Thursday, February 25, 2010

Midwifery Kits for Afghanistan

Found on the Midwifery Supplies Canada website

Buy a kit for a midwife in Afghanistan!

The Afghanistan Midwifery Project aims to train midwives to serve the women in their communities. Afghanistan has one of the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality in the world. By providing local midwives with skills and equipment, this project aims to provide women with a source of income and independence, while at the same time creating positive change for the health of women in their region.

All kits bought on their page will be sent to Afghanistan, and not mailed to you.

Thank you for your contribution to this great cause!

There are three equipment donation options:

Complete kit:
Blood pressure unit in case
Stethoscope in vinyl zipper bag (has different attachments for adult/child/infant)
200 Gauze
DeLee Mucus trap (for gentle manual suctioning of meconium)
25 pairs latex free/powder free vinyl gloves
1 suture set
Disposable pen light (batteries included)
Vaginal Speculum
Tweezers
Universal scissors
Tape
Lubricant
Percussion Hammer
Tape Measure
CPR face shield
Disposable infant resuscitator
Mayo-Hegar Needle Holder 6"
Halsted Mosquito Forceps 5"
Spencer stitch scissors
2 towels
2 receiving blankets
2 ziplock freezer bags
In a bag

Equipment only option:
Blood pressure unit in case
Stethoscope in vinyl zipper bag (has different attachments for adult/child/infant)
Disposable pen light (batteries included)
Vaginal Speculum
Tweezers
Universal scissors
Percussion Hammer
Tape Measure
CPR face shield
Disposable infant resuscitator
Mayo-Hegar Needle Holder 6"
Halsted Mosquito Forceps 5"
Spencer stitch scissors

Consumables option:
200 Gauze
DeLee Mucus trap (for gentle manual suctioning of meconium)
25 pairs latex free/powder free vinyl gloves
1 suture set
TapeLubricant
2 towels
2 receiving blankets
2 ziplock freezer bags

$ 35.00 - $ 120.00

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Pre-Pregnancy - Acceptance

Written by Tink, friend of BINSI

Grab a cup of coffee, maybe an apple, or better yet some chocolate, and have a seat. It's gonna be a while...

I left you promising myself to remain positive. I did not fail however it has not been easy. The pregnant women, cute infants dressed up in little snowsuits with animal ears on their heads, or a fierce toddler with a mohawk, come out of the woodwork. Awesome.

Every month, for the past 14 months, I have been grieving. I either got shoved back or pushed forward in my grief process. There was no question I got jerked around in the middle. There were some moments when I felt like nothing was my fault and I was just a victim of infertility in this whole thing. Most of the time I could maintain emotional ownership and would scream at myself to get up off the floor and live on. The dichotomy of pure joy for someone else and pure hatred of your own body's inability to conceive is a very unstable place.

The 5 steps of grieving are simply:

1. Denial and isolation
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

It was around August when I truly began to deny that fertility issues would be my problem. Test after test, nothing was ever physioloically or biologically wrong. Then, for a very long time, I was just angry. (I should apologize to my kickboxing class for killing them during my anger phase.) I frequently shifted from anger to depression; an easily triggered jump. In November, I began taking Clomid, I began to feel hopeful. I began to bargain saying I would carry 3 babies if it meant having 3 healthy babies. It would be a LOT of work but I have nothing to compare it to, right?

I believe I finally arrived at Acceptance on Friday, February 19, 2010. Something happened last week that brought me to a place of genuine peace. In one day I ended up talking with three different women/friends on three separate occasions about their baby-making experience. One friend has done IVF 3 or 4 times with no success. Another friend had a couple serious ovarian cysts and knows that now is the time if it's gonna happen. The 3rd friend I talked with said she did IVF to get her twins. Her fallopian tubes were destroyed and even an IUI wasn't an option. We all agreed that it is devastating to endure and rhetorically questioned where do we go from there? All of these women possess a strength for which I have been searching. I drew energy from their experiences and found my own reason to be patient. Because that's just the way it has to be. I don't know how else to explain it. If you knew me as a child/teenager, patience was NOT a virtue of mine. My impatience cost me a lot of precious energy and my parents a lot of money. Sorry, Dad.

A couple weeks ago, we bought a Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor. I was hoping I wouldn't have to use it because I'd get pregnant. (But I knew because I thought that, I wouldn't.) Cycle 15 rolled in Monday last week and I was so done. I didn't even want to use the monitor. Back to Step 4. My health insurance at my job picks up on April 1st so I thought that's it. I'll wait until April then go back to the doctor and go from there. Then the next day I was training a client (who had babies on Clomid) and she said I couldn't give up now. She said "You tell me to not give up when we workout so you can't either!" I laughed and couldn't argue with her so I called my doctor that afternoon to see what she recommended. Doc called me back with news she recommended a 4th round of Clomid at 150mg for 5 days and to call the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine. Back to Step 1. *Sigh* Maybe I do. And if I do, I vow to be prepared as much as I can. Step 5. I won't be sad anymore. I can't be sad anymore for the time I'm here on earth without a baby. I decided to start taking more advantage of the time alone with my husband and our friends. A baby will come and then our lives will never be the same.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The “Rule of 10” Versus Women’s Primal Wisdom

Found on the Midwifery Today website

by Lydi Owen© 2008 Midwifery Today, Inc. All rights reserved.

[Editor's note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today Issue 86, Summer 2008.]

There is a rule of labor that forbids a woman to push with contractions until her cervix is completely dilated to 10 cm. Women are warned that to push before this doorway is completely open and out of the way will result in a swollen and/or torn cervix.

What will supposedly happen if the cervix swells?

Doctors, nurses, midwives, doulas and childbirth educators all warn that a swollen cervix will impede labor and increase the chances of tearing the cervix, thus causing hemorrhage. They have been taught that a swollen cervix is easily broken or pulverized. If this is indeed the truth, then why do most women during labor have an irresistible urge to begin bearing down before dilation is complete?

Could it be that the instinctual wisdom of our bodies has become our enemy? Is Spirit trying to destroy us instead of guiding us? Why would we feel the need to begin bearing down at 5–6 cm (or sooner) if it would shatter the gateway to the baby’s outer world?

These were questions that I pondered as a midwife, as I watched woman after woman give birth in the 1970s. Each of us struggled through the phase of labor when we wanted to push, but we knew that we had to refrain from doing so because that was what we had been taught in childbirth education classes. We had learned this from previous births in the hospital.

By what authority should we doubt the information given to us by the learned men and women of science?

Collectively, women decided that remaining passive during labor was better than risking injury or death of themselves and/or their unborn babies by obeying “outdated” promptings of their bodies, whose wisdom hadn’t kept up with science.

Could professionals be mistaken about when women can begin bearing down during labor, because they forgot one simple part of the equation—that of observing non-medicated women in labor in their natural habitats?

Remember this: People at one time believed that the world was flat. Dr. Ignaz Semmelweiss was ridiculed until his death in 1865 for suggesting that germs were responsible for the widespread child bed fever that killed an epidemic number of women simply because doctors didn’t wash their hands.(1)

How did this “Rule of Ten” come about?

In 1951 doctors Greenhill and DeLee wrote “During the first stage of labor no abdominal pushing is allowed because the cervix will tear.”(2)

We can safely assume that the women being studied by Greenhill and DeLee were under the influence of drugs, because in the mid-20th century the orgy of drug interference during labor and birth was at its height of glory. Almost no women were informed enough to withstand the onslaught of drugs given to them during birth in the hospital. Unfortunately, the situation has not changed in the sixty years since.

Therefore, these doctors were scientifically incorrect in concluding that the “Rule of Ten” was valid, without simultaneously observing a control group of drug-free laboring women in the upright position (as opposed to being drugged and lying down in beds).

The only place that they would have been able to make these observations by comparison would have been at homebirths. In the 1950s, homebirths were almost non-existent.

In the early part of the 1970s many American women, tired of being dominated by wrong medical thinking, left the system and went home to birth their children. I was one of these women. That birth led to my becoming a midwife.

The first time I witnessed the cervix miraculously responding to being pushed on at 6 cm dilation was when a woman was giving birth to her third baby. Susan had a quick and easy labor. When she reached 6 cm, she could not hold back from pushing. Her body gave her clear signals that it was time for her to aid the uterus in the expulsion of her unborn child, himself pushing to be born. She began to grunt and bear down involuntarily, making primitive animal sounds that emanated from deep inside her throat.

I, supposedly the learned one, watched her break the cardinal rule in obstetrics. Aloud, I recited, “You must not push. You’re not fully dilated. You can tear or injure your cervix. Pant like a puppy!”

She obeyed with difficulty.

After thirty minutes of this ridiculous scenario, I checked her dilation again, hoping that she would now be dilated to 10 cm so that I could release her from her agony by giving her “permission” to push. Horror upon horrors greeted my fingers as I discovered that she was still only 6 cm, but now her cervix was swollen from not pushing.

She had several more contractions while I was on the telephone (I was new at midwifery), frantically calling midwives in another state because there weren’t any in Las Vegas, for advice on what to do about this “problem.” The midwife I spoke to wasn’t any more experienced than I was and apologized for not knowing what to tell me.

While I was on the phone, Susan, tired of panting like the puppy she wasn’t, finally just went ahead and began pushing without my “permission.” I threw down the telephone, rushed over and quickly slipped on a sterile glove. As she pushed, I felt her very puffy cervix, now 7 cm, slip over the baby’s head. Out popped his little head, all in one contraction.

Her cervix didn’t tear, the swelling subsided immediately, and mother and baby were both fine. Mom was no doubt relieved that she had survived her well-meaning, but ignorant, midwife.

I went home thinking about that one, convinced that we were just lucky that everything turned out okay in spite of the fact that this woman ignored science in favor of primal wisdom.

The next time I encountered a “defiant” woman was soon after, when another woman went into labor. Carol was expecting her second baby. During active labor, at 4 cm—when her cervix was soft and stretchy—Carol squatted by her bedroom door and hung onto the doorknob with both hands. She then began to bear down with each very strong contraction.

“Oh, great, here we go again,” I thought as I advised her to desist from pushing.

Carol was less “obedient” than Susan had been and didn’t give ear to my dire warning. She just grunted and pushed like an empowered woman, completely unafraid, and within 30 minutes dilated to 10 cm.

Her baby was fine, her cervix was fine, and this time I was fine. I now understood the power of fearless women and the primal (of first importance) wisdom of our bodies.

As I attended more and more births, I learned that women could safely push during labor sooner than what the textbooks claimed. However, the question wasn’t whether a woman pushed, but how and when.

In my quest to “help” the next woman in labor with my newly discovered information, I wrongly decided to “assist” her to dilate faster by massaging and stretching her cervix when she was 4 cm dilated. What I didn’t yet understand was that the cervix has to be thin, soft and stretchy for this to work and the woman has to be getting the signal to bear down of her own accord, not my good intentions to help her get labor over with faster.

I ended up sending her into the hospital for “failure to progress,” when I caused the failure to progress. I was embarrassed that I had prevented her from having a good homebirth just because I was ignorant. I came to realize that I had much to learn about the different stages of labor from observation of women in their natural habitats. What we have been taught about labor and birth in medical textbooks comes from observation of medicated women in “laboratories” (hospitals), like mice in cages. Observations of women lying in beds, laboring under the influence of analgesics and anesthetics provide no real clue to the workings of the human body during labor and birth.

For decades women had been drugged during labor and put to sleep during the actual birth of the baby, so I can certainly understand how the “Rule of Ten” must have come about. If a woman was not dilated completely before the hands of the strong male doctor forcefully pushed, pulled and tugged the sedated infant out of a limp body, then certainly the doctor could easily have torn her cervix with his brute strength if it wasn’t completely out of the way (dilated to 10 cm). Gladys McGarey, MD, writes in the Women’s Wellness section of Venture Inward’s November/December 2007 issue, “Let’s respect nature’s wisdom…. Our job is to recognize and support the Divine order of things.”(3)

Dr. McGarey writes about the conditions of women in Afghanistan in 2005 as they gave birth to their babies. The attendants didn’t understand the anatomy and physiology of labor and birth and therefore used severe external pressure to deliver the babies. She also writes that this caused problems such as ruptured uteri and bladders, leading to many maternal deaths.
In the US, in the early part of the 20th century, the “Rule of Ten” no doubt came about for that same reason. Six to nine of every 1000 women died in childbirth in the early part of the 20th century.(4) If the cervix is not out of the way when severe fundal pressure is used, it will act as a counter-force to external fundal pressure and will inevitably result in either a torn cervix or uterus.

I have attended the labors and births of many, many Hispanic women. I have observed many friends and family members of the laboring women who do not have any medical or anatomical knowledge of the human body attempt to speed up labor in these same very unwise ways. I was attending a laboring woman who was pregnant with her first child. She was handling the contractions like a pro, but the labor was slow, which is normal for a first time mother.
Veronica preferred to walk during the contractions. Her cervix stayed at 4 cm for several hours (a normal occurrence), but now her cervix was beginning to soften from the repeated contractions. However, Veronica’s mother was getting impatient. As I had done in the past, she figured she would help her daughter get this labor over with more quickly. From the grandmother’s point of view, she was going to help get that big baby out of that small vaginal opening.

I had gone into the kitchen to get a drink of water when I heard Veronica let out an anguished moan from the bedroom. Alarmed, I rushed into the bedroom to find out what was wrong. Veronica sounded like she was in serious pain. I discovered that her mother was standing behind her with both her arms wrapped around her daughter’s abdomen, pressing down as hard as she could on the top of Veronica’s belly during a contraction.

Her mother believed that she was helping her daughter, but to me the way she was pushing on her stomach looked barbaric. The grandmother did not understand that there was another doorway (the cervix) inside her daughter’s body that had to open before the baby could be born through the exterior doorway—the vaginal opening. In her simple, uneducated mind, she thought she was helping. She did not know that she might tear the cervix by what she was doing because she didn’t even know that there was such a thing as the cervix in the way. I knew better than to insult this grandmother by telling her to stop doing that, so I just made eye contact with Veronica and motioned with my eyes that she come into the other bedroom. Veronica kindly removed her mother’s hands from her belly and followed me, telling her mother in Spanish that I was going to examine her.

Her mother was furious that she was unable to help her daughter the way she had been taught in the small farm town in Mexico where she was born. She clearly considered me an ignorant intruder. However, what she had been doing was dangerous. I wondered how many women and babies had actually died from uterine ruptures in Mexico during labor and birth because of attendants who unwittingly pushed on a mother’s uterus to “help” her, the same way they do in Afghanistan and did in the US in the past.

Midwifery in itself isn’t dangerous. Midwifery without proper education can be dangerous in the face of aggressive caregivers. Certainly we all need an understanding of anatomy and physiology to be effective midwives.

However, rather than accepting the “Rule of Ten” just because it is written in a medical textbook, we must question whether this rule is valid and examine how it came about, especially as we observe multitudes of women wanting to push before they are completely dilated. For over a century, women in the US have been conditioned to think that doctors are the experts. As a result, we have buried our primal instincts somewhere deep inside our subconscious minds. Just telling a laboring woman that she can trust her body won’t wipe away centuries of conditioning that it isn’t okay to do so without scientific proof. Unless a woman has been raised on an island far from civilization, she will likely have read or heard something that influences how she will give birth. Everything she has learned has the risk of interfering with or empowering her to listen to and respond to her primal instincts during birth.

I believe that the scientific evidence for eliminating the “Rule of Ten” comes from page 171 of Helen Varney’s Nurse Midwifery, where she describes what happens in the phase of maximum slope.(5)

First let me say that a non medicated woman will never push so hard against her undilated cervix that it tears, because it will hurt. Pain is a natural deterrent to pushing too hard. However, when done in the correct manner, pushing to help rotate a baby and dilate oneself will actually eliminate a great deal of pain and cut hours off one’s labor and birth.
Women feel greatly empowered when they can merge with their contractions, unafraid, because the pain diminishes as they do so and labor time is significantly reduced.

Stages of LaborAll textbooks define normal labor and birth as occurring in three stages: First stage is considered to be from the start of active labor until complete dilation; second stage is the birth of the baby or the pushing stage; third stage is the birth of the placenta.
The first stage of labor is further subdivided into the latent phase and the active phase. The active phase is then further subdivided into three more phases: the acceleration phase, the phase of maximum descent and the deceleration phase, also known as transition.
Yet, the same breathing technique is advocated for all the subdivisions of active phase and the

“Rule of Ten” is adhered to no matter what.

How much sense does that make? It’s like asking a woman sweeping the floor to breathe the same way that a woman running a marathon would do, or like asking a man digging a ditch with a shovel to breathe and blow instead of grunting as he throws a load of dirt over his shoulder.
I have frequently stated that most of the birthing women I have observed wish to begin pushing, bearing down or grunting at 5–6 cm. This is because they have entered the phase of maximum slope.

According to Varney, three sequential phases of active labor were defined and described by Dr. E.A. Friedman in 1978 in Labor: Clinical Evaluation and Management.(6) She states: “The phase of maximum slope is the time when cervical dilatation is occurring most rapidly from 3–4 cm to about 8 cm.”(7)

This dilation averages 3 cm per hour in nulliparas. In multiparas, it averages 5.7 cm per hour. The average maximum rate of descent in first-time mothers is 1.6 cm per hour and in multips it is 5.4 cm per hour.

This means that for both primips and multips, doctors observed that women dilated rapidly from 4–8 cm in approximately one hour or so. The descent of the baby’s head in first-time mothers was naturally slower than for women who had already given birth to other children vaginally. Can you imagine the descent and dilation that occurs in women who give birth at home, who are walking during labor and who are not medicated? Can you understand now why the rule needs to change?

The phase of maximum slope is defined as dilation occurring most rapidly from 4–8 cm dilation, but my experience shows that it occurs most rapidly between 5 and 8 cm.
I believe that a Divine reason is behind the fact that the cervix stays at 4 cm for the majority of labor.

Each contraction starts in the top part of the uterus and spreads downward; it is stronger and persists longer in the upper region. On reaching the lower uterine segment the contraction weakens considerably, permitting the cervix to dilate. There is neuromuscular harmony between the upper and lower segment throughout labor. The muscular fibers of the upper segment contract strongly and retract (become progressively shorter), while the fibers of the lower segment contract only slightly and dilate. As the upper segment contracts and retracts, the lower uterine segment has to “thin out” to accommodate the descending baby. This continues until the cervix if fully dilated and the baby can leave the uterus.

The upper segment increases in thickness up to four times, diminishing the uterine cavity considerably where the baby is lying.(8) As this is happening, the lower segment becomes more and more yielding to the pressure of the baby’s head against it. This is why at 5 cm, the cervix is usually so stretchy and thin that it can no longer hold back the flexing, rotating and descending baby.

Because of Divine design, as the uterine cavity itself diminishes in size due to the increased thickness of the upper segment and the increased thinness of the lower segment, the baby is protected from strangling on the cord because his position relative to the cord and placenta does not change as he drops farther and farther into the pelvis. Many babies get wrapped in their cords before birth. If this decrease in size of the uterine cavity didn’t take place, the baby could easily strangle in the umbilical cord during labor and birth.

When the baby has reached its maximum descent before complete dilation (8 cm), the mother enters the deceleration phase. This phase is the end of the active phase. Dilation now temporarily slows. At this point, many mothers wish to lie down and rest, or get onto hands and knees to complete dilation. Many mothers I have observed have to rest for only a few minutes before the cervix relaxes and the mother feels like pushing again. The cervix can no longer withstand the pressure of both the baby and the mother’s pushing efforts and relinquishes its hold on the baby.

In summary, after decades of believing the “Rule of Ten” to be gospel truth, many women have difficulty letting go of false beliefs. We will take a while before we again trust our primal wisdom. However, when we do, I truly believe that the cesarean rate will drop dramatically.
One of the main reasons for cesareans is because of slow labor; yet labor is often slow because of the rules we have made.

Lydi Owen is the mother of six, grandmother of six (another on the way) and great-grandmother of four. She has practiced midwifery for 36 years and helped over 2600 babies into the world. She has written three books, produced a DVD and is founder of the nonprofit Association for the Prevention of Maternal Attachment Disorders. Her Web site is www.powerbirth.com.

References:
1. www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol7no2/cover.htm. Accessed 13 Feb 2008.
2. Greenhill, J.P., and J. DeLee. 1951. The Principles and Practice of Obstetrics, 10th ed. Philadelphia: WB Saunders.
3. McGarey, G. 2007. Venture Inward. Virginia Beach, Virginia: Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc., November/December.
4. “Achievements in Public Health, 1900–1999: Healthier Mothers and Babies,” MMWR, 1 Oct 1999.
5. Varney, H. 1980. Nurse Midwifery. Boston: Blackwell Scientific Publications.
6. Friedman, E.A. 1955. Primipara Labor Curve. Obstet Gynecol 6: 569. Cited in Varney, p. 170.
7. Varney, p. 171.
8. Buhimschi, C.S., et al. Myometrial thickness during human labor and immediately post partum. Am J Obstet Gynecol 188: 553–59; Myles, M. 1981. Textbook for Midwives, 9th ed. New York: Churchill Livingstone.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Cervical length screening may reduce preterm births

Found on the Medical News Website
Originally published February 6, 2010

Using ultrasound to screen all pregnant women for signs of a shortening cervix improves pregnancy outcomes and is a cost-effective way to reduce preterm birth, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study.

The results of the study will be presented February 5 at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine (SMFM) in Chicago.

Shortened cervical length increases the likelihood of a preterm birth. All high-risk patients-those who have had a prior preterm birth-are routinely screened at 20 to 24 weeks gestation to test for cervical length. However, screening is not often given to low-risk pregnant women, and researchers did not know whether it was cost-effective to screen women at low risk.
Erika Werner, M.D., clinical instructor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale, found that screening low-risk women is not only cost effective, it is cost-saving.

Werner and her team developed a computer model to mimic the outcomes and costs that occur when women are screened routinely, compared to when no screening occurs. They found that universal screening was cost-effective when compared to routine care. In fact, for every 100,000 women, routine care costs $6,523,365 more than the screening strategy. It also improved quality of life and resulted in fewer neonatal deaths and infants with long-term neurologic disorders.

"Since only 10 percent of preterm birth occurs in women with a history of preterm birth, cervical length screening may be the best way to decrease the number of babies born prematurely," said Werner.

Source: Yale University

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Survey: Doctors Need More Knowledge About Exercise And Pregnancy

Research conducted by the President of the American College of Sports Medicine and colleagues shows many doctors aren't sure what to tell their pregnant patients about exercise.

ACSM President James Pivarnik, Ph.D., FACSM, and colleagues Patricia Bauer, Ph.D., and Cliff Broman, Ph.D., surveyed 93 M.D.s, D.O.s (doctors of osteopathy) and Certified Nurse Midwives about their knowledge of exercise recommendations for pregnant women. Although nearly all respondents - 99 percent - believed exercise was good for their expecting patients, 60 percent of M.D.s and 86 percent of D.O.s weren't familiar with pregnancy exercise guidelines. The results of the survey were published in the Journal of Women's Health.

"Study after study has shown exercise to be beneficial for both mother and baby, but some doctors seem reluctant to trust that body of evidence," said Pivarnik, author of a 2006 ACSM Roundtable Consensus Statement on the Impact of Physical Activity during Pregnancy and Postpartum on Chronic Disease Risk. The Roundtable Statement discussed how exercise during pregnancy decreased mothers' risk of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, low back pain and more.

This decreased risk of chronic diseases and conditions is consistent with the Exercise is MedicineTM / program, which promotes exercise as a standard part of health care for all people.
Despite updated comprehensive pregnancy guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Pivarnik and colleagues study showed antiquated beliefs among some doctors. Many still believed pregnant women shouldn't push their heart rates beyond 140 beats per minute - a guideline that hasn't been used since 1985.

Pivarnik recommends all health care providers familiarize themselves with current pregnancy exercise guidelines, which are included in the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Overall recommendations can be tailored to the specific patient's needs. He also encourages health care providers to include more information about physical activity and its benefits in maternity education materials given to patients.

Source The American College of Sports Medicine

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Birth Story

I was directed to this blog through a friend on Facebook and the story is too incredible, I have to share it. Please visit the Enjoying Small Things blog and read Nella Cordelia: A Birth Story

Many Blessings!

Water Birth - American Pregnancy Association

Found on the American Pregnancy Association website

Water Birth is the process of giving birth in a tub of warm water. Some women choose to labor in the water and get out for delivery. Other women decide to stay in the water for the delivery as well. The theory behind water birth is that the baby has been in the amniotic sac for 9 months and birthing into a similar environment is gentler for the baby and less stressful for the mother.

It is the belief of midwives, birthing centers and a growing number of obstetricians, that reducing the stress during labor and delivery also reduces fetal complications. Water birth should always occur under the supervision of a health care provider.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Birth Story - Tami & Madeline's Birth

Written by Kim:

This story is long overdue, but I had to give one of the most amazing experiences I have ever witnessed as a doula, the honor it deserves. Better late than never.

In September I was hired by Tami and Andy to be their doula. Although I was hired when Tami was 38 weeks I felt an immediate connection with the couple. There was clearly a great chemistry between us all, and I knew this birth was going to be fun.
This was a dream birth for me, all of the stars aligned. On a Sunday around 1:00pm, Andy called to let me know that they thought that Tami was in labor. At that time she was eating and handling the contractions well so I told Andy to stay in close touch and let me know how things were progressing. Around 2:00pm Andy called back again and said that the labor seemed to be progressing and they would like me to start heading over to their house. Excitedly I rushed home to drop my boys off with my husband and headed toward their house, but Andy called back and said that he and Tami were going to head to the hospital now.

I arrived at the hospital around 3:30pm, shortly after Tami and Andy. At that time Tami was about 4 cm dilated and her labor was progressing. She was handling her contractions beautifully, she was active, following her body's signals and Andy was the perfect partner. He was supportive, encouraging, loving and simply there for Tami. Tami didn't even seem to need to say anything and Andy was there.


The labor seemed to be moving along well, but I kept reminding myself of how different every birth is. I didn't want to create any expectations of what was going to happen or when the baby might be born. I was just prepared to be there for the long haul.
The nurse who was assigned to us was also very supportive and encouraging. She was not originally assigned to Tami, but she happened to be Tami and Andy's birth educator so she asked to be reassigned because she knew Tami well and knew that she felt strongly about having a natural birth.

Tami was not required to have continuous fetal monitoring. Instead, the nurse simply came in at regular intervals, tracked the baby's fetal heart rate and then left Tami to labor with her birth partners.

At 5:30pm the doctor checked Tami again and noted that she was 5cm dilated and 100% effaced. This was good news, but still I tried to keep from making assumptions, I still remeber how different my other births were. After this check Tami and Andy decided to go over to the birthing tub suite. In this hospital they had one large jacuzzi tub in a beautiful, dimly lit room. If it was available when you wanted to go in there then you were in luck. Thankfully it was available for Tami and it was right across the hallway. So Andy jumped into his swimming trunks and he and Tami got into the tub together.

This was an amazing moment. I was truly in awe watching them together in the tub, watching Tami follow her body's signals and using the water to help calm and soothe her in between contractions. I had been taking pictures throughout their labor, but I just couldn't take a picture now, I felt like I would be intruding on the moment. As a matter of fact I even asked if they wanted me to step out of the room for a minute so they could have some alone time because I wondered if they felt like I was intruding. However, Tami said no she wanted me to stay and secretly this made me feel good too because I am always so concerned about whether or not I am actually helping or being annoying. I don't know why I have such self doubt, but I always do.

After about 40 minutes in the tub we all decided to go back to the room, Tami had progressed to 7 cm by 6:10pm and was complete 6:50pm. Now came the fun..... and at 7:41pm beautiful little Madeline was born at 7 lbs 7oz and 20 1/2 inches long.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Twins born 35 years apart

Written by Kim:


HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRIFFIN. Griffin, is my second born son (read his birth story), and today is his 5th birthday!!! It is hard to believe that he is 5, but the thing that is even harder for me to believe is how much he looks like my husband Paul.


My sons look like they are related, but some of my friends have 3 children who are identical to each other. Each of my sons look very different from the other. According to my friends, my older son Connor looks more like my side of the family and Griffin seems to be my husband's identical twin, just 35 years younger.


It is unbelieveable.


If it wasn't for the 1970s furniture in the background, would you be able to tell these two handsome guys apart?



I was blessed the day the man of my dreams became my husband, and to be the mother of his children has made my life more fulfilling and exciting than I could have ever anticipated.

I am really looking forward to watching Griffin grow and become his own man, even though he will always look just like his Daddy.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

More expectant moms choosing water births at local hospital

Found on the 9news website
Originally published February 8, 2010

DENVER - What was once considered alternative is now becoming more mainstream: One Denver hospital is finding more expecting mothers choosing the option of water births.

At the University of Colorado Hospital, a big free-standing Jacuzzi tub is set up and filled up in a room in the birth center. It is about three feet deep.

Moms-to-be, like Jessica Breese, say it is a great option to help manage pain and discomfort during a natural child birth.

"To me being in a confined tub made it really secure, it kind of made it my cave," Breese said. "I felt protected and left to do my own thing."

She and her husband say there is also a lot of peace of mind having this natural option in a hospital.
Patients are coming from as far away as Nebraska for the option.

"People are seeking it and wanting it so they are willing to make the trip to our practice," Jessica Anderson of the University of Colorado Hospital, said. "It speeds up their labor and it is a more peaceful and gentle birth for both mom and baby."

The moms work with a midwife during the delivery.

University of Colorado Hospital says it is the only hospital in the metro area offering water births in its birth center.

It says that other hospitals in Colorado and around the country are now looking to its program as a model.

(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Is Water Birthing Safe?

Found on the Fox News.com website
Originally published Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen made news recently by giving birth to her son Benjamin in an unusual way: at home in her own bathtub (Unusual way? When did water birth become unusual?). It wasn't an accident or surprise delivery; instead she did it as part of a growing trend called "water birthing," considered by some women and midwives to be a healthier, more natural alternative to traditional hospital births.

Mothers who choose water birth go through labor and delivery immersed in warm water (not always. Many Moms choose to get in and out of the tub), believing that pain will be less severe and the experience more enjoyable and relaxing. Some studies have shown that mothers who choose a water birth request fewer painkillers than women who don't, and fewer drugs translate into the perception of a safer and more natural birth (definitely more natural).

If it's good enough for a celebrity supermodel, water birthing advocates suggest, then it's good enough for most women. But is it good for the baby?

The research isn't clear.

In a 2002 study published in the journal Pediatrics titled "Water birth: A near-drowning experience," researcher Sarah Nguyen questioned the safety of water births and described instances of infants inhaling water and feces following underwater deliveries. In a follow-up commentary, other researchers concluded, "At this point, we are convinced there is no evidence to support any benefit of underwater birth for the neonate, and plenty of evidence to suggest harm [including] the potential for drowning, hyponatremic seizure activity, infection, and pneumonia."

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not recommend water births, suggesting instead that children born in hospitals are safer — if for no other reason than professional medical help is immediately available in case of complications (does a water birth have to be at home? There are several hospitals in my area that have birth tubs in the room. If hospitals are incorporating them in their birthing suites how dangerous is it? You know hospitals would NEVER offer anything they think is dangerous). Unless your bathtub happens to be located near a neonatal unit, emergency medical help may not be available during the baby's first minutes of life.

Of course, there is some risk to both the child and the mother during any birth, whether it occurs in a bathtub or a hospital. All births are natural, yet some births are safer than others.

Found on the Natural Child.org website

"Why doesn't the baby drown?"

To me this was the obvious concern; after all, anybody who doesn't consciously hold his or her breath underwater is in fear of drowning. The answer is so logical and so simple. A baby doesn't drown during a water birth because the baby is already in water in the womb. It takes air for breath and when a baby comes from water into water without the introduction of air, the lungs remain collapsed and no water can enter. Once the baby is brought to the surface and its face hits the air, breath is drawn and life on earth begins. Knowing these facts, it is clear that water birth is a safe way for a baby to be born.

Resources found on the Waterbirth International Website

1. Waterbirth Recommendations - RCOG and RCM Joint Waterbirth Recommendations -
2. Guidelines for safe Water use
3. Safety Recommendations for Pool Use

You will also fund several articles and Reviews on the Water Birth International website. Click Here to visit them.

Monday, February 8, 2010

C-section rates around globe at ‘epidemic’ levels

WHO: Half moms in China have the surgery; rates high in other countries

Associated Press
updated 3:45 p.m. MT, Tues., Jan. 12, 2010

HANOI, Vietnam - Nearly half of all births in China are delivered by cesarean section, the world’s highest rate, according to a survey by the World Health Organization — a shift toward modernization that isn’t necessarily a good thing.

The boom in unnecessary surgeries is jeopardizing women’s health, the U.N. health agency warned in the report published online Tuesday in the medical journal The Lancet.

Unnecessary C-sections are costlier than natural births and raise the risk of complications for the mother, said the report surveying nine Asian nations. It noted C-sections have reached “epidemic proportion.


The most dramatic findings were in China, where 46 percent of births reviewed were C-sections — a quarter of them not medically necessary, the report said.

“So many pregnant women ask for a cesarean birth in China, but we always suggest that they have a natural birth,” said Dr. He Yuanhua, at Capital Antai Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in Beijing, who did not participate in the study.

“It’s bad to have so many cesarean births because natural birth is the ideal way.”

The WHO, which reviewed nearly 110,000 births across Asia in 2007-2008, found 27 percent were done under the knife, partially motivated by hospitals eager to make more money.

That mirrors similar results reported by WHO in 2005 from Latin America, where 35 percent of pregnant women surveyed were delivering by C-section.

30 percent of U.S. births are C-sectionsIn the U.S., where C-sections are at an all-time high of 31 percent, the surgery is often performed on older expectant mothers, during multiple births or simply because patients request it or doctors fear malpractice lawsuits. A government panel warned against elective C-sections in 2006.

“The relative safety of the operation leads people to think it’s as safe as vaginal birth,” said Dr. A. Metin Gulmezoglu, who co-authored the Asia report. “That’s unlikely to be the case.”
Women undergoing C-sections that are not medically necessary are more likely to die or be admitted into intensive care units, require blood transfusions or encounter complications that lead to hysterectomies, the WHO study found.

U.S. studies have shown babies born by cesarean have a greater chance for respiratory problems. The Asia survey found the procedure benefits babies during breech births.

Reasons for elective C-sections vary globally, but increasing rates in many developing countries coincide with a rise in patients’ wealth and improved medical facilities.

In Asia, some women opt for the surgery to choose their delivery day after consulting fortune tellers for “lucky” birthdays or times. Others fear painful natural births or worry their vaginas may be stretched or damaged by a normal delivery. Some women also prefer the operation because they mistakenly believe it is less risky.

“I think it’s safer for the mother and child to have C-sections, and the relatives feel more secure because it’s very simple and very common now,” said a Vietnamese woman, Trang Thanh Van, 25, just days away from giving birth to her first child. “People worry that using tools to pull the baby out (in a vaginal birth) may affect their brains.”

The Asian survey examined deliveries in 122 randomly selected public and private hospitals in 2007 and 2008 across Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The hospitals were located in capital cities and two other regions or provinces within each country, all logging more than 1,000 births a year.

China’s 46 percent C-section rate was followed by Vietnam and Thailand with 36 percent and 34 percent, respectively. The lowest rates were in Cambodia, with 15 percent, and India, with 18 percent.

Some hospitals motivated by higher feesThe study did not discuss specific reasons for the high number of C-sections, but it noted that more than 60 percent of the hospitals studied were motivated by financial incentives to perform surgeries.

At Vietnam’s National Hospital of Gynecology and Obstetrics in Hanoi, about 40 percent of the 20,000 babies delivered there annually are by C-section, said Dr. Le Anh Tuan, the hospital’s vice director, who did not participate in the study.

As the capital’s largest maternity hospital, it receives the most complicated cases, with many women undergoing emergency surgery. But he said another reason is women with small frames whose babies are simply too large for them to deliver naturally.

“The babies are bigger, even than in Western countries,” he said. “Vietnam was a country where we didn’t have enough food to eat. Now we have a surplus of food. The women think that if they eat a lot, their babies will be healthy.”


In Latin America, C-section rates in all eight countries surveyed earlier by WHO were 30 percent or higher — similar to the U.S. rate. In Paraguay, 42 percent of deliveries were by cesarean, and in Ecuador 40 percent.

Some expectant mothers in Latin America scheduled elective surgeries to avoid giving birth during holidays or even so they could attend parties, said Dr. Archana Shah, from the WHO in Geneva, who worked on that report and cautioned that data in both studies represent a sample that may not reflect overall national rates.

That compares to an earlier WHO survey of African countries, where C-sections were performed in only about 9 percent of deliveries surveyed and where many medical centers were ill-equipped to perform emergency surgeries, leading to increased deaths.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Live c-section on the Today Show

Written by Kim

Congratulations to the Johnson Family on the birth of their handsome, sweet little baby boy Brody. In my mind, every birth is a miracle and a joyous occasion, regardless of how it happens.

However, this being said, the rate of cesarean births in our country (and around the world) needs to be addressed. Dr. Nancy Snyderman's attitude throughout the birth, making sure to state clearly throughout the procedure that 1. The "section" was not scheduled for the Today Show and 2. It was the right decision for them because Brody was 10 pounds made me angry.

Regardless of how irritated I felt Dr. Snyderman was, what was most striking to me were the tears of joy (or sadness) in Carrie's eyes. Now I can not at all comment on how Carrie was feeling after Brody was born, but she was only able to see her new baby boy for about 10 seconds after his birth. He wasn't even held close enough to the new Mommy so she could touch him or give him a kiss and while the baby was being cleaned by the nurses Carrie was left alone, barely even noticed. Actually, even Dr Snyderman noticed this and went over to Carrie to comfort her and congratulate her on the birth.

This reminded me of the doula clients I had who had a cesarean birth and how happy I was to be beside my client, continually telling her what was happening, congratulating her, stroking her hair, and making her feel loved and cared for (rather than left behind).

The story continues in Carrie and Josh's recovery room when Carrie's parents arrive to meet their new grandson for the first time. Brody had beeen prominantly propped up on Carrie's shoulder wearing his Today show gear, and when Josh goes to pick Brody up to show him off to his in-laws, Carrie reminds him that she can not pick him up to even hand little baby Brody over to Josh. WOW, that must be hard.

After my second son was born he was taken to the NICU to receive some oxygen and be watched closely, to be over-protective. I remember walking down to the NICU just a few hours after my birth. I can't even imagine how it must feel to not even be able to pick your baby up after your birth.

I have come across several blogs that are posting about this birth story. If you are interested in reading their comments visit:

ICAN Responds: "Today Show" Spreads Misinformation

The Crunchy Domestic Goddess

Daily Finance

To watch this episode of "In the OR" on the Today Show click here

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Giving Life in a Land Overflowing With Pain

Found on the NY Times website
By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: January 29, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Biology and the earthquake dictated that Roseline Antoine would give birth at 9:42 a.m. Thursday to a healthy baby girl who has no home but the street. The same irrevocable forces left Delva Venite naked a few feet away, in pain, waiting nearly a day for doctors to deal with the stillborn son inside her.

The women shared one of the better medical facilities here — a maternity tent outside General Hospital — but there were not enough beds or doctors. Flies were their roommates, bunching like crows on the intravenous drips, and as for the joy found in most maternity wards, that had been lost to the cracked earth.

“The street where I live, it’s so dirty; there isn’t enough food or water,” Ms. Antoine said. “I’m scared to bring a baby into this awful situation.”

Pulling down her blue dress after giving birth, she added, “I need to find a way to survive.”

The pregnant are an especially vulnerable subset of victims of the quake that has left so many Haitians homeless and desolate. The United Nations estimates that 15 percent of the 63,000 pregnant women in the earthquake-affected areas are likely to have potentially life-threatening complications. For the roughly 7,000 who will give birth in the next month, the risks are even greater.

Aid groups are doing what they can. CARE has been handing out hygienic birthing kits, and doctors from around the world have taken a special pride in delivering babies. Along with rescues, newborns have become beacons of uplift amid the darkness of death.

Still, Haiti is a frightening nursery. Even before the quake, this small country had the highest rates of infant, of under-5 and of maternal mortality in the Western Hemisphere; on average, according to United Nations reports, 670 Haitian women out of every 100,000 die in childbirth, compared with 11 in the United States.

The troubles are especially visible in the tent cities all over the capital. Earlier this week on the grounds of a former military airfield, Venold Joseph, 29, devoured a tin of spaghetti, her first meal since having her baby there four days earlier.

In another tent camp, on a soccer field of a school near the downtown, one meal a day was as much as Mirline Civil, 17, could hope for. Her baby, born Sunday, struggled, too. When she tried to breast-feed the little boy, named Maiderson, he failed to latch. She rocked him back and forth and asked, “Why are you crying so much?”

In three days of visits to General Hospital, which is operating mostly out of tents, mothers were desperate to avoid returning to their own patch of dirt.

The recovery tent, a short walk from the birthing tent, included 15 mattresses Thursday, on gravel, each with a mother and child.

Sandia Sulea, 24, leaning on her elbow, and Nativita Thomas, also 24, said they both had their babies three days earlier. Their homes were flattened. They were left to sleep in the street.

The medical tent, though hotter than 100 degrees in the afternoon sun, was a step up. Here, nurses bring crackers and juice. Here, if something goes wrong, a medical team will help.

“I know they need space for other people,” Ms. Sulea said. “But I don’t know what to do.”

Across the tent, an older woman nodded toward a quiet young mother in a men’s navy blue golf shirt, picking at her nails. While the other women had family or friends crowded around, she sat with her infant son, Mackendi.

“I’m from an orphanage,” said the new mother, Aristil Fabian, 18. “My mother and father are dead.”

Without family — her husband fled to the country — she said she had been roaming the street, bedding down in the closest camp when it was time to sleep. She made it to the hospital on Wednesday, when she had the baby, but by Thursday afternoon, she had no idea what was next.
“I don’t have anyone,” she said. “I’m alone.”

Inside two pediatric tents a few yards away, steel cribs with chipping paint sat crammed together. There were babies with broken arms, a boy with four amputated toes, and two abandoned children — one cross-eyed, the other, doctors believe, with cerebral palsy. No one seemed to know whether the parents died in the earthquake or just gave them up.

The most severe case, however, lay in another crib: the boy with no name. He was 13 months old, according to a man who was waving away flies, but he was so severely malnourished, his eye sockets looked like the cardboard tubes that hold toilet paper. His arms were thin enough to reveal separate bones and ligaments.

“We’re trying to do what we can,” said Dr. Carole DubuchĂ©, a Haitian-American pediatrician who practices in Brooklyn, as she filled a bottle of formula.

Few of the doctors were local. Most of the Haitian obstetricians and pediatricians have still not returned to work full time. The young residents who are trying to fill the gap say a few show up for the morning or afternoon but do not stay long.

Ms. Venite’s husband, GĂ©rard Joseph, said he understood why. “Everyone is looking for their family,” he said.

But not everyone sees it that way. “People here are getting a paycheck and they don’t come to work,” said Dr. Gerard Guy Prosper, a former head of pediatrics at General Hospital who now works in the Bronx. “And no one does anything about it.”

He nearly shook with anger.

The result, for now, seems to be a scramble to keep up. On Thursday, Ms. Venite’s pregnancy ended nine months after it started, with a small, still figure in a cardboard box on the dirty ground. It was only chance that kept someone from accidentally kicking it.

And on Friday by 3 p.m., two women had already had Caesarean sections; two others were waiting their turns. A resident said that all four women were at high risk for complications.

Inside the recovery tent, meanwhile, Ms. Fabian and Mackendi were gone. So was the malnourished little boy. He died Friday.

By comparison, the triumphs here are small. A group of doctors linked to a global health group out of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore opened three operating rooms this week inside the hospital, so some Caesareans no longer take place in the surgical tent where doctors are amputating gangrened limbs.

Ms. Antoine on Friday also found a place to live, in a neighbor’s yard. She had been sleeping in a sewage-drenched camp outside a flattened school in her neighborhood of Bel-Air. Now, she and her new daughter, Kimberly, live just behind it, under a thin white sheet near a mostly empty set of cages with a few chickens and a litter of puppies.

Her two older children, David, 12, and Osnort, 5, seem happier with their new quarters, but Ms. Antoine remains beleaguered. From her new dwelling, she can see the crushed house where she used to live — and where her husband died while she sold cookies from a pushcart downtown.

She lost everything that day, and she said she hated that she was suddenly dependent on the charity of others.

“I don’t think I can live like this, just waiting for someone to bring me food,” she said. She shook her head, and stared away, as her day-old daughter tried to suck her thumb.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Gisele Bundchen's Son Born in Boston Bathtub

Found on ABC/Health website

Breaking from a culture where hospital births are the norm and Caesarian rates are the highest in the world, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen chose to deliver her son Benjamin in her own bathtub. The medical community criticized Ricki Lake for promoting home births.
Wife of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, Bundchen is one of a growing number of women who are embracing water birth, touted as a gentler way to bring a baby into the world.
And well-respected studies show water birth helps with mom's labor pains, too.

Today in the United States, as in Brazil, natural childbirth is a medical anomaly. But here, a small, but growing number of women are choosing water births over medication and pain-blocking epidurals.

Bundchen told the Boston Globe she prepared for her Dec. 8, 2009 delivery with yoga and meditation and "didn't want to be all drugged up" when she gave birth.
While birthing in warm water isn't new, Bundchen's high-profile home delivery brings a lot more splash to the concept.

"If you think about it, it makes sense philosophically," said Dr. Tracy Gaudet, an obstetrician and executive director of the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine in North Carolina.

"Think about the fetus living in water. Instead of going from the dark, warm water environment to the sudden shock of the outside in that moment of birth, there's a more gradual transition," she said.

In a water birth, mothers sit waist-deep in water heated to simulate body temperature through labor and delivery. Within seconds of the baby emerging, the midwife or doctor brings its head above water.

The cord can be cut in or out of water, depending on a woman's choice.

While Gaudet has never delivered a baby in water, she said she would be "game" to try. "It's a little gentler and kinder to the baby," she told ABCNews.com.

She advises that if the water birth is at home, midwives have a back-up plan.
"I am open-minded, but I've seen enough things go bad and you have to have a plan A, B and C," said Gaudet. "Labor and delivery is hopefully perfectly normal and a positive experience, but things don't always go as planned."

In an interview with Brazil's news feature show "Fantastico," Bundchen described the eight-hour birth of her son in the couple's Beacon Hill penthouse. She said she was influenced by the 2008 documentary, "The Business of Being Born," an argument for natural childbirth produced by television personality Ricki Lake.

Home Births in Minority

Ana Paula Markel, who was quoted in the film, is a friend of Bundchen's who works as a doula, or childbirth assistant, in Los Angeles. She has said that Bundchen's decision could persuade other women to consider a water birth.

Other celebrities who had home deliveries include actress Alyson Hannigan, model Cindy Crawford, singer Erykah Badu, actress Maria Bello, and another Bundchen friend, Michelle Alves, a Brazilian model and the wife of Madonna's manager Guy Oseary.

Only one percent of all births in the U.S. are at home, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Induction rates rose 5 percent in 2005 to 22.3 percent of all births -- double the rate since 1990, according to the center. Caesarean deliveries have also jumped -- to more than 30 percent of all births, a 46 percent rise in the last decade and a 4 percent increase over the 2004 record.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not recommend water births, although it is described in its consumer publication, "Your Pregnancy and Birth."
ACOG recommends that a hospital or birthing center within a hospital complex are the "safest setting" for labor and delivery.

About 10 percent of all hospitals and up to 90 percent of birthing centers nationwide offer as an option water births, as opposed to "land births," according to Waterbirth International, whose motto is, "Easier for moms…Better for Babies."

Waterbirth Executive Director Barbara Harper turned to water birth 25 years ago with her second and third children after a bad experience during her first child's hospital birth. She had seen an article extolling its virtues in the "National Enquirer."

"I took it home to my partner and said, 'I think I can have another baby,'" she told ABCNews.com. "I wouldn't even consider having another baby the way it was done in 1978."
"I was drugged against my will, tied down with leather straps with my feet in the stirrups," said Harper. "They even gave me an episiotomy after the baby was born so the residents could practice."

All this, as Harper was working as a nurse at that California hospital. She later turned to midwifery and began advocating and educating women about water births.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Five Things Not to Say During Labor and Delivery

Found on the DadLabs website "Taking Back Paternity".



In this DadLabs video Daddy Clay and Daddy Brad discuss the five phrases Dads should never say in the labor and delivery room. These five phrases should be avoided at all cost during the birth of a baby. Starting with number 5, Is that normal? Never show fear in the delivery room, and always stay calm and collected with your pregnant wife. Number 4 is avoiding anything that involves my Mom says. While experiencing childbirth the last thing your wife wants to hear is any advise or anything to do with her mother-in-law. Number 3 is to ask, why is the birth in the metric system? Do the math yourself and keep irrellevant questions out of the birthing center. The number 2 things to avoid is saying "I'm not sure I'm ready for this." It's too late to make that decision, and the most important thing is to be supportive during the child birth process. The final thing, and most important to remember is to avoid saying anything like "toughen up" and/or "suck it up". Baby Delivery whether natural birth or through a cesarean section is a very difficult process. If you have any questions make sure to ask your doula or your midwife, and most of all be supportive through the pregnancy. The Lab Ep 528 brought to you by BabyBjorn.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Dealing with Post Cesarean Emotions w/Birthcut.com

Found on the Blog Talk Radio website

Upcoming Show: 2/3/2010 8:00PM

Host Name: Momtronics
Show Name: Dealing with Post Cesarean Emotions with BirthCut.com
Length: 30 minutes
Description: Join Danielle and Michele founder of http://birthcut.com for a discussion on her website and dealing with post cesarean emotions and feelings.

Call-in Number: (347) 633-9804