waiting for baby...still!

I think it was a month ago that edd april 30 called to announce she was in labour, 3cm and contracting every 8 -20 minutes. She's been having this on and off labour type stuff going on for a long time now. The contractions gradually slowed to a stop and she started back with braxton hicks for the last 3 weeks. Today, some amniotic fluid trickled out and the mucus plug came free. Her Dr. said today that she was now at 4cm. That was 6 hours ago. 2 hours ago I went to help her with her kids (all five of them). I picked them up from daycare while she made dinner for them. She says she must continue with her routine so as not to make a fuss of this labour. She's anticipating an epidural since she must conserve her energy to come back as a single mom with 6 children to her name. Whoa baby, we've been waiting for you and finally, now we know that you will arrive and probably sometime in the night! My guess is that baby will be born at about 8 am based on what the afternoon has been like. Let's see what happens.

A beautiful baby boy was born on friday morning. I got a call at 7am from the mother and she said that things where just starting and that she was going to call the midwife next. She said she'd call me when things picked up. Baby was born at 8:46. In fact, things picked up so dramatically for this mother that she barely made it to the hospital to deliver. I think she must have left her house when she was fully dilated since baby came out less than 15 minutes after arriving in the hospital. When she arrived, the staff told her to lie down for an exam and she strictly said NO! There was a power struggle and then the midwife arrived (and saved the day). The mother said I'm going on the bed on all fours. Which she did. Baby was crowning and came into the world in a few valuable pushes. And this one was born on his edd.

The Meatrix

This is why I havn't eaten meat in over a decade...sound on to watch a mini video.

The Meatrix
The Meatrix 2

To baby or not to baby... is this a question?

I personally have never been pregnant. I deeply want to have children in this lifetime and all that jazz but I still have 4 years of university ahead so not now. As a doula, I've noticed that this is a sticky point for some people (mothers and other doulas alike). Sometimes I read in books, magazines and articles that doulas are women experienced in childbirth and are themselves mothers...there is often a huge emphasis on a doula having given birth herself. This is very important to many women who want to know that they are being supported by a woman who knows and can attest to the feelings of labour and childbirth. I have always been upfront with the fact that I have not. Some women are happy to know in advance and decline my services. Others say 'thats great, it means you can come see me in labour on the spur of the moment and won't compare my birth to your own and super-impose your expectations on me.' I don't doubt my capacity as a doula because of these personal preferences. But I do wonder about the (new) age old question: can we have it all~at once~? For career women, when is it appropriate to have children? Is it possible for me to continue my work as a doula and become pregnant, have a baby and carry on with my professional life? Our country still owes women so much in the way of support for surviving while having a baby. And on that note, since I've chosen to study midwifery, when then, will it be a good time for me to have a child? Will I again be faced with decline on account that I have not myself given birth? And what about midwives who are infertile or chose to adopt? What then do they represent?
A dear friend and midwife that I know asked me "so how do you really feel about this?' when I first told her of my acceptance into the programme de sage femme. I sighed and said "well I'm just thrilled that I can now have my children before my mid 30!" Her answer: "You're in now. You can have them anytime. It will never be a perfect or easy time to have them."
A pregnant midwifery student, a mother of a young child midwifery student? Is this really possible? How and why are women expected to do it all at once?!!

A collection of questions - and some potential answers

This might seem really un-private, but that's just the way the internet works...something as cute as a 'cookie' can tell the world alot about you. I've gathered some of the questions and ways people have found my blog and thought I could try to answer their questions. NB: I'm not a reliable source of information. Nothing I say here is more than my own personal opinion and especially where your health is concerned, it's best you ask your primary healthcare provider. In fact, every piece of information here is posted just for my own fun and sharing that is part of it but...get the picture? On that note, I do invite other bloggers to add their insight to these questions.


homebirth

Absolutely. read this - enough said-

"epidural" "what stage of labour"

The earlier interventions start, the more chances for the domino effect. If you can manage without it, you don't need it. It's a drug people. Use it wisely.

are doulas covered under ontario insurance plans?

Unfortunaly no. Unless someone has a private health care plan that really kicks ass.

doula wage canada

The average cost for a doula in Canada is $500. That typically includes 2 prenatals, the entire birth and 1 post partum. That can typically break down to about $20-25/hour. But then there are a massive amount of hidden expenses such as gas, parking, photocopies, all the time investments, books, supplies ect ect ect. Also, most doula's can manage only about 4 births per month. Sometimes it's impossible to find even one paying birth per month, so when you start this career, make sure you have another source of income.

doula fees

You can expect to pay anywhere from $0 if you get someone as a volunteer who either is offering limited experience or because that's their kind way of volunteering in a cause they believe in. The average is $500, but I've also known women who have charged as high as $1200. I think this was a complete prenatal birth and postpartum package though.

believe in birth

Yes!! Believe in birth. Your body knows how and you can do it!!

on becoming midwife

Becoming a midwife is a process of lifestyle changes. You're entire philosophy, heart, shedule and family support should like to believe and be called towards it. My best advice is become a doula first! I didn't believe this at first, but now I believe it can make a huge difference. You get to be at births earlier than if you started to study midwifery, it lets you try out the lifestyle of being on call and working odd, sometimes 30+hour shifts and all that jazz. This is a much smaller investment htan relocating and paying tuition for a programme you might drop out of if you've never lived the experience and figure out you can't handle the life style(including political pressures to conform to mainstream ideologies)

birth rituals

A couple of years ago I did a project in a women in christianity course. We had to create a christian ritual. I, naturally, chose to create a birth ritual. Not be a very believing kind of person, I created a ritual that is multy faith instead. Basically, I boiled it down to the need to involve a community of support (family, friends). Birth(and death) happen behind closed doors in our society so I think its very important to widen that practice and make birth a part of our every day lives (because it is). I recommended that we set time aside each day or each week to come together as a family and be aware of the idea that birth is a very special part of our lives and that it is also a natural thing that is a process. Socially, birth is much like a funeral in the sence that there is social disruption. When we add or remove people from our social network, all of our roles change. Including becoming parents, grandparents, aunts...birth alters our social network so the transition might be helped with some sort of ritual.

birth art canada

Personally creating your own birth art can be fun and beneficial way of exploring issues such as fear, source of stregth and so on. Mediums to use can be clay, paint, crayons, weaving ect. Birthing from within is an excellent source. As for birh art to decorate your house with, I'll get back to you about that.

if your are pregnant can you give birth at 38 weeks

Yes. Babies are viable much sooner than that. But it's best to let nature take its course for uncomlicated pregnancies.


suggested questions for interviewing prospective midwives

My favorite is "can I or my partner catch the baby?" I think this is telling of the midwifes philosophy and hangups about births. I'm anxious to see what my eventual answer to this will be some years down the road.

Human cesarean pictures

I have some lovely vaginal birth pics...

body representation

How do we perceive the world around us? How do we interact with the imprinting of our world as we perceive it? How do symbols and representations of abstract natures come into being in our psychological mind, translate into our lived reality? As a multi-lingual person and I suppose also as a psychology major as well as a women studies major, I guess I always come back to these questions. How is it that we individually, culturally and cross culturally come to experience the symbolic interactions of daily life? I am always trying to deconstruct the way that the order of our interactions affect our culture I guess. So it's no wonder that I was little less than shocked when I came across this body representation. I imagine that it is my liberal ideology and country girl approach to things,
( and no doubt others have reached this conclusion through their own unique a possibly opposite path), but its plain freaky to think of practicing on such a model. Maybe it was the language... "This comprehensive system is designed to provide a complete birthing "experience", including before, during, and after delivery." Almost sound like a doula pitch...
In any case, I find it repulsive to think that one would learn to understand the body, to read the body and to be 'provided a complete birth experience' on a dummy. It makes me think of learning to make love by using a blow up doll.
Perhaps new interactions in the future will help me to overcome my initial issue with this body representation, then again I'm still weirded out by this other foetus in a bag thing that I was given last year. It was designed to help one identify the position of the baby in utero. It's this bizarre bright yellow bag that can be filled with air and there is this relatively anotomically correct baby inside it...you kind of have to feel around and try to figure out the position of the baby...Everytime I see it I feel like liberating the baby but then I think this device is costly and is suppose to serve a purpose. I just cannot help but wonder how these strange and unsettling body representations make us subconsciously perceive our bodies. It reminds me of the pregnant barbie, of women as cyborgs too. Eeek! Ireally think I would prefer to be used as a model in a class than to pawn off these models for learning. Resolve the disconnect!

Home Birth study and Birth in Canada

Today is the day to go get the globe and mail and read the health section...the CTV covered the story last sunday...
Also, some interesting articles for those interested in giving birth in canada link to some reports.

Self Actualization

On a personal note, I very recently(2daysago) went outside with my dog Teaka for a walk in the rain. On this particular day, I chose not to look at my mail box thinking that, what the heck, the answers I look for will just plain and simply not be in my mailbox today. So off for a walk we went. Long story short, when I returned, I found that infact, the answer to my life long question was literally in the mailbox in a big brown enveloppe. I'm going to be a Midwife!! I received my acceptance letter to my chosen Midwifery school. In a few months, I will relocate to a new city and I will finaly be able to call myself a midwifery student. It's amazing to me. I've been involved academically for 3 years already and working as a doula and on midwifery related research, I've done a 300 hour practicum in midwifery and all this fantastic experience...It's just such a relief to finally make it in. Until then, I will continue with my doula clients and with research. This blog will most likely evolve through the 'becoming a midwife phases' and 'student midwife experiences' and so on. I'm loving this!

Some babies do have two mommies, or two daddies

Hello,

Prime Minister Harper has confirmed that he will re-open the equal marriage debate thereby contradicting a majority vote that was decided only last year! Not only has this issue already been discussed, debated, and voted on for far too long and at too much of an expense (your money, by-the-way!); but now Harper wants to re-open it because he wasn’t happy with the decision. Given the health crisis, the education crisis, the military “encounters” abroad, do you really want your taxes spent on this already-decided-upon “issue”?!

Please act to tell PM Harper that you (and two-thirds of the rest of Canada*) are against re-opening the equal marriage debate.

Canadians for Equal Marriage (http://www.equal-marriage.ca/) has drafted an e-petition that will be sent to the PM, the addition of your name to this e-petition will help convince the Prime Minister that he is wasting money and time on an issue that has already been decided. Simply click on SIGN THE PETITION. I also encourage you to forward this email to people who feel the same way you do.

Thank you.

* Environics polls – from November 29, 2005 and from January 24, 2006 – showed that two-thirds of Canadians are against re-opening the equal marriage debate. As well, a recent survey of Canada’s top executives revealed a strong consensus against re-opening the issue.


www.equal-marriage.ca | www.mariageegal.ca

HomeBirth study a smashing hit!

There is a fantastic homebirth study that was published in the BMJ last spring. It is the largest study of it's kind and demonstrates some statistically significant data on the safety of homebirths with CPM in comparisson to the standard hospital births. The BMJ has ranked it #3 top article of the year and #3 of the top 10 articles emailed to a friend. Given that this article is second only to heart conditions in topic of interest demonstrates that homebirths with CPM in Canada and the States(data collected from both countries) is of significant interest to the population at large. The authors of this amazing article, Betty-Anne Daviss and Ken Johnson have put a tremendous amount of time and otherwise investments into the production of this article and I am forever thankful for their dedication to work of such magnitude within the birthing community and for women around the world.
Betty-Anne has been interviewed by the Globe and Mail as well as a local (ottawa) TV station. Publication of these interviews about the success of the homebirth article will happen sometime this weekend so keep your eyes peeled!
The article can be read here.
The top 10 list can be read here.