We have taken our technology and advancements all around the globe, bringing people further and further away from normal birth.  When we go outside of our culture to “help” we should always pause and scrutinize our actions for the effects they will have in the long run.

So much work can be done internationally, but it’s important to remember all the work that’s yet to be done here.

Anyway, this acquaintance, who I now count as a friend, works for a government agency that is charged with spreading the good news about good health in the Bronx. I’m sure their mission statement isn’t worded quite that way, but that really does suffice for my purpose right now. So, my friend asked me if I knew of anyone who might be interested in teaching one-hour breastfeeding classes. Her office needed to get a certain number of classes taught in a short amount of time and they were looking for help. Well, not only did I know someone, I was that one. She told me to go to the office so we could talk about it.

When I showed up, I was surprised to find I was on a job interview. The application even asked for references- and they were called! We talked about my experience as a doula and an educator and then I was asked if I had ever actually breastfed. I could have been hired solely because I had breastfed my son only an hour before the interview.  Before I left, they asked, quite incidentally, if I might also be available to give talks on SIDS.  They were providing all the curricula and a very generous stipend, so I said yes without knowing that I was stepping into a pit of self-betrayal from which I could only emerge by complaining to my dear husband and you, of course.  Thanks for reading.

The class is actually on SIDS and Safe Sleep Practices, which are actually unrelated because, as I have been trained to say, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is the unexplained death of a baby, furthermore and to the point, it is not preventable.  I suppose, though, that someone felt that a class for telling people to put their babies to sleep in a crib, on their backs, with no blankets, pillows or other suffocation hazards might be too short.  Well, that’s not the only problem.

My big concern is with the recommendation that families make their babies sleep alone.  The recommendation is based on a flawed study which was funded by the Consumer Products Safety Commission and the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association, i.e., the crib manufacturer’s lobbyists.   The study concluded that babies sleep best alone, in a crib.  Once again, we in the United States, have decided that what the rest of the world is doing,  what humankind has been doing all along, is wrong and we should go out and buy something, along with its hundred accessories to make it right.

Our public education campaigns have been dumbed down because it is widely recognized that some people may not follow the safety guidelines for bed sharing.  I wish I could share that, if they want to experience the ultimate in bonding and hormonal regulation, better sleep and milk production and even better family relations, they should keep their newborns with them around the clock and find out how to safely share their beds.  Maybe I could slip each of them a note instruction them to meet me outside for a private class.  I know, however, that many of these women have always planned to separate themselves from their newborns with at least a wall.  That even in the hospital they will welcome the rest offered to them by the nursery option.  This is typical in our society and it’s very difficult for me to explain that it just isn’t normal.

Next week I will be speaking to four different groups, spelling out for them the guidelines that our government has established for them on safe sleep.  It is unlikely that anyone will ask me what I personally did with my children, but if someone does, should I admit that for four months my son slept on top of me as I sat in a recliner?  Probably not, as that is discouraged by all sides, but I will tell them that I made the decision that was right for my family and I’ll encourage them to do the research and make the decisions that are right for theirs.

I won’t stray from my curriculum for now, but I look forward to seeing our leaders take us in a new direction in the near future. Perhaps they should focus on breastfeeding, the missing factor in bed-sharing infant deaths.

Face of Birth

Where the personal Gets Political

Homebirth Australia

It has struck me lately how I can easily predict how progressed a woman’s labor is and have always been right, but only when she is laboring at home.  In the hospital, I am always wrong, every single time.  In the hospital, my clients are always struggling, despite the fabulous support I provide, a little more a little earlier on.  They’ve left their comfortable homes, taken off their familiar clothes, limited their mobility and often agreed to even more invasive procedures than those.  I really should give myself a break.  It’s no wonder they seem to be in hot and heavy labor when things are just beginning.

I realized that I do not want to be a midwife because, even at a homebirth, some time I may have to actually deliver a baby.  I don’t want to deliver babies.  I just want to catch them.  I just want to be there with the woman throughout her prenatal journey and watch her as she labors in her uninhibited, instinctual mammalian glory.  I don’t want to have to use sutures or syringes afterward either.

Oh, here’s a big one:  I don’t drive.  Have you seen how much stuff  homebirth midwives lug around?  It looks like they’re moving to Europe.  Most of it doesn’t get used, but if you need it, you want it to be there.  I think that many people picture homebirths happening with a long-haired woman who walks in wearing Birkenstocks  and carrying a satchel of herbs.  I would probably be wearing more fashionable footwear and would need my driver to bring the luggage in for me.  Sounds good, actually.

Still, I want to soak in lots of information.  I am a midwife at heart and would like to be a midwife in head.  Being a midwife in practice isn’t really necessary.  That’s my decision right now and I look forward to going back and forth on that one.

2 ½ C flour

1 ½  t baking soda

¾  t cinnamon

1 t ground ginger

½  t ground cloves

½  t salt

½  t cayenne pepper

8  T butter

½  C  sugar

1 C brown sugar

1/3 C molasses

¼  C egg whites

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine flour, baking soda and spices and set

aside. Cream the butter and sugars together. Add the molasses to the creamed

butter, then add the egg whites until combined. Add the dry ingredients

slowly. Once incorporated, roll dough into 1 inch balls and place onto

baking tray. Bake 8-10 minutes.   Recipe by Gale Gand.

Cool.  Eat.  Hope for a baby.

This poster was part of an early 20th century campaign that was started to reduce the rate of infant mortality.  Many babies were dying and something had to be done.  The statements made were scary, but true.

Today, just one hundred years later, we find ourselves once again campaigning to bring back breastfeeding. This time, however, not so many babies are dying.  It’s not so scary.  We’ve gone from, ”Mother’s milk is the only safe food for a baby during the first six months of its life.” to “Breast is Best.”