Breech Babies

My friend Jennifer, who is pregnant with her second child, emailed me a question today and I thought of you, my two blog readers! Do you have breech baby questions?

Here is Jennifer's question from yesterday.

How successful is it to attempt turning a breech baby? I ask because I had a friend whose baby was breech and so they just automatically scheduled a c section. I thought that was crazy to just let it go so easily. Is that common to not even attempt to turn the baby?!? But then another friend said hers was breech and they were able to turn her even in labor. She said she had an epidural and even with the epidural it was painful, but they did it successfully.

So can most babies be turned successfully? I wouldn't be ok with it if the doctor told me three weeks before due date to just schedule my c section. But, maybe that's why about 1/3 of babies are now c sections. And I'm sure there are cases where it's medically necessary, but surely not 1/3 of the time!

Here is my answer.

Hi Jennifer,  You ask good questions. I wonder if your friend who had a cesarean for breech baby wishes she would've asked questions? First read this, I think it may answer most of your questions.

What is the Evidence for using an External Cephalic Version to turn a Breech Baby?

There is a lot of discussion happening about how 'breech' is not abnormal but just another version of normal. There are a lot of midwifery work shops teaching how to deliver breech babies vaginally. It's a dying art that many are trying to keep alive. I have a couple of friends who attended the Heads Up Breech Conference last year. One of the most famous and famously loved OBGYN's who attends VBB (Vaginal Breech Birth) is Dr Stuart J. Fischbein!  Read about him at Birthing Instincts with Dr. Stu

God bless you! ~Rosie

Rosie Peterson Curtis, Doula
760-443-6471 cell 24/7

Doula Services & Testimonials

Another family's baby is due around our meeting time. If I am called to join a woman in labor I may need to reschedule my meeting with you. Thank you for being flexible.

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Note:This blog is straight from my email box and completely unedited. If I thought I was going to post this email to my blog I may have been more politically correct in a couple of words. But this is the raw deal. -Rosie

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Although Jennifer's baby is not breech, with this pregnancy she is much more interested in all things pregnancy related. She emailed me after she spoke to her doctor about vaginal breech birth today. Here is my response:

Hi Jennifer,

Your doctor sounds interesting. I think I would like him. :)  He's right in saying that breech does not necessitate a c-section, but the doctors will ALWAYS offer it just due to past lawsuits. Honestly Jennifer, many doctors do much more than 'offer it', they even tell the woman that they cannot be her doctor anymore! That she has to find another doctor because he/she will not do a Vaginal Breech Birth. Then the only doctor that she finds that may support Vaginal Breech Birth is not in her insurance group. Care providers tell these women terrifying, exaggerated, stories and pressure her to have a Cesarean. Still women can always refuse a Cesarean. Some women have been known to labor at home as long as possible with her breech baby and then go to hospital too late for a Cesarean. I think that it is too bad that our society puts women in that stressful situation. In California I believe if a woman really wants to have a Vaginal Breech Birth she can find a care provider, doctor or midwife that can assist her. Sometimes the care provider with that specialty is not in her insurance plan and the family will pay out of pocket.

The positions your doctor was referring to is referenced on one of my favorite websites. The position is called a forward leaning inversion.  Any one and everyone who finds out their baby is breech will want to check out the Spinning Babies website and even attend a Spinning Babies workshop. There is a workshop in Anaheim on March 15th. Although this upcoming class is more geared toward birth workers and not parents and pregnant women, anyone who is not a birth worker could email Gail and see if she will make an exception. Gail Tully is the founder and she is also available for teleconference. You can read about Gail here. She usually encourages pregnant couples to attend so if you are interested call or email Gail, she's very approachable!

Spinning Babies is a great resource for all birth workers and anyone who is pregnant. I've taken Gail's workshop twice and it helps me a whole lot in my Doula work.  The premise isn't that babies need to be corrected or manipulated (really babies are brilliant!), only that our postures today are sometimes not what they used to be when we were a more active people. And by active I do not mean getting in a car and driving to the gym and doing a prescribed amount of weights and cardio and then DRIVING home! There are postures that pregnant women can practice at HOME that are more 'helpful' in aligning the baby and encouraging baby to be in an optimal fetal position. So although babies almost always find the path of least resistance and come out just fine, it's nice to read Head down is not enough and maybe prevent back labor (occiput posterior) or learn to move in ways that help baby rotate into a position where baby is head down and facing moms back (occiput anterior). There are many head down babies that are being born by Cesarean Section just because they are head down but in a occiput posterior (OP=baby facing forward) position. OP babies cause back labor and many of these moms get epidurals. Then it is very difficult for a mom to push out her OP baby when she is numb and has no sensation (OP babies can be harder to push out) and many of these moms end up having Cesarean Sections although their baby was head down (Vertex position).  Some exercises in Spinning Babies help to balance moms ligaments and release tension, giving baby room to rotate into an OA (Occiput Anterior=facing moms tail bone) position. There is a lot of information in Spinning Babies and it is all stuff lay people, non-medical people, can understand and can do! The exercises described on Gail's website are not harmful to mom or baby.

I want to mention also that years before I ever heard of spinning babies and optimal fetal positioning I attended home births where midwifes knew these things and had great success positioning moms and helping a slow labor or a painful back labor resolve itself.  These same home birth midwives also know how to support vaginal breech birth. Home Birth Midwives Rock!

If you have any questions feel free to call me.

Rally on Labor Day to Improve Birth - Monday, September 2, 2013

Join us! Come Rally with me on Labor Day! Find a Improving Birth Rally near you at the Improving Birth link below and help improve birth outcomes for your future children, for your grandchildren, your neighbors, your sister, your best friend. If you don't think you can change the world, think again. I have! We are! You can! I believe we can change earth by changing birth.

I have a lot of burning questions today. How can we have a peaceful world when drama is happening in birth, specifically in hospital birth? How can we give up on nature, our natural ability to birth, and still believe in saving the forest and the whales? Can we save birth? How can we be passionate about our garden, our sustainable life style and not practice sustainable birthing and not plant the seeds of conception, conscious conception, with intention? How can we give birth to a new generation in ignorance, fear, pretending to be helpless victims of natures power, when in our heads we know our ancestors brought our species this far by being good birthers, our grandmothers gave birth to our parents and we have been given all the necessary tools to be good birthing examples to the generations going forward? Are some afraid to find out the depths of their own power? What power to discover a wild birthing warrior resides in her! Is it undignified to birth free and wild? Are we above doing something that all animals do? Is modern man above birthing like man has birthed throughout time, is it too primitive a task? Isn't love making primitive? Have you heard the phrase, "To posh to push"? It refers to women who prefer to give birth via Cesarean Section because they think it's undignified to push (out a baby). Do they think it's undignified when their eyes are rolling back in their head when they orgasm? Will they also prefer not to have wild, wet, and sometimes loud sex and opt for a tidy clean conception in a test tube? Sans the touchy feely stuff? Do we really want to evolve that much? Okay for some I suppose, but why does the medical world respect her wishes and not mine? I'm rallying for the unfairness of that.

My heart hears our unborn children rallying to be represented, respected, to have their birth day honored.  Maybe they don't want to wait for that once a year birthday party (like having a party will heal all the damage done to them in utero and during the birth process), and want to celebrate birth on their actual birth day! I only want for us to help women find their way through today's maze of options and give birth in a way that will not leave her, or her and baby, depressed, injured, defeated, confused, and  questioning. Don't we want the prenatal time, the birthing time and the babymoon time to be all it can be, all God intended it to be? Some describe their birthing time as ecstatic. If mom is ecstatic how do you think baby feels? Today we have come to understand that science and medicine is not the end all be all that it was once thought to be.  We also know that new studies are proving that nature is better (think breast milk). 

“When you know better you do better.” 

― Maya Angelou

Improving Birth Rally Information

Improving Birth Main Web Page for evidence, facts, rights related to pregnancy and birth

Sometimes we cannot choose. Nature sends storms, the earth quakes, our bodies fail. But when we can choose, while we have choices and voices, let us not be silent, let us celebrate our bodies with our bodies. One thing we can do with our body is rally, carry a sign and speak about issues that will improve birth. We rally to celebrate the beginnings of life, the freshness of babies, the fresh hope they bring, the huge love, enormous love, that sweet new baby's bring! I've noticed that this tiny baby changes not only our family but also our neighborhood, our workplace, our world! Let's rally for our freedom to choose our baby's birthplace (where this new person will be most welcome), our birth attendants (who will be present to witness this woman's power, this man and woman be transformed into a mommy and daddy, this baby breath under her own power and the sacred bonding that follows), our birthing time (Let God and baby decide). I rally to make this earth(heart) moving(expanding) event all it can be. It's our Human Right to make choices for our bodies and to make choices for the bodies that we grow in our bellies and give birth to! I rally for the woman I doula for, for these women's rights. I rally for human rights. I rally for babies rights. For baby's right to be born without being hurried, poked, prodded, suctioned out, yelled out, questioned, tortured.

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

Vaginal Breech Birth in Hospital

 Heather in Labor

Last summer I attended my first ever vaginal breech birth as a birth doula.  Drum roll please! Here is the birth story in the mommy's own words. Most breech birth in hospitals today are considered high risk and baby is born by cesarean section. There are presently many training, conferences, and workshops going on to educate the medical world and teach them how breech positioned babies and their birth is not necessarily high risk, but they are in fact a variation of normal.

A Successful Breech-First Labor and Birth

 I have a client today who is facing the same battle as Heather did to birth her breech baby vaginally.  A dilemma that no woman should have to face. The words battle and birth should not be used in the same sentence.  Hopefully this issue will someday soon be resolved like some of the other more recent developments in the birth suite: NO Episiotomy, NO staying in bed to labor, No demanding a women birth in the supine position (on her back),  NO circumcision of baby boys, NO restricting of food in labor...No automatic scheduled cesarean birth of breech baby.

I remember the days when women (me included) were automatically shaved (all pubic hair gone), and we were automatically given an enema when we got to the hospital. This was the protocol. At that time doctors or someone in the medical rule-making club, thought there was actual good reasons to do both of these things. What horse shit! These have long ago gone to the way side.  But other practices, many worse, like continuous external fetal monitoring (EFM) and induction, have come on board to make birthing normally even harder today than 30 years ago. Hopefully with good education (first do no harm) childbirth practices in the USA will improve. Join http://www.improvingbirth.org/

Help us help you. Thanks!

 

The Scar Tissue Issue

found here

Don't bother trying to find Cervical Scar Tissue in any medical journals or ACOG (American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologist) journals. It's not there. Many more women, at a much earlier age, are having procedures performed on their cervix.  One consequence is scar tissue.  That sounds logical. When have we gotten a skinned knee and not gotten a scar to go along with it?  When I got a simple biopsy on my breast boy did I get scar tissue! But getting scar tissue on your cervix? Big deal. So one would've thought. Who thinks about these things? Who would give it a whole (as in whole pie vs. piece of pie) blog? Me.

Warning: Some of the links below show photos of real cervix (not drawings). Proceed at your own risk.

It's come to my attention that women who have had a LEEP, cone or cryo procedure or a D&C or IUD (Intrauterine Device) put in, or any other procedure of that type may have scar tissue.  This scar tissue sometimes interferes with the birth process.  This scar tissue can make the cervix so strong that it will not dilate, will not open to the 10 centimeters that most baby's like to slip their heads through. This is often called FTP (failure to progress) in a women's medical chart and the consequence is her baby is born by Cesarean Section. Funny thing is that most OBGYN's have not made the connection. They do the work, cutting out precancerous or cancerous cells and then wonder why this same woman will not dilate, cannot birth vaginally.  The good news is that with a little effort and patience this scar tissue can be massaged and the unyielding tissue made soft enough to open (dilate) and babies come down the birth canal and are born just fine. Yay! Yes, they are really happy! Babies don't want to be afraid, stuck or pulled out. Do you? That's just not the way it was designed. A good design is a joy!

The tables have turned, the medical community is learning more and more from their patients! Scratching my head, "In fact how would a doctor ever learn anything if it wasn't for the patient?"  When it comes to cervical scar tissue they are learning something from my friend Doula Dawn.  Dawn is passionate about birth, about women's reproductive rights.  As a birth doula she's been called the VBAC Queen. For the last ten years she has assisted families in finding medical care and a safe place to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). Why? Because that is what women want and the data shows it is safer than repeat surgeries.   Dawn herself had three Cesarean's before having a VBAC at home. Yes, she experiences cervical scar tissue. I am helping her to spread the good news that 1)it's really an issue and 2) it can be resolved.  I am here today to tell you that you might want to read about this scar tissue issue. If you are pregnant or plan on getting pregnant, it would be good to rack your memory and remember if you've had any procedures done to your cervix.  If you have had a procedure, ask your care provider, OB or Midwife, if they have experience with cervical scar tissue and then read this and sign up for Dawn's online class.  If you have any questions don't hesitate to call Dawn or me or someone who understands.  Ask your doula to help you learn more. She may not yet know about this issue and you will learn together.

I have said for many years that I trust birth and I trust in women's ability to birth and then scratched my head when I was foiled.  Now I know the reason.  Cervical Scar Tissue.  Sure there are other mysterious physiological and psychological reasons that birth is slow or non-emergency cesareans happen. There's no wrong way to give birth. Every time it's a miracle! If you gave birth by cesarean section you will most likely spend some time wondering or fretting if maybe this had been your issue. I hope you won't fret too much. Please pass this information along and maybe someone else will be helped. But you can bet, just as this cervical scar issue has now seen the light of day and we now know it can be resolved, there will be a new issue tomorrow. I have seen and heard about many improvements in birth practices over the last ten years but these improvements are slow to be adopted by doctors in hospitals.  Sadly, the 2010 United Nations data showed that the United States had slipped from 41st to 50th place, with a higher maternal mortality ratio than 49 other countries. So hold on! You are going to see much more information here about safe birthing!1

I don't know how all the countries that have a much lower cesarean rate than the USA are dealing with the issue of cervical scar tissue but the USA isn't. Period.  We, the consumers, must step up and stand up and speak up for ourselves, our bodies, our births.  Tell your doctor that your body works, your contractions are rocking strong and your baby is ready to come..."my labor is just taking longer because I have some scar tissue on my cervix and it'd be lovely if you could find it and rub it out, break up that scar tissue. Then we can proceed, get on with the show!" It can work like magic.

It can happen this fast - Open Sesame!

The lotus flower is an exotic treasure that has many purposes.

I have pictured them in this blog as an example of the

opening of a woman's cervix during childbirth.

How tragic it would be if someone manipulated this flower

and it could not bloom as it was designed.

Think about your favorite flower.  Does it have a sweet scent?

Did you know that many flowers are edible?

Look at the opening of the lotus flower here 

and imagine your cervix doing the same.

1. Stay at home. Hire a midwife.

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

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

Transformation

What does that word mean to you? Today the word transformation reminds me of my birth. Do you have a minute? Curl up in the foetal position with me. Yes travel backwards with me, way back, back, back…back to when I was floating in warm water, muffled voices and muffled light all around me…My reality is love and peace…I know those words only from what my heart tells me. My ticking, beating, singing heart! It speaks the truth. Swoosh swoosh, swoosh swoosh, love peace, love peace… my existence came only out of pure love and peace. Oh there were hard days back then, growing limbs, hair follicles, etc., but I enjoyed it like play. Fascination was a big word for me but I knew it intimately. Even making the physical transitions to breathing with my lungs instead of my umbilical cord and nourishing myself by suckling on my mother’s breast was doable, the physical work was natural. It was the emotional work that took its toll. I was not listened to or respected for my human form. It has taken years of relearning to trust myself, trust in love and trust the God that designed and invented love and trust… and all these words that I am writing here – every single word here I love and trust. Now I have peace.

The respect and gentle kindness that we show babies is important! It is understated. It is vital. I cannot find the perfect word. Well in one sense, the word I am looking for is vital to the completion of this essay and the message that I am trying to communicate. But ‘vital’ still seems too weak a word. The respect and gentle kindness that we show to babies, before they are born, during their birth time, and after they are earth side, is relative to the health of the planet. The harm we, either unknowingly or knowingly, inflict on babies during this early transformation, their birth, can cause more harm than we imagine. Volumes of medical text would go away if we valued our bodies and our babies more. I do not mean we should throw more money at it or overindulge ourselves, becoming narcissist or fearful about birth. I mean to honor birth, its power, its pain, its time, its vessel. In my old crone years, this much I know. I like what Suzanne Arms poem says, “If we hope to create a non-violent world where respect and kindness replace fear and hatred we must begin with how we treat each other at the beginning of life. For that is where our deepest patterns are set. From these roots grow fear and alienation ~ or love and trust”.

The way we are born has creation power of its own, not unlike the miracle of conception. It is not just a physical event. It is more. It is a spiritual event. Birth should not become something of an unpleasant experience like the “generation gap” has become. Oh yes, we celebrate our children’s 16th birthday with a drivers license and their 18th with voter privileges, just like we celebrate baby’s with baby showers and cute things. Celebrate these life transitions with time. Love takes time. There, my words found the way to the truth, it was simple, and birth is simple, unless you do not have time. Hurried love? Who really feels loved when it’s hurried? Simply take time with yourself. Take time with your baby in utero. And take the time your baby needs during labor and in your early postpartum days. These are transformation tips from my heart.

I birthed three babies. I didn’t do it with a doula or any of the knowledge that has come to me since then (attending 250 plus births as a doula). I did my best when I gave birth. I learned along the way and I walked my path. I birthed my first baby in wonder, my second baby euphorically and my third baby at home (almost heaven), instead of a hospital. Each time I was transformed. With time I realized that this was my moment in time. My time to heal. During these birthing times, unlike my own birth, I was the protector of the unnamed, the unborn. I was able to choose to listen to and respect myself and my baby. I selected people that did the same. I was transformed.

If you are still in your birthing years please consider what some loving folks shared with me thirty plus years ago when I opened my heart to heal myself through the birthing of my babies. In 1976 I read Suzanne Arms, Immaculate Deception, Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery, and Childbirth without fear by Grantly Dick-Read. Today’s guiding lights are named differently, but are still many. Ina May Gaskin’s message is still the same today but her book, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, is in today’s language, it is current and it is very good. Can you imagine having a baby and not having a cell phone, television or microwave? Back in 1979-84 I didn’t even have one ultrasound! Birth hasn’t changed. Birth is just the same today. Advancement in technology has not changed the tides, the sunrise, the sunset or the birth process. Technology has not improved the infant mortality rate in our country (The US is ranked 46 in the world). Sorting through the information age, finding the information that will assist you in your transformation into motherhood and finding a community that will provide a loving and gentle transition for your baby is your truest challenge today. How will I do it you ask yourself? The same way I did…we do the best we can.

I believe the world was formed by my Father God. I believe My Father God has lead me along my path. His lovingkindness has been the true source of my healing. He has called me to be with women during birth and He has used birth to show me more about Himself and His truely loving nature. He is an awesome God. If you don't yet know this, you can. Ask him for guidance and He will lead you into exciting transformation!

For you oh God created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:13-16

As a birth doula I do the best I can. I continue to be transformed by every birth I attend. This year, in the late summer, I will become a new born grandmother. I know that my grandbaby is swimming a perfect swim stroke today. His swim stroke is going swoosh-swoosh, swoosh-swoosh, love-peace, love-peace.

– Rosie, woman, mother and doula…but first I was a baby girl.

(Musing that I wrote and filed away in the Spring of 2010)

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

Iron in my soul

Rixa says it best in her blog. Open title above linked to a wonderful blog.

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.

Cervical Checks - are they necessary?

Thanks again to Enjoy Birth, who lead me to these musings of a very interesting midwife, or more accruately, Midwifery Ramblings who thinks just like me :). I dare you to read the link above, Cervical Checks - are they necessary. What? Double dare ya ; ) Yup. Okay, the bottom line is this, It is not really anybody's business what your cervix is doing. It has become so common place for people to ask a full term (or near full term) woman, friend/sister/co-worker/neighbor..., "how dilated are you?" I love it when the answer is, "I have not had a pelvic check". I love it more when in labor, someone asks and the answer is the same or, "I do not care to know". It's great that women today know more about their bodies, the birth process, and their choices! But that does not mean that we have to poke, probe and prod (as in cattle prod)! As with anything, there are risks and benefits. But do your homework. Most of the time the benefit is that the institution (hospital) can plan their customers comings and going. Like a restaurant, with surgical birth hospitals take reservations, but with those mom's that just 'drop in' there may or may not be enough nurses (waiters or waitresses). So they rush you in the restaurant (hospital). And if they check your plate (or your cervix), they can better judge when you'll be done. If you linger the waiter sometimes will take things off the table or bring the check. Don't you just hate that! Well, at the hospital sometimes staff will say something about how slow your eating, oops I mean dilating. Same difference.

I personally like to go to a restaurant where I can dawdle and enjoy the meal, the ambiance and my campanion/s. I like to have a luxurious meal, where I can digest my food and enjoy my wine. Don't you?

Childbirth Connection Report Reveals Serious Problems in Maternity Care Quality and Value

from MarketWatch - USA (The Wall Street Journal)

"...Overused Maternity Practices

The report shows maternity care is one more example of what's wrong with American health care. We're paying too much and getting the worst results in the developed world because of unneeded care," said Reforming States Group Vice Chair, State Senator Charles Scott of Wyoming. "The main causes are that providers earn more from unneeded care while fear of malpractice litigation encourages the same unneeded care. If we can implement the recommendations of this report, we can both reduce costs and improve the care our mothers and babies get...

Underused Maternity Practices
The analysis also found underuse of many effective practices with few or no known adverse effects. These practices include continuous support throughout labor (such as that provided by a doula), numerous measures that increase comfort and facilitate labor progress, upright and side-lying positions for giving birth, delayed cord clamping, and early skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby. More frequent use of these beneficial forms of care would lead to improved outcomes for many mothers and babies. Best available evidence also supports providing access to vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) for most women with a previous cesarean, but such access has fallen off sharply in recent years, despite demand from women, and more than nine out of ten women with previous cesareans now have repeat cesareans."

-Rosie

The Big "O"

I went to see the movie Orgasmic Birth last night. My friend and midwife, Geri Ryan showed it at Mira Costa College. There was a mixed group of students, parents to be and doulas in the theater. After the movie there was a panel of doulas and midwife discussing the issues addressed in the movie and then opened it up for questions from the audiance. I highly recommend it! I think it is a beautiful movie and a must see for any woman that plans to have a baby someday. It's important that her partner and family members see it too. I hope to purchase the movie myself and have it available for you to borrow. If you would like to contact me I would be glad to lend it out.

Orgasmic Birth shares stories of women who have experienced ecstatic, healing, joyful, and yes even, orgasmic births! The movie explains how this has happened to women throughout time. It reminded me that not all that long ago, in the Victorian Age, sex was thought to be a bad thing, painful and to avoided if possible. Today we know that sex is pleasurable, our sexuality is an important part of who we are, sex is healthy! Today the majority of women in our culture think that giving birth is unbareable and that they need to endure it or escape it (with drugs). Soon women will discover that birth can be pleasurable, our birth experiences are an important part of who we are, and that birth is healthy! That is true for over 90% of birthing women. And we here in San Diego are fortunate to have many good neighborhood midwifes that will screen you and tell you if you are one of those low risk, healthy women : )

We already know that the day a women gives birth is a day in her life she will never forget. You can ask a 95 year old woman what she had for dinner last night and she may not remember. But if you ask her about her births, she's sure to tell you in great detail! We already know that our births transform and empower us but watching Orgasmic Birth confirms this and goes the next step, educating us on the potential to have ecstatic, orgasmic births. The film will help you understand the hormones (or her moans) that are present at birth are the same that are present during love making (baby making). All this is better explained on the www.orgasmicbirth.com website.


Christiane Northrup, MD, a visionary in the field of women’s health and wellness and a board-certified obstetrician–gynecologist, shares her expertise and insight throughout the film. Regarding postpartum depression, she says: "I want women to know that if you’ve had a cesarean birth, an induction, or an epidural, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to bond with your baby or you can’t love this baby, or any of that. Humans are incredibly adaptable. But why adapt if you don’t have to—if you can let your body do what it was designed to do? I believe that the connection between overuse of intervention and postpartum depression is enormous. If women experienced the ecstasy of birth, they would have the high that would get them through the hormonal changes of the next week. Your body and your inner wisdom give you that high."

Orgasmic Birth encourages viewers examine their perceptions about childbirth and to consider issues that are crucial to the health and well-being of future generations.

The way a woman gives birth has the potential to change how she feels about herself forever.
The way she feels has consequences for how she mothers and cares for her baby. It has consequences for her other relationships and for society.
All babies deserve to be welcomed into their mothers’ arms with love and respect...

Are you thinking "But of course we welcome our babies with love and respect!" Do we really? Okay then, I won't tell you how many times I've been at a hospital birth where the things done to a baby are not respectful. Have we evolved beyond learning a better way? Can we do better? Watch and see.
Love & Peace, Rosie