Aida Kaman Stephens
December 07, 2007
New Services Offered
- Website news
In addition to the full maternity care package, I am now also offering an extensive Post Natal Care package and a Birth Advocacy service. To find out more, please have a look at my Practice page.
January 10, 2007
It's been a while
- Website news
It’s been a while since I last added to the site. In the next couple of months, I will be doing some updating. A lot has happened in the past year, most importantly the new addition to the Stephens family. Maia Anum was born at home in water on the 14th march 2006. It was a lotus birth and Maia is thriving and has her siblings vey much wrapped around her little finger.
January 04, 2006
Finally!!!!
- Website news
Trinity is now 8 months old and I finally get around to getting her birth story published on this site. Thank you Liz for your contribution.
April 02, 2005
Announcing the birth of.....
- Pregnancy & Childbirth
Beautiful baby girl, Trinity was born in water to Liz and Pete today at home. Trinity is blessed with 8 older siblings. Welcome to the world, little one.
March 28, 2005
Bellycasting
- Midwifery
About a couple of weeks ago, Angela (my student midwife friend) and I had a lovely antenatal visit with one of my clients who is expecting baby no. 9. My client had wanted to have a cast of her glorious pregnant belly and we all thought what a wonderful idea that was - despite that none of us had done one. We brought chocolates with the plan was that we were going to pamper the mother but all of us had some!
It involved smothering my client with petroleum jelly and laying strips of plaster impregnated gauze. The whole process took about half an hour and it was filmed for Discovery Health Channel’s Homebirth Diaries series.
It was a wonderfully satisfying experience and my client actually said that she felt pampered - albeit pampered with petroleum jelly rather than chocolate! The cast came off easily to our relief and you can see a picture of Angela holding it up.
March 20, 2005
Some thoughts on Gestational Diabetes
- Pregnancy & Childbirth
Recently I was questioned on my statement that gestational diabetes is a an obstetric myth. I do accept that perhaps the statement can come across as somewhat flippant. I do however believe that, gestational diabetes is over prescribed and that the risks associated to it are really obstetric myths.
Just bear with me as I talk this through. Gestational diabetes is really carbohydrate intolerance of pregnancy. The condition is an insulin resistance which presents itself during pregnancy. If anyone is wondering why it was decided that it should be called gestational diabetes, well, Henci Goer explained that in 1979, when the National Diabetes Data Group was updating classification of diabetes type, it was decided that the more neutral term of Carbohydrate intolerance of Pregnancy will not be taken as seriously by pregnant women as a term which has the word ‘diabetes’ in it. Furthermore, insurance companies were more likely to cover treatment for it. Also, the original reason for identifying women with gestational diabetes is to pinpoint those who are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes in years to come. I don’t think fetal wellbeing was ever a major purpose in diagnosing gestational diabetes.
I have also read that because birth defects takes place sometime in the first trimester, gestational diabetes can not be attributed as a cause for this as insulin resistance (contributed by the production of contra-insulin hormones by the placenta) does not usually occur until around the 24th week. It is quite normal for women to have normal blood sugar levels during the first trimester. I suppose if a woman is presenting with high blood sugar levels in the first trimester, I would question if this woman is pre-diabetic or even an undiagnosed type 2 diabetic (I for one was walking around as a pre-diabetic for years until just recently). Someone with more knowledge of diabetes might be able to help clarify this.
Anyway, regardless of what the blood sugar levels state the woman is in, I do truly believe that nutrition should always be discussed with the woman at booking. For instance, if the woman has a high BMI, the need for her to pile on the pounds would be much less, and it would be very beneficial for her to be more aware of ways of improving her diet. Now whether or not this woman then in 10 years develop full blown type 2 diabetes is anyone’s guess, but two of the predisposing factors for type 2 diabetes are obesity and increased age.
So if gestational diabetes is a transient carbohydrate intolerance, it should normally resolve itself after the birth. The fact that a large proportion of these women then go on to develop Diabetes type 2 is probably more indicative of the diet imbalance high in refined food/simple carbohydrates.
The question is, should we then screen women for gestational diabetes in order to identify those who might potentially develop type 2 diabetes, at the cost of medicalising their pregnancy, introducing interventions and increasing their stress levels? The success of such management has been ambiguous.
I know that detection can help with macrosomia but wouldn’t it be cheaper and less stressful if we approached it at a preventative level (thorough discussion about diet, nutrition, exercise) rather than a perceived ‘cure’? Pregnancy is a life changing experience, these women will be responsible for the physical (not to mention spiritual) wellbeing of their child, and surely a better understanding of nutrition and diet would put them in a better position in helping themselves and their families?
February 04, 2005
Birth story added
- Website news
A birth story has just recently been added. Thank you so much to Katie, Roger and Sapphire for allowing me the opportunity to be there too.