I have been hugely absent from this blog for a couple reasons, first off I have been deeply immersing myself in study’s, Doula clients and all that is life and family. Thus my blog has suffered greatly. Secondly I found that I was not truly expressing myself here, but instead sharing what I had found others where saying and then agreeing with them by posting. Well I suppose it is time I start expressing my thoughts and beliefs a bit more. I tend to not want to offend, and sadly in the birthing world that is very easy to do, especially as a Doula dealing very often with the medical community. I see though that while I encourage the very families I support to share their wonderfully natural birth stories I am not living up to that, so time to make changes and walk what I talk So my hope is to share a bit more here about what I am learning, what I am seeing and what I believe. Of course no one need agree with me but if it someone learns or finds value in anything I have to share, well more the better then.

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Here is a new movie coming out. It is about families, and the rights
they have to protect themselves. The honor and duty they have to
protect their babies. Joining such movies as Birth as We Know it,  What Babies Want, Business of Being Born, Orgasmic Birth.  Also coming in December 2008 is Pregnant in America   The more put out there, the more chances people will begin to truly think about gentle birthing.

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Midwife on a Mission

This woman is such a hero to me. I hope so many people see her story, see the number of families she has impacted. I want ACOG, the AMA and people like Dr. Amy to acknowledge what this woman has proven for 8 years now. The safety of midwifery care, the safety of out of hospital birth. I want her mission to be carried on by growing numbers of midwives around the country, and for people to see how this alternative to medical care can truly be the best thing for many woman, obviously not all, but many….

(CBS) Every time Ruth Lubic fusses over a healthy baby, the joy in her voice comes from eight long years of beating the odds. In Washington, D.C., where the infant mortality rate is almost double the national average, CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of infant deaths per 1,000 births in the United States is 6.8 – but in Washington, it’s 12.2. Lubic and her team of midwives run a birthing clinic in one of the city’s poorest areas. After 800 babies in eight years, they have never lost a child in childbirth, and has cut the rate of premature births – the biggest risk factor for infant mortality – in half. “You are saving a lot of lives here,” Andrews said. Lubic replied: “Saving lives and increasing the quality of life.” Ruth built her clinic in Washington, D.C., on purpose. She figured if her ideas worked there, if she could tackle infant mortality in Washington, she’d set an example everywhere. Her approach is simple. She believes low-income women, many on Medicaid, need the prenatal education that midwives provide. Everything from posture, to nutrition, to how the baby grows. Anike Oliver, who just had a baby boy, Ukama, said she got more time with the midwives than she had with a doctor. “They wanted to make sure I had as much information as they did,” Oliver said. “Do you think it boils down to just the time you spend with them,” Andrews asked Lubic. “I think so,” she replied. “I’m convinced that’s what it is. It’s time, respect, its treating people with dignity.” And what’s most remarkable is that Lubic still does it at 81 years old. She’s runs the clinic during the week, then runs homeon the weekends to her husband in New York. “You could be retired!” Andrews said. “I’m not tired the first time! Much less retired,” Lubic said. Lubic’s biggest fan is D.C. city councilman David Catania. He says because she keeps hundreds of babies out of prenatal care, she saves the city around a $1 million a year. That’s why he supports her when Ruth hounds the city council for funding. “While I tease her a lot about being a pit bull with a smile, I look at her sometimes with complete envy about how you can have such a burning drive at 81,” Catania said. “And it’s a great inspiration.” “I think I’m insufferable because of my … belief that what I’m doing is the right thing to do,” Lubic said. Lubic says infant mortality is a national disgrace – but a disgrace that midwives can help solve. And this pit bull with a smile won’t let go of that idea until it sinks in nationwide.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/08/eveningnews/main4428250.shtml

I am fairly outraged…
I know some people think it is not something to worry about, but honestly I do feel people need to speak out and defend their right to make their own choices regarding their births. I do feel that both ACOG and the AMA could push through legislation that would hinder these rights…

I am currently seeing the state of Oregon (which has the most liberal rules regarding midwifery licensure) go through a fight to keep their system status quo regarding licensure. Their are those in the Health Licensing Agency that want to make changes, and while not pushing for mandatory licensure yet, they are wanting mandatory registration and changes to the practice of licensed midwives here. I am sorry I see this as the first step toward removing voluntary licensure in Oregon. It really is a big picture thing that is being seen individually all over the country.

CPM’s are for some reason a grave threat and ACOG and the AMA fear them. Why? Well that is the million dollar question…

Push News from The Big Push for Midwives Campaign
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, September 1, 2008

Number Two With a Bullet: Critical Women’s Health Issues Neglected as Physician Group
Yet Again Sets its Sites on Midwives

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 1, 2008)In the newest phase of its ongoing effort to deny women the right to choose their maternity care providers and birth settings, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has announced that eliminating access to midwives who specialize in out-of-hospital birth is now the second most important issue on its state legislative agenda. This move puts restricting access to trained midwives ahead of such critical issues as contraceptive equity, ensuring access to emergency contraception, and the prevention and treatment of perinatal HIV/AIDS.

“ACOG claims to be an advocate of women’s health and choice, but when it comes to the right to choose to deliver your baby in the privacy of your own home with a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) who is specifically trained to provide the safest care possible, ACOG’s paternalistic colors bleed through,” said Susan M. Jenkins, Legal Counsel for the Big Push for Midwives Campaign. “It is astonishing that an organization that purports to be a champion of women’s healthcare would put a petty turf battle that affects less than one percent of the nation’s childbearing women ahead of pressing issues that have an impact on nearly every woman in this country. If this is not dereliction of duty, I can’t imagine what is.”

In recent years, ACOG has led a well-financed campaign to fight legislative reforms that would license and regulate CPMs and has now teamed up with the American Medical Association (AMA) to promote legislaton that would prevent families from choosing to give birth at home. Despite these joint efforts, the groups have not been successful in defeating the groundswell of grassroots activism in support of full access to a comprehensive range of maternity care options that meet the needs of all families.

“Wisconsin is a good example of what ACOG and the AMA are up against,” said Jane Crawford Peterson, CPM, Advocacy Trainer for The Big Push. “Our bipartisan grassroots coalition of everyday people from across the state managed to defeat the most powerful and well-financed special interest groups in Wisconsin, all on an expenses-only budget of $3000 during a legislative session in which $47 million was spent on lobbying. When you try to deny women the fundamental and very personal right to choose where and how to give birth, they will get organized and they will let their elected officials know that restrictions on those rights cannot stand.”

Noting these successes, ACOG has recently launched its own grassroots organizing effort, calling on member physicians to recruit their patients to participate in its “Who Will Deliver My Baby?” medical liability reform campaign.

“ACOG itself admits that we’re facing a critical shortage of maternity care providers,” said Steff Hedenkamp, Communications Coordinator for the Big Push. “They certainly realize that medical liability reform is nothing more than a band aid and that increasing access to midwives and birth settings is critical to fixing our maternity care system and ensuring that rural, low-income and uninsured women don’t fall through the cracks. Midwives represent an essential growth segment of the U.S. pool of maternity care providers, but instead of putting the healthcare needs of women first, ACOG would rather devote its considerable lobbying budget to a last-ditch attempt to protect its own bottom line. This is not a happy Labor Day for our nation’s mothers and babies.”

The Big Push for Midwives (www.thebigpushformidwives.org) is a nationally coordinated campaign organized to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to deny American families access to safe and legal midwifery care. The campaign plays a critical role in building a new model of U.S. maternity care delivery at the local and regional levels, at the heart of which is the Midwives Model of Care, based on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life processes. Media inquiries: Steff Hedenkamp (816) 506-4630, mail to: steff@thebigpushformidwives.org

Visit the Big Push for Midwives Campaign on the Web at www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org
Sustainable Markets Foundation | 80 Broad Street, Suite 1600 | New York, NY 10004-2248
The Big Push for Midwives Campaign | 2300 M Street, N.W., Suite 800 | Washington, D.C. 20037-1434

GUERILLA MOTHERING: Mama’s baby drama doesn’t have to cause trauma

My wish would be that health care professionals could read this and really think, let themselves wonder at the care they are giving. I know that Doctors and Nurses do not have the desire to inflict harm on mothers and babies, they see all that they do as altruistic, yet they are not seeing very clearly the whole picture. They have so completely turned into machines that encourage fear of pregnancy and birth. They are “Fixers” of a problem, and so proud to be that, of course sadly they all to often create problems just to be able to fix them. I hope this article by Leslea Harmon opens just one persons eyes to the traumas they could be creating….

GUERILLA MOTHERING: Mama’s baby drama doesn’t have to cause trauma By LESLEA HARMON

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in new mothers. Evidently, traumatic hospital births with a lot of medical interventions are leaving moms severely emotionally scarred. Imagine that! Someone comes into your hospital room, you’re already half-naked, scared, and in pain, and tells you that the baby you’ve carried and dreamed of for so long might die if they don’t do a certain procedure right away-and even then, no guarantees you’re going home with your little one. Yeah, I’d call that a little traumatic.

I’ve not written much about it in this column, but I am one fortunate woman when it comes to birth experience. My first child was one of your stock “high intervention” births, with most of the trimmings. Thank God for Dr. Kegel and his famous pelvic floor exercises, or my son would have been delivered by C-section, I’m quite sure.

As it happened, he was born out of my numbed-to-the-point-of-paralysis body after a long night of drugs, having my water broken, and lying around practically tied to a hospital bed, as nervous as though a firing squad was waiting for me on the other side of labor. The very moment he was born, I held my arms out for him, desperate to hold him — but the Dr. took him away immediately to be examined on the other side of the room. I still tear up, just thinking about it, seven years and two additional births later. Is that a sign of trauma? I don’t know.

Of all the people to espouse opinions on birth trauma, it’s funny that I don’t feel more confident to speak on this one. In my mid-20s, I was diagnosed with PTSD, myself, following a series of incidents that were outside my control. I received treatment and eventually found healing after years of work and devotion. It was a long time before I forgot I’d ever had PTSD, but eventually that day came, and I realized I’d made it through the woods. Thank God.

Sometimes, though, I’m reminded of what it was like — mostly, when I hear about someone else’s suffering.

There was that sweet soldier, Joseph Dwyer, whose photo so famously ran in media across the world as the very face of American compassion in Iraq — following his suicide, stories of his PTSD were ubiquitous. Prior to that, a student in my journaling class spoke up to mention he counsels soldiers returning from combat, often suicidal and suffering from PTSD. Stuff like that reminds me I once had PTSD. I remember, but move on.

When it comes to birth, I don’t think I was traumatized-not severely. Sure, it was once heartbreaking, and true to the checklist of PSTD characteristics, I felt an overwhelming desire to avoid going back to the hospital (or the doctor’s office), but, really — I’ve had it much worse. Like so many moms, I was just glad to go home with a reasonably healthy baby! He gave me plenty to focus on, and I was way too in love with him to give much thought to my own mental health.

While pregnant the second time, I stumbled into some books on birth, including “Birthing From Within,” by Pam England. That book dealt with traumatized mothers, and if you or someone you know might be in need of some help dealing with lingering birth trauma, I highly recommend it. What it did for me, as a disappointed (but eager to try again) birther was empower me to make decisions about my birth. I chose to go natural the second time. I hired a doula. I limply attempted to do breathing training.

I succeeded in having a natural birth in the hospital-but my second son was born “sunny side up,” which meant his face was pointing up instead of down when he bulldozed his way into the world. It hurt. A lot. Still, with my loving doula Kim at my side, I came through it in victory. I did hold my baby on my chest, he was completely healthy, and even though having him that way was the hardest thing I have ever done physically, I really did it my way. Looking back on that, the worst I can ascribe to the hospital or its staff was a petty series of annoyances. No trauma, no drama, just get out of the way of this mama!

Considering the confusion of my first birth, and the pain of my second, I chose to try homebirth the third time. I spent the entire nine months (seriously), planning for it, and my training paid off. I journaled about the upcoming birth nearly every day. I lined up my supportive friends. I had a caring midwife, as well as an OB/GYN (not as caring, but he was around), and my doula was back. My husband and I went to Bradley classes, and we invested in a library of resources on homebirth. Little by little, I accepted that we human beings really have been giving birth at home, naturally, for thousands of years.

Lo and behold, my body managed a very easy birth with the support of loving friends and attendants. It hurt, but not for long, and I never even had to push. Contractions just carried my third child out of me, like a wave crashing into the beach. There he was. Healthy, serene, perfect. There is a photo of me, smiling, holding him in my arms, immediately after he was born. I had finally outrun those birth demons, and what a prize.

It was the most beautiful thing I have ever done, and it truly changed my life. I went on to change careers, write a book, visit a monastery for a week, play roller derby — all kinds of things that I still think are not as cool as having a homebirth, but I would perhaps not have had the confidence to do, had I not named and claimed the birth of my third miracle child. That is the total opposite of trauma, without a doubt.

I know I was fortunate. I had a healthy child, I was a healthy mom, and there were no complications. I had great (double) pre-natal care, and all was well. But, honestly, I can’t help but wonder-what if all births were approached this way? What if all births were prepared for as if they would be healthy and natural, not riddled with fear and pain? What if television shows involving the “birth in the taxi cab” plotline didn’t climax for once with a panting woman screeching through perfect makeup about how much pain she was in? What if all the reality shows based out of hospital rooms were outlawed, outright?

What if we just looked at birth, as a culture and as a society, for the true joy it is and not just for the addition of a new baby, but for the accomplishment that a woman’s body is able to do? That might just be outright empowering for moms, instead of traumatizing. Imagine.

I’m grateful for health care professionals and the training they complete in order to save lives and prevent tragedies-but if the intervention is causing PTSD in moms, perhaps it’s time to back off a little, and take a different tact. There’s more to birth than fear, blood and guts. Let’s stop scaring moms, and start giving them the tools they need to go into birth with confidence-no matter where they choose to birth. There has to be a better way.

To learn more about PTSD, visit the National Center for PostTraumatic Stress Disorder online at ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/index.jsp (geared toward veterans), or talk to your health care provider.

Leslea M. Harmon is a freelance writer, wife, and mother, in New Albany, IN. She can be reached at Leslea.Harmon@gmail.com, or online at lmharmon.com