OPEN!

Yes. Being THAT open can be painful. Being vulnerable, raw, open to change, opening your heart and your arms to welcome a new life is almost always an intense, powerful, painful, and mind blowing experience.

http://wonderfullymadebelliesandbabies.blogspot.com/

I wonder why we call childbirth "Labor" instead of "Open"? "She's in labor", is what we often hear. "She's opening, it's her birthing time" resonates more with me. What words would you like to use? How can we change the language around birth to better draw a visual picture of woman's power and beauty during her opening time? Much of the way we communicate has changed in recent years. Many new words have been born. Some old words have died. Some old words carry new meaning today. I propose that we rethink the words we associate with birth. As part of the work we are doing to improve birth I believe language around birth must be considered. Childbirth is about opening! It is eye opening for sure! Discovering how you got here, how your mom opened for you to be born is eye opening. Discovering how 300,000 women are opening every day to birth their precious baby is eye opening especially when you are one of those women on the day you give birth. The day you OPEN.

Your doula will encourage you to go for it! Be courageous, allow yourself to OPEN.

Your doula will not judge you if you want to take it nice and slow. You are going to OPEN in your time. Not your husbands time. Not your doctors time. Not even the worlds time. Actually I often think THERE IS NO time in birth. Only opening. Lots of opening.

You should know this too. That when you are opening and your mouth opens, and your instinct may be to bite something or someone, your doula will be watching closely so that you won't bite your partner or your doula. In the photo above it is possible that the working woman is at that place where biting may be her instinct. This is just one of the little things that people don't talk much about. We may have a good laugh about this moment at our postpartum meeting. But it's not really dinner party talk (except for in doula groups). This biting story is one that slips into the footnotes of your birth story and is soon forgotten....except by your doula. ♥

Something else.

When looking at the photo above what do you see?  I see a woman pushing her baby out. She is working hard. Please look again at this image and imagine with me that this woman just crossed the finish line after running a full marathon. Imagine her partner is just giving her a towel and helping her dry her wet, sweaty, cramping body as she's bent over catching her breath. Image she is SO relieved to have crossed the finish line that she is crying. Pause. How does the marathon story make you feel (feel in your gut)? Inspired? Marathon runners invoke admiration and positive emotions from most of us.  Why is it that very different feelings, like sympathy and fear, surface for many people when they realize this is a photo of childbirth?

What else do you see in this photo?  As I notice the woman who is bent over, working hard, I also notice that she has 'another woman' by her side and that woman is CLOSE to her. The other woman is leaning in to assist the working woman with something. This helper looks confident to me.  She probably loves the working woman. The helping woman looks like she has done this before.  To me the dude appears to have a furrowed brow. He may have never been in this position before. He is loving and willing (he's there isn't he?) but he may be baffled and a little disturbed by this emotional, raw, display by his loved one. Another thing I notice is that the working woman is encircled by support and love. This is the thing she will remember. Even more than her gold medal. In twenty years as she is driving down the street she will be daydreaming of that finish line and remember her power and she will remember these two people. Or she will be overcoming another life hurdle and remember her successful work on this day. She will draw from the power of this day. She will remember to call on a support circle and she will face this new hurdle with confidence. ♥

In My Lifetime I Wish To See Change In Hospital Birth

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/breathe-maryann-cleary.html

Dear Friends of the Birth,

For 35 years I have been observing the culture of birth in America. I  have waited and hoped for change, specifically that the hospital system would change, become flexible and more respectful of women; especially in regards to birth, a non-illness. I am tired of waiting and hoping. Women are more afraid of giving birth today than at any time in history. Why? With all the 21st century medical advances, all the yoga, health food, independent thinking, healers, spirituality, and the information highway at our finger tips, why is there so much fear and misinformation around the simple act of having a baby? How did this happen? Who is at fault?

I can tell you this, I had three babies, plop, plop, plop.  In 1977, 1979 and 1984. It wasn't a big deal. Yes those babies changed the world, rocked my world (and still do), but I wasn't scared, I was confident! When did women lose confidence?

Listen

I am sad to report that I was treated with more respect when I recently had gall bladder surgery than  my last doula client was treated when she went to a local hospital to give birth. Truth be told, I've seen much improvement in some hospitals. Much improvement is not near enough.  Every day I hear about doctors threatening to induce labor, doctors encouraging women to schedule Cesarean Section for non-medical reasons, nurses and doctors not getting informed consent and not giving accurate information to parents about newborn procedures, hospital policy, and patient rights. I continue to have hope that you and I will see true change as we  work on the activist front to change policy, as we seek continued education for ourselves, and as we continue to educate all people, every age group, every sex, every walk of life, about births joy-power-holiness, and work together to spread healing, love and unity among women worldwide.

Breathe

What I started to say was that every time I see nurses begin to get "flexible", first allowing one odd request from mom or dad and eventually respecting all mom's birth wishes (2 wishes this nurse never heard of and 6 wishes that are not standard procedure), policy makers, the people with power, the people with money (that control this wonderful nurses paycheck), seem to catch wind and slam that door shut. The hospital policy makers (insurance company and hospital administration) instill fear and put pressure on these well meaning hospital workers to be more policy compliant and unmovable. I think the money holders (who may know nothing about birth) have been under the impression that they will save money and make more money by welding their power and by dictating time saving procedures. After all time is money and SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures) save time. The day you give birth is a day you will never forget - ever! Is this day a day you want someone to snap their fingers and say, "Time is money honey"? On your honeymoon did the hotel give you a wake-up call to tell you to hurry up, time is money? Nope.

Except in the birth world.

If pregnant families come together and realize their power; that taking their birth business to family-friendly hospitals and birth centers, birth places that are known to honor women, honor birth, flex and bend with each unique family being born, they will make the almighty dollar speak volumes to "that other hospital"! We might have a chance. Move the money to the places willing to bend, willing to co-care, willing to respect birth as a normal physiological process, and we might have a chance for reform...hopefully in my lifetime.

I know. It's not that easy. I over simplify. Insurance. Ugh. Some times, often times, people have to change their insurance to birth in that place that is safe.  What? They didn't know all this before they got pregnant? Oops. They can't change insurance company mid-pregnancy? Now what? Do we go back to cash and carry? Put the cash down, carry the baby home? Why can we buy a new car with nothing down but can't have a baby on a payment plan? Why not? Who said? Ask for it, negotiate.

Okay. Honest engine. Hospitals are for sick people anyway. You can afford your homebirth midwife. Re-read the title of this blog. Do you wonder why I want change in hospital birth only, not all birth? Because I don't see the atrocities that I see at hospitals at home birth. I see confident women at home, being respected, listened to, honored, and loved and I see superior medical care being given and received at home births. Side note: Homebirth is Green 

Stay home to birth.

Still for those women whose pregnancy is high risk or whose baby is high risk and they need to be in a hospital, it's time for a recall. Let's recall scare tactics, pompous attitudes, hierarchy, power structure, tier of importance with the money being on the top and the woman being on the bottom. Let's rework the archaic over lording by some unseen unknown great and mighty wizard. Let's rewire old beliefs, and remodel the hospital experience.

Time to rethink the system, redesign our priorities, reform birth.

Yeah, that's what I meant to say.

Oh just one more thing. Please go to The Birth Survey and take this survey. Please rate your MD everywhere you can, like Yelp and  @ http://www.ratemds.com/ ~ Thank you.♀

Part II - A Birth Revolution

 The song Times They are a Changin by Bob Dylan came to mind this morning.



Change is a given, a constant. Many of my favorite quotes are about change.

Although much of the recent change in my life is good I am feeling nostalgic and missing some things about the old days, when I was a younger doula, when some of my doula friends, now midwives, were still doulas moving towards a path in midwifery and I wondered if I would do the same.

One song begat another and Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds is consoling to me. I know there's a time to every purpose under heaven. I preach about "a time to be born".  I even buy my doula clients a bracelet with the charms that depict a time to be born, a time to cry, a time of peace, a time to embrace, and a time to plant.



Today is a time to embrace change, a time to apply change to the "time to be born". As it turns out the time to be a birth doula still keeps me busy, feeds my soul. And the time to become a midwife never manifested itself. My heart is brimming with love for my doula work, my clients.

As I finished reminiscing, and thoughts return to this day, I find my heart racing.  But not because of the hectic pace, the fast crazy schedules we keep, but because along with the changed color of my hair and shape of my body BIRTH IS CHANGING!!! I've been working and waiting for 35 years for birth to change. It actually got much worse for many years.

Today I believe that Birth is getting better.

Does it sound like I'm speaking of a sick friend, "getting better"? Yes, Birth she was dying.

This peace loving hippy chick is also an activist, not unlike our anti war rioting 60's friends. I am a part of society that has witnessed the effects of birth abused and I say, "NO MORE!" 

HOW WE GOT HERE
Everyone knows about the women who fought for the right to vote in 1920.  What some don't know is that we even had to fight for the right to be administered drugs in childbirth in 1848. For some birthing women, in some situations, anesthesia is very helpful.  And the drugs were available, just not to birthing women! What? Why did doctors feel that women 'deserved' any pain they experienced in childbirth? They believed that God ordained it because of a misinterpretation of Bible scripture.  The doctors that swore an oath to 'do no harm' did not hold the birthing woman's hand and say, "You are strong, you can do this.  You are safe, your baby is safe." Instead it was the general opinion that God cursed women. Let's get this straight once and for all! As a Bible believing Christian I have studied these scriptures. I have found that the common interpretation, "I will greatly increase your pain in childbirth" is incorrect. It is clear that the translator's cultural beliefs have biased his judgment. The Hebrew word "etzev" correctly translated is 'work', labor is work, not necessarily painful, but definitely work. I probably would've been fighting along side these women for the right to receive anesthesia in childbirth. When we won that right, we of course embraced the anesthesia and encouraged liberated women around the country to do the same.

But it all went awry. A few years later women had forgot how amazing their birthing bodies were, how normal birth could be, what an important right of passage birth is. It wasn't long before birth had become big business. The poor wanted what the rich had ~ the numbing drugs in birth.  That lead to us losing many of our beloved midwife's. We did it to ourselves.  Yes, the money machine and the the fact that man has always fought to be in control (control of nations, control of women) played a big part in women losing control of their God given birth right. That men could not give birth and could not understand it has played a big part in the near demise of birth too. If you don't understand it, and you can't control it, KILL IT. This was their ways (think American Indians)! And so while many of our great grandmothers did give birth at home, assisted by other women, many of our grandmothers and mothers were knocked out, tied down, left alone, berated, and talked down to during our births. They were talked down to so doctors, most of who were men, could 1)make more money 2)feel important, in charge type dictators, and 3)ultimately get more women into their hospitals and get more power and money. The outcome was women who feared birth. These women told their daughters horrible stories about birth and the spiraling effect is what we have today, an almost 50% Cesarean Section rate, a dangerous situation.  When cesarean rate is over 15% we are doing more harm than good.

I was lucky. My mom loved having babies! My own father was born at home. As a preemie he was put in a shoebox and in the oven to be kept warm. That sounded logical to me. Not such a big deal. When I was a little girl my mom brought me home a fresh sweet baby every other year or so until her health failed and she could not safely have more babies. Even then in 1965 my mother was admonished by her Catholic priest for even thinking about taking birth control! And my Father had to sneak to have a vasectomy for fear the church would find out! But I was fortunate to have a mom who loved babies and birth. I was also raised on a farm where the various animals gave birth to lots of babies. I was 'called' into birth work after I gave birth to my own children and the whole enchilada came together.  The mysteries of childbirth were uncovered for me. The injustices of childbirth were exposed. And the wrongs needed to be righted!!!

A NEW WAY
Many women today are dedicated to reviving birth, healing it's woes, exercising their birthing bones and feeding that developing primitive wild woman within! That wild woman has been suppressed for too long. Many men, seeing the harm done to their women and  babies, and the long term consequences of that harm, are also dedicated to reviving birth!

The result is A NEW WOMEN'S MOVEMENT HAS BEEN BORN!  This is being called A BIRTH REVOLUTION!  Women are taking back their birth right. Our reproductive rights were addressed years ago but our right to birth where we want, how we want, with whoever we want, has only today become YOUR RIGHT. The European Court of Human Rights, in December 2010, stated that childbirth is a fundamental human right. Women have the human right to choose how, where, and with whom they want to give birth. The Court held that governments cannot use the force of law to take away their options.

On May 31 and June 1, 2012, over 300 men and women gathered at The Hague University in The Hague, The Netherlands, for a conference on  Human Rights in Childbirth to discuss what it means for childbirth to be a human right and what conditions are necessary that can truly give women the right to control their own bodies. The film, Freedom For Birth: The Mothers Revolution,  includes interviews with over forty birth experts from four continents and with civil rights attorneys who spoke about the new context in which the violation of women’s rights in childbirth can now be framed. Human rights are universal rights*.

While this film contains shocking cases of birthing mothers rights abused, if you don't see it, I do not have the words to paint the tragic picture. Many eyes are being opened, many women are tired of being lied to, tired of being cut when unnecessary Cesareans happen, angry that their struggle to mother their children in a depressed fog was caused by a system that is broken. Many women have gone on to have Vaginal Births After Cesarean, when their doctor told them they couldn't do it.  Many women have discovered that their bodies are indeed beautiful, powerful, able to create orgasms and babies in one full breath! And able to create the best food for their young, breast milk! It's powerful and it has me dancing in the street with my woman friends.

It has me crying with joy when I hug a new born mommy.

This Birth Revolution does not mean that hospitals are bad. I love some wonderful OBGYN's and I'm grateful for the compassionate care they give to the women with high risk pregnancies or the women that choose hospital as their birth place. The Birth Revolution means that insurance companies and hospital administrators need to rewrite protocol to be inline with todays (most current) studies. There is clear evidence that disproves many of the current maternity care practices. Here are four examples:

1. Induction for non medical reasons -with proper care, the need for induction (which is a chemical interruption and acceleration of a natural process of the body) is only necessary less than 1/3 of the time that it happens in the USA. http://www.scienceandsensibility.org/?p=5294
2. No automatic EFM (External Fetal Monitor) - Research has shown that women that use continuous EFM are 1.7 times more likely to have a Cesarean or have assisted birth with forceps or suction than women that are monitored with intermittent auscultation. http://icpa4kids.org/Wellness-Research/Electronic-Fetal-Monitoring/
3. Women should be free to eat throughout labor - http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD003930/eating-and-drinking-in-labour
4. Women's choice of birthing position - women should push in any position they find comfortable– it is not necessary to be continuously upright or continuously lying down during the pushing phase. http://evidencebasedbirth.com/what-is-the-evidence-for-pushing-positions/

WHEN LOOKING AT SCIENCE DON'T DISCOUNT CHOICE AND COMPASSION
This revolution is not a frivolous or self indulgent cause. I believe it is critical to our planets well-being. I cannot figure out why more money is given to save other threatened species. I cannot figure out why most people know more about our warming planet, and other ecological crisis than the crisis of human birth and the crisis's that are born of misunderstood and mistreated birthing women. Why am I so passionate? What motivated me? I've been witness to power abuse in the birth room. I have heard mommies cry in sorrow when they retell the story of their precious baby's birth. I have also heard mommies who cry with joy and ecstasy as they tell of their baby's birth. I've seen a 14 year old girl healed by the compassionate actions and words of a midwife, after a life of abuse. As an abused child myself I believe birth was the catalyst for my own  healing. I experienced my power and it was bigger than my abuser, I took the power of love for my baby and turned it into the power of self love!

I am passionate because I know life is a miracle, how fragile life is! I've held three angel babies in my 11 years as a birth doula. I've had other angel babies born to clients that I did nor hold but I spoke to these babies often when they were in their mommy's belly. One does not forget that experience. Ask any mom who's lost a baby...at any age of gestation. We never forget. I thank God for progress in medicine and for Neonatal Intensive Care Units and their nurses who's specialty is working with these little ones who need their help. I also thank God for the scientist that conduct the studies and provide proof that there's a better way for all people to enter the world. At whatever age we live to and at whatever time we die, don't we want choice, compassion and love at every turn?

After it's all said and done (studies, riots, rally's and court cases) today's Birth Revolution means that women, all women, will have the last word, complete control of their body, their birth and their babies. If a woman is planning a home birth with a midwife and her baby mysteriously dies (yes, death is a part of life, science doesn't have all the answers) in utero she should not be pressured to go to hospital to birth. She will still give birth. This birth is still a sacred event. Her baby is still her baby. Can she be surrounded by loved ones, in her environment, her food, her smells, her comforts? Can she birth HER baby into her hands? Can she meet her baby in privacy, grieve in private?
Yes.

And if this same woman chooses to birth this baby angel in a hospital should she be considered any less loving, compassionate, or sensible?
No.

As a birth doula I've known women that prefer to go to hospital to have their incomplete miscarriage.  I've also known women that have chosen to stay at home and wait until nature takes it's course.  Is one way right and one way wrong? Why? For who?  This line of thinking is the same for a healthy pregnant woman, who's baby is thriving. She may choose to stay at home to birth, her sister may choose to go to hospital, her girlfriend may go to a hotel or a friends house or a birth centre. What is right for one woman is not right for all women. What is right for you is your RIGHT! You are right. Don't let anyone tell you different.

There is no wrong way to birth. So why then do women often feel like they did something wrong? Maybe because of the way our society has inherited the "bad girl" crap. Or maybe our own sisters, neighbors, church, and family have told us what is right or wrong for OUR OWN bodies and OUR OWN births for too long.

Women of Earth Take Back Your Birth! OWN IT!

I've got a resolution - go to the Improving Birth website, read about us and join the revolution.

After years of planting and weeding we are beginning to see a good crop of strong sustainable birth practices be born. May you reap a joyful birth experience! This Thanksgiving I am contemplating the harvest and thankful for the people all around the world that have worked hard for the blessing of birth ~ as God intended.


a bit more nostalgia...sing along.


*http://www.vbac.com/2012/09/only-women-have-the-legal-authority-to-decide-how-where-and-with-whom-they-want-to-give-birth-2/

This is Part II of II ~ to Read Part I go to I'm Not Making This Crap Up

Please Walk

Walking isn't a very exciting subject. I have two sisters who run full marathons. I have an active family; two sons who play basketball, surf, snowboard, etc. Now that's exciting!

Me?  I walk.

But today's post is not about me. You guessed it, this is about pregnancy. I would like to encourage you pregnant mommies to walk. Not go to the gym. Not go to yoga. Just walk.  Let's look at the benefits of walking.

1. You don't have to get in a car.  The postures one uses sitting in a car and driving a car are not conducive to optimal fetal positioning.

2. It's free - No gym memberships, no babysitters needed, no special clothing to purchase!

3. It's safe - unless you are walking to your bungee jump location.

4. Fun for everyone - You can take your young children, elderly parents, friends (even your partner!)

There are countless wonderful things about walking. Honestly for being such a wonderful city, for having such wonderful weather, San Diegans don't walk as much as New Yorkers and others. Europeans walk much more (flights of stairs even). I am guilty, although not pregnant I am guilty of falling out of my walking routine too easily.  But when I was pregnant I walked.  I regularly walked up the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Yale to be exact, in Colorado! That labor was 3 hours long.  Hmm.  I know from where I speak.

Today I see many babies start labor in a presentation that does not make it easy on Mommy.  Or I see babies whose labor does not start before 42 weeks. I also see babies who's labors are long, on again off again, type labors.  In many of these cases I believe that our life style is the culprit.  Please read Breech Babies: Is There Anything You Can Do? even if you are not carrying a breech baby (only 3-4% of babies will be born breech), you should read this. Especially page two, #3, where we learn that "Sitting results in tight psoas muscles, which in turn prevent the pelvis and uterus from maintaining biomechanical neutral. Reducing sitting time is crucial during that last trimester...." and "Really active women who get their exercise every day still tend to sit quite a bit. So we want to make sure that even active ladies reduce their sitting time. The only way to reduce your sitting time is walking. There are other suggestions like if you work in an office put in a standing work station.

Optimal Foetal Positioning
If I am your doula you know about OFP. I give a quick course on how to encourage your baby in utero (in the womb) to position in a LOA (left occiput anterior) position.  I recently had a client with a baby who was persistent LOP (left occiput posterior), causing mom a very painful labor and ultimately a cesarean section. There is a reason baby's choose the position they do. Even beyond doing lots of position changes and spinning babies moves, there are other muscles and ligaments that may play into a baby's position, even when pelvis is aligned and "generous" (doctor talk). That 'other' thing is called our psoas (pronounced so-as).

Psoas Resoultion
What? Wow just when I thought I knew something about something psoas gets thrown at me. Until recently I had never heard of my psoas muscles.  I am grateful to my ever expanding family of professional birth workers who keep me on my toes. As it turns out, the information I found out about psoas is good for life, men, women, young and old!  The Psoas is a large pair of muscles from the spine between the pelvis and the ribs that wrap like cradling wings around to the front of the pelvis and drop down to attach at the lower end to the top of the thigh bone. They help us walk upright, support our abdominal organs. Here's a picture (below)

As you can see this muscle is a intrical part of our pelvis, your baby's first cradle. You really want this muscle to be healthy and loose and tension free when making room for baby to descend and be born.
 
There is more about how to release any tension stored in the psoas on Gail Tully's website, http://www.spinningbabies.com/techniques/activities-for-fetal-positioning/psoas-muscle-release (LOVE YOU GAIL!!).  Gail shares a video by Liz Koch. This video is waaaay out there even for me! But read the last paragraph at the end of this page and see if this catches your attention. It's time to become familiar with our psoas!

"The Psoas holds the key for accessing instinctual wisdom so essential for a resilient natural birth process." -Liz Koch

Another way to help ourselves during pregnancy is going to Craniosacral Therapy. If you are not familiar with Craniosacral Therapy read Carol Gray's work, http://www.carolgray.com/carolgray/Craniosacral_Therapy.html

Chiropractors are great too, especially ones that are Webster Certified.

For Craniosacral Therapist and Webster Certified Chiropractors in San Diego please refer to my friend Carol Yeh-Garner's resource list. She is listed in my resources here on my blog. Her website is called A Well Lived Life! How cool is that?!

Happy Birthing, Rosie

"Beautiful Day For A Baby!"

Stay tuned, a great movie is coming out! If you loved reading Spiritual Midwifery, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, or Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesta, you will love this movie. Here is the Trailer.






Two filmmaking mothers have given birth to this beautiful film.  Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore were inspired by the important work of world-famous midwife Ina May Gaskin and her incredible colleagues. They spent the last two and a half years juggling cameras, microphones, hard drives, preschool drop offs, nursing infants, pregnancy, editing schedules, babysitting schedules, American express bills, and vomiting four-year-olds, and as they say, "We are now ready, we are finally pushing this baby out!"
 
At the Los Angeles Film Fest Premire this movie won the AUDIENCE AWARD




If you haven't read Ina May's work go here.

If you want to purchase the movie donate $25 towards it's completion and circulation by clicking  here.

After watching this movie, if you think to yourself, like I did years ago, "Oh I wish I could have my baby on The Farm" (this is where the movie takes place and Ina May catches babies), I hope you know that there is a lovely, many lovely, qualified home birth midwives in your neighborhood. I believe you have the power to create the type of birth you desire. Heck when your baby was just a twinkle in your eye you had enough energy to create her, conceive her! With God's help you can keep that good woman power flowing. I found my Farm birth and so can you. Believe. 


God bless you, Rosie

I Think My Water Broke!

"I think my water just broke!"

Have you heard those words? If you are the dad, what did you do, how did you feel when your pregnant wife said, "I think my water just broke!"?

If you ARE the pregnant woman that has had water running down your legs or woke up to that "Pop!" and water puddling in your bed, what were your first thoughts? How did you feel? Did your surges start right away or gradually?

This event fascinates me because it never happened to me. My waters never released until very active labor.  Most women are not in the 8-12% who experience Spontaneous Rupture of Membranes (SROM). Sadly, to be honest, I believe that my care providers must have ruptured my bag of waters, with all three of my children, even my homebirth midwife.  Sigh. It must have been while I was pushing or late in my labor because I don't remember it.  I wish care providers would just leave waters intact and we could see if baby was to be born in the caul (amniotic membrane intact, or baby still in a layer of amnion). These 'born in the caul' babies are said to be especially blessed.

So what do YOU do if your waters rupture, release, break?

Good to Note: Time, Amount (not precisely) Color and Odor (or lack of)

In your childbirth class you learned the acronym was TACO.

Okay, NOW What?

I used to teach that if it's a big gush of water, like a wave of water, it's good to go see your care provider and have baby checked. He/She will double check that there is no cord compression which would compromise baby's oxygen flow/heart rate.  But with a slow leak you could stay at home and wait for labor to begin and get well established.  A slow leak would mean that your baby's head is well applied to the cervix or low enough in the pelvis to prevent a cord prolapse. Some doctors are conservative and want every mom with any liquid coming out to get to hospital. They don't feel like leaving anything open for interpretation or up to the non-professional. One person's 'leak' can be another person's "gush" and vice versa.  That would be fine and most women I know would be happy to go to their doctors or midwife's office and get baby checked except for the fact that once there the doctor may not want to let the mom go home, even if baby sounds good and all is well. When a Mama wishes to have a unmedicated or undisturbed birth or even the least intervention possible, staying in a hospital room with no contractions creates tremendous pressure on her. It's like being a watched pot. And we all know "a watched pot never boils".  I had a doula client who's waters released and she had no contractions or surges. Eventually she called to notify her care provider who said, "Come in". She was determined to get checked and then go back home.  At home she planned to wait for contractions, sleep in her own bed, eat her own food and do intimate things that encourage labor.  She soon found out that the doctor would not release her without her signing an AMA form (Against Medical Advice). She was ready to sign it but thought to call her insurance company first. She found out that her insurance company would not cover her if she signed the AMA. If the birth was straight forward the cost would be no problem (only a few thousand dollars). But if there were unforeseen complications and a cesarean section, the cost would be prohibitive!

Thank God this Mama's labor started soon after admission to hospital, progressed quickly and baby was born vaginally and within the hospitals time limit protocol. Sadly, this is not the case for many women.

Today I read a great webpage! Yup, this page ain't it. But I often share the great ones here so don't complain. Here it is...Kim James, long time and well respected Certified Birth Doula and Childbirth Educator has a great page titled:  My Water Broke But I'm Not In Labor. Now What?  Below is a very accurate example of what I've seen numerous times.  This is an example of what a difference your health care provider can make. Choose your doctor or midwife carefully. They are NOT all the same.

In my Doula Video Library I have a short 10 min. video of a mom who's waters release but her labor doesn't start.  In this video, The Birth of Sabine, the mom and dad, Stephanie and James, discuss options with their midwives and decide to wait and allow labor to start spontaneously, naturally. Every day they take moms temperature to make sure there is no infection, midwife checks on baby (externally and FHR only - no vaginal exam), and the couple tries different natural ways to encourage labor. A week later labor starts spontaneously and dad helps catch his daughter Sabine, who is born in water. There is no talking, it's all put to lovely music. I like to learn that way.

If you want to borrow the movie, email me. If you would like to buy a copy here is the link to my friend and movie maker, Diana Paul's work: Love Delivers
Below is a clip of the movie, THE BIRTH OF SABINE

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."

Birth News!

On December 3rd I was witness to the birth of an adorable 8 lb. 9 oz. baby boy and a new family. It was also my birthday. The laboring mama and papa sang happy birthday to me as the clock struck midnight and then together we sang happy birthday to the worlds newest member ten hours later. Dad popped the champagne and we toasted to a their son and his wonderful birth! It was the best birthday breakfast this doula has ever had! In other birth news, San Diego Moms, Doulas, Midwifes and professionals held a Rally for Change in front of Sharp Mary Birch Hospital on December 17, 2011. Here is a picture of me at the Rally playing with Mykael Richards baby girl, Miss Annalise. To read more about our human rights march you can go to to the Rally for Change on facebook.

Our goal is to bring awareness to the rising c-section rates in this country. We are asking for evidence based care that is based on scientific studies, not tradition or "doctor convenience" based care. We also ask for full informed consent for every procedure and/or drug that is suggested or offered so that patients know the full benefits and risks to make an evidenced based decision on their care. We ask that it also be explained that 40-50% of inductions do not work and that may lead to a c-section. We ask that induction drugs that are NOT FDA approved for women and pregnancy stop being used as it increased the risk of maternal death and infant heart abnormalities and brain damage. We ask that policies be changed to reflect scientific studies on the following: 1. Allowing mothers to labor at home as long as possible 2. Allowing labor to start on it's own within 24 hrs of water rupturing as long as mother and baby are within normal range 3. Allowing mothers to eat and drink during labor 4. Allowing intermittent monitoring of fetal heart tones 5. Allowing mobility during labor 6. Allowing different pushing positions(birth stools, squatting, standing) other than on the patients back 7. Allowing delayed cord clamping until cord has finished pulsating 8. Allowing skin to skin contact for the first two hours after birth or until the first breastfeeding Evidence DOES NOT support elective c-sections or elective inductions. Evidence supports that mothers are not postdate until 42 weeks and induction should not be forced upon mothers before that time as long as mother and baby are within normal range. VBACs(Vaginal Births After Caesareans) should be accepted and fully supported as evidence for rupture is minimal. VBACS should be the standard.

Doula Dawn Thompson headed up the Rally and will be continuing in this effort with a soon to be up webpage and national and global initiative.  Stay tuned!

The next noteworthy item is that CNN Hero of the Year 2011 winner is Midwife, Robin Lim! If you haven't met Robin please click on this link and see her accept her award. Also look around at all the CNN Hero's. There are many amazing nominees which makes Robin's achievement that much more noteworthy. As Robin is quoted saying,

"Every baby's first breath on Earth could be one of peace and love. Every mother should be healthy and strong. Every birth could be safe and loving. But our world is not there yet."

Model Christy Turlington Burns writes about her visit to Robin's clinic in Indonesia in this Huffington Post story, My hero, Ibu Robin Lim. Robin's award makes me hopeful that mothers in my town, my country and my world will be safer during birth, be treated with more dignity and respect and that birth will be treated like a Human Rights issue that it is.

Now my most favorite midwife in the whole world (and I love many) is Ina May Gaskin and I saved the best for last as far as noteworthy birth news! The Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called a alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize, is awarded for outstanding vision and work on behalf of our planet and its people. This year Ina May Gaskin was one of the four Laureates! You can read about the other winners at The Right Livelihood Award webpage and you can watch Ina May's acceptance speech here.

“… for her whole-life’s work teaching and advocating safe, woman-centred childbirth methods that best promote the physical and mental health of mother and child.“

Bravo Ina May! And as Ina May would say, Bravo to all the men, women and mothers of the world who fight to birth their baby's in safety and peace and help their sisters, daughters, neighbors birth their babies into a better world.

Quotation ”A society that places a low value on its mothers and the process of birth will suffer an array of negative repercussions for doing so. Good beginnings make a positive difference in the world, so it is worth our while to provide the best possible care for mothers and babies throughout this extraordinarily influential part of life.” Ina May Gaskin

What is Your Position?

You can pretty much tell what Rixa's position is by the name of her blog, Stand and Deliver. Here is another position on Positions in Labor by Musings of a Montreal doula. But what is your position? Have you given birth? What position did you prefer at the time of the birth of your baby? If you have not had a baby, what positions do you like to sleep in? have sex in? This will give you a clue to the position you might like to give birth in. Your answer is probably, "various positions". And so it is with birth. What if someone told you that you don't have a choice in the position you sleep in. You don't have a choice in the position that you have sex in! I would probably be a sleepy, grouchy, half crazy person if someone told me that. But that is what women have been told for years. Women in America and many parts of the world have been told what position they can and cannot birth in. NO MORE!

I have given much thought on why my town has such a high epidural rate, a high cesarean rate and why many women I talk to do not embrace "natural childbirth". I believe now that the reason women have scoffed at my "crazy natural childbirth" passion is because they could not bare the pain that birthing on their back creates. I cannot blame them. I blame the doctors (male and female), the culture, the traditions that are outdated, archaic. Women, Birthers, you are todays consumers, you are hiring (or firing) your health care providers, you can help all future women. Birth is a business above all (strange as that may sound), By demanding the customer (you) be served in a way that is both healthy and more comfortable you can create a new herstory, a new paridiam!

Please read a wonderful article by my friend Jill, Latin American Countries Campaign for Access to Vertical Birth
I am jumping on the band wagon today before another day goes by. As a long distant internet friend is about to give birth I promised myself to join her in information sharing, freeing, blogging, about this important movement - the subject of movement in childbirth! It's all here in Rixa's blog, Birth Around the World, Vertical Birth

I am 'standing' on the sidelines here applauding and endorsing these smart, brave women who have all their ducks in a row; the studies, degrees, and technical savy to write to you. I am here to point you in their direction and I am here to talk to you if you ever want to talk about your patient rights, birthing options, safety and normalcy of birth, pain coping techniques and my Doula work. I am here to applaud you and encourage you and your family when your time to birth comes. Please take comfort in the facts shared in the referenced blogs and websites I share. And take comfort in knowing that your body was made to give birth, that birth is a healthy normal process and that moving to the beat of your babies heart and moving to the sound of your own drummer, your bodies inner knowing, you will find a comfort more powerful than any drug or any doula. You will find your way.

The movie, A Timeless Way, shows that throughout time women gave birth in the upright position. Parts of the movie can be seen on YouTube.

Part I - Birth From Ancient Times

Part II - Birth Images from the 1800's

Part III - European Birth Images from the 1500's

Recuperando la posicion vertical is a sensational video you can see on YouTube. Translated it means: Humanized Birth: Retrieving the Verical Position

Spirt-Led Birth writes about the video below here

Here Spirit-Led writer, Susana Fierro-Baig, translates it for us:

"A woman should have her baby in the position she chooses."

"Walking and moving freely makes the baby's head push the cervic to produce more oxytocin."

"Dancing soothes the mama and favors the productionof endorphins. Childbirth is less painful."

"The movement and pressure of the baby relax the pelvic floor muscles and facilitates dilitacion, rotation, and decent."

"With movement the contractions are more effective, you can share with your partner, and the waiting time is more pleasant."

"The birth canal when the baby descends becomes wider, there is less trauma and possibilities of complications."

"The mother is the protagonist, has an active role and can change position and adopt the best position."

"Women throughout history have opted instinctively for the vertical position at the time of delivery."

"The vertical position makes for more effective uterine contractions, avoids using synthetic oxytocin (pitocin). Less risk."

"The vertical position causes the mother to feel more comfortable. It facilitates teh encounter with her baby."

"By finding the most comfortable position and physiological delivery occurs naturally, cesareans are avoided."

"A phyiological position allows uniform and spontaneous dilation of the perineum, avoiding episiotomy and tears."

"When mothers opt to have their baby on their knees, there is less pressure in large vessels and a better oxygenation to the baby."

"A woman may choose to hold onto a sheet which is done in indigenous communities since time immemorial."

"In conclusion women should choose the position, with liberty and peace, but the equestion arises."

"If the vertical position is the most convenient (for mothers), why do they continue lying mothers down during labor and delivery?"

It Ain't Right!

Today I read Childbirth Videos: Helpful or Hard to Watch? , another good article on the dilemma I've been thinking about for some time. I think it is valuable for women of all ages, men too, to know how babies are born. It is too bad that many movies present birth as a dramatic event, when often times birth is down right boring. Oops! Did I just say that? Did no one ever tell you that? Boring. Birth is boring. Heck, not to the mom who is giving birth, not to the daddy waiting to catch his baby and not to me who is a birth nut (and you if you are reading this). But if one is not aware that there is a very holy thing happening when a new person is born, if a birth attendant is not in love with this family then they should not be in the room. They will be bored. If you are just looking at the mechanics of birth and not the LOVE quotient then birth is boring. It's like watching people make love. Do you look the other way or stare at Public Displays of Affection? I don't know many people that stare. That's how birth should be. Janet Isaacs Ashford wrote Natural Love: A Parody. It's a fictional account of newlyweds Kate and Sam, who take a class in "prepared love," and are admitted to the hospital's "natural love room." But many intrusions by staff and the use of monitoring devices cause things to go awry and their love must be mechanically resolved.

Recently I viewed Shiloh's quick and peaceful water birth. I realized my favorite births and birth videos and teaching tools involve births where you never see the baby's head crowning. I like to think that this baby was conceived in private, grew in mommy's belly in private and will be mothered the rest of his life in private (for the most part). Why should this baby be born into strangers hands with mom in an uncomfortable position, spread eagle, splayed out, for the convenience of this stranger, doctor, catcher????

In my town there is a television news commentator and investigative reporter, named Turko. Everyone in Southern California knows about The Turko Files. The slogan and quip this commentator uses is, "It Ain't Right". He goes on to right wrongs, seeking justice for the everyday citizen. "It Ain't Right!" keeps ringing in my head when I watch women birthing on their backs. Call me a Turko want-to-be but these women are made to look like turkeys; on their back, feet in stirrups, sometimes with strangers hands up all the way up the birth canal, vagina, baby slide, whatever you want to call it, not unlike a turkey. It's not right! I got angry the other night and my boyfriend joined in the list of funny and not-so-funny reasons that this supine positioning for birth is so WRONG. He said something hilarious (side note: he's the funniest man on the planet!), I laughed so hard I started crying and then I did cry. When will hospitals let women birth intuitively, in whatever position is good for the mom (which usually means it's the position baby needs too)? Get off your back! How many of us have only had sex on our back? Okay sometimes maybe, but always???? Nope.

Last week I had the honor of attending a woman's homebirth. She gave birth to her baby in a small deep warm pool of water. During her labor she always made great progress when we left her alone, in the privacy of her bedroom, with her man. During the birth she stayed in the middle of the pool (in her kitchen) providing herself an isolated space, where no one could interfere with her work. It was even hard for the midwife to reach her belly to take fetal heart tones (but of course the midwife did get FHT, looking like a trapeze artist, balancing on the pools edge!). We (the midwife, father, doula) never saw this Mama's bottom, perineum, vagina, as baby was born. Mom was in a sqatting position in the middle of the pool, with HER hand on her yoni. Mom felt her baby crown and only after baby's head was born did the dad and midwife help by supporting baby's head (not pulling on it). We saw baby's cute face through the water but we did not see Mama's vagina. Nope, there was no need to be staring at this birthing woman's vagina! Then mom pushed out the body and then received her baby.

Side Note: after mom got out of water, she went to bed to birth the placenta. After a while the midwife checked her perineum for lacerations. No repair was needed. I was not present, it was very private. No extra people staring at this angelic Mommy's vagina! She just had a beautiful, hard but beautiful, Home Birth After Cesarean.

Since we no longer live in small towns where neighbors look out for each other like in early settler days, days when women cared for each other in childbirth, strong brave women rolled up their sleeves, came in from the fields and birthed their young or helped a neighbor give birth (they were not delivered), it is almost impossible for most of us to know that women don't birth on their backs. If left to your own instincts where would you birth? Who knows? I had two hospital births and one homebirth, all on my back. I was conditioned. I was compliant. I was fortunate back then, 25 years ago, to have vaginal births. Some women that have cesareans may have avoided them by having the freedom to move around in labor. Many cesarean sections could be prevented if women could push in her good time, with her body's urgings, in the position that feels right for her. I know many brave strong women. Some have birthed by cesarean section, some on their backs in hospital, some standing in birth centers, and some how ever they want at home.

I am very amazed at my fortune, I am rich to know these women, I am truly blessed to be a Birth Doula. I would like to be a good Turko and report that today we went from "It Ain't Right" to "It's All Right! Let this Mama birth how she sees fit"...in my lifetime? In my childrens life time? I pray it's so.

Love you madly, Rosie

Doula Moments, Memories and the Mundane

I wasn't at a birth last night. So why didn't I sleep? Why did I get three hours of sleep? I was thinking and praying for one, two, three, four of the next mommies that I will be with when they give birth. They are amazing women. Each one with a story that makes me feel like a child sitting hand on chin waiting for the next story, the next chapter, the next word that she will speak. I want nothing more than for her to know she is strong. Okay I also want her to know she is healthy, her baby is healthy, her body that grew her baby's ears, eyes, hair, toe nails, that body knows how to birth her baby. Given the respect, the time, the nurturing it needs, it can do anything!

The Doula calling is a blessing...if you don't care about time, if you believe in magic and miracles; if you see the humor and the beauty in the mundane everyday things; and if you can be bored and not frustrated.

I've always acknowledged childbirth, birth in any form, as a miracle. Today, as I attend mostly births in hospitals, I am grateful for the miracle of a busy hospital, or a respectful nurse, so that mom is left to labor in peace and she is given the time this baby needs, the miracle when the nurses believe with us for a VBAC and the miracle of a good on-call doctor.

The magic is not that babies come out our vagina's. The magic is the transformation of a woman into a mommy, a man into a daddy, the world shifting as a perfect and smart new baby enters the room, enters our hearts; when Mom knows her hormonal cocktail is stewing, her baby is molding, her spirit is calm and her loved ones BELIEVE she can do this ~ perfectly ~ her way ~ making herstory.

If you care more about the way that a baby comes into the world, without regard for the time, care more for this new baby's birth day and this new mommy's labor than your own birthday dinner or that Christmas Eve brunch then you are a doula already. The premise of the Doula profession is that "The day a woman gives birth is a day she will never forget." Therefore we want to make it a positive, sweet memory. You know that this baby's birth is also a memory for him, a memory he'll carry in his psyche, on a cellular level, for life, subconsciously effecting his behaviors, decisions. You know that being born in peace and joy and safe calmness can effect not only the babies life but heal the mother or the father, even the stranger that is present, and your time is worth it ~ you are a doula. ♥

I will be present, in my feet, on this ground, on the planet, in my spirit today. And I will be present in the middle of the night, when the quietness wraps me like a blanket and I have time to send you loving thoughts and time to talk to my God. And I will be present when you call me in the middle of the night in labor...or just with a question.
I'm reminded of nights with nurslings, how I loved the one on one time in the semi dark, nursing. That 'present' still nurtures me today.
I hope to be present with you soon. I hope to spend face-to-face, one-on-one time with you soon.

Let's talk about what nurtures you.

Love you madly, Rosie

Want to give birth in a calm peaceful way without medication?

My friend, Carol Yeh-Garner is a hypnobirthing instructor. She posted this video on her facebook. She's not only a lovely person, wife, mom, and friend, she knows her stuff when it comes to hypnobirthing! I was fortunate to recently attend a series of her classes. My doula client, a first time very nervous mom, asked me to join her for the classes. Although I am a crone and not of childbearing age anymore, I still use what I learned in Carol's class almost daily! As for the mom who invited me to Carol's class? She birthed her baby in five hours and it was one of the most calm births I've ever attended. Wooohooo!

The key is total relaxation. Total relaxation is not easy, never is, especially at this amazing event - your baby's birth! So practice, practice, practice is the key. The evenings of listening to hypnobirthing tapes is time well spent. You deserve to take this time out of the day for you and your baby. Don't let the busy, crazy world interrupt this precious time as you prepare for the birth of your baby, the birth of yourself as a mommy, the birth of a daddy, and the list goes on and on and on...like a pebble in a pond. You may think, "whats the big deal" ....I say, its not a big deal, its a HUGE deal, how we're born. How we're born matters. Read Healing Birth, Healing the Earth by Sarah J. Buckley.

..."We live in a society where new mothers have unprecedented levels of distress and depression, and where our babies, with their colic, reflux, and sleep problems, are also having their distress medically treated. We live in a society where depression and anxiety are among the largest burdens of disease worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation, and children as young as four are being diagnosed with these conditions; and where young people, at the prime of their lives, are choosing in large numbers to opt out, with mind-altering drugs, or to opt out permanently through suicide...."

Oh no! erase, erase erase! That's a bummer statement! The truth is that we need to turn the corner. Let's begin at birth, the way we treat birth, I believe can change the world.

As Sarah continues, "...Birth is dying, but, like cells in her body, we each have the power to enliven her and to resurrect her in all Her glory. What is needed, I believe, is the collective passion, love, surrender, and power that we pour into the ether as we birth our babies.
And in healing birth, we are healing ourselves, our babies and the Earth."

Please take a moment to read Sarah's article in full.

Thank you and God bless. -Rosie Peterson

I Feel It In My Fingers I Feel It In My Toes

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. Well love is all around me, and so the feeling grows. It's written on the wind, it's everywhere I go...
These are words to a super old song, one of the first I learned to play on my guitar. 'Feeling' is the topic of the day. It is good to FEEL.

I want to feel when I have sex, eat, laugh, cry, listen to music. I want to feel my legs, lungs and feet ache after a good hike! So why would I want to feel numb when I give birth? Whether I want it or not, sometimes numbness comes. Numbness comes when I'm overwhelmed and divvies out bite size pieces of feeling as my mind and body can handle. Some women who don't plan to take numbing drugs at birth end up numb (epidural). Some accept this turn of events happily, greedily. Others grieve and pain over it for a long time. Some laboring women rush to the numbness before even knowing what their missing. Most women have strong FEELINGS about this topic! So I'll move on...I'd like to share some good news.

Christine Northrup recently wrote an article titled; A Woman's Nation: Reclaim Your Right To Birth Right. "it was noted that the times have truly changed...women now make up half the work force for the first time in written history! This means that our voices and skills are impacting all areas of society more than ever before." I say, Let's begin at the beginning - learn to use our voices in birth; learn to impact the world with safer, healthier, birth practices. There are good encouraging teaching videos out there (for free) so women don't have to go into the unknown territory of birth, the secret veiled Red Tent of labor never having heard birth sounds, never witnessing birth. Bellies and Babies recent blog, Lessons From Your Tube, includes two very good birth videos! Watch and Learn. Maybe you've only watched birth on TLC The Baby Story. Warning: these videos may bring up strong emotions & feelings, ranging from terror and fear to extreme relief and joy.

Feelings are good. Why, you ask, would feeling fear or terror be good! Why would someone have those feelings, I ask? Are they reliving their own birth, that may have taken place in a non-gentle way? Has society's "weaker sex" label been a part of your upbringing? Have the women in your life taken away your power? Or not shared theirs with you? It is good to know that 'those fearful feelings' are in you. deal with them before that powerful day when you yourself labor & give birth to yourself as a mother, your own precious new baby and your own powerful self - again.

Women are often anxious to blame 'men' for their lack of power...and with some good reason, but let's take a good look at our sex and let's take our power into our hands - beginning with our power to birth. We are stronger than we know.

Funny thing is, I didn't need to watch sex videos before I naturally fell into the act of sex. Birth could be the same. Many years ago it was. When societies accepted that birth was an everyday, normal event. Knowing, or maybe not knowing, but accepting, that our bodies were born with a uterus and our bodies had everything necessary to grow and birth a human being. They accepted the babies that came along and accepted the bodies urges that expelled the baby. They didn't need to go out to the drugstore during pregnancy and they didn't need to go anywhere special to birth a baby. Society just accepted birth. Today we are such drama queens. Okay I said it!

Time marches on -times change. We invented everything from the wheel to sliced bread to text messaging and facebook. Throughout this age of invention and mechanical conquest there are things that did not change; the sunrise, the sunset, the tides, the seasons, and birth! Birth hasn't changed. Oh we've messed it up (introduced infection), and fixed it (discovered antibiotics), messed it up, fixed it...thousands of times. But birth hasn't changed. I believe we've evolved enough to accept that fact in 2009. People used to want to be 'civilized' and 'proper' and 'not primitive' but now I believe we know that we all have a primal core. In our bones our ancient ancestors have left their mark. The knowledge of how to birth lives there.

Truely birthing women are amazing! What?! You did this?! You gave birth!? Wow, you are amazing!!!! Then and now, today and tomorrow!

Why don't I always FEEL and LIVE like I'm amazing? I want to. I pray to. ...oh I just lifted up my head a little higher, stood up straighter, smiled, and then my eyes opened from a squint and I feel more myself, my amazing self! I breathe in the day and I breathe in my past successes and future victories and I feel fearless, loveable. I am.

That's God's name too, the Great I Am! I'm his daughter, he's my father. I'm a kings kid. I'm an heir to the throne of the Most High. He's a good father, God. I didn't have a perfect earthly father so it's been a long process getting to know my heavely father. He gave man his creation power. The sweet mothering nature of God gave woman the gift of and the power to birth - co-creating with the God of the universe! Oh yeah, that's what I'm talkin 'bout!

Watch and learn about healthy normal awesome birth - the way God intended - where we become one moment strong and the next vulnerable - where I submit to a power that seems greater than me and then realize that this power IS ME. Then the euphoria spreads like sunshine throughout the room, the home, the neighborhood. Babies bring us all that. Maybe that's why I have always had a special connection with and love for babies. Their breath still smells like heaven.

I will be PRESENT to FEEL it in my fingers and toes as often as I can. -Rosie

I like this particular video for many reasons, just one being the song, Welcome To This World.....
Charlotte Jean

ICAN San Diego Event July 30th

There are many good events coming up in San Diego for pregnant families, birth professionals and open to anyone in the community that is interested.

On July 26 The Natural Birth Project will host Birth Stories (see previous post). Then ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network) of San Diego will host this event on July 30.

"Save the Date" - On September 13 the San Diego Birth Network will host a RED TENT EVENT...look for more details to follow.

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead

What is your most treasured memory?

For my sister doulas, for anyone attending birth, this article by Jan Tritten will ring true. My most treasured memory is of Austin's birth, my second born. As a doula I have more than my share of sweet memories of happy birth days, I'm blessed that way. I will always remember the births of Gavin, Victoria, Alexander, Michael, Sophia, Azuree, Levi, Macy, Simone, Makai, Violette, Owen, Gianna, Jade, Cole, Linus, Titus, Jackson, Nadia, Kyra, Will, Paloma, Diego, Donovan, and Pippa Blue, Nadia, Rhianna, Luke...!

In the story linked above the author treasures most her home birth. And I too treasure my son, Doug's homebirth. But Austin was born in a hospital! So what makes it my most treasured memory?

10-28-77 I gave birth to Andrea Dawn in the dawn of the morning, eight hours after arriving at Salida Hospital in Colorado. In those days the protocol was to shave the laboring woman's pubic hair, give her an enema, demerol, and pull baby out with forceps. Childbirth classes did not prepare me for this! To add insult to injury the nurse gave me a pill instead of my baby when she found me crying in my postpartum suite! Can you blieve it - Mommies and Babies use to be separated!!

Two years later 10-28-79 I gave birth to Austin. The difference was that I prepared for a homebirth. I never found a midwife in those Colorado Mountains and although in the end I gave birth in the same hospital, I felt prepared to catch my own baby (UC). I found Ina May Gaskin's book, Spiritual Midwifery and Suzanne Arms book, Immaculate Deception more than self help books, these books changed my life! During my pregnancy with Austin I also read everything by Grantly Dick-Read, Birth Without Violence by Frederick Leboyer and Husband Coached Childbirth by Robert Bradley.

Austin was two weeks late which prepared me spiritually. Anyone who's been there knows waiting tested my patience and sanity : ) I walked every morning straight up a Colorado Rocky Mountain (Harvard to be exact)! I walked under the golden aspens and blue Colorado sky and I prayed. I was in between homes and staying with my girl friend, Kristen. The sisterhood we shared played a very significant part in my overall wellbeing and the actual birth.

My husband was working out of town when I woke up in labor at 3AM on 10-28-79. My girl friend and her husband had just gotten home from a late dinner party. I got into the shower. Oh it was so comfortable there! I could'a stayed there forever but I felt pressure building - instincts kicked in. We had a 45 minute drive to the hospital and we needed to stop for gas. I remember that gas station well! To stay relaxed I rolled my head and shoulders ensuring there was no tension there. It felt great staying loose I could feel my body open, but I probably looked like Rocky Balboa staying loose before a fight.

We arrived at the Salida Hospital at 5:30AM. The red headed male nurse who admitted me said I was 10 centimeters dilated. Then he quite nervously said, "I've never caught a baby before". but Dr. Leonardi got there just in time to catch. They did not have time to shave me, give me an enema or take my 8 lb. 14 oz baby by forceps (they still did an episiotomy). It was such a quick and comfortable birth! I was euphoric and in love with my baby and with life!

My girlfriend was 'allowed' in delivery with me. This was very special for her since her two boys were born by cesarean section and she really wanted to witness a natural birth. Many years later, after I'd been a doula even, I realized that my girlfriend, Kristen Kaiser, was my doula at Austin's birth! Thank you Kristen : D

How important birth is to women!

Technology in Childbirth - A Fathers Day to Remember

What type of technology is safe for childbirth? If you know me, you know that I question even vaginal exams. Less technology usually means better experience for moms and better outcome for moms and babies. So how could I have recently been swayed into the world of technology!? Yup, its true. Here's how it happened.

I've been the doula twice for this family. Mom and I are more than doula and client, we are friends. Her pregnancy passes uneventfully. We exchange a few emails. She is due end of June but has late babies. I start getting text on my cell phone and we meet for lunch late May. I get more text and I visit the family first week in June. It is a lovely Sunday for a prenatal meeting and lunch with the family. I realize from our face-to-face time that Mom is way-to-busy to have a baby. We talk about going on early maternity leave from work. Then we exchanged more text about slowing down and taking her leave. I learn on facebook and texting that she will go on leave - YAY! Maternity leave starts June 11.

June 13...text reads, "today might be the day, backache, braxton hicks, natural cleansing...". Then, "breaking out the smart water just in case". The cell phone texts start to pick up. Often many times a day we are texting back and forth. Mom experiences a lot of prelabor, one time it turned out to be the flu. Then just when we thought it was real labor her little ones get really sick and labor stops. After all, Mom is needed to clean up barf and pick up meds and make runs to pediatrician. Again, no time to have a baby! Argh.
After June 18th appointment with OBGYN text reads, "...80% effaced, bulging bag of water, lost mucos plug..."

We text some more. One night I sleep through a text that says, "contractions went from 10 to 5 to 3 minutes apart, can't sleep..." I call and get a real live person. "Please call me if it's the real thing...texting is great but please call me when you are in labor."

On Saturday, June 20, Mom gets some bloody show and CALLS me to ask if she should go to Fathers Day barbecue. "Yeah" unless you are too tired. The great thing about family barbecues are that the little ones will be loved, fed and entertained and then tired when they get home. Bloody show does not mean a woman is in labor, it's yet another sign that labor is close. Mom texts me when they are home from bbq, "Home now. Putting boys to bed. Getting hard to walk thru contraction. Hoping quiet and tub will get it going. Stronger but don't last long. Getting a little closer than earlier." Then, "More bloody show". I expected to get a call in the middle of the night. I kept my cell on loud and close to me. Then on Fathers Day, June 21 at 6:37AM I get A TEXT! "Getting really tired of this. I'm in pain and tired...starting to cry." All I read is "cry". I text her back, "I'll be right there". She texts me back, "OK".

It was a beautiful birth! After breakfast (made by Dad on Fathers Day) we walked 2.5 miles. Labor changed, contractions were getting longer. Mom got into her big deep tub (like she always does). Dad took the boys to aunties house and got home just in time to drive mom to hospital. She arrived there at 12:30PM completely dilated. Baby was born at 12:57PM.

My favorite part? Hmmm well that's a hard question.
1)Our walk where we talked about everything under the sun (literally). That's how babys position came up. Mom remembered that he had his hands by his face in the Ultrasound! We discussed how to juggle his nuchal hand out of the way and mom started walking with one foot on curb and one foot on street. We'd done some rebozo before our walk, which may have helped. On the way home from our hike I stopped the car at the bottom of the driveway where we could have a quiet moment of prayer.
2)Getting to the hospital and just being a witness to the miracle of birth. Dad and mom's love for each other and for their baby filled the room, maybe the world. They didn't need a doula, except to text her once in awhile : )

And that is how the technology of cell phone texting became an acceptable childbirth tool for me.

P.S. Mom later told me that she didn't think she was in real labor Sunday morning. When I texted her I was coming she thought, "How nice Rosie is coming to visit". Dad later told me that he didn't think she would've had the baby that day if I hadn't come. They just needed a little encouragement to let go, and have confidence in the process. A few doula tricks of the trade may have helped but we think it was prayer that helped mom relax most.