Cesareans on CNN

CNN did a special video segment on Cesarean Section. What’s your take on the video? Accurate or not?

MSNBC Interviews Ina May Gaskin

Pioneering midwife touts ‘orgasmic birth’

The Delivery Debate

I was really thrilled with the fair coverage given the issue of midwifery by Newsweek. If you haven’t checked out their article on midwifery and obstetrics, please do so. And be sure to leave a comment to say thanks for the great coverage.

Of Birth Plans and OBs

Last week, ACOG repeated its statement on home birth. While there are so many misconceptions in their statement, on really stood out as important to women no matter where they plan to give birth: “ACOG encourages all pregnant women to get prenatal care and to make a birth plan.”

Wow, I wonder what their members think about this statement. Have you seen birth plans well accepted by OBs where you are? I’d love to hear your experiences…

Here is The Big Push for Midwive’s Response to ACOG:

The Big Push For Midwives responds to ACOG

PushNews from The Big Push for Midwives Campaign
CONTACT: Steff Hedenkamp, (816) 506-4630, RedQuill [ at ] kc.rr.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, February 7, 2008
ACOG: Out of Touch with Needs of Childbearing Families
Trade Union claims out-of-hospital birth is “trendy” tries to play the “bad mother” card
(February 7, 2008) — The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), a trade union representing the financial and professional interests of obstetricians, has issued the latest in a series of statements condemning families who choose home birth and calling on policy makers to deny them access to Certified Professional Midwives. CPMs are trained as experts in out-of-hospital delivery and as specialists in risk assessment and preventative care.

“It will certainly come as news to the Amish and other groups in this country who have long chosen home birth that they’re simply being ‘trendy’ or ‘fashionable,’” said Katie Prown, PhD, Campaign Manager of The Big Push for Midwives 2008. “The fact is, families deliver their babies at home for a variety of very valid reasons, either because they’re exercising their religious freedom, following their cultural traditions or because of financial need. These families deserve access to safe, quality and affordable maternity care, just like everyone else.”

Besides referring to home birth as a fashionable “trend” and a “cause célèbre” that families choose out of ignorance, ACOG’s latest statement adds insult to injury by claiming that women delivering outside of the hospital are bad mothers who value the childbirth “experience” over the safety of their babies.
“ACOG has it backwards,” said Steff Hedenkamp, Communications Coordinator of The Big Push and the mother of two children born at home. “I delivered my babies with a trained, skilled professional midwifebecause I wanted the safest out-of-hospital care possible. If every state were to follow ACOG’s recommendations and outlaw CPMs, families who choose home birth will be left with no care providers at all. I think we can all agree that this is an irresponsible policy that puts mothers and babies at risk.”
The Big Push for Midwives calls on ACOG to abandon these outdated policies and work with CPMs to reduce the cesarean rate and to take meaningful steps towards reducing racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes in all regions of the United States. CPMs play a critical role in both cesarean prevention and in the reduction of low-birth weight and pre-term births, the two most preventable causes of neonatal mortality.
Moreover, their training as specialists in out-of-hospital maternity care qualifies CPMs as essential first responders during disasters in which hospitals become inaccessible or unsafe for laboring mothers. In addition, CPMs work to ensure that all babies born outside of the hospital undergo state-mandated newborn screenings and are provided with legal and secure birth certificates.
Currently, Certified Nurse-Midwives, who work predominantly in hospital settings, are licensed and regulated in all 50 states, while Certified Professional Midwives, who work in out-of-hospital settings, are licensed and regulated in 24 states, with legislation pending in an additional 20 states.
The Big Push for Midwives is a nationally coordinated campaign 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 Scope of Practice Partnership to deny American families access to legal midwifery care.
Media inquiries should be directed to Steff Hedenkamp (816) 506-4630, RedQuill [ at] kc.rr.com.

The Business of Being Born: A Critique

The Business of Being Born is in the news this week. This article specifically talks about the skyrocketing number of c-sections.

Incidentally, Christina Aguilera, despite being warned by Jennifer Block, the author of Pushed, joined the ranks of other stars who are too posh to push and went ahead with her scheduled c-section to avoid the pain of childbirth. However, it would seem that she did not escape the pain of childbirth by undergoing major abdominal surgery.

I saw a screening of The Business of Being Born last night. It was at a college campus in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was sponsored by an organization called Ten Moons Rising. Overall I thought the film was good, it was full of educational information, touching scenes of births, not so touching scenes of births, and several bits of humor thrown in as well. It was a well made documentary and would appeal to many types of people.

Spoiler Alert: If you’ve seen the movie and want to read my more in depth review click the “read more” button under this entry.

I thought this movie told a great story, gave a great history, and presented it’s information thoroughly and accurately. There were difficult parts to watch, touching parts to watch, and funny parts to watch, which are the essential ingredients in any good film.

There were some parts of the film that I was confused by, frustrated by, and thought could have been made much clearer. They show a few home births attended by CNM’s in New York city. They followed one CNM in particular and I was not too happy with her style of practice, though I agree it is a vast improvement than what you would get at any hospital. I didn’t understand why she felt a need to touch the babies as they emerged, she even had her arm wrapped around the water birthing woman and had her hands in there touching the baby’s head as it emerged and lifting the baby up to the surface herself instead of allowing Mom or Dad to do it. Just why does she think this is necessary? This same midwife also turns into “Chatty Cathy” every time a baby is born. She stayed in the mothers space and chatted just seconds after birth, touching the baby, rubbing the baby, insisting on looking at the baby’s face and hearing the baby cry. I was confused as to why she thought this necessary. In a hospital the cord is clamped and cut almost immediately so it is imperative that the baby breath right away. During a home birth the cord is generally left intact for a period of time, so the baby is still receiving oxygen through the cord, and so these intrusive methods at getting the baby to breath are just an interruption of the delicate postpartum bonding time, and do nothing to “help” the baby along. They even show a clip of Michael Odent talking about how birth should take place with a motherly “low profile” midwife in attendance, and they then cut to “Chatty Cathy” talking all over the family’s experience, touching the baby as it comes out, handling the baby, rubbing the baby, etc. I found this to be an odd cut. Was I supposed to think “hmm, this midwife isn’t a low profile midwife, she isn’t doing it right” or did they really think I was going to place this particular midwife in the role of a “low profile” midwife? Um, no, sorry Chatty Cathy, but I wouldn’t want you talking all over my birth experience.

Also, their is a story in the film of the director, Abby Epstein’s, c-section. Abby Epstein goes into pre-term labor. It isn’t obvious in the film that she is in pre-term labor, but it is obvious that she is in labor. So, her baby is in a footling breech position, and she is in PRE-TERM labor, yet her midwife takes the time to check her and they all sit around for awhile before deciding to take a horrible ride to the hospital where her labor progresses rapidly and she seems to be in terrible pain. What was the delay for, I didn’t get it? They never explained anything about the baby being breech, whether the midwife could deliver a breech baby or not, or whether the hospital would automatically give her a c-section for a breech baby. They also state that the baby wasn’t growing or gaining any weight while she was pregnant, but I wonder why the doctor or the midwife she was seeing never noticed this? The baby was so tiny and she looked so obviously small that they even show in the film how Ricki Lake commented on her size the day before. You would think either her doctor or her midwife would pick up on this, you know, if Ricki Lake did.

Overall, I thought the film did a great job at showing the option of home birth, even though I wish they would have followed a few midwives with different styles instead of just one. I also wish they would have spent more time on the hospital system and how it functions, though they did do a great job of showing this with the scenes they did show. I think there was just so much they could show they couldn’t fit it all into two hours. I think Ricki Lakes main message was one of, “hey women, you have other options, you don’t have to go to the hospital, look at what professional competent women can help you do in the privacy of your own home. And I think that is a great message and a step in the right direction.