RE: [ozmidwifery] Disturbing article (dated 1999)
Title: Salon | Cut me open! This woman is keen to promote herself as a feminist, but surely if she cared about feminism she would be advocating for all women to have choices in childbirth, not just to defend her way of birthing. To mention her ideas around what is myth and what is fact, obviously based on sound research (not), just shows how little she was/is informed about caesarean birth or any kind of birth at all. I also wish 2004 a year to be giving women real choices in childbirth and giving Midwives the chance to truly be with women, with insurance thrown in as well. A Merry Christmas to all Megan -Original Message-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of *G and S*Sent: Friday, 19 December 2003 2:07To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: [ozmidwifery] Disturbing article (dated 1999) Found this article while doing a search. Warning if you're in a good mood and don't want it spoilt...press delete!! Sonia W.
Re: [ozmidwifery] Disturbing article (dated 1999)
Title: Salon | Cut me open! This belief is too common and too depressing!!! Women of that logic seem to be so threatened by us. My best friend, who is newly pregnant - was talking to another woman who has had 2 children. The woman told my girlfriend to be "open-minded", that if she wants an epidural - then HAVE an epidural etc etc. I wish for all women to be "informed" and "enlightened" rather than medically "open-minded". cheers, Nicole Found this article while doing a search. Warning if you're in a good mood and don't want it spoilt...press delete!! Sonia W. To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > Mothers Who Think August 2, 1999URL: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1999/08/02/c_section Cut me open! I just had my second scheduled Caesarean and, yes, I still consider myself a feminist. - - - - - - - - - - - -By Jean Hanff Korelitz First, the horror stories. A little girl, a friend's half sister. She's a teenager now, alive but completely paralyzed and muted by an obstetrician's failure to perform a timely Caesarean section on her mother, who was trying for a natural birth. A newborn baby boy, whose mother, my friend, had a history of problems relating to her placenta, and the added misfortune (in this instance) of being British. In Britain, there is an even greater effort to limit the use of Caesarean sections than exists here in America. When the mother's placenta abruptly detached from her uterus, a rushed Caesarean was indeed performed, but it was too late. Her otherwise healthy son lived 17 minutes. I just had my second planned Caesarean section. Anyone want to fight with me? Yes, yes, I know natural birth was born of the women's movement. I know about those midwives down on the Farm in Tennessee who rhapsodized about "the surges" (that's contractions, to you and me) in their classic book, "Spiritual Midwifery," and reminded us that labor is an _expression_ of female power, an umbilical connecting us directly to the goddess, the earth, our higher power as we understand her. We're supposed to eschew pain relief in order to experience fully our transformation into mothers and the rush of new life. I understand all that. I even respect it. But I maintain that, in the end, the natural birth movement has done a great disservice to women. That its insistence that a mother can and should control her labor -- equipped with "birth plans" and proscriptions about fetal monitors and episiotomies -- is both illusory and damaging to women. Because when you get right down to it, labor can be neither planned nor controlled; its a kinetic, quicksilver process that may slip instantly through the fingers of the best doctor or midwife, who must then be ready to react with any and every available response -- including C-section -- to avoid a tragic outcome for mother, child or both. It's the preachiness of the natural birth phenomenon that I can least abide, the sympathy and tut-tutting of other women when they discover you've had a Caesarean (the sympathy is if you had to have one; the tut-tutting if you chose to). And, worst of all, the utterly unnecessary self-castigation of mothers themselves, wrought by this absurd requirement that we have a "good" and "successful" birth experience. I remember the first of these mothers I encountered, seven years ago in a prenatal exercise class. She had a young child already and tearfully confided to the rest of us, first-timers all, that she had originally planned to wait another year or two before having a second baby, but the failure of her first birth experience (she'd been "forced" to have a Caesarean by the fetal distress of her baby during labor) had proved so overwhelmingly and lastingly upsetting to her that she felt compelled to try again, as soon as possible, to "get it right." This smack of failure, this sense of falling short despite the best
Re: [ozmidwifery] Disturbing article (dated 1999)
Title: Salon | Cut me open! Dear deb and others, My Christmas wish is for all of us, is to really have effective freedom to choose, equall access to informed decision making & action opportunities then I think this person would not write as she does nor would channel9 have aired that elective caesar as they did. If we had real freedom to choose then I think This woman would likely have chosen a midwife of her own and hopefully written of the joys of a natural birth and you and your chidlren would form part of our modern day homebirthing movement rather than possibly risk being part of the end of it?? So Informed choice opportunities for all women and midwives in 2004 is my wish for all!!Denise Hynd - Original Message - From: Debbie Field To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 2:21 PM Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Disturbing article (dated 1999) I have just read this article and can only imagine the emails that will flood to this address. I guess there are always the extreme views. And of there is the old saying 'as ye believe so it shall be done unto you'. Sadly there was no understanding of the impact of drugs on the mother or baby. Sadly there was no respect for those that chose natural options because of the beauty and miracle of birth. Sadly there is a sufficient amount of judgement from someone who wishes not to be judged. I am glad we all have the freedom to choose. I am grateful that i had the option to choose my homebirth (thanks girls...i know your listening) I am hopeful that in the future we are able to make informed choices that are respected no matter how they look. I am glad the author of this article chose an option that suited her. have a great Christmas all. deb - Original Message - From: *G and S* To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 2:37 PM Subject: [ozmidwifery] Disturbing article (dated 1999) Found this article while doing a search. Warning if you're in a good mood and don't want it spoilt...press delete!! Sonia W. To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > Mothers Who Think August 2, 1999URL: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1999/08/02/c_section Cut me open! I just had my second scheduled Caesarean and, yes, I still consider myself a feminist. - - - - - - - - - - - -By Jean Hanff Korelitz First, the horror stories. A little girl, a friend's half sister. She's a teenager now, alive but completely paralyzed and muted by an obstetrician's failure to perform a timely Caesarean section on her mother, who was trying for a natural birth. A newborn baby boy, whose mother, my friend, had a history of problems relating to her placenta, and the added misfortune (in this instance) of being British. In Britain, there is an even greater effort to limit the use of Caesarean sections than exists here in America. When the mother's placenta abruptly detached from her uterus, a rushed Caesarean was indeed performed, but it was too late. Her otherwise healthy son lived 17 minutes. I just had my second planned Caesarean section. Anyone want to fight with me? Yes, yes, I know natural birth was born of the women's movement. I know about those midwives down on the Farm in Tennessee who rhapsodized about "the surges" (that's contractions, to you and me) in their classic book, "Spiritual Midwifery," and reminded us that labor is an _expression_ of female power, an umbilical connecting us directly to the goddess, the earth, our higher power as we understand her. We're supposed to eschew pain relief in order to experience fully our transformation into mothers and the rush of new life. I understand all that. I even respect it. But I maintain that, in the end, the natural birth movement has done a great disservice to women. That its insistence that a mother can and should control her labor -- equipped with "birth plans" and proscriptions about fetal monitors and episiotomies -- is both illusory and damaging to women. Because when you get right down to it, labor can be neither planned nor controlled; its a kinetic, quicksilver process that may slip instantly through the fingers of the best doctor or midwife, wh
Re: [ozmidwifery] Disturbing article (dated 1999)
Title: Salon | Cut me open! I have just read this article and can only imagine the emails that will flood to this address. I guess there are always the extreme views. And of there is the old saying 'as ye believe so it shall be done unto you'. Sadly there was no understanding of the impact of drugs on the mother or baby. Sadly there was no respect for those that chose natural options because of the beauty and miracle of birth. Sadly there is a sufficient amount of judgement from someone who wishes not to be judged. I am glad we all have the freedom to choose. I am grateful that i had the option to choose my homebirth (thanks girls...i know your listening) I am hopeful that in the future we are able to make informed choices that are respected no matter how they look. I am glad the author of this article chose an option that suited her. have a great Christmas all. deb - Original Message - From: *G and S* To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 2:37 PM Subject: [ozmidwifery] Disturbing article (dated 1999) Found this article while doing a search. Warning if you're in a good mood and don't want it spoilt...press delete!! Sonia W. To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > Mothers Who Think August 2, 1999URL: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1999/08/02/c_section Cut me open! I just had my second scheduled Caesarean and, yes, I still consider myself a feminist. - - - - - - - - - - - -By Jean Hanff Korelitz First, the horror stories. A little girl, a friend's half sister. She's a teenager now, alive but completely paralyzed and muted by an obstetrician's failure to perform a timely Caesarean section on her mother, who was trying for a natural birth. A newborn baby boy, whose mother, my friend, had a history of problems relating to her placenta, and the added misfortune (in this instance) of being British. In Britain, there is an even greater effort to limit the use of Caesarean sections than exists here in America. When the mother's placenta abruptly detached from her uterus, a rushed Caesarean was indeed performed, but it was too late. Her otherwise healthy son lived 17 minutes. I just had my second planned Caesarean section. Anyone want to fight with me? Yes, yes, I know natural birth was born of the women's movement. I know about those midwives down on the Farm in Tennessee who rhapsodized about "the surges" (that's contractions, to you and me) in their classic book, "Spiritual Midwifery," and reminded us that labor is an _expression_ of female power, an umbilical connecting us directly to the goddess, the earth, our higher power as we understand her. We're supposed to eschew pain relief in order to experience fully our transformation into mothers and the rush of new life. I understand all that. I even respect it. But I maintain that, in the end, the natural birth movement has done a great disservice to women. That its insistence that a mother can and should control her labor -- equipped with "birth plans" and proscriptions about fetal monitors and episiotomies -- is both illusory and damaging to women. Because when you get right down to it, labor can be neither planned nor controlled; its a kinetic, quicksilver process that may slip instantly through the fingers of the best doctor or midwife, who must then be ready to react with any and every available response -- including C-section -- to avoid a tragic outcome for mother, child or both. It's the preachiness of the natural birth phenomenon that I can least abide, the sympathy and tut-tutting of other women when they discover you've had a Caesarean (the sympathy is if you had to have one; the tut-tutting if you chose to). And, worst of all, the utterly unnecessary self-castigation of mothers themselves, wrought by this absurd requirement that we have a "good" and "successful" birth experience. I remember the first of these mothers I encountered, seven years ago in a prenatal exercise class. She had a young child already and tearfully confided to the rest of us, first-timers all, that she had originally planned to wait another year or two before having a second baby, but the failure of her first birth experience (she'd been "forced" to have a Caesarean by the fetal distress of her baby during labor) had proved so overwhelmingly and lastingly upsetting to her that sh
