Note to self: do not trust "feelings"

I though it was going to be good. I really did. When I got in the car Bob Dylan and Coldplay came on the radio back to back, and I thought, gee, this is a good sign. I was feeling happy.

When we got to the hospital, mom, a young primip was already at 8! We were all elated, and I was thinking how great this was for her, that that was what the universe had in mind for her.

2 hours later she had an anterior lip. 6 hours after that she had an anterior lip. A little pit, an awesome midwife (or 2) and 4 more hours of pushing later, she had a baby girl. No epidural, lots of joy. A happy family.

Then the doc, as he was stitching up her tears, says, what's that going on with your uterus? She ended up having a uterine inversion, which for those of you that are lucky enough not to know, is a rare emergency where after delivery your uterus ends up inside out trying to come out of your vagina. It is very serious. I would love feedback from any of my midwife and doula readers who have any experience with this. So mom is rushed to the or, lost lots of blood, will be in the ICU for three days unable to see baby, nurse, bond. It's all just very maddening and sad.

This is exactly why I went to work for BOLD. The little picture of birth is just too emotionally draining.

Off to Bend to see the BOLD performance. Let me know if you'll be there too.

Be BOLD!

Now you know I do not ask for much, faithful (or unfaithful) reader. Today I am asking for 2 minutes of your time that I know can make a huge difference!

Thanks to initial and very exciting enthusiasm, BOLD has quickly risen to become one of the top contenders for this week's finalist spots on ideablob's $10,000 contest! However, the last 36 hours will be the most intense. It isn't too late to log on to ideablob.com Registration is easy. It will take a minute. Don't tell me you don't have a minute. I am not the annoying guy on the corner asking if you have a minute for our earth, oh, and by the way, did you bring your checkbook? We just want your vote to support BOLD's quest for the March ideablob award!

As you may know BOLD is an organization that uses the arts to inspire social action, including supporting local communities for the last 2 years without asking for any financial contributions from our participants. I am the Performance and Talkback Coordinator for this fine, fine organization which has about 5 cents to it's name. With your vote that can change!

So, here are two simple things you can do to help:

The ideablob.com contest is very democratic. The 2 ideas with the most votes by midnight on Friday, March 14 will become finalists in this month's contest, which will have it's final sprint from March 22-31.

Thank you! You rock!

Birth at St. V's

I am still too tired and confused to have totally processed the very, very long birth I just attended, but I do have to give props to Dr. Sally Wentross and the many nurses at St. Vincents who handled an extremely difficult situation with grace and generosity. Often doulas are hesitant to work there as is can be a hostile environment but this was not the case today.

Reasons to Have a Home Birth

1. No unnecessary fetal monitoring that leads to unnecessary pitocin that leads to unnecessary instruments pulling your baby from your body.

2. You will never be coerced into having a speculum exam to prove your water actually broke, even though fluid has been pouring out of your body for 6 hours.

3. You will not contract a staph infection at home, nor will you be told your baby has meningitis by mistake because of a "contaminated draw."

4. Your doctor or midwife won't be able to convince you that they need to manually stretch out your vagina because home birth midwives know they don't need to.

5. You will feel safer and you will be right.

6. You will not be woken up every two hours for various ridiculous reasons.

7. You will be able to eat and drink in labor.

8. You will be treated as if you are walking through a rite of passage, not as if you have a potentially life threatening disease.

9. No one will ever say to you "aren't you ready for that epidural yet?"

You should not need to have a home birth to have your rights as a laboring women upheld. But sometimes, you do.