than just sharing my own experience with Postnatal Anxiety I wanted to give people the opportunity connect with a range of other voices, to show that if you are going through Perinatal Depression and Anxiety that you're not alone, and also that individual experiences with Depression and Anxiety can vary.

My own journey with Anxiety has been going on for 7 years - not continuously - but my anxiety does come back from time to time since my children were born (my son is 7 and my daughter is 3) and there are a lot of things that I've learned about Perinatal Anxiety and Depression in that time, either things I just didn't know that I didn't know, or things that I had been completely wrong about.

So, this week is Perinatal Depression and Anxiety Awareness Week (From the 15th to the 21st of November). I’m going to write a few posts on the topic and publish them throughout the week, but I thought I’d start by sharing a bit about why this week is really important to me.

For a parent of special needs children starting in mainstream schools here in Victoria, we endeavor a journey to an ENQ meeting. Education Needs Questionnaire.

Low Muscle Tone (hypotonia) often gets thrown around as a bit of a “buzz word” in therapy these days. Often it can cause anxiety in parents, often it causes confusion, and often it comes with a negative connotation.

Within MOMENTS, before even the fluid had reached the other end of the visual window, that line came up. It was DARK. It was definite. There was no squinting involved. No inverse colours on the phone. It was all too clear.

All babies are born with a myriad of senses that help us learn, move through our environment, explore and grow as people. Often we refer to our five basic senses as touch, sight, sound, smell, and hearing. There are many more ‘hidden’ senses, but more on that at a later time.

My eldest who is now 6, had done swimming lessons from mid last year, to the beginning of this year. He loved it. Followed instruction pretty well. But couldn't focus or hold on to wait his turn as the instructor taught the other 2 children in his group.

Do your kids ever complain about sore teeth when drinking something hot or cold? This could be a sign of tooth sensitivity – or a warning about more serious dental problems to come.

It’s seems to me that when the alphabet was invented, the letter ‘C’ had the job of starting all the crappy words. I never liked the letter ‘C’ anyway.Obviously, there are two words that are an exception to this rule…..COFFEE and CHOCOLATE.

For any skill in child development to be supported, it needs to be supported from the bottom up. All skills need a good foundation and handwriting is no exception.

Like most skills, all is not what it seems, and a lot more is involved than you may think.

Often as an paediatric occupational therapist, I get clients coming to me seeking clarification about their child’s state of development. This may include answering a few questions, doing a formal assessment, and writing up a report. Or, it may be contributing to their journey to seek out a formal diagnosis of some sort.

The difference between hearing, listening and auditory processing It’s common to have to call our child not once, twice, but twenty times before they respond. Especially if they’re in the middle of their favourite video game. This is typical to a certain extent, but how do we know when there’s …

As a paediatric occupational therapist, I often get asked what my job involves. Being so broad, it can sometimes be difficult to explain quickly. This blog article explains a bit more about paediatric occupational therapy, and how it may help your child.

As babies, it is essential that we explore our environment with every possible sense we have. Touch things, look at things, smell things, hear things, and of course…. Taste things. Infants are often caught with all kinds of things in their mouths!

When you've had a baby and you're barely home from the hospital, settling into your new life as a parent, adjusting to the frequent feeds, the no sleep and living almost entirely on love and wonder, it already it begins.

And already it begins. The overly personal question of “so when are you gonna have number 2?”

Having a child diagnosed with Autism can be one of the hardest things a parent can go through with their child.

To hear that your child is not normal, and needs multiple therapies can open a world of confusion, overwhelment and guilt. For the life and child you had imagined is far out of reach. Or at least that's how it seems.

It’s been a steep learning curve since I got glasses. I’ve only worn prescription glasses for a the last couple of months and I’ve learnt many things about the world, about myself, and about my eyes.

The first time I visited the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), I cried.

We knew from early on in our twins pregnancy that I’d be having them at 32 weeks. So, about a week before they were due to arrive, I was sent on a tour of the NICU so I’d know what to expect, and more importantly, what a 32 week old baby looked like.

As you may already be aware, children are very good at testing their physical limits only to get themselves caught in dangerous situations. Choking on food or any small and appealing item is a daily worry as a parent. You may only have two seconds to respond and provide first aid, not giving you enough time to phone or search the internet for advice. As a parent, you should find confidence in educating yourself on how to recognise choking and save a life.

I read an article a while back that said there were over 152 million blogs on the internet. The article was a couple of years old- by now there are probably shitloads more. Mum blogs, dad blogs, food blogs, fashion blogs, beauty blogs, personal blogs, whatever-the-hell-kind-of-blog this one is and no doubt many more including the ever popular health blog.

So Tuesdays are my favourite day of the week. I have a beautiful little community of mums and their little ones with whom we gather weekly and talk of all things birth and breastfeeding while we crochet.

I had planned a homebirth; my care provider was a beautiful midwife with the local hospital midwife program.

I have experienced two births and both were total shit. I agreed to the second bub with the hubby thinking that “they” (you know as in “they say that….”) were right in that the second one was quicker and less painful than the first, which was excruciating. If someone had handed me a loaded gun I would have pulled the trigger to stop the pain. Both times. Did I mention the midwife called me a drama queen??

Birth stories. We all love to hear a birth story, and I thought I should share mine.

I have 4 wonderful birth journeys to share with you and I hope you can relate to them, or even perhaps learn something you didn’t already know. So we kick off with birth story number one.

On the 28th July, we welcomed our precious little man Elijah George into our lives. This is his birth story.

My pregnancy with Elijah was text book – in the sense that it was one of those of pregnancies that progress with no complications and very little discomfort.

"Was he planned" is one of the most ridiculous (also rude) questions I’ve ever been asked and still after 7 years of being asked it I’m still not entirely sure what kind of answer people are looking for...

But the question itself is completely absurd, because the only answer there could possibly be is “yes”.

In April 2014 I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety is one of the most common health conditions in Australia. For men, anxiety is even more common than depression – 1 in 5 men will experience anxiety at some point

Pregnancy is lovely! You’re growing a tiny human inside you! You’re glowing with maternal love and joy! It’s all sunshine and roses and riding off into the sunset to the sound of 120 piece symphony orchestra.
Oh, wait no. That’s not at all how it works.

I’m always jealous when someone says with absolute certainty that they are completely done having babies, that they know with all that they are that their family is complete and they have no deeply buried yearning to do it all over again, to be pregnant, to give birth, to hold another tiny newborn, to bring another completely whole brand new person into the world. I so wish that could be me. Certain. Clear. Complete.

I’ve started writing about my experience of bonding with my son countless times, it’s something I’ve wanted to share, but I haven’t felt ready to share all of it. I've wanted to put it out there so that anyone who might have experienced it can know they're not alone, but I’ve hesitated because I don’t want anyone to think badly of me, or worse, feel sorry for me.Because this isn’t the story about how I struggled to bond with my son; this is the story of how I fell in love with him.

Menstruation is something most women have to deal with and I’m writing about it today because I’m coming up to a special anniversary. I’m just a few days off a whole year of no tampons and no pads.

Today – and any day – is a good day to ask people that simple question; “R U OK” You might start a conversation that could change someone's life.According to Beyond Blue in Australia:1 in 6 people will experience depression at some stage in their lives.1 in 4 people will experience anxiety.1 in 7 mothers will experience postnatal depression and 1 in 10 mothers will experience antenatal depression. Anxiety is likely to be as, if not more, common.

Someone very close to me is preparing to give birth for the second time at the same hospital my son was born, and it surprises me that after well over 5 years since I’ve stepped foot in that hospital it still stirs up some feelings for me. Not all bad feelings, I think I'm passed most of it,but it is still there.

It's a sensitive, yet very controversial topic, that seems to be a non stop story brought up on the facebook wall, by some of my friend and groups; what causes Autism?For almost a year I have officially been a parent to a diagnosed autistic child, with a second with suspected autism.Some believe the condition is genetic, their partner has it and all their children have it as well. But then you have many other families who have only one family member with autism.

Birthing Your Breech Baby – What Are Your Options? About 3-4 per cent of babies present breech at term. This means that the baby’s head is at the top of the uterus and its buttocks, knees or feet are at the bottom. Some breech babies have their legs straight up so their feet are around the head (frank breech), others sit crossed legged (complete breech) and others crouch, kneel or stand. Most of the time, there is no obvious reason why a baby is presenting breech – it is just one of those things. I like to think that my breech baby was keeping her head next to my heart. However, sometimes it is due to the shape of the mother’s uterus (for instance, bi-cornate or heart-shaped) or something to do with the baby.

I am currently 35 weeks into my second pregnancy and although I have been using an app to help me keep track of my weeks, I am now starting the "it's so close" end of the line count down.My first pregnancy, with daughter Ayla, was uneventful and 'boring'. I didnt have "morning sickness" or many issues apart from a low lying placenta, which rectified itself by 32 weeks. I suffered from some reflux but I loved the whole experience.

Okay, this has been a while coming. My little man is 7 months old now and has just started teething (another story for another time) and I have been meaning to get this down for quite some time, and in fact have 4 pages of unfinished notes jotted down SOMEWHERE about my birthing experience. I'm going to start by saying it wasn't a positive experience for me and talking about it with several health carers from the day after I arrived home from hospital I have been urged to write a letter of complaint to the hospital where I had my son at. Hence the 4 pages.

Go your own way. There are as many different types of pregnancies as there are pregnant women – there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. You know what’s going to make you feel the most comfortable, whether it’s bi-weekly massages, a daily time-out with a cup of tea and no conversation, long walks twice a day, or regular jelly beans.

2013 is coming to an end, and I have been reflecting what the year has been like, and what I have learned. This year I have had a lot of challenges as a parent. Learn to have an abundance of patience, and contain my anger. I am a terribly grumpy …

Unsurprisingly, after an analysis of 13 studies, involving 16,242 women in Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand, has found “…that having the same midwife provides significant benefits for women who have a medium or low risk during their pregnancy.”Some of the findings were that women with midwife-led care had a 16% reduced rate of episiotomy, 12% less forceps and ventouse delivery, 13% less likely to have an epidural and more likely to have a spontaneous labour, though on average had longer labours by 30 minutes and there was no more or less chance of a caesarean birth.

Baby Showers are the gathering to celebrate the upcoming birth of a baby. Many involve playing games, talking about babies, names, eating nice food and opening up gifts.

We have all heard the story about the woman who didn't know she was pregnant until she had the baby. The Sun Uk reported that Amanda Ross, 41, is one of them. She found she was 8 months pregnant and then 15 hours later had a beautiful baby girl. Talk about shock and surprise!

This is a step by step of my nursery furniture renovation. Outlining the basic "how to" of a simple make over for a cot that was about 15 years old, drawers that are I have had since the start of High School and a “barely used” good quality change table.

As reported in the Telegraph, doctors in the UK have developed a blood test which may be an early indicator of post natal depression.

Wanting a Caesarian Just like everyone else I have an idea of how I want the birth of my first child to go. I am happy in a hospital, being pumped full of drugs and trusting that the people around me know what they are doing. In an ideal world, …

Sleep “Nightmare” Routine For some kids, it’s have a bath, get dressed and brush your teeth, and in to bed. Other kids need a story, maybe a song, a drink, a kiss and a cuddle or maybe even a soft toy. Bedtime in my house is long….. very long. We do …

Okay, I'm just going to say to - I hate being pregnant. It has nothing to do with the tiny baby about to be brought into the world, that part I love. The journey to getting him here, that part sucks! Basically, everyone has an opinion and will voice it, particularly the negative ones.

So we all have our reasons, but when choosing a contraceptive, it can be a stressful, and sometimes confusing time.We had just had our second son, and we discussed our future on whether another baby was an option for us or not.

Hey dad’s to be, this is a check list for you because once the screaming and pushing starts, there’s often little time for clear-headed thought. You’ll need to be prepared ahead of times of items you may need. This is a just a suggestions, just to get you thinking of what …

Where and how you plan to birth, will determine what you need in your hospital bag. If you’re planning to birth in Hospital what you need to bring with you will vary.

Food. Do you eat healthy food? Because you got to know, if you don’t, it’s a habit you may want to try to break now rather than once you’re always tired and craving quick-fix energy foods, like sugar. Also might be helpful strengthening your willpower because the list of food you are recommend not to eat when you are pregnant are long.

Krystle’s PND Story Before I begin the next part of my story, i want to clear up the misconception i had about PND. I thought mums who got PND hated motherhood, and hence became depressed. How wrong I was. I loved being a mum and I loved my son intensely. …

Bryce’s Birth Story My name is Krystle, I’m 26 years old, and mother to an amazing 8 month old little boy! My birth story is not what i expected or ever hoped it to be, but is still the most awe inspiring experience of my life. The thing is the …

Hi :-) This is our birth story of baby #4Welcoming Bentley Alexander Earthside - Our homebirth journeyOur story begins on November the 8th 2011. 7 Months to the day that my beautiful Mama had passed away.

When to come to writing a birth plan, people might say “You can’t plan a birth” – there are so many things that can happen that are unexpected, or not go to “plan”, births can be quicker, longer, harder, easier, more complicated or simpler than we anticipate.

Willow's story begins long before she chose to enter this world. Against all odds a one night fling with my ex resulted in my pregnancy with her, the decision to keep her and raise knowing I would be a single mother to a newborn was a hard decision to make.

My due date was the 26th of June 2009. But Maya was born 4 days before her due date, so nobody expected this pregnancy to last until the due date, let alone go over.

Maya’s Birth Story My due date was Thursday 31st of May 2007. It was my first pregnancy. I was hoping that this baby wouldn’t come too early because my mother was arriving from Germany on Sunday the 20th. I was going to deliver at the birth centre of the Gold …

Since Margo is about to turn three, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about her birth. Margo was born in a hospital setting and her birth was considered a ‘natural childbirth’.

I was 40 weeks and 6 days and to say I was over it would be an understatement.I was booked in for a stretch and sweep at the birthing centre at 1pm and was hoping it would be the little nudge my comfortable little man needed.

I had a few people come up to me and tell me how they can not wait to be pregnant. That they can't wait to be fat and such, that they don't mind a few weeks of morning sickness.

Jasper’s Birth Story I want to preface this story by saying this all happened 4 years ago, this story was written while the event was still fresh and raw. Since Jasper was born I’ve had an amazing and empowering VBAC with my baby girl and I have come to a place where …

I should note that this is a positive elective c-section story, I have never broken a bone, had surgery, had a stitch, or even been stung by a bee..! So to be honest I was expecting it to be more of a big thing then what it turned out to be...!

This story is the birth of our gorgeous daughter, over a year ago now, she was born 9th of March, 2012. Very long, hard, but still incredibly empowering VBAC. (vaginal birth after a cesarean)

Fainting at Hospital Today was a bit of an adventure, be patient while I fill in the background leading up to the scary bit… My great grandmother, who is sick and a little nutty, lives with my Nan and Pop, in my home town, with most of my family. My …

1st Midwife AppointmentToday I had my first Midwife appointment and was very excited. It ran on time, the midwife was truly lovely and kind.She gave us a gift bag full of goodies and info about what to expect and what our options might be. The sad part came when it was time to check my weight.

13 Week ScanToday I had my 13 week scan to check the Nuchal translucency fold.And of course it was a bit emotional.So while everything went very well and so far so good, getting to that point was a bit hectic.

No Poo in My Hair… Finally got my hair cut today! Not as much for the little one to grab!   Also got my new Didymos baby wrap… cute, huh? ‘You use WHAT to wash your hair!?’ my hair dresser barked at me today.  ’Yes,’ I replied, ‘I use baking …

If you are supporting someone through birthing, be it your wife, partner, sister, daughter or another family member or friend, its important you clearly understand the birthing mothers intentions, boundaries and expectations of what your role will be.

Birthing certainly can be an amazing, empowering, beautiful, magical experience, It can also be very painful, long or traumatic in some instances. I highly recommend reading Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth if you can get a copy, and if you are planning to birth vaginally to watch birthing videos – there are heaps on you-tube – to help prepare mentally for the task ahead!