We are entering into a time of high energy for the birth center.  Its a relief to see cement, studs and strong guys with tools- physical energy.  We are thankful for the moms who are educating their employers and challenging their insurance plans before we open -emotional energy.   There are some special moms and dads who will have their birth days before our opening, and still created breakthroughs that are helping everyone else…powerful selfless energy.

Even Cathy and I need energy boosters (besides QT’s fountain drinks) to keep us in high spirits.  On Tuesday we met with Lisa, our wonderful designer.  She had all our design choices laid out on a table.  I can not lie, this is going to be an awe inspiring space.  The color choices, the floors, the tile…everywhere you look we have thought about something to make you smile, relax and support your pregnancy and birth.  Remember the tile from a couple months ago?  Next week, Kansas City Nursing News will run the first of many articles about New Birth Company and Cathy’s book. We have high hopes.  We need birth centers and midwifery to be portrayed honestly as safe, high quality, lower cost and empowering options for women.  Next will come business articles about the building, lease and construction project.  I’ll end this post with a comment on the vases in this picture of freshly poured cement. 

For 260 years, Villeroy & Boch has been perfecting ceramics and glass in the village of Audun-le-Tiche on the French-German border.  These vases are for you- our Moms.  Your birth day deserves more than a marketing slogan or a billboard.  You are worth vases designed with centuries of craftmanship.  You are worth smart and caring midwives, an 8 foot water wall, the tile, the beds, electronic medical records and inlaid flooring.   You, your baby and your incredible birth day are worthy of the best.  Birth is that important !

I think the Kohler architect commerical is brilliant. When she takes out the faucet, I imagine her saying…”Design a birth center around me”.   

Thanks Joel & Lisa- our birth center architects for doing just that.  Now its JE Dunn’s turn to bring it to life.  Yours in Health, Kendra

Kohler Design a Birth Center for me

Sunday is the day to plan what you are going to eat the rest of the week.  Time to cut up carrots, turkey breast & make that fruit salad.  Let your partner help you with this….”Hey honey, would you like to help the baby be healthy?”  Food is important way for your partner to take an active role in supporting you.  Catch up on why this smoothie is so good for you here. 

C-Breeze Smoothie
½ Cup Strawberries
¼ Banana
½ Cup Orange Juice
½ Cup Ice
¼ Cup Frozen Yogurt (or regular yogurt)
1 t. Shredded Coconut
3-4 Slice of Raw Ginger (optional)

We encourage all women to get in touch with where there food comes from.  Venture down to The City Market for the same fresh produce that the top chefs use.  They are open on Saturday 6am- 3pm and Sunday 8am-3pm.
Did you know Cathy’s book is now available for purchase?  We have signed copies !  Buy one here and learn more about birth around the world.
July Childbirth and Beyond Birth classes are now available for registration.

Beds arrive : It was a dreary rainy Thursday afternoon; voilà our own sunshine arrives. Two  specially ordered beds, our Cosmopolitan Four Poster Birthing Bed the Sleigh bed arrived in perfect condition . Though we were in the middle of a construction zone we just had to put one together with a set of  beautiful Laura Ashley bedding…just to keep us dreaming of our opening day. The Contemporary Bed is on it’s way. Thanks for dreaming with us.

We had an exciting investors meeting full of information and updates on each step of our construction. We ended the evening with a scrumptious dinner at YiaYias.Cathy will give us a weekly update on progress on Overland Park permits.

We firmly believe in everyone learning CPR . Please review these procedures. All  staff at NBC are certified in Cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

We wish all our dads/fathers the best Fathers Day. Bless all of you who have filled this spot in our lives.

See you next week.

WOWOWOW what a day!  Kendra and I had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. Vic Finch, Team supervisor of Building safety for Overland Park Planning and Development, and Mr. Dave Doljac, Senior Plans Examiner.  It was fun and absolutely great to meet with both of these men who are highly concerned for everyone’s safety as well the quality of facility you are choosing with New Birth Company.

I personally enjoyed sharing our passion and love for birth centers as well as the midwifery scope of care.  Since there are no other birth centers in Overland Park, it is really hard for people to understand the different culture a birth center has.  We took the time to diagram and explain how birth centers are different from hospitals.  ALSO, how the midwifery model of care is NOT drive by productivity but more through the process of relationships with the families we serve.

We discussed our values of the prenatal clinic visit.  One of the values has to do with the time you spend with your midwife rather than the time you spend waiting on your midwife.  We do NOT want you waiting on us, in the “waiting room” or clinic room.  Our goal and standard is that you to come in and enjoy the beautiful planned community room briefly then go back for your appointment as planned.  The maximum time in the clinic will be the face to face time with your midwife!!!! This is important to us…we value your time!

Well after 2 hours of chatting, Kendra and I headed out to Quick Trip!  Yep, a cool drink in the summer does the body good!  Mr. Finch and Doljac emailed us some wonderful comments soooooo, our fabulous architect Joel Perry will make a few design changes and resubmit the permit!

I am happy with today’s meeting!!!!

Cathy and Kendra visited the New Birth Company building today. Follow along and watch our progress…subscribe to our youtube channel to follow the building progress.

One of the MOST important aspects of your prenatal care is to clearly identify your due date!  Historically, the “gold standard” for getting your due date as accurate as possible is to base it on your last menstrual period(LMP).  This method of calculation is used throughout the world and has proven itself as very accurate.  HOWEVER, it can be a huge  problem to consider accurate IF a woman is unsure of her LMP.

It is not unusual to now really know your LMP, an for some women is quite common for the following reasons.

• Irregular periods making tracking the “time of the month” harder unless you actually write it on a calendar to refer to.
• Breastfeeding a baby can alter your ovulation, making tracking when you actually got pregnant difficult.
• Some areas of the world do not use calendars which really makes the dating difficult.

So how do you know when you are really due?

Well, that is a great question!  I can answer that question in several manners.  First, many women know when they actually got pregnant based on monitoring closely when they ovulate and have intercourse.  REALLY!  When you ovulate your bodies gives out signs that  ovulation is happening and if you have intercourse at the same time the probability of pregnancy is high! THE accuracy of your due date is best if you know when you ovulated(and more information on ovulation would be another blog topic).

We can also figure out your estimated due date (EDD) by ultrasound, “sort-of”.  This is done by measuring the head of the baby to the end of the spine, called a “crown-rump” measurement.  The best time to measure for MOST accurate due dates is during the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy. The Ultrasound machine then calculates  your baby and compares it to the “average size” of  baby at a certain growth and “estimates” a due date within one week.

If an Ultrasound is done after 12 weeks it has a 2 week error margin on accurate calculations of your due date.  Yep 2 week error margin, so if you have an ultrasound and the tech tells you they think your EDD is 12/25 (Christmas Day) remember that your baby could still be within the limits of the Ultrasound by being born on Dec.11 through Jan 5. Keep in  mind knowing your LMP is a better EDD than by Ultrasound.

One the “old fashion” ways to determine the EDD (and still remains as a high standard) is when you feel the baby move for the first time really well and that the top of the uterus is felt in line with your belly button when you are reclining.  When this all lines up, you are at 20 weeks!  It is really a great way we use to make sure your body is matching the date we have decided on.  Ask your provider to help you feel the top of your uterus–it is really fabulous!

After 28 weeks of pregnancy- it is really hard to get an accurate EDD within 2 weeks, therefore making the pregnancy harder to establish as normal. If an Ultrasound is completed, it can have a 3 week error margin!!!!

New Birth Company Birth Center had a due date given by our contractors of June 17th, for our completion.  Unfortunately, at this time we have come against a snag, or maybe I should say an ROCK WALL.  We have not received all of our permits for building the reaming parts of the building!  It is really frustrating to be held up by the permit people in Overland Park.  Basically we request a permit, and then the planning department responds with questions or approval.  We have been quick to answer all questions within 24 hours and serve as ready for any more at any time.  Unfortunately, Overland Park has a process where they are not obligated to respond to requests for 21 days.  They actually make us wait the entire 21 days to respond to our permitting process. The delay is not only very painful, but also very expensive to us as we are making payments for a facility we are not using. We have spent countless hours in meetings, writing letters, talking on the phone and waiting. I have been told, this is there slow time, and I wonder, really?

I think getting an accurate EDD is very important, even for New Birth Company.  Inaccurate information is costly, time, consuming and painful!

Did you ever stop and really think about what Eco–Friendly really means?   On the famous wikipedia is reads:”

Environmentally friendly (also eco-friendly, nature friendly, and green) are synonyms used to refer to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies considered to inflict minimal or no harm on the environment.^[1] To make consumers aware, environmentally friendly goods and services often are marked with eco-labels. But because there is no single international standard for this concept, the International Organization for Standardization considers such labels too vague to be meaningful.^[2]

another definition is:

What’s the definition of eco-friendly?‘Eco-friendly’ means a friendly relationship between humans and their habitats. In other words, humans taking good care of the environment in which they live.Lottie Bogotti cares about more than just the environment though; the social, economic, psychological
and political effects of not being eco-friendly are also driving forces.
We, at New Birth Company believe in being eco-friendly. It is one of our core values. We believe in using our resources well and being good stewards of our bodies, environment and families.  Using natural products and avoiding toxins promotes healthy living, healthy community and healthy environment.  Simply stated, we believe in natural birth.  Less intervention, less materials, less contrived substances, more natural, local products with ingredients we recognize.

So we are already starting to “walk the walk”.  We are recycling everything we possibly can at the building.  Right now, we are involved in demolition of all the  “old walls”, removing every light fixture, every wire, and stud.  The building was covered in carpet –it is gone now.

Here is a brief synopsis of what we did with the “stuff that was removed”.  The light fixtures, cabinets and counter tops, track lighting and a lot of misc. stuff went to Habitat Restore.  The carpet is going to Mercy & Truth Medical Missions.  We are even recycling the ceiling tile!  Everything was hand removed carefully to that it could be used again.

Now, to be really honest, I did “dumpster dive a bit” for things that we could actually reuse in the birth center.  Most of the items Matt, grabbed up for technology.  We want to be good stewards of our resources, our environment and our money.  That is being Eco-friendly today, at the New Birth Company…..

You can be eco-friendly too during your pregnancy just like we are.  Consider everything you are using now, or around and how it could affect your environment.  If something could affect the environment, it could possibly also affect your baby.  Here are a few suggestions:

• Stay away from smoking (have people who smoke do so outside)
• Eat fresh fruits and vegetables; they most likely do not have added preservatives.
• Use plates for eating, not disposal paper.
• Drink at least one gallon of water a day.  Keep yourself well hydrated.
• For more great ideas on safe products, go to www.thesoftlanding.com

Joel Perry & Lisa McCracken on Indwell Architect are our “dream team designers”…they have me in overload trying to figure out what to pick and “land on”  too much deep thinking.  Too many colors, fabrics and really “who cares”  well they do…..they are working really hard to design what Kendra and I

have planned for every family we meet and serve.  This New Birth Company, birth center is build for you!  SO please let’s us know what you think! The first picture is flooring

Here are some fabrics:

AND MORE Flooring  the entry corridor.

Here is a thought for the conference room–what do you think.  These tables can get moved into all types of shapes.

More to look at soon!

OK—I will admit it, I took some time for fun and went to me FAVORTIE lighting store with Kendra.  We had fun looking a the “bling” and radiant beams of multi-light fixtures.  I think I will post some choices…let me know what you think(smile).

SOOOOO the lights were so much fun our FABULOUS Design Architect topped the day off today with incredible designs for the birth suites…..wowowowowow There are three birth room designs in the following order……which is your favorite “design theme”.

1. CLASSIC 

NEXT is the CONTEMPORARY DESIGN

And the FINAL Design Template is COSMOPOLITAN.

You can choose which every room makes YOU feel INCREDIBLE!  It is YOUR DAY!

Getting closer and closer to our due date—makes for MAJOR anxiety doesn’t it?  I mean really, we can hardly wait to hold our babies. Sometimes, we want the babies to just be born already, so we can hold and kiss them.  HOWEVER, what we want is not always the best.

Early babies are not healthy.  They need medical intervention to live.  They can not go home with you, and you can not hold them like you want to because they loose their heat source so easily.  Really, they get cold so fast, and when they are cold, they use all their energy to try and stay warm that they are too tired to even eat.  The goal as you enter the end of your pregnancy is to REMAIN pregnant.  It is NO LONGER recommended to even consider an induction to get you into labor until you at least one week from your due date or later.  AND, the risk of induction failure is so high, if your body is not ready, you will wear out and consent to a c-section.

WELL, Kendra and I are getting anxious too for the birth of New Birth Company’s birth center.  Our due date is JUNE 17th.  We are currently at the mercy of the Overland Park  Codes & Occupancy authorities to grant us permit approval.  It is like waiting on lab work and hoping you pass with good results. We have are contractors ready with jack hammers, nails, pipes and all the stuff they need.

While waiting on the permit process,we decide to do some demolition ourselves…just a little (smile).  It helped us reduce our stress and anxiety.  But, Kendra and I have both agreed, we will wait for our due date before we do more work……..God grant us the patience to wait for our babies.