Spinach and Honey

Listening to Mothers Survey III

2013-05-15T11:11:00.001-07:00

Dawn Thompson, Cristen Pascucci, and Rebecca Dekker analyse the results from the Listening to Mother's Survey III. Information from Improving Birth: http://www.improvingbirth.org/2013/05/listening-to-mothers-iii/

"Most women (two-thirds) thought it was best to wait for labor to begin on its own if the pregnancy was healthy, but almost eight out of ten women (79%) also incorrectly identified “early term” or “pre-term” weeks of pregnancy as “safe” for delivery. The timing these women most identified is associated with increased risks of harm for babies."

This is why March of Dimes is highly active in preventing unnecessary cesareans. Induction is the beginning of a cascade of interventions that can lead to a cesarean and premature delivery.

Two-thirds (67%) of all mothers agreed with the statement “if a pregnancy is healthy it is best to wait for labor to begin on its own rather than inducing it or scheduling a cesarean.” But a substantial number of the 40% of women who said that their care providers tried to induce their labors were induced for non-medical reasons. Some non-medically indicated reasons cited were things like convenience, reaching the estimated “due date,” wanting to end the pregnancy, and the care provider suspecting a “big baby.”

Speaker Series with Sara Lamm, Director of Birth Story

2013-05-11T08:53:00.003-07:00

The International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) is excited to announce the kickoff of its Speaker Series. Please join me as I interview Sara Lamm, Director (with Mary Wigmore) and co-producer of Birth Story on Tuesday, May 14, 2013.

Birth Story has been screened in over 200 locations worldwide including several locations hosted by local ICAN chapters. Birth Story is a documentary that examines Ina May

Gaskin and her work as a midwife on The Farm.

The speaker series is FREE for members. Membership is $30 a year. The
cost for non-members is $20 per event. To support ICAN's mission by
becoming a member, visit our homepage at ican-online.org. To register
for the event go to
https://ican.webex.com/ican/onstage/g.php?d=663697212&t=a

The vision of ICAN is to make the Speaker Series a monthly event.
Our host will be examining current issues around maternity care in a
fresh thought-provoking format by interviewing a variety of childbirth
experts. We will post a recording of this event on the ICAN website. The next event is scheduled for July 2013.

Sara Lamm is a Los Angeles-based writer, director, and performer whose
documentary film, DR. BRONNER’S MAGIC SOAPBOX was released
theatrically in 2007 and had its television premiere on The Sundance
Channel. Her work has also appeared at MASS-MOCA, The American
Visionary Art Museum, on Public Radio, and in performance venues
throughout New York City. In 2010, she was one of 25 emerging artists
recognized by AOL’s 25 for 25 grant. For five years she produced and
performed in Dog & Pony, a live NYC variety show featuring sketch
comedy and multi-media performance. She has two children, birthed with
the help of an extraordinary midwife.

A Day With Joyce Maynard

2013-05-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

Joyce Maynard and Thais Derich

I couldn’t remember if food was provided, so I packed an almond butter sandwich just in case. And then, I headed out on the curvy, redwood trimmed road up to Joyce’s house. I parked where she recommended since there'd be a fire drill on her street that day. The dirt lot was many houses down the hill from her house. I saw cars pull up and stop around the same time. It was early Saturday morning so I presumed that they had come for the same workshop. But instead of waiting, asking to be sure, and awkwardly striking up sleepy conversation, I walked alone up the shaded road.

Joyce wore a homey 1950s style dress with flowers and a Latin American apron. The patterns clashed but mingled together well like old and new friends. I saw her drying her hands with a dishtowel before opening the door.

We shook hands and smiled.

The bright kitchen windows had an unobstructed close-up view of the top of Mount Tamalpais. The smell of homemade poppy seed cake, coffee, onion quiche, and watermelon danced around the old house. One workshop writer washed dishes and confessed that she was addicted to Joyce's workshops.

When I left her house just before nine o’clock that night, we hugged, maybe twice. I walked back to my car in the company of four other women. Buzzed on chocolates and not too much wine, we talked quietly and excitedly about the day, promised to keep in touch, and work on our stories. I dug deep in my purse for my keys and my hand pressed up against my squashed, uneaten sandwich.

Once a Cesarean Always a Not-By-Choice Cesarean

2013-05-01T06:47:00.001-07:00

Make some noise before cesareans are the norm and VBACs disappear altogether.

Want to take action? Link to this article on your blog or Facebook page. Find out if any of your local hospitals has a VBAC ban and if it does, push it to reverse its ban. Pressure your doctor or midwife to speak up for VBAC and for lowering the primary cesarean rate. Click on this link for ways to start making your views known to your elected officials. Or get involved with your local ICAN chapter or other birth advocacy group.

Read full article at: http://wellroundedmama.blogspot.com/2013/04/fight-back-for-vbac-protesting-sorry.html?m=1

Cesarean Awareness Month

2013-04-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

It’s Cesarean Awareness Month. Check out this interview with ICAN’s president: http://www.scienceandsensibility.org/?p=6563

Reading Our Writing in Berkeley

2013-04-16T06:36:00.002-07:00

Thais Derich

Something about going to Berkeley made this really fun and comfortable. it wasn't at all odd to read from our books at the bustling Saturn Cafe in Berkeley. Another wonderful event put on by Elizabeth Stark and Angie Powers founders of the Book Writing World.

Elizabeth Stark

The Lisa Epsteen Story: Is Medical Inaction a Crime?

2013-04-02T10:00:00.002-07:00

Lisa Epsteen’s baby boy was born healthy via cesarean section days after her doctor threatened to drag her to the hospital in handcuffs and put her four other children in child protective custody.

Ms. Epsteen knew the risks of delaying her cesarean and she made a choice to have her cesarean on a different day than what her doctor wanted. She weighed her doctor’s advice and also her own opinion. But Dr. Jerry Yankowitz, didn’t like her decision and tried to convince her otherwise in an email with threats of police and taking away her children.

"I am deeply concerned that you are contributing to a very high probability that your fetus will die or your child will incur brain damage if born alive. At this time, you must come in for delivery," Yankowitz wrote. "I would hate to move to the most extreme option, which is having law enforcement pick you up at your home and bring you in, but you are leaving the providers of USF/TGH no choice," he continued.

The doctor apologized after Ms. Epsteen contacted a lawyer from the New York-based National Advocates for Pregnant Women who demanded that Dr. Yankowitz "stop immediately any further threats or actions against Ms. Epsteen."

"Pregnant women are no different than anybody else in terms of their constitutional and human rights," staff attorney Farah Diaz-Tello said. "The threat he was making was both legally and ethically unjustifiable."

With cesarean rates in the United States soaring past what is recommend by the World Health Organization, how can mothers decipher what is truly emergent and what is coercion?

When, if ever, should inaction be criminalized? Are we, as a society, prepared to drag women into hospitals, strap them to operating tables and force them into surgery?

The autonomy that a woman expects when deciding about medical care that affects only her seems to blur when she is acting against medical advice and a child or dependent is involved. It is in these situations that opinions clash.

Lisa Epsteen was allowing the normal course of events to happen. In the end, she chose medical care. Let’s not forget that asking for medical care is a choice. If she had not chosen to have a cesarean at all, would that make her a criminal?

Just as some teens find themselves in a legal battle with their hospitals after refusing chemotherapy, pregnant women who don’t take their doctors’ advice find themselves on shaky ground. I wish the Lisa Epsteen story was a rare case but doctors pull the “your baby is in danger” card a lot. All they have to do is tell a mother that her baby is in danger and most of the time, she’ll do anything they say, even without informed consent.

In 2006, I gave birth via cesarean section to my first son. It was offered to me after three hours of pushing. My doctor didn’t even have to go as far as to tell me that my baby was in danger. She even told me that my baby was fine, that I was fine. I had a cesarean because “it was time; time to get this baby out.” When I asked at my post-natal appointment how I could have avoided my cesarean, my health care provider said that I could have pushed longer. My cesarean was not an emergency nor was it medically necessary. It was just time.

How can women trust their doctors and hospitals when more and more stories like Lisa Epsteen’s are making the news?

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG National) committee on ethics published an opinion paper in November of 2005 saying that

“Recent legal actions and policies aimed at protecting the fetus as an entity separate from the woman have challenged the rights of pregnant women to make decisions about medical interventions…”

ACOG goes on to say that “Efforts to use the legal system to protect the fetus by constraining pregnant women's decision making or punishing them erode a woman's basic rights to privacy and bodily integrity and are not justified.”

If we can be put in jail for inaction, how can we find the confidence to seek medical advice if we fear punishment for disagreeing and doing something different? Death is scary, “frightening,” but jailing people or forcing them onto the operating table because they choose to allow nature to take its course is a slippery slope. Do we have the final say about our bodies or does the government? Is refusing medical intervention a crime?

"Let nature take its course."

2013-03-25T11:45:00.001-07:00

Thank God! “Let nature take its course.” Amen. Although this is HUGE for ACOG and I thank them for making this statement, two things bother me. 1) There’s something uncomfortable about having an older, white male who hasn’t had a baby or breastfed hold the most political power over women’s reproductive health. 2) I really didn’t like what he said about women requesting cesareans as part of the problem. There was a study about this rumor done recently and although we’ve all heard it, it’s like a super, super small number of women. So small it isn’t worth mentioning at all. Strange to see it in this high profile statement.

Read statement here:
http://acogpresident.org/2013/03/22/with-delivery-times-defer-to-mother-nature/

Nonmedically Indicated Early-Term Deliveries

2013-03-22T12:46:00.002-07:00

ACOG is on fire this month. Thank you.

Me: The US is number #34 in the world below Cuba and South Korea in infant deaths, yet we spend way more money on hospitals and care. Could the over medicalization of birth in this country be contributing to the deaths our children?

Read statement here.

http://www.acog.org/Resources_And_Publications/Committee_Opinions/Committee_on_Obstetric_Practice/Nonmedically_Indicated_Early-Term_Deliveries

Kristin Richmond and Amy Graff Bay Area Moms Recognized!

2013-03-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

Kristin Richmond

Amy Graff

My very special neighbor and friend, Kristin Richmond, and my dear friend in San Francisco, Amy Graff, made this list! This makes me very happy to have such authentic women and mothers on this list. Gives me hope.

Read Article Here:
http://redtri.com/bay-area-power-mom/

Trial of labor after C-section uncommon, but often successful : OBGYN News

2013-03-15T12:03:00.001-07:00

"Overall, 13% (of pregnant women with a prior cesarean) had a trial of labor," reported Dr. Salmeen.

What's a trial of labor? In other words, your doctor allows you to try a normal birth rather than preemptively scheduling you for a repeat cesarean.

67% overall of those very few even allowed to try to give birth naturally were successful (doesn't include the successful vaginal births after a cesarean at home like mine).

Dr. Salmeen goes on to say "For hospitals that have policies against a trial of labor, or that are prohibitive in terms of a trial of labor, one category that can be viewed very differently is that of women with a history of previous vaginal birth."

In some select groups where vaginal births happened in the past the success rate for a vaginal birth after a cesarean was 90%!

Trial of labor after C-section uncommon, but often successful : OBGYN News

ICAN's Speaker Series Event

2013-03-13T15:49:00.004-07:00

Save the Date for this Online Event: May 14th at 5pm PST.

Registration information to follow.

Sara Lamm, Director (with Mary Wigmore) and co-producer of Birth Story joins us online in conversation with Thais Derich (ICAN's Speaker Series Host).

Sara Lamm is a Los Angeles-based writer, director, and performer whose documentary film, DR. BRONNER’S MAGIC SOAPBOX was released theatrically in 2007 and had its television premiere on The Sundance Channel. Her work has also appeared at MASS-MOCA, The American Visionary Art Museum, on Public Radio, and in performance venues throughout New York City. In 2010, she was one of 25 emerging artists recognized by AOL’s 25 for 25 grant. For five years she produced and performed in Dog & Pony, a live NYC variety show featuring sketch comedy and multi-media performance. She has two children, birthed with the help of an extraordinary midwife.

Tea - Right Click - Show Controls

2013-03-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

In Conversation with Ina May Gaskin

2013-03-04T13:20:00.002-08:00

I’m giddy with excitement. I just spoke on the phone personally with Ina May Gaskin! Look for an interview on July 9, 2013 @ 5pm PST with Ina May through the ICAN Speaker Series! Free to ICAN members. Not a member? It’s easy to join online and you’ll be supporting a very important cause. The bigger the membership support, the louder the voice. Thank you!

Who me? Yes you. Director of ICAN's Speaker Series

2013-02-25T14:03:00.000-08:00

I am the new Director of ICAN’s Speaker Series (International Cesarean Awareness Network). Let’s get the word out about evidence-based birth. My first interview will be with movie producers of “Birth Story” releasing to the public on Mother’s Day.

The Op-Ed Project

2013-02-11T12:04:00.001-08:00

Spent my Saturday learning to write opinion pages. Did you know that op-ed pieces are 80% white male? And the kicker is that it isn't because the editors are bias, it's because women and minorities aren't submitting.

Commercial Kitchens in the Home LEGAL now!

2013-02-04T21:49:00.000-08:00

Nate Bars

Yippee! We might be seeing Nate Bars again. Renting an out-of-the-home commercial kitchen was a deal-breaking cost for me when I was selling my bars. This is awesome news!

http://www.marinij.com/larkspurcortemadera/ci_22468545/larkspur-woman-opens-first-permitted-residential-kitchen-marin

Building the Writer’s Platform

2013-01-28T21:44:00.000-08:00

My Amazing Writing Group @ the Book Writing World

(Originally Published @ The Book Writing World Blog/)

There’s a lot of pressure on me to make money from my writing. Just doing art for the joy of doing it doesn’t mean scheduling time for it during the weekends. Art is something that’s acceptable to do only when all the real work is done. Well the “real” work is never done.

So I make time for my writing in the waiting room of my son’s speech therapy session. A half-hour. I’m always looking for those little time nuggets, when I pull out my purse, take out my notebook and get some work done. I’m not making any money yet but wouldn’t that be nice if I did? Maybe that’s the hope that keeps me going.

The real question is, “If I never make money off of my writing, would that stop me from writing?” Well, my real answer is “No.”

Here’s my compromise: maybe I can find paid work for writing that I like to do. In today’s writing world, I need to build a writer’s platform to help my writing get “out there:” picked up by editors, agents, and publishers. Part of a writer’s platform is Facebook, Twitter, blogs, websites, books, and articles.

Publishing articles is an interesting one and it might be possible to build a platform by getting paid for writing articles. When looking for writing gigs, I focus on the jobs that I might really want to write. If I’m not picked, well, I might just write about the subject on my own blog.

I’m a mommy blogger, and so I look on sites like Elance, MediaBistro, and Craigslist for writing jobs that support my current writing trend: parenting.

Elance doesn’t seem like a promising site because it’s global. I can’t compete with the price bids from freelancers in India, but I do like the daily job listings sent to my inbox. I’m hopeful there’s someone out there who wants a writer living in the U.S.A.

Media Bistro has some great articles on how to pitch to some well-known publications. It also allows you to post your portfolio so editors can seek you out. For example, if an editor is looking for a mommy blogger, he or she might see my resume in his or her search.

And, Craigslist never fails to be an excellent resource. I had a few back-and-forth emails with an editor from a parenting site after I saw their ad on Craigslist.

Maybe the day that I get paid for what I love to do isn’t so far off after all. It just takes some patience, research and realization that I’d be writing either way.

How are you building your writing platform?

Moving Beyond Embarrassment

2012-12-18T21:46:00.000-08:00

Let’s face it, being a shy writer doesn’t work that well these days with the world of Twitter, Face Book, and blogs. I’m more exposed as a writer than any other job that I’ve had. Different versions of me (aging me) over the past six years are documented on my blog. My kids’ pictures are there. My husband might still be spared from a public appearance. When moms that I see every day at school pick-up and drop-off tell me that they read my About Me page, I turn bright red.

I’m putting myself out there, yet I’m embarrassed by it. I write about parts of my personal life that I would only tell a close friend, but I blurt it out to the world. And then, I’m surprised when someone who I haven’t “told” begins to talk to me about it. It’s like owning a business but my face, heart, and soul are the business and to succeed I have to promote myself. I write what matters to me and sometimes that leaves me feeling a little vulnerable. These days a writer has to have some guts. Having a blog or website to quickly point to in a submission email to an editor is important and required.

Sign a petition: Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

2012-12-17T11:18:00.000-08:00

Petition: One of the living survivors of the Virginia Tech shootings has dedicated his life to fighting gun powers in this country.

http://www.bradynetwork.org/site/Survey?ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&SURVEY_ID=6182

The Art of Merging

2012-12-05T11:00:00.002-08:00

Ice Cream Cake

As I write this technical blog post, I can’t help but think back to my days working as a technical writer. After some unfortunate childcare situations, which I write about in my upcoming book “First Do No Harm: A Memoir,” I decided to stay home and take care of the kids full-time. Now I’m still writing but it’s creative.

So when I merged all the edits from Elizabeth Stark’s workshop class into my original document, I couldn’t help but want to pass on the technique. I’ve known about merge documents for a long time. I’ve even used it before for work, but it had been a while and I was a little scared of messing up my document or getting bogged down in some buggy Word feature. I was elated by how easy it was, useful, and by how much time it has saved me!

Every week in workshop class, a writer submits their 5K piece and the rest of the group has a week to comment on it. There’s line edits, readers comments, questions, and a brief statement at the end. To make comments, each reader uses Word, clicks on the Review tab, Turns on Track Changes, and begins reading. Some people prefer to write all their comments in the text of the document with Track Changes On and some like to use Comments that appear in the right-hand column.

Here’s the tricky part, when I get three or four replicas of my piece back at the end of the week, it’s a lot of toggling between documents. And I get lost on what comments I’ve done and haven’t done. Not to mention how hard it is to open all four Word documents, get everything organized only to be distracted and have to start again reorienting myself. There’s too much start up time and I don’t have that kind of time. Merging all the documents into one solved all these problems. Here’s how I did it:

Keep Reading

SAVE THE EDNA FROGS

2012-11-11T12:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.facebook.com/SaveTheEdnaFrogs

The last seasonal frog habitat in the area behind Edna Maguire School is at risk. This area is the "TBD" area and we can make a difference. Make your voice heard.

Description

Send an email to someone. Go to at least one public meeting. If we all do one thing, we could make a difference in our community. This area is the "TBD" area of the new school and is still under discussion so we have a chance to save the frogs. Already the temporary school has filled the frog ponds with dirt and asphalt. The construction company has even added a drain to further eliminate water from the area and thus destroying the frog habitat.

Vaginal Bacteria Good for Baby

2012-10-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/22/121022fa_fact_specter

A good reminder that passing through the birth canal gives baby bacteria that she wouldn't get otherwise. Study shows an increase in asthma, obesity, and allergies in children delivered by cesarean.

Support Women's Right to Choose HOW They Birth Their Babies

2012-10-07T15:50:00.001-07:00

Watch the trailer! The movie will be free to watch online in November of 2011.

http://www.oneworldbirth.net/

Camp Unalayee Part II

2012-08-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Fresh Mountain Spring Water to Cool your Beer

More pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/85544129@N00/sets/72157631246430714/

I didn't know anyone who had been to Camp Unalayee. I signed up because another mom invited me. She had been on our same plane to France last year. I figured that we must have something in common and maybe we'd spend every summer doing somewhat the same thing for the rest of our lives. I worked to keep our schedule unscheduled this summer and by giving the gift of nothing, I said yes to family camp!

To those without kids, going someplace where you could easily just bail out after a day is no big deal. But with kids, going someplace where I'm not sure if I should pack toilet paper, is a huge adventure. I couldn't really get a grasp of what exactly it was by reading the web site. The office administrator in Santa Cruz had never been to camp and everyone who knew anything about camp was at camp with no cell phone access, electricity, or plumbing.

I figured when I paid my money, they would send me some sort of welcome packet with everything that I needed to know. And they did, except it said that I could bring alcoholic beverages but there was no refrigerator. How does that work? Is everyone drinking from flasks? And that there was no hot water for showers but there was a solar shower. Should I plan on not showering while I'm there? Bring dishes but there's dishes there. Pack sandals, but when you arrive one of the first things that they tell you is to only where closed-toed sandals. I brought flip flops and was alright, but kids should definitely have closed-toed sandals. It's rocky! One of the activities listed is a talent show but this isn't some casual light-weight activity. Music and performance are huge parts of every evening's campfire. So much so, I might ask Nate if he wants to prepare something in advance next year.

On the third day of camp, my friend who had invited me asked if I wanted a bite of dark chocolate. My eyes widened and I wondered how she kept it from melting. That's when she lead me down underground into the walk-in refrigerator. It smelt like a wine cellar. Oh! Stashed between cases of beer was her chocolate bar. And from the "cold room" the labeled beer moves to a beer bucket directly in the creek right under gushing cold mountain spring water coming right out of the ground. I can't wait to bring beer next year.

I was going to go dry for the week but my friend brought red wine to share with the tribe at meal times. I think that I might have thanked her an awkward amount of times for my rations. A little alcohol tastes really good up there.

As for the shower situation, my body odor woke me up one morning and so I scrambled to the shower before the kids woke-up. It was freezing cold. There's no hot water tank, the water is heated simply by the day's heat. So the next day, I took a shower at rest time which is during the hottest part of the day, 2-3pm every day, and it was delightful, spectacularly warm. I piled the kids in and we all smelled a lot better and I could finally see the true color of Nate's skin. Although the dirt is pretty good sunblock.

I packed instant oatmeal, granola bars, apples and we ate them. I made my own coffee at our tent, but they have a coffee bar. I just enjoyed using my camping stove and having a quiet moment in my chair before the day got started. My friend brought a clothesline and hung her swimming stuff and towels. I thought that was kind of cool and will stuff a rope in my pack next year.

So, now I am contradicting myself and have already booked a week of our summer for 2013 at Camp Unalayee, and we haven't even made it through this summer yet!

To get more of a picture visual of camp click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/85544129@N00/sets/72157631246430714/