Pure, Utter Joy!

This ecstatic photo of a home water birth in Australia, taken by midwife photographer Jane McCrae, is in the running to win National Geographic's Photo 2011 contest, showing the world how utterly joyous birth can be...something to be thankful for, indeed!

The photographer's commentary,

Only a mother can understand the joy of locking eyes with her newborn babe the moment they take their first breath.

After the powerful journey of labor, Natalia embraces her babe for the very first time. Sheer exhilaration, joy and love describes the moment of bringing forth her child. The gentle hand of her midwife, trusting in the innate wisdom of birth

Location: Homebirth. Tumbi Umbi, NSW, Australia

sachidananda

I just came from a wonderful yoga mini-retreat - just two and a half hours, but very thought provoking (and hard work!), part of a bigger weekend workshop. And all I had to do was go a few blocks from my house and join in. It was an Anusara workshop organized by South Mountain Yoga & facilitated by Ross Rayburn. And it's happening again tomorrow afternoon - there is still some room if you're local & interested! (Maybe you can score a new Ganesh tshirt too)

The thought behind the day was the trinity (he used a fancier word, which I've already forgotten)...he used, in part, the backdrop of Sachindananda, which is part of the Anusara invocation (above).
Sachidananda is a combination of three words:
Sat = existence, truth, real.
Chit = consciousness
Ananda = bliss.
He suggested that in yoga we must first surrender, then reign it in and consider the boundaries before we can once again and more fully surrender. We spent time in each posture playing with the idea that you can't really fly or surrender or get to the bliss with out finding the tension and working with it, fine-tuning it, moving beyond it to a place you wouldn't have gotten to without first acknowledging it. So often we just go to the fullest expression of something, because we can, out of habit or because it's easier than really engaging...like in Uttanasana (standing forward bend) if we make touching the floor the main goal, and flop down there without making sure that our shoulders are engaged, pulling back even as we reach forward.

Like many things, this got me thinking about, what else?, birth. How many times have I told someone in labor to "just surrender" - JUST! Maybe I need to be mindful of the negotiation that must take place between the tension & surrender, allowing a woman to be contained by her body, feeling safe, before surrendering a little and then contained again, and then a deeper surrender. Like when a baby is being born and he turtles back and forth until ready to emerge under the pubic bone and out. Like when it's kinder to a mother's body if she can stay in the place of tension as she stretches, even as she wants to maybe blast out that baby, but allows herself to negotiate the passage, tempering the holding with releasing.

Balance requires choice and mindfulness, but then we get to melt more fully.

birth in the news

In yesterday's LA Times:

HEALTHCARE: ROADS TO REFORM

Childbirth: Can the U.S. improve?

snippet:

It is a big reason childbirth often is held up in healthcare reform debates as an example of how the intensive and expensive U.S. brand of medicine has failed to deliver better results and may, in fact, be doing more harm than good.

"We're going in the wrong direction," said Dr. Roger A. Rosenblatt, a University of Washington professor of family medicine who has written about what he calls the "perinatal paradox," in which more intervention, such as cesareans, is linked with declining outcomes, such as neonatal intensive care admissions. Maternity care, he said, "is a microcosm of the entire medical enterprise."

and in this week's Time Magazine:

Doctors Versus Midwives: The Birth Wars Rage On

snippet:

It's this fact that has always been responsible for the fault line between obstetricians — who are trained to view birth as a medical procedure — and midwives, who see it as that but as something less clinical too. And if a new study conducted by two researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) is any indication, peace is not likely to be brokered between the two camps any time soon.

For a society as technologically far along as the U.S., we do a surprisingly poor job of looking after our tiniest members. About 99% of all births in the U.S. take place in hospitals, yet we rank 29th in the world in infant mortality — below Hungary and tied with Slovakia and Poland — with 6.71 deaths per 1,000 live births. That compares to a rate of about 3.5 deaths per 1,000 live births in Far Eastern and Scandinavian countries such as Singapore, Japan, Norway and Sweden.

natural birth in the news

A story in today's NJ Star Ledger talks about the films, Orgasmic Birth and The Business of Being Born, the play, Birth, midwives, the Anna Verwaal seminar we had recently and more...

follow up: Kidman

My friend Jill called all excited to hear that doulas had been mentioned on Oprah...I agree - to have a celebrity say that she had a birth where she was surrounded by women, including her doula & pause to make sure Oprah knew what it was...well, that's good stuff.

See for yourself in this clip from Huffington Post. The part I'm talking about starts at minute 2:33 of the clip. Check it out!

eleven

That's how old my oldest baby is...eleven years and about three hours old as I write this. Last night I woke up in the night and thought about my labor with him. It was long and hard, hard work but I have nothing but good memories of it.

Here's what I remember:
Much of it was spent with just my husband because I had a really long early labor. We walked and walked all around our Park Slope, Brooklyn neighborhood and I would sit on people's stoops or hang on their wrought iron gates during a contraction. We met a neighbor and told her what was going on and she cried and hugged me. A couple of contractions were spent with the cigar store indian on upper Seventh Avenue while my husband went in to buy cigars (Note: the smells of a cigar store and labor do not mix - I found out the hard way).
We also labored at home for a long time with our doula, Chris. She took charge when my folks managed to get here from Nashville before the baby I was laboring with. She sent them to a late dinner & movies and explained that they could use the upstairs entrance to our apartment so as not to bother me. Having extra people around (who tried to talk to me about normal stuff) was not helpful and made the work harder.
We spend some lovely time up on our roof terrace (once we nicely asked neighbors who didn't even have roof rights to take their partying friends indoors). We walked, we rocked on a glider, I slow danced with my husband and we looked at the biggest moon. That moon had a huge bright moon doggie circle around it and I remember thinking about Spiritual Midwifery where they talk about labor making things look all psychedelic, man...it's true.
I remember getting ready to leave and catching sight of myself in the mirror - no makeup. I laughed at my pregnancy thought of putting some on so I would look good in pictures. Yeah, right - as if anyone having a baby is in the mood for mascara.
I remember my doula calling for a car service to take us to the hospital and being impressed that she asked for a car of a non-smoking driver. Too bad I couldn't get the words out to say "Don't take Bowery! It's under construction!" So it was pot holes galore and the smell of asphalt. When I thought I would be sick (I wasn't), my husband offered me his cupped hands as a receptacle and for that I love him so much. And it's why I always tell people to bring a plastic bag in the car.
It was sort of funny how we got dropped off at the wrong hospital entrance (Beth Israel in NYC, just blocks from the church where we were married) and how I started walking, carrying my pillow, to the right entrance with the car service guy driving slowly beside me, asking me to get in, worried for me. He was so kind to us.
I remember how I instantly did not click with the nurse and how I tried to lock myself in the bathroom to get away from her talking to me. I also know that I didn't have to like her because I brought my own support, so I don't think I tried very hard, but good God was the woman an annoying pain. Some people luck out with great nurses, don't get me wrong.
I remember how I got checked right away and I was 8.5 cm. I got up to walk the halls, noticing my name on the board and seeing all the obligatory Mary Cassatt prints. How some residents came up and asked me if I was the first-timer who came in at 8.5cm and was still walking. Man, I must have walked so many miles that day.
I remember some resident coming in and asking me how "we" were doing and I said, "Well, I'M in labor and YOU'RE not my doctor, so please leave".
I remember crying and saying I couldn't do it and then saying to my doctor (who was super cool), "I think I just exhibited the emotional signpost for transition - please check me". She laughed and said I was right. When I was pushing I recall being so uninhibited, something I had been concerned about. I recall a distinct memory of thinking that a red double decker bus filled with tourists with cameras (I was picturing it in the room) could be there if it would help - that was the sort of deal-making I was willing to do.
I remember my husband saying, "wow- you're so flexible" as I used the squat bar in a different way, putting my feet on it and doing some kind of (unhelpful) back bend. I said to my doctor, "Come on - there has to be SOMETHING you can do" (code, because I wouldn't mention drugs etc.) and she replied, "You don't want that and you don't need that" - bless her.
I remember seeing evil nurse uncover the instruments table and recalling from my birthing class that this means they think it's almost time...but also being dubious when they told me I was close.
I remember not wanting the mirror I had requested. But I did touch my baby's head and I was concerned because it felt like a ripe peach...where were those bones? My husband said, "it's like a paintbrush" because the baby had so much hair.
I thought I might die. Or split in two. And eventually I made peace with this and decided to go ahead, whatever the price. I surrendered and he was born.
I have such love for everyone in the room when he was born too - even that nurse, who gave me the opportunity to exert my independence, even if she didn't mean to.
He was so beautiful and he still is. I love my first boy, so much like me it's scary. I love that he still looks like his baby self even as he gets more and more grown up looking.
That's what I was thinking about last night and this morning, as I reflect back on eleven years of motherhood.

*the picture above is a year old already

doulas in the news!

Check out USA Today's "Maternity Care Failings Can Be Remedied With Cost-Saving Fixes" to see how doulas are part of the solution!... Also information on cesareans and informed consent.

The article refers to the release of this report by Childbirth Connection, entitled, "Evidence-Based Maternity Care Report, 2008".

Of doulas, family-practice doctor Valerie King of the Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland says,

"If a doula could be put in an IV drip, everyone would get it."

Also in USA Today, "Study: High-Tech Interventions Deliver Huge Childbirth Bill". I think the title speaks for itself.

just trust me

I heard a funny bit on public radio this morning, taken from BoingBoing but originally from The Nation - a satirical version of one of those scam emails that greet you each day, asking you to wire funds, calling you "Beloved in Christ".
Here's a little of it (I find it's best to read it with the thick accent of your choice), for the rest, go here:

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

... This transactin is 100% safe...

...This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. . After I receive (all your money) I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

There are some people, and I get this - I do, who just want someone to take the reins and do whatever needs to be done to avert disaster. But by acting out of fear, we give away all power, power that can't be gotten back. This is not unlike when we abdicate all power and responsibility to our care providers in pregnancy and birth. It can be comforting to know they are responsible and we don't have to think too much, but then we are really stuck with the way they want to do it. And their choices, because they are human and have their own pocketbooks to think about, may not always have only our best interests in mind.

People who are saying "no blank check" regarding the economic bailout are asking for external oversight and reform. Perhaps we also need to think this way when it comes to birth. Perhaps putting care providers between a rock and a hard place, between what's best for birthing women and babies versus the economic interests of insurance companies and litigants, is not serving us well. What are we expecting when we ask care providers to police themselves and "do what's right"? Right for whom? Maybe we need outside oversight.

And just maybe we need to stop giving out blank checks.

more

from The Birth House by Ami McKay,

My house became the birth house. That's what the women came to call it, knocking on the door, ripe with child, water breaking on the porch. First-time mothers full of questions, young girls in trouble and seasoned women with a brood already at home. (I called those babies "toesies" because they were more than their mamas could count on her fingers.) They all came to the house, wailing and keening their babies into the world. I wiped their feverish necks with cool, moist cloths, spooned porridge and hot tea into their tired bodies, talked them back from outside of themselves.*

Such poetry in this book.
*emphasis mine

cynical term for vaginal birh?

I was reading Huffington Post and saw this (albeit interesting and very exciting) article from the Washington Post entitled,
Scarless Surgery Uses Body's Own Openings

This immediately made me think of what some science-fiction-y birth drone in the future might call vaginal birth unless we do something to stem the tide of runaway cesarean rates.

white privilege

Two looks at race in America...different but related...again, I submit that birth & politics are intertwined. Well worth checking out.

from Empowering Birth Blog, & another post

And what if the transporting midwife is a woman of color and thus more likely to receive harassment in a hostile climate? Let's be real, it is easier for us white women to work within the system, even when faced with a sticky situation.

and

This Is Your Nation On White Privilege

birth and wall street

I was listening to local public radio this morning (The Takeaway) and Robert Reich (former Secretary of Labor under Clinton & now Obama's adviser on economics) was on talking about the economy and the volatile situation on Wall Street. He said one major component at play is fear and mistrust because we lack transparency in Corporate America and on Wall Street. In his blog yesterday, Reich says,

We tell poor nations they have to make their financial markets transparent before capital will flow to them. Now it's our turn. Lacking adequate regulation or oversight, our financial markets have become a snare and a delusion.

Basically, problems occur when people in an industry are doing things without understanding, without using an evidence-based approach and without informed consent merely because it is expedient.

...hmmm - sound familiar? Where else is there crisis and need for transparency? I'm just sayin'...

one of those small miracles

Ike evacuee gives birth in New Braunfels

An evacuee from Hurricane Ike gave birth in the bathroom of a shelter Friday with the aide of an expert in geriatric psychiatry who delivered his first baby in two decades.

"It's kind of like riding a bike," Dr. Mark Burns told the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung in a report for Saturday's newspaper.

Ku Paw delivered a baby girl on the floor of the girls restroom at Church Hill Middle School in New Braunfels with the aid of Burns, intensive care nurse Peggy Bielke and a few volunteers.

Paw, an evacuee from Calhoun County along the Texas coast, was staying with about 270 others. She was evaluated at a hospital earlier Friday but returned to the shelter with the expectation she wouldn't go into labor until Monday.

Burns had been asked by New Braunfels City Councilwoman Kathleen Krueger to stop by the school and see a few patients. Burns said he was leaving when he was alerted that Paw was in labor.

"There are few things more exciting than delivering a new life into the world," Burns said. "It's one of the great privileges of being a physician."

The mother and the infant, her fourth child, were taken to CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital-New Braunfels. A hospital spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Friday night that she could not release any information about them.

Your Body Rocks!

Tonight and through the weekend, you can see
BIRTH, the play in NJ.
Friday & Saturday September 5, 6 at 7pm and Sunday September 7th at 2pm at the Middletown Cultural Arts Center, 36 Church Street, Middletown, NJ, 07748.
BIRTH is a global arts-based movement inspiring communities to create childbirth choices that work for mothers. BOLD NEW JERSEY is one of several locations throughout the world organizing BOLD movements.
Check it out!

be BOLD

As we head into this Labor Day weekend and prepare to say goodbye to summer, make plans to be BOLD (Birth on Labor Day): see BIRTH, the play by Karen Brody.
NJ's BOLD performance of BIRTH will be next weekend, details here.
I saw the performance last year in NYC and was blown away - powerful, visceral, wonderful. Don't miss it!

more birth & the convention

So I watched a big chunk of the convention last night - missed Ted Kennedy & am kicking myself, but I'll watch it on Youtube.

My take away from Michelle Obama's speech was this,

And one day, they — and your sons and daughters — will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They'll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming.

Of course that's what I want for this country, but it's also what I want for birthing women. That we might set our sights a little higher than just making it out alive. Of course that's the point, but it doesn't mean we have to plan our births, or our lives, only to avoid disaster. Birth, like life, can be full and beautiful and powerful if we make room for that possibility. Of course there are some births that will need to be about survival. But most births do not come down to that and do not need to come down to that, especially if we choose our birth team well. That means finding care providers who trust that birth works most of the time, if we let it.

Let's listen to our hopes, instead of our fears. Stop doubting and start dreaming. And then do whatever we can to make those dreams happen.

Our own birth house

Yesterday we were in the car & were about to drive by the house where we used to live.
As I often do, I said, "say Hi Old House" to the boys.



As we passed, E shouted,
"Hi house where I was born! Mommy - remember when I was born in that house?!" ...Yes I do!

"Another risk of cesarean surgery"

From the excellent blog, Spinning Babies:

"A 26-yr old woman was 8-weeks pregnant and experiencing some light bleeding. Her previous birth was by cesarean section. When an ultrasound was done to see the cause of her bleeding the technician could find no baby in her womb. Instead, the baby was developing in the separating edges of her cesarean scar!"

Read more, including the outcome .

Groaning Cake

From Ami McKay's The Birth House (read it!):

Groaning Cake
The tradition of the groaning cake, or kimbly at (or following) a birth is an ancient one. Wives' tales say that the scent of a groaning cake being baked in the birth house helps to ease the mother's pain. Some say if a mother breaks the eggs while she's aching, her labour won't last as long. Others say that if a family wants prosperity and fertility, the father must pass pieces of the cake to friends and family the first time the mother and baby are "churched" (or the first time they go to a public gathering) after a birth. Many cultures share similar traditions…a special dish, bread, or drink, spiced with cinnamon, all spice, and/or ginger. At one time there was even a "groaning ale" made to go with it…

I made groaning cake the day of my son's home birth and my neighbour brought me "health bread" the day after the birth. This recipe is a combination of the two. It has apple, molasses, orange juice and spices and can really help to see a woman through a long labour, or give her strength after the birth!

2 ½ Cups Flour
3 eggs
2 tsp. Baking powder
½ Cup oil
1 tsp. Baking soda
½ Cup orange juice
2 tsp. Cinnamon
¼ Cup molasses
½ tsp. Ground cloves
1 1/3 Cups sugar
1 ½ cups apple (grated, no skin)
1 tsp. Almond extract

Sift dry ingredients together. Add apple. Beat eggs. Add oil, orange juice, molasses and sugar. Add to dry ingredients. Mix well. Add almond extract. Bake at 350 F. for 35-40 minutes. Makes two 9 X 5 loaves or about 18 muffins.

Additions: raisins, dates, dried fruits, or nuts.

Takin' its time

Ever wonder what ovulation looks like? Check out story here.

"theories had suggested an "explosive" release for the egg, but the ovulation he witnessed took 15 minutes to complete"