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Strollerderby
A naturally beautiful new mom.
Somewhere in a box in the attic, there’s a photo of me taken shortly after giving birth. My face is puffy and shiny with sweat, my eyes are tired and my hair is damp and stringy. Cradling my newborn baby girl in my arms, I look like I just ran a marathon in the Texas heat. While it is certainly not the most flattering photo ever taken of me, it is one of my favorites because it truly captures one of the most important moments of my life.
Now, I suppose that moment could have been captured just as well a few minutes later after I had given some attention to my appearance. I could have combed my hair, powdered my face and put a little color on my lips. But I gave birth before Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Nobody outside my immediate family was ever going to see that picture and besides, I was really tired and couldn’t have cared less how I looked.
But times have changed. With the advent of the Internet and social networking sites, it’s not enough to come through labor and delivery with a weary smile on your face. These days, modern moms know they will be facing an Internet-ready camera immediately after giving birth and are arriving at the hospital prepared for their close-up. Continue reading »
Surgical Delivery
Being a mother who has given birth twice via a cesarean section, when I saw the title of this article in my in-box I couldn’t skip over it. Are c-section babies happier kids? My interest was sparked!
Over on BabyCenter, Author Marcella Gates reported a new Chinese study reported by Reuters yesterday. According to the study – babies who undergo a difficult vaginal delivery are more likely to develop behavioral problems over children born via c-section. Continue reading »
Hey baby!
When it comes to rising C-section rates — the most recent available numbers show 32 percent of births in the US are Cesarean — the list of reasons is fairly stable. There are pressures from hospitals that fear law suits, medical interventions like induction, a rise in multiple births, a rise in repeat C-sections, scheduling considerations for doctors and patients, limited training in alternatives to C-section, the list could go on. But a lack of medical research is not usually on the list, and yet that’s just what doctors in England are setting our to change by researching medications that could be used to reduce C-section rates.
Um, is this a Volvo?
The scene is a common one. A nervous couple en route to the hospital which will deliver their unborn baby. Such was the case last Thursday in Lancashire, England as Matthew Waddington negotiated rush-hour traffic, desperately hoping to get his wife, Rachel Cornwell, to Royal Balckburn Hospital in time.
The couple had originally hoped to have their child at Burnley General Hospital, which is nearer to their home. But when they telephoned the hospital to inform them that Rachel had gone into labor, they were told that Burnley was full and that the couple might have to go to another hospital. So it was decided that Rachel and Matthew would wait as long as possible before heading to Balckburn in the event they could procure a spot at Burnley.
Apparently they pushed the envelope a touch too far.
What are the odds? Better than you think.
On any given day, more than 10,000 babies are born in the United States. Considering that, it’s really not all that surprising that so many were born this past weekend on 10/10/10.
But while the odds of having such a special birthday may be pretty good, the odds of a family having three children with such birthdays has got to be pretty astronomical, right? Continue reading »
VBACs are great, but maybe not for everyone
Writing on the Babble blog Being Pregnant, Danielle Elwood notes that, despite the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ recent guideline changes encouraging doctors to support women who want to try for a vaginal birth after having had a C-section (VBAC), in many areas of the country, women still have difficulty finding a doctor or hospital willing to support that choice.
“It got me thinking about this, when there are no other options, what happens to these women?,” Elwood writes. “Sadly the answer is pretty cut and dry. They are forced to undergo a cesarean section again, when it is not medically necessary, or even wanted in the cases of the mother. Sounds like a human rights violation considering this is not something they wish to take part in.”
Elwood, rightly, worries about the safety of these women who, bereft of options, sometimes take matters into their own hands, “like a woman I spoke to earlier in the year who planned to have an unassisted birth at home, because her local hospitals had banned VBAC, and it was illegal for a midwife to attend her delivery in her state because of outdated birthing laws.”
Elwood writes that the lack of choices these women face – and possible consequences – makes her angry. It makes me angry, too. I wholeheartedly agree that every woman who is giving birth should have access to the full panoply of choices available to her, and be able to weigh the benefits and demerits of each and make her own decision.
But as a woman who very deliberately chose to have a second C-section after having tumbled down a complication-strewn slope (low amniotic fluid led to induction led to an “idiosyncratic response,” which led to … you don’t want to know) into the first one, I also worry a little bit about a backlash brewing for women who don’t choose to attempt VBACs. Continue reading »
There may be important health benefits to epidurals during labor, beyond the immediate benefit of pain relief.
New data show that epidurals may protect women’s muscles during labor. A British study of about 400 women showed that women how had an epidural during labor were less likely to experience organ prolapse after giving birth.
Muscle damage to the abdomen and pelvic floor affects a surprisingly large number of women; about 13% of those who’ve had a vaginal birth. Two thirds of the women who suffer this long-term muscle damage had no epidural, the British research team found.
All these medical terms are a little vague. Let’s be clear: an epidural might save you from a lifetime of peeing your pants a little when you laugh too hard.
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