Midwives Deliver Better Birth Care

The LA Times recently ran an article about what expanded midwifery care could do for the US.  In addition to the overwhelming health benefits for mothers and babies, there are equally overwhelming economic benfits.

Some excerpts:

Not only is childbirth the most common reason for a hospital stay -- more than 4 million American women give birth each year -- it costs the country far more than any other health condition. Six of the 15 most frequent hospital procedures billed to private insurers and Medicaid are maternity-related. The nation's maternity bill totaled $86 billion in 2006, nearly half of which was picked up by taxpayers.

But cost hasn't translated into quality. We spend more than double per capita on childbirth than other industrialized countries, yet our rates of pre-term birth, newborn death and maternal death rank us dismally in comparison...   The U.S. ranks 41st among industrialized nations in maternal mortality. (Emphasis mine.)

The most cost-effective, health-promoting maternity care for normal, healthy women is midwife led and out of hospital... This model of care is not just cheaper; decades of medical research show that it's better. Mother and baby are more likely to have a normal, vaginal birth; less likely to experience trauma, such as a bad vaginal tear or a surgical delivery; and more likely to breast feed. In other words, less is actually more.

To be frank, the U.S. maternity care system needs to be turned upside down. Midwives should be caring for the majority of pregnant women, and physicians should continue to handle high-risk cases, complications and emergencies. This is the division of labor, so to speak, that you find in the countries that spend less but get more.

Click here to read the entire story.

The Most Spoiled Cat Ever

This was the scene in my bed this morning when I woke up (yes, we are actually sleeping on the couches...  that's for a whole 'nother post).  I just had to grab my phone and snap a picture:



Spoiled rotten.  That's what that is.

Extreme Makeover: Office and Hallway Edition

Well, we just couldn't take it... our last white room HAD to be painted.  Hub's office is seriously the coldest room in the house for some reason (I'm becoming increasingly convinced that our apt has no insulation whatsoever), and the stark white walls made it feel even colder.  Given that he spends at least 25 hours a week in this room, he deserved a nice paint job in there too.  Here are the before and afters.

Desk corner before:



Desk corner after:



Opposite wall before:



Opposite wall after (we moved the hope chest into here to make room for the rocking chair in the bedroom, and hubs rearranged several things on his walls to simplify):



Closet wall before:



Closet wall after:



Hubs says it makes him crave coffee and chocolate.  :)  Then, we had just enough left to tackle the very last bit of white wall in the apt... the bottom of the hallway.  It looks even better than I thought it would!  Before:



After (the dresser is going to be the baby's changing table):

Due Dates: A Cruel and Dangerous Lie!

As soon as a woman finds out she's pregnant, the countdown begins to her "due date."  But have you ever thought about where that 40-week calcuation comes from?

It was actually started by Dr. Naegele, a doctor in Germany in the 1850s.  Without any scientific evidence, he observed that his patients' pregnancies lasted around 10 lunar months.  He developed a calculation for estimating a woman's due date by figuring that her pregnancy would be 280 days (40 weeks)  from the first day of her last period.

Read more about that here.

So, despite all of the advances in medicine and research in the past 150 years, we are still basing our calculations on this man's less-than-scientfic calculation.  Does anything seem wrong with this picture??

A study at Harvard in 1990 found that uncomplicated pregnancies that are allowed to go into labor spontaneously actually averaged a gestation of 41 weeks and 1 day... significantly longer than Dr. Naegele's estimate, which is universally used by practitioners in the US.  And that's the average.  Think about how many women spontaneously go into labor much sooner than that.  In order for that to be the average, many women must also go into labor much later, and it is perfectly normal.

I say that this 40 week due date is a cruel lie because it is telling women to expect to have their babies much sooner than is actually probable.  Only 3-5% of babies are actually born on their due date.  When you are 40 weeks pregnant, tired, uncomfortable, and anxious to meet your new baby, every extra day can feel like an extra year.  Especially when you are hearing "overdue" everywhere you go and everybody you know is asking, "haven't you had that baby yet??"  If we didn't expect our babies until significantly later, then gestating beyond 40 weeks would not be so mentally taxing.

I say that this is a dangerous lie because, even in the face of MUCH more recent and more scientific evidence, practitioners still cling tightly to this 40 week due date as the limit for a healthy pregnancy.  Therefore, many labors get induced before the baby is ready to be born, just because the mom is "overdue."  Doctors use scare tactics like, "the baby is going to get too big," "the placenta will degrade," or "the amniotic fluid is getting too low" to get reluctant mothers to agree to induction (which is in and of itself a whole 'nother rant for another day).  These may be good reasons for induction in rare cases, but it is much more rare than you would think by listening to doctors of women who haven't had their babies by 40 weeks.

Babies are born when they are ready!

The science of how labor begins is still not totally known, but it is believed to be instigated by a hormone that the baby secretes whenever he or she is fully developed and ready to come out.  Go figure... God knew what he was doing when he designed this whole process!  ;)

 So the morals of the story are:

• Don't get too attached to your due date.  Expect pregnancy to be longer and you won't be disappointed by being "overdue."
• Ask lots of questions and make a truly informed decision about induction if you do go past 40 weeks.  Know the significant risks present for you and your baby if you agree to be induced.  Don't just think, "well the doctor wouldn't do it if it wasn't best."
• It is YOUR decision.  NOT your doctor's. 
• Trust your body, your baby, and the Lord who created both.

31 Week Pregnancy Update

Wow... I'm in the single digit "weeks left" countdown!  I apologize for the very disjointed post, I'm just trying to remember all of the things I wanted to write about.

Here's my 31 week belly:


Things are going really well.  Baby Hutch is still breech and jamming his little head up under my right rib as I type.  :)  We've been doing some things in the evenings to encourage him to turn, but it's still pretty early.  I mostly just want him to turn because everybody says that mommy is MUCH more comfy once baby turns to head-down.  Right now it feels like I have a splint between my hip bones and my ribs keeping me from bending forward in the least.  The past few days he has been doing this thing where he is sitting on one hip bone and pushing his feet against the other, so that it feels like he is literally spreading my hip bones apart... talk about weird feeling!  He's moved out of that position for now though.

I think I've written before about how a lot of times he'll lay a certain way and my belly will be extremely lopsided.  Well I just had to take a picture of my belly at this very moment while I am typing this:

Hahahaha it cracks me up!

Oh, funny story: for the past couple of months, every time Hubs preaches Baby Hutch just goes CRAZY inside- kicking and punching and stretching and moving, and then as soon as the preaching is over he stops.  We've started to joke that he is going to be very disappointed when he comes out and realizes that we're not Pentecostal!

My aunt and cousin threw us an adorable baby shower over T-day weekend and we were so blessed by all of the people who came!  Here is a pic of me showing off one of the cute outfits we were given, and dear sweet cuz helping me keep record:



I was finally able to weigh myself when we were home for T-day weekend and I've only gained 8 pounds so far!  I think Baby Hutch is sucking pounds from other parts of my body, which I am totally okay with!  I go back to the midwife in the morning and if there is anything worth writing about, I may post a quick update about the visit.  For now though, I HAVE to stop procrastinating and start on some things of much higher priority than blogging! :)

****

ETA:  Just a couple of notes from the midwife visit so I don't forget:

• She confirmed exactly how I knew he was sitting in there.  Breech with his little butt on my left hipbone, head under my ribs.
• My belly measured 37 cm.  Holy smokes!  That's almost the same size as a full-term belly!  She said she didn't feel excess amniotic fluid, and he doesn't feel bigger than he should be, so that's good.  She said part of it at this point is probably because of the way he's sitting, so he takes up more room in my belly rather than fitting down into my pelvis.  But I've consistently measured 3-6 weeks bigger since my first appt at 11 weeks, so this is just normal for me.
• Good strong heartbeat, 120 bpm.
• Blood pressure was good.  Can't remember the exact numbers.

I think that's it.

Funny Homeschool Song

I love it when I see homeschoolers making fun of stereotypes... because of course homeschooling will turn kids into social retards, right? ;)

The "A Homeschool Family" song is still my favorite, but I thought this one was pretty funny: