Thu, 21 Mar 2024 11:49:51 -0700WeeblyMon, 01 Jun 2020 23:20:09 GMThttp://hypnobabieskc.com/news/recommended-care-providers-for-natural-birth-in-kansas-city-metro-area

• Midwest women's health (research)
  
• Midwest midwifery (research)
  
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• Women's health east, mw Jessica Cisneros (St Luke's east)
  
• Independence women's clinic, Dr Moreno (Centerpoint)

]]>Sun, 06 Jan 2019 01:04:34 GMThttp://hypnobabieskc.com/news/the-power-of-birth-languageThe Power of Birth Language by Morgan A. McLaughlin McFarland
​Language is a powerful thing.
The ways in which we choose to describe a situation or relationship often shed light on our beliefs (be they conscious or subconscious) about the balance of power within that situation or relationship. The language that we use also shapes how we perceive a situation and how we will act when confronted with it.

Consider if you will, the word “let” when applied to a birth or a care provider/birthing mother relationship. 
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How broad is the gulf between “my care provider supports my plan to give birth in water” and “my care provider is letting me give birth in water?” Both describe the same situation–a mother and her midwife/doctor both agree on the safety/efficacy of the water birth – but while the first statement places the power in the hands of the mother, the second places it in the hands of the doctor.

In the first statement, the mother has come to a decision and then conferred with her care provider, who agrees with and supports that mother’s choice to birth as she sees fit. In the second statement, the mother has sought and been granted permission to pursue a certain type of birth.

Another word that misplaces the power of birth is “deliver.” 
The same birth could be described in two ways: “I gave birth to my baby [in the care of Dr. Smith]” or “Dr. Smith delivered my baby.” Where is the mother in the second statement? The difference in the balance of power in those two statements is obvious, because in the second, the mother is presented as irrelevant to the birth, which exists only as a relationship, a delivery, between the baby and doctor.

Do our babies really need to be delivered from us, liberated or saved from our bodies? Should we deliver our babies into the hands of others, as though they were pizzas or packages places in someone else’s care? An empowered mother births or gives birth to her baby; she is not delivered by a doctor or midwife. Using this language, she is the initiator of the experience, an active participant in the action, and the care provider’s role is to attend the birth or assist the  birthing mother. 

As advocates of normal birth we believe that birth is the property of the mother, not the care  provider.  We believe birthing women are clients of the care provider and that the care provider works for  the mother, rather than seeing birthing women as patients of a doctor/midwife authority figure to  whom they must defer. 

As adult women preparing to bring another life into the world, we must be empowered enough  to stop seeking permission from doctors, nurses, and midwives. We must not put ours births into  their hands for delivery, but claim our rightful place as the source of the birth experience. We  must be careful in the language we use to describe, not just our own pregnancies/births, but the  pregnancies/births of others.  If we are to own our birth experiences, we must remember that care providers require our permission to act, not the other way around.  

While changing your language can’t guarantee a perfect birth experience for yourself or anyone  else, being aware of your word choice can help you be more empowered through even a less  than ideal birth experience. Women who believe in their right to weigh the costs/benefits of  interventions, choosing the course of action they believe is safest for their babies and  themselves, are less likely to feel a sense of disempowerment and anger after the birth is over. 

Even if choice is between a rock and a hard place, simply owning the responsibility to make that  choice is empowering. Owning your birth experience can give immeasurable strength. The first  step to that ownership is language.  When writing or speaking about birth, be aware of your words and the weight they carry.  Take a moment to consider why you might choose words like “let/allow” and “deliver” to  describe a birth experience, especially if you’re using those words in the context of expectations  for an impending birth. 

If you are wondering if your midwife/doctor will let you do something, consider examining why you, as an intelligent, empowered adult, need permission to do something your body already  knows how to do. If you think of the birth process as a delivery, consider questioning why you  frame it within the context of that language. 

Giving away our power verbally or in writing creates a paradigm in which we condition ourselves  to surrender our power in actuality. When your language paradigm shifts to place mothers and  babies at the center, and providers on the periphery, so, too, will your beliefs shift.  As you think and write and speak, so shall you live. As you live, so shall you birth.


]]>Tue, 24 Oct 2017 01:27:30 GMThttp://hypnobabieskc.com/news/the-myth-of-the-goddessToday I was caught by the front cover page of Time magazine of a naked mother with her newborn baby titled The Goddess Myth.  The article was a rant on the societal pressures that are put on women these days to be supermom and go it “all natural” for the benefit of the baby.  There were examples of mothers who have tried to have natural births and ended up with a cesarean or who tried to breastfeed exclusively and ended up using formula or who had repeated miscarriages and these women were burdened with intense feelings of failure and shame for not measuring up to give their babies all they hoped to be able to.

The article talked about how when you’re pregnant there’s an “expert” around every corner telling you what you should or shouldn’t do.  As mom’s we want to do what’s best for our babies and we also want to fit into society, to please and be accepted.  These are very strong needs of ours.

The article was a bit harsh in bashing the breast is best movement and co-sleeping and natural births as though they could actually be more harmful than helpful.  I did, however like one thing said at the end and that is our need to support each other as women even when our paths differ, to talk about our failures and realize there are no failures.

There are no failures because the birth you have is the birth you are meant to have.  We can prepare for the ideal birth and for when things do not go as planned as much as we can.  In the end we are not the ones in charge or the ones in control.  We are not meant to be at the mercy of every well-intended expert out there either.  Birth is one of those rites of passage that brings a woman to the depths of who she is and she ultimately makes the choices she deems fit.   I urge you to make your choices carefully based on the best research yet ultimately, I beseech you to search your heart and your womanly instincts and stand true to who and what you believe is the best for you, your baby and your partner and let everyone else fall onto the wayside.

This is what the inner Goddess is.  It’s NOT the woman who did it all “perfect”  or “all natural”.  The Goddess is the woman who knows and stands for what she knows is right for her and for the highest good of her own family. The inner Goddess has no desire to conform to societal pressures, nor does she give her power away to shame.   Even if that means a cesarean, or formula or time alone or a hospital birth.  She knows there is no failure because there is grace in every experience and every experience is growth and evolution and every experience is perfect and do not let anyone tell you otherwise.

Let’s stop the shame.  Let’s stop judging other’s choices and experiences.  Let’s stop beating ourselves up for not measuring up to arbitrary “perfect” standards.  We will have more room for the love and support that we really need to be giving and sharing and more love to receive our babies with.  We can all use a lot more love. ]]>Mon, 25 Sep 2017 22:51:30 GMThttp://hypnobabieskc.com/news/being-admitted-to-the-hospital-or-signing-consent-forms-is-not-implied-consentby Cristen Pascucci Sep 18, 2017
Even in 2017, women’s consent rights in childbirth are disturbingly unclear to the professionals and institutions delivering their medical care.  One aspect is the idea of “implied consent”–a concept mischaracterized by hospitals to a number of women who have contacted me, and sometimes used to justify violations of their dignity and rights.
Specifically, when these women have complained to their hospitals about receiving one or more non-consented or forced procedures in birth, they were told that their explicit consent was not necessary because they had a) agreed to be admitted to the hospital or b) signed blanket consent forms giving the medical staff permission to treat them.  Sometimes these hospitals refer to this, erroneously, as “implied consent.”  The idea is that once the women were admitted or signed those forms, they should no longer have had the expectation that the care team must obtain consent for each procedure during treatment–including medication, surgical cuts, and procedures performed on and through the vagina–but, rather, expect that the care team had the authority to administer whatever treatment they chose for the duration of that patient’s labor or hospital stay.  Put another way, from the perspective of the hospital, these women had forfeited their rights to informed consent and refusal in order to give birth in their facilities.

See more:
birthmonopoly.com/impliedconsent/


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