night happenings

This past week I went to a beautiful waterbirth. The midwife called it a "butter birth" and that was a perfect description. I am so happy to be involved in birth as a doula.


So here's a little funny thing about that night. My husband Jason and I had gone to bed around 10:o0, and he's so exhausted he hits the pillow and falls asleep. I was up reading when I got the call around 10:45. Jason mumbled and rolled over when the phone rang. I was sure I woke him with talking and getting ready in our room. I came back into bed that night around 3 AM. The next morning I was telling him what a great birth it was and he was like "What? Jessica* had her baby last night? You were at a birth? I had no idea you even left!" I guess I don't have to worry about disturbing his sleep when I get calls at night!

The other funny thing is while I was at the hospital with Jessica, my other client due soon called me saying she was having contractions. I thought, "Sweet, two births in one night". I advised my other client to rest since it was night time and to call me if things started picking up. Things slowed down though and she's still pregnant...any day now I will get to be a doula at another birth. I'm really excited!

*name changed

Reviews

I love reading books regarding childbirth. I feel like I need to read it and research it a lot to understand more of what my doula clients are going through, since I haven't been able to experience labor yet. (Which fact is a little embarassing to me). Here's a few of my recent reads:


Diary of a Midwife by Juliana van Olphen-Fehr


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was a fantastic book. I couldn't put it down. The author shares her experiences as a nurse midwife who did home deliveries in the 80s and 90s. There are many birth stories--which I love--and a lot of the book is about the challenges nurse midwives faced in becoming care providers to pregnant women. At times I have thought that I want to become a nurse midwife (since I am already a nurse) but I'm not sure I have as much courage as this woman did, and even though CNM's are much more accepted now, I think it still takes a lot of courage to become one, especially one that fights the status quo.

View all my reviews >>

Your Best Birth: Know All Your Options, Discover the Natural Choices, and Take Back the Birth Experience by Ricki Lake


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Just trying to make my way through all the pregnancy books out there....

This one was a good one. Written in an informal, friendly manner, Ricki explains a lot of what is going on out in the maternal health care world. She explains about midwives, doctors, and interventions. There are sidebars that contain some really great gems, as well as birth stories throughout the book. It would be a great resource for someone newly pregnant or thinking about it soon who doesn't know much of the issues surrounding birth today. This would be a great alternative to "What to Expect when you're Expecting". I'm starting to hate that book! We were talking at my ICAN meeting how we are going to go buy them all up at used bookstores and have a big bonfire! I think Ricki Lake has done a good thing in making her movie and this book. More people need to know the crisis we are in today, and I do believe it's a crisis when the national c-section rate is over 30%!

View all my reviews >>

Back in the birth world

I've been busy! First I had my precious baby Audrey's 1 year old birthday party. That took a week of intense preparation because I went crazy. She is worth the celebration. We went on vacation to Vancouver and had a fantastic time. Then, sadly, my husband's grandpa died so we were involved with the funeral for a few days.


Now I'm back in the swing of normal life. I've been pretty busy with doula stuff--meeting clients and doing visits. Hopefully I'll have a couple births in the next few weeks.

I did go to a birth before my vacation that was just wonderful. It was with some great CNMs and a couple who prepared very well. They had a beautiful waterbirth. It was what I would call a "pure birth". Mom wasn't hooked up to anything--no IVs, (not even a hep-lock), no monitors, no drugs, no nothin'! Mom got to have her baby right away and bond. I was with my doula trainer, so there were two doulas and it was shift change so there were also two midwives! I wish every woman could have a birth like this. Mom was supported and encouraged by caregivers instead of machines!

It sounds like it should be so simple. But sadly, it is very rare, at least in this area of the country, to go into a hospital and not to be hooked up to something. Also, this particular practice, while wanting to be VBAC friendly, currently has lost their back up for VBACs. They are working on getting it back, but even then they will only do VBA1Cs, so I would not be able to deliver with them. It is the only hospital in the area that has alternative birthing rooms (there are no independent birth centers in Illinois), but I'm not allowed in them to birth because I'm a VBAC. It's too bad because I just learned that this hospital is where my husband was born at, and where his dad was born at, and where his Granpda (the one who just passed away) was born at. How cool would that be to have four generations of Henriksons born there? Seeing how birth is done with these midwives makes the other hospitals and practitioners look barbaric. That sounds extreme, but really, I don't know how else to describe poking women with needles, attaching them to machines then leaving them, and cutting them open either abdominally or vaginally to birth their babies.

Here's the link to the midwives.