Living life and figuring it out, one little piece at a time

Thursday 31 March 2011

Orangeville still needs midwives!

I recently learned from the dear midwives at Midwives of Headwater Hills that, despite having practiced in the community and serving over 100 families in Orangeville over the last year and a half, they are still lacking support from their closest hospital, Headwaters Health Care Centre. After a long wait and much discussion, their opening two midwives obtained privileges there almost a year ago.  This was a huge success for those of us involved in the childbearing community, since the closest midwifery practices are at least a half hour drive away in any given direction.  This not only increased access to midwifery care from an eager and enthusiastic population of mothers, but was some good publicity (in my opinion) for a hospital which has much room for improvement in their maternity services.

Now, we discover that these midwives are not being granted these same privileges to their growing practices newest members.  Not only does this mean that they cannot grow as the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care has seen fit for them to, (not to mention the demands of their growing client base and waiting lists), but that the midwives in their practice must maintain exhaustingly long periods of time on call without relief.  This has resulted in the decision for the entire practice to have to discontinue servicing women at Headwaters until they are able to accommodate the entire practice of midwives.
This is unfair.  Unfair to the community who has made clear their desires for alternate maternity options which may still involve their local hospital, unfair to the individual women who must be placed in this position of having to choose between locally provided obstetric care or driving out for a hospital birth with their midwives, and of course unfair and unsustainable for these wonderful midwives whom we in Orangeville and surrounding areas have waited so long for.

They have exhausted their beaurocratic options and are now asking for the public to voice their concerns about this issue.  These women are providing a vital service that has been lacking in our community for much too long.  There are very few communities in southern Ontario that have struggled without midwives for as long as Orangeville has, with almost every other hospital in Ontario having granted privileges to numerous midwives.  I feel that this is a beaurocratic move to keep midwives from the monopoly that Orangeville has held on childbirth.  Please help us by sending an email or letter to the individuals below.  If we can make them understand how many people agree with the importance of their proposals, we may be
able to move this forward.

Cholly Boland, President and CEO
Headwaters Health Care Centre
cboland@headwatershealth.ca

Louise Kindree, Chair Board of Directors
dhyatt@headwatershealth.ca.  (board secretary)

Or by post to either of the above:
100 Rolling Hills Dr
Orangeville,ON
L9W 4X9


If you'd like to see the midwives website, it is available at http://www.midwivesofheadwaterhills.ca

Sunday 27 March 2011

We are still products of our biology

The blessed time soaking in the words of Ina May Gaskin were just as lovely as I had hoped for them to be.  Sharing space in a room not only with Ina May, but also hundreds of other incredible women was a great opportunity.  I'm learning more and more how much I crave social interaction with people who understand me a bit more the way I feel around birth professionals.  Regular people just dont "get" it so much, I think.  I hope that makes sense.  I guess not everyone is so interested in birth.  It's probably best that we get these chances to mingle with eachother.  It saves our partners and parents hours of hearing our birth rants!  Although admittedly, my partner probably heard a bit more than normal last night after I got home!

What I like most about Ina May's approach to birth is how much she likes to parallel human birth to animals.  I think its so important in reminding us of our biology, since we as "modern humans" like to forget that we, too, are animals.  Our large heads and bipedal abilities might give us a bit of a different swing on things, but we must not let go of the fact that we are animals.  I especially appreciated that she focused on animals, rather than the proverbial "tribal woman" who could be a random any woman around the world and could easily be homogenized, de-culturized, and depersonalized.  I truly don't believe this homogenous type of woman exists, and the only women who would birth in the seeminly idealized "squat-in-field-to-birth-and-keep-working" way are the ones who are forced to, and are certainly not any healthier for it.  Birth is birth.  It's a big deal, for a community and a woman's body!


Ina May showed us a video of a chimp giving birth in the most interesting position.  While the quality of the filming isn't the greatest, I thought I'd share it here.  What lovely, calm inspiration she brings to the people she speaks to.  She told us all quite simply, that if we have a string of bad births, or start out our careers as birth professionals seeing birth in a way that it usually isn't, then we need to go and see some of these animal births.  "It'll make you feel better about it." 

I love that. 

So go check out this chimp and her midwife!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bF_T3wBE14

Wednesday 23 March 2011

"You are a midwife"

I came across this passage today as I was flipping through midwifery journals.  It was published on the cover of Midwifery Matters, Winter 2009 no. 123, quoted from the Tao te Ching, 5th century BCE.

You are a midwife
You are helping at someone else's birth.
Do good without show or fuss.
Facilitate what is happening
rather than what you
think ought to be happening.
If you must lead,
lead so the woman is
helped, yet still free
and in charge.
When the baby is born,
the woman will rightly say,
"We did it ourselves."

Tuesday 22 March 2011

The delicate juggling act

So today, I fessed up to a major omission I made.  In focusing so heartily on this paper on Unassisted Birth, I temporarily forgot that the rest of the world existed, and woke up in over my head.  Today was spent writing concept maps for Anatomy and Physiology, my most loathesome task.  Despite how much I enjoy the material I'm learning in that course, concept maps have got to be just about the most tedious way to learn it.  Alas - they must be completed so I can move on to the mountain of readings that I've neglected in lieu of these projects!  Aaah the lessons in time management that I could take if I had enough time between classes and projects to learn something else! 
Really, though, the feeling of productivity - working toward a goal that I never thought I'd ever actually be able to make my way onto - is a good feeling indeed.  Well, well worth the occasional windows of stress at the complexities of the urinary system. 


The kids will be feeling the busy-ness this week as well.  Generally, we've been able to keep their routine rather consistent, despite the fact that I've been much more absent this year than they were ever accustomed to. It did take them a while to get used to the change, but I can attribute a successful adjustment to the benefits of having a great combination of a flexible, patient partner, and equally flexible and patient childcare.  You guys really make it happen!


Alas, the crazyness isn't about to let up anytime soon.  Once classes finish, I begin full-time correspondence courses that I took on in order to lighten the already heavy load for this first year and a half of academics.  But really - I love it that way!  :)  And besides, I'm stepping out to see Ina May Gaskin this Saturday!!!  Only the biggest name in the world of midwifery!  What a treat it will be to hear her speak human, non-YouTube reality.  I can't wait!  And by the way it sounds, I think half the people I know will be there as well!  I'll have to be sure to spill out some of my inspiration and photos after this weekend.

And now, off to pull out a few more hairs while I battle with the urinary system!

Friday 18 March 2011

The big, gigantic paper

Yes, the paper we've all been dreading is fast approaching...  the class which most of us hold so dear to our hearts will come to a close, which means we all must spit out the dreaded 20 pager.  For me, one of the few in our program who hasn't been in university before, this means the largest piece of writing that I have yet produced, and I've taken it ridiculously seriously.  In part, of course, because of my deep admiration for an incredible, unforgettable teacher and a strong desire to impress her.  But also, because of how near and dear the subject of my paper is.  I'll make it available on here once it is done, but for now I'd like to explain for those who might be curious why on earth I might choose to explore Unassisted birth - a topic which leaves out not only hospitals and doctors, but midwives as well.  A group of women which most midwives would not expect to encounter. 

Well, here's why...

First, there is a great deal to learn from a group of people who have utmost confidence in their bodies.  Can we ever say, about any other group of people, that they are so strong, self-assured, and trusting of their bodies that they are comfortable managing something with as much cultural stigma as birthing alone?  Can we imagine, perhaps, that there is a certain kind of strength that women who birth alone might emanate which we could benefit from picking up on?  I sure believe so.

I came to start learning about unassisted birth (herein, UC) long before I came to the conclusion that I need to be a midwife.  While participating rather actively on ICAN forums (International Cesarean Awareness Network - a strong network of women who have been through unwanted cesarean section and are healing together) I first stumbled upon the fact that VBAC is not available to a great many women in the US and here in Canada.  What a tragedy this idea is.  But more tragic than this is that not only will many OBs and hospitals work with women who have previous cesarean sections, but many midwives won't either.  What sort of choice does this leave women who want a VBAC?  Not much.  Either lie down on the operating table and wait for the knife, labor at home until you're pushing and hope you give birth in the first five minutes you get through the door of the hospital (and face the peril of hospital intimidation), or do it yourself.  Okay, so this is not the situation in my home town, nor is it for most of the area that I live in.  But there you have it - my first exposure to some of the myriad of reasons why women might choose to birth alone.

Yep, I sure was intrigued.  Since the first thing out of my doctors mouth after my own cesarean was "Yes, you can have a VBAC next time, but heavens dont do it at home!!!" I was already contemplating how I'd manage to get myself a homebirth. So yes, crazy as it may seem, my hurting, healing, badly-in-need-of-recognition-and-empowerment 20-year-old self thought about getting pregnant and staying home and not having any help.  Call me what you will.  Like I said, I thought about it. 

Thinking about it led me to some UC forums, where I saw other women healing from traumatic experiences, sharing empowering homebirth stories, and supporting eachother in learning how they can take responsibility for their own pregnancies and births.  Some still had back-up midwives, some were completely on their own, others saw an OB on the side.  But they all had a common goal, which inevitably they share with almost every other Mama out there - a positive birth experience and a healthy baby.  They just had a different way of perceiving what that means.

Sometimes I hear harsh criticism of women who want to birth alone.  I hear people calling them selfish, only wanting to focus on the birth experience and not on the safety of their babies, dangerous, crazy.  And yet, my experience was that these women were mostly thoughtful, intelligent people.  Much like women who choose midwife-attended homebirth, they wanted to escape the perils of hospital intervention, and valued the intimate nature of birth and the intimacy and privacy that it may need to run smoothly.  Not really so different from many of the rest of us, except that they saw midwives as more like the hospital than the birth partner, and sometimes, in some cases, I think they're right for thinking this.

SO I chose to examine women who birth unassisted because midwives have much to learn about these women who are so often their greatest supporters, and their harshest critics.  We have much to learn about the women who value pure unhindered birth the most.  And learn, I have.

And no, I did not have an unassisted homebirth.  I believe in midwifery, and loved my midwives, too much not to ask them to come to our HBAC.  I did, however, become picky about which midwives I wanted, and made sure that I had full trust in the ones I chose. 

And so, it begins...

The path which I never though I'd have taken.  The blog which I laughed at the idea of writing.  Yet the time has flown by and I've seen a place for a blog.  If not for anyone else's sake, then for my own.  And for the sake of sharing some of the many things that I see that I want the world to see as well.  I guess Facebook just ain't enough these days!
And so, to introduce - the blog about my experience in the MEP, about being a mom and partner, living (yet these days, hardly ever being) in the bush, and random musings which may seem important.  I'm looking forward to sharing a few activism-based tidbits that might be lurking in the shadows.  You could say that my outlook on midwifery and life in general are a little more radical than some of my peers.  I like to think of this as individual strengths and weaknesses.  Take it how you will!