In honor of CAPPA spirit day, the CAPPA visions, I really feel this expresses how I dream birth can be!
www.CAPPA.net
The CAPPA Vision
Imagine a world…
Where women are encouraged to trust their bodies, and where myths about childbirth and breastfeeding are dispelled.
Imagine a world…
Where women are given the tools they need to make informed decisions about their pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and postpartum experiences.
Imagine a world…
Where education does not involve guilt but seeks to empower.
Imagine a world…
Where women are surrounded by caring, compassionate support throughout the childbearing year.
Imagine a world…
Where new mothers are equipped to embrace pregnancy, birth, and motherhood with confidence.
Imagine an organization …
That volunteers every day to make this a reality.
CAPPA - reality begins with imagination.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Childbirth Education- Preventative Medicine- one doula's ramblings
Last night I viewed the film- Laboring Under an Illusion.
Childbirth Education- Preventative Medicine- one doula's ramblings- By Hallie Dedrick
A look at birth in our culture, as portrayed by media in various formats and how it shaped the way we feel about birth, how the images that are put before us impact how we react to birth itself. It was really interesting. And a funny movie too.
As a doula and childbirth educator, I feel this is one of the biggest challenges I have with educating expecting families. There are massive amounts of information available to families these days, at the touch of their fingers thanks to the internet. But how do families know where to look and how to sift through it all.
A quick google search of "childbirth" brings us first to Childbirth.org. Not too bad.
Google "pregnancy" and you are first directed Pregnancy.org, the topics highlighted under labor and birth both involve homebirth and natural birth. Alright!
What are the most popular sites? BabyCenter, BabyZone, ivillage are a few that come up quickly. Many of them have the same articles. And they all are full of advertisment pitching the latest must have baby product. Most moms these days will tell you they visit these sites and watch birth shows on TV for their information. So whats the big deal? If information is available from the comfort of the couch, why attend a series of classes?
Well, to me the answer is simple. Childbirh Education is preventative medicine. I wish I could say this was my concept, but I stumbled across this simple, yet true statement while reading Childbirth Education: Practice, Research, and Theory, for my childbirth educator certification. What does this mean and why is it important?
Well I feel taking an actual childbirth education class is important because it connect the expecting family with their community and other expecting families. Being able to ask questions, discuss ideas, fears and concerns, as well as hand on practice, allows the group to learnon a variety of levels. Its one thing to see a picture of a couple doing the labor "slow dance", but its a completely different experience when a couple practices together, with an educator by their side to guide them to use it most effectivly. Being part of a group can help the expectant family know they are not alone in their experiences and feelings.
A thorough well taught class can empower the expecting family with the knowledge and confidence to be an active part of their birth. When a an expecting family is empowered, they make desicions and choices not out of fear, but because they have weighed out there options and can choose the best birth for them.
Dr Harvey Karp says this of modern parents "Although today’s mothers and fathers are very well educated, they are the least experienced parents in history." I think this can also be said about the experience of "normal" birth. Mothers birthing today have had mothers and grandmothers in many cases who have birth ina very medically managed environment. The combination of this, along with the images the media has put out on birth, leave most expecting parents having no real concept of birth and what it will be like. Again, this is where the childbirth educator plays a vital role.
Fear is the biggest obstical parents face. When an educator shares how birth works, what a parent may encouter in their choosen place to give birth, and what their options are, they can make informed choices, gaining control and reducing fear. If a woman knows how how to keep her body healthy she can reduce her chance of a variety of problems related to pregnancy and birth such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and also help her body birth easier and reduce her chance of tearing. Not to mention a huge benefit, reducing risks of complication in labor and problems for her baby. If a woman knows how to use various positions to work effectivly with her labor, she will work with gravity anf increase her chances of her baby being a good position. If she knows her pain management options, and how they can be of most use, she will make the right choices for her, and possibly avoid common problems like getting the epidural too soon or the side effects of IV narcotics. If she learns about common interventions and decides ahead of time what she is and isn't comfortable with, she can discuss this with her caregiver before she isin labor and faced with the desicion. By learning how to breastfeed before the baby arrives, she is more likely to be successful.
So if we educate our expecting families, and they become active participants in their care, I believe we could see a reduction in many of the problems that women face in their pregnancy and labors. This make education preventative medicine. We see it to be true with the miwifery model of care. When the mother to be is involved,informed and held accountable for her pregnancy and birth experience, the results are far better than when a woman hands over all control and doesn't bother to learn how to help herself.
Coming next- moms reaction to their childbirth experience
Childbirth Education- Preventative Medicine- one doula's ramblings- By Hallie Dedrick
A look at birth in our culture, as portrayed by media in various formats and how it shaped the way we feel about birth, how the images that are put before us impact how we react to birth itself. It was really interesting. And a funny movie too.
As a doula and childbirth educator, I feel this is one of the biggest challenges I have with educating expecting families. There are massive amounts of information available to families these days, at the touch of their fingers thanks to the internet. But how do families know where to look and how to sift through it all.
A quick google search of "childbirth" brings us first to Childbirth.org. Not too bad.
Google "pregnancy" and you are first directed Pregnancy.org, the topics highlighted under labor and birth both involve homebirth and natural birth. Alright!
What are the most popular sites? BabyCenter, BabyZone, ivillage are a few that come up quickly. Many of them have the same articles. And they all are full of advertisment pitching the latest must have baby product. Most moms these days will tell you they visit these sites and watch birth shows on TV for their information. So whats the big deal? If information is available from the comfort of the couch, why attend a series of classes?
Well, to me the answer is simple. Childbirh Education is preventative medicine. I wish I could say this was my concept, but I stumbled across this simple, yet true statement while reading Childbirth Education: Practice, Research, and Theory, for my childbirth educator certification. What does this mean and why is it important?
Well I feel taking an actual childbirth education class is important because it connect the expecting family with their community and other expecting families. Being able to ask questions, discuss ideas, fears and concerns, as well as hand on practice, allows the group to learnon a variety of levels. Its one thing to see a picture of a couple doing the labor "slow dance", but its a completely different experience when a couple practices together, with an educator by their side to guide them to use it most effectivly. Being part of a group can help the expectant family know they are not alone in their experiences and feelings.
A thorough well taught class can empower the expecting family with the knowledge and confidence to be an active part of their birth. When a an expecting family is empowered, they make desicions and choices not out of fear, but because they have weighed out there options and can choose the best birth for them.
Dr Harvey Karp says this of modern parents "Although today’s mothers and fathers are very well educated, they are the least experienced parents in history." I think this can also be said about the experience of "normal" birth. Mothers birthing today have had mothers and grandmothers in many cases who have birth ina very medically managed environment. The combination of this, along with the images the media has put out on birth, leave most expecting parents having no real concept of birth and what it will be like. Again, this is where the childbirth educator plays a vital role.
Fear is the biggest obstical parents face. When an educator shares how birth works, what a parent may encouter in their choosen place to give birth, and what their options are, they can make informed choices, gaining control and reducing fear. If a woman knows how how to keep her body healthy she can reduce her chance of a variety of problems related to pregnancy and birth such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and also help her body birth easier and reduce her chance of tearing. Not to mention a huge benefit, reducing risks of complication in labor and problems for her baby. If a woman knows how to use various positions to work effectivly with her labor, she will work with gravity anf increase her chances of her baby being a good position. If she knows her pain management options, and how they can be of most use, she will make the right choices for her, and possibly avoid common problems like getting the epidural too soon or the side effects of IV narcotics. If she learns about common interventions and decides ahead of time what she is and isn't comfortable with, she can discuss this with her caregiver before she isin labor and faced with the desicion. By learning how to breastfeed before the baby arrives, she is more likely to be successful.
So if we educate our expecting families, and they become active participants in their care, I believe we could see a reduction in many of the problems that women face in their pregnancy and labors. This make education preventative medicine. We see it to be true with the miwifery model of care. When the mother to be is involved,informed and held accountable for her pregnancy and birth experience, the results are far better than when a woman hands over all control and doesn't bother to learn how to help herself.
Coming next- moms reaction to their childbirth experience
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
videos to check out
Waterbith of a young mom, I like how calm she is, trusting in her body, and how you don't see the people around her screaming to push, but allowing her body to do its work!
Birth Matters part 1 and 2
beautiful slide show
ACOG up to Dirty Tricks
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise..._b_274372.html
ACOG Up to Dirty Tricks
Louise Marie Roth
Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona.
Posted: September 1, 2009 06:13 PM
A recent press release details some of the lengths that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is willing to go to preserve its near-monopoly over maternity care in the United States. In an effort to deter growing numbers of women from seeking out-of-hospital maternity care, ACOG urged its members to submit anecdotal, anonymous "data" (i.e. horror stories) about women who planned out-of-hospital births. This represents an effort to develop an unscientific case against out-of-hospital birth.
ACOG is not a protector of maternal or fetal life -- it is primarily concerned with avoiding competition from midwives that could negatively affect the incomes of its members. A campaign to expose ACOG's efforts to collect unscientific evidence used social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, and email to encourage thousands of women to submit their own stories about healthy births in private homes and freestanding birth centers on ACOG's website. How did ACOG respond? It "quickly moved to scrub its website and placed its request for unsourced data from members behind a password-protected firewall" (www.thebigpushformidwives.org). The survey is still there, in the members-only section, where it is "protected" from the public. What is likely to happen is that ACOG will then use the unscientific anecdotal data that it can collect from members to support lobbying campaigns directed at denying access to out-of-hospital birth and the midwives who are trained to provide it.
Will this work? Unfortunately it might, because ACOG has professional legitimacy and receives a lot of respect from members of the media and the general public. That's why advocates of reproductive rights -- which includes the choice of where and with whom to give birth - must increase awareness of what ACOG is doing. Otherwise ACOG will bring out their "data" to support opposition to out-of-hospital birth whenever the press offers them some attention. More people need to recognize that ACOG is a trade association (i.e. a cartel) that tries to protect its members from competition. Its primary goals do not include promoting science or evidence-based maternity care -- obstetrics is one of the least evidence-based specialties in all of medicine. In fact, the cherry-picked horror stories are designed to discourage women from examining the evidence and making rational decisions about where, and with whom, to give birth. Meanwhile, two recent well-designed, scientific studies of homebirth in the Netherlands and Canada, both published this year, provide solid evidence that planned out-of-hospital births have comparable perinatal mortality rates, lower rates of serious maternal and neonatal morbidity, and fewer interventions than hospital births among women who meet eligibility requirements for homebirth. These studies were well-designed scientifically because they compared women with the same level of "risk." (See Amy Romano's excellent summary of the results here, or a press release on the Canadian results here.) Given an opportunity to examine real evidence, like that in these recent studies, many women may rationally choose to give birth outside a hospital setting, and that's exactly what ACOG is going to desperate measures to prevent.
Obviously birth activists who want pregnant women to have the option of midwifery are interested in this, but really everyone should care about ACOG's self-serving behavior, which violates principles of anti-trust and is also relevant for the health reform debate. Maternity care in the U.S. is much more expensive than any other developed nation and has far worse results -- higher infant and maternal mortality, more premature and low birth-weight babies, and more infants in the NICU. Having a baby is the most common cause of hospitalization, and cesarean sections are the most common surgery in the United States. Out-of-control cesarean rates (around 1 in 3 births) and high-intervention obstetric care for low-risk women represent huge cost burdens on the system as a whole. The health reform debate has said little about maternity care, and that is a major omission. One of the best ways to reduce health care costs while improving results is to better integrate midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth into the health care system. But ACOG clearly doesn't want that to happen, since it would reduce its members' bottom lines. It's time for this cartel to be broken up.
ACOG Up to Dirty Tricks
Louise Marie Roth
Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona.
Posted: September 1, 2009 06:13 PM
A recent press release details some of the lengths that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is willing to go to preserve its near-monopoly over maternity care in the United States. In an effort to deter growing numbers of women from seeking out-of-hospital maternity care, ACOG urged its members to submit anecdotal, anonymous "data" (i.e. horror stories) about women who planned out-of-hospital births. This represents an effort to develop an unscientific case against out-of-hospital birth.
ACOG is not a protector of maternal or fetal life -- it is primarily concerned with avoiding competition from midwives that could negatively affect the incomes of its members. A campaign to expose ACOG's efforts to collect unscientific evidence used social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, and email to encourage thousands of women to submit their own stories about healthy births in private homes and freestanding birth centers on ACOG's website. How did ACOG respond? It "quickly moved to scrub its website and placed its request for unsourced data from members behind a password-protected firewall" (www.thebigpushformidwives.org). The survey is still there, in the members-only section, where it is "protected" from the public. What is likely to happen is that ACOG will then use the unscientific anecdotal data that it can collect from members to support lobbying campaigns directed at denying access to out-of-hospital birth and the midwives who are trained to provide it.
Will this work? Unfortunately it might, because ACOG has professional legitimacy and receives a lot of respect from members of the media and the general public. That's why advocates of reproductive rights -- which includes the choice of where and with whom to give birth - must increase awareness of what ACOG is doing. Otherwise ACOG will bring out their "data" to support opposition to out-of-hospital birth whenever the press offers them some attention. More people need to recognize that ACOG is a trade association (i.e. a cartel) that tries to protect its members from competition. Its primary goals do not include promoting science or evidence-based maternity care -- obstetrics is one of the least evidence-based specialties in all of medicine. In fact, the cherry-picked horror stories are designed to discourage women from examining the evidence and making rational decisions about where, and with whom, to give birth. Meanwhile, two recent well-designed, scientific studies of homebirth in the Netherlands and Canada, both published this year, provide solid evidence that planned out-of-hospital births have comparable perinatal mortality rates, lower rates of serious maternal and neonatal morbidity, and fewer interventions than hospital births among women who meet eligibility requirements for homebirth. These studies were well-designed scientifically because they compared women with the same level of "risk." (See Amy Romano's excellent summary of the results here, or a press release on the Canadian results here.) Given an opportunity to examine real evidence, like that in these recent studies, many women may rationally choose to give birth outside a hospital setting, and that's exactly what ACOG is going to desperate measures to prevent.
Obviously birth activists who want pregnant women to have the option of midwifery are interested in this, but really everyone should care about ACOG's self-serving behavior, which violates principles of anti-trust and is also relevant for the health reform debate. Maternity care in the U.S. is much more expensive than any other developed nation and has far worse results -- higher infant and maternal mortality, more premature and low birth-weight babies, and more infants in the NICU. Having a baby is the most common cause of hospitalization, and cesarean sections are the most common surgery in the United States. Out-of-control cesarean rates (around 1 in 3 births) and high-intervention obstetric care for low-risk women represent huge cost burdens on the system as a whole. The health reform debate has said little about maternity care, and that is a major omission. One of the best ways to reduce health care costs while improving results is to better integrate midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth into the health care system. But ACOG clearly doesn't want that to happen, since it would reduce its members' bottom lines. It's time for this cartel to be broken up.
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