How small steps can make a huge difference...

    Oprah has created a contest for people to get their own TV show on her new network. Kerry Tuschhoff , a childbirth educator of over 20 years and Founder/Director of Hypnobabies LLC has entered the contest with a video titled "Every Mother, Every Baby!" Her idea for a show is about teaching expectant parents about "taking responsibility for their own decisions and care during pregnancy, birth and baby care".  She urges on the informational section for this video... 

"We need a fun and interesting show about "healing the earth through birth", teaching expectant families in fun ways how to have a safer pregnancy and easier childbirth, take responsibility for their own healthcare during pregnancy(just like Dr. Oz says!) There are over 4 million babies born every year in the U.S. and their moms are just crying out for representation and ways to make pregnancy easier! Let's do it!"

   What a fantastic idea! It would be an amazing way for ALL mother's to gain valuable knowledge about pregnancy and birth! Knowledge they would not receive otherwise. Knowledge is power! This could help expectant families make INFORMED choices! We can cause change to this current birth crisis that our culture has acquired! It is small steps like this that each one of us can do to help!

Please go HERE and VOTE for her video!!

How television is ruining the beauty of birth...

   I recently was reading that TLC's 'Baby Story' will soon be airing a sequence of episodes documenting home births. This is great news. I am thrilled.
   It got me thinking however, about the shows more commonly known story. The hospital birth. In most episodes of 'Baby Story', it ends up becoming the same pattern or cascade of intervention. The mom starts contracting and everyone panics, they grabbed the bags and head to the hospital, they check mom she is a couple cm dilated, they admit mom to L&D, she gets an epidural, lays flat on her back, the doctor comes to check her, shes not progressing, cue the pitocin, Contractions get really intense and hard, mom isn't dilating fast enough and baby goes into distress, they all suit up and race to the OR. Then the parents get a couple glimpses of their newborn and they take him or her to the nursery while the doctor explains that they did "all they could" and at the end of the day "this is what needed to happen to save you and the baby..." I know, I know, this isn't always what happens, but wouldn't you agree, this is what happens on average in the American hospital, every day?
     No wonder American women have such a skewed idea of what normal birth should look like. This is what has become "the norm" in our culture. Interventions for normal healthy births, rushing the labor process and a 30% cesarean rate. It really saddens me. It makes me want to scream off a mountain to the American pregnant women "You can do this! This is what YOUR body is made to do and you CAN have a beautiful, natural and amazing experience!"
   Why has it gotten to this? Well my theory is that doctors like the control, they like that they can take the unpredictability out of birth and do it on their terms. "But that isn't right!" you say... Well it isn't!  Women need to take back the power and fight to get the birth they want nowadays. How horrible of a thought is that. We have to fight for a human right!
  Anyway, back to my original thoughts. I am so pleased to hear that normal birth, (home birth or not) is going to be shown on this show. In my opinion, for this show, this is a very rare occurrence. I am glad that people who are ignorant about home birth will be able to see that it is not a scary, dirty, and risky thing. I hope this will soften the minds of many and fuel many more to give birth themselves in the comfort and safety of home.

Photo (c) S. Meeuwissen