Instinctual Birth

Top 100 Natural Birthing Blogs

2010-05-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

I am incredibly honored to be listed at number 24 on the Top 100 Natural Birthing Blogs! Wow! Thank you!

I guess I should write here too... I've been spending time developing my breastfeeding blogs, atmybreast.com (my personal one) and breastfeedingrevolution.com (my change the world one). Please hop on over there and check them out, too. :)

Wet Nursing

2010-03-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

Would you nurse another woman's baby? We hear stories of heroic women during disasters breastfeeding two, three or even up to eight babies so they won't starve. Would you do it?

If, for some reason, you could not nurse your own baby, would you hire another woman to do it if you were financially capable of doing so? The benefits of breastfeeding are well known, and it seems that they continue to discover more good things about it every day.

With all the issues surrounding formula feeding like contaminants in the formula, recalls and other problems, wet nursing almost seems like a dream come true. Generations ago, wet nursing was popular. As described in Gabrielle Palmer's "The Politics of Breastfeeding," noblewomen used wet nurses because their families dictated that they must be ready to breed again and produce more heirs. Some women made a good living for their own families by wet nursing.

Judith Waterford, a wet nurse in the early 1800s, was written about by the medical community. She worked as a wet nurse for over 50 years, nursed six children of her own and was still able to produce milk at the ripe old age of 81. At her peak, it is said "she produced two quarts of breastmilk unfailing every day." She was sad to report at the age of 75 that she could not produce enough milk to feed more than one baby at a time. Can you imagine it?

How many of you would sign up to be a wet nurse if you could still nurse your own child at the same time? I freely admit that I would. I've nursed eight children of my own. They are all healthy and have grown well. If I could help support my family by providing the best baby food on earth to someone's child, I'd do it.

Maybe we should form a wet nursing co-op. Those of us who are confident in our nursing abilities could offer to nurse the children of those who for one reason or another cannot. Who benefits the most? The baby! Who suffers? The formula companies! They promise nutrition they cannot deliver, especially to those babies most at risk. If only we could figure out how to be paid for our efforts, everyone would benefit. Our families would have more income. Babies would be fed more nutritious food. Other parents could rest easy knowing their babies were getting the best even though they could not provide it themselves.

I know someone will bring up the problem of contagion. Any woman interested in wet nursing would have to have a health screen, of course. This should be a no-brainer. From what I read, some companies in California that offer nannies are also starting to offer wet nursing services. Is the wet nurse making a comeback?

What do you think? Please post comments below.

VBAC Mamas, Unite!

2010-03-11T13:01:00.000-08:00

I'm a proud VBAC mom. My first birth was a cesarean. Luckily, my next birth took place during the VBAC renaissance, and even though they were whispering in the corner about a repeat cesarean, it didn't happen. I had my first vaginal birth accompanied by a giant episiotomy. That didn't stop me, though. My next VBAC had no episiotomy. The VBAC after that, the doctor almost didn't make it in the room to catch in time. By that time, I'd had enough. My next four VBACs were at home with midwives. Seven successful VBACs.

Women today rarely get the opportunity to even try a VBAC. Hospitals ban them. Doctors trick women into thinking they can have one and then pull the rug out from under them late in their pregnancies. Yet the evidence shows that VBAC is still a safer route to go than repeat cesareans.

This week, the National Institute of Health (NIH) has had a panel meeting to discuss this very issue. I haven't had the opportunity to listen for myself yet, but I've been reading the comments posted by others, outlining the "Hurray!" moments and the "I can't believe they still ignore us" moments.

On the WebMD site, David DeNoon reports, "Hospitals and professional societies should end bans that that keep many women who've had a C-section from opting for a natural birth in later pregnancies, an NIH advisory panel today urged." This is definitely a welcome beginning.

Kenneth Lin, a family practice physician from Washington DC, writes about the obstetrical tendency to see zebras instead of horses. He writes, "If an Ob/Gyn is feeling uncertain about how well a patient's labor is progressing and has an inflated estimate of the probability that something might go wrong (the zebra), it's very hard to resist the temptation to eliminate the uncertainty by delivering the baby surgically, then and there." He ends his article positively with "a trial of VBAC is successful more than 75 percent of the time. It's a real shame that women in the U.S. are discouraged from attempting them more often."

All this sounds great. Maybe women will get more opportunities to have their own VBACs. Maybe the cesarean rate will go down. Maybe... but then we see the extra caution thrown in. "Only qualified candidates" and "eligible patients" are the phrases that begin to crop up. Isn't that part of the problem now? Obstetricians are removing almost every woman from being qualified or eligible. Let's just schedule that cesarean... what do you say? You can pick a convenient time (for the doctor!) and we'll have your baby out in no time!

Kind of defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it? The real result is shown clearly by Courtroom Mama on Jill's Unnecesarean blog. Apparently, on day one, two members of the panel, Dr. Anne Lyerly and Dr. Howard Minkoff stated without hesitation that a woman could not be operated on against her will. The next day, when Susan Jenkins, the attorney for the Big Push for Midwives campaign, asked questions about this, the panelists ended up skirting the issue.

Here is a portion of Courtroom Mama's transcript from her post. Read the full article at the link above to the Unnecesarean blog. SJ is Susan Jenkins. LM is Larry McCullough, the ethicist on the panel.

"SJ: Dr. McCullough, just one quick follow up question, if I may, on that. The conclusions that are reached in the draft, at least the draft opinion that we saw this morning, indicate that the position of the committee is that only where it is considered “medically reasonable”—whatever that means—would the woman have a right to refuse. And the definition of medically reasonable…well, there is no definition of medically reasonable.

LM: Well, actually, there is, and the concept is when the alternatives are roughly medically equivalent. What we said is that shared decision-making should be followed, where the physician refrains from making a recommendation and really helps the woman make a decision that reflects her values and preferences, which is the goal of the informed consent—

SJ: Right, and what if her values and preference is to say “no” at the end of all this?"

Ms. Jenkins was then reminded of the long queue of people wanting to ask questions. Just what is "medically reasonable"? According to who? Apparently not according to the mom in question. Informed consent seems to have just been dumped into the trash. Pregnant women obviously don't have the same rights to equality as other medical patients.

While we all joke about "pregnancy brain" it isn't something that should remove our rights to bodily integrity and decision making once we check into the hospital or accept a doctor's care. All the talk the panel made earlier of "the doctor and woman should be making these decisions together" seems to have been to placate the masses of women hoping to have a vaginal birth. "Making decisions together" is just another euphemism for the doctor saying "Don't worry your pretty little head about it... we'll just cut that baby right out. You won't need to even break a sweat."

I think this panel brought up some great points. It has gotten articles about VBAC in major papers like the LA Times. But we can't stand idly by and let it turn into the same old line. VBAC mamas, unite! Let your voices ring out. Demand the right to birth your babies the way nature intended. Every baby deserves the best birth possible. Every mom deserves to give birth.

Breastfeeding Politics

2010-03-10T23:44:00.000-08:00

I hate politics. All the arguing. No listening. Just dissension everywhere you look. This week Facebook was once again targeted for removing photos of breastfeeding. Why can't people consider breastfeeding as a normal part of life?

I started reading The Politics of Breastfeeding: When Breasts are Bad for Business today. It was written by Gabrielle Palmer. I've only finished chapter one and I am already nodding my head in agreement. The author states, "Women have had to prove (as it happens very successfully) that they are 'as good as' men, but men do not yet have to show that they are as good as women." This statement really hit hard. It's true.

Elsewhere in this chapter she discusses how the very men who are discovering the miraculous assets of breastmilk seem to demand that no woman should bring her nursing baby to work with her. Ewww. Come on. This is 2010. Certainly we can all get over the fact that our breasts make milk. They are built to do so. This milk is the best thing ever created to grow little humans. Nothing... NOTHING... can replace it. Artificial milk has a place in those rare times when breastmilk is not available, but the truth is that human babies should be fed human milk. Not soy milk. Not cow milk. HUMAN MILK.

I have often chuckled at the phrase I've seen on countless shirts on Cafepress: I make milk. What's your superpower?

It's true. This is a miraculous substance. I have nurtured eight children with this liquid abundance. They have grown healthy and strong. They are rarely ill. They have lots of energy. All of them old enough to get tall are taller than I am. Breastmilk really does a baby good, to paraphrase the old dairy council slogan.

So... what is your superpower? I make milk that grows healthy children. I make milk that nourishes them mentally, physically and emotionally. I am proud of this fact. I don't hide it.

Bah humbug on the politics. It should be enough that breastmilk nourishes the human race as it was designed to do.

New Birth Center in Haiti

2010-02-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

This was in my inbox this morning. If anyone is interested in staffing a new birth center in Haiti that will treat the women there with the care and respect they deserve, please contact the people listed below.

Hi, All -
The person organizing this is my preceptor, Jesica Dolin. Jennifer Guillardo runs the birth center I work at, Andaluz Waterbirth Center. I am hoping to put in a couple of weeks over the summer in Haiti, as well. Please pass this email along to midwives/nurses/docs and midwifery/med/nursing students you know.

Best,

Jocelyn

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO MIDWIVES, NURSES, DOCS WHO BELIEVE IN NATURAL BIRTH, etc.
I am a licensed midwife at Andaluz Waterbirth Center in Portland, OR. (www.waterbirth. net) The founder of our birth center, Jennifer Gallardo, is currently in Haiti, volunteering as a midwife in the LD&D at the hospital. She says:
"Just saw a 15 year old be brutalized by 5 'midwives' and one doctor. They held her down, covered her mouth, slapped her, held her legs opened while she struggled, cut a huge episiotomy, and pulled baby out. All the while yelling at her." She has only been there a couple days and already has many stories like that one. Prior to starting the birth center in Oregon in 1999, she ran a birth center in Guatemala for 5 years, and also attended hospital births in Guatemala. She says she has never seen women treated so horribly in labor. And of course, this is a place where infant and maternal mortality is very high as well.

She has found a big house to rent that has five rooms we could use for birth rooms, two bathrooms, and space for staff housing. It has running water, and is in a relatively safe area. (I am planning on going to work at it with my infant son.) She is moving forward with opening a birth center there, and we need staff!

We need:
1. Midwives to come volunteer (doctors and labor and delivery nurses also welcome)

2. Students who want to pay tuition for apprenticeship there (as is often the case with birth centers in area of need - the funds must come from somewhere, and the clients cannot pay enough to cover operating costs)

3. Folks to spread the word about this

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN STAFFING THIS BIRTH CENTER IN HAITI, PLEASE EMAIL jesicadolin@ yahoo.com

In dedication to bettering the lives of women, babies, and all those who draw breath on this planet,Jesica

What to Talk About?

2010-02-16T18:43:00.000-08:00

I have been utterly swamped. In trying to find yet more ways to support the family, alas, this blog and our birth website, organic-birth.com, have been neglected. We have been through a rather rough patch. My husband has developed more health issues and we've been going through all sorts of tests for him. His dad, my wonderful father-in-law, passed away on February 2. Needless to say, it has been a bit stressful around here.

In the meantime, I have seen posts about cesarean rates by state, breastfeeding once again being attacked by Facebook and a possible resulting lawsuit, and a study showing that elementary school kids in Glasgow overwhelmingly believe that it is okay for husbands to strike wives "if the wife did something to deserve it," like have an affair (admittedly bad, but still), or was late getting dinner on the table. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Sheesh. What's a blogger to do? With so many different topics screaming to be written about, how can I fit it in my busy day?

I am working on more book reviews and an art project review for our website. I hope to have at least one posted by the end of this week. I also posted a copy of my article that was published in the Winter 2009 issue of Midwifery Today. You can read it here.

Review: The Doula Guide to Birth

2010-01-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

The Doula Guide to Birth
Ananda Lowe & Rachel Zimmerman
2009; 270 pages

Having been a doula myself, I eagerly dived into this book. Knowing how beneficial a doula can be to a laboring couple, I wanted to see that unique perspective in written form. I was not disappointed. I do feel that in explaining and praising all the benefits doulas can give, the authors almost went overboard. At times I felt like I was reading a very long commercial.

Even so, once I got into the heart of the book, I clearly saw its merits. This book is written for the mainstream pregnant woman. The woman who will be birthing at the hospital and may be overwhelmed by all the protocols and rules she finds herself faced with. I was that woman once, so I found a way to relate to the women telling their stories in this book. The quotes from real parents that illustrate the points really do help make it all real.

Coming from my now non-mainstream mentality, I was happy to see so many different ways to cope with contractions. From epidurals to massage and belly dancing, Ananda and Rachel really explained all of the options open to birthing women. I loved the chapter on unplanned epidurals and cesareans. These things happen. You may not be prepared for how you will feel afterwards. Grief and healing are discussed at length to help women faced with these issues.

Birth plans and birth essays are explained in detail. I had never heard of a birth essay, but I can surely see their benefit for opening up the lines of communication with your care givers about your emotional needs. While I did not agree with everything in this book, I can certainly see its benefits. How I wish a book like this were available when I was having my first baby. Instead, I had "What to Expect When You're Expecting." This book puts that one to shame. Instead of teaching moms how to be a good patient, The Doula Guide to Birth opens up your eyes to the possibilities of what you can do in any birthing situation.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

A New Year

2010-01-12T17:13:00.000-08:00

Wow... I just noticed I haven't posted here since late December. I admit I've been a bit busy. I'm writing a book. I still have my day job. I'm taking care of hubby's medical issues. Oh and there are the kids, who have still been fighting this on again, off again flu.

I am keeping track of my journey to publication at Always Do Write. I have come to terms with the fact that I will probably never be a real midwife... not enough time or transportation to support an apprenticeship. But I think I'm okay with that. I can write about my passion about birth as easily as anyone else.

One of my new resolutions (and I almost never make them) is to keep up with blogging more frequently. It is not only a way to vent but to share information, share articles an such that I write and more. I really appreciate those who took the time to follow me. It is very sweet of you. :) Thank you. I hope you enjoy reading what I have to say.

Anyway, happy new year. 2010 is already starting out with a bang. More than one of my friends are starting the year with husbands who are not long for this world. My heart goes out to them. My father in law won't be here much longer either according to his doctors. My own husband is getting more fragile with each passing year and I'm not ready for that yet. So, this will be a year of growth and change for a lot of us.

May we all be blessed with abundance, love and prosperity this year. May we all embrace each other in support and may 2010 be the year that birthing women get some respect.

Ringing in the New

2009-12-29T17:09:00.000-08:00

The year is almost over. This year has been full of new studies promoting the safety of homebirth. It has been full of ACOG and the AMA fighting against midwives. The cesarean rate continues to climb and women all over are being denied any choice in how their babies will be born.

As they say, it is always darkest before the dawn. If women are going to be able to have any say at all in how they give birth, they must continue to speak up. Ask questions. Don't accept condescending answers. You're the one hiring the doctor, not the other way around. They work for YOU.

I was reading on the My OB Said What? site and today they posted a response where the OB told the laboring mother "You wouldn't tell a pilot how to fly a plane, would you?" I'd like to turn that right around on them. What gives them the authority to tell a woman she must lay on her back with her legs in the air and push uphill? Women's bodies are designed to give birth. If we listen to what our bodies tell us, most of us will end up in positions that work WITH gravity, not AGAINST it. Women should be piloting their births... the doctor can't tell when a woman's body is urging her to rock her hips back and forth or when she needs to stand and lean on something.

Let's make 2010 the year of the Birthing Mother. Let's help women get the autonomy they need for healthy births and healthy babies!

Virtual Birth Art Gallery

2009-12-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

I have been privileged to have a couple pieces of my birth art added to Rachel Leavitt's Journey of Birth blog. She has put together a wonderful virtual gallery of artwork that speaks volumes about the journey of pregnancy and birth. Visit her blog here: Journey of Birth. Thanks for the invitation, Rachel! :)

Perimenopause

2009-11-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

I am experiencing fluctuations in my cycle now. It is inevitable... I'm on the far side of 45. I am still recording my temperatures every morning, watching the inevitable change that will happen.

It makes me profoundly sad.

Yeah, I know it is a normal part of life... I don't have a problem with that. I am profoundly sad that I will never feel another butterfly flutter inside. I am sad that I won't ever be able to see my belly grow and ripen with the progression of a baby. I am sad that I won't get kicked in the ribs again... from the inside. I am sad that I won't ever feel those overwhelming surges that propel that baby out of my uterus and into my arms. I am sad that I won't ever ease a baby out again and cuddle them, all covered in birth goo. I'll never see those newborn eyes staring into mine for the first time.

Pregnancy and childbirth has been a big part of how I defined myself as a person. I'm good at being pregnant. I'm good at giving birth. I'm good at nurturing babies. Who will I be now that I can't do that?

I admit that part of me is ready to move on... my youngest is almost three. I've been breastfeeding for more than 18 years. That part of me is ready to move from mother to wise woman. But so much of me is not. Guess this is just a part of the journey. I will let my instincts lead me through it, as I have learned to trust them through mothering.

2 Year Old Helps with Sibling's Birth

2009-11-20T14:30:00.000-08:00

In a news story that is making the rounds on Facebook, little 2 year old Jeremiah Favazza helped his mother while she birthed his new brother at home. No one else was in attendance. His mother, Bobbye, was expecting to have her 4th cesarean section for this baby. Both mom and baby are healthy and fine.

I don't find this amazing in and of itself. What I find amazing is that everyone thinks this is a miracle. Small children handle birth very well. At several of my births, I've had a 2yo sitting right alongside me... calm, cool and collected. Sometimes they moaned with me. Sometimes they held my hand. They were always fascinated.

This woman experienced a healthy birth after three cesareans! Now she knows she is not relegated to surgical birth. Her uterus won't rupture. Her labor will progress. Her cervix will dilate and she will be able to push a baby out on her own. This is a wonderful thing.

Women need to know that they are strong enough to give birth. They need to know that the chances of their uterus rupturing during a natural labor are miniscule. They need to know that birth works.

Congratulations to Mrs. Favazza and kudos to little Jeremiah for helping his little brother come earthside. This is an experience that we all should have as children. Giving birth is a natural bodily function. Women are strong enough to birth. These are things we should all grow up knowing.

Lynsee's Birth on the Internet

2009-11-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

A woman in Minnesota, Lynsee, decided to broadcast her birth live on the internet. When I heard she was in labor, I tuned in to see what would happen. Since I hadn't heard much about her plans beforehand, I was surprised to see she was in the hospital. I certainly didn't expect that any hospital would give permission for their procedures to be filmed.

She labored well for the most part. She used the shower, the tub and the birth ball. She leaned on her husband. All of these are fabulous techniques for handling labor. Lynsee seemed to be handling the contractions well. My sound quality was bad, so I could not hear most of what was said, but it seemed that she was doing really well in her quest for a natural birth.

Suddenly, she was getting an epidural. I didn't understand why... she was doing so well. I have read the comments of others that when she was in transition and mentioning that she "just couldn't do this anymore" they offered the epidural. This is such a common phrase for women to utter in transition! Why didn't anyone tell her how close she was? Why didn't anyone support her through what would be the briefest part of labor?

Once the epidural was placed, the whole energy in the room changed. The caption running beneath the picture announced she was at 10 cm and would soon be pushing for a long time before they actually had her doing anything. No one seemed to be in a rush to get started.

For what it is worth, Lynsee seemed to push very well. The baby was born quickly. I tuned out after a few photos were taken because I felt this was a special time between baby and parents. From what I have heard from posted comments is that it took quite awhile for baby to be put to the breast and she was getting a bit frustrated. Poor little one!

The positive things: Lynsee was able to labor actively until she got the epidural. She handled the contractions very well. She pushed effectively and she got a vaginal birth.

The negative things: Lynsee obviously didn't get the support she needed to get through transition. She and baby seemed disconnected from each other after the birth.

Lynsee, thank you for streaming your birth. I hope viewers learned a lot. Congratulations on the birth of your little girl. I hope you and your husband enjoy your new parenthood and that your daughter flourishes.

The best advice I can give you is to follow your instincts. Don't follow schedules for feeding your baby. Spend as much time with her in your arms as possible. Babies thrive on touch.

If you have another child in the future, I hope you can find the support you need to continue through labor. You were so close! You handled those contractions so very well! You should be proud of what you accomplished. If I could be your doula or midwife, I would let you know that those feelings you had were normal. That they are a sign of progress and that labor wouldn't last too much longer. I would try to give you more strength to help you have the birth that you wanted for yourself and your baby.

I hope your breastfeeding relationship with your daughter is long and successful. You are a brave soul to put your experience out there for all of us to judge. Thank you.

The Art of Childbirth

2009-10-31T08:51:00.000-07:00

The Art of Childbirth is a two day art exhibit at the Cabell County Public Library, located 455 9th St. Huntington, WV. The exhibit will run November 19th and 20th in Meeting Room #2, on the 3rd floor of the library. The exhibition will be open from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm both days. Admission is free.

The art will bring out the beauty and emotions of pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. If you're in the neighborhood, drop by and take a look.

Oh, and some of my artwork will be on display. :)

I'm very proud of myself for being so cool and calm here, aren't you? In reality I'm jumping up and down because this is my very first exhibition! Woohoo! Yes, it's true... some of my own birth art will be flying through the postal service this week to hang in good company with other works depicting the beauty of birth. If you can't make it to the exhibition, my art is on display online at tonicreatesart.blogspot.com. :) By the way, I do take commissions as time allows. :)

Infant Circumcision... What Happens to those Foreskins?

2009-10-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

I just read this article on Dr Momma's blog... in it she traces some of the uses that circumcised foreskins are put to. Some are used to grow skin cultures that will be used for skin grafts. Some are used to make cosmetics. Did she really say cosmetics? Yes, she did. In fact, she goes in depth about how one very expensive skin cream advertised by Oprah Winfrey uses them. Oprah is silent on the issue.

I had heard rumors of infant foreskins being sold for use in cosmetics, but I never took the time to do the research myself. With the growing controversy about circumcision, it is no wonder that suddenly the CDC is promoting the practice again. Heaven forbid that parents actually want to keep their sons intact and that these cosmetic companies can't make their products!

When I was pregnant with my first child, I hoped and prayed for a girl so I wouldn't have to decide about this whole circumcision thing. I didn't really understand it all... they gave us literature in our childbirth class about it. I read it and reread it... it made sense to leave the baby alone, but it was such a prevalent practice that the whole issue was like taking a leap of faith. Luckily, my first child was a girl. Whew! I could table that issue until another time...

My second child was a boy. My inlaws offered to pay for the circumcision if we wanted, since funds were limited. Our pediatrician was willing to do the procedure in his office once my son was two weeks old. By that time, I had made up my mind. Our daughter had a wonderful, pain free start to life. Why shouldn't my son? Why should he have to experience pain every time he urinated? Why should he be strapped down and have this most sensitive of tissues cut off? At the time my son was born, many of these procedures were still being done without anesthesia... babies can't feel pain, right? Riiiiiggghhhhtt. I turned down my inlaws' offer and kept my son as he was meant to be. Maybe I got to this decision via a different route than some, but I've never looked back. When my others sons were born, circumcision was not even an option in my mind.

What about those parents who don't have the luxury I had? Most circumcisions are still done in the hospital before the baby is discharged. I wanted to cry when I changed my newborn nephew's diaper and saw the raw red flesh and the wound from the procedure on his little penis. How could anyone do this to a helpless little boy and feel good about it? I think that most parents don't think about the consequences. The baby is taken for circumcision so quickly after being born that most haven't even had time to really get to know their sons and their personalities. I had two wonderful weeks of getting to know my son... I could not let him be hurt. There was no argument strong enough for me to take him in and let them do unnecessary surgery on him.

So, even if a person is pro circumcision (something that I can't even fathom), how can they pay for a procedure to be done to their infant, and then let that body part be sold off to another company that uses it to harvest cells that are put into expensive cosmetics for rich women to smear on their faces? How can those women pay so much for cream containing the ingredients made from infant parts and knowingly use it? I don't know these answers. They baffle me.

They say that a single foreskin can be worth up to $100,000... you can bet that little boy never sees a penny of it for his contribution that he never even consented to. His parents don't see any of it either. How can this continue to happen? Protect your boys... they don't deserve to get the most sensitive area of their body lopped off so he'll "look like Dad." Say no to circumcision.

NOTE: For those who don't know what is involved in a circumcision, check out this description at http://nymag.com/health/features/60140/.

Docs Banning Doulas & Birth Plans... What's Next?

2009-10-19T18:42:00.000-07:00

When I saw this I just hated to see that this is happening. This arrived on my Facebook page the same day as a notice about a woman who received a letter from her OB giving her HIS birth plan for HER birth. It was very similar in tone. When I first became a doula fifteen years ago, it was sometimes awkward to try and do your job around the OBs and hospital staff. Doulas were a new concept then for most hospitals, and none of us really knew where we stood.

As the years have gone by, doulas made their own niche, serving women who needed extra support. I never did understand the whole advocacy thing... if we spoke up, we ran the risk of being kicked out and then our client would be without the support they paid for.

I am no longer a doula. As much as I loved helping families welcome their new babies, it wasn't feasible to be gone at any hour on short notice with my own growing family. Once I had my homebirths, the hospital environment was very difficult for me to endure. I know that women in the hospitals need the help of doulas more than ever... and I admire those women who can see women being forced into the situations the sign above insinuates and still do their best for their clients. It takes a lot of grit and determination.

Birth plans have always been ignored... if you had an OB who not only read your birth plan but tried to abide by it... you are one lucky woman! While we all diligently wrote out our birth plans, fully believing they would be honored, one by one we have all become cynical as our plans were derailed, one by one.

We have fought long and hard to bring the ability for women to choose their birth experience and to bring their babies gently into the world if they so choose. Now the docs are fighting back by banning things like opting not to have an episiotomy or to have another support person in the room. Some hospitals are taking the chance with the CDC's recommendation of as few people as possible in the maternity ward during this H1N1 flu panic to ban doulas as well.

We need to step up and keep fighting. They are eroding our choices. No VBACs, no doulas, no birth plans. I say we keep fighting to have the births we want without interference. Why should we care about their time schedule? Babies come when they are ready and take as long as they need during labor. We owe it to ourselves, our babies and our daughters who will be birthing some day to make birth all it can be... as Harriette Hartigan so elegantly put it, "Birth is as Safe as Life Gets."

ICAN Needs Cases of Insurance Discrimination

2009-10-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, Peggy Robertson of Colorado testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee about being discriminated against by her insurance company. Her story can be found at the ICAN website: http://ican-online.org/users/ican-blog/blog/ican-mother-testifies-capitol-hill.

According to the ICAN press release, Mrs. Robertson was not only rejected for coverage because she had previously had a cesarean section, she was told in a letter that the only way they would give her coverage was if she consented to sterilization.

With the percentage of pregnant women who give birth via cesarean section rising to almost 33%, using a cesarean as a "pre-existing" condition is setting up a third of American women to be uninsured in the future. More and more hospitals are not offering VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) as a choice to women. Page Hospital in AZ was the most recent one in the news that threatened a VBAC mother with a court ordered cesarean if she did not consent, even though she had had a successful VBAC for her last birth. This mother has decided to travel hundreds of miles in order to get her VBAC. This shouldn't happen, either.

If you have stories of insurance discrimination based on previous cesarean, send them to ICAN. The Senate committee wants to investigate this issue.

Change of Seasons

2009-10-10T23:14:00.000-07:00

As we are preparing for winter (autumn just began, yet we are having freezing weather already)I am reminded of preparing for birth. We are blocking drafts and gathering in the last from the garden. When one prepares for birth one blocks fears and gathers their feelings in preparation. One must be prepared to meet the new baby... a new soul who is making their journey onto this plane with heart and mind open.

As pregnancy reaches its end, the ripeness of the body leads to the mind turning inward. Like summer ending, the plants must begin their journey inward to sleep through winter. A mother must turn inward so she can tune into the coming labor and the baby's arrival.

Once baby has arrived, she should be able to spend her time getting to know her baby. A cocoon should envelop them into a protected space while they get to know each other's rhythms and personalities. This is like closing yourself in for winter, secure against the storms that rage outside the door.

Protect yourself and your little one from the outside world for a while... spend those first few precious weeks together, locked away from the hustle and bustle of visitors, shopping and the world at large. Emerge together into the "spring" when you are ready.

Organic Birth Summer 2009 Issue

2009-09-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

Reiki and Birth Trauma

2009-09-24T22:30:00.001-07:00

Many of us birth under less than ideal circumstances. Some of us suffer terribly at the hands of "care givers" who don't see us as intelligent adults who can make our own decisions. We are mere vessels to manipulate until a child is extracted. Women who end up with these experiences often carry the emotional scars of these experiences forward with them and they color everything in their lives. When these women are expecting another child, these feelings may come to the forefront again and cause fear around the impending birth.

Reiki can help. With a compassionate ear and reiki flowing, the practitioner offers no judgments as a mother tells her story. Reiki is a smart, healing energy. It goes where it is needed. It brings release and healing. Within a few sessions, a mother to be can be better prepared to accept her next labor challenge, having let go of the traumatic emotions associated with her last birth. All that is left are memories and an acceptance of the past.

Does it sound too good to be true? It's not. Some women can resolve their issue with only a few sessions. Others need several sessions that may run from 30 to 60 minutes or more. In between sessions, she processes the thoughts and feelings that each session brings up.

I can do these sessions in person or over the phone for those not close enough to come in person. I offer a sliding scale so everyone can get assistance with these painful issues, no matter what their circumstances. If you want to know more about this service, post a comment and I will be in touch.

Reducing Infant Mortality

2009-08-27T17:38:00.000-07:00

Reducing Infant Mortality from Debby Takikawa on Vimeo.

Pit to Distress

2009-07-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

Oh my. I have been reading on Facebook recently about a hospital procedure known as "Pit to Distress." What this means is that pitocin is administered to a laboring woman in a maximum dose in order to distress the baby so they can move to cesarean. While we all had our nightmare scenarios, this one appears to be real. Several nurses have blogged about it, as well as Jill at Unnecesarean.

I have spent a lot of time ruminating about this over the past week or two, and I am still flabbergasted that obstetricians get away with this kind of behavior... even occasionally. If a midwife did something so reckless, they would be hauled into court and they would never practice again. Why should obstetricians be free to cause distress to an unborn baby in order to perform surgery? What harm are they potentially causing to the baby? What about the mother, who's uterus may become hyperstimulated or even rupture? What if, due to this practice, she loses her uterus and her potential to have more children? Who holds these obstetricians responsible?

Now, I obviously realize that there are some excellent OBs out there who would never consider doing such a thing. But the fact that even one can get away with doing this repeatedly puts mothers and babies at risk. How do they not lose their license? How can they still attract patients? How can they still have privileges at the hospital? Who do we lobby to change this? ACOG posts their guidelines, but obviously the docs do what they want (look at VBAC...).

Our maternity system needs a major overhaul... thank goodness there are some nurses out there who do what they can to keep as many women from experiencing Pit to Distress as much as possible. When a woman checks into the hospital... she trusts that she is in good hands. Obviously, this is not always the case.

Homebirth at Risk in Australia

2009-07-04T23:26:00.000-07:00

This video is just a few of the homebirthing families in Australia who don't want homebirth midwives outlawed. Show your support for homebirth.

~We Love Homebirth~

Circumcision: Echoes in the Body

2009-06-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

By Jeane Rhodes, Ph.D.
Recently, I completed a doctoral research project in which I investigated the possible link between the way children do selected yoga postures for the first time and their individual birth experiences. The body language of 22 children, five to nine years old, was carefully videotaped and analyzed. To learn about the children’s birth experiences I interviewed the parents. After analysis of the data, I was able to identify specific elements in the performance of the yoga postures that could be perceived as clues to the child’s prenatal and birth experience.�
In the course of this research, I made an unexpected observation related to male circumcision. It can only be considered preliminary at this point, as the study was not designed to focus on this issue, and, had it not been so evident in this small sample, I probably would not have noticed it. Asking about circumcision had not been on my original list of questions for the interview with parents. Fortunately, the first father interviewed mentioned it, so I included a question about circumcision for all of the boys in the study.
What I observed was that the seven boys in the study who had been circumcised did not place their hips on the floor when doing an abdominal-lying-arch posture (the “cobra” pose for those of you familiar with yoga postures). In contrast, the two boys in the study who had not been circumcised did it easily.
When I mentioned this observation to a colleague who is a body-worker, she said she had noticed that her clients who had been circumcised were much more rigid in the pelvic area than those who had not been cir-cumcised. If this very preliminary observation is confirmed, it would be coherent with a recent finding on the long-term effect of circumcision on pain tolerance. A team at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario (1995) studied the pain responses of children having routine vaccinations four to six months after birth. They discovered that boys circumcised as infants had higher behavioral pain scores and cried longer.

Cobra Pose

Homebirthing Days

2009-06-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

My husband wrote this yesterday. It is an adaptation of the St. Crispin's Day speech from Shakespeare's Henry V. It is dedicated to homebirthers everywhere:

These days shall be called the feast of Homebirthing Days. They that live these days, and have safe homebirths will stand tall when these days are named, and be roused at the name of Homebirthing Days.

They that shall be there on those days, and see old age will yearly on the vigil feast with their neighbors, and say, "Tomorrow is my child's homebirthing day!" Then will grab their children into their loving arms and say, "these children I helped deliver on homebirthing days."

Old men and women may forget, yet all shall be forgot, but we'll remember with advantages what feats we did perform that day! Then shall their names, familiar in our mouths as household words and gods... Midwives, doulas, Mothers and they the Fathers themselves will be in their flowing cups freshly remembered. These stories the good people shall teach their sons and daughters, and Homebirthing Days shall never go by, from this day to the ending of the world.

But we in it shall be remembered... We few, we happy few, we band of brothers and sisters. And gentle people in their bed shall think themselves accursed that they were not there, and will hold their lives cheap to those of us who stood vigil upon Homebirthing days!

Debunking Myths about Child Nudity

2009-05-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

I came across this on Facebook. I got permission from Paul to share it. I think it is important to know the difference between nudity and pornography. Heck, I have an old disposable camera I can never get developed because there are birth pictures on it, and I was flat out told at the film counter at Walmart that if there was nudity, they would keep it and report it. Ask yourself... how far is too far? If we can't document the births of our children the way we want... if we can't record those precious moments when little Penny or Georgie strip down outside and step in the wading pool because it is one of those moments that we all treasure as parents... how far does it go?

YouTube has already removed many of the birth videos that have been posted. Facebook has the big controversy over breastfeeding photos. How far will we let it go?

Paul Rapoport, National Post
Published: Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Last July in this newspaper, I described what I now call Acts I and II of a sorry controversy in Australia. It raged over photographs of naked minors by Bill Henson and Polixeni Papapetrou, both well-known artists. Photos that had been exhibited with no problems before were now claimed to exemplify sexual exploitation, child pornography and the downfall of all children's innocence. Those fears were expressed loudly. The evidence justifying them was absent.

One positive outcome in the controversy was a decision of Australia's Classification Board. Refusing to bow to political demands for censorship, it upheld the suitability of the attacked images.

Nonetheless, the whole drama hammered artists, galleries and publications. In a later act, the Australia Council, a granting agency somewhat like the Canada Council, imposed regulations that stifled all art involving children. Papapetrou explained, "I have to apply for a police check and then get special government permission on each occasion before I make pictures [of children]." And that has nothing to do with nudity.

The council is presuming that artists dealing with nudity of minors are child sexual abusers. With that perverse attitude, we would never have had the American Nick Ut's prize-winning photo (from 1972) of a nine-year-old girl escaping a napalm attack in Vietnam, nor the Canadian Paul Peel's iconic painting (from 1890), After the Bath. Neither Henson nor Papapetrou would have become known internationally.

This issue is hardly confined to Australia. Early this year, upon learning of an American photographic exhibition, one person launched a smear campaign against it wherever it was scheduled to appear.

His target was "The Century Project," by Frank Cordelle, a series of nude photographic portraits of girls and women, with important texts about each. It had been exhibited at universities and colleges in North America for 17 consecutive years, to high praise from psychiatrists, social workers and many others. That has included three successful visits to Canada.

One school ignored the complainer. But his false claim that all photos of female nudity are harmful pornography came in handy to officials elsewhere. For its exhibition at one university in March, an administrator banned all The Century Project's photos of girls under 18. Another school moved the project's exhibition to where fewer people would see it. A third cancelled it outright.

This censorship also had its bright side. The administrator who banned the girls' photos was unable to justify his authoritarian decision or cover up his false statements. He was forced to resign. But there was no real joy in this saga either. That people demand extreme censorship based on myths about children and nudity remains a serious problem.

The prime myth is that all photographs of child nudity are illegal. This is no longer in the background but considered a specific "fact." In early April, Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post left no doubt: "Nude photos of minors --- even if the minor is you --- are child pornography."

Not only is there no basis for that absurdity in jurisprudence in North America, it maligns family snapshots as well as photos in the arts, medicine or naturism; and it declares the sole purpose of a lack of clothes to be immoral, harmful sexuality.

Another myth: Sexual predation is an epidemic. Curiously, one major research centre in the U. S. states that between 1992 and 2006, substantiated child sexual abuse there declined by more than 50%. That suggestive detail accompanies the rapid rise of the Internet, with all its assumed dangers.

Repeatedly, researchers have tried to show that photos of nudity increase sex crimes in the general population. All reputable attempts have failed.

Still we make false universal connections between photos and child abuse, when, as the art historian Anne Higonnet points out, the indicators of the latter are often single parenthood, poverty and substance abuse. We encourage sexist beauty pageants that sexualize young girls while we vilify their non-sexualized unclothed portraits in a project with proven therapeutic value. We engage in abstinence-led sex education despite convincing evidence that it doesn't work. How could all this hypocrisy and shallowness produce anything but bad results?

The therapist and writer Marty Klein refers to these myths as propaganda from "the vampires of the sexual disaster industry." The war over bodies and sexuality is indeed an extended horror show. Those producing it may know that controlling bodies by shame and guilt is a powerful mechanism to dominate and manipulate people in many aspects of their lives.

There are implications in all this for the current concern over "sexting" --- teenagers using cellphones to take or transmit electronic images of themselves nude or partly dressed. Notwithstanding problems in this activity irrelevant to photographic exhibitions or publications, we hear the same myths about children. "Pornography!" is the cry here, too, although we rarely get adequate reports of the photos. Many in the media also report as if all child nudity entails catastrophic sexual misconduct.

For sexting, law enforcers in several states have been quick to bring charges of possession of child porn, mostly against female self-photographers. Ostensibly wanting to protect a girl as victim, they make her the perpetrator as well, and threaten her with prison time and sex offender status for decades.

Fortunately, in one recent instance of supposed sexting in Pennsylvania, a prosecutor was stopped from threatening child porn charges against girls who refused to submit to his spiteful corrections program when they had done nothing illegal.

Yet who really wins in all these confrontations? Pertinent is the answer of Robert Nelson, an Australian art critic and historian, and husband of Polixeni Papapetrou: "We are in a most unfortunate predicament where everyone is a loser." That includes children. They are more anxious and insecure about their bodies than ever.

The guise of protecting children that does no such thing may be defeated only by massive re-education about the body and sexuality. We may take heart in those brave artists, educators and others who point out not only our folly but ways to overcome it. We could start by recognizing that groundless fearful imaginings, while understandable, are awfully poor bases for any policy, including censorship.

----

Paul Rapoport is professor emeritus in the School of the Arts at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., editor of the magazine Going Natural / Au naturel and a member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day! As the year has turned once again to this sunny day in May, I want to thank all the mothers out there. You know who you are. Those unafraid of wiping snotty noses, changing diapers that could double as nuclear waste, and will hold a sick, feverish child close for hours to make them feel better.

We mothers come in all shapes and sizes; from all walks of life. Some of us work outside the home; some work within it; and others spend all their waking hours chasing children and cleaning up after them. Some of us have older children who attend twenty activities a day. Some of us have grown children with babies of their own. Some of us are still awaiting that miraculous change, when that big baby bump transforms magically into a baby in our arms... and the transformation takes a lot of work on our part.

So have a wondrous, marvelous day... take a few moments to look upon your children and marvel at their existence. They have helped make you who you are today. Happy Mother's Day!

Project Homebirth

2009-04-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

Project Homebirth is a new film project we are undertaking. We would like to invite anyone who has a perspective on homebirth to participate. We want to hear from moms, dads, siblings, grandparents, midwives and anyone else who has felt the impact homebirth makes.

Contact me to find out how to send in your video and audio clips. They only need to be a few minutes long. We want to put together a film that gives YOU your voice to tell the world how homebirth has impacted your family, why you chose it in the first place or anything else you would like to share.

Find out more about our project at http://projecthomebirth.blogspot.com.

Testing...

2009-04-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

I started another blog over on wordpress, thinking it had more features to use. After playing with it, I'm not so sure. I will keep both going for awhile and see which one I like best. :)

If you are on one or the other, please give me your opinions! Thanks!

http://organicbirthing.wordpress.com

Can you believe someone already took Organic Birth over there? And they haven't posted a single thing! :P

Cesarean Awareness & Personhood Laws

2009-04-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

April is Cesarean Awareness Month. Because of that, I think it is the perfect time to talk about these personhood laws being promoted by Personhood USA. They currently have bills being presented in five states. These bills would give full rights to the fetus from the moment of conception. While that may not sound bad if you are pro-life, what they don't tell you is that the rights of the fetus then supersede the rights of the mother.

What this means for every pregnant woman is that a doctor or hospital can decide that you are making decisions for care that they do not agree with and can force you to have a cesarean. One woman in the video below was arrested at home while she was in labor because she wanted a VBAC. She was forcibly taken to the hospital and given a cesarean against her consent. She went on to have three successful VBACs at home later, proving the safety of VBAC and the integrity of her uterus.

Another woman was terminal. She wanted her husband to keep her alive as long as possible. The hospital decided it was against the baby's interest to do so and subjected her to a cesarean that neither she or the baby survived. Who's best interest was served here? Not the woman's... not the baby's... and not her family's.

Please... let your legislators know that this type of bill harms ALL pregnant women. If this bill is being presented in your state, actively oppose it. The states currently considering these bills include Montana, North Dakota, Mississippi, South Carolina and Maryland. Using pro-life arguments to undermine and remove the rights of the mother is unjust. These women in the video all wanted to carry their babies to term. They still fell victim to the courts, who ruled that they did not have the right to choose their method of birth or even get a second opinion. They lost the right to make their own medical decisions and to bodily integrity. Please take a stand for the women who give life to these precious babies. We are not just vessels from which to harvest children. Let us make the choices on how our babies enter this world.

What No One Tells You About Birth... My Version

2009-03-18T00:51:00.000-07:00

We picked up an issue of FitPregnancy recently. Inside was an article entitled "What No One Tells You (But You Need to Know) About Birth. I know this is a mainstream magazine, but sheesh.

Three of the tips mentioned epidurals. Five mentioned cesareans. One mentioned broken blood vessels in her face... from all the purple pushing, no doubt. One mentioned how embarrassed they were that they had a small bowel movement while pushing out the baby. Two mentioned episiotomy.

What do I see wrong with this article? Even though I freely admit I am NOT mainstream in any way, shape or form, I used to be. I admit I had a cesarean. I had two epidurals. I had an episiotomy. I learned my lesson after 4 births of hospital protocols. But I still see problems with this article.

No one mentions doulas as an alternative to an epidural. Studies show that the presence of a doula can reduce the number of epidurals AND cesarean sections because Mom gets the constant, caring support she needs.

While I don't particularly feel comfortable performing bodily functions in front of others either, the whole "eww gross" attitude that we actually have bodily functions bothers me to no end. When will we admit that people actually can smell like people instead of flowery deodorant? When will anyone admit that they pass gas at inopportune times, or that baby helped clean out your bowels on the way out? Not our favorite moments in life, it's true... but it happens frequently. In fact, baby can actually pick up important immunities by passing so close... hmmm. Maybe that's why the vagina is located down there so close to the anus and not up by our belly button?

The fact that 1 in 3 women get cesareans today (or more in some hospitals), and another 1/3 get episiotomies even though studies have shown that episiotomies cause more damage than natural tearing is utterly amazing to me. What is wrong with easing the baby out? Your body will push the baby out whether you actively help or not, and taking a break and breathing through a few pushing contractions can actually give your perineum time to stretch around baby's head. Yes, it may be uncomfortable. They don't call it the "ring of fire" for nothing! However, letting your tissues stretch little by little prevents tearing.

The whole "eww factor" that many people seem to have today really gets to me. What will they do when baby has a messy diaper? When baby throws up what looks like more milk than they've eaten in a week? What will they do when their 4 year old throws up macaroni and cheese in the middle of the night? That last one is sure to get inward groans from me and fighting my own gag reflexes, but they can't help it. They didn't do it on purpose to make your life a living hell. Life is messy. If you're going to have children, it is time to get used to it.

Maybe we need childbirth classes that really teach what will happen in labor. Will people listen and understand?

Here is my version of what you should know before going into labor.

1. It will probably hurt. Some women are lucky and don't feel labor pain... whether this is because of reframing their perception of pain, or just sheer luck... I don't know. Either way, wish I had been them! For most of us... it will involve some intense pain. But it is only for a short time out of your entire life. Drugs will cross the placental barrier and your baby will get the drug just like you. Only your baby is much smaller than you, and they are not getting the baby dose.

2. Being active can actually help you cope with pain! It's true! I've done the beached whale syndrome in labor, and I've walked, rocked on a birth ball, leaned on a wall... anything that even remotely sounded good at the time. It helped! While the contractions were still intense in active labor and transition, I knew they were accomplishing something. I told myself every contraction I went through never had to be experienced again. In the midst of transition with its overwhelming feelings, I told myself that millions of women throughout history had done this exact same thing... and so could I. I could feel the baby moving down, so as uncomfortable as I was, I knew what was happening in my labor and could deal with it.

3. Your water may break before labor, during labor, just before baby is born, or it can be broken after baby is born in rare cases. All are normal. Having someone break your waters in early labor puts you on a clock that will lead to more interference with your labor.

4. You can do this! Women are strong! Our bodies are wondrously designed to bring life into the world. This is an amazing super power that women are blessed with!

5. Purple pushing (where you continue to push hard while someone counts to 10... slowly) is not only exhausting for you, but it deprives your baby of oxygen. There are only a very few instances when you want to push this hard, and they all involve situations when your baby is in distress and needs to be born asap. In a normal labor with a healthy mom and baby, exhaling while you push, shorter pushes and pushing only when you feel the urge will let baby be born gently and you will stretch better instead of tearing. By the way, an episiotomy is like cutting a piece of fabric a few inches with the scissors. Try tearing it before making the cut. Pretty hard to do, isn't it? Now snip it and try to tear it again. It tears all the way down. Your perineum is the same way.

6. Once baby slips out, the pain is miraculously gone. Take the time to get lost in your baby's eyes... smell his or her head, still wet with birth goo. This helps your mothering hormones kick into high gear! Don't let society's "eww factor" come into play. Watch your baby... they will begin to lick and lap at your breast. This is an inborn instinct.

7. If breastfeeding hurts, baby is not latched on correctly! Baby needs to open wide and take in as much of the areola as possible. Their tongue needs to be under the nipple and over their bottom gum line. Don't let them clamp down ON the nipple. The nipple should be taken deep into their mouth along the roof of their mouth.

8. Sleep when baby sleeps! Don't take that precious time and clean the house or update your blog. Get as much rest during your babymoon as possible to get you and your baby off to a good start.

I have a zillion more tips... so more later. :) In the meantime, visit our site, http://organic-birth.com for more tips and advice.

Stop the Mothers' Act

2009-03-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

Congress is currently considering a bill that would make all women undergo screening for their potential to develop postpartum depression. Sounds good on the face of it, doesn't it? In fact, this bill would require many women to be prescribed antidepressants while pregnant. Babies exposed to antidepressants can be born with health problems, and many of them die soon after birth.

Antidepressants can help a lot of people, its true. They can also harm a lot of people, especially pregnant women and their unborn babies. Some women have adverse reactions to antidepressants. They can cause psychotic behavior and suicidal thoughts... the exact symptoms they are supposed to relieve.

Please write to your congressmen and urge them to vote no on the Mothers' Act. Mamas and babies should not be drugged. Pharmaceuticals cannot replace loving support and caring.

The Midwifery Today Conference

2009-03-14T22:59:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to attend Friday at the Midwifery Today Conference in Eugene, Oregon. Not only did I get to see familiar faces, but I got to meet new people, learn new skills and have a great time.

We had a small meet up of a few members of the Organic Birth group from Facebook. Not too many people showed up, but there was so much to see and do that I can hardly blame anyone for forgetting.

The general session included talks by Jan Tritten, Mickey Sperlich, Elizabeth Davis, Gail Hart and Penny Simkin. I enjoyed them all, but Gail has a way of getting her point across with humor while being able to underscore the importance.

Some tidbits from the General Session:
Jan Tritten: For every year your last baby is breastfed, you get one more year of protection from diabetes.

Elizabeth Davis: There is nothing normal about birth... it is ecstatic, transforming, extraordinary and orgasmic!

Gail Hart: When a newborn baby is skin to skin with Mom, they have a higher blood saturation and a more stable blood sugar. Babies who are separated from Mom or wrapped tightly in blankets do not fare as well.

Penny and Mickey had terrific talks as well, but they were a bit more complex and technical and hard to quote a quick nugget.

After lunch, I went to Kara Spencer's class on Bodywork for the Pelvis. Kara does craniosacral therapy and massage. This was an interesting class where we learned a lot about how to apply this technique as well as use the rebozo and other techniques to help reposition baby and help labor along.

Next was Massage for Labor and Birth with Elaine Stillerman, Kara Spencer, Eneyda Spradlin-Ramos and Naoli Vinaver. This was a terrific class on using acupressure points, massage, the rebozo and all sorts of physical tricks to help a labor along and reposition posterior babies.

I did not attend Dr. Michel Oden't's talk, or the Womb Dancing session. The Tricks of the Trade session was hosted by Gloria Lemay and Gail Hart, two of my favorites. This session was full of laughter, sharing and wonderful tricks to help everything from latching a baby on to emptying a waterbirth pool. It was a joy to be there. Many of the physical tricks we learned were graphically demonstrated... while we all learned much and laughed, I can't help but wonder what the hotel staff thought of all us crazy women. But then, they may be used to it... the conference is held here every other year.

It was a day I won't soon forget. Thank you, Kori, for letting me volunteer so I could get a day at the conference. I look forward to many more in the years to come.

Here's a Chance to Help Yourself and a Family in Need

2009-03-11T10:16:00.001-07:00

This is from Carla Hartley, director of Ancient Art Midwifery Institute. She is offering a generous deal on her Introduction to Midwifery Course in order to help out a family facing a medical emergency. If you've thought about learning about midwifery, or maybe you want a refresher, this short course is a terrific option.

From Carla:

One of my daughters in law has a brother who has just been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He has been in the hospital for three weeks already while they try to figure out what is going on with him. It is a very bleak outlook from what I understand and there is little that is known about his condition or the prognosis. He has a wife and two young children. He lost an eye in a paintball accident a few years ago which devastated them financially and now this. I cannot imagine being in that position with no income and no answers about the future, while bills are piling up. I am so concerned for David and Julie and their kids.

I want to raise money to give to them to try to help so I am designating every cent we get from ITM enrollments over the next two months to a fund for them. Will you help me spread the word about Introduction to Midwifery? It is a great deal at the regular price but for this fundraiser, I am going to let people enroll in this 3 – 6 month program for $199 and that includes a download of Helping Hands. It is a great idea for apprentices or for practicing midwives who want a review of some of the info and study techniques.
http://www.ancientartmidwifery.com/itm.html

Complete the form and email to carla@ancientartmidwifery.com with fundraiser in the subject line
or mail with check payable to carla hartley to 330 N Prospect Ave Redondo Beach, CA 90277.

Please pass this on to EVERYONE you know who might be interested in this bargain.
918-720-2717
Thanks so much.....Carla

Spreading the Word

2009-02-27T21:01:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about homebirth. With all the new movies out featuring homebirth like "Business of Being Born," "Orgasmic Birth," and "Pregnant in America," it is becoming front page news.

Instead of just a human interest story about a baby born "too quickly to get to the hospital... luckily they were both checked out by the doctor and are both fine," homebirth is being discussed, dismissed, considered and legally fought for.

This is good.

What else can we do to spread the word? More women need to learn that we are strong. We don't need to be saved from birth. We can birth our own babies.

We certainly don't need to add to the amount of cesarean sections. They can be life-saving, it's true... but does anyone really think that 1/3 of American women CAN'T have a baby without it being cut out of her? Really?

There is so much education to do. I don't really care where a woman chooses to birth. If she wants to be at home, fine. If she wants to be at the hospital, fine. But she should stand a good chance to have a natural birth in the hospital... not just a 2/3 chance.

What about educating the public about eating? Could it be that eating real food instead of the processed stuff we buy in boxes and in drive thrus can be contributing to women being overweight and diabetic? These are two major reasons for cesareans and why we are told "You must birth in the hospital!"

There is so much to do. Please share your ideas by posting comments. I want us to make a difference. I want my children's generation to feel confident in their body's ability to grow and birth their babies.

We need to start spreading the word.

Why Women Birth at Home video

2009-02-16T00:49:00.001-08:00

Look, I made a video! This is the first one I've made for our website, organic-birth.com. Will I be the next internet star?? Probably not, but here I am anyway.

The backdrop is a crocheted afghan made by my great-aunt Gustie, in case any of you are into textiles. It is acrylic yarn, first the backdrop was crocheted in panels, which were then stitched together. The sunflower design is cross-stitched onto the single crochet stitches. I don't know when Gustie made this, but my grandparents got it when she died, and then I got it about 10 or 15 years later when my grandmother passed away. That was 17 years ago, so it is beginning to age gracefully.

Public Perceptions of Breastfeeding

2009-02-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

I am sharing this wonderful post about public perceptions of breastfeeding. I don't know who wrote it, but the author suggests sharing it if you agree. Thank you, Lennon, for posting this on your blog. I, too felt the need to share this!

Society is so sexualized that they have forgotten what God created our breasts for in the first place. They throw hissy fits over breastfeeding in public and expect us to feed our babies in dirty, stinky bathrooms. So I ask you to judge for yourself, which breasts are offensive here? And I understand some of you won't think ANY of them are offensive. But I am making a point by showing how ridiculous it is that society looks upon scantily clad women in sexy ads as ok, even GREAT, but providing important nourishment and nutrients to your child in public by breastfeeding is offensive, distasteful, disgusting, whatever. Give me your feedback. :)

Wait... well, this is a bad example. Let's try again...

Hmmm... just a minute. Surely i can find better ones than these...

Eh... still not racy enough. I'll check one more time.

That's better. LOOK AT THAT! I see about an inch of boob! Totally disgusting.

Ugh! Look at that indecency!! She must be from some third-world country to be exposed like that!!

Now that's just... There's no words to describe how inappropriate that is. Something needs to be done!!

Now this takes the cake!! How dare they actually put such a disgusting image on the cover of a magazine where teenage boys might see it. This simply must be disposed of ASAP via a shredder, before teenage boys learn what boobs are really for!!

This just makes me want to vomit!

...but why stop at breastfeeding women? There are boobs everywhere. Beware! If you thought the above photos were offensive, you WILL DEFINITELY be offended by the photos below.

Not this one though. This was in plain view on newsstands and in mailboxes in 19 countries worldwide!

Not this one either. This one actually won an award!

Oh, and i guess this ones fine too, since everyone knows you can't sell jeans without someone being topless.

or beer, for that matter!

or sunglasses...

or movie tickets...

or CDs...

...you know what? Maybe I'm crazy, but i think that someone mixed up some photos here. The first batch are offensive, but the second batch are just fine and dandy???

people who live in glass bras:

shouldn't throw stones:

Which message is healthier?

Breastfeeding which is medically approved to give HUMANS the best start in life. . . or

Images that promote STD's, unattainable beauty standards, sexual promiscuity, plastic surgery, and just plain TRUE indecency?

Which would you rather your daughter live up to?

Ifyou think women have the right to breastfeed their children no matter where they are, please re-post this. The least you can do is help some children get the best nutrition they can get. Breastfed babies have lower instances of obesity, asthma, allergies, certain childhood diseases, learning disabilities, and other health problems. For each woman who feels like she shouldn't be breastfeeding right where she is, there is an innocent baby who is losing out. Don't be responsible for any child's health problems. support breastfed babies and their right to eat in public like the rest of us.

Home at Last!

2009-01-17T19:37:00.000-08:00

We have just moved into our new home. As most people probably know, moving is an ordeal. Even though we pared down on our belongings using venues like Freecycle, we still had THREE trips with the U-Haul truck. Plus countless trips with our little car, my mom's truck and a few with my stepdad's bigger truck. I didn't think about how much space those few rabbit cages would take up. Whew!

For those of you who read that we entered a contest to win a house... well, the contest was stopped by the state. But thanks to our online friends, we had a huge amount of votes. We get to live in the contest house after all, with an option to buy it. Whee! Thank you to all of you who voted for us.

I spent a week without internet, so that left me time to unpack. Well, almost completely. There are a few discreet boxes still stashed here and there. The kids love it here... we are in the country on an acre. It is sooooo quiet! The cats are climbing all the oak trees, and the rabbits are settled in. On clear nights, it is amazing to see all the stars in the sky. Now if only the cell phone would work while we are on our property... as of this writing, we have to cross the street to get a signal.

I am now getting back into the swing of things online. Keeping up with Facebook, Twitter and writing for the website are definitely on my daily schedule. I have all my midwifery books on a handy shelf behind the couch I work at, and I'm feeling very optimistic about how everything will work out.

Top 50 Eastern Medicine Blogs

2008-12-11T00:18:00.000-08:00

Imagine my surprise when I found out that my humble little blog was added to this amazing list! I have bookmarked it for my own edification, and if this topic interests any of you, I urge you to do the same. This list is compiled on nursingdegree.net, and contains topics like acupuncture, yoga, meditation, herbal medicine, holistic health, midwifery, massage, and general health topics.

Anyway, thank you to those who included me... I will try to live up to your expectations. You can find the list at http://www.nursingdegree.net/blog/39/top-50-eastern-medicine-blogs/

And don't forget to check out our website: http://organic-birth.com.

Thank you

2008-12-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

I want to thank everyone for voting for us in the house contest. I was notified by George Tran, the man running the contest, that the State has contacted him and demanded that the contest be stopped. So, no contest, no house. But thank you so much for your support... we were in the lead with 94 votes. Our closest competition had 14 votes. Your show of love and caring touches my heart! Thank you so much for wanting this for my family.

We are now on the hunt for a place to move. Probably by February. If anyone has any leads on an affordable place in the Eugene/Springfield area of Oregon for a large family, leave a comment for me and I'll get back to you. We do have pets, but can pare it down to our two cats, who both prefer to live outdoors.

Thank you again... I am so touched by your generosity.

The Rakestraw Family Story

2008-12-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

I am a contestant for a free house giveaway. For more information, go to freehouse.wordpress.com. I can be contacted at reikiiii@comcast.net. To vote for us, please go to this URL: http://digg.com/arts_culture/Help_Us_Win_a_FreeHouse_of_Our_Very_Own and click on the yellow square that counts our diggs.

We are the Rakestraw family. My name is Toni and my husband's name is John. Our journey began long ago in a place far from Eugene, but along the way, we have been entranced one by one by our eight wonderful children. Yes, I said eight. We are the proud parents of four boys (Callum, Ian, Tristan and Ellis) and four girls (Morwenna, Ostara, Niamh and Midori) who are the reason we strive as hard as we do every single day. Having a home we can all call our very own would provide us with a security we've never had before.

John is a school bus driver. He loves working with kids. Maybe he's driven some of your kids home from school. Three years ago in December, we almost lost my beloved husband due to a congenital heart defect. One of his heart valves wore out and needed to be replaced. Fortunately for us, they did the surgery just in time. Despite the health issues that still exist from this situation that he deals with on a daily basis, he devotes the vast majority of his day to making sure kids get to school and back home safely. When he gets home, he spends time with us and works on our website, organic-birth.com, helping to build a business of our own some day… if he isn't so exhausted that he goes right to sleep. His stamina just isn't the same as it once was, but we just buckle down and do the best we can. He is an amazing man, and I don't ever want to imagine my life without him.

I spend my days writing articles for other peoples' websites for an article service. I begin from the time I get up in the morning, and often don't finish until I'm ready to tumble into bed at night. But it is worth the long hours for less money to be here at home with my kids. In my spare time, I also work on our site and maybe get in a bit of studying or work on my artwork. I have been studying midwifery for several years, and it is my dream to one day help other women bring their babies into this world in a safe and loving way once my children are grown. Having kids changed our lives… to share what we have learned, we are trying to build a business helping women learn about birthing choices. This is a passion for us that developed through our own experiences birthing our children. It is going slowly, but I think eventually it will help contribute to our family's needs. We have been a part of the Saturday Market community as well, offering handcrafted natural fiber items, artwork and providing reiki treatments when they are requested, even for those who can't pay. We know what it is like to not be able to take care of your own needs because the money has run out. John and I do everything we can to make ends meet and keep our children happy and healthy… whether it is earning as much as we can at our respective jobs, returning cans to the market, or just spending some time to listen to one of the kids tell us about the cool project they stumbled across.

Our children are amazing (but then, what parent doesn't think their children are like no others?). Morwenna is our oldest daughter. She is very talented artistically and will someday make a living with her manga comic artstyle. Callum, our oldest son, is already attracting the attention of those in the video game world for his insightful reviews and comments online. Ian, who's next in line, enjoys a lot of physical activity outdoors as well as games. He is exceptionally good with babies and small children. Ostara had some health issues when she was smaller due to seizures from an undetermined cause. She has grown into a willowy pre-teen who loves to draw and is becoming an expert at origami. She is also very talented with math. Niamh, the next youngest, is exuberant and loves everything. She is developing a good drawing style, and she especially enjoys drawing our cats and rabbits from life. She also loves to run, ride bikes, and plant seeds in the garden. She is just learning to cook a little bit. Tristan is rather serious, and takes his play as seriously as any other tasks he does. His little brother, Ellis, is so full of love. He adores giving hugs and will often sit beside me as I work, just happy to lean on me. He loves the outdoors as much as Niamh and Tristan do. Our youngest, Midori, is almost 2. She has already figured out how to climb the bunk bed ladders, much to our dismay. She is one smart cookie, and she loves playing outside with the animals and her brothers and sisters.

This house would be a great boon to our family. There would be room for everyone to have bikes and have a lot of fun… from our 1 year old to our 17 year old. With an entire acre, the kids would be helping us raise food as well as providing enough room for our pets. The garage looks large enough to house a play area for the kids as well as possibly creating more bedrooms in the future. The large beautiful kitchen would be a great area for a few of our older children, as they love to cook and try new things. Even the leftover shed foundation could someday become an office or maybe a detached apartment for our older children… or maybe an art studio! I see endless possibilities with this wonderful property! Our home has always been very central to our family… we spend the vast majority of our time together at home. The house we live in now is similar in size (with the exception of the yard, which is much smaller), but with the economy the way it is, our chances of financing a mortgage in the next few months has been shot out of the water. We need to look for another place to live… and that is not an easy accomplishment with a family our size. We recently found out that the home we are renting will be going into foreclosure in a few months. When I have searched for a place for us in the past, many of the people I talked with just hung up when they found out our family size. Not ever having to move or go through the blatant rejection by people who don't even know us would relieve us of an enormous amount of stress, which would do worlds of good for John's health.

Owning a home free and clear would help us provide our family with lots of essentials that are beyond our reach at this moment, like a car that fits everyone inside at the same time. Our current car only seats half of us, and desperately needs to visit the mechanic when we can save up enough. It would also make a huge difference on those months that a school district job just doesn't pay the bills. We have a few of them every year. By eliminating the rent, those months wouldn't be so stressful and trying... we could make it on what I earn. Owning this house that George is so graciously offering in this contest would be a dream come true for the entire family. Please consider voting for us. Thank you!

Help a Deserving Family Win a House!

2008-11-17T13:38:00.000-08:00

There is a man in my city who is choosing to give away a house that he owns to a deserving family, provided there are enough entries to pay off the outstanding mortgage. What a wonderful gesture this is! People can vote for their favorite at Digg.com, and on December 23, some lucky winner will become the owner of their own house.

There are so many people who deserve a break like this... and I include my own family in this number. We paid to register for this wonderful contest, and I have posted our story at the Free House Giveaway Voting Site.

I have a family of 8 wonderful children and a husband whom I adore. You can learn more about us in our story posted on this site. Please look for my posting name of "Tuwamare" or just the post that introduces us as the Rakestraw Family. Votes are cast by clicking on the little green "thumbs up" icon near the top of each post. The winner will be determined by who has the most thumbs up votes. In the case of a tie, they will be tallying the comments under the winning stories for support. So please, vote for us by clicking the green thumbs up icon by our story, and if you feel moved to, post a comment beneath our story.

If you haven't visited digg.com before, you'll need to set up an account. It is free, and only takes a moment or two.

Once you've finished setting up your account, or if you already have one, merely click on this link to go to the voting area. To find us, you'll need to scroll down through several comments and story entries. We sure appreciate your vote, and I will probably post about this a few more times before the contest is over. We could really use a house of our own! Thank you!

Maternal Mortality

2008-10-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

I read an article about the maternal mortality rate in Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in the world. 1 in 8 women die in childbirth there. This truly is a horrendous problem, one that is frequently overlooked when dealing with other health crises and providing other services in such areas. The poor family the article talked about suffered a terrible loss in the death of a young mother. But there is more happening there than just having a doctor on call to staff the hospital. This poor mother did not know that fasting for the last three weeks of her life in observance to Ramadan would affect her health. Pregnancy is not a time to fast. This poor mother and many like her also need education and nutrition. Many of the problems they face could be resolved right there.

One of the shocking facts in this story (yes, absolutely shocking!) was that the rate of maternal mortality in the U. S. 1 in 4800. Doesn't sound too, bad, does it? Compare it to another statistic in the article... the maternal mortality rate in Ireland: 1 in 48,000. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have my next baby in Ireland. This little island has the best maternal mortality rate in the entire WORLD. And those of us here in the United States face mortality rates 10 times worse.

The AMA keeps telling us we have the best medical care in the world, and that the hospital is the safest place to have a baby. Apparently, neither is true! While the AMA is supporting legislation to OUTLAW homebirth in the United States, telling us that birthing at home is risky, they're actually losing more women in the hospital.

About 1 or 2% of birthing women choose to have their babies at home. Even if 1 or 2% of those mortalities took place at home, that would be 48 to 96 out of 4800. The other 4752 to 4702 mortalities are in the hospital. I know women are subjected to interventions that end up causing problems during labor in the hospital... I've been subjected to them myself. What about giving women hands on care instead of using monitors? What about educating them about nutrition? Helping them to labor naturally instead of breaking their waters, stimulating their labors with pitocin, or cutting them open when they don't need a cesarean? Just last year a news story broke about two teachers at the same school who both ended up with cesareans... and both died.

Midwifery care has been shown to have better outcomes and less intervention. I support more midwives. Obstetricians are trained to handle emergencies... they should do just that, and stop messing with normal labor until they cause emergencies.

For those poor women in countries like Sierra Leone... many of them can be saved with the same answers that will save more women here in the States. Let OBs take care of the real emergencies and midwives take care of normal pregnancies and births. With better mother education that most midwives provide, there should be an improvement all the way around.

A Birth from the Past

2008-10-16T00:44:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday. I don't know anything about my own birth. My mother was knocked out for her labor and birth and doesn't remember any of it. I was her first born child... she was 20.

Thirty-one years later found me in labor with my third child. He chose to be born on my birthday, even though he wasn't technically due for another week. This was my third hospital birth and second VBAC. We had a certified nurse-midwife, and we spent a long time walking around the hospital before retiring to the shower for the last part of active labor. We tried a birthing stool for awhile... I know it was working because I absolutely hated it and couldn't wait to get off of it! It felt so strange to feel the baby moving down like that. I wanted to lie down so much and everyone kept trying to keep me up. Once I finally laid down, I wriggled all over the bed. I think this was because the baby had been posterior, and he was finally turning. I opted for a half dose of fentanyl at 9.5 cm... but it really did no good at all. It didn't change my perception of my pain at all.

The CNM pulled so hard on my son we heard a large cracking sound. We were afraid his clavicle had broken... luckily it was okay. Our second son was born at 3:03 on the morning of my birthday. He is the best birthday present I've ever received. Now we look forward to sharing our day.

Celebrate Fertility!

2008-10-06T00:13:00.000-07:00

I think our ancestors were onto something. They celebrated fertility and fecundity. A round belly was something to proud of... for both mother and father. In some cultures, couples did not marry until the woman was pregnant.

Today, we have a twisted sense of fertility. During our most fertile years we are urged to abstain. We suppress our fertility with fake hormones. We install foreign bodies into our wombs to make them inhospitable to growing babies. Sex is recreational rather than procreational.

Suddenly we find ourselves older. Everyone begins asking if we'll ever have a baby. Now, however, it isn't so easy. Our most fertile years are behind us. Every cycle becomes a stressful wait for ovulation and then another even more stressful wait to see if we conceived. After months of unsuccessful trying, we go to fertility specialists who load us up on drugs and run expensive tests. More often than not, they return with a diagnosis of "infertility from unknown causes." Then we're told of the options... all of which range from expensive to outrageous. And they offer a very slight chance of success.

We've got it all wrong. We're missing out on all those fertile years. We're set up by society's and our own expectations. Time is fleeting, and before we know it, so many of us are left with that indescribable yearning for a baby. Before it is too late, think your plans through. I think our society needs to rearrange priorities. Let's celebrate some fertility.

At Least You Have a Healthy Baby

2008-09-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

"At least you have a healthy baby..." How many times have you heard this? While in the case of an emergency, we would all do whatever was needed to protect our babies, why should this be the standard of care? Why should we expect to undergo interventions that cause our babies stress, violating exams and have to be a spectacle to whoever wants to peek into the hospital room? Why should 1/3 of us expect to be cut open to deliver out babies?

REACHE (Regional Association of Childbirth Educators) of Washington State is presenting a conference called "At Least You Have A Healthy Baby: Exploring the Forces Behind the Cesarean Epidemic" on April 18, 2009. For more information, check out their website at http://www.reache.info.

The Other Side of the Glass

2008-09-18T23:22:00.000-07:00

I watched the trailer for this incredible new movie that will be coming out called "The Other Side of the Glass." This follows in the footsteps of some of the other recent films that highlight what birth could be and the problems with our current birthing care. "The Other Side of the Glass" however, talks about dads. That's right... our poor partners who sit on the sidelines worrying about the pain we're suffering through while birthing babies. At last, someone is giving dads the chance to talk about how our country's birth routines make them feel. I feel it is high time that dads got to weigh in on this.

Several of the men interviewed talked about how helpless they felt in the hospital while the doctors and nurses were doing unspeakable things to their wives and babies... how difficult this must be! I know my husband feels the need to protect me... yet during our hospital births he was forced to step aside as they tied me to machines, attached me to lines pumping me full of pitocin (without my knowledge or consent), and gave me injections of medications that ultimately led to a cesarean. He had to stand there and watch as they sliced me open to extract our oldest child. He followed her to the nursery for tests knowing that I had not even seen a glimpse of her yet... I had only heard her cry. How hard must that have been?

"The Other Side of the Glass" is going to open this door so we can hear how men feel about being forced to remain helpless to protect their nearest and dearest. I feel that fathers deserve as much respect as mothers. We are still having to fight for the right of mothers to birth the manner that is best for them and their babies. Now it is time for us to also fight for the rights of fathers to protect their families from unnecessary interventions and indignities.

Our accepted form of childbirth needs a massive overhaul to honor the rights and feelings of the parents and the child. Birth should be about them, after all... not about the doctors and nurses who are running the assembly line.

High Risk

2008-08-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hi. I'm high risk. If I walked into an OB's office today to get prenatal care, I would be pushed to the high risk category faster than I could say "homebirth." Why? Well, let me count the ways.

Age

At age 44, I am definitely an elderly candidate for motherhood. Somehow when I hit the magical age of 35 I transformed from a healthy young woman to an elderly mother who needs constant surveillance and testing.

Parity

I have eight children. That makes me not only a multip, but a GRAND multip. Everyone knows that our uteruses can only handle a couple of kids, so when you get one as experienced as mine is, it is time to pull out all the stops, because when that baby comes out, my uterus will be so old and tired that it won't clamp down and I'll bleed to death.

VBAC

Once upon a time, way back in the early 1990s, I had a cesarean. Never mind about those seven vaginal births I've had since then.... I've just been lucky.

Large Babies

OMG! I have a history of large babies! Let's see... out of 8 children, half have been over 9 lbs! In fact, the largest was 10 lbs 11 oz! Well, that should have been a cesarean... if I'd come into the hospital like a good little patient, I'm sure they would have taken better care of me and sliced me open right then and there. I must have had Gestational Diabetes to grow such large babies...

Hmmph.

I don't see what my age has to do with anything. If I'm young enough to still conceive, then I'm young enough to grow and birth my babies. I'm healthy and I take care of myself. As for being a grand multip... I'm darn proud of my kids! They are responsible, courteous and bright individuals. I know the symptoms to watch out for regarding hemorrhage and I know how to stop the bleeding. As for VBAC... shouldn't seven vaginal births prove my uterus can not only handle pregnancy and birth, but it is darn good at it! And as for large babies... none have had any problems associated with gestational diabetes or anything else due to their size. Oh, and I did get tested for GD in most of my pregnancies... nada. Zip. No sign of GD. So there.

Pregnant women should be treated as individuals, not lumped into categories for the simplistic reasons of age, parity, baby size and uterine surgery. Every one of us is different. While one person may need extra precautions, the next person of the same age doesn't necessarily need the same precautions.

Likewise, hospital births are not the perfect solution for all of us. We survived as a species this long... but since there are so many reasons to classify us as high risk, how much longer will we last?

Standing Up for Our Rights

2008-08-03T22:01:00.001-07:00

I'm a bit late in responding to the whole AMA and ACOG uproar... but I'm going to put in my two cents anyway. They insist the safest place to birth is in the hospital, yet 1/3 of all women birthing there end up with a cesarean, which increases the risk for complications and death. Another 1/3 end up with an episiotomy, a surgical procedure that has been proven to be unnecessary.

I have heard horror stories of how women are treated in the hospital while giving birth. They suffer at the hands of people who just don't care about them, their babies or the process of birth. How can that possibly be the safest place to be????

The AMA and ACOG are willing to create model legislation to make it illegal to birth anywhere else. Excuse me? They want to make it illegal to birth anywhere but in the aforementioned torture chamber?

Now I know that not every nurse and obstetrician contributes to scenes like I have learned about. Some are truly caring, wonderful people who try to do what is best for mothers and babies. But it sure seems that they are few and far between.

I certainly could not walk willingly into a hospital to give birth knowing that I'd have to fight for every little bit of freedom I may need to birth optimally. My first was a cesarean. One that probably could have been avoided if my CNM and the staff nurses had been willing to work with an inexperienced mother-to-be instead of pushing pain medications. But then, I may not be on the path I am today.

Women... stand up for your right to birth without intervention! While it isn't outlined specifically, it should fall under pursuit of happiness if nothing else.

Midwives... band together. Sue the AMA like the chiropractors did in the late 1970s for preventing them from practicing their trade.

We can do this. The AMA and ACOG are worried about midwifery and home births because more women are finding out they don't need to be treated like idiots and sliced open unnecessarily.

New CafePress Store & Website

2008-07-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

We're building our website: http://organic-birth.com! While it is still a work in progress, I welcome feedback!

And if you've admired any of the artwork I've featured here on my blog, I have a CafePress store now that I'm slowly adding my various pieces to. The link is http://www.cafepress.com/organicbirth if you want to check anything out.

If you have admired a certain artwork I've posted here that you don't see over there yet, drop me a line and I'll get it added faster.

Babywearing

2008-07-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

Babywearing has changed my life. I first discovered this method of baby transportation after the birth of my third baby in 1994. While we did have a stroller for my older two, we often ended up using the stroller to carry our stuff while we carried the babies. Babywearing made so much sense!

I tried a sling, but my favorite has long been the Baby Bundler. I'm not sure if they're being made anymore, but there are others out there that are made on the same principle of wrapping along piece of fabric around the baby and yourself. There are so many exciting new methods of babywearing out there today that I have not been able to try, but it brings great joy to my heart when I see someone walk by wearing their baby instead of putting them in the plastic baby buckets.

If you too are addicted to babywearing, check out this very cool contest at AlongFortheRide.com.

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Outlawing Homebirth

2008-06-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness. I can't believe what ACOG (American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists) and the AMA (American Medical Association) are up to. ACOG sent out a position paper against homebirth and CPMs, saying the safest place for all women to give birth is either the hospital or an accredited birth center. The AMA is backing them up and is planning on creating model legislation so groups can push for this to become law. This is outrageous! They want to take away my choice to make an educated decision to birth at home. This choice should be available to all birthing women.

Actually, I can believe they're doing this. It really isn't much different when they went around badmouthing midwives at the turn of the 20th century so women would choose to go to the bright, shiny hospitals rather than stay at home with the "illiterate, unwashed midwives." Uh huh. Give me a midwife any day to those people in the white coats who just cannot leave anything well enough alone!

Take the typical hospital birth. You check in. They make you change your clothes so they can give you a vaginal exam. They put a heplock in your arm so they can add pitocin whenever they want. They strap you to the electronic fetal monitor, which has not been shown in studies to be any more effective at detecting a baby in true distress than if the nurse checks the baby's heartbeat for a few minutes every coupld of hours. They break your bag of waters. Turn up the pitocin. OH..... you DIDN'T get tested yet for GBS? Then they'll add some antibiotics you most likely don't need too. There goes the nurse turning up that pitocin again. Oh, the contractions are getting unbearable? Let's give you something for the pain. You'll have to stay in bed now.... you can't walk around or be upright with an epidural.... that's better, now, isn't it? Hmmmm. You're not making enough progress according to the clock, so we're going to take you to the operating room for a cesarean. You're obviously not progressing and this baby will die if it isn't born RIGHT NOW.

Yeah, right. Seems to me most labors are meddled with until there is no other choice. All the natural hormones mom and baby experience in undisturbed labor are all messed up and the body doesn't know where to turn. It's a wonder we've survived as a species. Cats and dogs couldn't birth under those conditions!

Ladies, we need to stand up for our right to choose the place we birth and who we want to attend it! Write to your state congressmen now, before the medical interest groups present that "model legislation." Write to your national congressmen to let them know that the AMA is trying to prevent midwives from practicing their trade. The AMA was sued successfully by chiropractors in the 1970s for that reason... and the chiropractors won! Let's protect our right to birth and parent our children (more on that soon... the AAP has issued a new stand on vaccinations....) how we think is best.

Catching Up

2008-05-26T23:18:00.000-07:00

I meant to write a post for my oldest child's birthday on the 22nd... she turned 17. I can't believe it has been that long. 18 years since I was pregnant with my first child... 17 years of breastfeeding... well, not 17 years of feeding her, obviously... but since I have 8 children, one has been breastfeeding at some point on any given day.

I ran across some of my old pals from school on Facebook, and it is amazing to me to see how obsessed I am with birth compared to everyone else I know (with the exception of my friends and acquaintances in the birth field). I just don't know how anyone can go through something as transformational as childbirth and not be changed because of it. Maybe I'm the odd one out, huh? I'd be ecstatic to fall pregnant again tomorrow... I love being pregnant and giving birth.

Oh well. This is just a short note. More later.

How Baby Experiences Birth

2008-05-13T23:40:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed in a hospital birth how the baby is treated as an incidental passenger? The mother is encouraged to have drugs and lie on her back. Hmmm. The drugs DO cross the placenta and lying on her back can compress the large arteries that feed the uterus and placenta, and then the baby. I wonder why baby is distressed?

Next, the baby is unceremoniously pulled out with hands, vacuum extractor or taken out surgically, depriving baby of the tight squeeze that is needed to press fluid from the lungs in preparation for breathing.

The baby is suddenly in a very bright place (ever seen how bright those lamps are they point at the birthing mother's vagina? Yikes!), the temperature drops, and in many cases baby is whisked away to an exam table, without feeling a comforting touch from his or her mother. How frightening would that be?

What do you think is going through that baby's mind? Despite what tradition says, babies are very aware. They are aware of what is going on before they are born, and interact with mom or dad when they push on baby's foot through mom's belly. The baby needs to be with mom immediately. If there are problems, at least keep baby within mom's reach so she can reassure baby by touching an arm or leg. The baby knows what mom's touch is like... s/he has felt it through her belly since they were large enough to press against it.

There is some research that suggests babies know if they are wanted or not. They feel fear, rejection, love and comfort. How can anyone separate a baby from its parents when first born? How can they poke a newborn with needles, shove tubes down their throats and handle them roughly? How can they take newborn boys and circumcize them? They are so open and vulnerable.

As human beings, we need gentle, loving touch to survive and thrive. How can we expect babies not to carry trauma from a rough entry into the world when it was just a "typical birth?" Babies are born ready to be imprinted with their parents' faces and touches. Instead the first touch they feel is to be yanked out. The first face they see is most likely wearing a mask. What would you feel if you were to enter a place like that and have no way to escape?

All babies deserve love, gentleness and comfort. They deserve to be treated respectfully. There is the saying that in the eyes of a newborn baby you can see the wisdom of the universe. How sad that we don't pay attention to that wisdom. Instead we feel it is our duty to strip these babies of any wisdom they had to impart to us. I say it is time to learn from our babies. I know mine have taught me more than I ever imagined was possible.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T21:47:00.001-07:00

Mother's Day. Today is the day we honor those who have given birth. I would like to honor all those women today who have given birth. That includes moms who have given their babies up and moms who raised their children. Moms who suffered through stillbirths, miscarriages and loss. Moms who did their best to have the birth of their dreams only to end up under the surgeon's knife. Moms who continue to fight for the birth they want. Moms who were unable to give birth themselves, but they love their adopted children every day, meeting their needs just as surely as if they had birthed those children themselves. Every mom, everywhere, who has ever loved a child.

Happy Mother's Day!

Gentle Birth is a Boon for Mom & Baby

2008-04-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

I just took a webinar at consciouswoman.com by Sarah Buckley, MD. It was on the hormonal cocktail that happens during undisturbed birth. The hour and a half I spent listening to Dr. Buckley expound on what we, as mammals need to birth was amazing.

I'm no newbie to Dr. Buckley's work... I've read her book, "Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering" and have read her website as well. Unfortunately I missed her at the Trust Birth Conference... there were so many great sessions to choose from! This was the first time I've been able to hear her speak, however.

This hormonal cocktail doesn't happen the way it is supposed to in a normal hospital birth. Why? Because like other mammals, we need privacy, we need to feel safe and we need to feel unobserved. What do they do in the hospital? People come in and out constantly, we're in an unfamiliar place with strange people and smells, and we are under constant observation. Having birthed under those conditions, I know what it feels like. It is amazing we can birth at all! In fact, the one time my birth went quickly in the hospital was during my last birth, when everyone left the room except my doula, who was napping. While at the time I didn't appreciate being alone, my body sure did because I went from 5 cm to pushing in a very short time.

The hormonal cocktail that we get during undisturbed labor begins with oxytocin. Oxytocin, otherwise known as the love hormone, is present during orgasm, late pregnancy, labor, the immediate postpartum (when we have the highest levels ever) and when we breastfeed. Baby not only gets some of our oxytocin during labor, but she makes her own as well. High oxytocin levels immediately following birth allow mom and baby to fall in love and imprint on each other.

Endorphins also kick in, helping us deal with labor pain and to find pleasure in our baby. Ever wonder why we're willing to do this again and again? Endorphins make us feel good.

Catecholemines (epinephrine and norepinephrine) are excreted by our adrenal glands to initiate the fight or flight response. During labor, these hormones help us find the extra energy to push our babies out, and they initiate the fetal ejection response under optimal conditions. If conditions are not right, they may delay labor. Can you say "failure to progress?" FTP is one of the most common reasons physicians either perform cesarean sections or other interventions like breaking our waters, using vacuum extractors or cutting episiotomies.

Finally, prolactin kicks in. Sarah Buckley calls this the "tender mothering" hormone. It not only stimulates milk letdown, it helps us feel tenderness and caring for our newborn.

With an undisturbed, natural birth, both mom and baby are flooded with these hormones, helping labor to flow and birth the baby. They help us to bond with our new child and vice versa.

With a labor that is disturbed by others, we only get portions of this hormonal cocktail.

With a planned cesarean without any labor at all, we get even less. How will this affect us as parents? How will this affect our children as they adapt to life outside the womb and as they grow? Will it affect their relationships with others? What about when they are adults and having children of their own?

How much have we harmed the past couple of generations who never got undisturbed birth?

Choosy Moms Choose Cesareans Article

2008-04-23T23:43:00.000-07:00

Time magazine just ran an article entitled "Womb Service: Choosy Moms Choose Cesarean." The article outlines the story of a psychiatrist who chose an elective cesarean because she was afraid of laboring and then requiring a cesarean anyway. It goes on to discuss how vaginal birth can result in incontinence and pelvic damage, while cesareans can result in respiratory problems for the baby. It ends with the hope that "perhaps more women will feel less defensive about making the same choice."

Excuse me? Cesareans are major abdominal surgery. I know. I've had one. And I certainly wouldn't have chosen to have it. I did labor and end up in surgery. At least at the time I felt I had done all I could to have my baby the way nature intended. Cesareans have more risk than just possible respiratory problems for the baby. Both mother and baby have a bigger chance of dying from a cesarean than from a vaginal birth. I guess that isn't important.

And vaginal birth doesn't equal incontinence and pelvic damage. Studies have shown that women of comparable age who did not birth vaginally (or even have children at all) had the same chance of developing incontinence as those who had birthed vaginally.

If I decide I want to get my appendix removed, I should just be able to schedule the surgery whether I need it or not, if cesareans should be just another choice. It shouldn't matter that my appendix is perfectly healthy, right?

I have a fundamental problem with the argument that many obstetricians put forth that an elective cesarean is just another birth choice. At the same time, they are putting down home birth and unassisted birth as not being safe. I still have less of a chance of dying if I have my baby home alone than if I opted to go under the knife. How is this "just another choice?"

Okay, I'm even willing to compromise here. If cesareans are allowed to be just another choice, then they should concede that homebirth is also just another choice and leave it at that. If the OBs are allowed to promote the "safety" of surgical birth and point out the "dangers" of homebirth, I should be able to do the opposite. Studies have shown that homebirth is as safe or safer than birthing in the hospital. At least you won't be given pitocin and drugs that will cause the baby to go into fetal distress at home.

What about if we actually teach women that labor is nothing to be afraid of? There's a unique idea. Labor is a natural function of a woman's body when it is time for a baby to be born. There, I said it. Having a baby is something we are designed to do. In fact, it seems to be a rather well-kept secret that women are actually good at having babies, too.

It sounds to me like instead of choosy moms choosing cesareans, it is uninformed moms, coerced moms and frightened moms who choose cesarean. Most women are not told all the risks of having a surgical birth. A cesarean can cause problems for future pregnancies if the placenta in a subsequent pregnancy implants over the scar. A cesarean can result in infection for mom and/or baby. Hemorrhage is common. The baby can accidentally get cut. The incision can open up during recovery. The baby can have respiratory problems. Post-surgical pain can last for several weeks, and recovery time is longer than with a vaginal birth. The list goes on and on.

All I can say is this choosy mom will choose to birth at home.

Bucket Babies

2008-04-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, I can't keep quiet any longer. Every time I go to the store, I see all these poor babies stuck in those portable car seats. I call them baby buckets. Their parents lug them in and out of the store, put them in the shopping cart or lock them to the child seat of the shopping cart. How comfortable must it be to be swung back and forth awkwardly as your parent carries you in something like that? They're not ergonomically designed for the parent to carry easily, and they're heavy. The poor baby is swung one way, then the other as the parent struggles to carry it into the store.

These babies inevitably start fussing and then crying at some point in the store. Do the parents ever take them out of the plastic bucket and hold them? No! The babies I see where I shop are pretty much ignored while they're in the baby buckets. If the parent reacts to them at all, it is just to try and shush them, without really looking in their eyes or even patting them on the tummy. My heart just goes out to them... the cries I hear either sound like "feed me" cries or "hold me" cries. What is so wrong with picking your baby up?

Out of all the bucket babies I've seen when I've been shopping the past six months, one dad actually stopped and picked up the baby out of the bucket. Kudos to him! I was so happy to see one parent respond to their baby's needs.

Think about it. Babies are put in car seats. In play pens. In strollers. Products are sold to prop a bottle to feed them. Are these babies ever held? Cuddled? Consoled?

I read parents asking advice online at various parenting sites, asking why their baby won't sleep when they leave him or her to cry it out alone in a room without the comforting feel of a parent's arms about them, or hearing a familiar heartbeat. My heart just breaks. And we wonder why children grow up feeling alienated, alone and like no one cares about them.

The mainstream baby industry is doing families a gross disservice by making ever more products to put baby in that discourages picking them up and holding them.

Babies need to be held... often. Babies need to feel safe and secure. They are too young to rely on themselves for consolation. They're BABIES.

Think back to your early childhood. What do you remember? I remember two memories from my early childhood vividly... one was a birthday cake with a sugar carousel on it, and the other memory is of standing at the screen door looking out and crying because I woke up and was all alone. I felt utterly abandoned and alone. I was very small... maybe two years old, because my sister hadn't been born yet. I remember seeing my mother's black car coming into the driveway. I still have issues about being alone and feeling abandoned. It has been a big issue in several of my own births.

Now back to these baby buckets. How are these babies going to grow up? What issues are they going to have from not being held? How do we teach parents that children are not inconveniences... that they are to be loved and comforted?

Yes, we have a baby bucket car seat. It seems the only kind you can buy for infants these days. But it stays where it belongs... in the car. Babies grow so fast anyway... let me hold my baby for as long as they'll stay willingly in my arms.

Our First Homebirth

2008-04-06T22:29:00.000-07:00

Tonight marks the 9th anniversary of my first labor when I birthed at home. My 3rd daughter was born just before 5am on April 7, 1999 in the middle of the living room of the apartment we were living in after our housefire.

It was the most incredible experience. After gentle contractions all day long, I finally fell asleep around 9:30 pm, only to wake up at 2:30 am with strong contractions. My water broke soon after, and I kept a towel bunched between my knees as I called our midwife and a doula friend of ours. My husband awoke because of the noise I was making. He put together some quick homemade soup to cook while I labored and put on the music I had chosen. When the midwife got there, he helped her set up the tarp on the floor while I rocked back and forth on my birth ball. I thought of all the women in the entire world who labored with me that night. I drew strength from the fact that they were all feeling the same sensations as they labored to bring their babies into the world.

Soon I was pushing, and before I knew it, my husband was catching the newest member of our family. He felt her take her first breath, feeling the little airsacs in her lungs filling for the first time. My oldest daughter awoke just in time to see her little sister be born. Later, after the placenta was born and my second daughter woke up, we all sat around our newest baby and my oldest daughter cut the cord.

Our midwife made us a soft nest in the large beanbag couch we had, and tucked us all in before she left. Everyone fell asleep but me. I was so ecstatic over this birth. It had been intense, but I had birthed this child without the hospital, without medication, without beeping monitors. It was utterly amazing to be tucked in quietly with my entire family in the living room, holding my little one on my chest.

Birth works. Especially when we don't muck about with it. I had my proof in my arms.

Giving Birth

2008-04-04T00:44:00.000-07:00

The terminology of birth gets to me sometimes. Women are not "delivered," we give birth. It sounds like we need to be saved from this most womanly of experiences. It really is disempowering and sad to hear our power removed from this most powerful of times. Giving birth is my passion, my life. If I am not the one doing it, I want to help others find this same elation, this same boundless sense of being.

My baby grows from a tiny seed deep within my body to an individual who is all their own. My baby signals when she is ready to leave that snug warm nest, and together we strive to bring baby forth.

My uterus tightens snugly around my baby, gently nudging her toward the world. My baby responds, pushing against the fundus with her feet, propelling herself closer to her first breath. Labor is a dance between mother and baby... an intimate ballet where mother moves to help baby do the pirouette through her pelvis and into the world.

To carry and bring forth life is a gift. To feel the butterfly flutters of a growing child within is pure happiness. To labor and birth a child is an expression of love.

Cesarean Awareness Month

2008-04-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

April is Cesarean Awareness Month. In these days of rising cesareans, it is necessary to bring this information out in the open, to let people know that not every birth should be a surgical event.

How prevalent are cesareans? The CDC reports that the average rate in the US is over 30% of births are by cesarean. Some hospitals have rates of 50%... 60%... 80%. Are they saying that women cannot give birth? However did the species get as far as we've come?

When I had my first child, the rate was about 25%. That meant that 1 out of 4 women would birth by cesarean. We had 8 couples in our childbirth class, and yes, two of us had cesareans. I was one of them. While it was probably unnecessary, at least I could have a VBAC in those days without fighting for it. VBAC was a popular choice in the early 1990s. Now, women are not so lucky.

My mother had three children and no cesareans. Two girls and a boy. Both my sister and I have had cesareans for one of our births, and so has my sister-in-law. That makes 3 for 3. The reasons? My sister-in-law was past her due date with a large baby. My sister had a breech baby that did not turn after they attempted an external version. And my CNM was too tired and needed a nap, so they first gave me a cervical block, then after they effectively knocked out my endorphins with that, they talked us into an epidural, so we could not try different positions to get my daughter into an optimal position. All she need was to tuck her head, but I could do nothing to assist her since I was numb from my ribs down.

I do take some responsibility for receiving those drugs. While I had planned not to have them, I let them wear down my resolve. "You're too loud, you'll hurt your throat," they told me as I made deep moans with my contractions. "Your midwife needs a bit of a rest... and you look so tired. You could do with a rest yourself. Let us give you this epidural and you'll be able to take a nap." I had been in labor for only 6 hours at that point.

While I admit that I was a poster child for beached whale syndrome while in labor with my first, I think that with more support from the staff in being active I would have been fine. In fact, I was fine lying in bed dealing with the contractions. They hurt a lot, but I was sure I could handle it until they insisted that we do the cervical block. Once that wore off, I was doomed. This was my first baby, and the first time I had experienced any type of severe pain. All the books I had read and all that they talked about in my childbirth class went right out of my head.

I did try to put them off... but eventually we were worn down... after pushing ineffectively, I was wheeled to the operating room, where I swear no one was with me for quite awhile. I had made it to ten centimeters and had been doing purple pushes for 2 hours before they took me in for surgery. Seems they couldn't find an anesthesiologist, so I was left alone on the operating table, arms strapped out to each side and legs tied together. The epidural had worn off, and I had to push. If there was anyone in there with me, they were not within my field of vision and they certainly did nothing to either reassure me or help me deal with the strong pushing sensations I had to give in to.

When people finally came in, the anesthesiologist re-did my epidural. I asked the OB to please keep me informed on what was happening. They didn't... they talked about some vacation one of them was going to take. I tried to watch in the reflection on the overhead light... but it was too blurry. The only way I knew for sure that my daughter had been born was I heard her cry. They took her to the nursery and my husband followed. While they repaired the incision, it seemed an eternity went by before they finally brought her back in so I could see her. Every one else in the family met my daughter before I did. When my husband was able to bring her in, she was all swaddled in a tight blanket with a hat on her head. I couldn't hold her or touch her because my hands were still strapped down. The repair took forever!

At long last, they took me to recovery and I was able to hold my daughter at long last. I was finally able to unwrap her blankets and look at her, and was able to feed her. I was ready to have another baby right away, so I could get it right. I did not want another cesarean ever again, and now I can say that I have had 7 VBACs, four of which have been at home, and five of which have had no pain medications of any kind.

Let's do our part and spread the word. We don't all need to be cut open to have our babies. If it has happened to us, we don't need repeats of this surgery just because we're pregnant. We can give birth without a surgeon!

Organic Birth

2008-03-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

I was talking with my oldest daughter and my husband this morning and somehow we came up with "organic birth." Why not? Where we live, organic is big. Organic food, organic clothing... why not organic birth?

What exactly would that mean? Well, with organic food, it means that no chemical fertilizers or pesticides were used. So, with organic birth, it would mean birth without chemical induction, augmentation or pain killers. Wait... that sounds like natural birth... unhindered birth... home birth!
What can we do to achieve this gold standard for ourselves and our babies? Trust in ourselves! Our bodies are made to give birth... how else did the species survive? Our babies know how to be born. It is a team effort.

For more on this, look for our new website which will be launched shortly: http://organic-birth.com

I'm excited! Hope you'll stop by when it goes live!

Growing and Expanding

2008-03-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

Growing and expanding is a part of life. I'm really not talking about my waistline, although after eight children, I am not as svelte as I used to be. Our family has grown and expanded... once we were only two, and now we are at ten people in our family.

Our children, in turn, have grown and expanded in their own ways. Many are either budding or accomplished artists... others are more technically inclined. They are becoming their own people, comfortable in their skins and in their interests.

My husband and I have grown and expanded our relationship. After almost 28 years together, we have a much deeper love and understanding between us than when we first began our journey together.

This is a recurring theme in our lives. Growing and expanding keeps us interested and alive... it sparks lively conversation and debate. Stagnation is something that lurks elsewhere.

I think this also happens with birth. There is a growing awareness of women's abilities to safely birth their children without the aid of pitocin inductions and cesareans. Women are figuring out that they don't necessarily need that epidural. As the pendulum has been swinging further and further towards surgical birth, it is time for it to begin its return to the other side. Our options continue to grow and expand, as does our awareness that birth is inherently safe the majority of the time.

Birth

2008-03-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

Birth. I think about it a lot. Not only processing my own memories and what I felt went well and what didn't, but about birth in general.

For my first birth, I did everything I was supposed to do. I read books. I went to a childbirth class that was not hospital-based. I had a CNM. I had a cesarean with an epidural. Not by choice... I had every intention of not having drugs of any kind. But my inexperience, my willingness to think that my CNM knew best and my own beached whale mentality put me in that OR as surely as if I had scheduled it.

By the time I had my last birth in 2007, I was doing my own blood pressure checks, I didn't bother with weight checks and only did urine tests close to my due date. My midwife dropped by and we listened to the baby and we talked to the baby. It was fun. I finally figured out how to hear with a fetoscope... I'd been trying since my 5th baby. When I went into labor, my midwife came over and camped out with the kids. She gave me quiet suggestions occasionally, and my baby was born into my arms with hardly anyone's input at all. The biggest effort was to get up off the floor and move to the sofa.

My own journey to trust birth has encompassed a long road from that initial cesarean. I thought I trusted birth then, but really, I didn't know what it meant. I don't expect to convince every woman to birth like me. I think every woman should follow the path that makes her the most comfortable... but at the same time, I have a hard time hearing about pregnant women continuing to check into the hospital only to leave via the OR. What kind of start is that for them as mothers and for their babies' introduction to life outside the uterus?

Mothers today have more choices than they used to in most states. Where they don't have as many choices, many moms are taking things into their own hands. I think a huge movement away from the managed care system is beginning. Unassisted birth is happening frequently enough that it is becoming big news. More women are hiring midwives and staying home. So much so, that ACOG had to rush to issue a statement against the safety of homebirth after "The Business of Being Born" was released. I've seen the movie. It was difficult for me to watch, because although I knew the statistics, it was difficult to see them in print and said out loud. I think this film will get a lot of women thinking about their options.

There has been a lot of criticism about having the director's birth included, since it was a cesarean. I thought it was good to include it... not because it "balanced" the film, as I've heard, but because it showed her laboring at home, realizing that she needed more assistance, and had plenty of time to get to the hospital for the extra help.

That's my take anyway. Birth is a large part of my life. I hope that never changes. Birth is the beginning. The start of a new person. Full of potential.

Trust Birth Conference Aftermath Pt 2

2008-03-13T23:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I was monitoring Patricia Ann Edmond's session on Midwives' Biographies. This turned out to be an amazing foray into our history. She had published diaries going back to the 1600s that detailed births. It was really wonderful to think of them heading out to attend a birth on foot or horseback... maybe by canoe. The work remains the same. Babies are born. Wow. The history of the human race. Midwives helped birth an awful lot of us throughout history. Patricia brought up that those women's faces are alive today in their descendents, and that we too look like our ancestors. The thread is never broken.

The next session was the one I was waiting for... Writing About Birth. This session was a panel of 4 speakers: Jan Tritten of Midwifery Today, Jody McLaughlin of The Compleat Mother, Sheila Stubbs, an author, and Laura Shanley, another author and the accepted leader of the unassisted birth movement. This session was great. We talked about magazine articles, online writing, and publishing books through a publisher or by self-publishing. I came away with a lot of ideas about my own publishing future.

At lunch, I took my daughters across the street for burgers. My oldest was getting a chance to meet an online friend of hers she had been corresponding with for about five years. We met her friend, her friend's mother, and her friends two nieces. We had a lovely lunch, and all too soon I had to head back to the hotel.

My next session was Don't Push Me: Physiologic Pushing with another panel that consisted of Heather Brock, Gloria Lemay and Karen Strange. This was a terrific session. Our bodies are amazing... they push whether we put the grand effort into it or not, and more often than not, if we do put the grand effort into it, pushing takes longer than if we just breathe through the contractions and let the uterus do its thing. Gloria Lemay was extraordinary and funny... I'd love to listen to her all day. Karen Strange gave her input about the baby's experience of birth and how the baby helps himself get born. This never fails to amaze me and I never fail to well up with emotion thinking of this wondrous process we have to reproduce ourselves. Heather talked about her own births and how she was able to listen to her body and trust the process without actively pushing. I've done this myself, so I could totally relate to her experience.

After this session we had to rush to the next one. I was attending Gail Hart's The First Ten Minutes of Life. This is yet another amazing midwife sharing her experiences. Babies have a lot going on in those first ten minutes of life. The circulation changes from an open system with the placenta to a closed system. They open up their lungs and breathe, oxygenating their own blood. Their digestive systems turn on, as their nutrition must now come from outside the body. They have people in their face, they may be getting poked, rubbed with harsh towels, blinded by bright lights, startled by loud cheers... it is quite an adjustment. This session was amazing in its insights and humor. Gail Hart is another person I could listen to all day long, just soaking in the wisdom.

After this session, it was time for us to say our goodbyes and pack for the plane. We were dropped off at the airport, where we waited for two hours before we could board our plane. We had a straight flight back, landing in our town a little after 10 pm. While I was sad to leave early and miss another wonderful day, I was so glad to be home and able to see my husband and other children.

Now I can't wait for the next one. :)

Trust Birth Conference Aftermath

2008-03-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

I am still soaking in everything from the Trust Birth Conference in Redondo Beach, CA. Wow. Here is my experience at this incredible gathering.

I flew into LAX with my oldest daughter, Wenna (16) and my youngest daughter, Midori (1). Wenna came with me to watch Midori while I was attending sessions. Midori came with me because she still nurses quite a lot. We flew in on a small plane... it was crowded, noisy, and our view was obstructed by the undercarriage of the wing that held the propeller and the landing gear. We did see some incredible snow fields as we crossed the Cascade mountains heading for our first stop in Redmond. After a brief stop, we headed to LAX.

I hadn't flown in over 20 years, and the take offs and landings were something else. After we landed, I was totally lost at the airport, and had to ask for directions so I could meet Lennon, who was picking us up.

Lennon is great... we had a great visit during the drive to the hotel. She delivered us to the lobby and we checked in and found our way to our room.

Waiting inside was my dear friend Lori of over ten years online... we had never met in person until this moment. She is warm and wonderful, if a little stressed as she was trying to finish up printing jobs and battling jetlag. With her were Janelle and Kathy... it was nice to see faces to go along with the emails I had seen for so long.

I took the girls to dinner... we were starving. Redondo Beach is a wonderful town. Even late at night it was safe for us to be walking the streets in search of the restaurant. The food was terrific, and the evening air was wonderful. We were admiring the ficus trees and jade trees in people's yards on the way. Those plants are houseplants where I live. I met Carla at one point in the lobby. We got to bed late.

I got up and registered in the morning and met Kristi Zittle, who was handling the registrations. We had worked together on conference stuff for the past few months. She is so sweet and always smiling. I ran into Carla again, and met her husband, Ray. To my detriment, I skipped the opening session so the girls and I could hit the grocery store for provisions for the room. I had already gotten blisters from walking... I hadn't worn nylons for years, and that was all I had brought. I had to buy a pair of socks for cushioning. We bought dinner supplies for the girls... my youngest would never have sat through the conference dinner, and I really wanted to hear the speakers.

My first session was with Sheri Menelli of http://birthingbusiness.com. She had some great ideas for building a birth-related business. She is such an enthusiastic speaker, it was hard not to get swept away with her suggestions. I will be going over my notes and applying some of them.

I was monitoring the next session, which was Pre & Postpartum Fitness with Carla's daughter, Heather Brock. After eight children, I figured a few hints on the best way to tighten my abdominal muscles was not amiss. She was a dynamic speaker, and inspired all of us in the session with her flexibility and flat stomach. I'm already trying some of her suggested exercises.

I ran upstairs after the session to see what needed to be done before the dinner. I took the girls out for a brief walk about to get them out of the room for awhile, and nursed Midori. When we got back we helped with last minute printing jobs before the dinner. We were finally able to get dressed and get to the banquet room. I found my table, and was delighted to see that I was seated at the same table with several AAMI students, Henci Goer, and Heather Cushman-Dowdee of Hathor the Cow Goddess fame. We had a lovely chat before the dinner started.

Ricki Lake was there to get an award for Courage in Media for producing "The Business of Being Born." She accepted graciously, and had to run to another engagement. Then we got to eat a lovely meal.

After the meal, Carla did some awards. Debby Sapp was handed her diploma for graduating with honors from Ancient Art Midwifery Institute. What an accomplishment! This course is very difficult, and to complete it at all is an amazing achievement. Then Carla presented some awards. I'm sorry I don't remember them all... I was nervous about the one I was presenting in front of 170 people, many of whom I revered. Suddenly it was time for me to step up and read my speech honoring Vi Sadhana, a traditional midwife from my city. She was not able to attend, but after an emotion-filled reading on my part, I took her certificate and plaque back to the table with me, to deliver to her when I got home. Pamela Hines-Powell was honored next, and she opened up the perfect opportunity for her apprentice, Lennon to begin our presentation to Carla. Students had donated funds to get her a bed and breakfast weekend to help her recover after the conference, and I had made a drawing of her grandmother, who was a midwife. We presented these items to her and gave her hugs.

After the awards, it was time for our keynote speaker, Dr. Michel Odent, to talk to us about how to Dispel the Disempowering Birth Vocabulary. Though his accent was thick and a bit challenging to understand, his speech was eloquent, and it wasn't difficult to follow his talk. Everyone leaned forward, trying to catch every word. So many words associated with female genitalia and with birth are associated with shame and negative connotations. This happens in languages around the world.While this wasn't news to me, it was wonderful to hear his take on the entire matter and what he suggested. While I didn't get to meet him personally, it was a great treat to hear him speak, and to see Dr. John Stevenson, who was at a nearby table, as well as so many of the other well-known birth advocates all in the same room.

This is long enough... more later on Saturday and our trip home.

Trusting Birth

2008-03-12T00:10:00.000-07:00

What does trusting birth mean?

For some, it is a frightening thought. How could we possibly birth without doctors, nurses, surgical procedures, machines and hospitals? But if this is so, how did we get so far? Certainly we haven't always had access to cesareans, episiotomies, IVs and epidurals.

A mere 30 years ago, the cesarean rate was less than 10%. Now it is over 30%. We're still women. Our bodies haven't changed in 30 years. Why can't women successfully give birth today like our parents did?

The answer is that very few trust birth anymore. This is a terrible loss for humanity. We live in fear of a natural bodily function. We see it on television on reality birth shows. We hear it from our doctors who tell us that we are not capable of passing our babies through our pelvises without intervention. We hear from nurses that we won't be able to bear the pain. What else are women supposed to think?

Fortunately, some women are finding the light at the end of the tunnel. Some of us are spreading the word that birth is something we are built to do successfully. As my friend Karen Strange of Newborn Breath says, "Birth is designed to work in case no one is there."

I admit that nothing is perfect 100% of the time. Let's face it... what is? There will always be a very small percentage of births that do need that extra help... and that is what hospitals and obstetricians are for. They are designed to deal with the unusual situation. Normal birth is so boring for them they need to do interventions to make it interesting.

But for those of us who have a healthy pregnancy, all we need is to let our bodies do their thing. Pelvises spread to let babies out. Women who embrace labor and move as their body tells them to help their babies get in the right position to make their grand entrance.

Why do I trust birth? Because I've seen it work. I've lived it. I've done the labor dance and have been the first to touch my baby. I'm not a big person... yet I've birthed babies over ten pounds at home. I have embraced the pain, have felt the baby move from my belly and through my hips. It wasn't easy, but it was worth every minute. I have felt that delicious hormonal cocktail that floods a woman's body after the natural birth of a baby. Flooded with oxytocin and love for my newborn, I have experienced that incredible babymoon while getting to know this new little person.

Maybe my views are a little simplistic. I may not be quite as confident if I were the midwife in charge of someone else's birth. But maybe that is the point. Maybe we should take responsibility for ourselves. Even if we have an attendant, we should be able to make the decision to be responsible for the outcome. Maybe that is the real reason I trust birth. I'm okay with the responsibility.

Inner Knowing

2008-03-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

Inner knowing. So many people discount that today. Yet you always hear after a plane crash or other disaster that people just *knew* something was going to happen, so they cancelled their ticket, or changed their plans. So many of us hear this little voice inside and discount its wisdom. Pretty soon, the little voice stops trying to get through to us, and we're left on our own to sink or swim.

So it is with birth. Deep within we know what to do. Our bodies know how to conceive a baby, grow a baby, and push out a baby. The baby knows what it needs to do to help itself be born. Yet again, so many of us don't listen. We hear horror stories, sign up for cesareans and epidurals... anything so we don't have to listen to our own body's wisdom.

We are told by the medical establishment that birth is dangerous. At any moment the baby could die. We could die. Come into the hospital and we'll make all the decisions for you. We'll poke you with needles, fill you with pitocin to create tetanic contractions that will send your baby into distress, which will be picked up by our electronic fetal monitors that send sound waves into your uterus to aggravate your baby. What, it hurts? We'll give you this nice epidural so you don't need to feel a thing. Nah... we PROMISE it won't hurt your baby. Now that your baby is in distress, we'll hasten his birth. If it will take too long for a vaginal birth, we'll just roll you into the OR and cut him out. If you get an infection, that's okay... we'll load you up with lots of antibiotics to try and clear it up.

Hmmmm. Sounds inviting, doesn't it? I've had four hospital births, and while all of them were not that extreme, the general theme was the same. If I had a valid reason for birthing there, that would be a different story, but I was a healthy pregnant woman with a healthy baby each time I went there. The first time, I got that lovely cesarean package. My precious baby was lifted out of me behind a drape and I didn't see her until my incision was almost completely repaired. Oh, and I got the bonus of having the epidural wear off AFTER they strapped me down to the OR table, but BEFORE the cesarean took place while they searched for the anesthesiologist. I don't remember anyone being in the room with me... if they were, they certainly didn't respond to my overwhelming urge to push while my legs were tied together and my arms were strapped down. My inner knowing was trying to kick in... and I was trying to listen... but was unable to.

My last hospital birth happened with my second daughter. No meds. Almost no doctor... she rushed in at the last moment when my doula screamed down the hall to the nurse that the baby was crowning. It *almost* happened on its own. Well, actually, it did happen on its own... the doctor wanted me to turn around and sit for the birth, but I wasn't about to change positions... she had to deal with me upright facing away from her on the bed. That inner knowing took care of it all. I had begun to listen. I was in the position that was needed. My little daughter, however, had a bit of a rough start, and needed a little extra care at the beginning. I was somewhere else while they worked on her... my mind was trying to process the intensity of this birth that went from 5 cm to the birth of the baby in only a few contractions. I remember vaguely sitting on the bed staring off into space, idly playing with the umbilical cord that was still attached to the placenta within me while my baby was across the room being suctioned and stimulated. I didn't have the presence of mind to call her name or anything... something that probably would have helped her come into herself. My husband rushed in... he had been out checking on the other children, since I was only at 5 cm. His presence slowly brought me back to myself, and I began asking about the baby and talking to her.

The inner knowing was there... but was interrupted. By removing the baby away for treatment instead of treating her there with me, we both suffered. It took her several minutes to come into herself, and it took me almost as long to come back to myself. Only the presence of my husband pulled me back, then we both were able to communicate with our daughter and let her know it was okay to come into herself. We were there for her. It was okay.

Inner knowing. We all have it. We just need to learn to listen.

The Trust Birth Conference

2008-03-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

It is unfortunate that the Trust Birth Conference is over. It was incredible! To those of you who could not come, look for recordings of the sessions to become available in a few weeks at http://aamishop.com .

This conference will go down in history as the conference that really helped bring homebirth into the mainstream. With the release of "The Business of Being Born," more women are able to see this option and question some of the routine practices that dehumanize them in the hospital. This conference built upon that, with the theme: Birth is Safe; Interference is Risky.

Our keynote speaker, Dr. Michel Odent, talked about how disempowering the vocabulary surrounding birth, pregnancy and even genitalia is all about shame and putting the woman in a place of no power. Yet it is she who gives birth.

As women, we should not be delivered. We should be the ones who actively give birth. Birth is a cooperative effort between a mother and a baby. Doctors, nurses and even my beloved midwives should not interfere. If there is a problem, of course they are on hand if needed. Otherwise, they are but witnesses to the miracle of birth.

I learned so much at this conference. Not only about our histories, but how to let the body do its thing instinctually, how to allow the baby his or her part of the birth, and how to promote a woman's abilities to trust birth, her body and her baby.

I am the mother of 8 children. It took me awhile to discover these things and not fight them. It took me awhile to learn to listen to my body and to let it do the work it was designed to do. But I have learned this lesson, and you know what? It works!