Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Constant Gardner

Have you seen this movie ? I hadn't tell just hours ago.

Besides it starting very slow and me wanting to totally give up on the movie when she looses a full term baby and they show her nursing another baby who's mother is dying...The movie was great.

It wasn't what I was expecting, it was a wonderful movie full of twists and turns and a terribly sad ending but it makes me wonder.

I wonder alot.

About our government, the push for vaccinations and ob's.

Did you know is 1900 more then half of births were home births? Then by 1935 the number decreased to 12.5 %? Do you know why ?

Because the medicine community portrayed midwives as dirty, illiterate, and ignorant and women were convinced that they were safer in the hands of doctors and hospitals.

Birth evolved from a physiological event into a medical procedure.

By the 1960s, these interventions were common in all American hospitals and women were unaware of any other way to give birth (as well as unaware when they were giving birth!). In addition, women were forced to labor without presence or support from partners or family, infants were taken from the mother at delivery and cared for in newborn nurseries, bottlefeeding became the norm, and babies born outside the sterile environment of the operating room were labeled contaminated and kept separately. There was no scientific rationale for any of these procedures; to the contrary, many of them were eventually shown to be harmful.

Did you know we rank 29th place in Infant death ? Why are we so high on this list when our doctors know so much ?

So off topic I KNOW...

The point....

That just like doctors delivery our babies and not midwives and people vaccinating or not we don't know the long term effects of so many things.

So why do we allow it? In the Constant Gardner all these poor people where being used for drug testing and dying. The government was hiding it because it would cost them thousands to fix the problem back in a lab .

For me I think the bottom line is that most people don't really know what's going on . Most people don't question why the formula companies are paying for breastfeeding ads, they don't question why coke-a-cola is Paying millions into our school's ?

They are doing it because they get something out of it . So what is the governement getting out of us vaccinating ? Having our babies in hospitals? Why dont we have more studies done to show how safe VBAC's are ? Why are we still reading medical information for 20 years ago ? Why arent our doctors up to date on all of this information ?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Year without Christmas

The year without christmas was going to be this year! I thought in the middle of night while my daughter had woke for the 8th time maybe this year we wont do christmas. Why bother ? I felt no need for the hussle and bussle of it all. I felt no need of it all. I had no energy or desire so I thought lets boycott christmas.

I want to add my last years of christmas havent been great. Last year we were snowed in my uncles house which wasnt fun. The year before that we spent with my family nothing special nothing to remeber. The year before that we spent all day traveling to Virgina. So you see nothing special. Maybe thats what has me boycotting Christmas the fear my children wont experience something Special on Christmas.

I woke the next day releaved almost to not have to worry about tree's, cookies, decorations and lights. I was almost looking forward to staying at home enjoying a good movie and a can of coke with my family .

That same morning I started to tell people I decided we arent doing Christmas and it doesnt really matter and my kids wont know the diffrence and bla bla bla. Well the reviews were mixed...Some didnt seem shocked..Some didnt care...Some said I was crazy and whats next...Then there was sweet J who loves christmas and already has her christmas tree up ( who's crazy really ? ) and my sweet Stephan who said I couldnt boycott. They said no need to go big and wild but stay sweet and small and enjoy this year for what it is meant to be .

So this year I may get a tree, I may do some gifts, and I may put window stickers up of little elves making toys but what I know I will do...I will stay home enjoying my family, a good movie and drinking a coke just like I wanted to .

Monday, November 16, 2009

C-sections

So birth is a hard subject for a few reasons-

1.) Emotions run high when we speak about our children and our choices

2.) Everyone has a different expectation and desire

3.) One way is not right for everyone

With this said I have had 2 different experience's-

1.) An emergency c-section a month early, I remember the the emotion of fear, uncertainty and of knowing this was not how I wanted to enter into motherhood.

2.) We planned a home birth VBAC to help heal the emotional pain I had felt of struggling to breastfeed, to care for my baby and most of all just function as a new mother should. We sadly didn't get our home birth, after my water broke and no contractions for 3 days we headed to hospital . I was scared. I had failed to birth the way nature intended. I failed again . After I processed through all of this I accepted going to the hospital but still had my heart set on a VBAC. I was determined to feel the pain, the pleasure and the intensity of birth . I thankfully got my VBAC and labored 14 hours on Pitocin to finally birth a 7 pound 3 ounce little girl who I birthed vaginally.

I am sure you are thinking why are you blogging about this on a random day in November? Well I will tell you a friend of ours decided to have a c-section . She decided against the way nature intended . She for no reason felt that a c-section would be a better choice for her and her baby. I am sad for them . I did try to change her mind ! I will admit I stepped on toes and tried to explain so much stuff to her. Here are just a few reason's elective c-sections aren't the best option in my opinion.

I know some c-sections are amazing gifts to people to save there children and we arent talking about that here. We are talking about choosing an elective c-section just because. I feel like if society didnt scare us into believeing birth is such a scary thing more women would choose to birth vaginally .
1.c-section can be a violation of your body

2.A c-section is also physically damaging. It is a major abdominal surgery.

3.There is a higher risk of blot clots following a c-section than a vaginal birth.

4.Hysterectomy is more common after cesarean.

5. The risk of maternal death is higher.

6.Babies born by c-section are much more likely to have respiratory problems than babies born by vaginal birth.

7.Babies who are born by cesarean section may have a harder time breastfeeding. The first nursing session is almost always delayed and it may be harder for the mother and baby to establish the breastfeeding relationship.

8.Women who have cesareans suffer from more infertility than women who have vaginal births.

9.One in three babies is brought into the world by surgery this is not what nature intended.

10. Even though VBAC's do happen sadly they are few and far between and women who have them have to fight for them so you are in most cases choosing to have more c-sections in the future.