SOS: Save Home Birth in NY!

(DoulaMomma says:
Passing this along - even if it doesn't impact you personally, please consider making your voice heard as someone who cares about preserving options for all birthing women - if it can happen in NY, it can happen in your state too...pass this info along on your blogs, Facebook etc. too please)

ACTION ALERT:

Save Home Birth in New York

We need your help!

At midnight tomorrow, April 30th, the majority of New York City's home birth midwives will no longer be able to practice legally. Unless immediate action is taken by the Governor and the NYS Department of Health the women that these midwives serve will be denied access to a home birth with their chosen provider and these providers will no longer be able to practice legally in NYS.

YOU MUST ACT NOWto save the home birth option for New York Women:

Call:

• 311
• Wendy Saunders, Executive Deputy Commissioner for the NY State Department of Health, appointed by Governor Paterson. 518-474-8390
• Larry Mokhiber, he Secretary of the Board of Midwifery(518-474-3817, extension 130)

And say....

With the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital, half of the licensed, highly trained home birth midwives serving NYC have lost their Written Practice Agreement (WPA). St Vincent's was the only Hospital in the city supportive of a woman's right to choose a home birth and willing to sign a WPA. In the weeks since it's announced closure, these midwives have reached out to hospitals and obstetricians all across the city looking for support, with no success. Please help us to save the homebirth option in New York.

People can also email the Governor at http://www.state.ny.us/governor/contact/GovernorContactForm.php.

We are in our final hours! Please forward this email and help us flood 311 and the Governor's office with calls supporting home birth.

And while you're at it, please sign our petitionsupporting the Midwifery Modernization Act which will remove the WPA from the midwifery law effectively removing this barrier to accessing midwifery care.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/midwifery/

See NYSALM's fact sheet about what the Midwifery Modernization Act Means for You.

Snippet of Motherhood

Two from my oldest (12.5 going on 25)...gotta write this stuff down or I'll never remember:

this morning I asked him if he wanted eggs - he needed a good breakfast before a big test...his reply?

"How will eating chicken fetuses impact my test performance, Mamacita?"

and over the weekend I heard him and his friend talking while eating breakfast and watching TV:

my kid: "Oh yeah - that's my show, son!"
friend: "what is this?"
my kid: "Twelve Angry Men, yo!"
friend: "good stuff, excellent entertainment"

sometimes, not knowing is better

I watch The Biggest Loser & really like Jillian, one of the trainers. But I have to say that it's probably easier to like a public figure if you don't know much about them. Take this quote for instance,

"I'm going to adopt. I can't handle doing that to my body,"

I suppose if that's the way she feels, it's for the best that she doesn't get pregnant. And I think it's great that she feels drawn to create her family through adoption.

BUT it makes me feel uncomfortable that someone who is in the public eye for inspiring women to be strong and feel good about their bodies is putting this idea out there. I understand she had a weight issue as a teen, but so did a lot of us (sometimes way beyond our teen years!) and yet we put it aside. So what do you think - am I being too tough?

so bad/so good

I'm going through a breakup. With Diet Coke. We can still be friends & see each other sometimes, maybe out in public, but no more living together.

We've been together for a LONG time, sometimes in a really unhealthy way, spending way too much time together and to the exclusion of healthier beverage choices. Diet Coke, for me, is like that bad-boy boyfriend. The one who is super hot but just not good for you. You know in your head you should move on, but that tingle in the back of your throat, that satisfying sound when you pop open a can (I always tap it with my nails first, don't know why) - it's hard to give up. And European Coca-Cola Lite - amazing (must be the accent!). Being from the south, where we like our drinks cold, DC is the way I've often started my day - I know, I know - try not to think less of me.

I was set up today by my new friend Heather with Zevia (made with stevia)...solid marriage material I suppose, though a bit like Tab (with whom I had only a brief fling)...but I don't know if it will be the same. Gotta try to preserve the brain cells I have left though, so it looks like it's me a Steve, I mean Zevia. Or maybe I'll just drink more coffee.

snippet of motherhood

Spring is in the air & so are allergies - our pediatrician has suggested Claritin, though we don't generally use it. Today my youngest, who JUST turned six, said

I think I need some of that "kids' clarinet", Mom - I'm really sneezing a lot

spring fever

Today was glorious weather and so I did the big garden clean up...cutting back the old & dead, raking out the leftover leaves from fall, stacking up all the branches and rounding up all stray soccer balls. Had to step around the muddy areas after snow melt from back-to-back blizzards & the wettest March ever or something. It's love/hate - kind of drudge work that is strangely satisfying. I'm a homebody.

But a homebody who loves to travel & dream of the unknown, the road not taken. I know a couple of people moving to California and I'm finding myself a bit envious - seems like an adventure to start fresh - like a pioneer heading west - but truly I don't want to move. I like being here.