The Feminist Breeder

Things You Should Read Thursday, Vol. 10

Thanks to some very high profile articles, Natural Birth is having The Best Week Ever. In case you spent the week under general anesthesia, here’s what you missed:

Heather Armstrong (Dooce.com): The Labor Story, Part One
Here, arguably one of the most famous blogging moms in history, tells the story of how she went from being a “give-me-the-epidural-two-days-ahead-of-time” type of mother, to being radically transformed into a Natural Birthing Evangelist, just 10 weeks before her second baby was due.  She credits a free copy of “Your Best Birth” for changing her mind.  Go Ricki & Abby.

Unnecesarean.com: “Pit to Distress: Your Ticket to an ‘Emergency’ Cesarean?”
In a word? Horrifying.  In another word? Familiar.  Here the lid is blown off a common procedure being performed in maternity wards every single day where doctors and nurses knowingly use Pitocin to inflict stress on a fetus, all so they can call for an “emergency” cesarean.  No.  I’m not kidding.  It’s very real. I would argue that it’s exactly how I ended up with my cesarean. 

And on the same topic…

Cate Nelson: “Leash This Pit”
More on the harmful use of Pitocin, and the “medicalization” of childbirth in general.  Cate talks about some alternatives to artificial induction, and calls out the dangers and misconceptions of chemical inductions.

Now in mainstream birth news – there go those silly politicians again, spinning the facts and undermining health care…

Louise Marie Roth: Dick Morris Doesn't Understand Birth or Health Care
I just love when men who have zero experience with birthing talk about birth choices as though they themselves might be personally affected. Here, Roth calls out former Clinton advisor-turned-criticizer, Dick Morris, for accusing the Obama administration of forcing women to sacrifice their health by having natural births.  Huh boy.

And finally (as though the previous things weren’t enough to chew on for the week)

(VIDEO) Bill Moyer’s Journal: Interview with former CIGNA VP, Wendell Potter
If this doesn’t blow your mind, I don’t know what will.  Here the head of an insurance company reveals how his moral epiphany led him to resign from his posh job, and has him now speaking out about the amoral practices of both the large insurance companies, and the politicians who try to oppose universal healthcare.  He admits that Michael Moore’s documentary Sicko “hit the nail on the head” and that our country’s healthcare is in crisis.  After this, nobody has any great excuse for believing the bull the insurance companies and Republican supporters try to sell us.

Okay, you’ve got your hands full now.  Enjoy!

Things You Should Read Thursday: Vol. 9

This week – lots of news in the world of natural birthing and breastfeeding!

C-sections shouldn't be 'automatic' for breech births, Canadian doctors say
So, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Canada has decided that vaginal birth is a perfectly reasonable option for delivering most breech babies, and they’ve even go so far as to begin a program to train doctors in the lost art of breech delivery.  I have to say, I’m dumbfounded.  This is one of the most responsible and intelligent things I’ve heard a medical profession do.  You mean, they weighed the evidence, and changed their mind?  What a concept!  Hey ACOG, take notes from our friends to the north.

Speaking of those smart(er) Canadian doctors…

C-sections, forceps use rising too sharply in Canada, medical groups say
Here several Canadian medical groups complain of the overuse of cesarean, forcep and vacuum assisted delivery, and delivery before 41 weeks.   “Doctors should only resort to these interventions when there is a valid, evidence-based reason” the article says.  Oh, Canada!

But, I do have to throw the ACOG a bone this week – or rather, I suppose it’s them throwing us a bone…

ACOG Refines Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Guidelines
Finally, the ACOG realizes that fetal heart rate monitoring has done absolutely nothing to reduce perinatal mortality or the risk of cerebral palsy.  In fact, they say that the cerebral palsy rate has remained exactly the same for the last 60 years despite all the interventions and technology thrown at it.  I’ll be sending this to my doctor who (as you may have read in my VBAC birth story) insisted that the heart rate monitor was telling him my child would be born with cerebral palsy if I did not let him perform a cesarean on me.  Idjit.

In other news...

Breastfeeding Improves IQ
Well, it has been argued time and again.  People have said there’s no validity in the notion that breastfeeding makes you smarter, but now there’s been a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that compared the IQs of siblings in the same family, one who was breastfed, and the other who was formula fed.  Guess who came out on top?  Well... I don’t want to give it away, so make with the clicky-click on the link above.

And finally...

And in reference to my Things You Should Read Thursday: Vol. 7 - I'd like to say THIS is the right way for establishments to use the International Breastfeeding Symbol.  Take note.  And thank you Elita @Blacktating for bringing that pic to my attention.  I'd also like to note that the pictures I complained about on the Mothering site have now been removed - I only noticed because I clicked on the link in my post, and it's dead now.  Coincidence?  Or they did hear me (us)?  I find it very interesting, but however it happened, I'm quite pleased.  They now have a page listing the "suggested use" of the symbol, and make particular reference to the symbol not being used to "segregate" breastfeeding mothers (wasn't that the word so many of us used when griping about this?)  Even if it had nothing to do with our complaints, lets all pat ourselves on the back for making a difference anyway.

That's all for now. Toodles!

Things You Should Read Thursday: Vol. 8

(I skipped doing this last week because I had too much to say about the Jon & Kate situation.)

Michael Woodhead: "Natural" caesareans a gimmick
It’s a really short article but it does link to a great PDF.  Right now I’m shuddering at the newly-coined term “Natural Cesareans.”  I knew this was coming.  With the VBAC-lash hospitals have been facing, they’re trying to find ways to convince unsuspecting mothers that major abdominal surgery can somehow be just the same as the real thing.  Doesn’t this sound familiar?  Sounds like Similac saying “The closest thing to breastmilk!”   Yeah. Nice try.  Now, I’m all for humanizing the cesarean process for those women who absolutely must have those surgeries. The experience is already humiliating and traumatizing enough.  Things like keeping the mother with the baby throughout the entire delivery/recovery/postpartum, and allowing breastfeeding immediately, could help eliminate some trauma a mother experiences when, as a result of a surgical delivery, her baby is taken away from her and not seen until hours later.  But does that make it “natural” and the same as vaginal birth?  Absolutely not.

CIMS: Free Web Seminar on Informed Consent & Refusal in Maternity Care
This is geared toward childbirth professionals, but I think anyone interested in these topics should sign up for this free information session. Just head to the website, register for the webinar, and stick the reminder on your calendar. 

That’s all for this week.  Toodles.

Things You Should Read Thursday: Vol. 7

This week, something to read, and something just to look at.

Lisa Girion - Childbirth: Can the U.S. improve?
Such an wonderfully rich article on the cesarean plague facing this country.  Most articles like this (and there have been quite a few lately) seem to take the luke-warm, way-too-diplomatic approach.  This article offers the unabashed truth, and it even contains quotes from doctors finally waking up and smelling the post-operative stench.  Perhaps change is afoot?  And with the medical professionals finally admitting that there is a disturbing cesarean rate in this country, I would just like to offer a hearty “I freaking told you so” to those who didn’t believe me.  I can only hope that the insurance companies and legislators listen to these doctors.

Is this really Breastfeeding Support?  Why I think this is a big Mothering Magazine Fail.
Based on the crickets I heard when I brought this issue up on Twitter, I have deduced that either I’m reading too much into this, or none of the folks in my circle of naturalists would dare say a bad word against their precious Mothering Magazine.  But these photos tell a totally hypocritical story to me.  This is a page dedicated to photos of the official international breastfeeding symbol being used to denote “breastfeeding friendly” establishments.  So, there’s a symbol in a restaurant window.  Awesome.  And there’s a symbol framed on a fancy luncheon table.  Super.  Wonderful use of the symbol.

But, the symbol posted on the door of a “Mother’s Room” in an airport, with the caption “To obtain key, please see the Travelers Assistance Booth across from Gate C12” – yeah, not a great use of that symbol if you ask me.  So, what this sign is REALLY saying is “No, you should not be breastfeeding wherever it is convenient for you. Instead, you need to drag your baby to Gate C12, wherever that is, and get a key to enter this room so you can hide away that dirty, dirty breastfeeding you plan on doing.”  If I were the owner of the breastfeeding symbol, this is NOT how I would want it used.  There are also several other photos of the symbol being used to denote a nursing station of some kind.

Perhaps I’m overreacting, but I see this as a Mothering Magazine fail.  They’re congratulating facilities that use the breastfeeding symbol to relegate women to makeshift bathrooms and other hiding places, instead of using the symbol to demonstrate that breastfeeding mothers are free to nurse wherever they choose.  Eh.  It just chaps my hide a bit.  Please, tell me your thoughts on this.

That’s all for this week.  Enjoy!

Things You Should Read Thursday: Vol. 6

…or rather, perhaps it should say “Things You Should Read and/or Watch” Thursday. 

Here we have video footage of testimony by some smart women in support of the Pennsylvania HB1350 – a workplace pumping bill.  One of my Twitter friends is featured here, and it made me so friggity-friggen proud to see her.  I think it made me even happier to see a male politician fully in support of something that would make most men too uncomfortable to even talk about.

Speaking of Jake – the piece I offer for your reading pleasure today is a wonderful post from her “Sustainable Mothering” Blog.  She writes a poignant article on what it feels like to have nursed a toddler after that toddler is grown into an adolescent.  Wonderfully powerful pictures.

Jake Aryeh Marcus: "This is What a Nursing Toddler Looks Like"

That oughta do it for today.  Ciao!

Things You Should Read Thursday

Did you hear?  Formula-feeding automatically makes you a happier mother?  It also makes you more attactive because breastfeeding ruins your body.  Did you also know that some lactation consultants are so mean they actually coax women to their deaths?

You didn't know all this?

Wait, you didn't know all this???  Perhaps that's because it's not true.  But that's not what these two journalists would have you believe.  So this week's Things You Should Read Thursday highlights two different articles by "Anti-Lactivists" charging breastfeeding with everything from ruining your body to promoting suicide.

Laura Rosen Cohen: Breast is best?
Oh my god, it's so painfully awful to be a breastfeeding mother that, same as Hannah Rosin, this mom does it, but then touts alllll the reasons in the world why it's such a totally useless thing to do.  Spare me.

Daisy Goodwin: The breast is best Gestapo: The 'natural childcare' zealots who make women feel like failures
Here we see a lactation counselor being blamed for a suicidal mother's death.  The author charges that the mother was made to feel like a failure by the LC, and that is why she committed suicide.  Seriously?  That's all it takes to get somebody to off themself?  It couldn't have been that perhaps the mother was suffering from some serious clinical depression brought on either long before she ever had children, or from Post Partum Depression (an affliction, btw, that breastfeeding helps ward off)???  Oy.

I'm so sick of breastfeeding advocates being charged with making mothers feel guilty.  First of all, this is horsecrap.  No one can "make" you feel anything unless you let them.  This is nothing more than projected guilt, and for every single mother who says she was pressured to breastfeed, there is another mother just like her somewhere who says she's being pressured NOT to breastfeed.  In fact, the latter is far more likely.

I'm sure there are a couple thousand AP, Jack-Newman-reading folks who would have me believe that weaning my 1 year old would do serious psychological damage to him.  My opinion?  That is their own psychological damage talking.  And the guilt I feel over possibly weaning is my OWN guilt, and nothing that anyone else has done to me.

Now - If you don't want to learn how to breastfeed easier, why in the world would you call a lactation consultant?  They are there to "consult" you on "lactating."  They are not there to teach you how to bottle feed and absolve you of any guilt you may be feeling over your decision.  I wouldn't hire a plumber to have him talk me out of getting my leaky toilet fixed.

You have a problem - You hire a professional to help you deal with it.  You don't like their advice, then come up with your own solution.  If you feel guilty about your decision, ask yourself why because guilt can ONLY come from within yourself.

The rest of the woman who are desperately seeking out help with breastfeeding issues greatly benefit from those of us willing to be called "Nazi's" for lending our support to their efforts.  Without the "Nazi's" I may have given up breastfeeding my second son, which would have landed me right back in the same depression I felt while I formula fed my first son.

Then who could I hold responsible for my unhappiness as a mother?

Things You Should Read Thursday: Vol. 4

Wow, I can’t believe I’m already on Week Four of “Things You Should Read.”  I hope everyone is enjoying it as much as I am!  I’ll have a much, much more personal post later tonight or tomorrow.  I’m still working out my feelings about that one.

First Up!

Lois Rogers: Mothers stay trim with drug to stop breast milk
This first article is so rage-inducing as a feminist and a mother that I can hardly stomach it.  It's an article about how some British women are taking a drug to stop lactation to "stay fit" because breastfeeding is such an ugly and useless thing, according to them.

“My breasts are for my husband,” said one 35-year-old French mother of twins who lives in Britain. “He wouldn’t like me feeding the babies and I don’t want to end up with a chest like a cow.”

Aaaaaaaaaaand, what do I always say again?  Right.  Women Are the Problem with Women.  I suppose my vagina is my husband's property too, so why not just let him do whatever he wants with it?  Perhaps I can make it removable so he can take it on business trips with him.  I mean, after all - it is HIS vagina.  We wouldn't want it sitting around getting bled on and peed on - not when I signed over papers to him on the day of our wedding.  "Here you go, Husband, here is the deed to my breasts and vagina.  I will refrain from using them without your sole, expressed permission..."

Ughgh.

Moving On!

Morgan Gallagher: The Case Against Reasoning
Another rebuttal to the Rosin article, but this one takes a bit different approach.  It's looooong, looooong, looooooooooong, BUT it's worth it just for the pictures alone. Oh, how we forget that doctors were advertising cigarettes just a short half-century ago.  This collection of adverts is both hilarious and horrifying.  I've only managed to read it in pieces, but it is highly intelligent and thought provoking.  I've heard Morgan called "The Quintessential Lactivist" by some Tweeters, so if you're a lactivist, get acquainted with her blog.

Happy Reading!

Things You Should Read Thursday: Vol. 3

I’m drowning in things to get done so today’s list will be short and sweet.

Jennifer Block:  “The Backlash to Breast is Best; Why exactly is breastfeeding under attack?”
Yet another rebuttal to the now infamous Rosin article, but I think Jennifer has said it better than most.  A good read.

Amity Reed: “Not a Happy Birthday”
Long before I had ever heard the term “BirthRape,” I felt like what happened to me during my cesarean was definitely a form of rape.  It was traumatizing beyond all explanation, and it all just felt very, very wrong.  Now the term has grown in popularity, and Reed’s article does an excellent job of explaining it to those who may not understand how women like myself can apply such an ugly word to such an otherwise beautiful thing.

Those two articles are heavily substantive.  Away, be gone now, to soak them in.

Things You Should Read Thursday: Vol. 2

First Up: A Birth Story

"My Big Ugly VBAC: It Wasn’t Pretty, But it Was All Mine"
This is not just a birth story, but an entire website dedicated to this woman’s no-holds-barred account of her VBAC which, despite everything, she says was “worth a million words, truly.”  I relate to the way she describes her cesarean and HBAC being like night and day, and how healing the VBAC was for her.   She battled her own fears and seemingly endless labor pains to have her baby just how she needed to: at home, surrounded by her family. 

Next Up: More Unnecessary C-Sections in the News

"Doctor Won't Make The Cut: Feeling pressure from hospital for more c-sections, she leaves"
This self-proclaimed “midwife with a MD behind (her) name” left the hospital she practiced at after they tried to force her to increase her 10% c-section rate to more than 20% without any medical justification whatsoever.  Unfortunately this article is four years old, which means that little has changed.

Last Up: Unassisted Birth Goes Wrong (And This Article Goes Even Worse)

Jessica Gottlieb: How Safe Is Your Home Birth?
Gottlieb writes a malicious article on tragic results of Janet Fraser’s unassisted home birth in March.  She considers her a “criminal” for needing to have her child at home, and dismisses Janet’s term “Birthrape” as being “much more important to Janet than the safety of her child.”  Suffice to say I left a nice, ripe comment.

Happy Reading!

"Things You Should Read" Thursday

This will be the first in a series of weekly installments I am dubbing "Things You Should Read Thursday" in which I post the stories and articles of the week that made my heart go pitter-patter.

First Up - A Birth Story:

HBA2C, 45+ Weeks gestation, 11 lb, 12 oz baby
This mother chose an HBA2C after her the local doctors and hospitals refused to let her try a VBAC or a gentler cesarean (not being separated from baby, etc.)  She also had a "T" incision with one of her cesareans.  She went 5 weeks post dates, and delivered a (nearly) 12 lb baby without so much as a single tear. (thank you to Unnecesarean for finding this one.)

Next Up - I know many of you are probably sick of hearing about Hannah Rosin's article, but I personally enjoy every tongue-lashing she receives over it - particularly those from the important or influential.  I admit that I sadistically revel in the beating of a dead horse, until it rolls over and admits that it was wrong. (And for those of you wearing tight panties, no, I am not calling Rosin a horse anymore than Obama was calling Palin a pig.  Umm.. Err... Ahem.)  Either way, I will continue to denounce this article until The Atlantic, GMA, and Rosin herself come forward issue retractions, and apologize for all they've done to undermine mothers and breastfeeding. 

And I get by with a little help from my smart friends...

Peggy O'Mara: Case Closed, Breast is Best
Peggy writes a compelling piece on the facts, and tells Rosin "Slandering breastfeeding because our society makes it inconvenient is like vacillating on equal pay for women because it's difficult to achieve."  Go Peggy.

Kimya Dawson: The Case FOR Breastfeeding
Before several Twitter friends directed me to this article, I had never heard of this singer/songwriter.  I can't keep up with what the kids are listening to these days.  But reading this article actually made my milk let down. This artist's song was used without permission by Rosin in her podcast, and when the artist (who also hated Rosin's article) found out, the gloves came off.  I want to hug her.

Go forth and enjoy these quality pieces of writing.