I am still coming down from all of the excitement of the PfB training that I hosted last weekend.   It was a truly wonderful time!  It was amazing to be a part of the sharing and learning that took place amidst the magnificent group of very enthusiastic, creative women that attended.  I still find myself singing in my mind “I am opening up with sweet surrender to the beautiful baby in my womb”(it was the background music in one of the many powerful DVD's we viewed showing the power and joy of natural childbirth).  So, that is now atop my birth materials wish list.  How wonderful would that be to a birthing woman with those lyrics as your mantra!

The student teaching that had originally cause me a bit of worry wound up to be not so nerve wracking as I had anticipated.  The timing was perfect – having us do this portion on Sunday AM.  By then we were a very well bonded, supportive group.  I was doing well with my postpartum robe presentation until my dear husband who had remained all but invisible for almost 3 days showed up in the kitchen directly facing me from across the room. For dramatic effect, I had donned a hospital size XXL sanitary pad on the outside of my jeans and a shower cap too!

I am so appreciative to Teri for taking the time to come to Tucson and so generously sharing of  all of the tried and true dynamic teaching strategies that she has collected throughout her career.  I can't tell you how nice it has been to be on the receiving end of all this wisdom.  I feel like the training has put me on the fast track to developing a superbly interactive, anything-but-boring course design without having to “reinvent the wheel” so to speak. And I FINALLY now know what these “artichokes” are that I came across several times in my Lamaze reading materials.  I won't explain that one though.   You will have to attend PfB yourself if you want to learn about that one!

 

Loree has done a great job of writing up blog posts about her experience so far!  I have had a technical/time glitch in getting them posted and now I can't change the dates to be true!  Ignore the dates and enjoy her descriptive writing about her adventures to become certified! 

HOSTING A PfB TRAINING

Do you find yourself enthralled by the idea of pursuing PfB certification but find financial issues keeping you from chasing your dream?  Have you checked into the option of hosting a training?  Check it out.  I did.  It has all been quite simple.  I read through and signed an agreement acknowledging that I would help promote the event, point attendees to nearby overnight accommodations, provide directions to my home, help organize food and try to ensure a minimum or 8 registered participants. In return, my registration was free!  I chose to offer my home up as our meeting space but you need not be limited to using your home.  Living rooms, church basements, yoga  studios,  community rooms in a grocery store and at a Starbucks, hospitals, clinic meeting rooms, classroom in a school  are all possibilities. With the overflowing passion I have for this experience, it was not hard at all to find others interested in attending.  I think 7 of the 14 who are signed up heard about the event via my big mouth!  Admittedly, there has been some sweat involved on my part getting my house spiffed up into shape for the event, but what a great excuse for what my husband calls “faking the house”.  That is his term for trying to make the house look like no one lives there! As a bonus, I will be able to enjoy the fruits of my “faking” for the upcoming holidays.  Between now and the training I will enjoy the view out of my freshly washed windows! I have thought about trying to hold childbirth classes from my home, so the training may also help me get an idea whether my space is conducive to my plans.  We will see how it works out soon enough.

IN THE MEDIA

Did anyone happen to catch the recent episode of 18 kids and counting on the Learning Channel where Anna decided at the last minute not to go to the hospital and had a wonderful home birth?  She went into labor and when she called to check in with her provider, she learned that her doc was out of town.  Given that her care would be placed in the hands of a stranger on call, she quickly decided to skip the hospital.  Having not tuned into the entire show, I was a bit confused by what seemed to be a doula attended birth.   I later read online that there was a midwife in attendance.  Anyhow, it was a beautiful birth.  What a great message in that episode.  Early in labor Anna mentioned that she didn't have a good tolerance for pain.  It was so wonderful to see her labor with such confidence!  I wish TV showed more of this spin on birth as normal!

 

You don't have to look far to get a feel for birth culture in America.  No doubt you have all seen the photo on Teri's blog of the OB practice that reads “ Because the physicians at Aspen Women's Center care about the quality of their patient's deliveries and are very concerned about the welfare and health of you unborn child, we will not participate in “birth contract”, a doula assisted, or Bradley Method delivery.  For those patients interested in such methods please notify the nurse so we may arrange transfer of your care.”  Upon first reading this, the doula in me reacted with anger.  Then, I reread and found myself thinking that such a boldly direct statement at least lets women know right away where they stand, which in my mind is a gift.  Now today as I slowly reread it and analyze the message, I find myself even more angered.  I'm sure the providers in this group put great thought into their wording. I find the word “patient” bothersome, I hate the word delivery when used in reference to birth (makes me want a pizza), and the reference to caring about welfare seems to me to imply that doulas, Bradley educators and women who might have birth preferences, might not care about the health and welfare of the unborn baby! Again though, at least it does make their philosophy crystal clear; sad, but clear.

 

As one of Teri's blog readers commented, this Ob practice with the awful signage seem to be of the same school of thought as portrayed in Monty Python's birth skit – that Mom “is not qualified”!! I find the more times I see that skit, the more parts of it really do parallel birth as we know it.  If you have never seen this one, do a search for Monty Python birth skit.  In it, there is a reference to the needing more apparatus, a big deal made about “the machine that goes ping” (the monitor), Dad is not invited (everyone else in the world is though), when the Mom feels the urge to push and asks what she should do – they reply – nothing, you're not qualified! They call the delivery room the fetus frightening chamber, once the baby arrives the doc says to tag it, number it and isolate it. They also go on to mention to the Mom that she should expect to be depressed!  I look forward to the day when we can look back on this skit and find it ludicrous that birth practices were once so off the mark. Until then, we passioneers of PfB have our work cut out for us!

 

If you are new to the field of birth, or haven't delved deeply into exploring Lamaze's philosophy you might not be aware of how strongly Lamaze  encourages healthy women to consider home birth as an option.  Sound evidence shows that birth at home is safe.  I remember back in my earliest days as a doula thinking that home birth would be a fine option for those women who felt comfortable with taking the risk of birth outside of a hospital.  I didn't at that time fully comprehend how a home birth attended by a qualified midwife was likely to be far safer than a hospital birth.  I wasn't yet able to “connect the dots” and realize that many of the medical emergencies that take place at hospital births are connected to interventions, medical management of birth, and failure to follow birth supporting and enhancing care practices.  I have evolved along my path.  I find myself encouraging women who want a normal birth to consider birth places that best match their goals.  I try to point out that an OB attended birth in a hospital can often include one size fits all care best suited to high risk situations and that a woman will likely be  required to challenge hospital throughout her labor and birth, which can take a huge toll in the end, detracting from a positive experience.  Choosing truly birth friendly birth places ( it doesn't get any friendlier than home sweet home) nicely eliminates those hurdles so often present in a hospital setting allowing Mom to put her focus on birth – not negotiating.  The nice thing about the Lamaze PfB program has been all of the great evidence that if provides that I can now share with women to support the option of midwifery care and out of hospital birth. I can not wait to teach a series of CB education where I give women information that allows them to “connect the dots” with knowledge of ALL of their options!

I picked up my copy of The Official Lamaze Guide Giving Birth with Confidence this weekend.  I had literally devoured it a few months back and wanted to review the portions I had highlighted.  If you haven't read this book you MUST do so.  It is jam packed with little gems of wisdom.  It touches on many of the same topics that the Lamaze study guide covers, but the book does so in a more concise manner.  One of the quotes that I thankfully highlighted was by Einstein who said “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded out humanity.” Wouldn't he croak if he could see birth as we know it now.  I love that this book spends a good deal of time explaining the differences in focus between doctors and midwives; that doctors focus on managing and fixing things, expecting trouble, and that midwives  focus on protecting normalcy, building trust and confidence with a focus on enjoying your pregnancy.  I also love the concept of spoiling the pregnancy that sociologist Barbara Katz Rothman talks about.  She discusses testing and misleading tests with false positives and how easy it is for the mother to be robbed of joy, peace and a relaxed relationship with the baby she is carrying.  After all, one midwife said, there will always be concerns throughout life – threats of accidents, illness and so on.  It is a life long process.  You can't control everything, and maybe you have to start to let if go at the beginning.  Great food for thought, I say!  Give this treasure of a book a read.