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| http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=be973f461fbceb24
Baby on board
By Mary Openshaw
The Facts
Published February 21, 2007
These days, when a woman is having a baby, she’s got more options than
just which hospital to go to. Choices range from whether to have the
baby at home, with or without traditional pain-killers, to penciling it
in on the calendar and going for an elective C-section.
Here’s a little information about some of the options out there.
Natural childbirth
“Natural” childbirth, where the mother receives no general
pain-killers, still has plenty of adherents. At Rite of Passage Women’s
Health and Birth Center in Pearland, owner Bernadette Olivier, a
Certified Nurse Midwife, focuses first on natural remedies and
techniques to bring mothers through their deliveries. Epidurals aren’t
offered, and localized anesthetic is used in cases where a mother needs
stitches after the birth.
“Your body builds up its own endorphins to get you through labor,” Olivier said.
She added women who opt for natural childbirth recover more quickly.
“Most of my moms are able to leave the birthing center within four to six hours,” she said.
On Friday, Lisa Johnston of Katy was
at the birth center, in labor with her third child, a son to be named
Hawk. This was her first experience with natural childbirth. She’s had
bad experiences with epidurals. When her daughter was born seven years
ago, the epidural fell out and had to be put back in. Two years ago
when she had her son, it took the anesthesiologist 20 sticks and 45
minutes to get the epidural in place.
“After I had my son, I always said if I had another baby I wanted
it to be natural,” she said. “To me, it’s about knowing what my body
can do, and about educating my family, and my daughter, who thinks
babies come out of your knees.”
Midwifery
The word “midwife” literally means “with woman.” A midwife offers
prenatal — as well as post-partum care, aids a mother in delivering her
child and offers other women’s health services. Midwives typically help
women have natural childbirths.
“Midwifery is a matter of listening to your body,” Olivier explained. “Your body knows how to birth a baby.”
Midwives work in a variety of settings. Some work in birth centers,
or attend patients who want to have home births. Others, like Clute
resident Jane Freking, work in hospitals.
“When you have a physician at a hospital, your doctor comes in when
the baby’s ready to be born,” said Freking, a certified nurse midwife
who works with East Houston Midwives, a group that provides midwifery
for patients at East Houston Regional Medical Center.
“(Midwives) spend more time with the mother while she’s in labor
and do a lot more patient education and teaching,” she said. “We focus
on the whole person, not just the pregnancy. It’s the mother and the
baby and the family as a whole unit.”
Midwives will not induce labor, and might not take patients with
high-risk pregnancies. Olivier said she refers women expecting twins,
those who have had previous cesarean sections, those with uncontrolled
diabetes or chronic high blood pressure, to an obstetrician.
Freking said when she has a high-risk patient, she works with a
doctor. “The person would stay in my care, but with input from doctor,”
she said. “There are factors that can interfere with a natural
pregnancy, and that’s when you need input from a physician. Most nurse
midwives have a collaborative relationship with a physician.”
Check with your insurance provider to make sure they cover midwife care.
“A lot of them will only reimburse if you use a certified nurse
midwife,” Olivier said. “Insurance providers are coming around, as they
see that birthing centers, with their shorter recovery time, are a
savings for them.”
When choosing a midwife, ask for a her credentials, and about her
experience. Freking and Olivier each have a master’s degree in nursing.
Olivier has 15 years’ experience as a registered nurse and Freking has
17.
Texas recognizes two types of midwives. One is the Certified Nurse
Midwife, which would be a Registered Nurse who’s completed a graduate
level midwifery program certification from the American College of
Nurse Midwives. Certified Nurse Midwives are licensed through the
state’s Board of Nurse Examiners.
The other type are Licensed Midwives. These are not registered
nurses, but they have hands-on training and are certified by the North
American Registry of Midwives. They are licensed through Texas’
Department of State Health Services.
What many women like about midwifery is that they are in charge of their labor and delivery.
“At the hospital, you’re not in
control of anything,” said Johnston, awaiting the birth of her son at
Rite of Passage. “They tell you when you’re having a contraction, they
tell you when to push, they tell you when you can hold your baby.
Delivering here is much more personable.”
Also, families are more involved in the birth when midwives are used.
“If she wanted to, my 7-year-old could catch the baby,” Johnston said.
Water birth
In a water birth, mothers deliver their babies in a Jacuzzi-like pool where the water is heated to roughly body temperature.
“The body just floats and relaxes, and the ladies can enjoy the
warmth,” Olivier said. She added that water births can decrease labor
time by as much as half an hour to two hours.
According to information from Rite of Passage, water birth has a
lot of benefits for both mother and baby. Among them is the fact that
water birth seems to result in lower adrenaline levels in the mother,
which means she makes more of the hormone that helps contractions be
more efficient. Giving birth in the water also results in a small
decrease in the mother’s blood pressure.
The baby also benefits from being born in the water.
“Water birth is less traumatic for the baby. It’s less shocking,”
Olivier said. “It’s a better way of transitioning into the world.”
It’s safe, too.
“People wonder if the baby could drown during a water birth, but
the babies aren’t taking a breath yet,” Olivier explained. “It’s the
change in air pressure (from the womb to the open air) that causes
their lungs to expand and causes them to take a breath. They won’t try
to breath until they’re out of the water.”
Elective cesareans
At the other end of the spectrum from natural childbirth is CDMR,
short for Cesarean Delivery on Maternal Request, meaning women choosing
to have a C-section when it isn’t medically necessary.
“There is a trend out there for C-section on demand,” Freking said.
Women choose CDMR for a variety of reasons including concerns about
pain and trauma of vaginal birth, ability to schedule and plan around
the delivery, and avoiding complications of vaginal delivery due to
weakened pelvic muscles.
More insurance providers are covering elective cesareans, but
having one may not be a good idea. In March 2006, a scientific review
on elective C-sections sponsored by the National Institutes of Health
found that women should avoid having an elective cesarean birth if they
plan to have other children later on, according to an article posted at
www.medicinenet.com. The article says cesarean sections raise the risk of complications with the placenta in later pregnancies.
Doula What?
Some women choose to hire a doula, a female companion who provides physical and emotional support to a woman in labor.
• The word comes from ancient Greek, and basically means
“servant-woman.” Historically, it referred to the most important female
servant in the household, who most likely helped the lady of the house
during labor and delivery.
• A modern doula’s services could include massage and other natural
pain relief practices during labor; help with the preparation of a
birth plan; positioning suggestions during labor and birth, and more.
• For information about certified doulas, including how to locate one in your area, visit Doulas of North America online at www.dona.org.
Shhhh! BABIES!
When Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had their daughter, Suri, their
plans to have a “Silent” birth, prescribed by Scientology, drew a lot
of attention to the practice. Here’s a little information about silent
births from two Church of Scientology Web sites, www.scientology.org, and www.silentbirth.org.
• “Silent” birth doesn’t mean the mother-to-be has to deliver without making a sound. According to www.scientology.org:
“Chatty doctors and nurses, shouts to ‘push’ and loud or laughing
remarks to encourage are the types of things meant to be avoided ...
the point of silent birth is NO WORDS ... It is doubtful that any woman
could give birth without making any noise at all.”
• The concept of silent birth is based on Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s writing about the mind. To quote from www.silentbirth.org:
“... (W)ords spoken during moments of pain and unconsciousness can
have adverse effects on an individual later in life. What has been said
during traumatic experiences such as birth records in part of the mind
called the reactive mind. These recordings store and have the power to
influence a person by dictating thoughts, emotions and psychosomatic
ills not under his control.”
• Finally, www.silentbirth.org responded to claims that Scientology prescribes seven days of silence to be maintained around a baby after its birth:
“(T)his is a complete fabrication and not a practice of the Scientology religion.”
Mary Openshaw is a features writer for The Facts. Contact her at (979) 237-0155. | | |
| I can't believe my first born is almost 8!
I also can't believe that my third born is 8 days.
What I CAN believe is that my second born didn't want to take pics today!
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| MySpace.com Considers Breast-Feeding Mom 'Too Sexual'
PETITION - http://www.petitiononline.com/Brstfeed/petition.html
POSTED: 10:23 am PST February 22,
2007 UPDATED: 10:06 am PST February 23,
2007
TACOMA, Wash. -- A Tacoma mother facing a ban from the social networking site MySpace.com has
been gaining support for pictures posted of her breast-feeding.
Melissa
Rocks said the networking site has removed images from her profile of
her nursing her baby because MySpace.com believes the images are “too
sexual.
”Rocks, a mother of three, reposted the pictures, and
again, they were taken down and the Web site threatened to delete her
profile, she said.
“We’ve
seen flagrantly sexual images on there that haven’t been removed after
reported attempts to get the removed. Yet in one day my wife’s pictures
are removed three times,” Rocks' husband said.
According to Rocks, a woman in Delaware has started an online petition to support her, and so far, 2,220 people have signed it.
KIRO 7 Eyewitness News contacted MySpace.com, but they had no comment.
Copyright 2007 by KIROTV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed | | |
| UPDATE ON HAWK
We had a well baby visit at the Pedi yesterday.
She was very, very supportive of our natural parenting.
Her concern was that he is jaundice. After going through a
MONTH of Braxton being jaundice and a heel prick at the lab every 2-3 days for a
month, I was so hesitant! I don't want to have to go through that
again.
She would not have been so concerned, but my blood type is O
positive, and if his blood type is O positive, nursing and sunlight alone may
not be enough to get rid of the Bilirubin. Although his level was only 11.7,
she's worried that if his blood type is not O positive as well, that my blood
passed to him through the placenta will turn on his blood cells and destroy
them, causing his liver not to break down the bilirubin cause damage to his
liver.
She's ordered a Coombs test to determine if we have a
problem. Until we get that back, we're hanging out nursing constantly. THIS
CHUNK LOVES TO EAT!!! We're not worried though. Everything will work out just
fine! :)
A real "Birthday Party" - We had a good time! Bernadette assessing Hawk while Kylie looks on. This is Braxton a couple of day old. Look at Hawk below. This is Hawk a couple of days old.. Don't they look alike!?!? Kylie and Hawk Kylie, Braxton and Hawk... They'll learn how to hold him! :) | | |
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