Program For Birth Week Now Available

The full program for Birth Week in Kallista (May 27-31) is now available. You can download it here:

http://birthweek.org.au/swf/BWprogram2009.pdf

For more information about birth week you can read my earlier blog post about it here or check out the official Birth Week website here.

Gloria Lemay Coming to Melbourne

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Breastfeeding Booklet Series

The Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) have a series of booklets with a variety of information regarding breastfeeding and different circumstances. The booklets are just $5 (Australian) and are an absolutely wealth of information, written in plain, easy to understand language.

Titles from the series include;
An Introduction to Breastfeeding, which is ideal for anyone wishing to find out more about establishing the breastfeeding relationship and would make a perfect gift for a soon-to-be Mum. Another useful booklet related to thsi issues is;

Survival Plan, a booklet with tips for managing the household during the initial weeks of establishing the breastfeeding relationship

Breast and Nipple Care, for anyone wanting to know how to keep their breasts and nipples happy and healthy throughout the breastfeeding journey.

Breastfeeding Through Pregnancy and Beyond, for mothers expecting a new baby and feeding their child/ren already born. Another useful booklet related to this issue is Your Toddler and the New Baby.

Relactation and Adoptive Breastfeeding, a great booklet for mothers who for whatever reasons couldn't feed in the beginning and want to begin boobing again and mums who are welcoming a child into their family without the help of pregnancy and birth hormones to kick start the breastfeeding process.

Breastfeeding, Women and Work, for mothers who are unable to be with their children all day long and are wondering what this means for their breastfeeding relationship. Another useful booklet related to this issue is Expressing and Storing Breastmilk.

Especially for Grandparents, a guide for grandparents about how to best support their breastfeeding daughters and daughters-in-law.

A Caregivers Guide to the Breastfed Baby, this A-4 sheet leaflet is for anyone looking after a breastfed child.

Too Much, a booklet for mothers with an over-supply of breastmilk. Or for mothers with the opposite issue there is the Increasing Your Supply booklet.

Other titles include; Sex and the Breastfeeding Woman, Breastfeeding Twins, Breastfeeding Triplets, Quads or More, Introducing Solids, Breastfeeding Your Premature Baby, Breastfeeding After Caesarean, Postnatal Depression and Breastfeeding Breastfeeding Your Baby With Down Syndrome, Breastfeeding Babies with Clefts of Lips/Palet, Breastfeeding and Hospitalisation, Looking After Yourself, Weaning, Gastro-oesophageal Reflux and the Breastfed Baby, Coping With Breast Refusal, Why is my Baby Crying?, Sleep, and Keeping Baby Cool.

You can buy these booklets online from the ABA store; Mothers Direct, click here.

The Safety of Homebirth

There has been a lot of speculation about homebirth and the safety of homebirth in the Australian media recently. You don't have to look far to discover the safety of planned homebirth attended by a midwife. Statistics from 2009 attest to this safety:

"In 2009, 294,540 women gave birth to 299,220 babies in Australia. There were 285,460 women who gave birth in hospitals, 6,396 women gave birth in birth centres and 863 planned homebirths. There were 2,339 fetal deaths in hospital and other facilities. There were 2 fetal deaths at homebirths. Of babies born at home in 2009, 99.8% were liveborn. There were no maternal deaths at planned homebirths in 2009." (From here)

Joyous Birth, an Australian homebirth network have published a webpage Homebirth Realities & Research (Joyous Birth) which takes a look at the major medical studies of homebirth. Before considering the research about homebirth the Joyous Birth site states:

It is not for anyone but the birthing woman to decide where, how and with whom she wants to birth.

We need to stand up not only for our own choices, but for the choices of all women.

Read about women discussing the issue of choice on the forums here and here. Remember that you have the final say in what happens to your body as after all, it is your body, and you own the ultimate rights to it.

It is important to be aware of attempts to distort home birth research findings in attempts to hang on to the untenable position that home birth is dangerous. Several years ago on the Australian television program 'Lateline' Dr Brunello attempted to defend his anti-homebirth position by giving data from research in South Australia which he claimed suggested homebirth has higher perinatal mortality.[33] He must not be a scientist as he was apparently unaware that the findings of this particular study are suspect for a number of reasons including: far too small a sample size, no matched control group and no data linkage to find lost cases. The authors themselves conclude: "Close examination of the individual deaths led to the conclusion that the majority could not directly be attributed to the place of birth." - Marsden Wagner, former WHO Maternal & Child Health expert.

An absolutely excellent read is this blog article on Feminism and birth in Australia: moving from stat-wrangling towards a reproductive choice perspective where the author points out "There were 2,091 stillbirths in Australian in 2006. 2,091 of these occurred in hospitals or birth centres. None occurred at home."

Every woman, and every baby, and every family deserve a Joyous Birth!

Another excellent source on the safety of homebirth was a page put together by an Australian Independent Midwive, Wendy Buckland; The Safety of Homebirth (Birthing.net.au). Buckland's site stated:

The Safety of Home Birth…..the medical literature. Home birth can be a safe option for 90% of mothers, with appropriate prenatal care and attendant personnel. It makes both financial sense and medical sense for state laws to permit home birth attended by midwives, for insurers to reimburse for home delivery, and for hospitals and obstetricians to provide medical back-up. Obstetricians need to take their blinders off and learn to cooperate with folks who want to deliver in their own homes.

The site went on to list over 30 studies of homebirth. Unfortunately her original site is no longer online, however she generously shared this information and you can still read it in full in this Facebook note on the Ilithyia Inspired Facebook page.

There is more on The Home Birth Reference Site, which was put together by homebirth.org.uk and this article by Henci Goer.

ETA: Recently 2 homebirth programs run by hospitals in Victoria have found homebirth to be very safe, with an Obstetrician calling for more programs reaching further across Australia, see here: Call for wider availability of home birthing in Victoria

Breastmilk Composition & Function Course Completed

Last week I completed one of the Health-e-Learning BreastEd courses "Breastmilk Composition & Function". The course content was really interesting. It covered what proteins, carbohydrates and lipids are in breastmilk and how they work together to ensure optimal infant nutrition, immunology and overall health.

I learned "There is a positive correlation between artificial baby milk feeding rates and the incidence of infant mortality and morbidity in every country in the world", among other things.

Stay tuned, I'm planning on writing a blog post about the amazing facts I learned about breastmilk and ensuring optimal health.

Routine Interventions Aid Birth? What A Load Of Shit!

The relationship between birth and bowel movements is an obvious one to most women who have experienced normal physiological birth. Many a second stage labour has begun with a birthing woman exclaiming "I need to poo!", only to discover that the poo is in fact a baby's head.

In the immediate postpartum phase this link between these two physiological experiences was made clear to me yet again. I recall going to the toilet in those first weeks of motherhood and being struck by how much bowel movements made me feel like I was giving birth again. Both activities make my pelvis feel open.

My daughter regularly reminds me of the connection between birth and bowel movements. I've never seen anyone bear-down with such inhibition and commitment as my toddler when she's working on a number two. Even her father has been known to say "she's going to make a great birther!" during potty time.

The following is one of my favourite pieces of writing about birth. It's been available from a few online sources, though the author has been listed as unknown everywhere I have seen it so far.

BIRTH AS A BOWEL MOVEMENT

Imagine if you will, that about a hundred years ago, people began having great difficulties having bowel movements (BM for short). It al came about because of some very unhealthy lifestyles. People weren’t eating correctly because they were desperately trying to be thin and beautiful. They had malnutrition and took a lot of pills and other drugs to help them become and stay thin. People were so concerned with looking good that they put their health aside to get there.

As a result of this lifestyle, many people had a terrible time having BMs. Some people even died. Something had to be done to save these folks. So instead of changing their lifestyles, people flocked to the doctors to have their problem fixed. The problem became so prevalent that people became fearful of having BMs. Everyone dreaded going to the bathroom because of all the horror stories of pain and death. This normal, natural bodily function was labeled dangerous and hazardous and needed to be monitored and controlled to save lives.

Over time, it became the “norm” to go the hospital whenever someone had to have a BM so that doctors could monitor the process and intervene if they needed to. This continued through the years and is still practiced today. An onslaught of new life-saving technology and machinery was invented for us in aiding people to have a BM. It has become such a common practice to go to the hospital to have a BM that people have become uninformed. They don’t trust their own bodies to have a BM on their own. People are scared to have a BM that having one anywhere besides a hospital is considered irresponsible, dangerous and risky. Even though the old, unhealthy lifestyles, which caused the problem in the first place are no longer practiced, having BMs is no longer considered a normal event. Even the healthiest of people go to the hospital to have BMs out of fear that something might happen. The go “just in case”.

So, you have to have a BM and even though you are a healthy man and having a BM is a normal, natural physiological function that your body was designed to do, we go to the hospital. We grab the hospital bag and head out the door in a hurry. During the car ride you get very tense because the cramps are coming on strong and you can’t get comfortable. You try breathing through them but this only helps a little with all the stop and go traffic and bumps in the road. Not to mention that you just wish you could be at home and have privacy. Upon arrival at the hospital, you are wheeled up to a room and instructed to put on a gown with nothing else on (it has a large opening in the back which will show you rear end if you get up and walk anywhere). You are told to lie down so that a nurse can examine you. Then a strange female nurse comes in and explains that she is going to have to insert 2 fingers into your rectum to check the progress of your feces. You obviously feel humiliated because someone you don’t know has just touched a very private and personal part of you.

Then the nurse straps a monitor to your belly to measure the severity of your cramps and stick an iv in your arm. This is very distracting and makes the pain of the cramps even worse. Soon, your cramps become stronger and you are getting very uncomfortable. At this point, the nurses change shifts and new nurse comes in. She says she needs to check you again since it’s been awhile and you don’t seem to be making any progress. She inserts 2 fingers again and shakes her head from side-to-side and gives you a very disapproving look. You have not made any progress. You want to try so badly to relax so you can make progress but with the iv, the strangers, the fingers in your rectum and the negative attitudes of the staff, there are just too many distractions and you can’t. By now your cramps are very painful and it takes all you’ve got to just stay on top of them.

The hospital team decides to insert a wire up your anus to determine if, indeed, your cramps are as bad as you say they are. They again insert 2 fingers to check the dilation and fecal decent. They tell you that if you don’t make any progress in the next 30 minutes, they may have to cut the feces out. This causes you to be even more tense and you have a hard time trying to relax just knowing what may happen if you can’t push it out yourself. After another hour of laying in bed, the female doctor comes in and does yet another exam with 2 fingers because he says he wants to be sure the nurses were doing it right. He feels it is time for you to begin to push. So you are in bed, flat on your back with your feet up in stirrups trying to have a BM and pushing with all your might while the strange nurse and a doctor intently watch your anus. The feces is not coming down fast enough so the doctor decides that your anus must not be big enough for the feces to pass through so they make a large cut in your anus to make it bigger. They also need to use a vacuum extractor to help pull the feces out.

You finally manage (with the help of a large cut and vacuum) to push the feces out. You are in a lot of pain, you’re bleeding, exhausted, spent and humiliated. You feel like something in your body is broken and didn’t work correctly. This must be true since you needed all this help for a normally natural bodily function right? The nurse then pushes on your abdomen to make sure all of the feces has been expelled. This is VERY painful but thank God you were in a hospital or else something bad might have happened. Someone stitches you up and are given instructions on how to aid your healing.

So, you made it through. You’re alive and that’s what really matters right? Is it though? What about your pain? What about the humiliation? What about the violation of privacy? What about the anger you feel towards the whole damn thing because your experience could have been completely normal and uncomplicated at home?

Now, this scenario is absolutely and utterly ridiculous right? It seems absurd to go to the hospital for something that could have easily, and much less painfully, been done at home. The same is true of birth. This scenario is exactly what happened to birth (the “unhealthy” habits were obviously a bit different) and many women are suffering, needlessly, as a result. I can attest to the fact that this scenario is VERY common in hospitals today—I have even experienced it with my own hospital birth.

People have been raised to fear birth and to think that it needs the medical community to make it happen. Birth interventions have become so common that people accept them, and every side effect that comes with them, as necessary for a good outcome. And most don’t believe it when someone tells them that it can be so much better if those things weren’t done routinely.

A healthy, informed woman who is knowledgeable in birth had just as slim a chance of dying in birth as someone does while having a BM. All you need to have a safe birth is to be informed and to listen to your instincts (something that is very difficult to do with people watching you—just like it is difficult to have a BM with people watching you!). Birth is safe and simple. Just like having a BM is safe and simple. I need as much assistance while birthing our children as you do while having a bowel movement!

This piece has been described by a birth activist I know as "a great one for Dads". I completely agree! If you know a Dad or Dad-to-be who likes the idea of interventions at birth, ask him how he would feel about time limits, anal examinations, a roomful of strangers watching, (and possibly chanting "push! Push! Push!" or "don't push!" or "pant!") and being hooked up to monitors etc. while he is trying to take a crap. Just the thought of it will probably cause his sphincter to close up!

This analogy is also useful when reading or listening to opinions that show a lack of trust in birth and women's bodies' ability to birth. Next time you hear someone say "birth is dangerous", repeat back "pooing is dangerous", or "your baby is too big for your pelvis"; "your poo is too big for your colon". Purebirth creator, Lisa Schuring applies routine interventions in childbirth to going to the toilet in The Purebirth Pages: The Australian Freebirth Newsletter:

1. Pain relief to poop out of the poop hole
2. Coached pooping - being told when, where and how to poop
3. Poopistomy - a small incision in the anus to allow your poop to come out
4. Poopidural - Why be a martyr? Get your poopidural today and have a poop without FEELING A THING! (don't bother reading the small print of the adverse effects on you and your poop because lots of people get poopidurals and they're safe!)
5. AROP - artificial rupture of poop
6. Laxative aid - wonderful drugs to force that pesky poo to come out quick smart. So what if its not all whole? ...(Issue 3, October 2006 p.4)

It seems completely ridiculous that such interventions would be used during toilet time. This is because our society has trust in the human body to eliminate, but does not extend this trust the normal physiological experience of childbirth. But the two activities share similarities, as Gloria Lemay suggests:

I also find it valuable to view birth as an "elimination process" like other elimination processes-coughing, pooping, peeing, crying and sweating. All are valuable (like giving birth is) for maintaining the health of the body. They all require removing the thinking mind and changing one's "state." My friend Leilah is fond of saying, "Birth is a no brainer." After all "elimination processes" are finished, we feel a lot better until the next time. Each individual is competent to handle her bodily elimination functions without a lot of input from others. Birth complications, especially in the first-time mother, are often the result of helpful tampering with something that simply needs time and privacy to unfold as intended. (From Pushing For First Time Moms)

Who knows where the future of birth and poo might lead? Once upon a time everyone birthed at home, perhaps one day we will all be cathertised? Maybe one day I'll be supporting people through pooing, helping them to relax and trust that their colon's know what to do? Maybe one day the majority of us will birth at home again, and laugh at the dark ages of obstetric distrust of something so everyday as pushing a person out a vagina?

Divide and Conquer: Pitting Homebirthers Against Freebirthers

An article was published in an Australian newspaper yesterday stating that four babies have died at homebirths in the past nine months. Let's put aside, for a moment, that the article didn't publish the number of babies who have died in hospital during that period, or that when a baby dies at a homebirth it is presumed to be avoidable but when a baby dies in hospital it is assumed there was nothing that could have been done to save him or her. Let's also ignore the abhorrent fact that this article singled out one grieving mother to be the target of all attacks against homebirth, and let's forget for a moment that the article in question made reference to a study which attests to the unsafe nature of homebirth which is twenty years outdated and was not a study of planned homebirths at all, but a study of unplanned "births before arrival". And let us also forget for a moment that the same article failed to make mention of any of the many medical studies attesting to the safety of planned homebirth attended by a midwife (one study which is only four years old). Instead, let's focus on the fact that the article did not distinguish between homebirth and freebirth.

Why focus on this one aspect? Because this is the aspect that some homebirthers have highlighted on their own blogs, or in disucssions on birth forums across Australia. But mostly, because this aspect is the one that has the potential to best serve the opponents of all homebirths.

On the same day as the newspaper article was published one blogger wrote a piece "Homebirthing Vs Freebirthing: There is a Difference", the title in itself pitting two groups of homebirthing women against each other. Ultimately this piece was written as an attack on one group of consumers and their community. In the article she refers to women who freebirth as "radical fringe-dwellers" and concludes that "Freebirthers who actively shun medical assistance for their own selfish ideological positions, however, don’t help anyone. Least of all their babies."

The author's point is this; don't hate all homebirthers, just the freebirthers, women who homebirth with a midwife present are normal mothers who deserve respect, but freebirthers are members of a crazy cult and feel free to disrespect them (where then, I wonder, does this leave the women who had planned midwife attended homebirths but the midwife didn't make it in time?).

What this author fails to realise (in addition to the fact that freebirthers don't actively shun medical assistance or choose to freebirth because of ideology) is that this line of argument makes her, her own worst enemy (if she was hoping to improve the situation for women who homebirth with a midwife). I am reminded of a reworked poem on Empowering Birth Blog:

First they came for the unassisted birthers,

but I did not speak out, because I do not free-birth.

Then they came for those who birth at home with lay midwives,

but I would would not speak out, because I would not have a home-birth with a lay midwife.

Then they came for those who birthed with Certified Professional Midwives,

and I would not speak out, because I would not have a home-birth with a CPM.

And then they came for those who birthed in birth centers and with Certified Nurse Midwives,

but I would not speak out because I would not have a birth in a birth center or with a CNM.

And then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.


When the freedom of one group is under attack, freedom for all is attacked. This is why when the latest maternity services review recommended effectively making independent midwifery illegal (leaving women who want to birth at home with freebirth or nothing) freebirthers rushed to aid their fellow homebirthers, despite the fact that they don't hire independent midwives!

Homebirthers and freebirthers are not enemies. Nor are hospital birthers and homebirthers. We are all women navigating a system that we did not create, that was not created for our convenience, but for the convenience of care-providers, and we are all trying to make the best decisions for our own health and the health of our babies. To assume otherwise is to be the real fool in all this. Most of all, to pit yourself against another group of women who birth at home is to do the bidding of homebirths' enemies; dividing before concquering.