pregnancy & baby festival

O'Reilly Hall, UCD, Dublin
22-23 February 2014, 10am - 5pm

On the front page!

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Babytalk in the Irish Times Health and Family Supplement

I nearly fell over my feet this morning as I rushed down to my local newsagents to pick up a copy of Today’s Irish Times. There on the front cover was an advert for our article! It’s a very difficult thing to do – walk and read a newspaper (I nearly walked into a bin trying) so I rushed home with Juliet to read the double page spread.

It’s a fab article by Sheila Wayman about navigating your way as a new parent amid lots of conflicting advice and misinformation. It features insightful quotes from our many excellent speakers and gives some background into the story behind Babytalk and what will be happening at the festival over the weekend of the 22nd & 23rd of February.

The photo shoot took place at our gorgeous venue – O’Reilly Hall, UCD, you can see the lake and fountains in the background of the cover shot. Marie and Juliet look great – I really wish I had taken the time to brush my hair before the shoot, but in true Mammy style it’s a little less than perfect – Juliet had been playing with it just before the shots!

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Marie, Rachel and Juliet in the light filled cafe area of O’Reilly Hall, UCD

Quick, run down to your local shop and get a copy for yourself or read the article online to find out all about the festival!

Why eat your placenta???

placenta encapsulation
Placenta capsules and cord – image credit Harmony Yoga Ireland

The title of today’s post might sound a little shocking at first glance, but placenta encapsulation is really gaining in popularity all over the world and in the last few years in Ireland too!

Our guest blog post is from one of our lovely exhibitors Gail, who provides placenta encapsulation as one of her many services at Harmony Yoga Ireland.

“I often get funny looks when I tell people my new service is encapsulating placentas!! Comments often range from YUCK to WHY to HOW DO YOU DO THAT!

I have worked with pregnant women and babies for nearly 10 years now and I am always  looking for new ways to support both the parents and the babies. I heard about placenta encapsulating early last year and as soon as I had read up about it, I knew that it was something that I wanted to offer.

I trained with IPEN in the UK last July and have been buy ever since, collecting placentas and dropping back capsules (even though I have not yet advertised, it has mostly been word of mouth).

There are a few different options that can be chosen, but the most common are the capsules which are either Raw or TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine).

The raw capsules involve washing the placenta thoroughly after I collect it (as soon after birth as possible) and cutting it up into small slices to be dehydrated over a number of hours. After this it is ground up and made into capsules.

The TMC method is done by steaming the placenta first (in the water is lemon, chilli and  ginger) before following the same steps as above.

Another option that is much more popular than I thought it would be is a Placenta Smoothie!! This is taking a small piece of the placenta, again as soon as possible after birth (this service is usually at homebirths so the mum can consume the smoothie as soon as it is made) this is then blended with frozen berries, a banana and water. The benefit of having the smoothie are:

• Helps stop postpartum hemorrhaging and triggers the body to quickly heal internal wounds

• Significantly reduces blood loss

• Gives the body an immediate supply of essential vitamins and nutrients

• Provides the body with an immediate boost of hormones to begin healing the body after birth

• Gives the mother an immediate feeling of strength and balance

• Most mothers who have the smoothie report milk ‘comes in’ at day 2 postpartum rather than 3-4 days postpartum

• Eases the hormonal transition to postpartum and helps prevent the ‘baby blues’ around the time when milk engorges the breasts

Other options include, essence, tincture and homeopathic remedies for both the mother and the baby.

With every placenta that I encapsulate the parents receive a keepsake of the umbilical cord dried (which my daughters have renamed a belly button pretzel!!!).

For more information go to www.placentanetwork.com or Harmony Yoga Ireland
To book your placenta services call Gail on 087 826 3778

To be in with a chance to win Gail’s placenta encapsulation service*, just comment on this post with your name and email address or on our Facebook post. We will announce the winner on Friday the 31st of January!

*The Prize includes collection of your placenta in the Dublin area, capsules (either Raw or TCM) and delivery. Other services may be purchased.

SuperHands Competition!

Superhands eat

What better way to start the New Year than with a fab competition?! We are delighted to have not one, but two prizes from one of our exciting exhibitors – SuperHands!

I discovered SuperHands when my little girl was about 6 months old, a friend of mine had a beautifully illustrated baby sign language dictionary that her little girl loved, so I went hunting for our very own copy. When we got our hands on it we were hooked. I’m not quite sure who enjoyed signing more to be honest – me or my little girl! I wrote a blog post about SuperHands on our blog curious casa last year if you would like to read a little more about how the founder Miriam was inspired to create her book and classes.

We have two copies of the gorgeous SuperHands dictionaries to give away, to be in with a chance to win all you have to do is guess what the sign above means. Comment on our Facebook page with your answer and share our page with your buddies! We will announce the winner on Monday so get guessing!

To find out all about the benefits and fun that signing with your baby can bring, visit the SuperHands website, it has details about classes that take place Nationwide.