Monthly Archives: January 2008

Group B Strep

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This is a rant. You’ve been warned.

Antibiotics during labor is the standard protocol for GBS+ mothers. I was given them without my consent, without being informed, NOTHING was said to me until I began to have excrutiating pain in the arm with the IV. I was told I was being given fluids when in fact, they were antibiotics and I reacted violently to them.

GBS kills babies, and can make mothers very very sick as well. I’m asking questions though, because as I research this topic I am finding new literature that says antibiotics carry very real risks of their own. The greatest of these being that they render the babies who receive them in-utero virtually antibiotic resistant for the first few months of life to most Ecoli strains. Ecoli infections are rampant in hospitals, and babies born with compromised immune systems (having had their waters broken and hospital germs introduced to the before-then sterile uterine environment) at greatest risk.

Shouldn’t we be asking ourselves… our care providers… what else can be done? Because despite it being “standard protocol”, antibiotics do NOT catch all GBS infections. Cultures come back negative but the infant is diagnosed with GBS soon after birth. Antibitocs are given, just as protocol demands, yet babies contract GBS anyway and we lose them.

There is alot out there on this, albeit quietly… am I making a mistake by asking these questions? I was GBS+ for 3 pregnancies. Given the risks of antibitocs vs. the risk of a baby contracting GBS from me, should or WOULD I choose to have them administered?

I want to see the day when we CURE GBS in the MOTHER. So treating the baby is a non-issue. Someone tell me I’m not a lunatic for researching such a thing. Because from what I read (in peer-reviewed medical literature) antibiotics during labor are a shot in the dark. They reduce the risk but do not provide immunization for a baby from it. We should step back and be looking for a way to reduce the number of women who are GBS+… We need to understand better what it is, what it isn’t, and here’s a thought…

“WHAT CAUSES IT IN MOM’s IN THE FIRST PLACE???” 

and

“HOW CAN WE CURE IT IN MOM’s SO THE BABY ISN’T EVEN AT RISK???”

To be angry at me for asking about treatment options when IV antibiotics can’t/won’t/shouldn’t be prescribed is sad. I’m no genius. I doubt I will answer these questions on my own. But I won’t stop asking them. And I won’t stop researching them.

“Standard protocol” is not good enough for me or my babies.

Sad…

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I have shed so many tears in the last week as more VBAC/cesarean/medical intervention stories come pouring in my inbox. As a survivor I relive the helplessness, the pain, that captured feeling over and over each time I read one.

I find myself needing a break from it. So I get up, only to be called back with the knowing that what I am doing is important. It heals – this telling. And so I am drawn back to the viewing window. Feeling like a voyeur of the ugly truth about modern childbirth. Each story pushes me forward yet a bit of me dies too as I relive my own births. Each with too much intervention. Each one I am thankful ended with a “healthy baby” but I mourn the loss of ME with each birth. After 4 children, there is alot missing.

I had 3 successful VBAC’s. Successful in that I was able to birth vaginally. gone is my “CPD” diagnosis. But the “failure to progress” title I acquired with 3 of the 4 births haunts me still. Pitocin. Stripping of the cervix. Break my water. Even though I “got my VBAC” alot was stolen. these are the stories that realy hanut me – the torture that is medical childbirth.  So another book begins it’s conception period… 

On a more factual note, ICAN has not only offered to help me publish this book but their editing services and promotional help as well. They are officially endorsing this project. What they do is SO important. If you haven’t been to their website GO NOW. There are local chapters, email loops, statistics (much of which will be included in my book) and SUPPORT as you journey towards a normal birth.

Cesarean Voices

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I have offically begun writing my book. It has been rattling around in my head for years now – since my first VBAC. I have a publisher. I have the idea. Now the work begins. And now is when I need your help.

 If you know of a woman who has experienced birth trauma, surgical methods employed with or without her consent (episiotomies, etc.) , cesarean section with or without her consent, etc. have her drop me a note. The principal idea behind the book is to provide a safe place for women who have been damaged physically, emotionally, spiritually during the birth process and how they can reclaim (or hope to reclaim) their losses. Their stories need told. Mine needs told. Names will be changed as privacy is one and the same with safety when opening the wounds of loss.

This book is not about anger, though that emotion will most likely be included. It’s not about resentment, bitterness, medical rape or depression. Though those too will likely be in the limelight throughout. It is about healing. I especially want to include stories of cesareans and subsequent VBAC stories.

My goal is to include 100 voices. I have 18 so far. May I include yours???

I believe if we stand together and SHOUT out the abuse, the damage, show our scars, SPEAK about it – we can be healed and ultimately heal others. And hopefully – prevent further scars from forming in future generations. If we tell other women how VBAC’s can reclaim the lost power, heal the wounds, restore our faith in ourselves, then maybe… just maybe… we can stop the current trend towards banning vaginal births.

100 voices will make a loud noise. Don’t you think?

Midwifery in Missouri

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For those of you unaware of the status of midwifery in Missouri, this stands to be a banner year for the cause here. Currently, a homebirth is legal but having anyone attend that homebirth other than a CNM or an MD is a felony charge. There is a court case coming up in the spring that could change all that, but in the meantime we need to make LOUD our support of professional midwives and our choices in regards to where we give birth.

Even if you aren’t a supporter of homebirth, if you live in Missouri and support ANY of the following, consider writing or visiting your representative about this issue:

  • Do you believe women and families should control their choices in healthcare, not doctors or legislators?
  • Do you support TRUE informed consent regarding healthcare decisions?
  • Do you support the idea that medical decisions should remain in the hands and hearts of the people that those decisions effect?
  • Do you support the idea that mothers and babies deserve high-quality, caring, safe healthcare regardless of where they choose to give birth?

If you agree with any of the above statements, then please, consider writing to your Missouri Representative today! If you are NOT a Missouri resident, but support the above or midwifery/homebirth in general: visit Friends of Missouri Midwives to see how you can help!

Again, many of us realize that this year’s elections will change our lives in numerous ways. Perhaps more so than any election has in years. Let this be the banner year for Missouri families as we seek legislation to increase their options for safe, affordable, empowering, fearless birth!

CPM’s: Undereducated & Inferior Midwives

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Here is a quote I came across today:

From a certain “Dr. Amy” :

Kelly:

“So what’s your take on CPM’s?”

Amy:

“Grossly undereducated, undertrained and lacking experience. A inferior class of midwife that would not be considered competent by the standards of any other incustrialized country.”

Interesting. Alarming. Frustrating. Maddening. Many OB’s couldn’t even pass the NARM exam! Undereducated? “An inferior calss of midwife”??? I posted several comments to this blog. Intelligent, thoughtful, respectful posts asking questions about her assertions concerning homebirth safety. Those comments were (imagine that!) deleted soon after I posted them. When I got angry and posted a comment about them being deleted, guess what!!? THAT post stayed up there, making me look like a lunatic.

It would be funny if it weren’t so incredibly insulting. She obviously has an ax to grind when it comes to homebirth and where she gets her numbers for infant mortality is beyond me.  She likes CNM’s for hospital birth (and why not?) but not for homebirth under any circumstances. You just read (above) what she thinks about CPM’s.

I saw a t-shirt today that said, “You have the right to remain silent. Everything you say will be misquoted and used against you.” This incident made me want to go back and buy it.