The Attached Mother

If you haven’t checked it out yet Eco Child’s Play did a great series of posts called Labor of Love, each of them written by moms on the births of their children. You have to stop by and read each of the posts, they are wonderful each in their own way.

What really caught my eye was this post 3 Essential Books to Read When Planning a Natural Birth. The three books listed are great, definitely worthwhile reads. However, as much as I love Ina May Gaskin I know that some people find her too hippy-dippy for their taste. I’ve also heard some of the more “hardcore” birthers say she was too intervention friendly. When you hear complaints like that you know you are friends with the truly natural birthers.

I thought I would share my own list of must read books. Mine is different as it comes from the perspective of someone who both enjoyed two natural births and who is a trained doula. To me these are great books for understanding as well as preparing for a natural birth. Whether at home, in a birthing center, or in a hospital these are the books I would say every mom should read.

• The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth - A great book for making sense of the various medical interventions and recommendations. It may be a little too medical for some, but the information provided is great.
• Gentle Birth Choices - This professional and friendly book is full of resources and research, a definite must read for understanding birth.
• Active Birth : The New Approach to Giving Birth Naturally, Revised Edition Explains the process and birth and offers a lot of great advice on how to manage it through positions and breathing.
• She Births: A Modern Woman’s Guidebook for an Ancient Rite of Passage - A very pro-woman birth book. A great read for feeling empowered during and by birth.
• Mothering Magazine’s Having a Baby, Naturally: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth - Fans of Mothering Magazine will love this book put together by the editor, Peggy O’Mara. A great resource of information and ideas for giving birth naturally.
• Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care - I think knowing the why is just as important as knowing the how, and this book explains why birth is the way it is in America.
• Birth as an American Rite of Passage - A good look at the medical industry of childbirth. If you plan to try a natural birth in a hospital this is a straight look at how the birthing culture evolved there.

I’m sure there are many more books that others would recommend. Books such as Birthing from Within, HypnoBirthing, and Husband-Coached Childbirth : The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth are books that cover specific styles of giving birth so they might not be for everyone but are still worth mentioning.

What books would you suggest for moms thinking about or planning for a natural birth?

childbirth, birth, natural birth, books

In a 5-2 decision the Missouri Supreme Court upheld a midwifery provision and became the 38th state to allow midwives. You could almost hear the sigh of relief that spread across the state as this ruling was handed down. Though the physicians’ associations were, obviously, up in arms over the decision women were ecstatic to have one more freedom of choice handed to them.Before this ruling many women were having to seek other ways to get the care that they wanted during pregnancy.

During my second pregnancy I drove nearly an hour to the nearest midwife. There I met a woman who had driven over 8 hours from Missouri just so that she could get the care that she wanted. As I read about this decision my mind immediately went to her. I wondered how she did during labor, if she found a midwife closer who as able to illegally deliver her child, if she had to ride in the car for those long hours to get here, or if she stayed in a hotel near the midwife during those last few weeks.

There is an article at Babble from a woman in Missouri who had an illegal home birth. Because midwifery was illegal she had to find a way to receive her and her child’s care without being caught. It’s a great anecdotal story to remind you that even though something may be illegal that certainly does not mean are not making a choice to do it. A warning though, do not read the comments to the article unless you have blood pressure medicine handy. All of the tossing around words like “risk” and “irresponsible” and “death” is enough to cause a headache.

Missouri, midwifery, midwife, home birth

I can’t help but feel a little odd that right after I wrote about unassisted childbirth the AMA came out against all kids of home birth.

I have a roundup of what others have been saying about this here. Go ahead and click over to find what others are saying about the AMA’s decision to walk all over women’s choices and bodies. Hathor is taking this on as well in her usual style, with a series of witty and pointed comics.

homebirth, home birth, AMA, childbirth

Have you ever considered giving birth unassisted? Without doctors, nurses, midwives, or anyone else. Just you, your partner, and your baby. I know that for some women that sounds like a nightmare, but a small percentage are choosing to give birth without anyone else around.

Over at Natural Moms Talk Radio there is a great interview with Lynn Griesemer, mom of 6 and author of Unassisted Homebirth: An Act of Love. The interview is a podcast so check it out when you have time to listen in peace. I know trying to catch something with kids around can be a test in multitasking skills.

There are a lot of reasons why some women choose to go unassisted. Some have religious beliefs, some feel that doctors and midwives inhibit their body’s ability to work, some just work best alone. The number of reasons why is as long as the number of women choosing this. One thing that they all have in common though is intelligence and a desire to do what is best for their children.

My second son was a planned unassisted birth. Though the plans were changed at the last minute I spent plenty of time talking to other women who had went unassisted before or were planning it themselves. We shared information, conversation, and a sense of community in knowing that we were stepping outside the lines together. These women were passionate and dedicated in understanding their bodies and the bodies of their children, in learning what they needed to know to make birth happen as safely and calmly as possible.

If you are interested in learning more I would suggest visiting the Unassisted Childbirth forum at Mothering.com. There you can talk to mothers in all stages about their own experiences, gain knowledge, and maybe understand a little better about why someone would choose to go unassisted. You should also check out Unhindered Living, Pure Birth Australia, Born Free, and Empowered Childbirth.

childbirth, birth, free birth, unassisted birth, unassisted childbirth

To continue my Co-sleeping and Breastfeeding theme from earlier I wanted to touch on a news story that is gaining a lot of attention lately. Crib deaths linked to common bacteria.

Researchers have pinpointed two common bacteria that may contribute to crib deaths, even when infants show no sign of tissue damage.

Post-mortem tests on more than 500 babies found high levels of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli in babies who died for unexplained reasons, a team from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London said on Friday.

One explanation could be that the bacteria release deadly toxins, which damage the young heart, lungs or nervous system.

But bacterial growth may also be a secondary effect of other known risk factors like over-heating, parental smoking and lying a child on its stomach.

Crib death, also known as SIDS, is when babies stop breathing and die for unexplainable reasons in their sleep. Though often suffocation is lumped in with SIDS by people, they are not the same. True SIDS is the term given when doctors can find no reason for the child to have suddenly died.

This new finding has sparked heated debates across the web. Many parents are asking where is the link between the bacteria and the children. Some are asking about tainted formula or vaccines, while others are wondering if there is a defect that allows a bacteria found in everyone’s bodies to become so dangerous. One question that I read asked if there was a difference between those babies who were breastfed and those who were not in the numbers of SIDS cases and this bacteria.

It is sometimes touted that bottle fed infants have a higher risk of SIDS than those who are breastfed. Though the evidence so far is inconclusive, depending on who is doing the research, the connection between the two is certainly there. Especially when co-sleeping(pdf) is added to the mix. However, there is one important connection that I want to point out. The anti-bodies found in breastmilk. As Dr. Sears points out
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I loved having a sling to carry my second son around in. I loved it so much that I learned how to make my own so that I could have a few different color options without buying a new one. I even made a cute sling for a friend as her baby shower gift. A thick (she lived in the north), reversible sling that had soft pink roses on one side and vines on the other.

Making a sling can be really easy and inexpensive if you are decent at sewing. Even a beginner can pick up on the simple steps easily. Grab a few old sheets to practice with until you get it right.

Rixa of The True Face of Birth just shared the most beautiful and easy looking pattern to make a great pleated ring sling. She really took the time to lay out the steps for you one by one so that you won’t have to worry about what you do next.

And once you go over to check out the tutorial be sure to hang out and read some more of her great posts. The birth junkies will definitely enjoy her posts on child birth and a woman’s options. Especially in the light of the recent VBAC bans going on, such as the ones in Arizona. It is a topic I have seen with a lot of discussion lately, and I hope will soon be overturned.

So, head over to Rixa’s, enjoy the sling tutorial, and get a little educated on child birth. It’s a great start to the week.

sling, tutorial, crafts, infant carrier

There is a great post up at API Speaks from Amy about her choice to have a homebirth. The post was originally written before her son was born. Amy has been a loud voice in birth options for women, giving information and insight into the home birth option. You can find many of her well researched and thoughtful articles at BlogHer where she shares her perspective on midwives and home birth. Also check out her blog where she dishes on parenting and life as a Crunchy Domestic Goddess.

When I was pregnant with my second son we decided on a home birth. My first was born in a free standing birth center with a midwife that I loved, but the center was an hour away from my home. After enduring that long drive in the throes of labor once I was certain that I did not want to do it again. Unfortunately living in a rural area there are not many birth options available. It was either drive an hour or more in any direction or hand myself over to the local OBs, none of whom were open to anything other than medicalized births. At 20 weeks the home birth decision was made.

Of course many people assumed that choice was made out of ignorance or some idea of birth being a fuzzy, soft affair. Most people tended to ignore the mountain of research I had in front of me, the hours each day spent questioning everything birth related that lead me to the home birth option. Though it wasn’t such a giant leap for me after already researching my birth options with my first child.

Though my home birth ended up not happening the research I did led me to fully support women who want to go that route. It is a wonderful option, one that more women should know the facts of and have available to them. Childbirth can be a huge industry and many who profit from it aren’t willing to share the stage, which can lead to home birth and free standing birth centers not being given equal availability. Luckily there are women like Amy out there who educates and inspires women on this great birth option.

birth, childbirth, home birth

Many people know about the movie The Business of Being Born. It has gotten a lot of great press and endorsement all around. But there is another movie in a similar theme that most people have not yet heard of.

Orgasmic Birth is a film that follow 11 women as they give birth as a “a free, sensuous, joyous moment”. The concept of orgasmic birth is certainly not new. Anyone who has visited the Born Free website has probably browsed through the Sensual Pregnancy and Birth section. For some women giving birth is far from the pain and stress portrayed in the media and instead a beautiful, passionate experience.

In the movie Orgasmic Birth we get to see birth as it happens to these mothers who say they are opening themselves up for joy. Dr. Christiane Northrup and Ina May Gaskin provide commentary throughout the movie, two big names in the natural childbirth community. As much as the story focuses on these powerful women giving birth it also looks at the childbirth industry in general. Marsden Wagner, MD, Former World Health Organization, Director of Women’s and Children’s Health weighs in with his thoughts on medical childbirth in the movie as well.

Very clear hard evidence in the last ten years the number of women who are induced, that is their labor is kick-started , it’s doubling. You kick-start labor by giving them a powerful drug. And then you give them more drugs to keep the labor going. Now there are about five to ten percent of women in which there’s a good medical reason to do this, and you’re saving lives and all that. But if you go above ten percent, you’re not saving lives anymore. These are powerful drugs with all kinds of risks, including brain damage to the baby, a dead baby, a dead woman. And yet we do it twice as much. And there’s so much pain in induction, it’s incredible pain. And so they have to come with all the pain relief and the epidurals and all of that. So we get induction, leading to epidural, which leads to caesarian. And that is what’s happening in this country. Now why? Did something happen? Did American women’s bodies suddenly go bad? Did American women’s bodies suddenly lose the ability to figure out when it’s time to go into labor? Goodness no! You know, why do sixty to eighty percent of American women have to have powerful drugs and interventions to their bodies? Well, it has nothing to do with there being anything wrong with their body. And it’s not because of bad doctors, it’s a bad system.

Orgasmic Birth has the potential to be a must-see movie for 2008. Right now the DVDs are only available at screenings of the film, but scheduled for general release late fall or winter of this year. If you are interested in hosting a screening of the movie in your area visit the hosting page and download the contract and reservation forms you will need. Here is the trailer for the film via YouTube. Check it out for yourself.

childbirth, birth, orgasmic birth, natural childbirth

Part of my post on Friday about Cry It Out for babies mentioned that their brains are changed by the stress hormones that flood the brain when crying. Thinking more about it over the weekend reminded me of a recent comic by Hathor. The comic dealt with the love hormones that are released during a normal birth and how those hormones are not being released when births are hindered. She asks what are the effects on infants who are born without this flood of hormones. Does it change their brains? Expand that out to the vast majority of people who were born in medicalized, hindered environments. What does that mean for society as a whole?

I am one who has always felt that Mother Nature knows what she is doing. That things evolve or change to be a certain way because it is beneficial, at the very least beneficial in that it does not kill too many of the population. The natural release of oxytocin during labor helps protect a baby’s brain during labor. The stress hormones from crying can damage a baby’s brain.

Research often shows that though children are born with all of the brain cells they will need the connections are not yet there. It is during the first 3 years of a child’s life that the majority of those connections develop. If the brain is flooded with stress hormones and deprived of love hormones, how does that effect how the child will grow? If an entire nature is full of people like this, how does the nation go? What does it mean for our future?

brain development, infants, parenting

As The Business of Being Born has hit NetFlix more and more people are rushing to see it. I would love to give you a review, but I’m the only mom left without this movie service so I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet.

But childbirth has popped up as a great topic among many AP moms. Amy shares her thoughts on women dying in childbirth, Peggy O’Mara wrote on birth resistance in Mothering magazine, and the always humorous Hathor has been pumping out some great cartoons on birth and those wonderful love hormones. Even though natural childbirth is a “requirement” for Attachment Parenting, it is still a topic that many feel connected to and love to discuss.

Mommy Think has a great article on the real debate of homebirth and the research surrounding it.

While some mothers are in heaven about seeing the movie, others feel more hesitant.  And other moms found themselves flooding tears over what they saw. The ranges of opinions and feelings on homebirth vary so much they are all worth reading for a broad view. There are some homebirthing parents who are anti-Attachment Parenting, and some who are finding their spouse or partner resistant to the idea. It is such a hot topic that everyone is weighing in their opinions.

Some even going so far as to claim that homebirthing makes you a better parent.

If you have seen the movie yet and have an opinion to share on either The Business of Being Born or homebirth in general I would love you to share. Leave a comment with your thoughts, or if you have already written a post on your own blog leave the link here so others and read it. I just ask that everyone stay respectful and rational.  Insultin, hateful, or belligerent comments will be deleted.