All Natural Mommies

Posts Tagged ‘birth’

This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a Red Tent event, sponsored by Colleen Curry, a local doula, childbirth educator, and breastfeeding counselor.
These events bring together women from all walks of life to talk about their birth experiences. About 15 women gathered and shared their birth stories. We also discussed the importance of talking about birth to our daughters, sisters, nieces, friends, coworkers, and other women in our lives.

All too often, women go along with their care providers’ wishes, without questioning anything that is said! Healthy, low-risk women do not NEED an epidural, continuous fetal monitoring, IVs, and constant vaginal exams during labor. There is another way! You can have a beautiful, healthy, natural childbirth experience! Just do a little reading to educate yourself.

Events like the Red Tent bring education and awareness to many women. But mainly, they give women an outlet for sharing their own experiences. We often ask new moms about the baby and how mom’s feeling. But we often neglect to ask about the birth. Childbirth can be a momentous, life-changing event and it should be honored as such. Regardless of if you had a natural delivery or a planned cesarean, it’s an experience that most likely changed you in some way.

Honor that experience! Write your birthstory. Post it on a blog (we’d love to feature your story here, just email it to me at rachel@all-natural-mommies.com), or keep it just for yourself, to share with your child someday.

Look for a BOLD Red Tent event in your area…or Sponsor one!

There is no doubt that we need healthcare reform in America.  Every family has a story about healthcare costs, loss of coverage, or refused coverage.  If you don’t, you’re one of the lucky few with great insurance. 

President Obama has been committed to reforming healthcare.  This Monday, he’ll be addressing the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates as part of the administrations efforts to legislate healthcare.   The AMA has pledged to decrease the annual healthcare spending growth rate by 1.5 percentage points, or about $2 trillion dollars over the next decade.

Part of this commitment, is to work to curb “overuse” of some services, including caesarean sections.  That is exciting news.  Parents who’ve strived for a natural birth, have often run into a cascade of interventions heading full-force towards a caesarean birth.  These mamas often have to cajole and argue to get the birth they want.  If these doctors are truly committed to reducing the use of caesareans, they’ll need to move towards supporting more natural labor/birth practices!  At least, that’s my hope. 

The healthcare system needs to provide more information on caesareans and their risks.  More and more women with little or no risk-factors have been choosing scheduled c-sections for convenience, fear of pain(?), bodily changes, and other reasons.  I’m almost certain that they have received very little information from their OB about the risk and consequences of having major abdominal surgery, not to mention the effects on the infant. 

This is not to say that all caesareans are bad.  Of course, there are valid medical reasons and the health of the mother and baby should always be the first priority.   But if it’s possible for doctors to reduce the instance of surgery, I’m all for it.

Here’s hoping President Obama will make a difference in the minds of these doctors.

The full story is here at the Chicago Tribune.

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