Midwifery Today 2009 Conference

Today I am back home after spending 5 days at the Midwifery Today conference in Eugene. For the most part I am still absorbing all that I experienced. As with everything there are always a few disappointments but overall, I know that I came back home with a huge amount of new learning, new friends and inspiration.

So my plan is to write a bit, hopefully through this week and next to share just a bit of the inspirations I found.

In the picture above is Naoli Vinavar, sharing techniques with a Rebozo that traditional Mexican midwives use. I have always wanted to learn to work with a rebozo, but so far youtube videos were the closest I came to visuals on these techniques. Well now after a few sessions with both Naoli and Kara Spencer from Eugene, I am now excited to add this to the skills to help my Doula clients and future midwifery clients. Kara Spencer also introduced me to a healing technique that I have been very interested in learning, Craniosacral therapy for mothers and babies. So again after this taste my hope is to train further so as to offer this fully to clients.

I think some of the most inspiration I found these last few days were from learning how to connect more with Mothers and Babies energetically. How to help them more through subtle touch and traditional methods. This conference gave me much less of a technical knowledge as it did a reminder to go within and find the knowledge stores within myself. Knowledge passed through traditions. To not rely as much on tools as my senses and intuition. Midwifery unlike so much of the medical field is definitely a combination of technical knowledge and sensory knowing, and it is so easy to rely on the technical. So my goal, to always remember that the majority of knowledge will come from within. They need to walk hand and hand together.

I just don't understand

I recently cared for a client who ended up with a repeat C-section, and just heard of a friends family member who also ended up having a C-section. Now both of these cases as well as numerous other ones I know of were due to fetal distress. It was deemed that the baby was in danger and needed to be born intermediately. This is fairly common reason for surgical births.

So my first issue with this and I base this from a medical place of knowledge, I mean I have worked as an RN in Labor and Delivery (please never hold that against me) If a C-section is being done for fetal distress, why does it take 2-4 hours for it to occur. It seems to me that if a baby is deemed in fetal distress and is not capable of being born vaginally then it is an emergency and the surgery should occur right away. If 2-4 hours can pass, what amount of distress could that baby have been experiencing when the surgery decision was made, not much in my opinion. Of course once a family has suffered the fear and disappointment and made this decision and the epidural has been administered, they have lost any hope of a natural vaginal birth. Yet in 2-4 hours the mother could be completely dilated and able to birth her baby.

Another clue to me of the unnecessary-ness of these surgeries is babies that are born via C-section for fetal distress and have an APGAR score of 9/9 This makes no sense. A baby who has been in distress (not getting enough oxygen and is compromised) in utero should never come out and score a 9 in their first minute of life. That babies was not in distress. That mother was railroaded into an unnecessary surgery.

Recently Time magazine posted and article by Pamela Paul on VBACS and the author of that article followed up with a post on the the Huffington Post

There is so much information that needs to be put out there to hopefully stop the C-section rates from rising so that there does not need to be this issue of fighting for a VBAC. We as women need to fight for our rights to not be misled. to not be bullied, to not feel like child abusers when we chose to birth naturally and normally.

Re-emerging with the need to share

I have been hugely absent from this blog for a couple reasons, first off I have been deeply immersing myself in study's, Doula clients and all that is life and family. Thus my blog has suffered greatly. Secondly I found that I was not truly expressing myself here, but instead sharing what I had found others where saying and then agreeing with them by posting. Well I suppose it is time I start expressing my thoughts and beliefs a bit more.

I tend to not want to offend, and sadly in the birthing world that is very easy to do, especially as a Doula dealing very often with the medical community. I see though that while I encourage the very families I support to share their wonderfully natural birth stories I am not living up to that, so time to make changes and walk what I talk :)

So my hope is to share a bit more here about what I am learning, what I am seeing and what I believe. Of course no one need agree with me but if it someone learns or finds value in anything I have to share, well more the better then.

The Other Side of the Glass

Embedded Video

Here is a new movie coming out. It is about families, and the rights
they have to protect themselves. The honor and duty they have to
protect their babies. Joining such movies as Birth as We Know it, What Babies Want, Business of Being Born, Orgasmic Birth.  Also coming in December 2008 is Pregnant in America   The more put out there, the more chances people will begin to truly think about gentle birthing.

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The Midwife on a Mission

This woman is such a hero to me. I hope so many people see her story, see the number of families she has impacted. I want ACOG, the AMA and people like Dr. Amy to acknowledge what this woman has proven for 8 years now. The safety of midwifery care, the safety of out of hospital birth. I want her mission to be carried on by growing numbers of midwives around the country, and for people to see how this alternative to medical care can truly be the best thing for many woman, obviously not all, but many....


(CBS) Every time Ruth Lubic fusses over a healthy baby, the joy in her voice comes from eight long years of beating the odds. In Washington, D.C., where the infant mortality rate is almost double the national average, CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of infant deaths per 1,000 births in the United States is 6.8 - but in Washington, it's 12.2. Lubic and her team of midwives run a birthing clinic in one of the city's poorest areas. After 800 babies in eight years, they have never lost a child in childbirth, and has cut the rate of premature births - the biggest risk factor for infant mortality - in half. "You are saving a lot of lives here," Andrews said. Lubic replied: "Saving lives and increasing the quality of life." Ruth built her clinic in Washington, D.C., on purpose. She figured if her ideas worked there, if she could tackle infant mortality in Washington, she'd set an example everywhere. Her approach is simple. She believes low-income women, many on Medicaid, need the prenatal education that midwives provide. Everything from posture, to nutrition, to how the baby grows. Anike Oliver, who just had a baby boy, Ukama, said she got more time with the midwives than she had with a doctor. "They wanted to make sure I had as much information as they did," Oliver said. "Do you think it boils down to just the time you spend with them," Andrews asked Lubic. "I think so," she replied. "I'm convinced that's what it is. It's time, respect, its treating people with dignity." And what's most remarkable is that Lubic still does it at 81 years old. She's runs the clinic during the week, then runs homeon the weekends to her husband in New York. "You could be retired!" Andrews said. "I'm not tired the first time! Much less retired," Lubic said. Lubic's biggest fan is D.C. city councilman David Catania. He says because she keeps hundreds of babies out of prenatal care, she saves the city around a $1 million a year. That's why he supports her when Ruth hounds the city council for funding. "While I tease her a lot about being a pit bull with a smile, I look at her sometimes with complete envy about how you can have such a burning drive at 81," Catania said. "And it's a great inspiration." "I think I'm insufferable because of my … belief that what I'm doing is the right thing to do," Lubic said. Lubic says infant mortality is a national disgrace - but a disgrace that midwives can help solve. And this pit bull with a smile won't let go of that idea until it sinks in nationwide.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/08/eveningnews/main4428250.shtml

ACOG is at it again

I am fairly outraged...
I know some people think it is not something to worry about, but honestly I do feel people need to speak out and defend their right to make their own choices regarding their births. I do feel that both ACOG and the AMA could push through legislation that would hinder these rights...

I am currently seeing the state of Oregon (which has the most liberal rules regarding midwifery licensure) go through a fight to keep their system status quo regarding licensure. Their are those in the Health Licensing Agency that want to make changes, and while not pushing for mandatory licensure yet, they are wanting mandatory registration and changes to the practice of licensed midwives here. I am sorry I see this as the first step toward removing voluntary licensure in Oregon. It really is a big picture thing that is being seen individually all over the country.

CPM's are for some reason a grave threat and ACOG and the AMA fear them. Why? Well that is the million dollar question...

Push News from The Big Push for Midwives Campaign
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, September 1, 2008

Number Two With a Bullet: Critical Women’s Health Issues Neglected as Physician Group
Yet Again Sets its Sites on Midwives

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 1, 2008)In the newest phase of its ongoing effort to deny women the right to choose their maternity care providers and birth settings, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has announced that eliminating access to midwives who specialize in out-of-hospital birth is now the second most important issue on its state legislative agenda. This move puts restricting access to trained midwives ahead of such critical issues as contraceptive equity, ensuring access to emergency contraception, and the prevention and treatment of perinatal HIV/AIDS.

“ACOG claims to be an advocate of women’s health and choice, but when it comes to the right to choose to deliver your baby in the privacy of your own home with a Certified
Professional Midwife (CPM) who is specifically trained to provide the safest care possible, ACOG’s paternalistic colors bleed through,” said Susan M. Jenkins, Legal Counsel for the Big
Push for Midwives Campaign. “It is astonishing that an organization that purports to be a champion of women’s healthcare would put a petty turf battle that affects less than one percent of the nation’s childbearing women ahead of pressing issues that have an impact on nearly every woman in this country. If this is not dereliction of duty, I can’t imagine what is.”

In recent years, ACOG has led a well-financed campaign to fight legislative reforms that would license and regulate CPMs and has now teamed up with the American Medical Association (AMA) to promote legislaton that would prevent families from choosing to give birth at home. Despite these joint efforts, the groups have not been successful in defeating the groundswell of grassroots activism in support of full access to a comprehensive range of maternity care options that meet the needs of all families.

“Wisconsin is a good example of what ACOG and the AMA are up against,” said Jane Crawford Peterson, CPM, Advocacy Trainer for The Big Push. “Our bipartisan grassroots coalition of
everyday people from across the state managed to defeat the most powerful and well-financed special interest groups in Wisconsin, all on an expenses-only budget of $3000 during a legislative session in which $47 million was spent on lobbying. When you try to deny women the fundamental and very personal right to choose where and how to give birth, they will get organized and they will let their elected officials know that restrictions on those rights cannot stand.”

Noting these successes, ACOG has recently launched its own grassroots organizing effort, calling on member physicians to recruit their patients to participate in its “Who Will Deliver My Baby?” medical liability reform campaign.

“ACOG itself admits that we’re facing a critical shortage of maternity care providers,” said Steff Hedenkamp, Communications Coordinator for the Big Push. “They certainly realize that medical liability reform is nothing more than a band aid and that increasing access to midwives and birth settings is critical to fixing our maternity care system and ensuring that rural, low-income and uninsured women don’t fall through the cracks. Midwives represent an essential growth segment of the U.S. pool of maternity care providers, but instead of putting the healthcare needs of women first, ACOG would rather devote its considerable lobbying budget to a last-ditch attempt to protect its own bottom line. This is not a happy Labor Day for our nation’s mothers and babies.”

The Big Push for Midwives (www.thebigpushformidwives.org) is a nationally
coordinated campaign organized to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to deny American families access to safe and legal midwifery care. The campaign plays a critical role in building a new model of U.S. maternity care delivery at the local and regional levels, at the heart of which is the Midwives Model of Care, based on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life processes. Media inquiries: Steff Hedenkamp (816) 506-4630, mail to: steff@thebigpushformidwives.org

Visit the Big Push for Midwives Campaign on the Web at
www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org
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