Mental Health Matters: Take Care of Your Emotional Well-being During Pregnancy
Pregnancy is a unique time filled with anticipation and, sometimes, anxiety. While society often depicts pregnancy as a blissful experience, it’s perfectly normal to have mixed emotions. Anxiety, overwhelm, and even sadness can arise, and acknowledging these feelings is essential for both you and your baby. At Western Family Practice, we’re here to remind you […]
Why would I need to see a Lactation GP?
Wondering why you might need to see a Lactation GP instead of a Lactation Consultant? This is a a question that our Lactations GP, Dr. Amy Powles, gets often. So let us shed some light on the matter! Similar to many other areas in healthcare, there are distinct benefits to having a doctor who collaborates […]
Cluster Feeding
What is cluster feeding? Cluster feeding is when baby will want to feed almost continuously from the breast for several hours. They may fall asleep at the breast but if you try to remove them, they will wake and cry or cue to go back on. Babies will most often do this in the evening […]
Eating during pregnancy and breastfeeding, simple, yet complicated.
Pregnancy is a time a great excitement for families, but at the same time a lot of us worry about growing our little bubs to be healthy and thriving. There are many factors that influence the growth and development of the growing bub, but science consistently highlights the significance of good nutrition in this process. […]
Hypnobirthing, what’s the deal?
For most of their lives, women have been inundated with negative birth stories. They’ve been conditioned to believe that excruciating pain is associated with labour, and because of this, women hold an unprecedented fear of giving birth. This extreme fear causes their bodies to become tense, and that tension stops their bodies from easily performing […]
Birth experience: Why it’s important
What does a successful birth look like? If you’ve had a baby, or are going to have one, then it’s likely you’ve had it defined to you as ‘healthy mother, healthy baby’. That is, one where both the mother and the baby come out the other side alive. This approach acknowledges two truths about birth […]
When Motherhood Doesn’t Meet Expectations
This is not what I expected.’ It’s now 14 years since I heard my patient (who I’ll call Jane from here on) whisper those words as she sat across from me, cuddling her four-week-old baby. At several points during her pregnancy she’d mentioned to me how much she was looking forward to motherhood. We’d talked […]