Dr. William Emerson and healing birth trauma

I attended a conference back in October that was absolutely wonderful. It was sponsored and put together by the Doulas of Greater Kansas City.
I was happily accompanied by my two comrades on this midwifery journey.
It was presented by Dr. William Emerson. It was refreshing and informative. He is a perinatal psychologist who guides the healing process from birth trauma. He uses energy and regression therapy prenatally, during labor and in the postpartum period. He works with the whole family. He is a pioneer in the baby healing realm. He works with prenates, newborns, babies and children. He is compassionate and loving. He is a healer.
I am always thrilled and reassured when I meet folks who believe in the intelligence, consciousness and feelings of babies inutero, who believe that babies are active participants in their own births and who treat prenates and newborns with love and respect.
Some of the gems I have stowed away from yesterday are:

• Interventions do not necessarily cause birth trauma if the intention of the one intervening is clear (to help mama and/or baby).
  
• There are other folks out there who remember parts or all of their own births.
• The uterus is a memory organ. (I think of the uterus as a portal to the cosmos)

• The shape and feel of the newborn's cranium can be a sign of birth trauma.

It was a joy to be with a group of folks wanting to make a difference in the world of birth. A lift to my spirit and my hope that we are making a difference. Please check out the work of Dr. Emerson and tell me what you think.

Birth film for papas and suctioning info

I found this link at Pamela Hines-Powell's blog.
Finally there is a resource out there for papas, The Other Side Of The Glass.
The link is a trailer for a film that will hopefully come out in 2009. It looks quite promising, especially if there are resources offered for healing birth trauma.

Babies are active participants in their birth. They are thinking, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling spiritual beings completely present in the here and now of their birth. To be in the presence of a newborn is holy. Especially when I sit back and observe.
Let the baby enter this world peacefully & gently, nestled close to mama and papa, attached to the placenta with the cord intact. While receiving the blood that is pulsing through the cord and skin to skin with mama and papa, the baby will have all he/she needs; warmth, breath and love.
If extra breath is needed, it can be given right there in mama's arms.

Routine suctioning is no longer recommended and hasn't been since 2005.
Here is a quote from the American Academy of Pediatrics journal:

Aspiration of meconium before delivery, during birth, or during resuscitation can cause severe aspiration pneumonia. One obstetrical technique to try to decrease aspiration has been to suction meconium from the infant's airway after delivery of the head but before delivery of the shoulders (intrapartum suctioning). Although some studies (LOE 3^15–17) suggested that intrapartum suctioning might be effective for decreasing the risk of aspiration syndrome, subsequent evidence from a large multicenter randomized trial (LOE 1)¹⁸did not show such an effect. Therefore, current recommendations no longer advise routine intrapartum oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal suctioning for infants born to mothers with meconium staining of amniotic fluid (Class I). Traditional teaching (LOE 5)^19–21recommended that meconium-stained infants have endotracheal intubation immediately following birth and that suction be applied to the endotracheal tube as it is withdrawn. Randomized, controlled trials (LOE 1)^15,22have shown that this practice offers no benefit if the infant is vigorous (Class I). A vigorous infant is defined as one who has strong respiratory efforts, good muscle tone, and a heart rate >100 beats per minute (bpm). Endotracheal suctioning for infants who are not vigorous should be performed immediately after birth (Class Indeterminate).

Here is a direct link to the Lancet article on suctioning.

Breastfeeding funk

I have just come across this post on D-MER.
Thank you Lisa and guest poster.
I am so happy and relieved to find information about this odd yet very real sensation that I have experienced, as well as other women I know. I have had very mild dysphoria and nursed my babies until they were 4 years old.
The feelings I had, especially with my 2nd and 3rd children, happened right before let down. I had feelings of sudden irritability, gloom and despair and self judgement ("I'm such a loser." "I'm not getting anything done." "I'll NEVER get anything done." "I feel so sad.") I found reading, removing myself from lots of activity, finding quiet, sitting in comfortable chairs and snippets of dark dark chocolate to be very helpful. I always had a LARGE (jug) glass of water by my side. I have always associated it with let down, just like the sudden feelings of thirst I would also get. I would take a deep breath and just let the feelings wash over me. And they did. I feel fortunate that my dysphoria was mild and manageable. I believe I had it for about the first 3-4 months of nursing.
My own personal experience with breastfeeding funk and this information will help me serve other women who wrangle with D-MER.
Here is the D-MER website:
http://www.d-mer.org/Home_Page.html

Path of a Midwife

Here is a reprint of an article I wrote in 2007. It was published in the Birthkit, a former publication of Midwifery Today.

Path of a Midwife

I gave birth for the first time, well before the crack of dawn, on a chilly November morning in 1991. I birthed in the comfort and warmth of my own home, surrounded by people of my choosing, guided and supported by two loving midwives, also of my choosing. In the cold darkness of that November morning, not only was a beautiful baby boy born, so too was a mama, a papa and a midwife. It was a profound transition in my life.

I did not make this choice out of rebellion or fear of hospitals, but rather from my heart. I hadn’t read any “your path to better birthing” books or “what to expect” books. I didn’t want to. As a matter of fact, I just couldn’t imagine birthing any other way. I felt that my baby wouldn’t allow it.

Birth is a rite of passage for the whole family: For the partner, who has been there through the tender emotional outpourings, the queasy days, the first fluttering kicks, the frolics felt just beneath the ribs and, finally, the labor and birth—the grand event. For the baby, who is profoundly affected in ways that we are only beginning to recognize. Everyone is moved by this transition of life, from womb to room.

Pregnancy and birth are natural physiological processes that open and move through a woman’s body, mind and spirit. Pregnancy and birth are parts of the deeply personal and intimate journey involving every aspect of a woman’s being. This journey can be a time of great vulnerability and a time of great empowerment.

As a midwife, I have seen birth in all her unfettered force, unimpeded and oh, so safe. I have seen, while looking into many a woman’s eyes, in the midst of her lucid struggle, the eternal, universal recognition of her own strength. I have witnessed many a woman shift from “I can’t do this” to “I am doing this.” I have witnessed brilliant-faced partners awed and transformed while infused and bathed in the glow of the mama’s intense birthing energy. I have witnessed contractions, waves, primal rushes, uterine pulses and mamas moaning, singing, resisting, rocking and rolling right into birthing their babies. I have witnessed babies, wet and warm, born into the welcoming arms of the eagerly awaiting family. Through bearing witness and bearing babies, I believe that birth is safe.

For every woman birthing and believing in herself, a baby is born imprinted with the same self-confidence. Every baby born into an environment of safety and peace is a person imprinted with that same sense of peace. What better way to enter the world? I can imagine no other beauty or grace, aside from mothering, to which I can commit myself. I walk this path with all my heart, with every cell in my body, one baby, one mama, one family at a time.

Prenatal Nurturance

As a midwife, I look forward to every prenatal. Yes, there are times when they are difficult. Yes, there are times when they are not warm and fuzzy. And I look forward to them all. I learn at least a little something at every prenatal. And with patience and compassionate observant listening, I learn lots. Here's a sketch of what a basic prenatal meeting looks like:

How long do prenatals last?
Prenatals typically last anywhere from 1-2 hours.

What do we do during a prenatal?
For the purpose of writing this out, I will divide the clinical aspects of the prenatal from the interpersonal aspects. In reality, all parts of our meetings together are interwoven, connected and integrated into creating a loving, safe environment in which mama and family is nurtured and everyone feels comfortable expressing, emoting and sharing. It is essential for me that trust between us is tended like a garden~ sown, watered, weeded, picked clean of pests and harvested. This goes hand in hand with tending to your belief in yourself as a woman, a mama and a birther as well as trusting birth in general.

Clinical:
*basic urinalysis
*blood pressure
*hemoglobin check, as needed
*palpation~ externally feeling the size and shape of your uterus; feeling your baby's growth and position; connecting with your baby
*measuring fundal height~ I measure, in centimeters, the distance between the top of your pubic bone and the top of your uterus (known as the fundus)
*listen to baby's heart; count beats per minute~ I use a fetoscope for this. I choose not to use a doppler. (Doppler use is another blog topic soon to come)

Nutritional Guidance:
I focus on nutrition because I believe it is the backbone of a healthy mama and therefore healthy baby. I encourage eating whole foods and every color of the rainbow. I share recipes and ideas for meals and snacks. I believe that eating healthfully is the single most important step a woman can take towards walking down the path of a comfortable glowing pregnancy and an optimal birth outcome. Choosing what you eat is one of the extrinsic factors affecting your pregnancy, your baby and your birth that you can control.

Getting to know one another/tending mutual trust:
As I discussed earlier, this is a key part of prenatal nurturance. When I invite people into my home to bear witness to my birth, I want to feel so very comfy with them. When I attend others births, I want to feel so very comfy with them. Much time is spent getting to know one another and sowing those seeds of trust. Together we become partners and comrades on this journey.

Information sharing:
I share any amount of information and answer what questions I can about all things pertaining to pregnancy and birth. If I don't know the answer to a question you ask, I'll say so. I'll research it with you. I'll learn and relearn. I'll say, "Thank you for teaching me that."
I'll eat up any information you and your family share with me.

Lending library:
I have books and videos I loan out to whomever is interested.

Laughter:
Very important clinical piece of prenatal nurturance.

"Laughter"
When the first baby laughed for the first
time the laugh broke into a thousand
pieces and they all went skipping about
and that was the beginning of the fairies.
~J.M. Barrie

And so much more than I can not put into words...

This evening as my family arrived home after an all day outing in a nearby town, my daughter exclaimed that "We went to a place where they make jam and papa bought A LOT of it." When I asked if perhaps he was hungry when they were there, she replied, "No. There were just many delicious samples and we tried them all." I thought, that's what I want to do, gather together midwives and we can give out free samples of prenatal nurturance. mmmmmmmm, delicious.
An hour and a half of deliciousness or a 10 minute intake of high tech space food?
Which would you choose?

Greetings

I am a homebirth midwife in the state of Kansas. Also know as "The Freestate". I am entering the blogoshere in order to network and discuss and meet the many people in the homebirthing community. I have enjoyed reading a few homebirth blogs every once in a while. As I am a busy homeschooling mother of 3 and a midwife, my blogging time is limited. I look forward to connecting with more folks through birth talk.
Here is a poem that stretches across time, across birthing ideology, across all barriers. It is a gem of a poem by Carl Sandburg.

Being Born Is Important

Being born is important
You who have stood at the bedposts
and seen a mother on her high harvest day,
the day of the most golden of harvest moons for her.

You who have seen the new wet child
dried behind the ears,
swaddled in soft fresh garments,
pursing its lips and sending a groping mouth
toward the nipples where white milk is ready~

You who have seen this love's payday
of wild toil and sweet agonizing~

You know being born is important.
You know nothing else was ever so important to you.
You understand the payday of love is so old,
So involved, so traced with the circles of the moon,
So cunning with the secrets of the salts of the blood~
It must be older than the moon, older than the salt.

~Carl Sandburg