Reducing Infant Mortality

Please pass on the video linked above. We are so fortunate to have this film for FREE. Watch through to the Solutions...Answers...pay dirt...the golden ticket.

I don't apologize if you already saw this on my facebook. YOU did watch it there....didn't you?

This is an important message for the people of the world today. "...Looking to improve length of gestation"...hmmm thats some goal, seeing as so many docs (and moms) want to induce!!! To save the babies (and a huge wade of $$$) women - all women - need access to prenatal care. This could be accomplished by using midwifes - duh! instead of surgeons (OBGYN). Someone once told me that using a OBGYN for normal pre-natal, birth and postpartum is like hiring a college professor to babysit your kid/s.

On a side note, somewhat related, I am currently reading American Midwives 1860 to the Present by Judy Barrett Litoff. It's amazing..."Midwifery has been the almost exclusive province of women throughout history....Several references to the work of midwives can be found in the Bible...The writings of classical Greek and Roman physicians, such a Hippocrates, Galen, and Celsus, provide further information about the regularity with which the midwife served as the attendant at birth. Midwifes also played a central role in the birth process in colonial America. 1663 was the first time on record that a man attended a normal birth. By 1760 the concept of male midwifery was accepted by English upper classes.

The principal argument made by the male-midwifery opponents was that the presence of a man in the lying-in chamber offended the sense of modesty and delicacy of the parturent woman. Thomas Ewell, one of the leading American physicians opposed to the male midwifery, insisted that the male presence so greatly offended the woman in the midst of labor that her contractions often completely subsided...." Ewww, Chapter 2 talks about Obstetric Specialization. "normal ovariotomy was invented in 1872 and was done for such things as neurosis, insantiy, abnormal menstruation, and practically anthing untoward in female behavior." Clitoridectomy was practiced in this country from 1867 until 1904 or perhaps as late as 1925! ...more review to follow.

So I ask, How did we get to this place in time? And better yet, where are we going? i.e., How would you like to see your grandchildren being born and your daughters treated? For the sake of safety and respect I hope mine are in the hands of a good homebirth midwife. If you're having a baby someday, or even if you've already had your babies give your local midwife a call and have a face-to-face meeting with her. How else will you know her? You'll be glad you did ~ really glad.