Brittain looks to allow midwives and nurses to perform early abortions

MZPLeave a comment

This article from the Independent today announces that some politicians in the UK are looking to expand women’s access to early abortions by allowing nurses and midwives to perform them.

MPs from all parties are to launch a campaign to modernise abortion law. They want to allow women to have early abortions on an “informed consent” basis and to allow trained nurses and midwives to carry out early abortions for the first time. They also want to expand the number of clinics offering early abortions so that women are no longer restricted to using centres officially licensed to carry out terminations.

A first trimester abortion is a very simple medical procedure (as well as one of the safest ones out there) and this isn’t the first time I’ve heard the idea to expand the definitions of who can perform these procedures. I’m not as familiar with the UK abortion climate, but here in the US, many of the laws regulating abortion providers are really meant to limit women’s access to abortion, rather than for their safety and protection. In the US, we are looking at a serious abortion provider shortage in the near future, with medical schools and students not being taught how to do the procedure.

The more authority midwives can gain to do medical procedures, particularly ones that have historically fallen under doctors domain, but are relatively simple. Plus, it will be a huge step forward toward increasing access to this important (and one of the most common) medical procedure for women.

Parting words for Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez

MZPLeave a comment

To mark the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez on Monday, Page Rockwell has a great piece up at Salon about what kind of legacy he is leaving behind.

Let’s recap:

  • Torture
  • Suspicous and unexplainable firing of US Attorney’s
  • The first Supreme Court cases banning an abortion procedure
  • Overall shadyness and misconduct

Thanks a lot Alberto. We won’t miss you.

CNN Reports: Five Ways to Avoid a C-section

MZP1 Comment

Great short and to the point article at CNN today about 5 ways to avoid a c-section.

Here are their five ways:

  1. Don’t get induced unless medically necessary
  2. Labor at home until you’re approximately 3 centimeters dilated
  3. Choose your hospital, and your practitioner, carefully
  4. In the delivery room, ask questions if your practitioner says you need a C-section
  5. Get a doula (my personal favorite)

Check out the piece for more explanation about why each  step helps to deter c-sections.

Kick-Ass Radical Doulas, 4th Ed: Doula Matt

MZP4 Comments

Thanks to Doulicia, I just stumbled upon a new blog, written by a male doula named Matt. I wanted to give him a shout out, and refer you all over to read his thoughts if you are interested. I think being a male doula (and a gay male one at that) deserves a radical doula mention.

I have thought often about this idea of male doulas and midwives, particularly because of my own thoughts about the gender binary. The argument among the doula and midwifery community that doulas can connect with women simply by being women themselves has always troubled me, as it implies some sort of intrinsic female-connection. What does that imply about women’s brains?

I think being a doula is about listening, and connecting with someone, and learning what kind of support they need. Just like I don’t think you need to be a mother to be a doula (I know some people would disagree), I don’t think you need to identify as a woman. Each person has to choose a doula they feel comfortable with, and with whom they can connect.

Keep on trucking Matt.

And I’m back!

MZPLeave a comment

Hi folks–

I hope your last few weeks were as restful as mine. I’m happy to be back and blogging away. To start things off again, you can check out my post on Bush vs. Choice, the NARAL Pro-Choice America blog. I wrote as part of a series commemorating the one-year anniversary of the approval of emergency contraception over the counter.

Radical doula takes a break…

MZP1 Comment

Dear readers–

I will be on a blogging hiatus for the next twelve days, as I take a vacation away from email and internet usage. Check out the awesome thoughts of the writers on my blog roll while I’m gone. Peace.

Breastfeeding rates still face significant challenges

MZPLeave a comment

Women’s Enews reported last week that women still struggle for their rights to breastfeed in various states. Many of the fights involve the rights to breastfeed in public and efforts to remove breastfeeding from indecent exposure laws and regulations. Even in states where breastfeeding is protected by the law, women are being penalized for doing so in public, being kicked out of restaurants and other public places.

Some responses to these legal challenges have included “nurse-ins,” where large groups of women gather to breastfeed in a public place (a spin off of the kiss-ins used by queer rights activists).

In addition to the challenges that breastfeeding mothers face, the CDC reports that while the number of women choosing to begin breastfeeding is up, the rates of women exclusively breastfeeding (no formula or other liquids) are still falling short of what is desired.

“The increase in mothers choosing to initiate breastfeeding is good news because it provides health benefits for women and decreases the risk of some early childhood diseases among infants,” said Dr. William H. Dietz, director of CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. “But it is still quite alarming that mothers and infants are not receiving the full health benefits most associated with exclusive breastfeeding.”

Check out my related blog on Feministing about research into baby formula that could prevent obesity.

Guest blogging at Feministing this week!

MZPLeave a comment

So I have been asked to guest blog over at Feministing.com this week, while Jessica and her sister are away on vacation. I may cross post some of what I write–but check out their site this week for more from me (including topics I wouldn’t normally write about on Radical Doula). Thanks again to Jessica for this awesome opportunity!

Kick-ass radical doulas, 3rd Ed: A collective post

MZP6 Comments

Since I started this blog, I have gotten quite a few emails/comments from doulas from around the United States who have connected with the issues that I cover here, and particularly with the concept of Radical Doula. These have been some of the most moving and inspirational things that have come out of having this blog, and I wanted to share some of their stories with you all. Here are a few exerpts from their comments and emails (I will leave these excerpts anonymous, as I want to respect the privacy of these awesome doulas):

I am a doula living and working in Montreal (Quebec). My doula heart sighed a huge sigh of relief when i stumbled upon your blog. I have been a doula for two years and i still can’t find a place for myself within the ‘doula’ community. I feel unseen and isolated. I am struggling to find a doula ‘partner’ because though I know a lot of doulas, i can’t find one with politics that i can relate to. I have not met any doulas that were careful and knowing about transsexuality, class struggles, queerness, racism, and citizenship privilege. Right now i am trying to do more birthing work with women stuck in the immigration detention just outside of montreal. It is hard for me to access into those detention centers, so far i have only been able to assist at one birth. The other issue is (as i was saying earlier…) it is hard for me to find doulas that I trust to work with in those situations. I have never been more aware of my white privilege than at that birth. All this to say that i am finding the doula world lonely. There’s no way i’m the only doula that feels so deeply glad to know that you are there.

I am an RN that also became a doula and a childbirth educator. I did a ton of volunteering with clinics and I did OB nursing for 3 years in a hospital. I have worked in both home and birthing clinics and I much prefer home births. I had my first son when I was 18 in a typical hospital nightmare and had my second son at home in 2002, at 25. I had come a long way. I went to nursing school and received my BSN with the intention of going into midwifery school. The problem was, I was extremely radical and political. At my junior year, the university here in Missouri shut down it’s midwifery program due to pressure from the med school. There are no more Nurse Midwives here, they were all shut out. I became very involved in the politics of birthing. I was involved with the birthing center here that was run by a doctor, who has been mercilessly persecuted. I worked in the ER for the money, thinking that I could do nursey things and not feel bad about these skills, unlike OB. Because of my woman’s health experience, I started getting all of the rapes and the domestic violence. I had also done a lot of volunteer work in this area. I have become extremely angry since I began this journey. I have always loved pregnant woman, ever since I was little. But I have been so political as well. I have taught classes, spoken at medical tribunals, etc, etc…I feel so powerless. I am now in law school and about to finish my first year. I love law, and I will value what power it may afford me. However, after all this debt, will I be happy? Shouldn’t I be a midwife? Isn’t that where my heart lies? I don’t think that I could be happy with midwifery in the united states as it is now and I want to fight for it to become elevated to where it should be. I despise doctors and this is a major problem. You can imagine how hard it is to work as a nurse now, not even a primary caregiver, while going to law school. It is infuriating. I really don’t know what compelled me to write you. I guess it is just nice to hear about someone else that is as political as I am.

I came across your blog through Google and when I read this post I was so moved. I’m studying to become a doula and lactation consultant and I intend to work with women who struggle with drug and alcohol addiction, woman who are incarcerated, young single mothers and women who are or have been in abusive relationships simply because I see a greater need in these women. I feel my efforts can best be used to aid women such as these rather than women who might have more intact support systems. I have seen firsthand how these women can fall between the cracks and their children fall with them. I know that when I am done training and begin to gain experience I will be providing them with the care and support they need to feel empowered and capable. Much of what you said resonates with me… I’ll be proud to some day consider myself a radical doula!

*waves* Radical doula here. I was previously in Wisconsin and now am in the boonies of Minnesota! I just discovered your blog from feministing, but I’ll be sure to check it out with regularity. I am currently childless, bisexual, married, and a steadfast radical I hope there’s even more of us out there!!

I am so happy you put this up! I too am a radical doula/midwife in training. I work in a county hospital in the midwest with all-low-income mothers, 99% of whom are of color. Latina, East African, West African, incarcerated mothers, addicts and well, all the other low-income moms of color who are deemed difficult, at risk, and less than, for more reasons than any of us can or should count. Though I work with some other amazing doulas I am frequently ( read:always) the only woman of color ( I am African American) in the room, let alone the bi, pro-choice woman in the room. I have one child and another on the way and as my journey of motherhood and birth professional continues I find my self though personally further from the place in my life where I might need to utilize my choice to terminate a pregnancy, more deeply pro-choice than ever before in my life, the idea that anyone would have to embark on this journey from government coercion, makes me dizzy with outrage. More deeply though I find that the link between the anti-choice anti-birth trends so insulting. For me the deep intuitive understanding of the conciousness of my baby as he approaches his birth clarifies for me that only women understand the choices they make, that they HAVE to make and to remove this from them in any aspect of their reproductive lives seems to fly in the face the precious gifts of sentience and spirit and the amazing power which we have.

Thanks to all the radical doulas out there who are doing such amazing work and inspire me to keep going with this and my own doula projects. Some day we are going to have to have a radical doula convening!

What is so broken that they don’t want to use it?

MZP1 Comment

Yesterday’s Washington Post article about “do it yourself” birth has some interesting things to say about this practice (that they imply is on the rise) of women giving birth alone at home, without help from any providers at all–no doctors or midwives.

This idea, of a woman giving birth alone, cutting the umbilical cord herself, is definitely not a new one. Despite the fact that it is a huge departure from our “modern” idea of childbirth (where huge amounts of technology and expertise are seen as indispensable), there is a long history of isolationist birth practices. Indigenous cultures have (and continue to) employ these practices–a group of indigenous midwives in the Ecuadorian Amazon told me about women from certain groups who would walk into the jungle when ready to give birth, and come back hours later with the newborn child.

I definitely wouldn’t advocate for a return to these times, or an adoption of these practices from other cultures. I don’t think most women in the US are ready to take on childbirth solo, but these extreme cases to prove a few things to the rest of us:

-It is possible to be completely in control of ones birth, without high-level medical expertise

-Some number of people are giving birth this way, disrupting the birth-as-emergency paradigm

The midwife interviewed for the article points out the most crucial question:

“To me the really interesting question is, Why would someone go outside the system?” Rothman said. “What is so broken that they don’t want to use it?”