Monday
May172010
Monday Open Thread
Monday, May 17, 2010 at 5:24PM
This evening’s thread is hosted by a unicorn. What’s going on? Written or read anything interesting?
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Reader Comments (49)
I am attempting to put the final touches on my birth plan for my upcoming hospital VBAC. I am taking the Navel Gazing Midwife's advice and keeping short and sweet, leaving off the obvious and the items I know my hospital already encourages. I have the right Dr, I have picked *my* best option for hospitals, I am having a pretty dreamy pregnancy...........hopefully it can come together in the end.
I see my largest obstacle being the NPO hospital policy as I have hypoglycemia and not eating or drinking just does not work for me.
Any advice?
Quality and Safety and Other Lies We're Being Told
I came to post my blog entry and I see someone beat me to it!
What I can add however is that this new "woman-centred" framework means no HBAC will be allowed in the govt's homebirth scheme. Our hospitals have appalling rates of vbac - unsurprisingly - so that's obviously the message we're supposed to take away from these measures to control our bodies. Midwife-attended homebirth outside of this framework is going to be illegal and there is already a crackdown on family birthing (freebirth) across the country.
Sickening. Heartbreaking. The govt has so tightly controlled the spin on this for two years now that no newspaper will print the reality of what's being done to Australian women. This is not only removing our basic right to autonomy around healthcare but also introducing personhood of the foetus.
Thanks, Heatherly. :-)
Oops I mean, thanks Amy. I read the comment author wrong!
Clear Gatorade and http://www.justinsnutbutter.com/products.php. You could squeeze some in your mouth when surrounded by your support team.
For Heatherly,
Read and follow the links from this post in Science & Sensibility about eating/drinking in labor
I would print out what the Cochrane review says about it and bring it with you to the hospital. And of course there's always staying home as long as possible so you can eat and drink as you please and then sneak food and drink at the hospital
The individual packs is what I would pack for food, not the jars.
Last time there was an open thread I freaked out and blurted out that I might be pregnant. Well, I am pregnant, and I am no longer freaked out! LOL. Now, I am pumped up because even though it's early, and people who are much more superstitious than I am think I shouldn't be talking about my birth plans until I'm 12weeks, I know I'm gearing up for my first home birth! I was so concerned about my lack of insurance, and the CPM's of my city (Sacramento, CA) inability to accept Medi-cal, and our savings being depleted, that I was sure I would again be robbed of my home birth due to my finances.
On the contrary, I found midwives who not only give a discount for women who qualify for medical ($2800) for the birth, they also have a BITCHING KICK ASS payment plan...making my dream of a home birth a reality! Oh, I'm due in January by the way. Everyone thinks I already have 3boys, this will be my girl. I say no way, the powers that be know there is only room for one chick in this house! :-) I rule this nest!
So enough with the personal boring stuff..I read a post of facebook from someone whose names escapes me, however i thought I post the link she posted here. I was very pissed off by this DISinformation campaign regarding cloth diapers!
Here is the link
Janet, I loved your version of the Quality and Safety Framework.
Here's what I've been mulling over. I couldn't initially soak in how brilliant Renee's post was because I got hung up on the Feministe post linked. My Child Takes Up Space
If you can stomach it, check out the Feministe link to see some hardcore child hating.
Sigh. First thing this morning my boss starts telling me about a meeting he went to where a guy was proudly showing pics of his wife's homebirth (yay! and wow!) but my boss was made uncomfortable because...oh no!..there was a breastfeeding photo where you could SEE a BREAST OMG. And she was HOT to make it worse (and then, I was skeeved).
Then even more sadly, a young lady who is preg. with her first chimed in about how breastfeeding is great but you should COVER UP, it's your BODY, and oh man. It's just BOOBS people, calm the heck down. (and what is she going to do when her baby does not like being covered up?)
And another dude was all, yeah it makes me feel like a perv when women do "that", ha ha.
And I was the Lone Hippie going "Hey guys, it's just feeding a baby. Most of the time, you can't even tell, but even if you can, babies have to eat."
/frustration
Patrice, congrats again. I remember your stressed out comment a month ago or whenever that was. That's so great you found someone who will do a payment plan for your midwifery care!
My first thought is that you're going to have a boy. I have opposite intuition (I suck), so start buying girl clothes.
emjaybee... only made more ironic because you're not a hippie.
Congrats and good luck to Heatherly and Patrice! I've been surfing and enjoying this blog so much lately. I'm so glad you are doing this. I am wrapping up my PhD this year-- this baby took 12 years to gestate and I cannot wait to move on. I'm obsessed with birth stuff and hope to get into childbirth ed and doula work. I just heard that Real Birth in NYC is closing and I am so curious what the back story is. I just read that 'my child takes up space' post and it was lovely, but I'm afraid to read the child hating stuff. It is so true, though, that we give lip service to giving a crap about women and kids, but we really just give them shitty parental leave, shitty life option, crappy schools, no green space, etc etc etc. Anyway, I'm rambling, but thanks for the magical unicorn and all you do. Also, I'm weirdly obsessed and paranoid that my friend due in July who is all 'la la la! don't wanna think about birth!' is going to end up with an unnecesarean. The end.
Well...
Got a bill from my midwife for my labor 9 months ago. I was all paid up for the midwife fee, but not the birth center, it was half paid. They basically threw me to the wolves because of PROM, said they'd check on me and blah blah blah. Never heard from them until I received this bogus bill for....get this....AFTER HOURS charges! They now want me to pay $320 for the "unpaid" balance of the midwife fee, plus something else, not sure what it is...AND after hour charges.
Add this to the ridiculously high hospital bill I received because they wouldn't release me as punishment for trying to go to a midwife.
Sometimes I wonder if being a midwife is really what I should do when I'm so bitter about my experience....
I also noticed in old threads that you were very kind and engaging with a certain difficult commenter who is now banned. It is too bad it devolved, I guess, since it is healthy to have to defend points and think critically with a devil's advocate type. I wonder if she has some sort of personality disorder. It just doesn't seem normal to be so hateful and argumentative. I see a physician comment on Science & Sensibility sometimes who seems much more sane.
Sammi--contest that sucker. Make them itemize and justify everything, and don't pay for anything you didn't get.
Jill; compared to my coworkers, I'm not just a hippie, I'm Ina May Gaskin smoking a doobie and making tye-died shirts in a mud yurt.
@ Another Rachel - Thanks for the congrats! I just wanted to let you know I really like my distance learning program at Childbirth International for Doula training. If you are interested in becoming a doula or even a childbirth educator I highly recommend them. That is who I am certifying through. The website is www.childbirthinternational.com. I also trained through ICEA for my childbirth education cert. Their website is www.icea.org.
Good Fortune to you! :-)
Thank you for the tip! Yes, once this diss is done, I am going to look into the various programs. I appreciate your recommendation.