Traumatic Births

I am sort of feeling led to figure out a way to start a group in support of the mom's that have gone through traumatic births. There are so many out there. There are many different levels of trauma during birth, it really just depends on what the woman had desired and what sort of outcome it was. For some women, as long as they have a vaginal birth they are happy. Some want a c-section. Some have their babies via forceps due to a number of things, some cesearean sections. Some miscarriages, still births. Some children are left compromised and some the mother's are compromised. We live is such a fast paced society that many providers forget about the emotional scars left behind on a woman when the birth she had dreamed of, or the baby she had dreamed about, was left compromised.

I am contributing thus far by trying to help women avoid the baby blues and PPD, through placenta encapsulation. As a provider of care to pregnant in laboring women and their families, I try to really help prepare them for their birth and really try to help them process it afterwards. I have also taken care of many women who on a previous birth was traumatized and wants it to be different this time around. There is so much hurt out there when it comes to birth. Of course there is lots of happiness and joy, and I talk about that most of the time. On another board I am, there has been discussions lately about vaginal births vs cesarean and some of the women are deeply hurt by some of the comments, but is it really the comments or the fact that they are still recovering, healing from their own experiences. I didn't see anything wrong with the comments. It became very obvious to me how much hurt there was.

One way we can all work towards better outcomes is to really push our hospitals to become Mother Baby Friendly. There are about 2 hospitals in all of Ohio, none in Columbus that have achieved this. Here is more info Mother Friendly

If you have any thoughts on any of this, please share.

A New Mother has died.......

The Death of a new mother who has just given birth is more than sad. It of course is not just the death of the mother, it is the death of a wife, daughter, aunt, friend etc. I of course to not know all the details surrounding this horrible event, but it is for situations like this, that I, and many others are trying to pass licensure for the Certified Professional Midwife. Some people say that homebirth is scary and other's say that hospital birth is scary. I am a believer that wherever you feel safest is where you should birth. I just wish our society as a whole was more accepting of normal birth and didn't fear it so much. I am so tired of hearing about the swine flu. BUT, if it did become an epidemic, would it be all that safe to deliver healthy low risk moms and babies in hospitals? Wouldn't it be better to have numerous professionals in out of hospital birth certified, and trained ready to go to all of these families? I just feel so sad for the two families in the above story, that they lost this woman, most likely due to a bacteria she contracted in the hospital. Another family is affected as well. I hope and pray that this woman pulls through and can go on to be a healthy beautiful mother to her new baby.

In other news, last week proved to be a good challenge. A client of mine who is due soon, found out that her baby was in the complete breech position. Obviously a bit shocked, we discussed what options there were for getting this baby to turn and/or the prospect of finding an OB who would consider delivering her breech. I suggested chiropractic care, certain exercises, and some homeopathic remedy called Pulsatilla. I believe the next day, she felt the baby might be sideways.......good, but not where he needs to be...he can't come out that way! Anyway, by Friday, she choose to pay out of pocket to get another ultrasound, and the baby did indeed go into a head down position! It was so awesome! So that is about all I have for now!

Hospitals and Placentas

So some parents have been having a bit of trouble being able to bring their babies placenta home. This has happened twice in the last few months. Riverside Hospital has started this trend and it seems to be migrating through other Ohio Health Care Hospitals. What they are wanting to do with your placentas if you want to keep them is to send them to Pathology and then off to funeral home where they will charge around $300.00 to the hospital (you) for the transport. I have had problems with Dublin Methodist and now Grant (who used to be really good about this). We are in the beginning stages of trying to work with them in order to make this a bit easier and less costly! After all, it is part of your body, you grew it, and it is YOURS! Why should you have to pay extra for something that is YOURS? So if you have an OB, I would recommend speaking with them about wanting to keep it and have it all sorted out before your delivery. I am told that if your OB releases it to you, it is no big deal. The other crucial part in this is that for encapsulation, it really needs to be handled carefully and the dehydration part needs to start no later than day 3. The problem seems to lie mostly in home birth transports, who have no OB unfortunately, and so get the OB on staff and they could care less usually about accomodating these patients. After all they have had no prenatal care, right!?! What a joke. So if you are planning on keeping your babies placenta and planning a home birth, please talk to me about ways to keep your babies placenta in the chance that you have to transport.

In other news, I am excited to say that I am going to be doing some work with the CHOICE midwives! We'll see what happens and where it goes, but for now I am excited to have been invited to attend some of their births! I have been doing a study group every Friday with two other midwives, but having the ability to work with CHOICE will also help me finish up my paperwork, skills end of my NARM packet so I can test in Feb, 2010! We'll see what happens!

My last birth...

Was a VBAC, and I just love VBAC's. Supporting them through the preparation for the birth and then watching them do it is such a great feeling. This mama was in control the whole time and she did it! It was my first time to work at Dublin Hospital, and over all I would say it was a great experience. The room was really nice and everything seemed very clean. It was also very quiet. Anyway, this baby was bigger all around than her first, and she pushed like nobody's business. They were a really great well informed couple and I am so happy for them that they have two gorgeous little boys now! Oh yea, it was on Mother's Day too! I realized that for the last three years, I have attended births on Mother's Day! :) I think that is pretty cool! I saw last years client at North Star today, perfect timing to run into her!

Good night for now!

Skills and a doula birth

The last two Friday's, I have been meeting with two other midwives working on some skills to prepare for the NARM exam. It has worked out really well. We are going to be meeting weekly for awhile, trying to get the two of us that aren't CPM's ready for the skills assessment. It's kinda difficult is some aspects, because a handful of the things I need to know are like PAP's for example, which could maybe change in the future, but midwives don't really do PAP's on our clients! I'll work it out somehow :)

Also, yesterday I had a first timer doula client of mine call in labor. She was 7 cm when I got there at 5am.....she has been walking around at 5cm for about a week now. Her labor was unique in that while we were at the hospital, almost every time the doc and/or nurse would walk into her room, her contractions would just stop. She went completely natural, and at some point that afternoon, they were really pushing for Pitocin, but this mama pushed back (ha ha) and said no. Funny enough, her doc came on at 3pm in the afternoon or so, and she naturally kicked her labor into gear and she had her baby at 6ish that evening, completely how she wanted to do it. Really in the grand scheme of things, she only had about 3 1/2 hours of active labor! It was just a really interesting experience and I am so proud of her for sticking to her guns and doing it the way she wanted. Oh yea, she had a boy, weighing in at 8lbs 2oz!