Green Options

Have you ever heard, “I couldn’t breastfeed“? I sure have. Some women simply can’t. They’re a rare bunch, accounting for only a small percentage of mothers overall, approximately 3 to 6 million women worldwide.

Those of us who believe in natural processes, like breastfeeding and childbirth without medical interventions, won’t be surprised to hear this news:

Labor drugs interfere with breastfeeding.

*Shock*

Stylish, practical babywearing with a message, and a real contribution to mother-friendly childbirth advocacy.

Moby Wraps, one of the most popular stretchy wraps for babywearing, is currently selling a custom-designed model sporting a “Born Free” butterfly logo, from the makers of The Business of Being Born (that’s Ricki Lake in the promo photo, along with the film’s director Abby Epstein).

A portion of the proceeds from sales of this wrap will go to support the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, an organization now in its second decade.  CIMS seeks to promote evidence-based maternity care, and states their mission as follows:

The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) is a coalition of individuals and national organizations with concern for the care and wellbeing of mothers, babies, and families.  Our mission is to promote a wellness model of maternity care that will improve birth outcomes and substantially reduce costs. This evidence-based mother-, baby-, and family-friendly model focuses on prevention and wellness as the alternatives to high-cost screening, diagnosis, and treatment programs.

Having a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) could help you have an empowering birth experience. No, they won’t make your birth beautiful. But most CPMs believe in the ability of women’s bodies instead of the medicalization of childbirth.

That’s why you should join The Big Push. This consortium of birth activists and midwives is fighting for a voice in the health care debate. From the press release,

All women deserve access to midwives no matter what their economic status, and adding Certified Professional Midwives to the Medicaid Providers list will help expand access to those who otherwise could not afford it.

A key member of Congress has said that 10,000 signatures for their petition would make a big difference. We’re about halfway there. Read on to find out the particulars of the campaign and pass it on!

The United States has a C-section rate of 31.8%. Yep, a third of babies born in the States are born through the belly.

But don’t worry. Because according to Dick Morris, if we somehow manage to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill, the government will force you to give birth naturally.

MORRIS: What controlling costs means is –
O’REILLY: – is competition.
MORRIS: No. It means denial of services…. And that’s what — just as right now the government is telling people, cut back on cesarean sections. Go through natural childbirth; it’s a lower cost.

Wait, the government is currently telling women they can’t have C-sections? Just where does Dick Morris live?

Check out the video:

Today, my firstborn child turns 4 years old.

When I was 15 weeks pregnant, I left his father, my fiancé, and spent most of my pregnancy preparing to be a single mother.

I also readied for a natural birth.

Though I was nervous about the impending step into parenthood, I had a midwife I adored and a host of incredibly supportive friends.

In honor of my Little L, I thought I’d share his birth story with you. I believe in natural birth. And in sharing our stories, hopefully we can empower other women to trust in their ability to bring babies into the world peacefully and without unnecessary interventions.

Every 21 minutes a baby is stillborn in the US; 70 babies each day.

Scared? Get a medical device to track your baby’s kicks. This piece of electronic junk product records the number of kicks per day. And if your baby sometimes kicks noticeably less, you can totally freak out and head to the OB for an unnecessary appointment. Whee!

With marketing like

Help Mothers protect their unborn babies!

what’s not to love about the kickTrak?! I mean, besides using scare tactics to sell more useless stuff?

An otherwise healthy young woman entered a hospital to give birth. She contracted bacterial meningitis, was transferred to another hospital, and died.

While many people around the blogosphere has been pointing to the death of homebirth advocate Janet Frazer’s baby with a gigantic, “See?…See?!” (followed by a “Na-na-na-na-boo-bo!”), this, too can be an example of how even hospitals can–gasp!–royally screw things up.

Actually, 2 moms were infected in the maternity ward at Ohio’s Mary Rutan Hospital. Now, both the hospital and the CDC are baffled by the cases:

Babies were healthy, moms were healthy.

Well, the moms were healthy when they arrived. Not so much after giving birth.

There has been a bit of controversy about unassisted childbirth after Janet Fraser, the birth activist who coined the term “birth rape“, gave birth to a baby girl who died. Afterward, the was a lot of finger-pointing, some support and sorrow.

In my traversing this natural parenting bloggy world, I’ve been lucky enough to encounter a handful of amazing, brave women who have had incredible unassisted birth experiences.

I thought I’d share one with you. Introducing Sheryl, who writes at A Much Better Way, the bloggy site for her store. After enduring a bad, bad experience with a “medwife“, she chose an unassisted birth for her second daughter. She was kind enough to enlighten me (and you, too, I hope!).

Many of you read and supported me in my “Medicalization of my Natural Birth“. Thanks, yo.

I never had to face a Caesarean section. Not with these birthin’ hips. I know, and am even related to, women who have. It’s a tough recovery for many, both physically and emotionally.

Now there’s a movement to make the C-section more “natural”. Vaginal birthing has had a natural movement over the last 20 years, and one doctor wants the C-section to have the same.

British professor Nicholas M. Fisk wants to encourage the same bonding that is present in many natural vaginal births in his C-section patients. He thinks C-sections should be more “woman-centered.”

But with 1/3 of all American labors ending in surgery (in the UK the C-section rate is 24 percent), is this something we should encourage? Do we really want him to soothe us into the decision of a C-section?! “There, there. At least it’ll be natural.”

What’s next…is he going to “naturalize” the vasectomy?!