Perinatal choices: A series

As the day of Chestnut's birth is drawing close, I can't help but reflect on my past birth stories.  Stories I embrace closely, delicately, and sacredly.  Many of have heard of Camille's glorious birth story and my subsequent reflection on that pregnancy/birthing/recovery experience.  Most of you may not have heard of Penelope's birth.

Penelope & Mommy

I started this blog post a few weeks or months ago...but haven't had the courage to publish it or start this series for a number of reasons:

1. Time constraint - I'm busy.  But aren't we all?
2. I'm honestly a little apprehensive about the backlash I might receive for some of these beliefs.

Okay, just those two reasons.

Last night, I had an opportunity to attend a class session with some midwifery friends at the UW School of Nursing - the program that I was originally admitted into prior to me "jumping ship" and switching over to family practice.  The class session was focused on evidence-based perinatal care.  Instead of a lecture, it was a casual discussion of the history and evidence on various topics surrounding birth.  Fascinating stuff!  For those who aren't very familiar with the field of midwifery, you might walk into the middle of our discussion and be amazed at how well-read these midwifery students were and how much they knew about the latest research (including how to appraise the trustworthiness of these studies).  Surprised?  You thought midwifery is a "soft" science?  Midwives are hardcore artists and hardcore scientists!  The reason that midwives must keep abreast of the latest evidence is that (1) they care about the well-being of women and families, and (2) they are constantly fighting an uphill battle.  They receive the lowest wages amongst advanced practice nurses, pay some of the highest rates for malpractice insurance, and are continually under the scrutiny of ACOG.

Anyhow, before I ramble on much further...  I want to start a series where I discuss some of the stories, news/blog articles, and evidence surrounding the subject of birth (which includes a little bit of pregnancy and newborn care, too).  Some of the topics that I will explore

• Prenatal care:
• Choosing a provider
• Choosing a setting for birth -  home, birth center, and hospital
• Labor:
• NPO status - women not being allowed to eat during labor
• Routine administration of IV fluids
• Induction & augmentation of labor
• Pain management
• Continuous monitoring
• Labor support (doulas)
• Birth:
• Birthing positions
• Episiotomy
• Assistive devices (forceps & vacuums)
• C-sections (and VBAC)
• Newborn care:
• Suctioning of newborn
• Timing of cord clamping
• Skin-to-skin contact
• Circumcision for male infants
• Vaccination
• Infant feeding practices

Before you may jump to the conclusion that I will do a lot of finger-wagging for the choices you have made for your family, please let me assure you that I will only present my story, the rationale for my choices, the evidence, and simply my own opinion.  I feel that this series is important for me to write because I deeply care about this subject and I hope that we can all stay informed about birth - an arena that has been viewed as taboo or, worse yet, left to Hollywood to educate the masses.

Yep, I'm in my undies. Obviously I don't care.

I know, I know, I previously attempted to start a series on reviews of baby products and then never ended up doing anything with it.  But this time, I'm gonna do it.

Seriously!  I will! :)