Watch and Pray

Please watch the two videos below. Please prayerfully consider a donation/contribution/partnership.

I am standing with Doula Dawn, Founder of Improving Birth. I invite you to stand with us.We are one woman standing with one woman standing with one woman.  Shoulder to shoulder. Sometimes with babes in arms. Sometimes with hidden scars. Most have overcome great disappointment and physical hardship just because a medical system is floundering in a status-quo mire. Women who are pregnant should not have to fight this fight. New mom's in their baby-moon time should not have to fight this fight. You and me with our limited time and resources will fight for them. Some will join the Improve Birth movement with their physical support, others with their financial support. Some of us with both. We will stand together on Labor Day, for all the babies, mommies, daddies, families, neighborhoods, societies in our future. As midwife Lonnie Morris says in Debra Pascali-Bonaro's film, Orgasmic Birth, "Women of Earth Take Back Your Birth!"

Why am I giving my small portion to fight for future generations? First, I believe it's because I had the delightful experience of undisturbed birth. Our smart, amazing bodies worked to create new life for nine months and then birthed this work perfectly (by the way there is no 'perfect'). Dawn had this experience after three cesarean births.

Second, because as birth workers, as Doula's, we witness beautiful, happy birth days as we stand beside a women that is respected, given time, given emotional support and no matter how her baby is born, she is given the benefit of being informed, making her own choices and being listened to. She is birthing a Mommy and she is 100% responsible for (responsive to) her baby. So she should be the decision maker, one would think. And we all too often see the opposite, the disrespected, the rushed, the unsupported and the aftermath. Most of the time the more positive experience happens at homebirth, seldom in a hospital. But women who for whatever reason need to be in a hospital should have the same, if not endearing, at least dignified care. 

I'm reminded of the movie, Dances With Wolves, and the name of the Indian woman, Stands With A Fist. We are fighting to improve birth. Please stand with us. On Labor Day 2012 we will stand with fist.

Improving Birth statement reads:

We are an organization that believes that birth should be "principle over profit" and where secrecy is trumped by honesty, putting mothers front & center and squarely in the driver’s seat of their birth choices. Our purpose and cause is Educating and Empowering mothers so they are able to make informed choices about their births. We believe in you and your body. We also believe that induction and c-sections can be life saving interventions when necessary. 

Susan Dorothea White - Drawing of Baby Paul 1965

P.S.  Today I started reading Optimal Care in Childbirth by Henci Goer and Amy Romano. This book looks hard at the studies that are the foundation of maternal medical care today and it's honesty is refreshing! The truth is that most studies are not well done, are convoluted. Sometimes the truth is so disheartening but it is from a place of truth where we need to start our work. Improving Birth.org believes that secrecy is trumped by honesty. This book is honest. Below just one golden nugget from the book. I can't wait to settle in for this read.  It might take me all summer. These women are brilliant!

"We are now well into the second generation of excessively high cesarean rates. Over time, high rates have come to seem normal for women and clinicians alike and have taken on the force of "what is must be right," as evidenced by the most bizarre rationale for elective surgery so far:

More than one in four women who do not have a cesarean section by choice will end up having one anyway, and their morbidity and mortality will exceed that sustained by women whose surgeries are scheduled.  It is against this backdrop that physicians must consider the role of patient choice in determining the proper mode of delivery in the circumstance of an uncomplicated pregnancy.

In other words, because obstetricians mismanage labor so badly, women, like Brutus in Julius Caesar, should leap into the pit themselves rather than tarry till they are pushed.  But as Childbirth Connection (2006) so eloquently put it, "All mothers should have access to safest vaginal birth practices.  We should not expect them to choose between vaginal birth with avoidable harms and cesarean section."

I'm Not Making This Crap Up!

Someone asked a question on Facebook this morning, "If you were writing a movie about childbirth, what would it be called?" My favorite answer was, "I don't know but my book about birth is going to be called, "I'm not making this crap up!"

Ain't that the truth! Some of the things I've witnessed in over 300 births have been sad, maddening, atrocious, shocking, and heartbreaking! I once went out to the hospital hallway and banged my head on the wall. I was that mad.  And I am a mild mannered person...usually.

I think that it's important for anyone who is going through a life transition to have a witness.  Don't the bride and the groom need a witness, the Maid of Honor and the Best Man? Doulas provide that witness for a birthing mom and dad.  I usually share good news with y'all here.  Stuff like, "A beautiful healthy baby joined us today" or "a strong woman birthed untethered (not tied down to IV, Epidural, Monitor lines), in water, held by her loved ones, caught her own baby".  Writing about all the gooiest, grooviest, ethereal births I witness may not be in your best interest. You need to know ALL the facts. We all do. The "I'm not making this crap up" stories are ones I don't want to re-live. But it's time.

Hospitals are for sick people. Hospitals are for high risk pregnant women, high risk babies. NOT FOR NORMAL HEALTHY PREGNANT WOMEN! You see, childbirth is not an illness, not a disease. In 1988 Birth Psychology released this BIRTH IS NOT AN ILLNESS article. Back then the Cesarean rate was 24.7% in the United States. People, doctors, scientist were thinking cesarean rates had hit a plateau. 

"Data derived from the 1988 National Hospital Discharge Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics lead us to believe that the rate of cesarean section in the United States has stabilized."
  
Ha! So why for the next twenty more years has the surgical birth rate climbed, and climbed, and climbed???

2010 Cesarean rate in the U.S. was 32.8%. Some hospitals in San Diego had a rate of over 41% 

What does all that mean? And what does that mean to me?
It might mean a lot to you if you are of childbearing age, if you have a daughter or daughter-in-law, a wife or a sister and if you want her to have healthy, safe reproductive years. 

Before I continue I want you to know that I believe in woman's ability to birth ~ with all my heart. I have confidence in God's design for our bodies to birth our young, and for our species to thrive.

"Remember this, for it is as true as true gets: Your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. The creator is not a careless mechanic.  Human female bodies have the same potential to give birth well as aardvarks, lions, rhinoceri, elephants, moose, and water buffalo.  Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body."
~ Ina May Gaskin, Ina may's Guide to Childbirth 

I believe that in the hearts of most women there is a deep desire to birth in a safe loving way, much like the way conception happened. In ecstasy, in privacy, in bliss, under her own power. This is how we mother our young and this is how we conceived our young. This is how we can birth our young. Okay, back to the unpleasant truths of today....HALF of the women entering hospital to have a baby today will have a very unpleasant experience. The work of birth may turn scary. The natural hormones of labor may not be allowed to assist the mother and baby to travel the path nature intended. Did you notice I said "allowed"? Yes, hospitals will try to tell you what is and isn't allowed. Even though their protocol may be unproven, unscientific. Women do have the last word. They can demand what isn't allowed, but in the midst of labor this verbal exchange interrupts natures path, mothers and baby's path. Natures path is to be tread on lightly. But medicine today, most surgeons (OBGYN's), do not tread lightly. Getting back on path will take time and energy, energy that was needed for the birth of your baby.  Taking a Bradley Husband Coached Childbirth Class or a Birthing From Within class or a Hypnobirthing Class does not guarantee that you will not be one of the victims of the system. Hiring a doula is no guarantee either. If you walk into a hospital today to give birth to your baby you are very likely to birth by cesarean section.

When surgery is warranted, saves a baby or a mommy's life, I'm the first one who sings the praises of modern medicine. But today, I want to tell you about the many healthy women that without justifiable cause are induced, constantly monitored, have her labor sped up, slowed down, then when baby doesn't like all that crap and mom is too numb to push, her baby is surgically removed. Removed is too soft a word, Yanked, Pulled, from her belly, is more accurate.  Best case scenario after cesarean is Mom and Baby are fine. Physically.  Mom and Dad celebrate. The family celebrates. They take baby home and wonder why they have breastfeeding issues, postpartum depression, Mom doesn't trust her mothering instincts as well as she could. After all her body didn't know how to birth her baby, how can she possibly know how to mother her baby?

There's more.

Some women do NOT come out of cesarean section surgery physically fine. Some will come out of a cesarean with a hysterectomy, uterine rupture, bladder injury. And their babies are more likely to be sent to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for procedures that would otherwise not have been necessary.
Women die from complications of surgical birth, CESAREAN SECTION, at a higher rate than vaginal birth. THE CAUSE you ask? Unnecessary medical interventions. Things like too  much cytotec, too many changes in shifts, too much traffic in OR, too much fear in the OB's eyes because he's spent too many days in court rooms all crash into a tragic ending. And the biggest tragedy is that you may never hear about it. WHAT? That's right the reporting of this catastrophic event in our country stinks! "There is no federal requirement that the states carry out a confidential review of all maternal deaths in order to be sure that all are counted, to analyze the principle causes of preventable deaths and to make policy recommendations to prevent such deaths in the future." (see The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project and Maternal Death in the United States: A Problem Solved or a Problem Ignored )

I'm grieving. My heart is breaking today for a first time mom I never met. My friend is her doula. The mommy was admitted to the hospital in awesome spirits, her pregnancy healthy, no issues, medically she was called "low risk".  So why did this woman barely get out of surgery alive?
Induction. Rushing. Rushing a woman's birthing body is not smart. When was the last time you enjoyed someone rushing you to orgasm? Rushing a baby to be born is just bad science. Period. Who rushes a baby to crawl, walk, talk? Why do we rush them to be born? Slow down. Please.

My friend Doula Dawn recently shared this quote, 'If one went to the extreme of giving the patient the full details of mortality and morbidity related to cesarean section, most of them would get up and go out and have their baby under a tree,’ [Dr. McDonald] said.”[Neel J. Medicolegal pressure, MDs' lack of patience cited in cesarean 'epidemic.' Ob.Gyn. News Vol 22 No 10] 

Yes. Under a tree would be good.  I remember in 1978 reading Immaculate Deception by Suzanne Arms. She also mentioned this, "if you tie the majority of birthing women to a tree in San Fransisco's Golden State Park and left them alone they would give birth just fine." This resonated with me. I was 21 years old and I "Got It!" The ancient woman in my bones got it! I got that the reproductive rights of women were being tossed around like a football and the team with the most money was winning. Not the women. Not the midwifes. Not the babies. The men were winning. Back then the AMA was mostly men. What's a shame is that even though female medical students today make up 50% of the student population, generally (I say this because there are, of course, awesome women working to improve the system) these women are trying so hard to be accepted by the "old school" that they are, mostly, numb to their intuitive woman's voice, the gut says, "My God! Let this woman alone!" and her vying for the job voice says, "Protocol! Some one is watching! Try that new technique, get it checked off your list". And the woman on the bed suffers, the baby suffers, the world suffers on a level we may never fully comprehend.

Coming Soon....Part II - We're not taking it anymore! What women are doing to regain their reproductive rights. Childbirth is a human rights issue.

NOTE: This brought up emotions, writing it and reading it. Maybe you were a victim sometime in your life. That day we were powerless and today we are powerful. This is a new day. Cellular memory is one reason that I feel so strongly about this subject. If you had a Cesarean Birth and you had a positive experience, I am happy for you. I in no way mean to insult you or take away from those memories of your precious baby's birth day. This is in no way a medical piece, just my ramblings. I am happy to read your birth story, blog, etc. and dialog with you below or by email. -Rosie

Episiotomies - a thing of the past
http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr03-31-06-2.cfm