Blog spotlight: Pushed birth

November 27, 2007

The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care

Jennifer Block, author of Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care has a new (started in August) blog about childbirth. Check it out at pushedbirth.com. She defines a pushed birth as:

A pushed birth is one that is induced, sped up, and/or heavily medicated for no good reason, and all too often concludes with surgery, invasive instruments, an episiotomy, or a bad vaginal tear — outcomes you don’t want.

Cool stuff. She has a sweet map on the site showing in what states midwifery is legal and illegal.

Leave a Comment » | birth, Blogosphere | Permalink
Posted by radicaldoula

Suggestions for good pregnancy books please

November 27, 2007

When I was in college, I wrote a chapter of my thesis (entitled Managing Birth: Hospitals, Mothers and their Meaning in the United States about my work as a volunteer doula) on the best-selling pregnancy book What to Expect When You’re Expecting. In brief, I wrote about why it is terrible, and scares women, and should really be called What to Be Scared of When You’re Expecting. Not to mention that it is very much based on the doctors are better paradigm (my favorite quote, from the introduction, was something to the effect of how modern medicine had moved birth from the kitchen table to the hospital. wtf).

What I didn’t do when I wrote that chapter was recommend a good pregnancy book alternative. Now I’m looking for suggestions from you all, for good not scary midwife and doula friendly pregnancy books. Suggest away!

11 Comments | birth, books, pregnancy | Permalink
Posted by radicaldoula

Feeling comfortable with discomfort

November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you are taking some moments to reflect on what you are thankful for and how to find peace in your life. I went to a Thanksgiving yoga class this morning, and the thought from the teacher (and the practice of Yin yoga) that I want to share is the idea of feeling comfortable with discomfort.

This concept has relevance in many aspects of our lives, from dealing with grief, conflict or unrest to dealing with pain (like in labor). We as a society are extremely uncomfortable with discomfort and we focus on eradicating all pain or discomfort in our lives, whether through medication or other numbing techniques (avoidance, alcohol, drugs, etc). I think it’s an important thing to reflect on–what does it mean for us to try and be comfortable with the discomfort in our lives? To sit with negative feelings, pain, let them overwhelm us, feel it deeply and let it go.

This is what we ask of women in labor–to use the pain of contractions, allow it to carry them forward, rather than numbing the pain or giving into it. I think we can all learn a lesson from what we ask women in labor to do, and try to apply it to our emotional and physical lives as well.

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Posted by radicaldoula

At Your Cervix

November 21, 2007

A friend sent me an email about this awesome documentary, At Your Cervix. It’s ”a film dedicated to making pelvic exams respectful and pain-free.” Pretty awesome stuff.

The documentary At Your Cervix explores the connection between the way medical and nursing students are taught pelvic exams and the reality that most women experience them as painful and disempowering.

At Your Cervix breaks the silence around the unethical methods used by medical and nursing schools to teach students how to perform pelvic exams; the most egregious being on unconsenting, anaesthetized women. At the same time, the film highlights the Gynecological Teaching Associate (GTA) Program in New York City. Fuelled by the spirit of women’s health activism, the GTA program began over 30 years ago and it has been shown to be the most effective way to teach exams and is also the most ethical and empowering to women.

I know someone who is a GTA, and it’s a pretty awesome way to try and make change within women’s health care. You can watch the trailer here, or donate some money so they can finish the project here.

 Thanks to Harris for the tip.

6 Comments | reproductive justice | Permalink
Posted by radicaldoula

News Round Up

November 20, 2007

It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these, but I’m taking advantage of a day off to catch up on the news. Enjoy!

Lower back tattoos interfere with epidurals? Doctors say no.

Story of a water birth in West Texas, and another article about water birth.

Midwife assisted births on the rise.

The Today Show online investigates alternative pain mediation techniques.

80% of people in the UK oppose a bill which would remove the legal requirement that a doctor consider the child’s need for a father when performing IVF procedures.

More love for midwives in Wisconsin.

Opinion piece about the financial waste caused by intervention and over-hospitalization of birthing women.

43% of women in California breastfeed exclusively.

One hospital in Houston considers outlawing VBACs (vaginal births after cesarean sections) completely.

Study says that curvy women live longer and have smarter children.

NYTimes article discusses the declining enrollments in childbirth classes.

1 Comment | birth, Breastfeeding, doulas, family creation, midwives, news, pregnancy | Permalink
Posted by radicaldoula

Transgender Day of Remembrance

November 19, 2007

Tomorrow is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Julia Serano, a writer and activist whose work I really love wrote a great short piece for Feministing about the day. Check it out.

Leave a Comment » | gender/sex, LGBT issues | Permalink
Posted by radicaldoula

Good News Update: A Call for Radical Doulas

November 16, 2007

About two months ago, I posted a call for radical doulas, because a woman had emailed me who was having trouble finding a doula to attend her birth. A refresher of her situation: 

Last week I received an email from a woman living in a small town outside of Minneapolis, MN who has had a terrible time trying to find a doula. She is now 17 weeks pregnant, and she told me how she has been turned down, not once, not twice, but THREE times by three different doulas. Why?

–The first doula turned her down because she is not sure if she wants to give birth without an epidural.

–The second doula turned her down because she was pregnant with twins, and decided to do a selective reduction and terminate one of the pregnancies at 11 weeks.

–The third doula turned her down because she is serving as a surrogate for a gay couple.

Well I have good news! She found a doula. While the doula she eventually found was in her own doctor’s office (a former doula and midwife), I want to say thank you to everyone who emailed me, forwarded the message along and offered their support and assistance for her doula search. I got more than 12 offers from women to be her doula, in addition to offers to screen doulas for her, and much more. It was really amazing to see what kind of mobilizing you were all willing to do. Thank you!

Lastly, I just want to share with you her words:

I’m so relieved and happy to have found someone that I know will be great to work with. I really, really appreciate your help in this situation too. Just having your support reassured me that I was doing the right thing in trying to find a doula. The search was a little difficult but it helped me so much to know that there are really awesome women (like yourself) out there who would be willing to help if they could.

Thank you again and if it’s ok with you I would like to update you once the baby is born. I’m looking forward to a successful doula attended birth!

So thanks again to all of you for your support and solidarity.

2 Comments | doulas | Permalink
Posted by radicaldoula

Article about lesbian motherhood and HIV/AIDs

November 13, 2007

This is a really touching and well-written piece about one woman’s journey to motherhood during the HIV/AIDs epidemic. HIV really changed the landscape of gay and lesbian family creation forever, since it made casual donor relationships almost impossible because of the fear of passing on the HIV infection.

1 Comment | family creation, LGBT issues | Permalink
Posted by radicaldoula

Kick-Ass Radical Doulas: The Prison Doula Project Turns 5

November 8, 2007

ba_invite_back.jpg

The first group that I highlighted back when I started the blog, the The Birth Attendents: Prison Doula Project, is turning five this year. If you’re in Olympia, Washington definitely go to the party and meet the awesome women. But if not, you can buy a ticket as an out of town supporter. I highly recommend it! They are an awesome group of doulas.

You can find more information about the event on their website. Happy Birthday Prison Doula Project! Keep up the amazing work.

Leave a Comment » | kick-ass radical doulas | Permalink
Posted by radicaldoula

Resources for lesbians who want to become parents

November 5, 2007

I recently spoke at the NYU LGBT Center, as part of a Queer Lunch series they have (called Quench). I was talking about the connections between reproductive rights and LGBT liberation. It’s a topic I enjoy discussing (you can check out an article I wrote about it). But after the talk, one woman came up to me and asked about resources for lesbians who want to start families. I realized that I had little to tell her, except to point her toward the parenting section of the LGBT library the center had created. So I went home and did a little more internet research, and here is some of what I came up with. Please, if you have more resources, post them in the comments.

Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | books, family creation, LGBT issues | Permalink
Posted by radicaldoula

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