CDC Releases Home Birth Data

Today the Center for Disease Control and Prevention released some much anticipated data regarding home birth from 1990 to 2006.

Inside the released data, it showed an increasing trend in out of hospital births.  Home births rose about 5% from 1990 to 2005 and were steady in 2006.  About two thirds of these births were at homes and about another third were in birth centers. Which I believe has come from more education on the safety of home birth, as well as the increased interest in women who do not wish to be put through the hospital birthing system, or are looking to VBAC in an area with no hospitals currently permitting the hot button procedure.

What this study also showed was an increase in Midwife attended home birth, showing that women are planning these births and not just accidentally birthing at home, or not making it to the hospital in time. The number of midwife attended home births increased from 43% in 1990 to 61%.

What Robin pointed out on Pregnancy.about.com is that people will try and blame or say these trends are due to the popularity of the film The Business of Being Born, or the Big Push for Midwives campaign but these were unavailable during this time. The Business of Being Born was not released until 2007.

I find these statistics encouraging because women are becoming more educated on their options, and truly are being informed consumers.

_{MacDorman M, Menacker F, Declercq E. Trends and characteristics of home and other out-of-hospital births in the United States, 1990-2006. National vital statistics reports; vol 58 no 11. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2010.}

Loyally Devoted to Doctor

I recently read the book The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N Aron, Ph.D. In the chapter called Medics, Medication, and Highly Sensitive People, the author states:

“Keep in mind, too, that it is common to feel an attachment to anyone you have been with during an arousing experience, especially if it was a truly painful or emotionally significant ordeal. In the medical realm you hear these sorts of extra feelings when people describe their surgeon or women talk about the person who delivered their child, which is perfectly normal. The solution is simply to know why it happens and compensate for it appropriately.”

In the chapter about relationships, she talks about studies that were done that showed people are far more likely to fall in love under stressful circumstances. She applied this phenomenon to attachment in all relationships, not just romantic relationships. Later when I read the above statement in the medical chapter, so many things started to make sense to me.

Why do women love their maternity care provider, even when they may have done unnecessary procedures on them and not allowed them to make their own choices? Why do many providers use scare tactics? Why do women hold so adamantly to the belief that their provider “saved their life” or “saved their baby” or “was a great doctor” or “really took good care of me”, even when evidence to the contrary is right in front of them? Why do they fail to make important connections, such as that their c-section may have been one of the many unnecessary ones, or that there may not have been a true evidence based need for their induction? Why is childbirth treated like a major emergency with so much fear and anxiety around it? Why aren’t all women who give birth in this system severely traumatized from it, and instead defend and adore their doctors? The answer is simple: the culture of fear that surrounds childbirth actually endears women to their doctors. It cements the relationship between women, their doctors, and the hospitals their doctors practice at. It ensures that the women will keep coming back, and will recommend their providers to all their friends as they speak about them in glowing heroic terms. It is quite brilliant really, providers and hospitals have found the key to running a very successful business, and it has nothing to do with allowing women to make their own choices. They simply have to give the illusion prenatally that the woman can make her own choices for her birth, and then make sure that the actual experience of birth is one filled with fear, anxiety, and of course a healthy baby, and then the narcissistic provider will come out looking like roses to the woman who must endure the “horrors of childbirth”.

Of course, I am not really giving the doctors the benefit of the doubt here. They likely don’t know on a conscious level what they are really doing. They have been trained to act this way, by people who were also trained to act this way, and it is reinforced for them every time a woman profusely thanks her doctor for a job well done, and every time a woman tells her birth horror story where the good doctor makes an appearance as the hero who delivers her baby to her despite all the dangers that presented at the last minute. Both the woman and the doctor seem ignorant of the psychological effects that framing every average birth as a medical emergency creates.

In the statement above, the author states: “it is common to feel an attachment to anyone you have been with during an arousing experience, especially if it was a truly painful or emotionally significant ordeal.” This describes childbirth perfectly. The word “arousing” here is referring to sensory levels. That can mean physically, emotionally, sexually, or any other assault to the senses, good or bad, that can be had. We know childbirth can be described as “arousing” in many ways. It is also inherently “painful” and “emotionally significant”. Even when women use drugs, there is still some level of pain before she took them, and depending on what type of drugs she took, she may still experience pain while she is taking them. So really, all births fit this criteria. Births in a hospital, or at home, or in a birth center all have these same basic elements. It seems women are wired to form an attachment to the people who were with her and helped her through the event. This could be her partner, her doula, her midwife, her doctor, her nurse, or her friend or relative. I think this type of attachment likely had an evolutionary purpose at one time. It would be ideal to attach to an older, wiser woman who assisted with the delivery of babies who would have been there to care for the mom postpartum, and to slowly help her to bond and form an attachment to the baby. This wise woman would then help the mother learn to breastfeed and care for her new infant, while slowly pulling back her own attentions from the situation. This is what we have in homebirth midwives today. How would our ancestors have fared if a man had shown up in the tribe to deliver a baby, and then disappeared immediately afterward? The woman would be left adoring him, yet not having help from him to form an attachment to her infant. Never learning how to breastfeed or other infant care skills. What would have become of humanity? What is becoming of humanity?

Midwives and doulas seem to understand this phenomenon. Doulas usually visit a woman once or twice postpartum and are available if she needs to talk or has questions about the baby, breastfeeding, or the birth. Midwives start seeing a woman more and more as the birth approaches, and then once the baby is born, they start to taper off again, seeing her less and less until she is no longer needed at all. This is a much more natural and appropriate response to caring for a woman during such a pivotal transition in her life. What happens when women see doctors or CNM’s in hospitals though? They are likely seeing a practice, not a specific provider. They will likely not give birth with the same doctor or CNM they saw prenatally. They may never see the same doctor or CNM again after they give birth, or perhaps just once at the six week checkup. How does this affect women emotionally, or in her relationship with her baby, when instead of having a slow winding away from her provider, there is just an abrupt ending to the relationship? Does this interfere with breastfeeding, or affect feelings of trauma related to the birth, or feelings of depression related to her new role as mother? It is ingrained in our psyche to attach to these people who help us through such a major event in our life. How will the people we choose handle this responsibility? Are we choosing someone who will corrupt our experience and force an unnatural attachment to them by creating more anxiety around the experience? Are we choosing someone who will be there for us days, weeks, and months later to answer our questions about the baby or to offer us emotional support? Will the person we choose even be available for the birth, and will we ever see them again afterward?

Now I realize why other women feel the way they do about their provider. I did not attach to my provider, I was instead extremely traumatized by her actions. I still wonder why some women are traumatized, and others fall in love with their providers, given the same set of circumstances. I wonder if it is actually more natural, and thus common, to attach to a provider even when (or perhaps especially when) that provider creates an atmosphere of fear. It makes sense then why so few of us are speaking up about the system and the way women are treated. It makes sense that women are extremely loyal to their providers, even when many aspects of their births were disappointing or upsetting to them. It makes sense that many women are reluctant to accept that there is anything wrong with maternity care. It makes sense why the maternity care system is so hard to change and is met with so much resistance from every side.

What can birth activists do to help women form healthy attachments during this transitional time in her life? It may be tempting to try to convince all women to have a homebirth with a midwife since we know that they are probably the best option for healthy attachments and a healthy weaning away as well, however, if a woman has already formed a strong attachment to a certain provider, it may be more realistic to recommend having a doula. A doula will be there prenatally, for the birth, and postpartum, and therefore can provide much of the physical and emotional support that new moms need and deserve. Some moms may hire a doula, yet keep her same provider that she has formed an attachment to, and others may find that a doula is a stepping stone to having a homebirth the next time. One day I hope that maternity care shifts to being centered around the mother again, and not around the provider and his schedule or routine.

Why Our Women are Afraid of Birth

Deliver Me

It is Tuesday, at 10pm while I settle in after getting my little ones to bed. I flip through the channels and settle on discovery healthy which is a personal favorite of mine, but it really has only recently become a favorite because of shows like I didn’t know I was pregnant. It fascinates me that women could make it though a full term pregnancy and not know they were pregnant, but that is just me, and the experiences that I had with my children is what makes me wonder how the heck women could not know they were pregnant.  But that is completely besides my point today.
So as I watch this show, I am noticing a trend. High risk, high risk, high risk, previous cesarean section, scheduled cesarean section, high risk, healthy first time mother, scheduled cesarean, high risk. Well I mean, that is how it is in Los Angeles right?  You would think so!  But apparently because only these crazy, scary, uncommon births make something called ratings, that is all they are going to feature on TV. Because in reality, no one wants to watch a natural birth or a home birth because no one is running around with a scalpel screaming about the emergency that childbirth is. Nor is the mother screaming for her epidural because she just cant deal with the pain of the 3 hours of labor so far.
But what we should be thinking about most importantly is the message this is sending. What is this teaching first time mothers or even young women that may not be planning on having children soon but will some day?  It is teaching them how scary, dangerous, and medical birth is supposed to be. But is that really how birth is? Of course not. Anyone who has taken the time to read the studies, and just not follow what mainstream society thinks is the right way to handle pregnancy will know that birth is not scary or dangerous or a huge emergency. While it can be in some cases, in most cases it can and will be beautiful when just left alone.

When a woman becomes pregnant today, if they do not already have an Obstetrician they have been seeing for well women care since 16, or whatever age their parent decided it was the right them for them, what is the first thing that they do? They ask around their circle of female friends for the best Doctor out there because isn’t that what we all want? We want the one who is the BMW of pre natal care. Little do women know that they are really going to end up with the 1990 Dodge Dynasty when they take this route because hands off is better.
But because our society has told us this is the way things should be, they run off like lemmings right off the cliff of medical interventions landing in the valley of cesarean sections.

Maybe if the television channels like Discovery health followed a dozen home births or even aired The Business of Being Born they could get a popular, and controversial other side to what they are constantly airing. Maybe it will boost their ratings even more, maybe not?  But what it will do is give the other side of the whole issue. Let’s get Marsden Wagner to do a half hour special on Birth in The United States and see how many women run off to the midwives.  Instead they air these disgustingly inaccurate “Freebirthing” shows. They find the one idiot who is going to make women who choose unassisted birth look like a bunch of uneducated yokels.  Which is exactly what they did with their special on Unassisted birth.

I guess in the end, like anything else the television airs, it is biased and we shouldn’t expect much different.

No Intervention Necessary: Woman Has Surprise HBAC

This surprise out-of-hospital birth story focused on the toddler-as-midwife angle. Just as interesting, however, was the fact that this woman avoided surgery. She was scheduled for her fourth cesarean on December 6, 2009.

Congratulations to the family.

Two-year-old Jeremiha Taylor doesn’t have to ask his mother where babies come from — he helped deliver his little brother at the foot of his family’s living room couch.

“He’s my little hero,” Jeremiha’s mom, Bobbye Favazza, 27, of Olive Branch, said Tuesday. “It was like he knew what to do.”

Favazza gave birth to a 7-pound, 4-ounce baby boy, Kamron Taylor, on Friday morning. Firefighters arrived moments later to cut the umbilical cord.

Greg Mynatt, an emergency services supervisor with the city, said the 911 call about Favazza was probably the third this year about a woman in labor, but usually the mother makes it to the hospital before delivery.

Even rarer is a child assisting with delivery. Mynatt did not recall it ever happening here.

“This would probably be the first,” he said.

Jeremiha can count to five, feed himself and go to the potty himself. He communicates in short sentences.

Of course, nothing about his brief childhood had prepared him to assist in delivering a baby, but Favazza said that of her four children, Jeremiha is the bold one, the one who “will try anything.”

Favazza had made proper plans. Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto was expecting her — on Dec. 6, for her fourth caesarian section — not on Friday the 13th.

Looking back, Favazza realized she was in labor all through the night before the birth, but she did not realize it at the time. The discomfort was minor compared to the labor pains she remembered before giving birth to her sons, ages 2 and 3, and daughter, 5.

On Friday morning, Favazza complained to her mother, Leigh Favazza, about the pain, but neither woman believed delivery was imminent.

Leigh Favazza considered taking the day off from her sales job if indeed her daughter was going to give birth, but first she had to get her granddaughter, Keely Taylor, settled at school.

Leigh Favazza left the house to take the 5-year-old to the bus stop at the end of Maury Drive, then she headed for Olive Branch Elementary School to drop off snacks for her granddaughter’s classroom. While en route, Bobbye Favazza called.

“Mom, I’m having the baby,” Bobbye Favazza said.

Leigh Favazza hung up and called 911. It was 8:26 a.m. She was frantic. Her daughter was alone in the house with a 2-year-old, a 3-year-old, a bull mastiff and a poodle and her water had just broken.

Bobbye Favazza’s oldest son, 3-year-old Jamison Taylor, had awakened to discover his mother bleeding and in pain.

“He sat on the couch right here and cried,” Bobbye Favazza said. “He was terrified. He’s my emotional one.”

The 2-year-old was calm.

“I laid on the couch and he went and got a towel,” Bobbye Favazza said. “He grabbed a towel on his own.

“It happened so fast. My water broke and the baby came two to three minutes later. I just pushed and he caught him.”

Bobbye Favazza said she held her baby, still attached to her by the cord, as she walked a few feet to unlock the front door for emergency personnel. They cut the cord.

Jeremiha, quizzed about the birth of his brother, can point to the spot at the end of the couch where Kamron Taylor was born.

“Over there,” he said.

“Sometimes these things happen, especially to mothers who’ve had multiple births,” said Mynatt, the city’s emergency services supervisor. “The time gets less and less with each delivery.”

Mother and son were discharged from Baptist-DeSoto. Neither suffered any complications.

“I’ve had three,” said Leigh Favazza, the proud grandmother, “and I can’t imagine having any of them like this.”

Why Did I Move During Labor?

I never knew the importance of moving around during labor until I was actually in labor with my second child. With my first I was strapped to a bed, a fetal monitor, and pitocin, so I never really had the option of moving around.

My second time around I realized why it was so important. When I would have a contraction, if I moved, rocked, walked, it would help the pain. Sitting in one spot, tensing up, screaming, or clenching onto something all made the contraction itself a million times worse. As my labor progressed, I realized this. Which helped me to “ride the wave” which is how I looked at getting over my contractions. I pictured them as a giant wave that I must surf over in order to get closer to my baby. As the time went on, and boy what a long labor I had, I realized the more movement the less pain.

The modern form of maternity care, which keeps women in one position, place, or hooked up to machines is what is causing the fear of pain in society today. Because woman’s friends, and family members are routinely going through this kind of system, it is becoming the tell tale so much more.

Until there is a change in how hospitals deal with birth, women are going to continue to think birth is the end of the world because they are not being allowed to move or be active while in labor, when in the end, it does way more good, than it does harm.

Chiropractic Care during Pregnancy

One thing a lot of women do not know is the importance of having a balanced pelvis during labor. Which is why as a birth advocate I feel strongly about Chiropractic care during pregnancy. Not only does it help you live a healthier life, but it also helps you to get your baby into the optimal position for birth.

Many women question me when I bring this subject up, asking how someone who has a big belly is able to lay down and really get adjusted properly. During pregnancy, many Chiropractors will steer clear of adjusting the spine itself, and stick to the pelvis, neck, and round ligaments in something known as The Webster Technique.

The Webster Technique was founded by Dr. Larry Webster, also the founder of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, as a safe method to restore proper balance and function to the pelvis for pregnant mothers. The Webster Technique has also been proven to have a high success rate in preventing breech presentations.

Sacral misalignment causes the tightening and torsion of specific pelvic muscles and ligaments. ?It is these tense muscles and ligaments and their constraining effect on the uterus which prevents the baby from comfortably assuming the best possible position for birth. The Webster Technique is defined as a specific chiropractic analysis and adjustment that reduces interference to the nerve system and facilitates biomechanical balance in pelvic structures, muscles and ligaments. This has been shown to reduce the effects of intrauterine constraint, allowing the baby to get into the best possible position for birth.

The above is taken from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association Website explaining further the Webster Technique and how it works.

Why do I wholeheartedly believe in Chiropractic care as well as The Webster Technique?? My own personal experiences, which all started in June of 2008 when a woman came to my monthly ICAN meeting with a breech baby, frantic because she was planning a home birth in the month of August, and if her baby did not turn into a head down position, optimal for birth, she would have no option but to be admitted into the hospital and have a cesarean delivery, which for her was a nightmare situation. In our area, there are no known providers who will deliver a breech baby of any type.
Thankfully for this mother, our guest speaker for the month was a local Chiropractor, Dr. Jason Jenkin’s who has since become an amazing mentor and friend in my life. He spoke about The Webster Technique, and this woman started seeing him immediately in hopes of this method helping to turn her baby into the optimal position for her to have a successful home birth.
I nervously and skeptically kept track on her care through e-mails, phone calls, and facebook chats. And then her baby turned. Nice, head down, and ready for his peaceful birth at home!

Shortly after this, mom went into labor on a beautiful summer day, and little boy was born into his own mothers arms, in the water, in a beautiful home birth. When she e-mailed me about her birth, I sat and cried while I read, and became a firm believer in something I have known to be “Chiropractic Miracles”.

Since that time, this specific Chiropractic office has had several success stories with pregnancy related care, including my own Chiropractic care during my second pregnancy. Including adjustments the day I went into labor, as well as the next day after my son was born.

As one of my steps in helping to have a great birth, and avoid a cesarean section in a society where 1/3 of births are by surgery, I highly suggest Chiropractic care!

The first Duggar grandchild is born at HOME.

Anna Duggar, famous for being the wife of Josh, son of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, had her first baby last night. While there were some cameras and video, like at many normal births, this baby was also welcomed lovingly into her parents arms at home in the presence of family, midwife and doula. Her baby weighed in at 8 lbs. Nothing seems too wild or out there, unless of course you think home birth is wild or out there. The funny thing is that the Today Show, infamous for their discussions of the horrors of home birth, laid low and said nothing. Why is that? Perhaps it was that Mackynzie Renee Duggar’s birth provided no drama.

If you’d like to share your thoughts with the Today Show, you can email them at Today@NBCUNI.com or send snail mail to:

NBC News
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10112

Reducing Infant Mortality

Please watch this video and then spread the word about how to reduce infant mortality. Click here to visit the website and get help with writing to your legislator, or sending them this video.

Reducing Infant Mortality from Debby Takikawas on Vimeo.

Ricki Lake debates Dr. Lisa on the The Doctors

Part One

Part Two

What do you think about what was said in this debate?

New Spanish Commercial for Flex Brand Beds Features Actual Birth

American mattress advertisements typically feature a thin, white woman reclining on the bed in her pajamas.

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European advertisements tend to be more progressive and inclusive, such as this recent non-heteronormative French mattress advertisement.

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In this Spanish commercial produced by the firm Sra. Rushmore which was released today, the typical American mattress demo of trying to upset a glass of wine with a bowling ball pales in comparison as a subject to newborn Waira, who was born at home on the advertised product– a Flex mattress.

The slogan of this new ad campaign by Spanish company, Flex, is “Tu cama, el lugar m?s importante del mundo,” or “Your bed, the most important place in the world.” This commercial spotlights the home birth of Waira, daughter of Carolina and Nicholas Umpierrez of Barcelona, Spain. In the advertisement, they claim that their bed is special to them because it is where there son was born and they would like for their daughter to be born in the same bed.

Hat tip: ZGZ- Pro Parto Natural

Posted by Jill