Pushed

This in an excerpt from a book review I wrote for my doula certification course. The book is called Pushed and written by Jennifer Block.

So all you pregnant ladies, put down What to Expect When You Are Expecting and pick up Pushed. It will tell you much more acuratly what you should expect when you walk into a hospital to deliver your baby!

Pushed, Jennifer Block, 2007

This book is phenomenal on many different levels. It is packed with concrete statistical analysis of modern childbirth practices, a critical eye toward the ever increasing number of births via c-section, a close look at what constitutes, and doesn’t, evidence based care in obstetrics and a historical context to understand why and when vaginal birth became the over managed and over controlled process it is today. Block concludes her in depth analysis with several chapters focusing on various effects the change from expectant management of childbirth to active management have had on our culture, women and overall how these changes should have an influence in the ongoing fight for reproductive rights in this country.

The last four chapters are full of case studies and the author actually shadows an illegal midwife. This section of the book was for me literally impossible to put down. The stories Block shares are engaging, heartbreaking and inspirational all at the same time. No matter where one stands on the issue of other reproductive rights (i.e. abortion), the tie in Block makes to the current treatment of women by healthcare providers, hospitals and insurance companies to reproductive and womens rights in general is compelling and effective.

There is not much that I didn’t like about this book. There are a great deal of statistics in the first section of the book and stopping to comprehend each new statistic makes for a cumbersome read. However, I felt most every statistic and study she included were appropriate. Block also uses lots of names and refers back to these same people later in a chapter or even later in the book. At times trying to figure out who the person was that she was referring to could be difficult since the original mention of the name was several pages prior in that chapter.

I think the most significant thing I learned from this book is the completeness of evidence-based data that exists and confirms that the active management of labor is flawed. Sadly the other significant fact I learned is that nobody seems to care and nobody shares this evidence with women, including doctors, hospitals or even women’s rights groups. She uses the National Organization of Women as an example of a group that has an official platform concerning women’s rights during childbirth that includes the availability of legal midwifes and VBACs, but that NOW does not promote this agenda because it puts them in conflict with the powerful lobbies of pharmaceutical companies and ACOG (American Council of Obstetrics and Gynecologists). She also discusses how ACOG has been more interested in maintaining status quo rather than examining and adopting evidence based practices. This preservation of active management of labor is due to misinformation, the ease of OB’s work schedules when c-sections and inductions are common, and the perceived liability risks.

What Block does say is that at the grass root level this issue is bubbling. She uses the examples of Mothering.com, ICAN and other groups that are supporting women and connecting expectant mothers with healthcare, legal or not, that will fight one baby at a time to change the way we think of birth. She also is realistic in showing that putting women in a position without choices when it comes to their medical care creates situations where women do not seek any kind of care at all or are left driving hours during labor to a midwife in another state. While this situation is usually safe, it is still an irony that women now sometimes have to choose between unacceptable medical care and non at all. Block does a good job describing the rising numbers of unassisted births that are happening in the country due to restrictive VBAC laws and the narrowing definition of normal vaginal birth.

This book also puts what happens in actively managed births into a historical perspective. For those of us drawn to the natural birth process it can be hard to understand why something like an episiotomy or continual fetal monitoring is common practice. Pushed helps to explain that most of these practices were not originally designed to be used in the form they are used in today and how it is that they came to be used as they are currently. The book also goes into detail about the pressures that face doctors and hospitals in terms of technology and liability. Knowing this reality makes me more likely to understand and emphasize with an OB or hospital that uses these procedures despite the evidence against them..

Furthermore, the book is inspirational in showing that helping women in childbirth does matter in both a personal and a cultural way. I anticipate that being a doula can get frustrating sometimes, especially when working in hospitals and watching clients deal with interventions and pressure for these interventions. Remembering the stories in this book will provide encouragement.

Great quote

Love this quote I read in someone's online siggie. So true!

"The Bible calls debt a curse, and children a blessing. In our society, we apply for a curse and reject blessings. What is wrong with this picture?"--- Doug Phillips, Vision Forum Ministries

Ba humbug

I got my first Christmas letter today and soon I will be receiving several every day. So in order to prepare for the Christmas letter season I have classified the four most annoying types of letters we seem to receive.

1. Braggy- if the words car, soccer goal, promotion, advanced level, or bright are mentioned in the letter, chances are it is a braggy letter
2. Schmaltzy- if the "non-writing" spouse adds a paragraph to the letter about how wonderful the "writing" spouse is then I call that schmaltzy. Typically when I read these I just want to respond, "get a room".
3. Cutsey- "written" by the dog or the toddler. As a caveat to the cutsey letters, some really are cute, others really are not. It is a fine line.
4. TMI- more than one page? Way too much information.

Don't get me wrong, I really do like to get these letters. But I do sometimes wonder at why people include what they include. Some of the kindest and humble people write very unkind and unhumble letters. And then mail these letters of not-much holiday cheer off sealed with a stamp of baby Jesus.

Annoying line in my letter today:
"We are so proud of our daughter, her teacher says she is performing on an advanced level in every area at school."

So, with this sentence I am left wondering a few things. Would this child's parents not be proud if she was performing, *gasp*, averagely? And what exactly is above average for a first grader and why is it important that all her parent's friends and family know this information? Should we too be proud, amazed or maybe jealous?

And this particular family is Christian, so of course there is the requisite line about God being good to them during the year. But once again I am left wondering was God good to them because their daughter is doing well in school and her husband got a raise? Seems a bit sad to imply that God wasn't good to those who have just average children and still make the same amount of money as last year.

So yes, I do have a love/hate relationship with Christmas letters. Except my own of course.

5 Good Ideas

Just putting this here, I read it someplace and thought I might like a copy to hold myself accountable. So far we are doing pretty well. Of course, it is pretty easy to work up a sweat here in Texas (see #1). It is currently in the mid-eighties here in November!

The research is telling us that if we want to improve attitudes, mental and physical health and academic performance, we as parents need to promote the following 5 things:

• Children need to play outside for at least an hour after the school day. They should be at the point where they are almost sweating.

• Dinner with your family every night or at least 4 times a week. This is shown to decrease eating disorders in females, decrease smoking and drug abuse rates in males and recent research suggests it teaches life-long good eating habits—more fruits and vegetables.

• Early to bed. Research suggests that children need 10-12 hours of sleep a day to be ready to learn.

• Limited television, video games and computer time, especially an hour before bed time.

• Reading time every evening. This is a great time for the whole family to sit and read together.

Early bird catches the worm

Is it true that one day the kids will be teenagers who don't want to get out of bed??? 'Cause I just can't picture that now.

Everyone was up and on our bed asking for books at 6:15 this morning. It is now only 9am and I feel like it should be at least lunch time, maybe dinner time!

Chemicals 'R Us

So with all the news stories recently about chemicals in everything from shampoo to kids clothing I thought I would list a few of the things we do to cut down on our chemical exposure.

I am NOT a scientist. I do not think I could explain exactly what these chemicals are doing to our bodies. However, I am of the general idea that if God didn't make it (and even sometimes when he does!) we probably should have less of it around us, not more. Besides some things God makes he did not intend for us to ingest.

So here a few of the easy things we do. Some even save us some money.

* Breastfeed, duh. Formula is one big chemical.

* Use homemade cleaners. Basically a little tea tree oil, water and/or vinager can clean anything. Seriously. I have a spray bottle of that mix in each bathroom and the kitchen. Baking soda is good for things that need scrubbing. Those are the only cleaners I use. I also wash my hair and the kiddos hair with baking soda.

* Cloth dipes and wipes. This is a big money saver and fun once you get into it. I just have little flannel clothes to use as wipes, and I have a sprayer to wet each one when I change a dipe. Keeps chemicals off my little man's sensitive areas.

* Less meat, more veggies. Organic is better, though I still have trouble paying the extra. Take time to plan healthy menus that use whole foods. Eating perfect is not my goal, but eating stuff that I can prounounce what is in the ingredient list is.

* Reduce plastic use. This is one that I need improvement on since I am still addicted to my tupperware and despite my war against plasitc toys they still are abundant in our playroom. And not sure how to get rid of sippies. I consider them a necessary evil if I don't want spilled drinks. But plasitic in the microwave is bad.

* My kids don't generally sleep in PJs. I am not advocating naked sleeping for the under 4 feet set, but flame retardant on PJs is nasty stuff. It can be avoided by sweatpants and t-shirts. And if on Christmas grandma sends cute PJs as a tradition, I honestly think that one night a year won't hurt them. Especially if they have been retardant free all year.

Beleive me, I could do a list of all the stuff I do that is still bad. Here are a few off the top of my head.

*I eat margerine, a total fake food. I melt it in the microwave (double whammy) and put it on air popped popcorn. Love it.

*I use makeup with all kinds of chemicals in it. One day I will try the mineral stuff, but not there yet.

* I enable my husband to serve my children nasty 99 cent Totinos pizza on the nights I am gone by buying them and keeping them in my freezer. I am most embarrassed by this one b/c I have to look at those things everytime I open my freezer. Yup, they sit there right next to the frozen veggies, homemade apple butter, and flax muffins.

To buy a child's affections

Super B took our daughter camping this weekend on a father/daughter trip, leaving me and boys to fend for ourselves. Which we of course managed quite nicely.

Friday night we went to the ice cream shop for dinner then we came home and had popcorn for dessert. Definitly not our normal menu, though we got blueberry ice cream so I am counting it as a fruit. The next morning I pushed together all the furniture in our den and made the world's largest tent fort. We spent most of the day playing and reading in there. Oh, and keeping the little guy from trying to crawl on the blanket roof. He just didn't get that it would not hold him up!

We did lunch at the pizza buffet in town and then hosted our babysitting co-op Saturday night. After the co-op kids left, my 4YO son and I snuggled in the fort and he fell asleep in there. He begged me to sleep in there with him but I guess there are some limits on my love. I was just not up for an all-nighter on the hardwood floor of my den with my legs poking out from under the sofa.

However, after all that revelry and buying my child's affection with unhealthy food, I think I have regained favorite parent status with my 4YO son. He is such a daddy's little guy, I have to take every chance I can to get his lovin'.