Janelle over at the Birth Sense blog is rapidly becoming one of my favorite blogs because of her very well written posts that include references to current research findings. Using one of my comments as a spring board for a post made my day today, because once again, she has provided references to current research that is of use to laboring women.
The Lake Powell Chronicle, a newspaper in Arizona, carried an article recently highlighting the plight of a woman who has had 3 previous births–the first a vaginal birth, the second a cesarean, and the 3rd a VBAC. Now, expecting her 4th child, she is being told that she must consent to a repeat cesarean because her local hospital (Page) has determined that it can not handle any possible emergencies that a VBAC might bring. Continue Reading…
Posted 11 months, 1 week ago at 12:20 am. 2 comments
Are you looking to buy something on Amazon.com? If so, please consider visiting my “store” to make your purchase. You may purchase any item sold by Amazon.com through my store, not just the items I have listed (items I reccommend) in my store. All funds raised through this store will be used for financial aid for individuals desiring my services but affected by the current economic climate, or will be used to fund the activities of EmPoWeReD Birth. Thank you!
If you have a great item that you think I should reccommend in my store, please let me know, and I’ll consider it!
I’d like to thank all of the folks who gave of their precious Saturday morning to come out to the rally today! If the Lehigh Valley Hospital security car showing up around noon was any indication, we did draw a bit of attention.
A friend expecting her second baby this coming October recently lamented to me in an e-mail:
…most of the women who go to OBs do not know - or at least believe popular misconceptions - about what midwives do. Every woman would want midwifery care for herself and baby if they knew what it truly was…. All the women I know who used midwives were women who wanted individualized care and somebody to be there to support them through their whole birth experience. Somebody who knew them and who they trusted; rather than a practice where you rotate through providers and get whoever is on call. Some had natural births, some with epidurals, etc. but the most important aspect was thatrelationship and better care. (Jennifer Harper)
A Pioneer Midwife in Pennsylvania
As a childbirth educator and a doula, and most importantly as a mom of 5 children, I couldn’t help but Continue Reading…
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 1:29 am. Add a comment
I’m going to do a bit of an informal poll on births at Lehigh Valley Hospital. Here is what I would like from you…please tell me about births that you have DIRECT knowledge of at Lehigh Valley Hospital in 2007, 2008, and 2009. That is, either you were at the birth, or you were told about the birth by someone who was at the birth.
What I would like to have is the year of the birth, the first name and last initial of the mother (this is so that I can make sure I’m not counting the same birth more than once), what baby this was for the mother, whether the primary care provider was a midwife or OB, and whether the birth was cesarean or vaginal. So that would look like this:
2007 Donna B first OB cesarean
2007 Jan H first midwife vaginal
2008 Renee C first OB vaginal
2009 Lynn D. second OB vaginal
I’m hoping to collect data on at least 200 births (and have gotten info on 25 so far on Facebook)…so…can you help me?
Thank you!
May 21: An update on the stats so far….I have data now on 52 births.
Half of this data is from midwife attended births…but The Midwives attended less than 3% of births at LVH in 2008…so you can expect that LVH’s cesarean rate is much closer to the OB cesarean rate than the “overall” rate. I will note that I suspect that there might be a bias in the OB data in that women who have a cesarean birth for their first baby and then were seeing The Midwives for a planned VBAC might be highly represented in the data set…yet another reason for me to want data on a LOT of births.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 8:19 pm. Add a comment
I will be hosting a showing of the film “Born in the USA” on Sunday, May 17 at 6 p.m. Yes, that’s a week after Mothers’ Day…but I expect to be busy with my kids on Mothers’ Day.
I have used snippets of this film in my childbirth classes for a few years, but have never shown the full length feature since there simply is not enough time for that in my classes. However, I’m excited to invite people to join me in watching the film, then an open discussion afterward. The film was produced for PBS, and looks at low-risk childbirth in America in a hospital setting with an obstetrician care provider, an out-of-hospital birth center with a certified nurse midwife (CNM), and homebirths with a licensed midwife.
This showing is open to anyone, whether you have children or not. There will be a period of discussion following the film. Contact me for more information!
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 3:33 pm. 2 comments
I just learned today that The Midwives and Associates are no longer going to be allowed to attend VBAC’s at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
There has not been a negative outcome with VBAC’s that they have attended…it’s just a decision that was made by “folks higher up.” I have to wonder if this decision is just related to The Midwives, or if all VBAC’s are being forbidden at this hospital?
Either way, why am I not surprised?
I believe there may be one midwife attending VBAC out of St. Luke’s Bethlehem, but her offices are located in Stroudsburg, so many women find her to be geographically inaccessible. She’s also not an option for women who have “Valley Preferred” insurance, which ONLY allows women to birth out of Lehigh Valley Hospital.
There are a few OB’s who attend VBAC at area hospitals, but for the woman who desires the midwifery model of care, it appears that the only option for her now is homebirth.
UPDATE on Friday, May 7: I learned yesterday that saddly the midwives have lost ALL birthing priviledges at Lehigh Valley Hospital. As women, we can not sit back and allow this to happen without a fight. Please contact The Morning Call with your thoughts about this situation. I will keep you updated on what you can do. Thank you!
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 11:16 pm. Add a comment
Janelle over at the Birth Sense blog is rapidly becoming one of my favorite blogs because of her very well written posts that include references to current research findings. Using one of my comments as a spring board for a post made my day today, because once again, she has provided references to current research that is of use to laboring women.
The 
