Overcoming Obstacles... Actually Obliterating Them!

We have a client who was trapped by her insurance to not be able to seek the midwifery supported model of care and the water birth she had found was possible. She was working to try to make it happen when she went into labor two and a half weeks early. Then not only was she not getting the birth experience she had hoped for she ran into several other obstacles. But this story is not a bad one- indeed it is one about overcoming!

Another Dot to Dot

One of my doulas recently had this birth experience. Ironically with the same group of midwives as mine but at a different hospital. Let's read about the dots she made sure she followed.

Dot to Dot... Don't Skip One

 

Recently after a birth, I was very sad and very happy at the same time. I had a client who did everything right. She prepared for her birth by taking great classes with Pam. She read the right books and considered all of her options for her birth. Her partner was fully supportive as well as her mother who was in attendance. Although she chose a practice based on her insurance limitations, she chose the midwives within those limitations. She stayed healthy and emotionally balanced during the pregnancy. She labored at home through the night and into the morning with irregular contractions. She went by the midwives office for a labor check before heading to the hospital. She stayed active and upright during most of her labor. She never complained about pain or wanting to quit. And she still ended up with a cesarean birth. What happened?

Preparation Meets Expectations For This Mom!

Praveena shared with her fellow childbirth students this email that she so also graciously shared with our blog! Great births don't usually just happen- they take preparation and selection. Praveena prepared by centering her mind, exercising her body, opening her spirit and mind in her childbirth class and selecting a great supportive team. Guina Bixler was her doula- she chose the Ladies of the Labyrinth and Guina was the lucky doula on call during her labor. Andrea Perry, one of our apprentice doulas accompanied Guina. Margaret Strickhouser was her midwife- Intown Midwifery. And she birthed at Atlanta Medical Center.

Things that helped during pregnancy:

Taken 5 days before birth

Evidence Based Medicine Re: Your Membranes Releasing Prior to Labor Beginning

What does this mean?  The internet offers these definitions:

Definitions of Evidence-based medicine on the Web:

• Evidence-based medicine (EBM) aims to apply the best available evidence gained from the scientific method to medical decision making. It seeks to assess the quality of evidence of the risks and benefits of treatments (including lack of treatment).
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_medicine
• Heath care whose policies and practices are derived from the systematic, scientific study of the effectiveness of various treatments
  en.wiktionary.org/wiki/evidence-based_medicine
• The practice of medicine or the use of healthcare interventions guided by or based on supportive scientific evidence. Also, the avoidance of those interventions shown by scientific evidence to be less efficacious or harmful.
  www.qaproject.org/methods/resglossary.html
• The practice of medicine with treatment recommendations that have their origin in objective tests of efficacy published in the scientific literature rather than anecdotal observations.
  www.grg.org/resources/glossary.html
• An approach to practicing medicine that involves consideration of results of clinical trials that are relevant to the disease or condition being treated when making decisions about how to treat patients.
  www.ecri.org/patients/references/Pages/Clinical_Trials_Patient_Reference_Guide_Glossary.aspx
• is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. ...
  www.hse.ie/eng/about/Who/Population_Health/Health_Intelligence/Health_Intelligence_Work/Evidence_Based_Health_Care/Glossary_of_Terms/
• For many in the medical field, evidence-based medicine includes only those treatments that have been shown to be effective through a narrow lens, especially double-blind studies. ...
  www.hyperbariccenter.org/glossary.html
• Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise to aid in the diagnosis and management of patients.
  www.azdoqit.com/LS4/Glossary%20of%20EHR%20Terms.doc

Experience

Today I was adding the numbers of births each labor doula in our group has done over the years. These were births where they offered labor support. And within our group I was totally amazed to figure out that we have more than 1000 births of experience. Experience is not the only reason to hire a doula. There are a lot of factors to consider: how you feel when you are around her, how vulnerable you feel you can be with her,  how your partner feels about her, and many more factors that are as individual as you are. But with our group you hire a doula or a team of doulas (Ladies of the Labyrinth), but you get the whole gamete of experience. Because when a doula is at a birth, she knows she can call any of the more experienced doulas in our group for insight and guidance in a situation with which she may not be familiar. I can guarantee you that there is no more experienced doula group in Atlanta than our group. I hope you will consider us when you are selecting someone to be guiding and supporting you in your labor!

Where Do You Get Your Breastfeeding Advice From?

I wrote a review of this study a year ago: Pediatricians Are Not A Good Resource for Breastfeeding Advice and Support and shows how most pediatricians do more to sabotage than to support the breastfeeding relationship between mothers and their babies. Today I want to share another resource you may find helpful.

Today I got an email from a new mother who had gotten poor advice from a pediatrician in regards to breastfeeding. This pediatrician is actually one that I find to be very supportive in many ways of the breastfeeding dyad. But this piece of advice was purely her own personal view not one that is supported by evidenced based medicine. I just wish moms would ask a pediatrician the hard questions regarding the advice they offer. Is this medical advice? Is this your personal parenting advice? Is this evidence based? Just as I encourage you to go to the Coalition for Improvement of Maternity Services  to find out if your OB/GYN practice is really a supportive one for your care during pregnancy, I encourage you to visit the NBCI to read about how to insure your pediatrician is supportive of breastfeeding. Dr. Jack Newman is a foremost authority on breastfeeding worldwide! There are more resources out there that do a great job regarding breastfeeding information- LLLI being one of them. But be careful when getting advice that does not feel quite right to you- do your research and ask more questions!

A New Mom Shares

Mothers and Mothers-to be,

We are blessed with a beautiful baby girl on early hours of Sunday. 

First, thanks to Teresa for all the wisdom about motherhood that she has passed on to us. I had a natural birth and I believe it happened only because of Teresa and her wonderful team. 

Girls, please make a note of this. If you want a natural birth and want to enjoy your birth experience, have a DOULA with you. She is your mother when you are going through labor and can guide you through the process especially when you are overwhelmed with pain and anxiety and are clueless of what is going to happen.

The Holistic Stages of Labor

This is a wonderful article that helps a woman and her care providers understand her labor better than the medical model of the stages of labor. I think if you can embrace this information, you will find yourself learning how to listen well to your body and as a provider learn to watch a woman and understand what she needs.

The Holistic Stages of Labor

 Written by Whapio Diane Bartlett

Embarkation

(Pre-labor and Latent Labor)

Labor is a Journey. The preparation has often been elaborate, conscious and consuming. There is usually an all-important ritual of Arrangement preceding the actual event. We call it nesting and Mother has moved about in a final flurry of activity, taking care of all last details…clothes are washed, food fills the freezer, house is ship-shape…all is in order.

Nesting is part of Embarkation. Mother senses that labor is soon. Perhaps contractions and the loss of a bit of the cervical mucus has offered a hint that the journey is about to commence.

Steady, Steady, Hold, HOLD!

Sunday at church Steve Gooch was preaching. He was talking about "re-uping" to the initial pledge we made to God. He shared a scene from Braveheart after Mel Gibson had completed his freedom speech and how he led the charge to battle.

It is quite timely as I had just completed the last class of my childbirth series and in it we do an exercise called "Warrior." I always mention Braveheart and the battle preparations. It is not so much so that women will be ready to battle the medical community- but instead to battle the voices within them that try to seed the great doubt that they will often face in labor. This great doubt is definitely watered by the nay sayers- our friends, our family and often our medical support system. But we also carry the seed within us. The fear of the unknown and the fear of us not "performing" the way we hope or the birth unfolding in a way that is out of our control is always within us.