Bates Natural Blessings

10/22/2026

🌀 COOL FACTS ABOUT THE UMBILICAL CORD 🌀

The umbilical cord is honestly one of the coolest things the human body creates.

✨ A typical cord contains 3 blood vessels — 2 arteries and 1 vein.

✨ The umbilical vein carries oxygen and nutrient-rich blood TO baby, while the arteries carry blood back toward the placenta.

✨ Those vessels are surrounded by Wharton’s jelly, a thick, gelatinous connective tissue that helps protect them from compression, bending and twisting.

✨ The cord’s spiral appearance is NORMAL. Those beautiful coils help it tolerate all the movement happening inside the uterus.

✨ At term, the average cord is roughly 20–24 inches long, although cords can be shorter or much longer.

✨ Baby doesn’t “breathe” through the cord. Oxygen is transferred through the placenta into fetal circulation.

✨ The mother or pregnant person’s and baby’s blood normally do not directly mix. Oxygen, nutrients and waste products cross through the placenta instead.

✨ And the cord doesn’t necessarily stop working the second baby is born. While placental circulation continues, blood can still move between the placenta and baby.

✨ This is why delayed cord clamping matters. Allowing time for placental transfusion can increase newborn hemoglobin levels and improve iron stores during the first months of life.

This incredible structure helped sustain an entire human for MONTHS.

Then its job is finished. It dries up. Falls off.

And leaves behind a belly button.

The human body is fu***ng incredible.

-Love,
Flor Cruz

Thank you Dans les yeux de Julia

10/22/2026

Women cannot choose care they don’t know exists. And they cannot ask for something different if they’ve never been told there is another way. 🤍

Midwifery is more than an alternative to obstetric care. It’s a different model of care, one that deserves to be understood, not just by the women seeking it, but by every woman who deserves to know her options.

This is why education matters. This is why visibility matters. This is why sharing the truth about midwifery matters.

And if you’re a midwife, doula, birthworker, or birth advocate, you have a part to play in changing that.

Share the education. Talk about midwifery. Challenge the misconceptions. Help women discover what they didn’t even know they could ask for.

The care women choose is shaped by the options they know exist. Let's make sure they know.

Quote by PUSH Campaign

—

Guided by wisdom. Rooted in grace.

Midwifery Care and Home Birth in North Texas.

kharismidwifery.com

🏷️ physiological birth | midwifery model of care | evidence-based birth | holistic maternity care | low-intervention labor | undisturbed birth | informed consent | water birth | personalized prenatal care | birth autonomy | VBAC moms | North Texas home birth | Dallas

10/21/2026

10/20/2026

A New Mexican choreographer is bringing her reimagined La Llorona ballet to Albuquerque, casting the folklore figure as a mother struggling with post-partum depression. ⬇️ Story link in comments.

10/20/2026

10/15/2026

Your provider works for YOU. Not the other way around.

True informed consent....choice..is when something is discussed to the fullest, you go home and do your own research and then you advise your provider of your decision.

Many hospital providers will argue with you id you don't do what they say to do. They will fear monger because they are afraid you will sue them if something goes sideways.

Ask to have everything spelled out in informed consent forms, read them carefully and then take your pregnancy into your own hands. You are an adult, you can make good evidence based decisions on your own.

WTS, if things DO go sideways...and sometimes they do due to no fault of anyone, know that you had made the best choice for you and your baby.

10/14/2026

10/14/2026

From better sleep and digestion to relaxation and sensory development, infant massage can make a difference in your baby’s everyday routine.

At MECA Therapies, we help parents and caregivers learn simple massage techniques they can use at home to support their baby’s growth, development, and overall well-being. 🌿