360 ounces

I donated a large grocery sack full of pumped milk to my CNM's practice. I've been pumping for about 2 months and getting around 6-8 oz/session. That's at least 360 fluid ounces or close to 3 gallons/12 liters. I finally have freezer space again!

I pump once a day. I used to pump in the morning, but just switched over to pumping right before bed. Ivy has a long stretch when she first goes down at night, so it keeps me from getting too engorged.

Even though I have a lot going on, I really wanted to donate breastmilk this time. And since I'm not planning on getting pregnant again, I could probably keep pumping & donating for a long time if I wanted to (my milk supply plummets when I'm pregnant).

Here's Ivy on 2 1/2 months of breastmilk. I love her big button eyes.

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If I were to have another baby...

...I'd have someone make a professional birth video. Like this one by Ceci Jane:



It makes me want to do it all over again. Except, as Eric reminds me, "babies grow up and you have to take care of them." Oh yeah.

What are some of your favorite birth videos? Please share!
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Review and giveaway of the documentary "Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives"

I finally had the chance to watch Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and The Farm Midwives last night. It was such a pleasure. I came away with the impression--sappy as it might seem--that we really need more love and gentleness in this world.

The DVD follows the development of the Farm in Summertown, TN and the growth of Ina May Gaskin and other midwives at the Farm. It combines contemporary footage of Ina May's work as a midwife, wife, and globe-trotting activist with amazing archival footage of life and births at the Farm.

I knew a lot about the history behind Ina May and the Farm, yet I learned so much from watching this. I loved watching the "old" births back in the early days of the Farm. So much hair everywhere! Huge beards, waist-long braids, and of course body hair :)

The movie closed with a lovely modern-day birth attended by Ina May and another younger midwife from The Farm. I watched the mama push our her baby in the tub, almost exactly as I did with my last three children, and remembered all over again the sensations of birth. It made me want to do it all over again.

The DVD is available for $19.95. You can also access it online and as a HD download for $12.99. If you buy the online version for any amount over $13.99, you will receive extra bonus content!



I'm thrilled to offer a giveaway of this DVD to any North American resident! If you'd like to enter, leave a comment below. If you've already seen the film, please share your impressions and reactions.  If not, tell me why you'd like to see it. Be sure to leave contact info in case you are the winner.

Giveaway ends Friday, June 14 at 5 pm EST.

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Upcoming reviews

I've been testing out all sorts of items with this last pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period since it probably is the last time . . . sniffle . . . Some I bought, some were passed down to me, and others were given to me to review.

Here's a peek at the things I'll be reviewing over the next several weeks:

Nursing pajamas and nightgowns
Leading Lady nursing chemise in Azalea Pink
Breast is Best Gray Angel Maternity & Nursing Nightgown
Eliseo Satin Rosabella Nightgown
Majamas Blossom Nursing Pajama Set

Leading Lady nursing bras

Books & DVDs
Memoirs of a Singing Birth (ebook)
Bumptabulous: 20 Moms Expose Pregnancy (book)
The Face of Birth (DVD)
Dance of the Womb (DVD)
Birth Story; Ina May Gaskin & The Farm (DVD)

Breast Pumps
Medela double electric breast pump
Ameda Purely Yours breast pump

Postpartum belly wraps and hip stabilizers
Shrinkx Hips Post Pregnancy Belt
Vespa & the Ladybird Post Pregnancy Belly Wrap

NuRoo Pocket babywearing shirt

The Birth Relaxation Kit
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Climbers

What do you do about climbers (otherwise known as 2-year-olds who climb out of their cribs and come downstairs at night multiple times when they should be sleeping)? It might be time to put Inga in a real bed, since she can easily climb in and out of her crib. But still wouldn't solve the not-staying-in-bed issue.

What do you suggest? Lock her door from the outside? Put a child-proof cover over the doorknob? Zari slept in a real bed from early on and never really had issues "sneaking" out. Dio stayed in his crib until he was 3 and never figured out how to climb out. So this is a new problem for us, even though we have 4 kids!

I also wonder if I should cut out Inga's nap and hope that she's so tired at night she won't stay up for several hours escaping. But then I'd lose my quiet time in the afternoon. Not sure if I'm ready to give that up yet!
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Obstetrician seeking a job in the Nashville area

A few days ago I had the pleasure of chatting on the phone with an obstetrician. He's a wonderful (and wickedly funny) physician who strongly supports patient choice, autonomy, and informed consent. He's currently looking to relocate to the Nashville area and would love any leads on job opportunities there.

A bit more about the obstetrician: he's been practicing OB/GYN for over two decades. He is currently the only physician in a large metropolitan area offering vaginal breech, VBAC, and vaginal twins. He strongly values keeping these choices available to women. He also practices cost containment and keeping unnecessary procedures and tests to a minimum. This hasn't kept him in good graces with his peers and the hospitals he works at, since both physicians and health care institutions profit from doing more procedures, not fewer. He is a skilled vaginal surgeon and prides himself on continuing to offer things like vaginal hysterectomies, rather than turning to robotic surgery.

He loves working with midwives and doing consultations. He especially enjoys patients who bring in midwives to serve as doulas in the hospital. He likes finding reasons to be "late" so the midwife gets to do the catching :)

Some awesome quotes from our telephone conversation:

"My favorite delivery is the one that I miss."

"I like being useless."

What he's looking for in Nashville:

He wants to live and work within a 60-mile radius of Nashville, TN (one of his daughters lives there, and he'd like to be close to family). This includes Bowling Green, OH to the N, Clarksville to the NW, Lewisburg to the S, and Manchester to the SE.

He wants to join a practice that appreciates the skills and values he has to offer. He's also interested in being involved with birth centers and in working with midwives.

If you're a physician, nurse, midwife, doula, lactation consultant, or other associated health care professional in or near Nashville, please let me know if you have any suggestions or leads on job openings. He'd also like recommendations on specific hospitals or practices that would be a good fit for his skills and practice philosophies. If you email me, I can put you in touch with him directly. Let's do our best to find him a fulfilling new job!

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Ivy is 2 months (and change)

Zari finished kindergarten yesterday, so we're officially on summer holidays now. I've been doing lots of gardening. So far, here's what I've done...

• moved all the asparagus plants to one location
• planted 20 white cabbages, 3 red cabbages, 3 cauliflower, 8 tomatoes, 2 raspberries, 6 romaine lettuce, 10 basil, rosemary, oregano, cilantro
• transplanted chives, lavender, fruit bushes from our other house (june berry, red currant, josta berry, honey berry), and about a zillion hostas
• dug up some areas of weedy lawn near the house, installed brick edging, and planted perennials
• planted 4 more dwarf fruit trees in our orchard, for a total of 7. I'd like to add some peaches and one more variety of apple
• built some large cages covered with chicken wire to keep the squirrels out of our strawberries (they're working!)

...and what I still need to do:

• till our main garden area (adding in compost, peat moss, and perlite to the heavy soil), which consists of eight 12x4' beds
• plant the main vegetable garden with Masai bush beans, edamame, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, beets, watermelon, and other yummy things
• plant some grapes if they're still in the garden centers...I'd love to have a few varieties to eat
• transplant my sage & garlic (they're currently residing in one of the flower beds)
• mulch all of our vegetable and flower gardens to keep the weeds at bay 
• try to trap the squirrels and rabbits that are eating our garden

Yes, I really love working in the garden. It's mentally relaxing and provides a good workout at the same time.

Ivy is a roly-poly baby now. She's pleasantly chubby but not crazy chubby like Inga was. She smiles all the time and has settled into a fairly predictable routine of nursing, being awake, and napping in 2-hour cycles. And she lets me put her down for naps now! She goes to bed between 7-8 pm and has a nice long sleep before waking to nurse, often midnight or 1 am and sometimes as late as 3 am. Then she nurses every 2+ hours the rest of the night. This just started last week.

She loves playing Patty Cake and The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Once There Was A Snowman. She's starting "talking" to us with little gurgles and coos.

Inga is starting to be very temperamental. It's such a drastic change from her normal easygoing self. Maybe it's because she's getting 3 molars at once? Or maybe it's just that she's 2 years old and wants to assert her independence all the time. "No, my do it!" is a constant refrain. Fortunately she calms down easily if I tell her "Ask the right way, please."

Oh, and some good news: we have an accepted offer on our old brick house, the one where Dio and Inga were born. We'll be closing in a few weeks! I'm glad to get rid of one of our properties, although I will miss the master bathroom that we remodeled when I was 7 months pregnant with Inga...

The kids horsing around in the bath. Zari said she was a zombie.

And finally, a typical morning. Kids are tumbling around showing me their "tricks," Ivy is hanging out on the bed kicking her legs while I'm getting ready.

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What to expect after your baby is born

A Postpartum Survival Guide

Let's talk about how to survive and thrive in the postpartum period. For me, postpartum life has always been blissful and magical. Nursing...cuddly newborn making little squeaks and grunts...being able to lie on my back and stomach...more nursing = bliss. It's my favorite stage by far.

nursing Inga a few days postpartum

But I know that many women struggle to adjust to life with a newborn baby. It can be a terrible shock after all that planning and preparation for the birth. You have a baby in your arms, and WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU DO NOW?

So today, let's talk about all the postpartum stuff that you wish you'd known, or that you figured out, or that surprised you, or that blindsided you. Let's talk about what to really expect postpartum for yourself, your baby, and the rest of your family. Let's share our tips and tricks for an easier postpartum adjustment.

Here are some things I've figured out:

Make a list of your postpartum responsibilities. Keep it short. 
*Everything else* other people should be doing for you. My postpartum responsibilities are:
1. Nurse the baby
2. Stay in bed and snuggle with the baby
3. Take pictures of the baby
4. Read books and putz around on the internet
5. Eat dark chocolate

I'm quite serious about #5 (but it has to be at least 70% and preferably 85% cocoa). That's really all I do for the first few weeks. I don't look after the other kids. I don't prepare meals. I don't do laundry. I don't really do anything except hole up in my room and admire my baby. Now, sometimes I feel a bit stir crazy and I have to *make* myself stay in bed.

The first recovery is probably the hardest and longest
I was really, really sore for weeks on end after I had Zari. It hurt to sit and walk for a long time. But after my other three children were born, I hardly felt like I'd had a baby. Give me a day or two, and I was almost totally recovered except for the postpartum bleeding.There's just something about having had a baby before that makes subsequent recoveries so much easier (unless, of course, you have something unusual happen like a c-section or shoulder dystocia or vacuum extraction or whatever).

Learn how to nurse lying down ASAP
This was a lifesaver. It took me about a month to master after Zari and Dio were born. But with Inga and Ivy, we nursed lying down from day one. It is seriously one of the BEST THINGS EVER.

Co-sleep
I don't care how you do it: in the bed, with a co-sleeper, or even with a crib or bassinet in the same room. The more you can stay in bed at night, the better you'll sleep. I usually get out of bed once at night--and that's to use the bathroom and get a drink of water. Otherwise I get to stay cozy and warm under the blankets all night long. I think I would DIE if I didn't co-sleep. I can't imagine having to get out of bed multiple times per night, sit in a rocking chair and nurse the baby, put the baby down and settle it to sleep, then walk back into my bed and go back to sleep. That sounds positively horrific.

Size matters
Get a king-size bed if at all possible. I feel way too crowded co-sleeping on a queen bed.

Learn about breastfeeding before the baby is born. Get help ASAP if a problem arises. 
Nursing has gone very smoothly with all four of my babies. Some of it was luck (no tongue-ties, no routine practices that undermined breastfeeding, etc.), while some came from learning as much as I could before my first baby was born. I felt really well-prepared and knew how to get help if I needed it. If you can, spend some time with nursing mothers. Watch them latch their babies on. Ask them questions. Watch them some more. It's so helpful to see breastfeeding up-close and in person.

Wait to buy nursing bras
You don't know what size you'll end up after the baby is born. Wait at least a week or two to buy your nursing bras, because you'll change sizes so much in those first weeks. You'll have crazy huge porn boobs once your mature milk comes in around days 3-4-5. Then they'll settle down to a more manageable size. You can buy your sleep bras in advance, since they're stretchy and less supportive.

Towels are very handy
I put a bath towel underneath me and the baby when we're in bed at night. It catches the inevitable fluids (leaking milk, blood, spit up, pee, poop...) and saves me from having to change the sheets every day. Because leaks happen. All the time. I also put a crib-sized mattress protector underneath the fitted sheet. If we have a big leak and need to change the sheets, this protects the large mattress pad.

Double up
So, I finally figured out how to avoid bleeding all over the bed every night. Before I go to bed, I put an extra pad in the back of my underwear. Do this maybe the first week or two, or until your flow lightens up.

Learn how to ask for help
When someone says, "If there's anything I can do, just let me know," I've become really good about saying, "Yes, actually, I really need help with ________." Don't be polite and turn down help.

Get a sling
(Or a Moby wrap, or an Ergo, or a mei tai...) I don't know how I'd survive postpartum without one, especially when my help leaves and I'm on my own with a newborn and several other little children.

Now for some crowdsourcing...

Time to share your postpartum stories (the good, the bad, and the ugly). Tell us all about what it's really like to have a new baby. Share any tips or tricks you've learned. What do you wish you'd done differently, or known beforehand?
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Reflections at 8 weeks postpartum

I feel fully "back to life" again. My postpartum bleeding has finally stopped this last week. It was done in 10-12 days with my first two. Not so with Inga and Ivy.

I started exercising today, and I soon realized that I have no core! My stomach is still really squishy and bulging, more than I remember it being with the other kids. If you're interested, I run sprint intervals based on this research. Basically, I run 30 second sprints at maximum intensity with 2-3 minutes recovery, x 4-6 repetitions. I've been doing a lot of gardening, too.

Ivy is starting to settle into a routine at night. I usually can put her down around 8pm and have a few hours of baby-free evening time. I'll often head outside and garden until it gets too dark or until the bugs drive me back inside. Eric and I are watching old episodes of MI-5 (a.k.a. Spooks). Ivy nurses every 2-3 hours at night. Just what I'd expect at her age. She sleeps really well in between nursing, so I feel very well rested.

She also sleeps really well with her grandpa!

In her "baby jail", a.k.a. swaddle wrap.

Her daytime schedule still has no discernible pattern. Sometimes she'll nap for 20 minutes, other times for 2-3 times that long. I remember that my other kids usually settled into a predictable routine around 4 months.

Ivy started smiling when she was 5 1/2 weeks old. They're still fleeting, but I've seen lots more the past few days. I'm glad to have these exciting milestones. They make up for the happy-sad feelings I get when my infants turn into babies and my babies into toddlers...and on and on.

Now for some birth analysis...

I suspect that Ivy might have been posterior the whole labor and pushing stage, until about 5 minutes before the birth. I had constant rectal pressure almost the whole labor...not the "I have to puuuuuush" pressure, just icky uncomfortable pressure that never subsided. I've never had this with my other labors. I think that's also why I didn't feel the endorphin rush between contractions. When I showed my birth video to a group of Home Birth Summit participants, one of the OBs said Ivy was likely posterior and finally rotated about 5 minutes before the birth in that gigantic contraction that brought her down. There's no way to know for sure, but there are so many little things that all point towards that possibility. If so, no wonder why it was my most challenging labor!

More family pictures from our surprise visit to Minnesota:

 

Dio's Angry Bird birthday cake. Really simple. Peanut butter bars were the building blocks, and mini cupcakes with green frosting were the pigs. All on top of a dark chocolate tart (for the adults!). He threw some Angry Bird toys at the structure until it all collapsed.

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Special discount for the ECV & Vaginal Breech Workshops

There is less than one month remaining before the ECV, Vaginal Breech, and NRP workshops in Niceville, FL!


We are offering two special perks for new registrations:

• Extended early-bird discount through May 24
• The next 5 registrants receive an infant scale sling of their choice from Second Womb Slings

If you've been thinking of attending, now is the time to act! Dr. O'Neill is a fantastic instructor. You will leave feeling more confident in your ability to safely attend (and risk out) a vaginal breech birth. Even if you do not offer planned breeches in your practice, you will greatly benefit from the hands-on training in the event of a surprise breech. As we all know, meconium happens if you're in the birth business.

Oh, and look at some of the beautiful new batiks I just bought for the infant scale slings...

Disclosure: The ECV & breech workshops are volunteer-run programs. The conference organizers have invested significant personal funds to cover program expenses.

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Cardinal movements of the breech baby

#breech
Day 2

Jane Evans:

Cardinal Movements of the Breech Baby

I finally got in touch with Jane Evans about posting her lecture on the cardinal movements of the breech baby. She gave me the go-ahead, so here it is!

In this video, UK midwife Jane Evans explains the cardinal movements of the breech baby through the maternal pelvis when the mother is in an upright position. This was an abbreviated version of her physiological breech birth lecture. Please visit her earlier presentation for written notes.

During this presentation, Jane Evans showed photos of upright breech births. We did not have permission to film these images. Other footage of interest:

• Frank Breech Home Birth of Eden, shows an upright breech birth attended by an obstetrician.
• Footling breech vaginal birth in hospital, mother on hands & knees 

If you have other pictures or videos of upright breech births, please link to them in the comments.
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Some Mother's Day awesomeness

I'm the first one up this morning. Ivy woke up to nurse at 6 am and I couldn't get back to sleep. So I watched this clip from Stephen Colbert about the newest trend of going diaperless:



During church, I'm going to fill out this FmH Mother's Day Bingo card. I'll give one to Zari, too, to keep her occupied. If I hear anyone say "all women are mothers, if even they aren't mothers" I think I will scream.

I've never really cared for Mother's Day. When I got married, I was trying not to have children for the first 5 years. Then we had several years of unexpected infertility. Then, once I had kids, I resented how our culture gives lip service once a day to mothers but doesn't otherwise do much to support mothering. Read more at Mother's Day Blues.

What are you doing for Mother's Day? 
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Downton Abbey napkins

When my mom came to help after Ivy was born, she got us hooked on Downton Abbey. Wouldn't it be fun--and tiresome after a while--to dress up for dinner every night? Tiara and long gloves and diamonds. A far cry from dinner at our house most nights. 

For my mom's birthday, I made her a set of Downton Abbey napkins. I wrote some of the wittiest quotes from Violet Crawley onto vintage linen napkins that I bought years ago. I followed the instructions from Design Mom's tutorial.

This was a simple, fun project requiring only a few supplies: fabric marker, lettering guide, and napkins. When I was stenciling the letters, I stretched the napkins out and fastened them to my work surface with masking tape. The weave on my napkins made the fabric marker bleed a little, but the overall effect was still quite nice.

If you had the time and skills, these quotes would look amazing with hand-embroidery.

I have several more sets of vintage linen napkins at home. I think I'll make myself another set (or two..or three) when I get home!
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May in Minnesota

We're visiting my parents in Minnesota this week. On the day that we drove in, they received a record snowfall. We saw downed trees and broken branches all over town. Crazy! Even May in Minnesota isn't usually this cold and snowy. But the sun is out now and the snow is gone.

Our first big road trip in the Mazda5 went pretty well. Ivy slept most of the time (except for nursing breaks). True to form, Dio was the worst traveler! We can't fit suitcases in the back hatch area, so instead we packed everything in cloth shopping bags, one per person. We stacked them up and with a little pushing and shoving, managed to close the door. We didn't need to put anything between the seats. So it's nice to know that we can fit a reasonable amount of baggage in this ultra-minivan.

All of us siblings came in from across the country to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. It was super secret, so I couldn't say anything of our travel plans here or even to our kids. We have 10 adults and 11 grandkids in one house. Fun times.

On Saturday I met up for lunch with a midwife I knew back in my Iowa City years. She was in town doing prenatals, so we caught up on news and birthy stuff. We're already brainstorming for a breech  workshop in the Twin Cities area in summer 2014!

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Seeking breech catchers in Calgary!

I just received an email from a 2nd-time mom from Calgary, AB who just discovered her baby is breech. Here's more info on her situation:

At 38.5 weeks, I recently discovered my baby is breech after finally deciding on a home water birth and making all the preparations. I was quite shocked. I had an ECV a couple of days ago, and the baby simply would not turn, for no apparent reason, despite lots of drugs and a very aggressive approach. I am continuing to do some Webster chiropractic treatments, and buying myself some time. The OBs were quick to offer a scheduled c-section, but I don't favor that option. They have told me that I can wait until I go into labor and then show up at the hospital hoping for a doctor willing to do a vaginal breech delivery. But there aren't a lot of OBs with experience doing breech vaginal birth (since it hasn't been offered for the last 10 years here, and only recently has the option opened up again). (My midwife can't offer me a home birth with a breech baby). Unfortunately, if I show up at the hospital and the doctor isn't comfortable/experienced with breech, then I may be required to undergo a c-section!

Let's put our heads together and find her more options before her baby arrives! If you can help, leave a comment or send me an email. 
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Cut, Stapled, and Mended: a giveaway where everyone wins!

I'm so excited to announce a fantastic giveaway in conjunction with the release of Roanna Rosewood's book Cut, Stapled, and Mended.

For just 24 hours today (April 30), everyone who purchases one copy of her book receives more than $1,000 in gifts. Yes, everyone!

Here are the 26 gifts you will receive:

• Songs From the Birth House, an MP3 album ($19 value)
• Dr. Christiane Northrup's MP3 audio program "The Power of Joy" 
• Awakening Your Child’s Confidence: An MP3 Audio Program for Children by Heather Chauvin  (Value $197)
• 12-hour summit by playwright Karen Brody delivered on MP3s ($97 Value)
• The Ecstatic Journey of Birth & Sex – The Integral Trances of Pleasure & Procreation (online course) AND Wholistic Sexuality: Better Sex for a Better World (ebook) by Sheri Winston (combined $23 value)
• Susun Weed's Nourishing Herbal Infusions Online Course – Drink Your Way to Health the Wise Woman Way ($150 Value)
• Webinar with Barbara Harper (Value $50)
• “I am a Goddess” Affirmation Poster and Meditation downloads from Elizabeth  Harper ($33 Value) 
• Marlyn Radzat's Leaf Pod Baby PDF Class ($20 Value)
• Access to Pam England's Cesarean Healing Story ($20 Value)
• Orgasmic Birth Webinar Class with Debra Pascali-Bonaro (Value: $47)
• The Most Common Mistakes Moms Make with Coming-Of-Age Girls, and How To Avoid Them! by DeAnna L'am ($47 value)
• Love Letters from your life, a 33-day email coaching program by Anna Kunnecke ($75 Value)
• Introduction to Face Reading, a 45 minute Mp3 by Rebecca Wood ($45 Value)
• Birth Heaven Now! Online Homestudy Course, includes 1:1 coaching with Stephanie Dawn! ($147 Value)
• Optimal Uterine Health Tele-Class with Dr. Eve Agee ($129 Value)
• A chance to win your choice of beautiful handcrafted MamAmor dolls (3 winners, up to $200 value each)
• How to Trust Birth and Your Body by Kristen Burgess ($50 Value)
• Birth Embodiment!, an online class by Nekole Shapiro
• Boys Alive! Teleconference with Janet Allison ($50 Value)

How to enter:
1) Purcahse a paperback copy of Cut, Stapled, and Mended on Amazon before midnight EST on April 30
2) Return back to cutstapledandmended.com and enter your order information

That's it! You will receive all 26 gifts.

What if you've already purchased a copy of Cut, Stapled, and Mended? I'd suggest buying another one--you don't want to pass this opportunity by. I'm going to buy another one today and donate it to my public library. 

Happy reading!
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Postpartum Reading List

 ***Very Important Announcement***

Tomorrow (April 30) I will be posting an amazing giveaway related to one of these books where everyone who participates receives a prize. It will only last for 24 hours, so be sure to come back tomorrow for details!

During the week and a half that my mom was helping out, I read three books. I thought I'd read more, but I spent a lot of time working on Ivy's birth story and video.


When I was just 2 days postpartum, I read an advance review copy of Roanna Rosewood's Cut, Stapled, and Mended: When One Woman Reclaimed Her Body and Gave Birth on Her Own Terms After Cesarean. This book is hot off the press--I think it was released 2 days ago!

It was a powerful read. In short, it was the story of her three children's births, the first two by cesarean and the third by VBAC. But it was really a book about finding herself and coming into her power as a woman. And her journey to VBAC wasn't a simple one. Her first two cesareans both began as planned home births. She worked SO hard to birth her babies vaginally. There are no simple answers to why she needed surgery the first two times and why she didn't the last time. I love her story because it doesn't give easy answers or make simplistic pronouncements about needing to "trust birth." It's raw and real and doesn't have all the answers.

You'll remember Roanna from Panel 3 of the Human Rights in Childbirth Conference and from her eloquent address "Who has the right to speak for the baby?". Here she is speaking at the HRCC conference:



Cut, Stapled, and Mended: $12.36 on Amazon


Next was The Midwife's Tale: A Mystery by Sam Thomas. Definitely a fun read! You can learn more about the book and the author at this blog post or on his website.

The Midwife's Tale: $12.98 (paperback) and $16.97 (hardcover)


Last was Jennifer Margulis' expose of the baby industry (from conception to birth to the first year of the baby's life): The Business of Baby: What Doctors Don't Tell You, What Corporations Try to Sell You, and How to Put Your Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Before Their Bottom Line.

 

Written to be an eye-opener (and a bit of a jeremiad), Margulis' book examines how financial interests often undermine the health and well-being of mothers and babies. Some of the chapters were familiar, but others were new to me. Margulis blends investigative journalism with fascinating anecdotes and stories. Sometimes I felt the book was a bit too heavily weighted towards anecdote, but she's also trying to tell a good story as much as she is presenting facts and research.

The Business of Baby: $16.46 on Amazon

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Dio is 4!

Happy birthday Dio! Birth story here, birth photos here, newborn photos here and here. 

We had a very low-key celebration with homemade cake and whipped cream. Our "party" consisted of going outside and playing in the yard. Eric and I cleaned up the garden and moved some bushes we'd pulled out with a truck. The kids drew pictures with sidewalk chalked, played with the hose, and "helped" as I planted red onions and lettuce. I didn't even buy Dio anything, since I knew he was getting two presents from my mom and that he'd be too busy playing with those to pay attention to anything more.

Dio has been obsessed with Angry Birds for several months now. It's strange, because we don't even own a smartphone. I have no idea why he's completely enthralled with Angry Birds. I make him Angry Birds items on a near-daily basis: slingshots out of tree branches and rubber bands, angry birds and pigs out of crumpled up paper or tinfoil balls or small pieces of tupperware, blocks out of old cereal boxes. I've even made some angry birds out of felted wool and stuffed with wheat. (Dio left it outside, and a squirrel gnawed it open and ate the insides.)

Dio is loving and silly and sensitive and intense. He can push our buttons quite easily, especially Eric's. My mom says I was similarly intense and overly sensitive when I was little, only much, much worse. Sorry mom. I don't remember any of it.

Now for some Ivy cuteness. She's wearing an outfit my friend Kristen gave to me when Zari was born. I love the little bonnet.

Ivy recently discovered her competition:

It's better to act preemptively.

I get to gaze at her sweet face all day long. Sigh...I will really miss this stage.

When I got back from the Home Birth Consensus Summit, Ivy lost her tiny newborn look. She is a plump, bright-eyed baby now. She's getting better at sleeping without having to be on or right next to my body at night. When she's done nursing, I can scoot her over about a foot away and not worry so much about a pillow or comforter being too close to her face. She's taken the occasional nap on the couch or bed, but mostly stays in the sling during the day.
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Want to read "Labor and Deliverance" blog?

Hey y'all...anyone else out there desperately miss Labor and Deliverance: Observations of a Busy Southern OB-GYN?

He had to go private but is happy to invite anyone interested to read the blog. If you'd like to join, please send me an email. Be sure to include info about yourself and a link to something (blog, Facebook, website, etc) to prove you're a "real" person. I'll pass your emails along to him.
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Ivy's birth quilt

Here's the finished quilt! I did most of the quilting carrying Ivy in a sling. She doesn't like being set down--which is fine and normal--but she is cozy and content as long as she's on someone's body. I'll probably hang it in Inga's bedroom, which will eventually become Ivy's room when she's big enough to sleep on her own. It looks even better in real life with all the quilting and textures and different fabrics.

The top has a hanging loop of rainbow fabric scraps left over from Zari's Halloween costume:

I finally embroidered the Prince of Wales Hotel onto the square of Waterton National Park in Alberta (month 2):

The back of the quilt is fun, too:

Zari has been asking for her own quilt, since I only started making birth quilts with Dio. So during my last month of Ivy's pregnancy, I started cutting out squares of fabric. We're doing a simple design in a gradual rainbow of colors, all made from leftover fabric scraps. The front is all sewn together now.

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2nd Home Birth Summit

The first Home Birth Consensus Summit in 2011 concluded with the creation of nine Common Ground Statements. We arrived at these through consensus, which was an arduous and sometimes frustrating process. Every single word had to meet everyone's approval.

18 months later, we reconvened for a Review Meeting. Instead of drafting new documents, we reviewed the work we'd been doing in our various action groups to advance the nine common ground statements. We discussed obstacles to achieving those goals and new ideas for each action group. It's amazing to see all the initiatives summit members have already started or accomplished. Once each action group writes its report, they will be posted and periodically updated on the Home Birth Summit website.

Two areas of great concern were health disparities--especially in communities of color--and the future of the CPM credential (including licensure in the remaining illegal/alegal states). Lots of fireworks and intense but productive discussions!

I enjoyed meeting so many people that I'd normally never be able to interact with: OBs, family doctors, pediatricians, nurses, midwives of all different credentials, malpractice & health care insurance adjusters, lawyers, political strategists, researchers, and more.
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I'm on vacation!

Actually I'm at the Home Birth Consensus Summit Review Meeting in Warrenton, Virginia. But it FEELS like vacation.

I just have Ivy with me. I get to eat (way too much) amazing food three times a day. I don't have to watch my other kids. I don't have to cook or clean. I get to talk with all sorts of interesting people involved in maternity care all day long.

Yes, it definitely qualifies as a vacation!

We just finished our first full day of meetings. We're all exhausted and ready for some down time. I'm heading down for an informal gathering. We'll tell birth stories and just chat until we're ready for bed. Maybe I will show Ivy's birth video...I showed Inga's last time.

I can't write much right now at about the meetings, but it's been really rewarding to see how many positive changes have come about since the first Home Birth Summit 18 months ago. We've been talking in depth about all the work we want to still accomplish towards fulfilling the 9 consensus statements we came up with at the last meeting. 

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Ivy's birth photos

I received 464 photos from the photographer and narrowed them down to 84. I just couldn't go any lower!

Looking through the photos was a surprisingly emotional experience for me--but not in the way I expected. I was flooded with a sense of sadness, knowing that this probably will be our last baby. The photos were the last part of the birth I was still waiting on, so when they arrived they brought with them a bittersweet sense of closure.

Yesterday we had a gathering with friends & colleagues from the university where we work. I also finished Ivy's birth quilt. The months of preparation and weeks of celebration are done. Now it's time to move forward. 

With a few exceptions, the photos are in chronological order. I love how the photographer captured what was going on all around the house: kids playing in the attic, birth assistants napping in the living room (they'd been up the night before at another birth), Eric making crepes after Ivy was born.

Before you view the pictures, look at:

• Ivy's birth story
• Ivy's birth video

For a full-screen slideshow, click on the image below (or click here).

Smaller slideshow here:


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Job openings for FNPs and CNMs

Are you a family nurse practitioner or certified nurse midwife looking for employment opportunities? Believe Midwifery Services, a solo homebirth practice owned by Penny Lane, CNM, MSN, IBCLC, is seeking to hire a FNP and one or two CNMs. Located in Thorntown, Indiana (a half-hour from from both Indianapolis and Lafayette), Believe Midwifery Services is a thriving practice operating since 2007.

For more information and to apply, visit the job descriptions.

Below are more details about the openings and how Penny envisions expanding her practice:

Believe Midwifery Services, LLC in Central Indiana is seeking a Family Nurse Practitioner and would consider adding another Certified Nurse Midwife with the right applicant.

The FNP would work one day per week initially as the clientele grows. Our practice has been established for six years and is BUSY so it may not take long to add additional days. Our clients are typically highly educated and of a higher socioeconomic status, so they pay for care that they can't receive anywhere else. They don't want pharmaceuticals as a routine, and they prefer natural remedies and a good sit-down discussion on how to better understand their bodies. They do want access to medical interventions when appropriate.

The nurse-midwife position would begin as a fellowship opportunity. After the first year the midwife could begin working more independently, potentially in a second office or birth center. Experience has taught me that this is the best model for adding a second midwife, but we can be quite creative with schedule commitment.

Our practice is currently booked each month with a waiting list. We are independent practitioners with a growing well-woman practice. Every birth is attended by the CNM and two assistants, most often nurses. All are NRP certified including intubation and emergency medication administration. In the office, we have two assistants as well, so the midwife can focus on the care of the client. Lactation is a huge priority, and we maintain care of our newborns through six weeks.

Our practice has a number of collaborating physicians that are incredibly supportive, so access to care is a non-issue. We receive rather frequent referrals at this point, hence the waiting list and our need to add one or two additional nurse-midwives.

Our websites can be found at www.BelieveMidwiferyServices.com and www.RedRaspberryBoutique.com. We pride ourselves in increasing the standards of homebirth and have high expectations for clinical care. We attend a good number of VBACs and vaginal breeches. We also have very supportive MFMs, which allows us to maintain care of GDM, PIH and such if properly managed. Resumes can be emailed to Penny@BelieveMidwiferyServices.com or faxed to 765-436-7114. Our application can be found on our website as well.     

Penny Lane MSN, CNM, IBCLC

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Outtakes

Right before she left, our birth photographer snapped some photos of the chalkboard wall in the attic.

Notice the baby wrapped in a blanket & nursing (on a disembodied breast!)

I'm putting the birth photos together into a slideshow. It's fun but challenging, since I am trying to narrow the 400+ images down to about 50. I'm just under 100 right now. Here are a few that got cut:

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