birth activist

1. I’ll be there for the birth.
   
   In reality, there is a group of doctors and/or midwives who take call. What percentage do they really make it to the birth? Now ask them to remove cesareans and inductions…
   

2. I think your birth plan is great…
   
   They just have no intentions of following it… You want to know how they will react to your birth plans, ask others who used the same practitioner.
   

3. You don’t need to take a childbirth class. I’m there to help you.
   
   But only as you actually give birth to the baby… Seriously very few practitioners, even midwives are there for every minute you’d need them. Hire a doula to cover those off minutes (or hours). Besides a good childbirth class can help you figure out what you want from birth and become familiar with the process.
   

4. You should come in when the contractions are 10 minutes apart…
   
   Only if you like to watch paint dry. 10 minutes apart at the end of pregnancy is pretty early and might not even be real labor. Staying home until you’re emotionally and physically ready is probably best for mom and baby. Some women choose the 4-1-1 method: contractions 4 minutes apart, lasting at least 1 minute, for at least 1 hour.
   

5. It’s for the baby’s health…
   
   Okay this one isn’t always a lie, but make sure when they say baby they don’t really mean “my malpractice provider,” “my golf game,” or the “convenience of” someone. Educate yourself about birth and getting informed consent – knowing the what, why, when, how and if not now laters…
   
   

Can you think of any?

A friend of mine sent me this link the other day. I highly recommend that you try it out. Basically it's a spinning object and it's demonstrating right and left brain functions. The instructions say that if you see it spinning one way if you think about it, you can make the image spin the other direction. BAH! I thought. But I was able to stare it and sure enough, make the image go the opposite direction with just a bit of concentration and belief.

Just as I was about to pass this up as a really cool optical illusion it struck me, this is what the culture of birth has become. It's spinning out of control in one direction - a direction that is becoming quickly unsafe for babies and mothers. But all we need to do is concentrate and focus with a little faith and we can turn things around. Try it out on the simple link above and then see what you can do in the birth world. I challenge you to make one small step to change the world. Post and tell us what you are going to do...

So, this morning I open my email and find a letter from a family looking to hire a doula. This is not an unusual thing for me to find. The letter is addressed to me and to about 10 other doulas in my area. It's a form letter. While there are certain points of the letter that are personalized, some of the questions come straight out of DONA's How to Hire a Doula section.

This is where I confess, this type of letter used to make me really mad. I wasn't mad that couples were interviewing other doulas. I was angry to be asked to summarize everything about myself into one email. I would say to myself, "I bet they didn't do this with the local obstetricians..." And I was right.

Then I realized that the problem was not that I got this letter but that the OBs didn't! Heck, just think how an OB would handle a mail like this one from a potential client. Can you say straight into the junk mail folder?

I would be tickled pink if all of a sudden, OBs had to answer questions from women other than do you accept my insurance. Wouldn't it be great if all the OBs had to answer the 10 Questions to Ask Your Careprovider by CIMS? Now that would be great. Not only would it be great for the individual women to get to actually choose their providers based on something other than address or how nice their office is, but the OBs would be made to have some accountability for their practice and how it is presented to women. Now that's transparency in maternity care.

Just in case you missed it, Robin, a blogger/founder of Birth Activist, has had her other blog (Pregnancy.about.com) nominated for an award! You can vote for her site by clicking on the buttons below.

I was laying in the bathtub reading Working Mother and an ad caught my eye. It was right up my alley: "Working Mothers Have Unique Needs and government leaders need to know." Sign up for a free teleconference on public policy and advocacy. Sure I thought. I ripped the paper out (so I could recycle the majority of the magazine when I was done) and these works jumped out from the ad: "some states are considering proposals to restrict information new mothers receive about infant feeding options..."

Yikes. Quick check. Abbott. Yikes. A quick check of their site links you to Baby Feeding Choice, the International Formula Council (IFC), read that as the formula companies banding together to beat down breastfeeding at every turn with their big corporate money. From there you can go to Moms Feeding Freedom , where the share stories of being tortured by breastfeeding moms and made to feel guilty for their choices. Oh and you can even sign their petition and read how the ban the bags campaign is a bad idea, despite numerous studies saying that sending formula home with breastfeeding mothers does hinder breastfeeding.

Abbott makes tons of money convincing women not to breastfeed. I mean even if you remove the billions they make on formula alone, look at what they gain from the drugs they happily supply when you're ill...

Unfortunately, while the breastfeeding community has a ton of really cute poster children, we don't have the corporate funds that the IFC has or Abbott, or any of the people who stand to gain from formula feeding. Heck, we can't even count on our own government to protect breastfeeding the way they say they do...

So, congrats to Portland, OR for being the first city to Ban the Bags for BREASTFEEDING mothers. Consider logging on to Working Mother for their teleconference on public policy on November 15. (See page for details) You can also help by taking Medela's working mother breastfeeding survey.

And we'd love to hear your voice at the Free Seminar on Infant Feending Choices, err I mean working mothers and families, oh wait, it's really the Raise Your Voice: Advocating for Better Working Family Policy Conference

The recent article by the Washington Post really brought to mind that the argument that the formula companies tried to use (which worked) was don't guilt parents into breastfeeding. While on the surface this may seem fine, let's look at all the guilt programs we currently have going...

You're a bad parent if you don't use a car seat because if you get in a wreck your baby will die.

You're a bad parent, not to mention thoughtless citizen, if you don't immunize fully and on schedule.

You're not a good parent if you homeschool your child, because after all, the government knows best and it's your tax dollars at work.

Your baby will die of SIDS if you don't put them to sleep on their back.

So why is it any less acceptable to say, "If you don't breastfeed, the risk that your baby has of getting diabetes is X or your baby will likely have X?

I think parents have a lot of guilt, regardless of what society says, but seriously, whatever happened to informed consent? Or does that only apply to VBACs and refusal to do constant fetal monitoring?

I guess it shouldn't come as a shock to me that the formula companies thwarted breastfeeding ads that aired a couple of years ago from the Ad Council and the Office of Women's Health, but it still makes me angry. The Washington-Post did a really great article on the whole mess. I'm just disgusted.

• HHS Toned Down Breast-Feeding Ads - Formula Industry Urged Softer Campaign
  
• Photos from the original and eventual ads

I'm pleased to be a new blogger here at birth activist. I have to say I was honored to be asked. I'm loud and opinionated, so I hope you can tolerate me. ;-)

I guess I should start by summing up about how I feel about birth.

Birth is simple. It really is. It boils down to be just the basic sciences - biology, chemistry and physics. Now, I know that there are those that take a different spin on things - the beautiful pictures of elegant women laboring serenly, which is all well and good. But basically, we're all about the ologies.

Biology - life, pure and simple. It's how you got here, it's how you got pregnant and it's how you'll have this baby.

Chemistry - have you ever looked at the complex system of chemicals (hormones) that are needed to run the show of pregnancy and birth? Amazing. And even better - we don't have to think about it.

Physics - movement is key. Overcoming inertia to move the pregnant body and responding to the necessary mechanical changes to allow your baby to be born with ease is what it's all about.

So the next time you talk to someone who tells you that birth is hard or they can't do it - remind them it starts at a cellular level.