Clamping the Cord
September 8, 2009 at 7:00 am | In Birth | 1 CommentTags: Third stage, umbilical cord
The birth of the placenta is the third stage of labour and I have posted about this before with links to research articles and some Sarah Buckley articles.
Check out Gloria Lemay’s blog post on Umbilical Cord Integrity with some great information and stuff to think about.
New Canadian Homebirth Study
September 3, 2009 at 12:18 am | In Birth | 3 CommentsTags: Homebirth
A Canadian Homebirth study just published looked at 2889 planned homebirths attended by midwives, 4752 hospital births attended by the SAME midwives and 5331 hospital births attended by doctors.
The study found that birth at home with a midwife was as safe as birth in hospital and homebirth was associated with fewer adverse outcomes for mothers and babies.
Women who birthed at home were less likely to experience obstetric interventions including:
- electronic fetal monitoring
- augmentation of labour (‘moving things along’ by rupturing the membranes or administering oxytocin)
- assisted vaginal delivery (with forceps or vacuum)
- caesareans
- episiotomies (cutting the opening of the vagina)
Those having a homebirth were less likely to:
- have a 3rd or 4th degree tear
- have a postpartum haemorrhage
- have a newborn who had birth trauma
- have a newborn requiring resuscitation at birth
- have a newborn requiring oxygen for more than 24hours
When the 88 women who had had a previous c-section were excluded from the homebirth group there were no changes to any of the statistics.
If you know nothing about the physiology of birth you may be asking WHY do women and babies do better at home? The best article I have found that explains this so beautifully was published in MIDIRS and is by Tricia Anderson. The only online copies I can find are HERE and HERE.
Some of Dr Sarah Buckley’s articles on the hormones of birth also give a good idea about how birth works:
Homebirth Debated in Parliament
August 23, 2009 at 12:41 am | In Birth | Leave a CommentTags: advocacy, Homebirth
I just want to HUG Andrew Laming! And the way those stats just rolled off his tongue…if only the other side were listening.
The joys of natural childbirth
August 19, 2009 at 4:38 am | In Birth | Leave a CommentTags: Birth
You will have noticed that I don’t really post many of my own thoughts and opinions on things and simply provide links to other people’s thoughts and opinions. This is partly because I am majorly short on time (the reason I started this blog in the first place so that there was just one place with all my favourite links that I could send people to) and partly because I just can’t put it better than the ‘real’ bloggers out there like Heather Armstrong. In her own words:
I was also under the impression, having never really researched the subject whatsoever, that any woman who would opt for a homebirth was not only COMPLETELY OUT OF HER MIND but also not interested in the safety of her unborn child. I mean, there’s a reason that infant and maternal mortality rates are so much better than a hundred years ago, right? HOSPITALS. And MEDICINE. And smart people we call DOCTORS. Yes, women routinely used to go out into the field by themselves and give birth without any assistance, and many of them routinely did not return BECAUSE THEY DIED.
But then out of no where the publishers of Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein’s book Your Best Birth sent me a copy, just like the publishers of many books send me copies of other books all the time. Internet, I have rooms full of books that publishers have sent me. ROOMS FULL. And I was just about to toss this onto the mountainous pile of ones I’d eventually drop off at Goodwill when, I don’t know, I flipped through a few pages and gave a full minute to one or two paragraphs. And those two paragraphs happened to be ones that really pissed me off. So much so that I read them aloud to Jon and said something like GOD, THOSE HIPPIES! or I BET THEY SMELL LIKE PATCHOULI!
You know, something totally open-minded.
You can read her brilliant posts here:
The Lie of the EDD
August 16, 2009 at 4:15 am | In Birth | Leave a CommentGreat article on Estimated Due Dates, you can also see my previous post on this topic.
Why your due date isn’t when you think…
We have it ingrained in our heads throughout our entire adult lives-pregnancy is 40 weeks. The “due date” we are given at that first prenatal visit is based upon that 40 weeks, and we look forward to it with great anticipation. When we are still pregnant after that magical date, we call ourselves “overdue” and the days seem to drag on like years. The problem with this belief about the 40 week EDD is that it is not based in fact. It is one of many pregnancy and childbirth myths which has wormed its way into the standard of practice over the years-something that is still believed because “that’s the way it’s always been done”.
The folly of Naegele’s Rule
The 40 week due date is based upon Naegele’s Rule. This theory was originated by Harmanni Boerhaave, a botanist who in 1744 came up with a method of calculating the EDD based upon evidence in the Bible that human gestation lasts approximately 10 lunar months. The formula was publicized around 1812 by German obstetrician Franz Naegele and since has become the accepted norm for calculating the due date. There is one glaring flaw in Naegele’s rule. Strictly speaking, a lunar (or synodic – from new moon to new moon) month is actually 29.53 days, which makes 10 lunar months roughly 295 days, a full 15 days longer than the 280 days gestation we’ve been lead to believe is average. In fact, if left alone, 50-80% of mothers will gestate beyond 40 weeks.
A woman’s right
July 16, 2009 at 9:10 am | In Birth | Leave a CommentTags: advocacy, Homebirth
Brilliant opinion piece by Monica Dux in The Age:
It’s a Woman’s right to choose how she births
by Monica Dux
July 16th, 2009
Changes that will effectively outlaw supported home births are paternalistic.
IN FIVE months’ time, if my pregnancy progresses without complication, I will birth my second child at home, attended by two registered private midwives. If I’d become pregnant a mere six months later, this carefully researched, intensely personal decision would have been far more tenuous.
From the middle of next year, if the draft legislation establishing a new national registration scheme for health professionals becomes law, midwives will be required to hold indemnity insurance and midwives in private practice — those who typically attend home births — will be unable to access this insurance. This means that, with the exception a few small home-birth support programs run out of public hospitals, home birthing will effectively be outlawed.
In a recent interview on Radio National’s Life Matters, Dr Hilary Joyce, the new president of the National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, dismissed the significance of this ban by pointing out that only a small percentage of women in Australia choose to give birth at home. And yet, she complained, the issue is given a disproportionate voice in the media.
The assumption underlying her argument — that minority rights are unimportant and can be casually overridden — is both offensive and antithetical to the fundamental values of a liberal society. But Joyce’s emphasis on the small number of women directly affected by the legislation also obscures a deeper problem. It is not only the rights of the minority who undertake home birth that are at stake here. This is an issue that impacts on all women.
In the past century we have seen a profound shift in the status of women, from being virtual chattels owned by husbands or fathers, to the attainment of full citizenship and (supposedly) equal rights with men. This hard-won legislative and cultural change has allowed women greater freedoms, but it has also given rise to an expectation of physical dignity, and of ownership over our own bodies, as epitomised in liberal abortion provisions and stricter sexual assault laws.
The legislative squeezing-out of home birth represents a serious regression in this reform process. Given that the new laws will effectively make private midwife-assisted home birth illegal, the Federal Government is acting to deprive most women of the ability to make a fundamental choice about their own bodies; the choice to birth in a non-medicalised environment.
Birthing is an extremely intimate, uniquely visceral, sometimes terrifying physical experience. There is much that will inevitably be out of a woman’s control during her confinement, so allowing her to birth in the place in which she is most comfortable is fundamental to maintaining both her personal dignity and her sense of ownership over the experience.
Anti D
July 13, 2009 at 2:53 am | In Birth | Leave a CommentTags: Anti D
I am meant to be researching something completely unrelated to Anti-D but it takes me about 10 times as long as it should to do any uni assignment as I am always getting lost reading other things.
I was looking for a Sara Wickham article on something else and thought I would post these Anti-D ones as she has written what is I think the only book dedicated to the topic, so she knows her stuff. This is really only relevant to you if you have a NEGATIVE blood group (eg. O negative, A negative etc).
Routine antenatal anti-D – a review of the evidence
Anti-D: exploring midwifery knowledge
And here is some more Anti D info from midwife Lisa Barrett.
7 tips to a successful homebirth
July 12, 2009 at 11:07 pm | In Birth | Leave a CommentTags: Homebirth
Whether you are planning a hospital or homebirth this article by Gloria Lemay will give you some things to think about and a different perspective.
As cesarean and induction rates in hospital climb to astronomical levels many women are turning to homebirth. When interventions become excessively high, the risk/benefit ratio of being in a hospital swings more dramatically into the “riskier” zone, and even physicians and nurses begin choosing homebirth. Just removing your birth from a hospital setting doesn’t guarantee that it will proceed in a natural, flowing manner. Too many women learn the hard way that a midwife can bring a hospital mentality and interventions right into the home and negatively affect the course of the birth. How can you assess the type of midwifery practice that you are purchasing? Here are some tips to help you assess the care that will be provided by midwives:
1. Ask to see a video of some births your midwife has attended. This is the modern age. Many people videotape their births and an experienced midwife will have been given many copies of videos with permission to share them with other families. Videos tell you a lot more than photo albums. Be wary of the midwife who won’t give or show you videos. Watch the videos for things like: Is the father playing an active role in the birth? Are the attendants quiet when things are normal and healthy? Is the cord left to pulse until the placenta is born? Does the baby breathe spontaneously without routine suctioning? Are the baby and mother locked in eye contact with no disturbance? Is a water tub part of the birth?
MORE…
Homebirth Australia
July 3, 2009 at 1:51 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentGo to the Homebirth Australia website to see what you can do to support women’s choices and keep homebirth with a midwife an option.
Health Minister Denies Women their basic rights
NEWS RELEASE
Wednesday June 24 2009
Contact: Justine Caines 0408 210 273Homebirth Australia today slammed the exclusion of homebirth from insurance schemes for midwives announced by the Health Minister Nicola Roxon in parliament today.
“Effectively two pieces of legislation will outlaw midwives providing homebirth care from July 2010” said Justine Caines, mother of seven and secretary of Homebirth Australia.
“Women will continue to homebirth, but will now be forced to do so without the assistance of a qualified professional.” said Ms Caines.
“It is unacceptable and unsafe to force a woman into a choice that is not optimal for her, whether that is a hospital birth or a birth at home without midwifery support. It is absolutely impossible to understand the government’s position on this, other than to say that they have bowed to political pressure from medical lobby groups.”
The National Maternity Service Review received submissions from hundreds of women wanting access to homebirth services. The vast majority of homebirth services are provided by private practice midwives. Removing this option is likely to end access for most women to homebirth.
Ms Caines called on all ALP members to declare their view on a woman’s right to self determination of her health care needs. “If the ALP is so hell bent on preventing women from accessing homebirth as an option I ask all ALP members to publically state their position on this.
It appears that having a Health Minister who is a woman, a recent mother, and a lawyer understanding consumers’ rights, is not proving to be an advantage for women. Removing women’s rights to the point where we are back providing care in dark alleys or in back rooms is ridiculous in 2009.”
Save Homebirth with a Midwife in Australia
July 1, 2009 at 11:53 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentThis will pretty much be my main theme until the government does something about it. Even if you would not choose homebirth for yourself please think about supporting a woman’s right to choose this option for her birth. I won’t rehash the issues which have been explained so beautifully elsewhere (see Clare Bowditch’s open letter) and check out this superb video:
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