Sign on to support breastfeeding moms
Yesterday I was at a street fair with some friends in Montpelier. While nursing Ada an older man approached me and told me that I shouldn’t be “doing that” in public. It’s the first time I’ve been scolded for nursing and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Luckily Vermont is one of the 42 states that has laws in place to protect nursing mothers and I forcefully told him so. It’s HE and people like him, who should not be warping the innocent act of breastfeeding into a pornographic one.
Vt. Acts, Act 117 (2002) state that breastfeeding should be encouraged in the interest of enhancing maternal, child and family health. The law provides that a mother may breastfeed her child in any place of public accommodation in which the mother and child would otherwise have a legal right to be.
At a time when the many health benefits of breastfeeding need hardly be defended, women are still being shamed into feeding their children in bathroom stalls or worse, stopping all together. Apparently it is a national goal to increase the proportion of mothers who breastfeed their babies in the early postpartum period to 75 percent by the year 2010 (http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/breast50.htm), and I’m writing now to assist in my own small way with that goal.
JOIN ME IN SUPPORTING THE BREASTFEEDING PROMOTION ACT! Sign the Statement of Support for breastfeeding moms everywhere now: “Healthcare professionals inform us that breastfeeding is the best possible way to ensure that babies thrive. In turn, we must ensure that breastfeeding mothers are able to breastfeed, and given the time and environment to pump at work or during other professional obligations.” Congress and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) need to hear that breastfeeding must be supported for all moms, and that we support the Breastfeeding Promotion Act which is currently before Congress.
*Click here to sign the Statement of Support for breastfeeding moms.
When a subsidiary of Delta Airlines kicked a woman off an airplane for breastfeeding, we sent them a petition with more than 20,000 MomsRising signatures, and shortly afterward the airline apologized and instituted a new training program for their employees. STAND WITH MOTHERS ACROSS THE NATION! Frankly, we all lose when we don’t support mothers–businesses lose excellent employees, infants lose important nutrients, and women lose needed jobs. No mom should have to choose between keeping her job and feeding her baby and protecting her own health. All too often women aren’t able to breastfeed their babies even though the American Academy of Pediatrics tells us it’s one of the most important things we can do for a child’s health. Let’s send a strong message together that it’s time to “walk the talk” for healthy infants and mothers.
Much Love, D
Filed under Natural Childbirth, News, Uncategorized | Tags: breastfeeding public, breastfeeding rights, momsrising.org | Comment (1)Dr. Phil Scam! Positive homebirth stories needed
Hey mamas,
I would like to bring your attention to the link below and ask you to write to Dr. Phil with your story.
The show is seeking out midwife horror stories and it seems important to balance out the information. The goal here is to swamp Dr. Phil with stories about great homebirth experiences and for the midwives to write and tell their stories.
Midwife Erin Ryan writes “I am very annoyed that he has specifically asked for the bad stories. Midwives certainly do not need this kind of press. Pregnant mamas do not need more fear instilled in them. What a shame that he is doing this disservice to women.”
Please go to the link and fill out his form and send your story in. It may not do any good, but we can only try. Thanks and please forward this to any other relevant lists you are on.
http://www.drphil.com/plugger/respond/?plugID=12524
Thanks and Much Love, Denise
Filed under Natural Childbirth | Comment (0)Ada’s Birth
I’ve been working on this birth bit for a while now, trying to get it right because I know people interested in reading it that aren’t very familiar with homebirth. So since the sequence of that day is already slipping away as promised by many mothers struggling to recount their own stories, I’ll get down to it.
I have wonderful feelings surrounding Ada’s birth, accurate or not, and wouldn’t want to lose them. I have a theory about why the details get fuzzy for so many mothers. I believe two things are at work; the well-known birth memory fog and the incredible realization of what human bodies are capable of. On January 12th I birthed my child at home, with the help of my husband and two incredible midwives, without pain meds. Nothing I’ve accomplished comes close to that and being a first-time mom, I wasn’t sure that it was even possible. But holding the brand new, breathing human that just exited my body instantly made the memory of childbirth pain unimportant (the secession of contractions helped with this outlook). I do vividly remember the thought that passed through my mind in the few minutes after Ada’s birth as she slipped into my hands, even before we knew she was a girl. It was thank god I don’t have to do that anymore!
The birth memory fog is a powerful asset. Right now I have nothing but warm thoughts looking back to Ada’s birth, she was born literally right in front of our Christmas tree, there were brownies baking, music playing and candles burning. There are some things I’ll never recall about that day but hrm… now that I think of it, I was nauseous the whole ten hours and could barely drink watered down fruit juice let alone eat a brownie or um move very frequently. Also, the smell of the scented (and even non-scented) candles promptly made me want to hurl. Right after Ada’s birth I remember telling Bonne I’m not going through that again. I had already changed my mind the next day. Will I do it again? Let’s just say that I’m planning the birth of our second child around the availability of these wonderful midwives, Bonne Dunham and Astrid Grove.
Here is the scoop on homebirth from my perspective. I don’t really have the energy to make the case for homebirth from start to finish. If you find yourself interested do watch ‘The Business of Being Born’ . It’s very informative and fascinating to watch. It can be rented through Netflix. See it’s trailer via the link above.
The short of it is that we researched it thoroughly and are convinced it was the very best option for us. I’m aware that it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially the no epidural part, but it is a safe and viable option for low-risk pregnancies and shouldn’t be discounted. In much of the U.S. Homebirth is a pretty rare practice but it’s popular in many other countries like the Netherlands, where 80% of births occur at home. A few recent and rigorous scientific studies, published in leading medical journals, have found that for a healthy woman having a normal pregnancy, a planned, midwife-attended home birth is as safe as a hospital birth and with far lower rates of medical interventions.
As I said, this was not an unassisted birth. Bonne Dunham and Astrid Grove, two Certified Direct-Entry Midwives attended Ada’s birth. A direct-entry midwife is trained to provide care to healthy women and newborns throughout the childbearing cycle primarily in out-of-hospital settings. We had complete faith in the capability of these professional midwives. They offered an exceptionally high level of prenatal care and I enjoyed the comfortable setting of their home offices. Their very human approach was a breath of fresh air compared with the often very clinical (which certainly has it’s place in medicine) and rushed approach experienced at some busy doctor’s offices. They were supportive and took time to answer all of our questions in length. We had at least an hour for each prenatal visit plus they were on call throughout my pregnancy. Both midwives incorporated effective herbal and homeopathic medicine into my medical care. My primary care physician was pleasantly surprised to hear that I didn’t need antibiotics for the two cases of mastitis that occurred.
Here’s how it went
I woke up around 8:30 on Saturday 1/12, stood up and my water broke, just like in the movies. It was fabulously exciting. The contractions were fun at first, I would note to Jason that I had just finished one and we’d sort of nervously giggle. He printed out a contraction schedule and began filling it out. The rushes did quickly become more frequent but I tried to nap. We contacted the midwives and they were set to come over when they reached about 5 min. apart. Jason fed me cheerios and a Clif bar and that’s pretty much what sustained me until after the birth. After that we ditched the contraction schedule and the midwives arrived. Much of the rest is a blur. I went from laboring in my bed to the bathroom to the living room to the birthing tub then PUSH in front of the Christmas tree. As far as I know, I was quiet as a mouse up until push time, mostly because of the nausea. It just felt better to stay quiet and still. I also discovered that the contractions hurt less when I did not look at the little air bubbles attached to the bottom of the birthing tub. Whatever works right? Jason’s performance was stellar throughout. Poor guy was even a bit sore from all the tugging that I did on his wrists while in the tub. My labor was pretty much 10 hours on the dot and I really feel it would have lasted quite a bit longer has I been in unfamiliar surroundings. I don’t know if I would have been able to resist the temptation of using the narcotics available to laboring women in hospitals. Since it wasn’t an option at home and I really didn’t want to drug my unborn child, I didn’t focus on it. I had spent nine months avoiding all sorts of harmful chemicals and didn’t want start compromising her nervous system just when she was hard at work moving down the birth canal.
Considering all our supports, we saw home as a comfortable, safe and preferable setting to have the baby. Unless some medical problem prevents me from doing so, I will certainly be having any future children in exactly the same way (minus the candles). I of course, would not make judgments about how anyone else decides to birth their baby, drugs or no drugs.
So now on to the real challenge - raising children!
Much Love, Denise
www.midwifeinfo.com
Citizens for Midwifery
We’ll miss you Jill
Saturday was my last day with our wonderful postpartum doula Jill Frink. I am quite lucky to know her as a friend and even more so to have experienced her soothing doula magic (and delectable feasts) these past two weeks. What is a postpartum doula, you ask? Since this is the first time I’ve encountered such a service, I’ll just tell you what Jill does or did for me. One important distinction is that she uses ayurvedic medicine in her practices. So all the food and many of the herbal remedies she prepared for us had an Indian flare. It was fabulous, I felt like I was back in India for two weeks.
So my day with Jill looked like the following: Jill comes by around 10 AM and starts cooking a beautiful yummy breakfast. She also gives me a very tasty hot milk drink spiced with cardamom and who knows what else. Fatty, creamy foods are the theme here. I gained about 30 lb during my pregnancy and probably another 10 postpartum. It felt really right to be eating her rich warm meals though, very comforting.
After breakfast we did a consultation. She checks in on how the baby’s doing and mom and adjusts the herbal medicines and food accordingly. Then I um..get a soft tissue, warm oil massage from her that lasts about 1 1/2 hours! Yes, I felt a bit spoiled. It was incredibly soothing, as you might imagine.
She leaves us in the afternoon with some super good lunch (and sometimes dessert!) and I ravage it because breastfeeding has made me a hungry monster.
I wish I was a very wealthy, permanently postpartum woman so that I could have Jill over all the time. Actually, I wouldn’t wish postpartum permanence on anyone.
Denise
Filed under Natural Childbirth | Tags: doula, Jill Frink, postpartum | Comment (0)Where’s Denise?
Denise is pretty missing from this here blog and a lot of the photos, too. She sends her best to everyone and is doing fine. She’s still recovering from birth but doing so really quickly.
She’s going to put a post together later tonight about her experience with have a natural childbirth at home. It was an amazingly positive experience for her, I, and Ada. Truly great. We’ll also have some pictures of her coming up soon.
Filed under Natural Childbirth, News | Comment (0)