Overall, there's good news

Oy! No posts since December? I'm hiding my head in shame.

My excuse is that I've been overwhelmed with the 2011 shit storm of misogynistic politics and can't handle writing about it all. For example: South Dakota and Nebraska thought it would be fun to legalize the murdering of abortion providers, while Utah thinks it's a gas to prosecute women as murderers for having miscarriages.

You see? I can't even comment. It's just too much to handle. Ok, one comment about Utah: Whether or not you agree with abortion, whether or not it is legal and safe, it is a truth of human experience that women will find a find a way, any way, to terminate unwanted pregnancy. But if women had access to safe abortion, they wouldn't be so tragically desperate as to subject themselves to intentional violence. This bill says a great deal about how much these politicians value women's lives.

But recently, there has been very, very good news! Planned Parenthood's budget was NOT cut last week! Ina May came to town! Doctors defended homebirth! And I've attended some truly beautiful births this year.

I witnessed a vaginal twin delivery in which baby B was footling breech. Baby A slipped out like butter, and before the doctor could try a manual version (to turn Baby B), it's teeny little foot poked out. Then its cute tush! It was magical.

I spent all night long with a mother, rocking her baby down. As the sun rose and the snow fell, she felt her baby coming, and whispered, "He's coming, he's coming." Magical.

Ina May came to town to promote her new book, Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesto. She bestowed upon us some true gems of hilarity, common sense, and wisdom, including this little query, directed toward anyone skeptical of the normalcy of vaginal birth: "Why do we all think that only men's thingies can get really big and then really small again? Ours can, too."

She also shared this video of an elephant giving birth, complete with elephant CPR. It's intense and graphic (as Ina May said, a two year pregnancy requires a LOT of amniotic fluid), but incredibly beautiful and life-affirming.

Ina May also told us to blog more. Yes, Ina May, I will. I will blog more. I will blog the good word! Such as news like this: a year or so ago, some American doctors published a study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG) that claimed that neonatal mortality rates were higher among planned homebirths than hospital births. Earlier this month, some other doctors took another look at that study and realized it was completely flawed. And by the way, these other doctors happen to be Canadian and Dutch, hailing from two nations where homebirth rates are higher, c-section rates are lower, and infant and maternal mortality rates are lower than ours. So I'm more likely to believe the doctors whose patients are dying less. Here are their conclusions in Medscape and AJOG.

Finally, I got to spend an hour talking about myself with a fellow rad Barnard chick a few weeks ago, and now the fruits of that conversation are forever imprinted on the scrolls of the internet. More specifically, in an article in Yale's feminist blog, Broad Recognition, about how doula work takes feminism in a pretty different direction than we've seen before. It's going to later be part of an exhibit at Concrete Utopia called "i am not a good enough feminist" (I effing love that title).

I think that's enough information and links to satisfy your birth brains for now. Don't fret, there will be more soon!

Seven Doulas for Seven Moms

Apparently there was something in the water this weekend and EVERYONE and their sister went into labor. This is what it looks like... when doulas cry.

6am Saturday morning, a doula named Amadoma called me. I said, "How are you?" to which she replied, "I'm so stressed out!" She had three clients go into labor at the same time. Her back-up doula, Erin, was at another birth, and Erin also had three clients go into labor at once. So Amadoma found another doula, Alison, to cover her, but then that Alison had an asthma attack in the middle of the birth. So Amadoma called me. So I went to that birth. But then, one of my clients went into labor. And my back-up, Koyuki, had a cold. Thankfully, mama #1 labored fast and mama #2 labored slow. I left mama #1, went home, showered, ate, soaked my feet in hot water, and went to mama #2.

That's 7 moms for 3 doulas. All the moms eventually got doulas, after lots of frantic phone calling. WHEW!

In other news, Choices in Childbirth released the 2011-2012 New York Guide to a Healthy Birth today! After visiting a client for a postpartum follow-up, I walked over to CIC's headquarters to pick up my copies. It's beautiful! You can pick up copies at any maternity-centered place (clothing stores, yoga studios, etc, Metro Minis included obviously) or order copies (paying only for shipping) from CIC here.

And to finish up, here is a cartoon depicting the 7 babies who just got born this weekend. OMG.

Goodbye Metro Minis... Hello Clementine Midwifery!

Tuesday is my very last day at Metro Minis. My very last day fitting mamas and papas into baby carriers, explaining the ins and outs of cloth diapers (pun on poop? not on purpose...), and holding squirmy babies while mamas and papas try to understand baby carriers and cloth diapers. I'm really going to miss that place.

So why am I leaving? Well, I was recently presented with a new and very exciting opportunity that I simply cannot pass up. Drumroll please...

Clementine Midwifery! Homebirth midwife Stacey Rees has asked me to work as her assistant office manager and birth assistant. OH YEAH!

This job - working alongside a midwife - has actually been what I wanted to do since graduating. I became a doula (went to the training during senior week... I am a DORK) because I thought it would help me land a job with a midwife. Didn't happen that way. So I decided to use that training, began working as a doula, and found out I really loved it. But I also needed a part time job, so I found the truly wonderful Metro Minis. Then, a few months ago, it was time for my annual gyno check up. I was in the market for a new midwife and decided to see Stacey since she just relocated her office to my neighborhood. At the end of the appointment, I said, "If you ever need help, I'm around..." And the rest is history.

The lesson here is: if you want a job, get a pelvic exam. Is that funny, or weird? I think it's funny.

Anyway, I've already had a few days of work at her office. I've been restructuring the content of her website, inputting patient info into her electronic medical record system, and updating her phone system. And answering phones: "Hello, Clementine Midwifery, this is Leda"!

Stacey recently forwarded this video to me, and I am in love with it. It's a short and very clever animated depiction of a hospital midwife's shift. The graphics are amazing and the midwife is wonderful:



My favorite part: when the midwife answers the phone. Watch what the phone cord becomes...

Fully Cooked

As one of my clients has just successfully avoided an induction (mostly due to her doctor not wanting to attend her birth on Thanksgiving), the topic on my mind today is "full term" babies and unnecessary inductions. Then I saw this crazy video, and thought, now THAT baby is READY:


Fully Cooked -

I'm a Top Blog!

I'm so pleased and flattered to announce that this blog has won the 2010 Top Postpartum Care Blog Award! Strong Beautiful Birth sits among 25 other top blogs, including Penny Simpkin's blog!

The award is given by Medical Billing and Coding (I guess my post on my NPI helped with that) and the people at Blogging Awards.

The best part is, my blog was nominated for this award by my very own readers. Thank you so much!

Waiting game

I've got a client right now in the early stages of her induction... meaning nothing is really happening, so I am finding ways to occupy my time while my phone sits no more than 6 inches away from me. Every so often I stare at it, waiting for it to ring and tell me it's time to go. I'm not with her, but I am so with her.

I thought I'd keep my mind on birth and visit this little place I wish I visited more. Since it's been a while, there is so much I want to say.

First, Miles for Midwives was a blast. It was the largest they'd had, with 460 runners, 50 sponsors, and a huge crowd of others. And my little fundraiser page raised $200! Thank you so much to everyone who came and donated.

Of course, I forgot my camera, and the pictures I took on Michael's phone didn't come out, so I've got limited ones to show you. Here's one of the Metro Minis table. Joanna, the co-owner, is on the left wearing a beautiful Girasol wrap, while in the background, physical therapist Lisa Hoffman identifies a postpartum mom's diastasis (she teaches a free class at Metro Minis about it!). We also had cloth diapers, Kleen Kanteens, and other baby carriers on display:


And here's one of Michael and me and my brother's dog, Chi Chi, after they finished the race:


Dogs love midwives too!

The Miles for Midwives goodie bag was super sweet and chock full of coupons. I'm going to give most of them to my clients, but here are some I thought I'd post here. Give me a shout if you want any of them:

• $10 off an 8 week series at the Prenatal Yoga Center
• 10% off online orders at Magnificent Baby
• Free breastfeeding diary with any purchase at Yummy Mummy
  
• 50% off your first two treatments at Garden Acupuncture
  
• 10% off any class or workshop at Birth Day Presence
• $25 off your first BodyTalk session at Wisdom House Wellness
• $10 off any $50 online purchase at Jake and Ella
• This isn't a discount, but it's nice to know: 15% of what you pay for a 5-class Hypnobirthing course goes to Choices in Childbirth!
  

Miles for Midwives also kicked off National Midwifery Week. And I was so happy to see this banner as I was walking into a hospital for a birth that week:


After all this celebration, you're thinking, Leda has to add something cynical, right? It wouldn't be a complete post without some complaint, right? Have no fear! The bad news is here:

What is this all about? The IRS has decided that breast pumps cannot be tax-sheltered, but other items like acne cream can be: "I.R.S. officials say they consider breast milk a food that can promote good health, the same way that eating citrus fruit can prevent scurvy. But because the I.R.S. code considers nutrition a necessity rather than a medical condition, the agency’s analysts view the cost of breast pumps, bottles and pads as no more deserving of a tax break than an orange juicer." Yeah, except orange juicers don't prevent cancer. And diabetes. And asthma. Or have the potential to save the US $13 billion in health care costs (reported in the middle of the article).

Whew. Now that the bad stuff is out of the way, I can be done.

And maybe I'll go to this birth someday...

Published Eavesdropper, Bad Doulas, and Birth Rape

Once again, a comment I was blessed to hear was selected for posting on the prestigious www.myobsaidwhat.com. MOSW is a hilarious and depressing blog for childbirth people to submit hilarious and depressing comments made by other childbirth people. My experience reading this blog usually goes like this:

first post on page: HAHAHA that's awful!
next: haha, oh dear, still awful
next: furrowed eyebrows, why are you like this?
next: sobbing, WHY DEAR GOD WHY?

I'm only giving you one to read, my submission. I give an elaboration of the situation in the comments section.

Thankfully, the mom took this comment in stride and laughed along with her OB. Part of me was glad to see that it didn't bother her. But another part of me wasn't. This kind of reaction, which I've seen a lot, reminds me of an argument that anthropologists Wendy Simonds, Barbara Katz Rothman, and Bari Meltzer Norman make in Laboring On. She wonders if doulas are actually making the politics of birth worse. Doulas often help women come to terms with this kind of treatment so that they retain a positive birth memory. But by doing so, are we wooing them into complacency? Preventing them from realizing the righteous anger that could encourage change and improve birth?

Someone made this comment on the post, explaining that the situation could be defined as "inappropriate vulgar language in intimate examination by a larger, stronger physical power over me."

While extreme, that definition is techically accurate. Which brings us to the controversial discussion of "birth rape" (my two cents on the topic: it exists).

In this particular birth, I didn't feel the need to talk about the comment her OB made at the postpartum visit, to see how she felt about it or encourage her to write a complaint. I just didn't think it affected her to the extent that she might need such kind of healing.

Instead, I'm warning everyone against this doctor. Is that good enough for the anthropologists?

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