A licensed midwife who has an apparent passion for helping women heal after traumatic birth experiences gives a list of some of the horrific things she has heard birth attendants (doctors, nurses, midwives, etc.) say while in the delivery room with the laboring mother. Keep in mind all these things were said DURING the mother's labor, either directly to her or within earshot to other birth attendants in the room. Here are some of the quotes:

• "Quit being such a baby"
• "I want to go home"
• "I am going to talk her into letting me break her water so she will hurry up"
• "I am going to talk her into letting me manually dilate her so she will hurry up."
• "Oops, your water broke!" (while using fingernails or fingers to break it on purpose)
• "Can't you stop moaning?"
• "God, you have terrible veins!"
• "Your baby might bleed to death." (after refusal of Vitamin K injection for the baby)
• "You want your baby to go blind?" (after refusal of erythromycin in baby's eyes)
• "Are you one of those La Leche League people who nurse until the kid dates?"
• "You wanted a homebirth? That's child abuse!"
• "What is wrong with you? Are you trying to hurt your baby?"
• "Just get your epidural."
• "Are you sure you are ready to be a mom?"
• "You might feel a pinch." (as pitocin is injected into the vaginal vault)
• "Why did you wait so long?"
• "Why did you get here so early?"
• "How would you not know if your water broke or not?"
• "These stupid wetback women just scream and scream, I wish they would shut up"
• "If you don't hurry up we will have to do a c-section"
• "Oh no, she has a birth plan"

These horrifying comments came from this blog: Navelgazing Midwife

There are many more, but I figure you get the idea. There are even some that I really don't care to repeat. The "wetback" comment, which particulary disgusts me, was made by the woman's DOCTOR! Granted, these are comments that the blogger claims she has heard with her own two ears in her years of attending births and I can't say for sure how accurate she is being. For the birthing women's sakes, I hope she is exaggerating.....but sadly, I suspect that she is not.

NOTE: I haven't really read much else on this woman's blog and I did notice some curse words and maybe some views that I don't quite agree with, but I appreciate her zeal for helping women overcome their past negative birthing experiences.

Many women over the years have been forced and manipulated into doing things during their labor that they may not have chosen to do if they would've been educated. A lot of women don't reallize that they can stand up for themselves and refuse certain drugs/tests/treatments if they want to.

Just tonight, while visiting with some friends, a woman who is at the end of her 1st trimester of her first pregnancy was telling some women who have already had children that her doctor was wanting to test the baby for Downs Syndrome and some other birth defects during her next appointment. She asked these other women if that would involve just taking some blood or sticking her belly with a needle or something invasive like that.

I thought it was interesting that she had NO IDEA what these tests involved, yet she had already told the doctor "I know my baby is healthy, but if it makes you feel better to take the tests that's fine." She went on to say that there are other tests that are "mandatory" throughout the pregnancy, but that one was just highly recommended and she didn't have to she if she didn't want to.

One of the other women spoke up and said "You need to always remember that it is YOUR body and you can refuse certain things if you want to."

I was glad she said that.



I am learning a lot about birth options and I have to say that I REALLY don't want to give birth in a hospital. I have reallized over the past couple months that I have more of a FEAR of doctors than I have TRUST in them.

The Lord is my source. He is my healer and sustainer. I know that doctors have their place in this world and they have helped many many people......but they are not God.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. - ISAIAH 53:5

I really have my doubts about vaccinating children, too. I haven't read up on it enough to make an educated decision yet, but I'm really leaning towards NOT vaccinating my child, or at the very least CHOOSING which vaccinations he/she will get and when based on my research. I just don't think anyone should have the right to tell parents that they HAVE to inject things into their children. I recently read an anti-vaccination advertizement that said many vaccinations that are given to infants in the U.S. on a regular basis have so much mercury in them, that it would take a 200 lb person to process the amount healthily. I'll try to find the link to it.

Here are some vaccination information links:

http://www.vaccinationdebate.com/
http://befreetech.com/vaccine_poisons.htm
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.vaclib.org/basic/trufax/vacmaste.html

Labels: controversial topics, labor/birth, tough parenting decisions

So, it's the end of June and we're going to start trying to have a baby in August. Assuming that we get pregnant right away, I have a little more than a good solid month of trying to eat right, taking my vitamins, and exercizing before actually being pregnant.

Sadly, the last week or so I've been eating pretty unhealthily. At a recent church function I brought some lime Jell-o concoction I made with pineapples, marachino cherries, cream cheese, whipped cream, colored marshmallows, and walnuts. I know it sounds like something out of a 60's cookbook, sharing a page with the weird tuna aspic and radio active-looking swedish meatballs, but I love it for some reason. I usually make something similar for every potluck I go to. Most of it got eaten, but I ended up bringing the last 4-5 servings home and ate it all by myself within 2 days! Guess DH is not a big fan of green Jell-o chock full o' sweet junk.

Every Friday, our church has a barbeque on the new church property to celebrate the beginning of its construction. And every Friday it's hamburgers and hotdogs.....deliciously burnt with smoky grill lines. Yum. How can I turn that down? I think I've gained 5 lbs in the last couple weeks. Not good.

The midwife that I would like to have for my prenatal care as well as the birth is an expert in nutrition and told me that she is very strict and pushy when it comes to making sure the women she works with are eating a natural and healthy diet. UUuughh. Maybe I won't tell her about this little binge I've been on. She is a vegan herself, but I don't think she necessarily forces that lifestyle choice on her clients. She does encourage a diet full of unprocessed foods free of pork and red meat - lots of fruits, veggies, natural grains, and herbal supplements.

Okay, just one more weekend of this junk and then I'll eat healthy from then on....I promise.

Back to the weird retro gelatin salads....here's one for you:

EGGS IN ASPIC





HERE'S ANOTHER ONE I DON'T HAVE A PIC FOR:

Heavenly Cheese Mold

INGREDIENTS:
13 oz. can crushed pineapple
3 oz. pkg. lemon jello
1 cup boiling water
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream
PREPARATION:
Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add enough water to pineapple juice to make 3/4 cup, if necessary. In large bowl, place jello and add boiling water. Stir until gelatin is completely dissolved. Add pineapple liquid and stir. Chill in refrigerator until slightly thickened. Fold in pineapple and shredded cheese.
Whip cream in medium bowl until stiff. Fold into gelatin mixture. Pour into 1-1/2 quart mold, cover, and chill until firm. 8 servings

Recipe from busycooks.about.com

Somehow, I never imagined lemon Jell-o paired with cheddar cheese.....but what do I know?

Labels: food, health, recipes, ttc

This past week has been a rollercoaster of strange thoughts and emotions. DH quit his job suddenly in a fit of rage over the unfair way they have been treating him. Monday afternoon he was so angry, he packed up all of his belongings and brought them home. He took Tueday off because he was still not quite cooled off. Tuesday night afterhours, he left a letter of resignation on his boss' desk, along w/ his keys and his laptop. The resignation was effetctive immediately. Wednesday was a barrage of calls from his superiors and co-workers, none of which he answered.

We discussed all of our options before he quit and decided that he has enough skills to go into business for himself. We both felt empowered and confident in this decision, but as the week went on, DH started having 2nd thought. He contacted his immediate supervisor on Friday and he's supposed to go in on Monday to talk with the supervisor's boss. He's pretty sure he's just going to go back and work for them.

In a way, it's a little sad, but I have to admit that I do feel better knowing that we will have stability in these months of planning to have a child. DH has been so adamant about planning financially for the arrival of a baby - it would be very ironic if our baby came into the world with a couple of jobless parents.



P.S. - I think I ovulated the other day, according to the consistency of my cervical mucus, which means I must ovulate on the 14th day of my cycle or so. When it comes time to try, I think I'll get one of those ovulation detection kits from Wal-mart or somewhere. A lady recently told me that she and her DH had been trying to conceive for 7 months and after she got the ovulation kit she realized she was ovulating 4 days earlier than originally thought and ended up getting preggo right away.

Heehee... the term "preggo" makes me giggle. It reminds me of Britney Spears or another pregnant celeb....I guess because smut magazines always use headline such as "Madonna's Preggo" or the like. How silly.

Labels: dh, finances, ttc

Whew. Just mowed our huge yard w/ a pushmower. I would love to just get pizza instead of making dinner because I am worn out. I know I must be ready to have a baby because every mundane everyday task, every t.v. show, everything in my house brings the fact that we'll (hopefully) be parents within a year to my mind.

While I was mowing, I thought about how I would go about doing it when I have a small infant. I imagined myself with a little baby riding on my back in a sling or carrier of sorts while I do the yardwork, cook dinner on the grill, and take a walk to the post office.



I have a pattern to make a sling like this one:



Seems like it would be very handy indeed.
Something like this would be very useful, but it's a little pricey at 90-something dollars or so:


The Ergo Baby Carrier

Everything I do on a daily basis will change forever, and I'm ready for that.

I just started babysitting a 1 year old little boy last week. He is challenging yet so precious and loving. The challenging part is that he constantly wants to be held and he is HEAVY. I probably need to go ahead and make that sling so I can tote him around the house with me. He screamed incessantly this afternoon....even when I would hold him. His momma still breastfeeds him, so I know that's what he was wanting. Sorry, bud...can't help you out there. Poor little guy. I know he was just exhausted.

I'm under the impression that his momma hold him all the time and doesn't let him cry. Which, I'm not saying there is or isn't anything wrong with that, but without momma's boob to comfort him he can be pretty hard to deal with.

I have mixed feelings about letting a child "cry it out"....meaning, to let the child cry him/herself to sleep in a room by themselves rather than picking them up and rocking and comforting them. Many childcare experts from the 50's until the present have been proponents of this philosophy. But there are others, called "Attachment Parents" that believe it is never okay to let a baby "cry it out". These parents adopt the use of a sling or carrier and constantly hold their infants. I'm very confused about which would be better, but I suppose it would just depend on the child.

Today I let the little guy cry in his playpen for a little while because he was impossible to soothe. I tried everything and I knew that he just needed a nap. I felt so horrible after hearing him scream and cry for about 5-10 minutes, I broke down and held him. It felt strange and wrong to let him scream.

Labels: babysitting, babywearing, controversial topics

DH and I have decided that we'd either like to have a homebirth or a birth at a freestanding birth center because well, hospitals are for sick people. DH is the one that originally mentioned the possibility of having a homebirth, which I thought was really cool. I was thinking the same thing myself, but hadn't said anything about it yet.

I know it's really early to be planning the birth. If we get pregnant in August, we won't even have the baby until May, but I'd love to be as prepared as possible. Over the last couple months I have read and researched statistics and personal experiences of homebirth vs. hospital birth, and I can't really see why anyone would choose hospital birth (unless of course, you are deemed "high-risk" and because of a known existing medical condition it is in you and your baby's best interest to birth in a medical setting). A recent study has shown that homebirths among women that are not labeled "high-risk" are just as safe as hospital births. And there's much more evidence than just that one study. It is amazing.

Here is my somewhat unfairly stereotypical portrayal of what I would fear a hospital birth to be:




Women have been giving birth for centuries without the aid of medicine. Suddenly society thinks that it is absolutely necessary to yank the baby's head out of a heavily sedated mother with a pair of sterile tongs.

Labels: controversial topics, labor/birth

The purpose of this weblog:

• To keep record of the events leading up to the birth of my yet-to-be-conceived child.
• To keep record of the events that take place during the birth of the child. I want to write a detailed account of the entire laboring process from start to finish. Hopefully, I'll be able to make a few posts while in early labor to give up-to-the-minute updates on what's happening with my soon-to-errupt body and how I'm coping with my surroundings.
• To keep record of the events immediately following the birth of the child until I am forced to quit wasting time blogging my life as a new parent because there are too many gum-in-the-hair, riding-the-dog-like-it's-a-pony, "Mom, Billy's bleeding" incidences while I'm sitting @ my computer.
• To amuse myself with my own poorly drawn illustrations.

My initial inclination was to write each post as if I were addressing the little unconceived person in a letter, but let's face it, there's something sort of creepy about a grown adult writing letters to a person that has not been born. Well, okay, that in of itself is not so creepy, but writing to a person that has not even made its home in a womb yet is pretty...um....odd.

But in a way, this pregancy (which is not even a pregnancy yet) started when the idea of a child in our lives was conceived.

My husband and I have been married for 5 years and 6 months. A few months ago, when we were driving home from a trip up North to visit my family, we stopped at a Burger King in a travel plaza. I'm sure if I thought really hard, I could come up with the name of the highway and which state we were in, but I don't feel like it right now. Maybe I'll research it and add that later for sentimental purposes.

DH and I don't eat at Burger King very often. I am a little overweight and have cut junk food out of my diet, barring the occasional lapse when I totally blow it and eat deep-fried Snickers wrapped in bacon every meal for an entire weekend. During our two week trip visiting my family, I ate like I was in a race to see how much partially hydrogenated soybean oil I could get coursing through my veins at any given moment. Up until that point, I had gone from 213 lbs to 172 lbs over a period of several months of eating a healthy diet and exercising in a very half-assed kind of way. DH and I both knew that this sugar-capade we had been on was about to come to a close as we entered our real lives (why do I think that travel gives me the license to suddenly go nuts and drown my food in chocolate and gravy??). So, we thought that scarffing a Whopper was the logical thing to do before having to face reality. NOTE: DH is awesome and is eating healthy with me, despite the fact that he is very trim and does not need to lose any weight at all. What a trooper.

As we sat our trays down at the dirty booth and began to eat this horribly delightful meal, DH asked me what my goal weight was and if I thought I could achieve it by the end of the Summer. At that particular moment, for reasons that are obvious, I didn't really want to think about my weight-loss goals. But the reason why he was asking me right then was not to pressure me or make me feel guilty, but because he knew in the past I had said that I'd like to get down to my "ideal weight" before I ever even think about getting pregnant.

He did the math on how many pounds a month I would have to lose in order to reach the goal by the end of August and surprisingly finished his sentence with "because I think it would be cool to have an April baby".

I was totally floored because he has always been reluctant about the idea of having kids. I mean, I thought it would be something that would happen in the very distant future, but honestly it didn't look like Matt was going to warm up to the prospect of a baby any time soon.

I was ecstatic, to say the least. A few days earlier, when I wasn't around, he told my sister about his plans to tell me that he is ready to start planning for a baby. She has 3 kids of her own and I have mentioned to her my desire to have kids as well as DH's reluctance, so she knew what huge news this would be for me. DH said that his change of heart came with the thought that I had supported him in all his endeavors....... like the time he quit his job and became a full-time professional musician with a relatively successful Christian rock band that toured over 200 days out of each year, I was right on board with him wanting him to achieve his dream. He realized that maybe my dream is to be a mom, and he'd like to support me in that dream the way I supported his dream of being a professional musician.

At this point, I must digress and break my own rule of not "talking" to the yet-to-be-conceived child at this moment and say:

Little Person, this was the moment your Dad and I decided that we wanted you to be in our family. Sitting in that icky Burger King booth at a travel plaza somewhere along our travels, the IDEA of you was conceived, and we started making plans to bring you into this world.

Labels: being sappy, dh, ttc