follow up friday

male midwife dares to suggest epidural rate is too high http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/12/pregnancy-pain-natural-birth-yoga





some follow-up from salon http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/07/14/epidural_epidemic/index.html

and from london based delia lloyd http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/07/16/no-pain-no-gain-the-value-of-epidurals-during-childbirth/

I posted rixa's reply seperately in the previous post. and she did an awesome job of collecting all the chatter. all i really have to say is trhat all the hoopla about him being a MAN is getting in the way of what he has to say. its sexist at the very least....i mean do we also question so strongly the pronouncements of other males dealing in birth such as the mostly male writers of obstetrical texts?

a study about bottle-feeding

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/besttreatments/2009/jul/14/mums-who-bottle-feed-not-given-safety-advice

the study basically says that women who choose to bottle feed are ignored by the medical profession and not given appropriate safety info. i ahve to say i agree with this. i bottlefed my daughter from about six weeks and did not get any safety info wrt formula feeding.

when i got my lactation counselor certification they suggested giving formula feeding classes as well as breastfeedig classes. it wasn't until i took that class that i learned formula isn't sterile for instance. and how many moms are told to add water to the bottle before powder to ensure accurate measurements? i wasn't. lucky for my daughter i knew that.

i thnik pediatricians would do well to pay attention to this study and to pay attention to their patients and parents as individuals....

dick morris makes claims that govn't is telling women to quit having cesareans

http://mediamatters.org/research/200906250042

actually according to healthy people 2010 we do have a goal to reduce primary section rates from %18 in 1998 to %15 in 2010 and the repeat section rate from %72 to %63

however the site states

"(The targets presented here apply to the population as a whole and are not intended to be used as practice outcome objectives for individual physicians or institutions, as the medical needs of the patients in each practice will vary.) In addition to monitoring rates of cesarean births, the outcomes of these deliveries (for both the mother and the infant) should be watched closely to assure that changes in the mode of delivery do not put women or their infants at risk."

so section rate reduction is not being pushed in terms of a money saving strategy....thats really all i can find about obamas take on section rates....and of course these goals were crafted before obama took office anyway

anybody with more info? please comment....

and heres gloria lemays take on a letter posted on the american college of nurse midwives site http://www.glorialemay.com/blog/?p=147

i still don't know what i think about the situation. i'm an aspiring midwife. i'm currently thinking of going the cnm route rather than cpm because taht would allow me to bring the midwifery model of care to more women. if things were to change legally in this state to allow for legal recognition of cpms then i might go that route....

i do think the letter was unecessarily divisive, and i have not seen any research to support the conclusion that cpms are not qualified providers, BUT i do like the idea of a standardized education for cpms.

i don't see why apprenticeship couldn't be incorporated into that.

okay well this was kind of a lazy post but ithink its all i got for now....