Debunking Doula Myths

This is a column by Danielle Elwood from Babble, a parenting website. I have included part of it and you can find the rest here: http://blogs.babble.com/being-pregnant/2010/11/18/common-myths-about-doulas/

"The longer I’ve worked in the birth community the more I’ve learned just how many mainstream forums carry horrible inaccuracies about doulas. I wanted to write something to kind of set the record straight and let women, especially pregnant women, or women who will some day plan to have a child of their own what is real, and what is a big ol’ myth."

Myth: A doula shows up only for the birth, and leaves immediately after.
The relationship a doula builds with a mother and her family starts during pregnancy, and expands to labor and postpartum care. When labor begins your doula will accompany you fromstart to finish, and even in the hours after, no matter what setting you have chosen for your birth. After your baby is born you should expect your doula to check in on you a couple times to see how you are adjusting to your new life and roles.

Myth: Doulas are only for crazy hippies.
Contrary to popular belief, all doulas are not going to show up with bongos and magical healing crystals. Most doulas may be into natural healing, or holistic health care, but are not going to be pushy if this is something you do not want to choose for your own birth.

Myth: Doulas take over the role a husband has during labor.
This is probably the most common myth I hear. A doula’s role in labor is to not only be of help tothe mother and her partner, but to work on enhancing the relationship the couple has with the hospital staff. She will advocate for the mother and function as a liason between the couple and hospital staff such as residents and nurses. During labor, mom and dad are often too preoccupied to deal with lots of details– this is one reason a doula comes in handy.
As Penny Simkin says: “While a doula probably knows more than then partner about birth, hospitals and maternity care, the partner knows more about the woman and her personality, likes and dislikes, and needs. Moreover, he or she loves the woman more than anyone else there.”

Myth: Doulas take the place of Midwives or OB/GYNs.
This is another huge myth I constantly hear. Many people mistakenly think that a doula takes the place of a midwife, or medical professional who handles prenatal care and delivery. Or that a doula and midwife are interchangeable. While some doulas may carry other certifications in the medical field they are not midwives or doctors and should not be treated as such. They are there to provide labor support and guidance, not medical care.Myth: Doulas cost too much!
Doulas are not only for the rich, or for those with kick ass health insurance that will cover doula care. Doulas are for all women. In some areas they can range up to about $600 for a birth, but many doulas are willing to work on a sliding scale, or even for free while working on their certification. Many hospitals across the country have programs with doulas on staff that can cost as low as $100 for an entire birth.

Myth: If you have a doula, you cannot have an epidural or pain relief.
While women who make the choice to have a doula do not typically wish to have medical pain relief during labor, doulas are not going to judge your choices for what you want during your birth. They are there to support your labor and birth, not dictate what they think you should be doing. Heck, I had a doula with my second birth and after laboring for nearly a day opted for an epidural for some sleep. There is nothing wrong with it as long as you are educated on your choices.

by Danielle Elwood

Don't Short-Change Your Baby By Inducing Labor

I read this column on MSNBC today, about why women should not choose to induce labor in their final weeks of pregnancy. The author refers to a recent study that details the complications that come with late preterm births, including respiratory distress and difficulty sucking and swallowing.

I agree with the column, but I would add that the dangers of induction do not end at 40 weeks or the "due date" your doctor wrote in your medical file. Just because some babies are born around 40 weeks does not mean every baby is ready to be born at 40 weeks. Why induce at 40 weeks if you would not induce at 38?

Here are some good comments from Judith A. Lothian in the Journal of Perinatal Education:

Thinking of, and clinging to, the “due date” as “the day” makes it difficult for women to trust nature's beautiful plan for the end of pregnancy and the start of labor. What women rarely know, and what people tend to forget, is that some variation exists in how long it takes for an individual baby to mature fully. Acknowledging that babies can safely come 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after the due date does not tell the whole story. Some babies are mature as early as 37 weeks (259 days), and others need 42 completed weeks (294 days) and sometimes a bit more to be fully ready. Size is not an indication of maturity, and the due date is only a guideline.

She notes that "Waiting for labor to start spontaneously is almost always the best way to know that the baby is ready to be born and that a woman's body is ready for labor." Read her article for more details about the risks of induction: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595289/

Defeating the Culture of Death

Vision Forum has posted the topics that will be addressed at its Baby Conference next month. It isn't too late to sign up! The topics look GREAT and include:

☆ A Season of Victory in the Long War Against Babies — Doug Phillips
☆ The Wonders of Embryology — Geoff Botkin
☆ Haiti’s Message to the Families of the World — Doug Phillips
☆ The Glorious Vision of Adoption and Why You Should Consider It
☆ Symposium: Babies, Children And Training
☆ The Glory of the Fruitful Womb
☆ Naming Babies
☆ The First Three Years
☆ Children as Pets
☆ Toys, Tools, and Children
☆ How to Practice Biblical Discipline in the Home
☆ The Indispensable Role of Grandparents in the Life of Children
☆ The Hopeful Theology of Miscarriage
☆ What Every Father Needs to Know About Government Education
☆ Children and the Dominion Mandate
☆ How the Local Church Builds a Thriving Culture of Life
☆ What About Reversal Surgery?
☆ The Myth of Overpopulation
☆ Why I Chose A Midwife Over a Doctor
☆ Suffer the Children: How Families and the Local Church Must Care for the Sick and the Disabled

☆ How Reproductive “Freedom” Destroyed Not Only our Culture, But The Christian Church
Top Seven Legal Issues Facing Christian Parents
☆ The Demographic Bomb
☆ What the Bible Says About Birth Control
☆ The Future of Healthcare in America: How Must the Church and Family Respond to Socialized Medicine
☆ How to End Abortion in America: A Look at the Spiritual, Practical and Constitutional Realities
☆ Symposium on Biblical Bio-Ethics for Birth in the 21st Century: Surrogacy, In Vitro Fertilization, Designer Babies, Cloning, Artificial Wombs, Male Pregnancy, Stem Cells, and More
☆ Symposium on Biblical Bio-Ethics for the Infirm and Aging in the 21st Century: Brain Death, Organ Transplants, Euthanasia, and Care for the Elderly
☆ First We Were Wives, Then We Became Mothers
☆ Women’s Symposium: Managing Logistics for a Large Family
☆ Lessons for the Future of Adoption from the Great 2010 Crisis in Haiti
☆ The Who, What, When, Where and Why of International Adoptions
☆ Top Ten Toughest Adoption Questions

Register for the conference here: http://www.visionforumministries.org/events/bc/

I'll be there. I look forward to seeing any of you who can make it!

Babies Documentary Beautifully Captures Family Bond

I've been looking forward to this film since I first saw the trailer. And I've watched the trailer a few times since then! :)

It's still not showing in Austin. But here's a review from someone who has seen it.

French director Thomas Balmes brings us the daily ins and outs, from mundane moments to milestones, of four infants living disparate lives: Ponijao, a girl from Namibia; Mari, a baby girl in Tokyo; Hattie from San Francisco, and Bayarjargal, the only boy (and the biggest scene-stealer) in Mongolia. Balmes does this without narration, without marking the passage of time or even subtitles to clarify what's being said; then again, there are very few words. Instead, he roams from one baby to the next as they cry, eat, sleep, play and — eventually — crawl, stand up and walk.

It's a bold storytelling approach: Balmes runs the risk of alienating his audience members, the vast majority of whom won't be able to understand what's being said. "Babies" frequently lacks momentum because there's no strong narrative drive, just an easy, casual stroll from baby to baby, moment to moment. Then again, the familiarity of infancy emerges in time. When a mother assuages her child on an African plane or in a Japanese high-rise, it's clear what she's saying.

At the same time, the differences are striking. Helicopter parenting doesn't seem to exist in Mongolia, for example, where adorable Bayarjargal crawls out by himself into a scruffy field in the sunshine wearing nothing but a T-shirt and a diaper. Soon he's surrounded by cattle, all of whom seem to know instinctively to step carefully around this delicate creature, to protect him. When Ponijao bends down to sip water from a stream in the desert, you can almost hear the moms in the audience cringing because it's not sanitary.

But parents in the United States will also get a kick out of Hattie's reaction when her mom drags her to a crunchy-granola, mommy-and-me song circle. Her instinct is to run screaming for the door. (Smart cookie. Learning early.) Similarly, Mari has a prolonged and hilarious tantrum when she can't figure out how to stack a series of blocks in her bedroom. These are little people with big personalities, and Balmes lucked out in finding them; after all, he arranged to film these families while the babies were still in the womb.

Balmes shot nearly all this footage himself, 400 hours of it, all on a tripod, and the stillness of the lengthy moments that result can be mesmerizing. In crisp high definition and accompanied by Bruno Coulais' gorgeous score, he shows us everything from grand vistas of the Mongolian planes to nighttime quiet of a Namibian family's hut.

Read the full review by Christy Lemire of the Associated Press: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36927429

Japan Attempts to Spark Baby Boom... with Robot Babies?

What?!? I have no words for this...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

"Graduate students in Japan are hoping an innovative new invention will help solve the country's fertility crisis. Meet Yotaro. He's a robot designed to give people the joys of parenting, without all the mess. And just a like a real baby, he reacts to stimuli, giggling and crying. The baby's reactions are projected onto a silicon balloon, which serves as his face. The students who invented the robot are hoping he will motivate young people to have children. Right now, Japan's birth rate is among the lowest in the world and could cause serious economic problems in the next decade." - MSNBC

Cesarean vs. VBAC: A Dramatic Difference

This is a video excerpt from the homemade film called "The Journey to Homebirth," made by Alexandra Orchard. We watched this film at the VBAC workshop I attended recently and I found it to be a really poignant story. She ends the film with a powerful letter that she wrote to her doctor, explaining why she is choosing to leave his care and have her third baby at home.

Cesarean vs. VBAC: A Dramatic Difference from Alexandra Orchard on Vimeo.

Alexandra Orchard also started a support network called www.empoweredmomma.net.

"Our country has the best medical technology available in the world, yet we are 20th in the world for infant mortality. I am all for women’s choice in childbirth, however it is incredibly one-sided. Women can choose a cesarean for no medical reason, but I could not find one doctor in my area willing to give me the chance of a natural childbirth after two cesareans. One nurse laid it out perfectly for me: "no doctor is willing to risk their career on you", she said, and I knew she was right. But my baby and I deserved more. I knew I would be in better hands with my midwife who knew my baby so well and wouldn’t be pushing my body or my mind with time limits, instruments, or any other stresses. I felt very strongly that my chance of having a successful vaginal birth would be significantly compromised in a hospital setting. I gave birth to my daughter at home because it was right for us... We were made to do this. We don’t need to be “rescued” from this important, though sometimes difficult journey. We need to be in control and we need to be given the freedom and time to let our bodies and our babies do what needs to be done in peace. We need to be surrounded by people who will be patient with our bodies, our babies, and our progress in a natural labor. More importantly, we need to be surrounded by people who believe in us."

"Meaning in the Waiting"

I read this article about the Advent season and thought it would be particularly interesting for women who are in a season of pregnant waiting.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/december/1.64.html

by Paula Gooder

"Waiting can be a nurturing time. Pregnant waiting is a profoundly creative act, involving a slow growth to new life. This kind of waiting may appear passive externally but internally it consists of never-ending action and is a helpful analogy for the kind of waiting that Advent requires."

Blooming Beautiful

I don't own a TV and I have never been particularly interested in the Emmy Awards, but I was pleased to find these lovely photos of Heidi Klum at last night's award show.

Apparently this is the third time she's been pregnant during the Emmys over the past 5 years! Lots of maternity fashion inspiration for the rest of us. :)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1214997/Blooming-beautiful-Heidi-Klums-enormous-bump-takes-centre-stage-Emmys.html

"Supermodel Heidi Klum, who is eight months pregnant, proudly displays her bump at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards held at the Nokia.
The couple's baby girl is due next month."

Homebirth in the media

This TODAY Show report - portraying homebirth as a particularly risky option - is taking a lot of flack: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32795933#32795933

It doesn't address the sad reality that sometimes babies die, even in births at the hospital. There is no way to completely prevent infant mortality, but homebirths do result in fewer infant deaths than hospital births. Like the video points out, that is in part because homebirths are low-risk births. But all the more reason to choose homebirth if your pregnancy isn't high risk!

Here are two stories about homebirth on USA Today. These provide the positive coverage to balance out the negative stuff from the aforementioned video!

Study Shows Home Birth with Midwife as Safe as Hospital Birth
by Amanda Gardner
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-09-03-midwife-home-birth_N.htm?obref=obinsite

Home Births Get a Bump, Over Obstetricians' Objections
by Rita Rubin
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-09-13-home-births_n.htm

A historical look at the impact of infant formula on breastfeeding

This column was written a week ago, by Toni Parker of the Houston Examiner.

http://www.examiner.com/x-17146-Dallas-Womens-Health-Examiner~y2009m8d3-A-historical-look-at-the-impact-of-infant-formula-on-breastfeeding

"There are at least 400 nutrients in breast milk that processed milk cannot duplicate. These nutrients work in tandem, which maximizes their nutritional effectiveness. Conversely, any isolated, synthetic vitamin that is found in infant formulas offers no real nutritional value because they lack the whole food property of breast milk. Hopefully, we will correct the wrongs of our 19th century sisters and revert back to the days of yester year-the days when a human baby received it’s nourishment from another human being. If you are unable to breastfeed, you do have options, such as using a wet-nurse, patronizing a breast milk bank, or making your own healthy, homemade recipe of infant formula."

Reducing Infant Mortality

The folks at www.ReducingInfantMortality.com are raising money to fund this film about the state of childbirth in America. Watch the commercial and feel free to donate money towards the cause on their website.

"Listen to obstetricians, doulas, neonatologists, midwives, psychologists, pediatricians, and other physicians explain how our health care system is failing babies and mothers and what we can do about it."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFaryTo0w4U

http://www.reducinginfantmortality.com/

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to start your families.”

My mother sent me this column about the curent birthrate in America and its implications on family and culture. It is good. The article also refers to a book called "Start Your Family," which I haven't read.
http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=11160

Children give us a chance to see the world through fresh eyes. We rediscover the delight of a winter snowfall, spring blossoms, the wonder of a bulldozer and a ballerina.
But children also bring us happiness in a way our culture no longer understands. The ancient concept of happiness, which Aristotle termed eudaimonia, meant “an activity of the soul expressing virtue.” Having children is an opportunity for us to learn selflessness, to serve others, and sometimes to see our sinfulness on display in a way that makes us want to change.