Give away time.   

www.hypnobabiesblog.org

Consumer Reports has done some good articles discussing the problems in maternity care in America.

They have this wonderful quiz to see how much knowlege you have about safe birth. 

Try it and tell me what your score was!

If you have taken my Hypnobabies Class I think you will get 100% right. 

We talk about cervical checks in Hypnobabies.  How they don’t really show anything, except how you are at that exact minute.

Certainly before birth there is no need to check.  What about during birth?  What about before pushing?

Here is an interesting post by a midwife who says no, not really. 

It inspired me to listen to one of the Trust Birth Conference talks I downloaded about pushing.  Many of the midwives feel you don’t need to check at all.  If you don’t tell mom when to push, or even suggest it, she will figure it out all on her own.    Trust our bodies! 

Next time***  I think I will choose not to have any cervical exams.  I have a homebirth midwife all picked out and I know she would be ok with that. 

*** I always say this, but really probably we are done having babies, which is sad in some ways, but feels right in others.

I was fighting off a cold all week long.  I was still able to do all the mom things I had to do.  I attended a Baby Shower Wed. night, Karate graduation Thursday night, Blue and Gold Dinner Friday night.  I was exhausted, but did it all. 

I fell into bed Friday night, thinking if I can just get a good night sleep tonight, then I will feel better.  Well at midnight my 8 year old started throwing up.  He threw up every 30 minutes all night long, until 5 am.    I kept thinking, “What if my doula client calls me right now?”  Thankfully she didn’t. 

Then my 3 year old woke me up at 6:30.  “The sun is up!” 

So I put on a video and lay on the couch and tried to sleep more.  8 year old woke up and threw up again.  Then I had to get the 11 year old to horseback riding lessons.  By the time I was home at noon, I was SICK!  My head was pounding, my nose was running, the kind where I went through 2 boxes of kleenex in one day. 

I napped from 2-4 and I felt worse when I woke up and had a fever.  I could only sit on the sofa and sit there and just exist.    I thought, “What if my doula client calls me right now?”  I knew I couldn’t go to a birth, I had a fever and could barely sit on the sofa. 

Luckily I have a wonderful back up group.  I called Cindy and she said she was available to be on call for this mom.  So I called the mom and told her that I was out of commission until I called her on Sunday.  She was fine with that. 

I went to bed at 8 PM, with my ringer off and slept all night.  I had totally bizarre dreams all night long and at some point my fever broke and I was all sweaty.  But when my faithful alarm clock “The sun is up” went off at 6:30 I felt alive again.

By noon I was showered and functioning, I called my client back and let her know I was back on call. 

That was not fun.  I also am pretty low functioning today and the boys have pretty much been on the computer or watching TV today and I just don’t even care.  Tomorrow I will be a better mom, today I am just happy to feel somewhat normal again!

You all know how passionate I am about a woman’s right to have a VBAC!  I have had 2 VBACs and am lucky enough to live in an area where I have a hospital and OB who are supportive of them.  Actually at my last OB appointment we spent about 15 mintues talking about VBACs and how in some areas moms have unassisted births rather than submit to a scheduled cesarean.  Interesting discussion with an OB. 

I am thrilled to see these articles and posts in the last few days.

There was an article in Time magazine about VBACs and highlighted a mom who is choosing to drive 100 miles to have her VBAC.   Our Hypnobabies Instructor Group thought she really should use Hypnobabies.  One instructor contacted her and found out she is doing the Hypnobabies Homestudy! 

There is another article by the same author in which she explains her own personal experience with her quest for a VBAC.     This is how change is finally going to be made.  Women SPEAKING out and saying, this is NOT fair.  We should have choices. 

How did this problem come to pass and what can we do to fix it?  First off, click on the Time article link above and read it.  The more clicks the longer it will stay up and the more Time will see it is an issue they should research more. 

Then go and read this wonderful post by The Well-Rounded Mama the Importance of One Little Word.  She talks about how when ACOG changed the word readily available to immediately available and why they did this.  It is more about money then the safety of mom and baby. 

Horray for ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network) and all the other moms out there fighting for women’s rights!

Follow up article.

Pitocin is such a powerful drug and should be used with care.  I always encourage my doula clients who are being induced that they should request that the pitocin be upped VERY slowly and then stop upping it when the pressure waves start.  Just let your body take over at that point. 

When a mom doesn’t ask for this the nurses tend to come in every 15 – 30 minutes and up the pitocin.  They don’t even tell mom what they are doing.  They come in and up it and leave. 

I read an interesting post by a L&D nurse today about pitocin.    It sounds like the nurses have a lot of leeway in how fast they make changes.  I also found it very telling how nurses can be a very good barrier between the OB and patients.  In this case the OBs wanted mom to be checked every 2 hours.  But the nurse said “NO!”    Good for her!!!  I love nurses like this, protecting the mother’s space.

This is an important reason why you should talk to your care provider about how they feel about un-medicated births.

I love to read Rebirth’s Blog.  She works on the L&D floor.  In this post she says what happens to a mom who is wanting to go un-medicated.

So water now broken, woman happy but contracting more strongly almost immediately, the attending stands over the woman with her arms crossed and says, “So I’m told you are doing this natural?”

Before the woman can answer the attending makes a noise like, “Oh, please!” She then goes on to say, “Trust me, you won’t be able to do it! You already needed IV medication when you weren’t quite in labor yet. Don’t go fooling yourself, really!”

Thankfully this nurse helped encourage mom that she could do it.  Mom did do it!  Horray.

But imagine if she had a nurse who wasn’t supportive.  That undermined her too.  Mom may not have made it, unless she had a really strong support person helping her. 

Talk to your care provider!

A picture is worth a thousand words.  So these 2 pictures in Keyboard Revolutionaries blog must be worth Two Thousand words. 

It really hits home to me why I would choose a homebirth next time. 

On a birth blog I love. 

Stand and Deliver. 

BTW, I am going to be doing a give away on the Hypnobabies Blog soon.  Keep an eye out for that!

There are some benefits of nationalized health care.  The government can have more of an impact on health outcomes.  But I only see it benefiting countries where they want to save money!   I imagine in America the ACOG would want more cesareans, so their Obstetricians could make more money.

I was excited to see this article from Great Britain.  Cesareans Rationed:  Women denied procedure on safety grounds. 

Now the primary care trust in Manchester has said that c-sections should be put on the same lists for rationing by local hospitals as infertility treatment, cosmetic surgery and acupuncture.

They talk about how elective cesareans are less safe then vaginal births (except in certain instances)  I think this is great that they are acknowleding this!