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How do you fit a square peg into a round hole? It’s called molding. Not like the mold on bread or the infamous stuff health agencies are warning about growing in your home. 

The baby’s head is not particularly square, but it is divided into 4 sections or plates. (Don’t try serving meals on your baby’s head. It will not be received well by guests) Each plate is called anterior and posterior fontanelles. The lack of a plate in the middle is what creates the soft spot.

As the baby fits out of the pelvis the skull is pushed together overlapping one another to fit through the pelvis, birth canal, and perineum. Babies will experience heavy molding as they are being pushed out of a smaller pelvis. It is rare that baby’s truly cannot fit. This is called Cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD). Often this diagnosis is given when the baby has not had enough time to mold. Once diagnosed with CPD doesn’t mean you are going have it with subsequent births. Every birth, baby size, and the amount of relaxin your body produces to open the pelvis and relax ligaments, for the birthing process, is different. If you are diagnosed with CPD you will have a c-section. Research through www.google.com and www.ican.com; for further information on CPD and VBAC, vaginal birth after cesarean. Being born short or petite doesn’t mean you weren’t born to birth your baby.

Will my baby’s cone-head get stuck that way? Nope. Now some people’s head’s are a bit misshapen, but usually not grotesquely as the molding of some births. That is usually from being placed large amounts of time on their backs as infants, the way they sleep, genetics (bone growth), and that’s just the way God molded them.

Two of my favorite moldings are the cleft of the chin and the dimple below the nose. Those are where God placed His thumb on the chin, grasping the underside with the index exclaiming, “You little cutie!” The other was created when He placed his index on your lip saying, “Shhhh.” 

Next time Cone Heads is on TV just remember they had to go through lots and lots of molding to be born.


http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002270.htm
http://www.breastfeeding.com/helpme/baby_fit.html
http://www.consultantlive.com/pediatrics/content/article/10162/10976
http://fammed.washington.edu/network/sfm/newborncaremodule.htm
(picture was taken from here. I couldn’t find a copy right)
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IBirth 07/14/2010
 
My 13 year old daughter has been begging for a cell phone since she was 11 years old. We being good parents, torturous to some, have resisted the teenage forces of begging, pleading, and the “but all my friends have one’s”. She used her birthday gift cards, money, and allowance that she does chores to earn, to buy an Itouch Ipod. Her dad, her, and I sat and played with it and were amazed how fast the internet speed on it is.

So how is my daughter’s Ipod pregnancy related? While playing on it I found a FREE Labor and Contraction Counter. I liked the one by Michael Kale. The other ones were $.99 and seemed more in depth, but got mixed reviews. There are also nursing counters, diaper changing apps, there is also pregnancy trackers, baby sign language, diaper bag checklists, Free name finder, there is even an eye color predictor. I am just amazed at this whole app world. I may be behind in this, but it’s worth sharing.
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It's a Ride 07/14/2010
 
Hang on tight this coaster is soaring up to new heights!

I remember the first time I was pregnant and thinking birth reminded me so much of a roller coaster ride. Coarse I didn’t pay $54.95 for the admission and there would be no cotton candy, funnel cake, or long lines to wait in.

What made me think of roller coasters is that it felt like a long, LONG ride to the top and then the unknown. I had taken The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth, an intensive 12 week study course, but I had never been through labor or birth before. I didn’t know if it was going to be those types of coasters that brings you to the top and kind of circles around like a cork screw, or the type that brings you to the top and then shoots you back straight down, or worse the ones that hangs you from the top, where you see what’s up ahead, then drops you down only to put you into a g-force spin. (I envision the Griffin at Busch Gardens with that one)

The feeling after is just like it too. The baby is out, you’re getting cleaned up and you realize YOU DID IT! The same self confidence of conquering the coaster overwhelmed me. That rush of endorphins and what an incredible consolation prize you get to take home. Most time you have to pay $20 for the T-shirt.

Each birth has sort of felt like this, just not as intense. Each labor and birth story is different, just as there are no two identical coasters.
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