Daytime meeting! October 1

We are having a trial daytime meeting on Friday, October 1 at Alexandria's Ellen Coolidge Burke Branch Library, 4701 Seminary Road, Alexandria, VA. Library phone: 703-746-1704.

The time is 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The purpose of this meeting is generally to gauge interest in daytime meetings and to connect. Visitors are welcome to attend.

This will be a casual meeting with the intent mostly to connect. Based on interest, we can review some of the highlights of our September meeting on natural birth options and our September Moms Night Out on Anti-Inflammatory diet.

Come find out what Holistic Moms is all about!

Directions: Take the Seminary Road EAST exit off 395 and then turn left on Library Lane at the first light and right into the parking lot.
(This is right by the INOVA professional office building with the Kenmore address).

Birth Options meeting a wonderful gathering

Despite slow traffic on a rainy night, at least 65 people came out to our September 16 meeting on the topic of "Local Options for Natural Birth." Wonderful one-on-one discussions were had at the beginning and end of the meeting as participants talked to and networked with practitioners during open house/meet & greet sessions.

Thank you to Karen Klauss, CNM with Unity Health Care for providing our overview presentation and to the many practitioners who participated in our question and answer session.

Here are the many resources that were represented at our meeting or sent materials:

Birth by Design, LLC
Certified Professional Midwives Peggy Franklin & Kim Pekin
BirthCare and Women’s Health, Certified Nurse Midwives
Birthing Hands of DC, Claudia Booker
Kimberly M. Brooks, Ph.D.
Megan Brown, Mind the Mat Pilates and Yoga
Dr. Lola Capps, DC - Chrysalis Chiropractic
Sarah Pikett Carter, AAHCC
Julie Chris
Angela Ferri, MA, LMT, Body & Soul Healing Arts
Deena Hadar
ICAN of Northern Virginia, Jenn Whittaker
Lakshmi Landa
Manassas Midwifery and Women’s Health Center, Monica Byrne, CNM
Dr. Paula McKenzie, Alexandria WomenCare
Artis Mooney, The Boundless Art of Birthing
Aza Nedhari, Nu Wombyn Maternal Services
Northern Virginia Midwifery, PLLC , Tammi L. McKinley, CPM
Sacred Journey Midwifery, Joey Pascarella, CNM and Laura Simpson, RN NMT
Michele Peterson, Birth Day Your Way
Jeneen Piccuirro (aka Zayla)
Postpartum Support VA
Juli Robbins, CMT(NCBTMB), LMT, DONA, Journey of the Bump
Dr. Jason Rueggeberg, Virginia Family Chiropractic
Jess Sabo, AAHCC
TLCBirthMarilee Pinkleton, CPM
Ten Moons Midwifery Certified Professional Midwives Aimee Fairman & Desiree Cripps
Nikki Williams Bedhead Birth
Yoga, Birth and Beyond
Camilla Yrure, r e v e l birth

Local Options for Natural Birth meeting September 16

Are you curious about the landscape of birth options in the greater DC area?

Where are the birth centers? What are local midwife options? How do OBs and hospitals support natural birth, VBAC, etc.?

Which childbirth classes are right for you?

Come to the Arlington/Alexandria chapter of Holistic Moms Network to learn about local birth options and to meet birth care providers including midwives, OBs, doulas, childbirth educators and other practitioners who support women in preparing to birth.

Date/Time: Thursday, September 16, 6:30-9:00 p.m

Location: George Mason Regional Library, 7001 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, Virginia

Note this is a different location than our usual chapter meetings

Children are welcome to attend, but the meeting might be crowded and busy, so plan accordingly.

HMN meetings are always open to members and first-time visitors. This meeting is open to anyone regardless of whether you've attended a meeting before or not. No RSVP required.

Format:

1. Introductory presentation on DC-area options and general considerations for natural birth by Karen Klauss, CNM, and former board member of Birth Options Alliance
2. Q&A with practitioners
3. Open house meet & greet with practitioners

If you are a birth-related practitioner who would like to attend and/or to send materials for the info table, please contact the chapter leaders at HolisticMomsArlAlex (at) gmail (dot) com by August 27 with the following information:

• Name
• Profession and Affiliation(s)
• Services provided
• Contact information

For more information about the Arlington/Alexandria chapter of Holistic Moms Network, please:
visit our blog at http://holisticmomsarlalex.blogspot.com/
email HolisticMomsArlAlex (at) gmail (dot) com
or call Leigha at 703-785-1099

For more information about Holistic Moms Network, a national non-profit organization with over 120 chapters aroundthe U.S. and in Canada, please visit www.holisticmoms.org

Yummy August meeting

Lots of people -- and lots of pints! -- turned out for our first ice cream social. So many yummy options to try - ice cream made out of coconut milk, hemp milk, almond milk, soy milk, real cow's milk... It was a lovely evening on the AUMC patio! Thanks to everyone who came out, including so many dads and visitors!

Notes about upcoming meetings - August & September

Fun and different meetings are planned for August and September!

August 19 is a social meeting all about pleasing our palates and strengthening our community. It's an Ice Cream Social! Please bring a pint of your fave flave (or just something you've been wanting to try out) and a scoop. By no means is this party limited to traditional moo-cow ice cream. There are tons of non-dairy options out there including coconut, almond, hemp, soy, rice, and cashew, not to mention sorbets! You might even find some goat's milk yogurt somewhere. Let's have a variety!

It would also be great if everyone could bring a bowl and a spoon so we can use a minimum of back-up disposable supplies. As always, feel free to bring the kiddos, or leave them home if you don't want them around so much sweet, even if it is agave or honey. Speaking of sweeteners, it would be great to have a discussion about types of sweeteners if anyone wants to bring opinions or info, and I'm sure we all could benefit from swapping stories about how we deal with "treats" with our children.

Weather permitting, this social meeting on August 19 will take place on the patio and front lawn of our regular location, the AUMC church at 716 S. Glebe in Arlington. If it's too hot or raining, we'll be inside.

For the September 16 meeting on local birth options, we will be inviting birth professionals -- midwives, OBs, doulas, childbirth educators, etc. -- to attend for something of an open house (after a short presentation and some group Q&A). We are still working out the details for this event, but because of the large crowd we anticipate, this meeting will be held at a different location: Mason Regional Library at 7001 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA 22003. We will probably open doors at 6:00 or 6:30 to have ample time. More details to come, but please note the location change and that we'll have an earlier start.

Hope to see you there!

Bellydancing Moms Night Out!

What a lot of fun we had at Zalya's Studio in the Woods for our Bellydancing Moms Night Out! Even though last-minute missing babysitters meant we had a small group, it was great to learn to shimmy together! It was a fabulous workout and a blissful community event all in one, followed by fresh blackberries and apricots our instructor, Jeneen (aka Zalya), had just picked from the farm. We learned about -- and experienced! -- the many benefits of bellydancing and enjoyed playing dress-up with the fun scarves and skirts Jeneen made available to us.

Thanks to Jeneen for hosting us and to her assistants for inspiring us, and thanks to Natalie for organizing such a wonderful event. Even just being in the beautiful woodsy neighborhood felt like a retreat, and I think we'll all be checking out more of Zalya's yoga, bellydancing and art classes for ourselves and for our children!

July meeting: Intro to Acupuncture

Thanks to Sarah Shupe, L.Ac. of Acupuncture Alexandria and Allison Kitchen, L.Ac., M.Ac., NCCAOM, of DC MindBody who shared with us the basics of acupuncture. Both practitioners work with a variety of conditions, including fertility and women's issues.

We discussed the differences in various acupuncture traditions, talked about what ailments and conditions acupuncture can treat, looked at diagrams and models of the body's energy meridians and answered a whole bunch of questions. We also had a demonstration as Sarah did a mini treatment on HMN co-leader Leigha