A Magical Birth Story for Our Second Daughter

I bet you thought I wasn't coming back, huh? This blog hasn't really had a place in my life the past several months, but I reserve the right to post when I want to :)

We celebrated our third baby's first birthday over the weekend, and since I wrote a short, positively-focused birth story as a letter to each of my other kids on birthdays in the past, I wanted to do the same thing.

Little Sister's Magical Birth Story

It was early on a chilly December morning and the whole house was asleep. You were safe and warm in the dark womb where you had been living and growing for thirty-nine weeks. Heavenly Father made a hole in the water bag that surrounded you and we knew you would be born soon. You were not ready to come out just yet. You must have been hugging your Great Aunt Anne, who we knew was leaving her earthly home soon but had not moved in just yet. We were all looking forward to meeting you and finding out if you were a boy or a girl. The midwife came to check on us. We prepared the house for your arrival, our first birth at home. We waited. Night came and we rested. Finally, the next afternoon, December 8, 2011, it was time for you to come. I welcomed the squeezing sensations that meant you were on your way. Our doula Kim came to help, and later Nan arrived and watched your older brother and sister in the next room. Darkness fell and I focused more as the birthing process gained momentum. Daddy and Kim got the tub of water ready. Our midwives came and they made sure all was well in a way that didn't get in the way. You soon began moving from the womb into the birth canal and I got in the water. I needed your Dad to help me stay relaxed and focused now, and he did wonderfully. I realized we would meet you soon, and I was so excited! My body knew just what to do to push you out, and it happened automatically. You were born underwater into your father's hands at 8:39 pm. We lifted you up and your dad said, "It's...a girl!" We were so happy to have another daughter! Nan brought your sister and brother into the room and they just loved you right away. We are so happy to have you in our family, and we love you very much.

Happy First Birthday to our sweet Little Sister!

More Holiness Give me: My 40 Day Meditation Journey

I think it was the third time I read the challenge from Felice to try meditating for 40 consecutive days before I actually did it.  Felice made some great videos demonstrating how to tune in, tune out, and various Kundalini meditations for specific changes you want in your life.  I chose to do the Meditation for a Calm Heart shown here:

Around the same time I started the challenge, I was called to be the Relief Society chorister in my ward.  Basically, this means I conduct the music in our women's class during the third hour of church services.  I also got to make the schedule for the hymns for the rest of the year, choosing ones that correspond with the subject matter of the lessons we will be studying.  So, I was really immersed in our wonderful Hymn book at the time.  If you are familiar with my story about making the Hypnobabies cue word "Peace" spiritually significant with hymns, I'm sure you would see how very "me" it is that I chose to add singing hymns to my meditation practice.  I initially replaced the tune in manta with the hymn "More Holiness Give Me."  Later after watching this explanation of mantras, I decided to add "Ong Na Mo Guru Dev Na Mo" back in after the hymn.  "More Holiness Give Me is a perfect song for meditation, with it's chant-like melody and message of supplication and intention.  I replaced the song in this tune out video with an LDS hymn with a similar message, "Lead Kindly Light."

Meditation is supposed to create lasting change.  Lasting change doesn't happen overnight.  You have to do meditation for a while to see benefits.  Here are some of the things that changed over the course of the first 40 days I did this mediation:

• Though I'm still not perfect, I have become better at not responding with anger when my children do something that upsets me
• I put into action weekly at-home date nights, something I probably knew I should have been doing for a while, but never did before, which allows me to connect deeply with my husband
• I became more aware of the importance being an example plays in parenting
• I began committing to other positive habits, such as personal prayer and scripture study (which I usually do before or after meditating), weekly family home evening and (short) daily family devotionals and prayer
• I have explored and am working towards slowly implementing exercise, more consistent cleaning routines, and small changes towards a healthier diet.  I am also earnestly studying Gentle Discipline (I will probably write more about that in a future post)

I have an over-all sense of my life being on an upward trajectory.  I haven't really felt that way in a while.  I think I just have been neglecting spirituality.  I probably could have gotten on this path by working on my relationship with God without the Kundalini techniques, but for me, I think the fact that it was something different made it just interesting enough to motivate me to do it.  I also had a lot of challenges (a sinus infection for the whole family in the middle of travelling for my brother's wedding, followed by heavy menstrual bleeding that left me anemic) come into my life towards the middle-to-end of the 40 days and I think that was me being tested.  I am really glad I accomplished the 40 day challenge, and I am still meditating (still doing the Calm Heart, and now adding a Meditation for Healing Addictions--hoping it will help me not feel compelled to check Facebook so often).  I hope to see more blessings in my life from it.  I am also inspired to try other small changes by committing to do them for 40 days, so that they become permanent, and eventually all the small changes will add up to big change.

Sat Nam, and God Be With You Till We Meet Again :)

No Longer Just About Me

Last week, I saw the cutest thing in my backyard.  My 2 year-old son was pushing a toy shopping cart across the backyard, and every now and then, he would stop, and pretend to pull a string out of it.

I took a picture, but he was a little far away.

You see, now that we have moved to a new state and become homeowners, my husband now has the responsibility of mowing the lawn.  For some reason, children are fascinated by lawnmowers and love to watch.  As I saw my son with the shopping cart, I realized he was pretending to mow the lawn, just like his daddy.

He fell asleep pretending to play video games like Daddy :)

I have been doing some things to really work on improving myself.  A lot of work on finding more peace and strength within myself, while drawing closer to God and trying to become more like Him.  I will share more details about the specifics of that in another post.  But suffice it to say, becoming a better person has been a major focus on my mind the last 2-3 weeks.

A few days ago, I was vacuuming my living room and slipped into that place of deep thought, where some profound ideas came together for me.  When I was single, the focus of my life was on myself.  Improving my life used to be about me, because I wanted to be better, for myself.  Of course, I still do.  But becoming better has a new, higher, more selfless purpose now.  When I became a parent, the focus of my life shifted to my kids.  That day, the breath and depth of that shift sank in with the words...

Not even improving myself is just about me anymore.

Our children want to be like us.  That is why my son enjoys pretending to mow the lawn--because he wants to do what Daddy does.  Really, a huge part of parenting is being a good example, because what they see me do speaks so much louder than anything I could ever say to them.  And so, anything I do to become better will give them a better example to emulate.  Even becoming a better person is not just about me now.  The better example I can be, the better foundation they will have to jump from as adults in improving themselves, and the lives they touch.  My life is no longer just about me.  It is so much bigger than me.

Book Review: The Gift of Giving Life

This book review is a stop on the Virtual Book Tour for The Gift of Giving Life

Two weeks ago, I received a package I have been anticipating for over two years, ever since Sheridan told me about Felice's blog and the book project they were working on.  I had been blessed to have an opportunity to contribute an essay and a birth story to the book, The Gift of Giving Life, and I was excited to see how the whole thing came together and what I would learn from reading the final product.  I was not disappointed.  In fact, I think the book exceeded my expectations.

The Gift of Giving Life is like the Latter-day Saint version of Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, with essays on important topics about pregnancy, birth and spirituality, interspersed with stories that illustrate the points of the essays, in LDS women's own voices.  Chapters include Our Legacy, The Importance of Giving Life, Personal Revelation, Preparation, The Spirit-Mind-Body Connection, and Unity.

The stories contained in the book span a myriad of experiences.  No matter what situation a woman may find herself in, there is something in the book for her.  It becomes clear in reading that there is no one correct path for all women, and the Lord can guide us each on our individual journey.  There are stories of infertility, pregnancy loss, adoption, cesareans, epidural births, unmedicated hospital births, and homebirths, as well as some postpartum stories.  There are even stories on birthing as a sexual abuse survivor and one on healing spiritually after an abortion.

As I was reading, I tried to imagine how I would feel reading this book in my first pregnancy.  I do think it would have changed the way I approached my first birth.  However, as I read on, I found myself healed by the recognition that the Lord gives us our experiences because they are what we need to grow and become more like Him.  Really grasping that my experiences in childbearing have been exactly what I needed for my spiritual development gave me so much peace and helped let go of some disappointment I have held on to from my first two births.

This book is not just for pregnant women or women who have recently given birth.  It is a book about the divine nature of women.  It is for anyone who wants to better understand the power women have as givers of life.  We are not just givers of life through gestating and birthing children, but also through all types of physical and spiritual nurturing and sacrifice for others.  There is much we can learn about divinity and the purposes of life from reflecting on our powerfully significant experiences in being "co-creators with God" and bringing a child from one world to the next, and from darkness into light.  The Gift of Giving Life beautifully enumerates many of those insights.  In addition to learning some wonderful things I want to keep in mind if/when we have another baby, I also learned much that will help me fulfill other parts of my divine mission as a woman, give me greater peace and joy in mothering, and nurture all those around me.

For Latter-day Saint Women currently pregnant or planning a pregnancy, The Gift of Giving Life is a must-read, but I would recommend it for any one who will ever has been or ever will be pregnant, or who loves some one who will, and who better wants to understand the experience in the context of LDS faith and doctrine.  I would also recommend it for birth workers who want to learn how they can support LDS families in their sacred birth journeys.

Visit The Gift of Giving Life website to sign up for their newsletter and to receive a free Meditation MP3 as well as tips to help increase spirituality in your pregnancy and birth.

For my readers I have a coupon code for 10% off a copy of The Gift of Giving Life. Click here and after you add the book to your cart, use this coupon code: GWFWXR3F.  This code is good until Father’s Day 2012.

The Broken Water/Broken Body Myth: How My Third Birth Was Different from My First

In both my first birth and my third, I experienced PROM, premature rupture of membranes.  Premature because it was before active birthing started, not that the babies were early--that would have been PPROM (preterm premature rupture of membranes).  Confusing terminology, I know.

My first birth was a planned hospital birth with CNMs. I noticed a leaking sensation on Thursday morning, but was not diagnosed with ruptured membranse until Saturday morning.  There are two tests that check for the presence of amniotic fluid, nitrazine paper and a ferning test.  Nitrazine paper is used to check the pH of the fluid to find out if it is amniotic fluid, since amniotic fluid is much more basic than the more acidic normal vaginal secretions.  The paper turns blue if amniotic fluid is present.  The ferning test is done but taking a swab behind the cervix  and putting it on a microscope slide.  Amniotic fluid forms "ferns" on the slide.  Other vaginal secretions do not (except for the fertile cervical fluid a woman produces during ovulation, which will not be present during pregnancy).  I had both the nitrazine test and ferning test on Thursday at my midwife appointment.  Both were negative, but I believe the fluid was leaking so slowly that the tests missed it.  I also had a nitrazine test at the hospital on Friday at 2:00 am, after waking to a leaking sensation and some pressure waves, and it also was negative.  I went back to the hospital on Saturday after those pressure waves kept me up all night (I was making some progress, but very slowly at this point), and the leak was discovered.  I was given 6 hours from the discovery of the leaking to show significant progress.  After a lot of walking the halls, nothing happened.  My water got broken completely and I was put on pitocin, and my baby was born 9 hours later, after an epidural 3 hours in.

After something happens to one, one often goes on to learn a lot about it.  It is obvious that infection is more likely without the the protective barrier of the amniotic sac.  However, there is some evidence that expectant management without vaginal exams does not result in poorer outcomes than the standard route of induction (which usually includes quite a few vaginal exams). 

Fast forward to four years later: same woman, different baby, planned homebirth with a Washington State Licensed midwife team.  My waters broke with small gushes all day on a Wednesday morning.  I had pressure waves off an on for 34 hours, but was able to sleep some during the night thanks to Hypnobabies.  Instead of constantly checking my cervix for progress, the midwife had me rinse with hibiclens after every bathroom trip to reduce the risk of infection, had me watching my temp and the baby's heartrate, and waited.  Movements I did that (I believe) helped to position my baby better in my pelvis triggered spontaneous active birthing, and I had a completely drug-free waterbirth at home 5 hours later on Thursday night.  I had not one single vaginal exam the whole time.

I find it interesting to compare my two stories because the circumstances were so similar, but the course of the births was so different with different care providers and a different place of birth.

Five Things I Want my Daughters to Know Before They Grow Up

 Before my daughters start puberty, I want to have taught them an understanding of these five truths.

1. Your Body is Awesome, and Will Change In Ways That Give it Power to Do Even More Awesome Things
I loved this post Lani wrote for The Gift of Giving Life Blog on menstruation, Red and Powerful. I had mixed emotions about starting my period when I was 12. I understood that it meant I was growing up and looked to it with a kind of curious anticipation. But I was also influenced by some negative cultural perceptions that said it was a burden. I was embarrassed to tell my mom, though I don't know exactly why, and when I told her and she told me that was wonderful, I didn't really understand what was "wonderful" about it. I want menarche to be celebrated for my girls, maybe not with a party, but a special mom and daughter day out or something. I want them to understand that (and how) menstruation means fertility, and fertility is so powerful.

2. Sex is Sacred, So We Don't Talk About it With Everyone, but Your Parents are People You Can Always ask Questions about Sex

wishing on a dandelion with my older daughter

This post from the marital intimacy blog, Be One, Miss Rain's Moment of Truth tells the story of a mother who felt inspired to talk to her 7 year old daughter about how babies are made one night, and the beautiful conversation that followed. It turns out a friend had said something to her about it ar school a few days before. I hope to be able to talk to my daughters with the same sensitive honesty that this mother showed. All the things discussed here are just exactly as I would want my girls to understand them at about that age.

3. Sex is Extremely Powerful, a Power That Can Be Used For Amazing Good or Terrible Destruction
I don't remember my parents talking to me much directly about sex.  I think they did teach me, but not always in ways I remember concretely.  I remember "the talk" being kind of awkward, though I think they timed it right because I really had no idea about the mechanical details when they told me. But between their teaching and young women and EFY lessons, I must have picked up the most important parts, because around the time I graduated from high school, I wrote this beautiful poem about what what I wanted the day of my wedding to be like. I wrote a lot of (mostly bad) poetry in my teen years, but I think this may be one of the best...

Love and passion flowing free--

Silent tongues sing in ecstasy.

Hands clasp on to what they've found.

Hearts live for another's sound.

Young eyes sparkle, old one's cry.

Loving parents say goodbye.

As both the product and the source

Of Love follows similar course.

More than objects of desire

Consumed by wild passion's fire

Entering the Holy Gate--

Blessed is the choice to wait.

Today is giv'n the guarded gift.

To new heights a Love will lift.

As the flesh is intertwined,

Two souls are forever joined.

I think some of this I figured out for myself. About five months before I wrote this, I had my first kiss. (I suppose some would cosider 17 old for a first kiss and some young...). About a month after it, that relationship ended, his decision, not mine. As you can imagine, it was a painful break up for me (there was an abundance of bad poetry written about it). I realized that if it was that painful to have given a few kisses to a guy and then have it be over, how much more painful would it be to give someone your whole body in an act of love that I believe is meant to bind people together forever and then have them leave you? It just seemed like it would be incredibly painful to me.

I don't want my girls to feel that sex is "bad," but to understand it is a sacred power that is really, really good when used the right way, but harmful when misused.

4. Dressing Modestly is About YOU, Not about Keeping Other People's Thought's Clean

My Beautiful Girls

I want my girls to understand that the cleanliness of other people's thoughts is not their responsibility.  The choice for a woman to dress modestly is a choice to show respect for her body and its power.  She keep its divine power concealed, except for under the right circumstances.  Heather's post Getting Adam to Partake shares the beautiful insights she learned about modesty from her Muslim friends.

5. "You Are Capable of So Much More Than Being Looked At"
This is one of the messages from Beauty Redefined's billboard campaign.  I want my girls to understand all the things Lindsay and Lexie talk about on their blog.  I want them to recognize and reject all the harmful messages about women in the media and to see "beauty" as so much more than just "sex appeal."  I want them to know that beauty includes who they are and all the wonderful things they can do!

* dandelion photo by  J.C. Photography Utah

The Trap of Idealizing the Quiet Birther (Part 3)

Last April, I wrote a short Birth Idealization Traps series.  I would actually like to continue that series now, with  some new perspective on The Trap of Idealizing the Quiet Birther (Click to read Part 1 and Part 2) that I gained from my third birth.

In my third birth, my midwives acted as lifeguards, watching carefully (using some technology as tools to assist in watching) to make sure nothing pathological was happening, and encouraging me to do some preventative measures due to the risk factor of pre-labor rupture of membranes.  Because of PROM, risk of infection was a good reason to limit/avoid cervical checks, and it turns out that there wasn't any reason to do them. 

My midwives saw no need to check to "make sure I was complete" before pushing.  They encouraged me to follow my instincts and push only when I had no other choice but to push.  I instinctively bore down at the peaks of the pressure waves for a while, until I felt an unmistakable urge to push.  "Urge" isn't even the right word.  "Takeover" describes it better.  I couldn't do anything but push.

Like I suspected when I wrote my other two posts, during my third birth, I was, in fact, a very vocal pusher.  Unlike in my second birth, I was not told to hold my breath and put my chin to my chest to push.  In following my instincts, I did not hold my breath or curl my head forward.  I opened my mouth and let sound escape my body, and boy, did it!  Watching the video now, I am even a little surprised with how loud I was.  I have some technical difficulties with my digital camcorder (I think I need software to load the video, but I must have lost the CD), so I don't have the video to share, but believe me when I say I was LOUD. And no, I was not screaming in pain.  Hypnobabies was absolutely working for me.  There may have been some pain when I lost my rhythm in reaction to changes in how things felt as my body first began pushing, but I experienced the sensations of my baby emerging as mostly stretching and fullness, and  I did not experience burning or a "ring of fire" sensation at crowning.  It was really like I couldn't help making noise.  It was what came naturally to me, and I wouldn't change a thing about it.  

144 Capsules of Awesome (or, What I Did With My Placenta)

This post contains "graphic" images of a human placenta, as well as discussion of the ingestion of placenta.  If you don't want to read about these things, then don't read it.  If you still choose to read it, then you can't say I didn't warn you...

I intentionally made the first picture of this post benign-looking for the purpose of thumbnails, on facebook etc, and to avoid shocking those who may stumble upon this post who actually don't want to see the graphic photos.
This is the lid of the jar from my placenta pills.

Lets begin with some interesting things about this placenta.  It was on the large size, as placenta's go.  Here is a picture of the fetal side, with the umbilical cord branching into a "Tree of Life"

Placenta: Fetal Side

Placenta: Maternal side

What is different about this placenta was the maternal side.  It was more...lumpy than normal.  I don't know the correct scientific words to describe this phenomenon.  It was all divided up into separate pieces.  

One possible explanation I heard for this is that it could be nutrition-related and that it is usually associated with small babies.  My daughter, though not really small, at 6 lbs 11 oz, was a whole 15 oz lighter than her brother, my biggest.   She has put on weight really quick, though.  She's 11 lbs 9 oz at 2 months!

Another unsual thing was my baby's umbilical cord, which I didn't get a picture of.  She had a short cord, so short that the only way I could hold her in the water with the cord attached was right against mychest.

Placenta: Maternal Side, another view

The midwives noticed a small gush of blood in the water as the baby was born, and they also said said that her cord did not pulse as long as they typically do.  They think they discovered why when they examined the cord later.  The cord appeared to be damaged. It had three spots, right near each other, where the Wharton's jelly was missing.  They think this damage must have been what caused the blood and the shorter pulsing time.  They said that they had only seen one other cord like that, which was also a short cord, and those spots were right around where the cord had snapped in two as that baby was being born.

So, on to what I did with the placenta.  When I first heard of placentophagy, I thought it was totally gross.  I thought burying it under a tree might be more my style.  But then I had depression in my pregnancy, and wanted to do anything I could to avoid having it postpartum as well.  Although I was hesitant to do something with so little human research evidence, the logic behind it made sense to me and I figured that I didn't really have anything to loose.  Human placenta pills have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years.  I have a friend who is also a doula and childbirth educator, who recently started training to become a midwife.  And she's a placenta encapsulation specialist.

"After" Picture

My husband heard me tell the midwives that I was considering having this friend encapsulate my placenta, and he asked me why I had to be so weird.  He feels having a homebirth is weird enough, why do I have to go doing things like eating placenta? (Yes, he still thinks homebirth is weird, even after catching our daughter in a plastic pool in our bedroom.  Still thinks its weird, but understands why I prefer it.)

My friend came by about a week after the baby was born to prepare the placenta.  The process is pretty simple.  I watched and we chatted about the birth.  She stuffed the membranes with lemon, ginger, and jalapeno (in attempt to negate the post-pill burp issue) and steamed the placenta (steaming causes it to shrink considerably).

Next, she removed the membranes and diced it up and put it on a foil-lined cookie sheet, which she put in the oven set at the lowest temperature.  She told me to check it after about 8 hours to see if the pieces easily snapped in half, and then to turn it off.  She came the next day to grind it and put it into capsules.  It became 144 placenta pills.

I do believe that taking the pills during the first month postpartum was helpful for me, if nothing else but to increase my iron levels (as I was anemic during pregnancy).  I have had really good postpartum experience, but I've never had issues with feeling depressed after my other births (only ever had a problem during this pregnancy), so it may have nothing to do with the placenta, but I think it has helped at least some.  I take them occasionally now when I feel run down or emotional, and it could be placebo, but it seems to help.  I still have quite a few left.  I have no regrets about doing it.

Between Worlds: A Birth Story, Part 3

When we left me, I was kneeling on the bathroom floor brushing my teeth. I was still needing to find a comfortable position. We tried putting a stack of pillows on the floor so I could kneel leaning forward on the bed, but that didn't work for me either. Kim suggested I get on the bed and lean forward on the birth ball. That position was perfect. I used the ball to help me rock, sometimes back and forth, sometimes side to side. I started saying "peace" out loud during the pressure waves. Kim said that when I had gotten off the birth ball, the waves had suddenly gone from about 6 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart. They also let me know that Lorri was in about 25 minutes away, and Kristin was coming and bringing the assistant, Kelly, who was a nurse. I felt some strange sensations above my pubic bone--I wonder if it was the baby's head rotating or moving down. I suddenly wanted my t-shirt and pajama pants off, so I took them off, and was wearing my swimsuit top (which I had put on under my shirt after my shower that morning) and some mesh panties I found in my birth kit. Then, I sat up on the bed. It seems like a strange choice of position, but it was really comfortable at the time.

My midwife Lorri arrived. She said she would check my vitals before I got in the tub and went to get supplies. I got off the bed to go to the bathroom and then Lorri came back and took my blood pressure and temperature, and listened to the baby’s heartbeat, and all was well. I got in the tub. The tub was big and deep and I loved how I could get into all different positions in it. I took off my headphones and we played Hypnobabies out loud because I didn’t want to accidently get anything wet that wasn’t supposed to get wet. I reminded my team about the video camera, and my husband filmed me in the tub, including one pressure wave, and then went out of the bedroom and filmed the other people in the house The water in the tub was pretty hot, but I like hot water, so I didn’t really mind, until I had a few pressure waves in the tub and got really hot during them. Kim brought me a cold washcloth to put on my neck to keep me cool, but eventually I just had to get out. I think I went to the bathroom again, and then I was leaning on the side of the tub during a wave and I felt the need to yell at the peak of it. Lorri heard this, and came in. I told her I thought I was feeling pushy. She said to just try to let my body do most of the work and only push when I couldn’t help it. She asked if the water was too hot and I said yes, so she and my husband dumped in a few bowlfuls of cold water. I got back in and the temperature was much better.

Kim was filming now, and my husband knelt near the tubKristin and Kelly must have arrived around this time and came into the room and set stuff up. They were behind me and very unobtrusive. I remember turning around to make sure they were there a few times, because I guess knowing they were there was reassuring for me.

I remember reading once that in some tradition somewhere (I can't remember where), the birthing woman is thought to have to travel to the underworld to claim her baby. The beginning of pushing was definitely the most challenging part for me. Feeling that much power moving through my body was overwhelming, and I didn't quite know how to respond to it. At the peaks of the waves, when I couldn’t help pushing, I would vocalize loudly, because that seemed like the best way to release that intensity. I changed positions a lot, and loved the ease of movement in the water. I usually knelt low in the tub or was on all fours between the waves, and often during them, I had to go to a high kneel and throw my arms around my husband. He gave me Hypnobabies cues which helped me relax better. I remember apologizing for getting him wet. At one point, I was on hands and knees and lowered my face so close to the water that my bangs got wet.

Soon, I felt the baby’s head coming down and I said something like, “The baby is coming out! The baby is coming out!” It was almost like I didn't really expect the intense part to actually end, but the baby moving down meant it was definitely going to. Lorri, who was next to the tub on my left, turned to my husband and asked if he wanted to catch his baby, and he must have said he would because she started giving him instructions on how to do it. I switched from kneeling to a deep squat. With the next wave, pushing just happened. I roared, and the head became visible. I remember saying something about how excited I was that we were almost there. As the head crowned, I leaned back, letting my legs float forward in the water and my head rest against the edge of the tub, supporting myself with only my arms and head, while the rest of me floated. With the next wave, the head was out, and with the one after that, I eased the shoulders out, and out came our baby at 8:39 pm!

My husband lifted the baby out of the water, and I sat down in the tub and took my baby into my arms. He looked to see if it was a boy or girl, and exclaimed, “It’s a girl!” I was shocked because I had myslef convinced it was a boy! She gave a small cry and then got quiet and looked around.

My mom brought our two older kids in. It was neat for them to get to meet her so soon after she was born. Our son, who is 21 months, was a little more interested in the water, though, and put his hand in it (someone washed his hands), and he wanted to take his pajamas off and get in, too, but we didn't let him. The cord was short, so I was limited to holding her against me with her head on my chest, just out of the water. Lorri encouraged me to talk to the baby, so I babbled to her about all kinds of things as we waited for the placenta.

I had to push pretty hard to get the placenta out, and the membranes were trailing and full of clots. Then my husband cut the cord and Kristin helped me get out of the water and into the bed with the baby and then the baby had her first nursing. No one but me held her for over an hour after the birth. It was so peaceful and wonderful. When we weighed and measured the baby, she was 6 lbs 11 oz and 20 inches long. And perfect.


I was amazed at how minimal the damage to my body was. I didn’t tear with my second birth either, but this was even better. My vulva wasn’t even swollen and the little bit of soreness I had went away in a few days. I think it was mostly because I did mother-directed pushing this time and because the water acts as a big warm compress.

One of the names we gave our new daughter is shared with my mother-in-law’s sister, who passed away a few days later, in my mother-in-laws arms, soon after she arrived at her bedside. I am struck with the similarities between their transitions, one into, the other out of this world. I am so blessed to have been able to give my daughter a transition into this world that was gentle and loving as well as safe. Perhaps when we come out on the other side, we will be gently lifted into peace and parental love.

End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it . . . White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise. -Gandalf the White, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (film version)

Between Worlds: A Birth Story, Part 2

Thrilled and terrified at the same time, I woke my husband up in a panic and told him I needed his help to handle these waves. I texted my midwife and she said to let her know when they had been consistent for about half an hour, and I texted my doula, Kim and told her that I was ready for her to come. The time stamp on that text is 3:35 pm.

I grabbed the Hypnobabies Birth Partner Guide and opened it to the birth prompts I went to the music on my phone and turned on Easy First Stage. I wanted to get into hypnosis as fast as I could and make this easier. I switched to the relaxation music for a while and we tried the birth prompts, but it wasn't really working for us, so my husband suggested I go back to Easy First Stage since I had found it so helpful in our last birth, and he would just do the "Relax" cue during the waves. I was sitting on the birth ball leaning forward onto our bed. I felt like the ball needed more air in it, so I asked my husband to blow it up for me. It was much more comfortable when it was fully inflated. My doula got there and she timed the waves and gave me encouraging words. My husband brought me some headphones and suggested I try using them to help me focus. At first I said no, but then I decided to try it and he was right, it did help. She and my husband were kind of tag teaming making sure the kids were okay in the other room. I stayed in "OFF" between waves, except to talk or to drink my poweraid. This helped me get deeper faster. For some of the waves, I would switch to "CENTER" and bounce gently on the ball, because it felt better. As I got deeper, I tended to stay in "OFF" and breathe deeply and use my peace cue. It didn't completely relieve the discomfort, but it helped enough that I felt calm, relaxed, and in control. This was Kim's first experience with a Hypnobabies birth. She was very impressed. I finally found my confidence, just in time.

After it had been about half an hour, someone called Kristin to let her know these things were not stopping. She said the other midwife, Lorri, was on her way, and she'd also be coming shortly. I stayed on the birth ball, except to go to the bathroom, which was just a few feet away. Whenever I got up, I would have extra pressure waves that were not as strong. Whenever Kim heard me start breathing deeply, she would write down the time, then come put her hand on my shoulder. My mom called at 5:40 pm. I told her I was in labor. She had been up very early and traveling all day and wanted to go to bed, but I kind of wanted her to come over and take care of the kids, so she said she would come. She came over and that freed up my husband and doula to both stay with me.

At some point, I noticed my legs were starting to feel stiff from sitting in the same position on the ball. I let my support team know that I wanted to change positions. We tried putting pillows on a chair so I could kneel leaning forward onto the bed, but when the next pressure wave started, that wasn't comfortable and I got up and did the slow dance position with my husband. When that one was over, I exclaimed, "Nausea!" my husband asked if I wanted a bucket and I said yes, but then I just walked to the toilet and threw up there. I heard my husband explaining to Kim that in the past, vomiting has been a sign that I was getting very close. They asked me how I felt, and I said I felt better after throwing up. My husband gave me my toothbrush with toothpaste on it and a cup of water so that I could brush my teeth and rinse my mouth out. My team decided to check with the midwives again, to make sure they'd be here soon, since it looked like I was in the transformation phase.

Between Worlds: A Birth Story, Part 1

At about 5:00 am on Wednesday, December 7, I woke up to a leaking sensation. It felt like a period, or rather, it felt just like when I leaked amniotic fluid before my first birth. I got up and put on a pad and laid back down. At about 6:30, I felt a gush. Not a gush like all my fluid was coming out, but a definite gush. I texted my midwives and let them know this, and that I was not having pressure waves yet. I woke up my husband a little while later and told him that my water broke but it could still be a while before the baby came. He said that he would stay home from work. I also texted my mom, who told me she would get a flight for the next morning, thinking that if I had the baby that day, she would be there in time to take care of everything I would need postpartum. My midwife Kristin called and said she would come take my vitals and give me a Doppler so I could keep an eye on the heartbeat. She came by and she also drew some blood because she was planning to do a re-check on my iron level at my appointment on Friday. She instructed me to eat and drink well, to rinse with a hibiclens solution whenever I used the bathroom, and to take my temperature and check the hearttones every hour and just let her know when pressure waves started. She said she thought it would probably be that day.

My husband spent the day cleaning up the house, buying food for after the birth, and doing last minute homebirth set up preparations. I helped a little, but didn't want to wear myself out. Pressure waves started by that evening and were about 10 minutes apart for a while. Around 10:30 pm,still thinking the baby would come that night, I decided to try lying down and listening to Hypnobabies to try to get some rest, or at least get myself into hypnosis. I ended up in and out of sleep all night because they spaced out, but didn't completely stop. I had my ipod on a playlist of Hypnobabies tracks so that it would just keep playing while I slept. I probably would not have gotten any sleep at all that night if I had not had Hypnobabies to listen to. The pressure waves were manageable when I was awake and listening, but when one would hit while I was asleep and I was woken up by it, it was extremely uncomfortable.

I got up around 5:00 and took a shower to see if that might do something, but waves were very far apart, so I ended up going back to sleep for a while. Husband was up around 7:00 am. I was kind of getting frustrated with the waves because they seemed to be far apart but strong when I was lying down, weak and close together when I was standing up, and seemed to almost completely disappear when I was sitting. I told him I was having some fears about being able to handle it because the waves seemed stronger than in my last birth (my theory is that the difference had something to do with my water not breaking until 9 cm plus last time) and I think with them being so far apart, yet so strong, I wasn't able to get deeply into hypnosis like I had with my last birth where waves started consistently 10 minutes apart and gradually got closer and closer together. I also was a little worried that it could still be a long time before active birthing started and I would be exhausted from not getting enough sleep by then. I was conflicted--I wanted birthing waves to come consistently so that I would have energy for the birth, but I also was a little afraid of the birthing waves. I asked my husband to give me a priesthood blessing for strength and comfort and to help me know what to do.

We could tell the kids needed to get out of the house (preschool group had been cancelled both days that week, so they had been home all day most of the week), so my husband took them to the store with him to get some things. It took a while to get them ready and get out of the house, and there were a few other things he needed to take care of. We ended up needing to eat lunch before they could go. Before they left, he was also on the phone with his mom. His mom's adopted sister had recently gone into a coma due to a brain infection and she was given a very small chance of survival. My mother-in-law wanted to go to Tahiti to be with her family during this difficult time, but did not have the funds. We offered to help pay for a plane ticket for her to go. My husband wanted to get out the door with the kids, so he had her talk to me to get our credit card information and she and I had a sweet conversation. There I was, with my birthing in limbo, waiting to bring a new life into this world, while she knew she was waiting for one to leave it. Perhaps my child and his or her great aunt were both delaying their transition. Maybe there is a place between our world and the world of spirits, and they were both there, together?

After I got off the phone, I decided a nap was a good idea (it was early afternoon by this point). I got in bed and listened to Hypnobabies again. I think I did the Fear Clearing track. I knew I needed that. I got some sleep. I woke up and my husband and the kids came home. I decided to try some activity to see if it might kick start things. My husband tried to take a nap himself. I mopped my kitchen floor. Then,I stood in front of the mirror in my kids' bathroom and remembered something I had learned at the Dancing For Birth&trade Training Workshop: asymmetry. Asymmetry of the pelvis can help position the baby and bring it down. The move I started doing wasn't exactly one we learned in the training, though it was sort of similar to the mighty mama (sumo) move--I alternated raising each knee up, quickly, one and then the other, over and over, and then a strong pressure wave came, and a few minutes later, another. They were strong and they weren't stopping. This was it!

Its a Girl!

Baby Girl born at home in the water at 8:39 pm on 12/8/11, 39 hours after my water broke. 6 lbs 11oz, 20 inches.

Pregnancy Update: 38 weeks

Yep, still pregnant! I apologize for my absence. I have been busy, and I also haven't had the laptop I usually use, and have been accessing the Internet from either my phone or the iPad, both of which are a little harder to blog from than an actual computer.

The day after Thanksgiving, my husband and I left the kids with my family who were in town at the beautiful cabin my parents rented an hour away from our house so that we could have Thanksgiving with everyone without me having to travel so late in my pregnancy, and we went to my 37 week midwife appointment. We learned that the baby, who had been head down for weeks, had suddenly flipped to transverse lie! This is a pretty unusual thing for a baby to do at this point. My midwife gave me sone suggestions to try to encourage the baby back to head down. I knew there was a small chance that the baby might not turn back before labor, and as I thought about this on the drive home, after a nice lunch at a restaurant with my husband, I felt peace about it. I knew that if I had a cesarean, yes, it would be a challenge for me, but I knew that if it happened, I felt strongly "that all these things shall give [me] experience and shall be for [my] good." (Doctrine and Covenants 122:7). I have gained valuable lessons from each of my children's births, both the good and challenging parts, which I wrote about in last year's Thanksgiving post. I expect to learn from this birth, but have no expectations about what those lessons will be.

The night after my appointment, I put ice above the baby's head and a warm pack above my pubic bone. I felt a whole lot of movement and then felt my belly. I felt a bulge under my ribs, a firm area below it, and what felt like a head in my pelvis. For the next week, I checked often, and it continued to feel the same, and kicks were on the upper right and hand movements near my left hip. My midwife confirmed it today--baby is right occiput anterior!

I am still working on completing preparations for the birth and the baby. Most of the important stuff is done. I finally got the birth tub bleached out and brought into the house. I am starting to look forward to meeting this child face to face, but I may never get to a point where I feel completely ready!

Pregnancy Update: 36 weeks!

I really have been in denial about this baby coming! Two nights ago, I had some serious feeling pre-birth pressure waves (Hypnobabies lingo for false labor), and I think that made me finally start to accept that this is really going to happen!

I have had two midwife appointments since I posted my last pregnancy update. At my 32 week appointment, I learned that the results of my glucose screen were excellent. I also learned that there had been a mistake with the tube the blood was drawn in for the CBC I had drawn at the same time. I decided to re-draw it because I really wanted to know what my iron level was. The midwife and I discussed the supplements I was taking, and she told me the vitamin D I was taking (2,000 IU) was probably not high enough. A recent study found that routine supplementation with 4,000 IU in pregnant women (ten times the current recommended daily intake) resulted in no harm and better outcomes. Considering that my level was very low in my prenatal blood work (and that was in the spring time), I need to be taking a much higher dose, so I have upped it to 10,000 IU a day.

A couple days later, my midwife let me know the results of my CBC--my iron was low. Not dangerously anemic low, but low enough for me to feel tired. I started taking Floradix, and feel so much better. I realized that the amount of sleep I was needing to function (about 9-10 hours in a 24 hour period) was not normal, and I have so much more energy now. I am keeping my house clean while busy with preschool and Hypnobabies and feel like I'm staying on top of things pretty well! I took it in my last pregnancy when my iron came back a little low at the same time and I thought it increased my energy level then, too. Why didn't I start taking Floradix earlier? Probably partly because Floradix is really expensive...

My 35 week appointment was a nice, long one. We talked about everything we need to do to set up for the birth. I asked about placenta encapsulation, and how I am interested in it but I'm not sure because there doesn't seem to be much definitive evidence out there. She said that everything she had seen about it is very positive. I have a friend who does encapsulation, so I might just have her do mine. The midwife said that they will make sure to take care of the placenta if I decide I want to have it encapsulated.

Somehow we got on the subject of cord clamping and I said that both of my prior two babies had their cords clamped earlier than I wanted. She said that they prefer to wait a long time, because even after all the blood has gone to the baby, there are stem cells that transfer from the placenta to the baby. I said that with my prior babies, they were taken away to be given oxygen, deep suctioning, etc. The midwife explained that it is possible to do those things in the mother's arms. She explained that at a recent neonatal resuscitation class she attended, she demonstrated, using the neonatal resuscitation doll, that the way that people instinctively hold newborns actually keeps their airways open.

The fee for my midwives is paid and the birth kit is ordered! My midwife will be giving me the birth pool next week, and I also ordered a liner to go in it along with my birth kit. I have a student doula who will be coming to the birth to help out with whatever we need--filming the birth, helping with the kids (who I plan to have present, as long as they want to be there and are not bothering me), helping with Hypnobabies tools, etc. I really want to capture this birth on film, which is something I didn't do with my others. I am really happy to give this opportunity to this student doula--I know I appreciate those who agreed to be my first few doula births! She is working on a nursing degree and hopes to eventually do a Masters in Midwifery at Bastyr, so I think seeing my birth will be great for her!

Preschool Co-op Lessons: Pumpkins

I taught for my daughter's preschool again. We lost one of the families in the co-op because they moved across town. We found a new family to join, but at the time I taught, we only had 4 kids in the class.

We did two days of pumpkin lessons. I checked out every book I could find on pumpkins from our public library. The children's favorite was Pumpkin Day by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace, a fiction book about a family of bunnies going to a pumkin patch. The other titles we read were The Pumkin Book by Gail Gibbons (non-fiction, hand illustrations), Pumkins by Ken Robbins (non-fiction, photo illustraited), and Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell (fiction). Songs we sang were Five Little Pumpkins and a Halloween version of Ring Around The Rosy, called Ring Around the Pumpkin.

Pumpkin Day talks a lot about cooking with pumpkin, and includes some recipes. The day we read that one, we made pumpkin muffins. I used this recipe from all recipies, but left out the raisins and walnuts and substituted some ginger and allspice for the cloves, because I couldn't find the ground cloves I know I have somewhere, and I thought it would be good with a variety of spices. I took all the ingredients to my kitchen table, along with a big bowl, and had the children all help dump flour, sugar, etc into the bowl. I had them all smell all of the spices as we were putting them in. They got to help crack the eggs (messy!) and stir the batter. They had a lot of fun with it. They came out perfect...

When I chose the recipe, I didn't look closely enough to realize that the yeild is 3 dozen muffins! I only have one muffin pan, so we had muffins our oven for much of the day! They made the house smell amazing, though! There were plenty to share some with friends and they all got eaten! After having our muffins for our snack, we decorated some mini pumpkins. The kids drew on them with markers and I helped them glue googly eyes on them. There were 4 orange pumpkins and 4 white ones. Only the youngest child chose a white one. The one with the eyes on the top of the pumpkin is the same child as the one who glued leaves on the trunk of her tree in the tree's and plants craft (she thinks outside of the box). The one in the back that has a mouth is my daughter's :)

On the second day, we made paper plate pumpkins. I adapted this craft by using pre-cut construction paper for the facial features instead of cutting them out of the paper plate itself and gluing crepe paper on the back (it sounded like it would be too much work for me to do in the middle of the craft). Our color of the week was black and our shape for the week was a diamond, so the black diamond eyes seemed appropriate. I didn't get a picture of all of them, but this is my daughters (she is one of the oldest in the class, so she had better paint coverage and more face-like arrangement than some of the others)

Yay for pumpkins! Have a great Halloween, everyone!

Raise Your Hand if You Have Prenatal Depression

I do. Or I think I did, anyway. I think it is gone now. And now I think I can finally talk about it.

Prenatal depression (also known as antenatal or antepartum depression) is the term for depression that occurs during pregnancy. According to ACOG, it occurs in 14-23% of pregnancies. That is common! Shockingly common, considering how little it is talked about. I think we need to be talking about it! I think a lot of women do what I used to do, and ignore anything we come across about prenatal depression, because we think it could never happen to us. Until it does.

Symptoms of prenatal depression include:

• A sense that nothing feels enjoyable or fun anymore
• Feeling blue, sad, or "empty" for most of the day, every day
• It's harder to concentrate
• Extreme irritability or agitation or excessive crying
• Trouble sleeping or sleeping all the time
• Extreme or never-ending fatigue
• A desire to eat all the time or not wanting to eat at all
• Inappropriate guilt or feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness

(source: babycenter.com)

Guilt was a big part of it for me, as were appetite issues and fatigue, and lack of motivation. I experienced more "irritability" than "excessive crying," though at one point I was crying about once a week. I think that because I felt angry and overwhelmed and not always sad is part of why I wasn't sure I had it at first. It was when I read Sheridan's experience of her postpartum depression that I recognized that feeling irritable could be a symptom of depression. I felt like I wasn't myself, like I wasn't enjoying day-to-day life or motherhood, and a whole lot of guilt because of that.

Prenatal depression wreaked havoc on my marriage. My husband didn't understand why I was so unlike myself, and he took it personally as a rejection. When he feels rejected, he withdraws, which was the last thing I needed at the time. Thankfully, our marriage made it through, and is stronger for it.

If you think you might have prenatal depression, what can you do about it? Here are a few ideas:

• Talk to someone. Someone who understands. I will talk to you if you need me! If you can't get what you need with peer support, seek therapy with a qualified provider. And if your depression causes thoughts of hurting yourself or others, get professional help immediately.
  
• Take a vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D deficiency can cause depression, and the majority of the American population is deficient because of how little time we spend in the sun without sunscreen. My midwives routinely check Vitamin D levels as part of prenatal bloodwork, and mine was 28 (optimal levels are 50-80).
• Take an Omega oils supplement. These fats are good for your developing baby and research suggests they can improve mood.
  
• Eat healthy. I know how hard this is to do when you aren't feeling motivated, but obviously your body needs nutrients to feel well and grow a person at the same time.
• Light or Moderate exercise. Find something you can do to get moving that you don't hate--walking with my kids in the stroller and dancing with my prenatal dance DVD have helped me when I've done them.
• Establish routines. This happened because we started the preschool co-op. It helps tremendously to have a rhythm to the day and the week. I also feel a lot better when I am accomplishing things and when I am in an uplifting (read: organized) environment, but it is hard to clean when you a depressed. Having Hypnobabies classes in my home each week has given me a reason I have to keep my house clean. If cleaning routines are new to you, I recommend FlyLady.
• If you are spiritual, pray or seek other spiritual help.
  
• Recognize that it will get better. Feeling this way is a temporary thing. It is not your life from now on. You are not a bad mother and prenatal depression is not your fault.

Support Resources:

• Postpartum Support International also offers support for prenatal depression. Visit their Support Groups & Area Coordinators page to get connected with help in your area.
  
• Prenatal and Postnatal Depression Support Group on Facebook
• Prenatal Depression and Anxiety Support at CafeMom

You are not alone: other women's expereinces:

• Antepartum depression - Birth Faith
• Depression in Pregnancy? - Choose Your Birth
• I Battled Prenatal Depression...For the Whole Nine Months, article at Mail Online
• So why doesn't anyone ever tell you about PREpartum depression? - Home/work
• The Pregnancy Taboo by Jody Santos
• Antepartum Depression: Stopping the Tears - The Deliberate Mom

Comparison of Midwifery Education in Different Developed Countries

A couple of months ago, Amber at Midwife{ology} wrote a post, Educational Standards of American Midwives: A Comparison, which compared the direct-entry midwifery education program she left to the nurse-midwifery education program she is currently pursing. She points out what she sees as a huge discrepancy in the training of these two different types of midwives, and concludes that CPM training is inadequate to prepare a midwife to be a competent birth attendant. Stephanie at Nurturing Hearts Birth Services (who I highly respect as a midwife and appreciate for the wonderful midwife's perspective on Hypnobabies she wrote) responded in her post CNM vs CPM by saying that she feels that the training of CNMs and CPMs are different because they have a different scope of practice: CPMs attend only out-of-hosptial births with low risk women who are not being medically induced or receiving drugs, while CNMs are trained to work with medical interventions in a hospital environment and do pretty much everything an OB can do except vacuum/forceps assisted births and cesareans. Training for CPMs is different because what they need to know is different. Good points on all sides.

I think that maybe comparing different midwife certifications in the U.S. is the wrong comparison, and we should be comparing American midwife training to midwife training in the rest of the developed world.

The United States: In the U.S., the types of midwives practicing fall into three basic categories:

• Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs): Those seeking this path must train as a Registered Nurse first and obtain a Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) or the equivalent (usually through a "bridge" program), and then complete a midwifery program. CNM clinical training focuses mostly on hospital birth, and most CNMs attend hospital births, though some work in birth centers or have homebirth practices.
• Credentialed Non-nurse Midwives: This path to midwifery is for those who do not have and are not seeking a nursing degree. These include those with the Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) credential obtained through the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM), the Certified Midwife (CM, which is only recognized in 3 states) credential from the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM), and various credentials bestowed by state licensing, such as Licensed Midwives (LM), Licensed Direct-Entry Midwives (LDM), or Registered Direct Entry Midwives. Different states have different requirements for their licenses. A midwife can obtain both her state license and a CPM (in some states a CPM is required to get a license, some states have requirements above what the CPM credential gives). There are multiple training paths for a CPM, including MEAC-accredited midwifery schools and apprenticeship options. All must pass the NARM exam. For more information, see the NARM website. These midwives practice almost exclusively out of the hospital and very rarely get training in hospital birth.
• "Traditional" or Non-credentialed midwives: Licensure for non-nurse midwives is available in about half of the U.S. states. In the others, there are midwives who practice without licenses. Some do go through the training process with NARM, but they are still not legally allowed to practice. Some midwives in states that offer licenses choose to remain unlicensed, and do so illegally, except in Oregon and Utah, where it is currently legal to practice midwifery without a license. Training for these individuals varies widely.

United Kingdom: In the UK, there is one type of midwife training, done through a university. Training in nursing is not required, but those who have it have a head start in the program, so there must be overlap between basic nursing and early midwifery training. Midwives in the UK are qualified to attend births in all settings, home, hospital, and birth center. From the Nursing and Midwifery Counsel:

Education and training

In the UK midwifery education and training programmes are only run at NMC-approved educational institutions. Courses usually take a minimum of three years, unless you are already registered with the NMC as a level 1 (adult) nurse, in which case the training can be reduced to 18 months.

Midwifery training takes place at a university, with at least half of the programme based in clinical practice with direct contact with women, their babies and families. This can include the home, community and hospitals, and in other maternity services such as midwife-led units and birth centres.

Canada: Midwifery training in Canada is done through university education that prepares midwives to be able to attend both home and hospital births. From the Canadian Midwifery Registers Consortium

Midwifery education in Canada is offered at a university baccalaureate level. Education programs are “direct entry” (i.e. there is no nursing or other credential required for entry).

One example: The University of British Columbia Midwifery Education Program

The Midwifery Education Program at UBC is a four-year, direct entry, full time undergraduate program leading to a Bachelor of Midwifery degree. The curriculum combines broad-based knowledge and understanding in the humanities and the social and bio-medical sciences. . . .The first two years of study are located on the UBC campus and in the area of the Lower Mainland. The final two years, including the summer between years 3 and 4, consist of clinical courses. . . .Students are prepared for practice in both high tech and low resource settings (home, hospital, rural, international).

Australia: From the Australian College of Midwives - New South Wales

To become a midwife you need to complete either a Bachelor of Midwifery degree (direct entry) or a postgraduate program if you are already a registered nurse.

For an example of an undergraduate midwifery program in Australia, see Bachelor of Midwifery from the University of Technology, Sydney. This program takes 3 years of full time study to complete.

New Zealand: New Zealand also has a 3-year direct-entry program, where registered nurses can get advanced placement. From the New Zealand College of Midwives:

Each midwifery school offers an extended three year bachelor degree programme meaning that each year has a minimum of 45 programmed weeks rather than the more usual 36 programmed weeks. All students whether full time or part time must complete the programme within four years of commencement. This is the framework for all routes to midwifery registration. Each programme has a Recognition of Prior Learning Policy that enables those with appropriate previous qualifications and experience to receive credits or partial exemptions for aspects of the programme. Midwifery students who hold a previous nursing registration or those with other degrees or other relevant experience are likely to gain credit under these policies and complete a shorter programme. Registered nurses will usually complete at least two years of the full programme.

New Zealand midwifery training also includes mandatory hospital-based clinical experience:

Students work in a variety of settings over three years including family planning clinic, independent midwifery practices, neonatal intensive care units, maternity hospitals, laboratories, homebirth, and community. All students have a dedicated ‘block’ in base hospitals to achieve the experience necessary for competency in recognising deviations from the normal and working collaboratively with obstetricians in the provision of secondary care.

I was unable to find websites about midwifery in countries where English is not the first language, but according to reports from midwifery students on the studentmidwife.net forums, midwives in the Netherlands must complete a 4-year direct-entry program which qualifies them to attend both home and hospital births (and to allow women to choose to change her birth location up until the last minute without having to change providers), and midwifery school in Denmark takes 3 1/2 years to complete and midwives can do home or hospital births. Though it was a little difficult to decipher exactly what the French student midwife was saying with the language barrier, it appears that midwifery school in France is 4 years and may be part of medical school.

Okay, so, which one of these things is not like the others? All of these other developed countries train midwives to be qualified to attend births in both hospital and out-of-hospital environments and all of them require a university degree to practice midwifery. A class of midwives that deals exclusively with out-of-hospital births is unique to the United States. This raises some questions to me:

• Would requiring midwives who practice out-of-hospital to receive hospital clinical experience (where they are much more likely to encounter rare complications), make them more qualified to handle rare emergencies when they occur in out-of-hospital births?
• Would it benefit consumers for direct-entry midwives to be qualified to attend both home and hospital births and be able to obtain hospital privileges and attend the same types of hospital births certified nurse midwives currently do? Would this allow for better continuity of care when circumstances require a change in planned birth location?
• Would standardized training and education for midwives similar to what other countries do give midwives who attend out-of-hospital births more respect in the medical community, allowing for better cooperation with obstetricians, nurses, and other hospital providers?
• Would requiring more education for midwives, as some fear, "turn them into obstetricians"? Would training have less emphasis on skills needed to support normal birth with too much focus on pathology?
  

What do you think about how the training and scope of practice of midwives in the U.S. compares to the rest of the developed world?

Preschool Co-op Lessons: Trees and Plants

On Thursday of my first week teaching preschool, our theme was trees and plants. I only had three in my class that day because one was out of town and one was sick. After doing puzzles and block and the calendar/weather/letter/color/shape routine, we sang our songs, In the Leafy Treetops (an LDS Primary Song), and Trees (to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell, which I found online). Then we read several books about threes, The Giving Tree by Shel Siverstein, Up, Down and Around by Katherine Ayres, and A Tree is A Plant by Clyde Robert Bulla. (I think only having three kids in the class probably allowed them to pay attention to reading books longer!)

Then, for a "sensory activity" we went outside, and my husband had these packets of sunflower seeds and little containers left over from something they did at his work, so each child got to fill a container with soil (which I had bought), put some seeds in it, and put more soil on top. Then we watered the seeds and the kids got to take them home. I put my daughter's in the windowsill above our kitchen sink, and five days later, the seeds sprouted!


Then, since we were already outside, we went on a short walk and looked at my neighbor's garden and talked about all of the vegetable plants she has growing there. By this time, it was already almost time for snack, but I let the kids play for a few minutes while I got it ready.

For our craft, I had prepared large pieces of paper each with a drawing of a tree (I just drew them myself) and I had some cut up some pieces of green tissue paper to be "leaves." The kids used glue sticks to glue the "leaves" on the trees. Most of the trees ended up being a bit sparse, and one child took creative license with the placement of the leaves (she put them on the trunk). I think they are very lovely trees!
















We always close each day of preschool with the same set of songs:

Ring around the rosey
Pockets full of posies
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!

Cows are in the meadow
Eating buttercups
Thunder, lightning, we all stand up!

Teddy bear, teddy bear
Turn Around
Teddy bear, teddy bear
Touch the ground
Teddy bear, teddy bear
Give a jump a try
Teddy bear, teddy bear
Wave bye-bye

Thank you for being our friends today
Come back again and we'll sing and we'll play!