20 weeks gestation as of Sunday past. The little email updates I get comparing the baby to produce tell me that my baby is the size of a banana. It also says I am half way to birth. But after 2 overdue babies I think next Sunday will be my halfway mark. Or sometime this week. Anyway, this banana is only 9 inches...I measured, so add an inch!
You do not know how hard it is to photograph a banana on a round belly. Then Oliver came in and laughed really hard at the sight of me pointing a camera at my belly while balancing a banana there at the same time. He took the banana. He won't give it back. I think I defiled it somehow. Or else he thinks I don't know what a banana is for. I snapped one picture as he took it. I have asked him if he wants to eat it. He says no. Do you want me to open it for you? No. But, he took it and hid it and won't tell me where. I think maybe this stems from the fact that he wouldn't eat any food until 14 months old then for a month it was only breastmilk and bananas. Bananas have a sort of sacred status with him.
Speaking of bananas the new ACOG statement regarding bananas has me going a little bananas. There are a lot of things that bother me about this statement. The main thing that is an organization like ACOG can throw out a statement like this that is completely contradicted by evidence and in our doctor = God status moms, legislatures, and insurance companies will place it above actual studies and evidence. I have no problem with moms choosing hospital birth. I actually don't have any friends who have chosen the same things as me. I have one friend who started at home and then decided to go in. And I am OK with that. But, I have a problem with ACOG being irresponsible with their statements. In the statement it mentions that homebirth should not be pursued just because it is a fad or a celebrity's cause. The cause they are talking about is Ricki Lake's Business of Being Born movie which is about Ceritfied Nurse Midwives (Midwives who in this movie ACOG says are the only type of midwives you should ever use, but not at home) doing home birth. This movie also talks about the high c-section rate in the US. The part about the fad also frustrates me. How quickly they forget that a big motivation in the witch hunts centuries ago was to protect the emerging profession of doctors from midwives. Fads don't last that long. A fad is like pegging your pants, or painting your front door a bright color.
The other thing that bothers me a lot about this statement is that they neglect to mention how dangerous it is to have your baby in the hospital. Home birth morbidity and mortality rates are lower than overall hospital rates and close to if not lower than hospital rates for low risk pregnancies. The reason home birth ends up being safer is that the midwife is actually there with the mom. In the hospital the mom's progress and well being are monitored down the hall by monitors that are being watched by nurses and by periodic checks on the mom. That is all well and good but studies have linked continuous fetal heart rate monitoring to an increase in unnecessary intervention. This happens because the baby moves and is actually alive inside the mom before it is born. Those machines, well they aren't alive. They don't know how to monitor movement, vitality, and being an actual baby in the process of birth. And while ACOG does not trust anyone but themselves to deliver a baby they do little to no labor monitoring. They see moms for an average of 5-6 minutes per appointment (I can't find a link to a free copy of this study) during pregnancy and usually a lot less time than a nurse midwife (30 minutes) who spends less time with a laboring mom than a Direct Entry midwife (45-90 minutes.) All this leads to a higher incidence of poor outcomes with an OB. If this statement wanted to be honest it would say that if you are a low risk pregnancy then use an OB at your own risk. I think OB's are important and have very important place in our society they are trained in medical birth. They are trained in high risk birth. If I need emergency care I will see an OB. But, they are not trained in normal birth, which is what I am planning for. In the hospital a normal birth can include an epidural. In a home birth your care should never include things like pitocin before birth or any prescription pain medication, like a spinal block etc.
This touches on how our whole system of childbirth in America is not based on evidence but on scare tactics and power plays. Please if you read the ACOG statement see it for what it is. A statement to create an unsafe monopoly that is not founded on evidence and an effort to make midwifery and home birth illegal. Like it is here in Ohio. If you live in a state where midwifery is illegal (Direct Entry midwifery) then know you will just have to look around, find La Leche League and other places that home birth moms usually congregate. Home births are happening in every state, although sometimes underground. Then choose your care provider carefully. Because although I love all the home birth midwives the downside of the oppression of midwifery is that in states where there is no regulation you get some people who are not trained. Training includes attending a high number of births with a preceptor during their learning period, seeing minor complications and dealing with them, and it is always good if you don't know what a correct level is to err on the side of only choosing midwives that are either Certified Professional Midwives or home birth Certified Nurse Midwives. But, be careful with a Nurse Midwife. It is possible to have that credential and never see a home birth. There are a lot of very qualified midwives who have neither certification. Where I live there are also women who are doing home births who do not have the training or experience. This is made possible by the fact that so many states create an atmosphere where midwifery is completely unregulated. After living in both types of states I prefer regulation even with all of its headaches. Be aware that home birth is safe for low risk moms and that midwives are better overall care providers than OBs.
Sorry for the rant. But, we are adult women. We need to be educated even if we don't want things like home birth for ourselves.
