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

Community Service Options for Holistic Families -- June meeting

Thank you to representatives from Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment (ACE), Volunteer Arlington, and Fairfax Family Services Department for providing us with a number of wonderful ways to get involved in our community! From volunteer opportunities we can do with families to information about ways to get involved with local environmental efforts, we all left with a wealth of information and a bunch of great ideas for giving back to our community. Thanks for an inspiring June meeting!

Inspiring Mother Blessing

Thank you to the organizers of our group mother blessing! Three of our members who are due mid-July to early August were honored at a lovely ceremony hosted by Sharon Stevenson of Yoga, Birth and Beyond. The evening included a centering exercise by Jennifer Moore of Moore than Yoga and the blessing of beads for a birth bracelet. A traditional activity at birth blessing is to wind yarn around the wrists of each participant around a circle to symbolize community; participants wear the bracelets until the baby is born. With three babies coming, we decided three bracelets would be a little much (especially through summer months!), so we decorated mama dolls who are now wearing three different bracelets until we get the word that each baby has come, when that string will be cut. Until then, we can all look at our doll and remember our bond as mothers and our support of one another, especially of the three VBAC-hopeful mamas.

The evening concluded with pampering (massage and hair decoration) and feasting on berries and muffins.

All three mamas -- and, it seemed, the participants -- left feeling inspired and supported!