Infant Mortality in the US…are we really on top?

Please watch this short film about prematurity!

Reducing Infant Mortality from Debby Takikawas on Vimeo.

A Woman’s Right to Refuse Cesarean

When I teach my classes I always tell my students that they have the right to refuse any medical intervention, even if doing so endangers them or their baby.  I often point out that there is no situation where one person is required to have surgery to protect the health of another, which is essentially what many cesareans boil down to–a woman having a surgery that she likely does not need, but her baby might need.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m very much pro-life.  I wouldn’t encourage any woman in labor to endanger her baby–and I truly believe that most women would not endanger their baby.  But so often, Continue Reading…

The Latest on Breech Birth

In a previous post I had written that the opinions of ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) are not the “be all and end all” of legitimate opinions on safe birth.

Right on cue, ”SOGC” or the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, has issued a statement on the safety of vaginal breech birth. 

ACOG, as you might know, reccommends Continue Reading…

Lehigh Valley Hospital Makes a Statement

Lehigh Valley Hospital has responded to the letter to the editor that was published in The Morning Call last week.   You can read it here.

I’d like to respond to a couple of the statements made in the letter. Continue Reading…

Birth in the News

Recently 3 major news organizations have had articles about birth related issues:  The LA Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time magazine.  All of these articles have merit, but also have some short comings, which I’d like to address.

LA Times

The LA Times article, Childbirth:  Can the US Improve?, I thought was over all very good.  I liked that it featured a mom who not only had to look around to find a Dr. willing to support her VBAC, but that she successfully birthed a reasonably large baby (8 lbs 11 oz) vaginally.  I thought it dealt with the risks of cesarean and interventions very well, such as the increased risk of “ICU” admissions (that should be “NICU) for babies with planned births–that is, planned inductions or planned cesareans.  They pointed out that when some hospitals institute rules banning “planned” deliveries prior to 39 weeks that are not medically indicated, NICU admissions dropped by 46%.  Amazing.  Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“We’re going in the wrong direction,” said Dr. Roger A. Rosenblatt, a University of Washington professor of family medicine who has written about what he calls  Continue Reading…

Eating in Labor

When I took an independent childbirth class during my first pregnancy, I remember very clearly one discussion we had about eating in labor.  My instructor Dotty explained that eating to comfort was good for the laboring mother–to eliminate the discomfort of being hungry at the very least, if not to provide energy for the hard work of labor.  She told of one of her clients who had hidden in the bathroom of her labor room to eat an ice cream cone, but was “busted” by her nurse when she came out with a chocolate mustache.  I laughed–as apparently did the nurse.

So when I was faced with a long labor–over 33 hours all told–I did not hold back from eating, but rather ate to comfort.  Which included a breakfast befitting a lumberjack–scrambled eggs, a ham slice, hash browns, toast, fruit cup, 8 oz milk, 8 oz OJ.

As a childbirth educator, I tell my students to “eat to comfort,” and to remember that vomitting is common in labor, so try to eat things that are easy to digest and non-acidic.  Then with a laugh I tell them about my breakfast being perfect examples of what NOT to eat.  Of course I also explain that it is a good example of why it is important to listen to your body cues–because I didn’t end up eating again until breakfast the next morning, so obviously I needed all that food!  Well, I did try to eat a french fry from my husband’s dinner, but as soon as I bit into it, I knew I didn’t need to eat, and listened to my body cues and didn’t even finish the fry.  And sure enough…nausea a few minutes later.

Now I know that what I tell my students flies in the face of standard advice given to women in labor.  In fact, like my childbirth instructor before me, I advise my clients that “it is easier to get forgiveness than permission.”  That is…don’t ask permission to eat–just do it (discretely!), and if there should come a reason why you need to let someone know about it…forgiveness will come.

So I’m glad to see that a recent study has come out indicating that eating in labor is not linked to poor outcomes. 

I hope that as these studies keep coming out, practices in labor will slowly change for the benefit of women’s comfort.  Even a friend of mine who had 3 cesareans commented on how her post-surgical food was handled differently with each birth from only being allowed liquids for 24 hrs, to being allowed solid food after she’d had “bodily functions,” to the situation that she reported as being the best–after the birth of her twins she was very soon allowed to have regular food.

Of course as long as we have the attitude that women in labor need permission to eat as expressed in the Consumer Reports blog–rather than advice one way or the other…well until then we’ve still got a long way to go.