Four good things

Four good things happened today.

 #1: Guess?

We bought another house! It's a 1900 Victorian that has been converted into a triplex. There's a large 3-bedroom, 1500 sf apartment on the second floor with all of the original woodwork. Downstairs there's a large 1-bedroom 1000 sf apartment and a 500 sf studio apartment. The property is in great shape; it was renovated by a very good contractor in 2004, so all of the plumbing/electrical/cabinetry/bathroom fixtures are new. We've been looking for a rental property for a very long time now. Every other place we've lived, we've always had some sort of rental property along with our own house. We were extremely depressed at how awful rentals are in this town. I have never seen such trashy, dilapidated places ever in my entire life. No exaggeration. Until we found this one. It sold in 2004 for $140,000. We bought it on foreclosure for $52,000!

The apartments are in move-in condition (except for some normal cleaning) but we want to make them even nicer. We're going to replace all of the carpets, which are in okay shape for being 5 years old, but they are ugly brownish-gray berber that just screams "rental!" We thought of refinishing the hardwood floors underneath, but at some point they were painted. And paint gums up the refinishing equipment. So I think we'll just stick with carpet. We bought all new appliances for the apartments, since there were none provided. The upstairs has stainless steel. I'd like to repaint all of the apartments in rich, warm colors. The walls are fine, but they're boring rental white. I hate white walls.

The wine bottle from our realtor made me laugh, because we don't drink alcohol. But I cook with it, so it will be put to good use. Perhaps coq au vin...? 

#2: We went to the children's museum today and the kids had a blast.

#3. My brother-in-law, who has been unemployed for about a year and a half, just got a job offer today! We are so happy for him--he has five children and has been very stressed trying to make ends meet and make their mortgage payment, etc. I am sure too many people in this economy know exactly what he's been going through.

#4: Another brother-in-law and his wife just had a baby boy this evening! She had a very long labor and I don't know many more details at the moment, but we are so thrilled to hear he has arrived.

So today is a day for lots of smiles. Zari and Dio agree. 

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Vertical birth beds

My last post about the Borning Bed reminded me of a correspondence I had a few months ago with an assistant dean at a large state medical college. He wrote to me:

"I received a request from a public hospital in Peru for a vertical birthing bed. Might you direct me to manufacturers etc. who could help me?"

This was my reply:

I'd love to help out with this.

Two major birth bed manufacturers in the US are Hill-Rom and Stryker Adel. Neither of them are made specifically for vertical birth. However, both of them have squat bars that attach to the bed. If you raise the head of the bed all the way, the woman can kneel backwards, draping the top of her body over the back (see page 4 of the Adel brochure, for example). Still, these beds are mainly used for the typical on-the-back delivery positions. The Ave birthing bed is similar, but I've never seen it used here in the US. Again, it's mainly designed for on-the-back or reclined positions with the legs up, but can be adapted for squatting, hands and knees, or kneeling positions.

Frankly, a fancy bed isn't necessary--and in fact it's a bit of an oxymoron--for upright or vertical birth. The very point of birthing in upright positions is that you aren't lying in a bed. Instead of needing to buy specialized equipment for vertical birth, the hospital will only need to invest in inexpensive, simple devices that facilitate being upright (which can include hands & knees, kneeling, sitting on a birth stool, squatting, or standing). You can also use an existing bed in creative ways, as this handout illustrates. Some simple tools or equipment for upright birth might include:

• railings or bars mounted on the walls in various heights, to assist with squatting
• a high surface to lean the upper body on while standing up (such as a countertop, elevated bed, etc)
• birth balls (also known as exercise balls or yoga balls--large inflatable balls used for sitting on or leaning over when kneeling)
• a birth stool (such as the deBy birth stool designed by a Dutch midwife or this wooden birth stool with handles)
• mats or cushions for kneeling on
• knotted rope mounted from the ceiling, for the mother to hang onto while standing or kneeling
• large, deep tubs for laboring or birthing in. Some hospitals in the States have installed permanent labor/birth tubs; others use inflatable tubs such as the La Bassine or Birth Pool In A Box (these tubs can be reused if you purchase the disposable liners)

Training the hospital staff will be a much more important task than buying a special bed. The doctors, nurses, and midwives will need to know what upright birth looks like and how to encourage and support women giving birth in upright positions. I'd be happy to talk more with the hospital about this (if someone there speaks English--my only foreign language is French). I have personal experience supporting women as a doula and a midwife's assistant in both hospital and home settings, and most of those births have been upright. I also gave birth to both my children either kneeling or squatting.

I could also know physicians who are used to doing vertical/upright births even when women have epidurals. This takes some practice, since you have to know how to move all the wires and tubes the woman is connected to when she has an epidural, as well as how to support her when she has minimal or no use of her legs. Perhaps the hospital would be interested in talking with them?

Anyway, this has been a long answer to a short question! Let me know if I can be of any other assistance.

 I haven't heard anything back from him yet. I hope the information was useful for the hospital in Peru. Anything else you would suggest for a hospital wishing to implement vertical/upright birth?

ps--to see how vertical births look in one Peru hospital, watch the video and slidehow that accompany the article Peru embraces vertical births to save lives. It's definitely an intimidating, clinical environment in these images--but at the end of the day, all you need is a place to kneel down and something, or someone, to hold on to.

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The Borning Bed

I came across this lovely ad from a 1983 issue of the Journal of Nurse-Midwifery. Doesn't it make you just want to go an experience physiologic childbirth, the Borning way?

Text from the ad reads: 

STILL THE LEADER, AND HERE'S WHY:

When we introduced the first contemporary birth chair/childbearing bed, obstetric care was revolutionized.

Borning beds replace separate labor beds, transfer stretchers, birth chairs, delivery tables and recovery beds. Hospitals can now provide safe, comfortable and physiologic childbirth for all families - and at substantially less cost than with the standard OB system.

Borning’s comprehensive care system is labor- and cost-effective. It’s safe and practical. And it’s what modern families want.

Borning makes it all possible with a complete product line for both high- and normal-risk obstetrics and a host of safety and convenience features you won’t find anywhere else.

As you plan to equip your hospital for today’s and tomorrow’s OB care, speak to Borning first. Our experience with over 1,000 hospitals is yours for the asking.

Almost as good as this new birthing-pod from Ave. I can almost see the bullets babies shooting out rapid-fire. Nurse: "Ready, aim, push!"
Doctor: "I hope she doesn't have triplets."

Or this upside-down vampire bed

Photo courtesy of Jill at The Unnecesarean.

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Free webinar on cesarean scar care

A message from ICAN president Desirre Andrews:

Dear friend of ICAN,

I am very excited to announce our January educational webinar, an online session presented by physical therapist Isa Hererra and intended for anyone who wants to learn cesarean scar care techniques. Whether you are a mom or a health care professional, I encourage you to join us on January 24th at 9:00 pm EST (see below for other time zones) for this fantastic session!

Cesarean Scar Care in the Post-Partum Period

Presented by physical therapist Isa Herrera, MSPT, CSCS, Clinical Director of Renew Physical Therapy in NYC, this great online session will teach and guide you through the basics of cesarean scar care in the post-partum period.

This much-needed class is geared toward new moms and healthcare professionals alike who are looking to understand and implement some real-world techniques to get relief from pain, itching, burning, tingling… and also learn how to restore the abdominal muscles and posture so that you feel like yourself again.

Much of the great material to be included in this webinar is taken from Isa’s new book, Ending Female Pain, A Woman’s Manual. The book has been endorsed by filmmakers Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, Dr. Jacques Moritz, and most recently by Jill Osborne of the IC-Network and NY Times best-selling author and gynecologist Dr. Christiane Northrup.

Highlights of this webinar include:

• Understand how to locate scar adhesions and why they are so important to eliminate
• Learn mobilization and massage techniques for cesareans
• Restore abdominal function after cesarean with safe abdominal exercises
• Learn the connection between Diastasis Recti and low back pain and pelvic pain
• Learn simple yoga stretches for indirect scar mobilization during the early post-partum period

Date: Sunday, January 24, 2010
Time: 9:00 pm EST

Other Time Zones
U.S. Central 8:00 pm
U.S. Mountain 7:00 pm
U.S. Pacific 6:00 pm
Buenos Aires 11:00 pm
GMT - Thursday, January 28 2:00 am
Rome - Thursday, January 28 3:00 am
Istanbul - Thursday, January 28 4:00 am
New Delhi - Thursday, January 28 7:30 am
Tokyo - Thursday, January 28 11:00 am
Canberra - Thursday, January 28 1:00 pm

This webinar is free to ICAN subscribers. If you are not a current subscriber, you may subscribe or renew through the ICAN Bookstore or through your local chapter to attend this and future ICAN webinars for free.

Childbirth Professionals: 1.5 contact hours through ICEA have been applied for. ($5 administrative fee)

Click here to register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/211749811

Warmly,

Desirre Andrews
ICAN President
www.ican-online.org

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Sick

Zari, Dio, and I are all sick (deep, racking cough and fever). So all I've been doing for the past few days is hold sick kids in my lap, read them stories, and nurse. Dio has been exceptionally snuggly and doesn't want to be put down. Just hoping we all feel better soon...it's no fun not being able to fall asleep till 2 am because you're coughing so much.

A few things that caught my attention:

Speak up at the NIH Consensus Conference on VBAC this March. Amy Romano at Science & Sensibility discusses some of the issues that will be on the table.

It's Turkey Time--aka time for the Second Annual Turkey Award from the Well-Rounded Mama. This year's award goes to Abe Sauer's article "Fat, Fetuses, and Felonies." You'll be astounded at the outrageous statements Sauer makes about overweight pregnant women.

A lovely unplanned home birth on Christmas Eve. Her father, a family practice doc who does OB, was there to catch the baby. My little sister knows this woman (or of her, at least; they went to the same congregation in Cambridge before she moved).

Sheila Kitzinger discusses the problem with "fairytale expectations" of birth.

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8 months old!

A few days late...we've been busy with family. 

The predominant theme this month is how big Dio is. Every day we get more comments and jokes about how big/heavy/chunky/dense/chubby/fat he is. He has a 7-week old cousin and next to her he's a freakish monster baby. He's usually pretty good natured, but I love this picture taken on Christmas morning. We all were tired and wanted more sleep.


A month ago, Dio had just started having occasional tastes of apples and oranges and bananas. Now he's eating something at almost every meal, mostly fruits and vegetables and occasionally pretzels or homemade bread. And of course plain Cheerios, which come in quite handy when I need to put him down for a minute and want to ward off a crying spell. It still seems strange that he's eating so much at this point, since Zari didn't have any solid foods at all until she was 10 months old. But Dio is eating with gusto and I don't know if I could have kept him away from food for that long. And all of that food is doing interesting things to his digestive system. Goodbye, sweet smelling runny breastmilk poop...hello stink!

I think Dio will walk in Zari's footsteps--literally--and walk almost as soon as he crawls. She crawled at 8 months and walked at 10. Dio wants to walk all the time, which means we have to walk him all around the house. He also loves standing up against the furniture. I've figured out that if I stand him at the coffee table with my feet on either side of him, I can read a book and he'll be happy for quite a while just standing and looking around. No crawling yet, and no interest in even trying out hands and knees positions at this point. He has started twisting over from a sitting position into a near crouch, and maybe he'll start crawling that way.



I feel envious of all those parents of 4-5-6-month-olds who sleep through the night (or at least 5-6 hour stretches). At best Dio sleeps 3 hour segments, maybe close to 4 when he first goes to bed. At worst he's up every hour at night. He doesn't always need to nurse to go back to sleep, but he does need help of some sort: shushing or cuddling or rocking. We've had a few really rough nights this week where Dio was up almost every hour all night, and then Zari woke up multiple times and/or talked in her sleep. We were like zombies in the mornings. Last night he only woke up every 3 hours, which felt amazing to me.

I just don't know what else to do to help him sleep longer stretches. I bundle him up, but leave at least one arm free so he doesn't struggle and get too mad trying to get free. I have Fuzzibunz on at night so he doesn't feel wet. I use white noise and/or a fan (or both!). When we're not at my parents, he starts off in another room and at some point in the middle of the night I bring him in with us. At my parent's house, he starts off in a portable crib and then spends the last half of the night in our bed. When it's warmer again, I might try leaving him in his room a bit more, but it's simply too cold right now to be out of the covers every 2-3 hours during the night. He's really good about falling asleep for naps and for bedtime without nursing. Usually I just set him down when he's relaxed but still awake, and he conks out really quickly. But at night, when he wakes, he needs help getting back down. Which is fine, and I don't at all resent snuggling him back to sleep (or kicking Eric and letting him do it!) But I would really, really love longer stretches of sleep...even 4-hour intervals would be heavenly.

We've been enjoying the snow: sledding, snow forts, snow tunnels, snow mountains, snow angels, snow drawings. And of course, eating snow! At home Zari just eats it straight from a cup or a bowl. But here the grandparents spoil her with maple syrup or raspberry syrup poured over the snow. I could do without the Minnesota temperatures, but at least it's been reasonable since we've been visiting. Reasonable = above 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-17 C).

Zari loves playing with her cousins. Yesterday they closed themselves in a tiny bathroom and played with glow sticks.


Morning snuggle earlier this month.

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Quiet Christmas

It's a quiet Christmas evening here. We have a few feet of snow on the ground. All of the children are sleeping, except Zari (she's setting out foam alphabet squares). All of the adults are gone to a movie, except me. That's life when you have a baby. The dishwasher is doing the last load of dishes from our traditional German Christmas dinner of rouladen and rotkohl, along with sides of carrot souffle, peas, homemade dinner rolls, and steamed Christmas pudding with lemon sauce. The toys from the Christmas crackers are scattered around the dining room...I should make sure nothing is on the floor, since they are most definitely choking hazards for someone Dio's size. This Christmas we all--for the most part--gave handmade gifts to each other. I love the ideas everyone came up with. I'll take some pictures and post more about them later.

I don't want to spend too much time on the computer today. Since today's celebration is, at heart, about a baby's birth, I'll leave you with a lovely birth story from NieNie, aka Stephanie Nielson. (You can read a detailed account of her plane crash story here.)

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Sleep

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Currently reading

I made a quick trip to the library last week (without kids! what a strange and liberating feeling) and grabbed several books off the shelf.

I first read Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir by Cara Muhlhahn. Cara was the home birth CNM featured in The Business of Being Born. It was a quick read, but not because it was particularly well-written or interesting. I found the book flat, rambling, and disjointed. The memoir was mostly about Cara's background and upbringing and not that much about her work as a midwife. I don't think it would have been published had she not already gained national recognition in the documentary.

I just finished Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years With a Midwife in Mali by Kris Holloway. I really liked it. Kris served in the Peace Corps and worked alongside Monique for two years. Monique served as her village's midwife/health care provider and faced incredible obstacles in her effort to improve health and save lives. Malians have one of the lowest per-capita income and highest maternal mortality rates in the world. The book devotes a portion to Monique's midwifery work, but the bulk of the memoir is about all of the other aspects of life in a rural Malian village: poverty, lack of education, malnutrition, living and housing conditions, village politics and community traditions, gender relations, etc. It's one of those books that makes me grateful for what I have and a little...well...sheepish at the complaints and concerns I have surrounding birth culture in the U.S. I still think birth reform in this country is important, but I also realize that we have it so easy in the grand scheme of things. We have the luxury of arguing about informed consent and refusal, about the politics of VBAC and ERCS, about the relative merits of pharmacological versus physiological methods of pain relief...while the women in Monique's village had no access to cesarean section at all. Eight years after Kris' Peace Corps service, Monique herself died in childbirth. She was giving birth in a hospital in a nearby larger town and wasn't even seen by a physician until two hours after her death.

If you want a good midwife's memoir, my all-time favorite is Peggy Vincent's Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife. I've read it probably 10+ times (I used to teach it as part of my freshman rhetoric classes at the University of Iowa) and it still makes me break out laughing. Other midwife memoirs I've read include:

• Vaginal Politics: A Midwife Story by Judy Lee,
• A Midwife's Story by Penny Armstrong (I would have liked a true first-person narrative, rather than a ghost-written autobiography)
• Diary of a Midwife by Juliana van Olphen-Fehr
• Motherwit: An Alabama Midwife's Story 
  
• Hard Labor: Reflections of an Obstetrical Nurse by Susan Diamond (okay, not technically a midwife's memoir, but still a good read).

And you can't mention midwives' stories without paying tribute to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's book A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812. Another historical look at an American Midwife is Mormon Midwife: The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions.

Midwife memoirs I haven't yet read:

• The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth
• The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir by Patricia Harman
• Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart- A Midwife's Saga by Carol Leonard
• Playing Catch: A Midwife's Memoirs by Sally Urang
• Listen To Me Good: The Story of an Alabama Midwife
• Why Not Me?: The Story of Gladys Milton, Midwife
• Orlean Puckett: The Life of a Mountain Midwife
• The Archeology of Mothering: An African-American Midwife's Tale by Laurie A. Wilkie (a scholarly historical examination of one Southern family)

I pulled two books off the breastfeeding section: Spilled Milk: Breastfeeding Adventures and Advice from Less-Than Perfect Moms by Andy Steiner and Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding. I enjoyed both books but I think I prefer Spilled Milk over Unbuttoned.

Supposedly a collection of essays about breastfeeding, Unbuttoned seems to have a high concentration of uber-competitive, glad-to-be-weaning, supplementing, and/or formula feeding writers. You'll come away from reading this book thinking that breastfeeding is the world's ugliest, most competitive sport; that LLL members are Nazi ideologues bent on making all mothers feel guilty; that breastfeeding always entails excruciating pain, bloody nipples, and terrible inconvenience. Does the fact that most of the contributors come from New York City play a role in the tone of this book?  Hmmmm...

I checked out another book because I needed to look up a reference for an article I'm writing: The Official Lamaze Guide: Giving Birth with Confidence by Judith Lothian. I had the pleasure of meeting Judith at the Lamaze Conference in October. I talked with her about the history of Lamaze's position on home birth (also for the article in progress).

The last book I checked out was Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death, Revisited. It kept me occupied all during our 8-hour drive to Minnesota yesterday. A great read and makes a good companion book to Stiff by Mary Roach. I had another long talk with my dad about burial practices and am even more resolved to avoid traditional American funeral practices. The whole embalming/open casket/viewing/funeral home/airtight vault thing is really silly. I mean--if you're dead, who cares about a hermetically sealed coffin or the airbrushed makeup or the velvet-lined coffin? I'd like to either donate my body to science, be cremated (without embalming/casket/funeral home service as is increasingly common), or have a green home funeral & burial in a simple wood coffin or simply wrapped a shroud.

Any good books you've read recently?

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Joyful news

If you've been watching CNN, you probably saw that Arizonan mom Joy Szabo had a successful second VBAC--but not without a fight and a 6-hour temporary move away from her family. I blogged about her story a few months ago in Elective(?) Repeat Cesareans. Take the time to read the CNN story (which includes links to other stories and articles) and watch the video about "How to get the birth you want."

Reality Rounds has responded to the news of Szabo's VBAC, wondering if the public might see her story as one of (selfish) entitlement, rather than empowerment.

CNM and MPH Nicole Deggins of It's Your Birth Right just blogged about what patient empowerment means to her. Her favorite thing about attending births is when she sees "The Shift." It happens after a laboring woman is ready to throw in the towel, after she is sure she can't do this anymore. Then..."The Shift" happens and the dynamic changes:

Immediately after “The Shift” she gets a surge of energy from somewhere and then WOW! The miracle of birth and life happens. And as she delivers her baby, she realizes that YES not only could she do it...she just DID it and the pride, the energy, the happiness, the beauty of it all. OMG!!! If we could put it in a bottle we could send love and stop war around the globe.

She has a lovely story of a young teenage mother with lots of emotional and personal baggage, a "social history that had worn her down." But she found her voice and her inner strength through giving birth.

My bottom line on the Szabo drama: it's a great story of one woman's empowerment, determination, and courage to follow what she feels is right for her and her baby. But it's a story that shouldn't have happened in the first place. A pregnant woman shouldn't have to move six hours away and rent an apartment in a big city, away from her home and family during the final weeks of pregnancy, just to escape an unnecessary surgery that her local hospital would have forced on her by court order.

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Modeling

We've been renovating our upstairs bathroom--something we always intended to do, but a mysterious and worsening water leak compelled us to start on it this month. We ripped everything out: toilet, sink, ugly faux-wood paneling from the 1970s, cheap vinyl tiles, and plywood subfloor. Now we were down to the bones of the room: plaster walls, pink plank subfloors, rough plumbing.

The next step was rebuliding the bathroom, step-by-step. We patched some holes in the floor, changed the heating vent location slightly, then installed a cement board (Hardibacker) subfloor. Zari helped by sweeping the floor. Two days ago, we cut and dry-fit the marble tiles. I was marking the tile locations for some rather tricky cuts, and Zari wanted to be in the middle of the action. She wanted my permanent marker, but I was able to keep her happy with a crayon. She "marked" the floor alongside me. Once the kids were sleeping, I installed the marble tiles by laying a thick bed of mortar over the cement board and squishing the tiles in place, being careful to create a strong suction seal with each tile.

Last night, once the mortar was hardened enough to allow light foot traffic, I applied the grout. I went up this morning to polish off the grout residue while Eric played with Zari and Dio.

The next job was to paint the wainscoting, baseboards, and char rail trim. When Dio was napping in the morning, Zari helped me paint everything down in our basement laundry room (too cold in the garage for painting--it was just 15 degrees F this morning). She really wanted to help paint, but it was getting difficult keeping the paint nice and smooth, not to mention keeping the paint out of her hair and clothes. So I came up with a great idea. I gave her a clean paintbrush and asked her to dust off all of the pieces before I painted them. I leaned them against the washing machine. She meticulously brushed down all of the pieces, carefully following each groove from top to bottom. If her brush went astray, she started over from the top, drawing the brush down in neat parallel lines.

While we were working--me painting and her dusting--she said to me, "Good job, mama! You're doing such a great job." I had said those exact things to her minutes earlier, acknowledging her contribution to the work I was doing. Her comments made me thing how important it is to model behavior and skills to our children. And to let them work alongside us. Children don't make a distinction between work and play like adults do. Everything is play to them: sweeping, cleaning, cooking, painting, loading the dishwasher (all things Zari has helped me do in the past few days). We can come up with creative ways to allow very young children to "help," giving them a sense of purpose, importance, and, of course, enjoyment.

For example, when I'm cleaning the bathroom, nothing makes Zari happier than to give her a bottle of "special spray" (either a dilute vinegar solution or just plain water) and a washcloth and let her go to town. She'll easily spend 30-60 minutes spraying and wiping the sink and shower and floor. She knows that my job is to use the "stinky spray" (bathroom cleaners) for the toilet and mirror.

How have you helped model important life skills with your own children? Or, if you're not yet a parent yourself, what did your parents do when you were young?

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Emergency deliveries

Here's a roundup of recent "emergency deliveries." It happens in planes! In living rooms! In bathrooms! Via Blackberries! I've included highlights from each story. Bolding is mine. Feel free to laugh, cry, or roll your eyes.

My commentary:

• what's with the hullabaloo over clamping/cutting the umbilical cord?
• good thing a doctor can go to medical school, not deliver a baby since the 1970s, and get all credit for doing nothing more than tying a knot in a shoelace
• How come the dads get all the glory for doing simple things like using a Blackberry or being on the phone with an emergency responder? Isn't it the mom who's doing all the work here? Give her some credit!
  

Baby Boy Delivered 30,000 Feet Over Colorado aka "Magic Doctor Does The Honors"

A Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City diverted to Denver on Friday after a woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy at 30,000 feet. A suburban Chicago doctor who hadn't delivered a baby since the mid 1970's did the honors in the sky over Colorado. When it was determined that the woman was not only in labor but wouldn't make it to either the intended destination or any other, she was moved to the rear of the aircraft where the doctor did his magic, tying the umbilical cord with his shoestring.

Baby Starts Birth in Hospital Toilet aka "It's an emergency if you're not in bed--even in a hospital"

A British woman said she started giving birth to her son in a bathroom after seven medical workers told her she was not in labor. Janet Clark, 38, said she was 25 weeks pregnant when she went into the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, England, with a great deal of pain and was sent home after talking to a doctor and four midwives, The Sun reported Monday. Clark said she returned to the hospital the next day and went into the bathroom after being told by two more medical workers that she was not in labor and had nothing to worry about. However, Clark said her son, Zac, began to arrive while she was on the toilet. "A pregnant woman shouldn't have to plead with medical staff," Clark said after giving birth to Zac, who hospital staff said needed special care at first but is now doing well.

Young woman delivers her own baby at home in Mackay, aka "Wow! You mean delivering babies isn't just something doctors do?"

JANE Santacaterina never wanted a homebirth but nobody told her baby. Little Braithe Williams arrived in such a hurry on Sunday afternoon, his mother did not even make it to the car. "My partner and I live at Dysart (in central Queensland) and I'd come to stay with my Mum at Andergrove for the last two weeks of my pregnancy, so I'd be closer to Mackay Hospital," said Jane, 20, yesterday. "When the labour pains started I went to get into the car and landed on the loungeroom floor. That's where I stayed."

With her contractions coming every two minutes, mother Ruth Santacaterina rang through to Queensland Ambulance Service emergency medical dispatcher Leighton Smith in Rockhampton. "He was brilliant, so calm. He told me what to do and I did it," Mrs Santacaterina said.

Fast-Tracked: Home birth quite a surprise for couple aka "Good thing dad was an EMT"

Maria and Michael Hernandez of Modesto never planned a home birth for their second child. It just happened that way and it went remarkably well. "It was like something on TV or a reality show," Maria said Tuesday, holding her daughter, Brianna. "I'm just glad my husband was there to calm me."...

Friday, her husband took her to Kaiser Modesto Medical Center for what they thought would be a routine birth, but after more than four hours, hospital staff sent them home to wait for Maria's contractions to get stronger. At 8:40 that evening, Maria's labor pains were getting worse and became intolerable by 9 p.m. As they prepared to return to the hospital, Maria went into the bathroom and her water broke. Soon after Michael ran to assist her, the baby's head was crowning, he said.

Michael said his training as an emergency medical technician kicked in. He spread towels on the floor in the bedroom and helped his wife to lie down. "As soon as she was on the floor, the baby was coming by herself," he said. "The majority of her head was coming out."

His mother, Maxine Mosqueda, was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher and they could hear the sirens of emergency vehicles responding to the call. The baby's head emerged, and the baby let out a cry. With another contraction, her shoulders pushed through and Michael pulled her out. He was clamping the umbilical cord when Modesto firefighters came into the room. Brianna Addison Hernandez was born at 9:17 p.m. Friday. She weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce, and was 21 inches long.

As emergency personnel took mother and child to the ambulance, the parents passed through a sea of neighbors gathered outside the home. The baby appeared healthy and began to nurse during the ambulance ride to the hospital, the parents said....

Hernandez said the birth certificate, giving their home as the place of birth and noting the father delivered the baby, is something they will treasure. Maria was able to give birth without all the intravenous lines and noisy medical equipment. "It was scary, but now I think it was the most natural thing that could have happened," she said.

Dad's web guide to delivering tot aka "Blackberry Birth"

Desperate dad Leroy Smith resorted to Google with the request "how to deliver a baby" when his wife went into labour. He was so clueless when wife Emma suddenly started to give birth at home he opted to use the internet.

Mr Smith called a midwife for advice but before she arrived Emma, 25, began having powerful contractions. So the 29-year-old grabbed hold of his BlackBerry, accessed the internet and sought help from search engine Google for step-by-step instructions. And after following the detailed guide on the internet's wikiHow Emma safely gave birth to daughter 6lb 11oz Mahalia Merita Angela Smith....

"The BlackBerry told me that when I saw the head, I had to support it. And when the baby actually comes out, I had to place her on Emma's chest, then covered them both with a blanket and make sure they were both comfortable and relaxed. It was amazing. It was just us two in the house because the other kids were with their grandma - Emma's mum. The midwife arrived about five minutes after the birth and told me I'd done good. She clamped the umbilical cord and I cut it."

Mr Smith, a security guard, added: "I couldn't believe I had done it and Emma was such a soldier, no pain relief or anything. I knew the midwife was on her way but Emma went into labour very quickly, the whole thing only took about 40 minutes."...

Proud mum-of-four Emma, of Leytonstone, East London, said: "It's incredible that Leroy delivered our first daughter. The other three are boys. "I said to him 'you're Leroy Smith, you can do anything'. I had wanted a home birth anyway. And thank God for the BlackBerry, I'm never going to moan at Leroy about being on the phone again."

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"Orgasmic Birth" giveaway winner

I re-read through all of the comments for the Orgasmic Birth giveaway. Thanks for all of your helpful questions and commentaries. I'll be putting together the most interesting questions for when I interview the filmmaker Debra Pascali-Bonaro.

I usually select giveaway winners using a random number generator, but this time I took the liberty of selecting a winner myself. I wanted someone who would be able to use the film not only for their own personal viewing, but also for educating and inspiring other women. And that person, to me, is...doctorjen! She's a family physician in a small rural town and attends about 70-80 births a year. (If you want to read more about the births she attends, browse through the archives of this blog. You'll see birth stories and commentary by her.) The film would make a great addition to her lending library.

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Call for LDS pregnancy, birth, and postpartum stories

If you are LDS and have stories/insights to share about your pregnancy, birth, or postpartum experiences, please contact Felice Austin at The Gift of Giving Life. She's writing a book "to encourage women of [the LDS] faith to make conscious choices about pregnancy, birth, and beyond." I'm honored to be collaborating with her on this project. Your stories can be long or short and can cover a range of topics. Please send in your stories soon; she'd like to receive all stories by the end of January.

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Nursing Moses

Charles Moses Martin Goodrich began his life as a motherless baby. His mother died of an amniotic fluid embolism (a very rare and very fatal obstetrical complication) less than12 hours after she gave birth. What happened next was nothing short of miraculous. Over 20 women in the community of Marquette, Michigan arranged to nurse baby Moses round-the-clock.

The more than two dozen other women who've nursed Moses know they cannot replace what was lost hours after he was born. But the father they've reached out to help says they've given his son something he could have never provided on his own. He's a healthy, happy, well-adjusted boy," he said, "who has always known a mother's love."

Read the rest of the story here.

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Babies (the movie)

The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog alerted me to a new documentary coming out this April: Babies.  It follows four babies from Namibia, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Mongolia through their first year of life. I can't wait to see it!

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Grand finale

I came home from this evening's orchestra concern on a post-Beethoven high. There's nothing like playing Beethoven's 5th to get your muscles working and your spirits soaring. I was hoping for a nice relaxing evening. But instead, I found a string of posts that got me worked up all over again.

Jill at The Unnecesarean started it all with two posts: Stuff White People Like: Talking About Birth and Convincing White Women that Birth is Painless Will End 'Race Suicide'

Which got Reality Rounds' creative juices flowing with A Birth Blogger Rap

And our intrepid OB/GYN student over at Mom's Tinfoil Hat wrote three replies-turned-posts.
Reply turned post, need to walk away style
Reply turned post, Dr. Amy is still there? style
Reply turned post, Dr. Amy style

I am doing my best not to get sucked in...you know, like this person:

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Musical breasts

Our university orchestra, in which I play second violin, had a dress rehearsal this afternoon. I made extra certain that Eric could be home to watch the kids. He came home early from work and I ran off to the rehearsal, about a 10-minute walk away. I was bundled up in my winter jacket, hat, scarf, and mittens and still the cold was seeping through all of the layers. When I got to the auditorium, there were no string players to be seen. I realized that I had read the schedule too quickly and that the woodwinds were rehearsing first. And I also realized that Dio hadn't nursed for a few hours. There was no way he would be able to make it another two hours until the rehearsal was over. So I speedwalked back home, nursed Dio in a few minutes flat (urging him on with "nurse! nurse!" whenever he got distracted), and hurried back.

I was chatting with several other orchestra members, mostly men and women with grown children, about how I am going to manage nursing and bedtime on concert night. Several of them reminisced fondly about their nursing days and said, "I totally understand what you're dealing with!" One woman joked with me about letdowns that take you by surprise.

We'll see how the concert goes this Sunday. It will be another day of musical breasts, of nursing between tuning and curtain call.

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Breastfeeding in church

I come from a religious culture that is fairly breastfeeding-friendly (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or LDS/Mormon for short). No one bats an eye at large families. (I come from a family with 5 children, and my husband is the oldest of 7. There were 8 children in my mom's family and 6 in my dad's.) Many more women in our church breastfeed than is average for North America.

Our meetinghouses usually have a room called a "Mother's Lounge," a place for women to go to nurse their babies or calm crying children, etc. I've seen some really nice mother's rooms with several comfy rockers, a changing table, and a sink. I've also seen some fairly cramped and unpleasant ones. The building in my town has a tiny room that was recently converted into a makeshift mother's room. It has an old padded armchair and a small side table. The last place I lived, the mother's room was off in a far corner of the church. The furniture was from the 1970s and I tried not to think about the numerous body fluids that had been spilled onto the old overstuffed couch. It was icy cold and always smelled strongly of poop and pee. I didn't go in there unless I really, really needed to take a nap along with my daughter! Some church buildings do not have mother's lounges at all.

Although I am glad that we have mother's lounges, I feel strongly that we shouldn't be expected to only nurse there and nowhere else. I almost always nurse in the pews, unless my baby is particularly loud and fussy. Then I go into the lobby to nurse until they have quieted down. Jane of Seagull Fountain just wrote a post about this, actually, feeling that mother's lounges can quickly become "ghettos" where women are supposed to go to do unmentionable stuff like, say, feed a child from their own breasts. Read her post You don't need an inner city to have a ghetto.

I've never got any grief about nursing in public from other church members, although I have heard of women in other LDS congregations who have. I guess because some churchgoers "immodest" or "indecent" or "licentious," somehow. TopHat, another LDS mama, discusses why she doesn't think breastfeeding in church is immodest. Jane of Seagull Fountain wrote this in Comfort Zone:

let me share my joy [about breastfeeding] without thinking I’m criticizing you or diminishing you.

Unless you think breastfeeding is something that should be hidden or something weird or something to be done under cover, in that small room, or only as long as “nothing shows” or no one is inconvenienced.

Then I am criticizing you, and I’m saying you’re mistaken.

And this includes people who are afraid that exposing (young) men to women breastfeeding will somehow harm them morally. I can’t even believe I typed that sentence. It is completely illogical. Letting young men see what breasts are for will LET THEM SEE WHAT BREASTS ARE FOR.

What have your breastfeeding experiences been like at your church? Where do women usually nurse their babies? Do you have special rooms set aside for nursing or for noisy children? Is it expected that you go to these rooms, or do you feel welcome to nurse wherever you want to? Have you ever received praise or criticism for breastfeeding your babies in church?

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"Orgasmic Birth" giveaway!

Debra Pascali-Bonaro has graciously offered to give away a copy of her film Orgasmic Birth! To enter (one entry per comment, please):

• If you've already seen the film, write your own review. Post the review on your blog or website, and put a link to the review in the comments. Or post your review directly in the comment section. 
• Write a question for Debra to answer. I will be interviewing her in the next few weeks and will use the most interesting, thoughtful, or probing questions. 
• Talk about your own orgasmic/ecstatic/transformative (or whatever!) birth, especially in relation to the issues raised in the documentary.
  

 Giveaway ends Friday, December 11 at 5 pm EST.

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