Anyone want to pay for me to go?

http://www.birthconference.org/ShowPage.asp?id=187

In particular I'd like to sit in this discussion...

Do Natural Birth Advocates Hurt their Own Cause?
Karen Fennell RN MS
Normal (natural) birth advocates are often very passionate about their belief that a non-medicated, non-induced, non-interventionist and undisturbed vaginal birth is “the best way” to have a baby. In their zeal, many advocates accuse physicians of having ulterior motives, not following best practices, and not giving good care. This session will focus on the methods of persuasion used by the advocates and whether or not these methods have assisted or inhibited gains in natural/normal childbirth and breastfeeding.

There are many, many more I'd like to sit in on. But at the moment we don't have a spare $1K to go.

A Consumer Driven Birth Culture? One can only hope...

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art58521.asp


g Pregnancy Site
Angela England
BellaOnline's Pregnancy Editor

g

A Consumer Driven Birth Culture

Alan Huber, CFP has been involved with the birthing industry for well over a decade and is in a unique position of seeing things from a neutral ground position. In an interview with Angela England, Pregnancy Editor at BellaOnline, Huber said, "The real issues are not being addressed". And Alan is right.

His brisk accent added an underscore to his words as he spoke to me with enthusiasm. He talked about how this conference could be the opportunity for the consumers, for women like you and I, to change America's birth culture in a positive way.

For many years now we have had knee-jerk reactions to the changing birth culture in America. Bradley's Husband-Coached philosophy rose in reaction harsh and restrictive hospital environments. Now, we currently have AMA and ACOG setting their sights on stamping out midwifery and homebirth completely, in reaction to recent popular movie releases like "Business of Being Born" and "Orgasmic Birth". Huber continued, "We have all these organizations talking at each other, but no one is talking to each other. Nothing is truly being resolved."

As the Controversies in Childbirth Conference website points out there are a lot of problems facing the general birth climate in America - and it is ultimately the women, and their babies, who suffer as a result. "Rising costs and reduced reimbursements have caused many OBs to stop delivering babies" and "Malpractice insurers regulate birth and limit women’s options by prohibiting practitioners from attending VBACs, water labor, and home birth . . . even though exercising these options may lower costs." are just two examples of the catch-22 reasonings that are negatively influencing a pregnant woman's choices today.

So the idea of a neutral ground meeting place was born. Controversies in Childbirth Conference will be the first place where practicing American physicians, midwives, doulas, malpractice insurers, financial planners, and more will be able to come together to truly work towards solving some of the problems women face within the current birth model in America.

My personal hope is that many average citizens will attend the conference as well. I feel it is time for us to stop accepting what large, interest-group organizations say is best for us, and time to decide for ourselves! Alan Huber remarked towards the end of our interview, "This will be a place for women to speak up! It will be a place to create a birth culture of mutual respect in America."

The Controversies in Childbirth Conference will be held in Dallas, TX March 27-29, 2009. A free Baby Fair Expo will run simultaneously, allowing women to attend both events. More information can be found on the Conference Website listed below.

I personally plan to be there and see whether we can force the broken, multiple-system currently in place, to work together and reach some agreements that won't leave the women, and their babies, without choices! I hope you can make it too.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the subject in the Pregnancy Forum Thread about this article.

Want to learn more about the current birth climate in America, how we got there and what steps we can take to change? Check out these two books for some well-researched opinions:


The article ends there... but I sincerely hope that our paternalistic medical society will realize that they are really doing women a great disservice with the current status quo. The best thing women can do for themselves is be an informed consumer. You research, research, research before you buy a new TV, why not do the same for the most important day in your baby's life?

Win a Medela Freestyle Hands-Free Breastpump from Nature's Child - Wholesome goods for Mothers and Babies

Birth Trauma affects breastfeeding,,, tell me something I don't know.

Impact of Birth Trauma on Breast-feeding: A Tale of Two Pathways.

FEATURES

Nursing Research. 57(4):228-236, July/August 2008.
Beck, Cheryl Tatano; Watson, Sue

Abstract:
Background: Up to 34% of new mothers have reported experiencing a traumatic childbirth. Documented risk factors for delayed or failed lactogenesis include stressful labor and delivery, unscheduled cesarean births, and psychosocial stress and pain related to childbirth.

Objective: To explore the impact of birth trauma on mothers' breast-feeding experiences.

Methods: Phenomenology was the qualitative research design used to investigate mothers' breast-feeding experiences after birth trauma. Fifty-two women were recruited over the Internet through the assistance of Trauma and Birth Stress, a charitable trust located in New Zealand. Each mother sent her breast-feeding story to the researchers via the Internet. Colaizzi's (1978) method was used to analyze the data.

Results: Eight themes emerged about whether mothers' breast-feeding attempts were promoted or impeded. These themes included (a) proving oneself as a mother: sheer determination to succeed, (b) making up for an awful arrival: atonement to the baby, (c) helping to heal mentally: time-out from the pain in one's head, (d) just one more thing to be violated: mothers' breasts, (e) enduring the physical pain: seeming at times an insurmountable ordeal, (f) dangerous mix: birth trauma and insufficient milk supply, (g) intruding flashbacks: stealing anticipated joy, and (h) disturbing detachment: an empty affair.

Conclusions: The impact of birth trauma on mothers' breast-feeding experiences can lead women down two strikingly different paths. One path can propel women into persevering in breast-feeding, whereas the other path can lead to distressing impediments that curtailed women's breast-feeding attempts.

Pioneering midwife crusades for natural birth

By Travis Loller, Associated Press

SUMMERTOWN, Tenn. — Despite living on a commune in rural Tennessee, Ina May Gaskin has had the kind of career success most people only dream about.

A midwife who never formally studied nursing, Gaskin has helped to bring home birth and lay midwifery back from the brink of extinction in the United States. An obstetrical maneuver she learned from the indigenous Mayans of Guatemala has made it into scientific journals and medical textbooks, and her insistence on the rights of a birthing mother empowered a generation of women to demand changes from doctors and hospitals.

With a lifetime of accomplishment, the 67-year-old Gaskin has earned the right to slow down. But that is the farthest thing from her mind.

"At the time we began, I couldn't have dreamed that in 25 years' time women would be actively seeking Caesareans," she said.

Gaskin largely blames the nation's rising maternal death rate on the increase in Caesarean section births and the drugs sometimes used to induce labor.

The National Center for Health Statistics reported last month that the maternal death rate for 2005 has risen to about 15 women per 100,000 live births, more than double the 1998 rate of 7.

At least part of that increase is due to better reporting, but researchers say Caesareans also may be a factor.

Gaskin passionately believes natural childbirth is the answer. The number of women giving birth with a midwife has doubled over the last decade and accounts for about 8% of births today — the vast majority in hospitals. Still, she says it's a challenge to promote natural birth to a generation that favors comfort and convenience.

Promoting home births is an even tougher sell. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has continuously warned against home births as too risky.

In 1975, Gaskin published Spiritual Midwifery, which included birth stories and a primer on delivering babies. Her book has sold around 750,000 copies, has been translated into four languages and has inspired a generation of women to become midwives.

Part of Gaskin's success has been that she combines an analytical mind with an instinctual understanding of birth.

She promoted the idea that a woman's state of mind will influence how easy her birth is and encouraged unorthodox ways to improve the woman's experience, like encouraging her to make out with her husband during labor.

At the same time, she kept detailed records of each birth, providing her commune, The Farm, with statistics that would prove important in the debate over the safety of out-of-hospital births.

She has tried to widen the reach of her message by airing natural birth videos from The Farm on television. "The women are so beautiful giving birth," she said.

TV stations rarely have run them, calling them too graphic.

"I started to think I should put them on YouTube," Gaskin said.

But the high rate of Caesarean sections in the U.S. may help Gaskin's message gain some traction. Former talk show host Ricki Lake produced and starred in a recent documentary that features Gaskin and is critical of hospital births and their high rate of C-sections.

The United States now has a Caesarean section rate of 31%, a figure the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists agrees is troubling.

At the same time, this group of doctors who perform the C-sections also reiterates its "long-standing opposition to home births." In a recent statement, the organization said childbirth decisions "should not be dictated by what's fashionable, trendy, or the latest cause celebre."

Home births are not safe, their statement warns, because "a seemingly normal labor and delivery can quickly become life-threatening."

Over the years, studies on the safety of home births have conflicted. The doctors' group says research comparing the safety of home and hospital births has been limited and is not scientifically rigorous.

Their organization approves of the assistance of hospital midwives certified by the American College of Nurse Midwives. These midwives have nursing degrees or comparable training. The college of obstetricians warns against lay midwives like Gaskin, who have no formal medical training and who aid in home births.

Even so, the College of Nurse Midwives says home births can be safe and they are fans of Gaskin's. "She's quite a remarkable woman and an icon of midwifery," said Mairi Breen Rothman, a nurse midwife and consultant to the midwives college. Rothman herself was inspired by Gaskin's book.

Gaskin began her practice as one of about 250 hippies who pooled their money in 1971 to buy rural land south of Nashville to form a commune. Soon she and a few other women on The Farm were delivering 25 to 30 babies each month.

While training herself, Gaskin sought out doctors and other midwives and devoured medical texts. But she never sought a medical degree, instead helping to create an alternative certification so lay midwives could prove their competency.

Not all obstetricians think home births are inherently unsafe. New York obstetrician Heidi Rinehart spent a few weeks at The Farm while a medical student. Although her husband also is an obstetrician, when they were having a baby, they asked Gaskin to be their midwife.

But even doctors who've never heard of Gaskin have felt her influence because of patients who have read her books, seen her birth videos or heard her speak.

"They request or demand or vote with their feet to have the kind of birth they want," Rinehart said.

Now, Gaskin has a film in the works that is in keeping with her anti-establishment, freewheeling nature.

"We're doing a movie called The Orgasmic Birth," she said.

That's not a metaphor. Gaskin says that under the right circumstances women experience a sort of birth ecstasy.

"I mean, it's not a guarantee," she said, shrugging her shoulders and smiling, "but it's a possibility.

"It's the only way I can think to market it to (this) generation."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

I have moved to the land of the Anti-midwife.

I (heart) MY MIDWIFE! Well, that would be if I could have one and if I was knocked up again. The home activists are hard at work in the state of Missouri, trying to make Certified Professional Midwifery legal again. These ladies are making great strides, but need support from everyone.

Why do people insist that people who have homebirths are uneducated to the risks of childbirth? When in fact, most women who chose homebirth have educated themselves far beyond those who go to the hospital to have their babies.