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Here are my birthday wishes for today, my 26th birthday.
- I wish everyone in this country had access to top quality health care. Health care that includes as many holistic options as conventional ones.
- I wish single mothers got paid as much as married mothers. I wish mothers got paid as much as single women. And I wish all women got paid as much as men.
- I wish parents who abandoned their children would be held accountable for their actions, and that conservative talking heads would stop spouting cruelty about the parents who actually do stick around.
- I wish every consenting adult is able to make a legal commitment binding them in love to any other consenting adult.
- I wish the government would stop subsidizing junk food.
- I wish the whole world would go see Food Inc. and The Business of Being Born.
- I wish you would become a fan of Rock Your Birth Doula Services on Facebook.
- I wish all single moms, and especially all single pregnant women, would read Mari Gallion’s book, The Single Woman’s Guide to a Happy Pregnancy.
- I wish that President Obama would actually do something worth getting the Republicans this angry.
- I wish people would start voting for third parties.
- I wish world governments would take the 350 goals seriously.
- I wish Whole Foods hadn’t bought out Wild Oats, and Wild Oats hadn’t bought out Alfalfa’s.
- I wish Placebo hadn’t cancelled their American tour.
- I wish this country and culture would make ease of breast feeding for all women a top priority.
- I wish the United States had a maternity leave policy like Canada does. One year off at 60% of your pay, plus one optional year off, unpaid.
- I wish mothering were recognized as the full time job that it is.
- I wish men would stop lying about how tall they are.
- I wish companies built consumer goods to last, instead of to break, become obsolete, or go out of style within a year or two (or less!).
- I wish we’d get serious about alternative fuel and energy resources.
- I wish CAFOs would go away.
- I wish we would crack down on companies who hire illegal immigrants, instead of cracking down on the illegal immigrants individually. Companies who hire illegal immigrants usually do it so that they can commit grievous human rights violations without fear of penalty.
- I wish we focused more on Fair Trade and less on NAFTA.
- I wish all chemicals had to be tested for safety before they are put on the market in consumer goods.
- I wish drug companies weren’t allowed to advertise to the general public.
- I wish there were an ocean in Colorado, and also a place where avocados, bananas and citrus fruit would grow, then I would have no problem going to an entirely local diet.
- I wish I could speed read.
- I wish that I will be able to send Elijah to schools that don’t focus on standardized tests, especially not in Kindergarten. On that note, I wish every parent in America would read Crisis in the Kindergarten.
- I wish I was a size 10 again.
- I wish my mouse would stop doing the weird stuff its doing.
Now I’m going to go make some potato soup for my birthday meal. Yum.
Who here knows about ICAN? I didn’t, until a friend of mine from the midwifery training program I’m enrolled in was named president.
ICAN is a great organization that provides support and advocacy for women who have had a c-section. Whether you are unable to have babies vaginally, or you have had many a successful VBAC since your cesarean birth, ICAN is a great recourse for you.
They also dedicate themselves to preventing c-sections. Of course c-sections are life saving operations, but they come with many health risks to mother and child, and they are best avoided, if possible. Kind of like chemo therapy. Of course, it kills cancer, but you’re better off avoiding getting cancer in the first place because chemo therapy is awful. If there are ways to prevent cesareans (and cancer), they should be found and implemented, and that is what ICAN is helping to do.
Theres a new president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and he is making post partum depression his main focus.
I suffered from a bit of PPD after Elijah was born. I didn’t find out the gender ahead of time, and I wasn’t prepared for how disappointed I was when I didn’t have a girl. The disappointment wasn’t really the bad part, it was the guilt. I felt so guilty that I could think, even for a second, that I would have rather had another baby. A little girl.
There were probably other factors that contributed to my sadness after he was born. Of course being a single mother is hard. And going back to work was very hard on me as well. Thank God for my supportive family, without them, things might have gotten very bad for me.
I saw a therapist for a while, and it helped. I also supplemented with essential fatty acids and 5HTP. Do you have any experience with PPD?
This article in the New York Times features a friend of mine from Holistic Moms. She was denied health coverage because of her previous c-section.
This brings up some interesting ideas. We have the highest c-section rate in the world, yet it has not improved our birth outcomes any. In fact, I learned in my doula training that the US is 32nd in the world for positive birth outcomes.
Obviously, caesareans can be life saving operations, and thank god we have them, but why do countries who have 10% caesarean rates have better mother and infant mortality rates than the US, who has a 30% caesarean rate? Does that suggest that maybe caesareans are being performed that don’t have to be? Does it not say that 60% of the c-sections performed in this country could probably be skipped (or prevented), with potentially better results?
Women don’t get a lot of choice about whether or not they’re going to have a c-section in this country. There are ways to avoid it, but most women are not educated as to how, or even why, they should attempt to avoid a c-section. C-sections are quicker and more profitable for hospitals and insurance companies, in the long run, and have a CYA feel to them that is believable by those who don’t know much about normal birth (which is most everyone in this country). They are even more profitable if insurance companies are able to charge customers more after they have one.
May is Pregnancy Awareness Month, and in honor of that, I’m going to be posting pregnancy and birth related info all month long.
Today, check out the website above, and my birth story, if you’d like.
I read this article about eating your placenta and I thought I’d share it here. What do you guys think? The article makes the point that its just a peice of meat. Okay, sure, just a peice of meat.
BUT IT’S HUMAN MEAT!!
I just can’t get around that.
I know lots of people from other cultures do it, but its just not for me, thanks.
I had the most fabulous time at my doula workshop the weekend before last. I am very confident that I have found my calling in life.
After having shadowed a doula on one birth and taking this workshop, I feel I am ready to strike out and try my hand at attending births on my own. So, if anyone is pregnant and in the Denver Metro area, feel free to message me if you’d like a free doula. All you have to do is fill out an evaluation of my performance as a doula after the birth (your doctor and nurse does too). I need to collect three evaluations to complete my DONA certification, but it sometimes takes a lot more than three births to actually get three evals from doctors and nurses, so don’t be shy about asking me to be your doula! From now until I complete my certification, I will accept everyone free! Yay!
Now, that little bit of shameless advertising aside, I learned a lot during the workshop. It was awesome. And a little disturbing at parts (especially the part where we had to watch a video of a c-section being performed, icky!).
I learned that March of Dimes offers grants to people studying to become nurses, doulas, childbirth educators and lactation consultants. Especially to those who will provide their services free of or for minimal charge to low income mothers (exactly what I’m getting into the doula profession to do!)
I learned about becoming a certified massage therapist, and how that could get me more business as a doula and allow me to charge more (for those who can afford to pay for a doula, that is).
I learned about a bunch of cool resources which I plan to share with you all over time. Today, I am sharing with you the Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth. Enjoy!
And I met a bunch of really awesome women. I really feel great about this path I have chosen. I am going to take it even further by becoming a childbirth educator and a breastfeeding expert (I learned about a course that makes you one during my doual workshop). One day, maybe, I’ll move a step beyond and become a midwife, but for now, that day is still a ways away.
Visit the March of Dimes website and sign their Prematurity Awareness Petition. Over all, the United States gets a D on the 2008 Premature Birth Report Card. Premature births are on the rise, and its the #1 cause of death for new born babies. You can check the grade of your state on the site and learn the statistics that caused your state to get the grade it did. Colorado gets a D, only one state got above a C, Vermont.
I don’t have a whole lot of time to write because I just started a new job. I’d love to talk about DNC, but it will have to wait. For now, here are some interesting articles and websites I’d like to share with all of you.
Doctors Orders: Health Coverage for Everyone
Belly Bliss (if you’re in Colorado, and can afford it, it looks pretty cool)
The Birth Survey (TAKE IT!)
The AMA (American Medical Association) and ACOG (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology) have proposed Resolution 204 and 205 which would ensure physician control over midwifery as well as restrict a woman’s right to birth at home. This is the response of American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM).
