Re: [ozmidwifery] Married to the Midwife
Thanks for this Andrea, my husband could have written it. I think he's glad to know other husbands feel the same. I sometimes feel like a bad mother, especially the times like last week when I had three births in 30hours and slept on sofa's and in my car between wednesday morning and friday night so I could follow everyone post birth and make sure they were all fine. Lucky for me and our 4 kids my husband is a stay at home dad... I sometimes feel like a bad wife, when he says your not going out again are you. Or will you be back today before the kids go to bed. etc etc but to me it's not a career choice but a life choice. A reminder of the viewpoint of the rest of your family is nice though. Lisa Barrett -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit http://www.acegraphics.com.au to subscribe or unsubscribe.
RE: [ozmidwifery] Married to the Midwife
This letter really touched me too...having just 'retired' from independent midwifery so I can be the mother I need to be for now, and let my husband do his thing, (going away for work 2 weeks out of every 4, without the extreme guilt he used to feel for pursuing his career...) It reminds me of how lucky I have been to have had the support of my family and friends, and other colleagues during this wonderful time. Tania - who is eagerly awaiting what the universe might have in store for her next... -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.4/402 - Release Date: 27/07/2006 -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit http://www.acegraphics.com.au to subscribe or unsubscribe.
[ozmidwifery] Fw: Hawaiian Law Now Permits Parents to Keep Placentas
FYI, warmly, Carolyn - Original Message - From: Women's eNews [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 7:38 PM Subject: Hawaiian Law Now Permits Parents to Keep Placentas A move to declare placentas infectious waste angered Hawaiians who use the placenta in religious ceremonies, highlighting the conflict between modern medicine and traditional culture, Nancy Cook Lauer reports today. A new law now guarantees women the right to take the placenta home. Story follows promos. New blog! on Women's eNews: Calling Beirut from New York City. Nouhad Moawad left Beirut on July 2 for an internship at Women's eNews. Majoring in translation at Beirut's Lebanese University, the tri-lingual (English, French and Arabic) Moawad wished to spend the summer immersed in English and New York City. Read the Blog at: http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2818 The pictures and video from this year's 21 Leaders for the 21st Century are now posted on our Web site. Watch the video and remember the fantastic evening or pour your self a glass of something and pretend you are there! Women's eNews(www.womensenews.org) encourages your comments about our stories and women's issues. Please post to our Letters to the Editors section at http://www.womensenews.org/letters/discus.pl or e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] AOL subscribers: To view the Commentoon by Ann Telnaes and HTML e-mail, please remember to click on the Show images and enable links in the header of your e-mail. Does someone send you Women's eNews? Please help us grow and get your own free subscription today at www.womensenews.org/join.cfm. Here's today's update: IN THE STATES Hawaiian Law Now Permits Parents to Keep Placentas By Nancy Cook Lauer - WeNews correspondent HONOLULU (WOMENSENEWS)--To some, it's simply a byproduct of childbirth, a biological waste. To others, it's even a possible source of biological material for genetic research. But to those of Polynesian and some African and Asian cultures, the placenta is sacred. In a transformation of an issue that was once a private matter between a woman and her doctor, the placenta became a political issue in Hawaii this spring, and its ramifications could spread to other states. Following an uproar from Native Hawaiians after the state declared placenta tissue an infectious waste in 2005, the Aloha State has become the first in the nation to expressly give a woman permission to take the placenta home from the hospital following childbirth. The new Hawaii law was introduced by the bipartisan Honolulu-based Women's Legislative Caucus and championed by Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition and a myriad of cultural organizations based in Honolulu and the Neighbor Islands. Four families have taken advantage of the new policy since Gov. Linda Lingle signed it into law April 21. It's part of a growing sensitivity to the cultural practices of diverse groups even in the midst of greater concerns over diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS that could be spread by biological waste. The placenta--or iewe, pronounced eh-AY-vay --has an important symbolism in Hawaiian culture, and some rebuff the modern medical practice of simply throwing it out. Those practicing the religious and cultural ways of their ancestors explain that, in Hawaii, the burial sites of placentas of their forebears have the same significance as where they are buried after they die. The iewe of the newborn child is sacred and must be handled in a sacred manner in order to provide for the physical health of the child, Native Hawaiian historian Lilikala Kameeleihiwa told a state legislative committee considering the new law. Moreover, the careful disposition of the iewe will indicate how the child will grow up and molds the child's identity. Research Potential in Placenta Following President George W. Bush's July 18 veto of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, some Native Hawaiians, who make up about 20 percent of the state's population, are concerned scientists will start harvesting their sacred placentas from hospitals from the approximately 20,000 births in the state each year. Like stem cells, certain placenta cells have been demonstrated to have the capacity to become cells of other parts of the body and could potentially be used to meet research demands. Indeed, Pittsburgh biotechnology company, Stemnion Inc., has licensed the patent rights to a process for removing stem cell-like material from placentas to treat cirrhosis and diabetes and spur healing, although the company says it uses only donated placentas with permission from the families. It is distressing to me and my family that a part of our children is unceremoniously thrown out as waste or used without permission in medical
Re: [ozmidwifery] Fw: Hawaiian Law Now Permits Parents to Keep Placentas
A move to declare placentas infectious waste angered Hawaiians who use the placenta in religious ceremonies, highlighting the conflict between modern medicine and traditional culture, Oddly enough, after my recent birth I had to TF for some postnatal care to Canterbury Birthing Unit here in Sydney and I took my recently severed and partially eaten placenta along. First I had to fight off demands to take it to pathology because your baby was born at home. Clearly a condition requiring pathology ; ) Then they checked it and told me it was entire hahahahaha - I ate lots of it, people, before I went to the hospy! THEN! I was asked to sign a permission form with NSW Dept Health stamp on it to be allowed to take it home and promising to not plant it in a public park, within a metre of a fence line or any shallower than 1 metre. I've never heard of such a thing before! Interesting article, Carolyn! J -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit http://www.acegraphics.com.au to subscribe or unsubscribe.
FW: [ozmidwifery] Married to the Midwife
Hi As the partner to Mary-Anne www.cenvicmidwives.com.au I'd be happy to have a chat with partners to this affliction/addiction/constriction. Peter -Original Message- From: Nicole Carver [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 28 July 2006 10:32 AM To: wendy faulkner; Paula Nunn; Nola Aicken; Mary-Anne Richardson; helen; judy chapman; jenny pitson; jenny parratt; Debra Alexander; alison shotton Subject: FW: [ozmidwifery] Married to the Midwife -Original Message- Married to the Midwife by Tom Smith Web Exclusive Sharon's alarm buzzes, and I wait for her to turn it off. Finally I roll over, mumbling that it's her alarm, and would she please turn it off-only to find myself talking to an empty bed. I groan, remembering the 2 a.m. phone call and thinking of the harried morning ahead. When they call, she goes. It doesn't matter what time it is, it doesn't matter where in the movie you are or who's over for dinner. Out the door she goes, and woe to the man who tries to stop her. I did, once. We were having a fight and she got the phone call. It wasn't fair, I said. I stamped my foot. I cried. She just got madder and madder. She asked me if I wanted to call the woman and tell her to go ahead and have the baby herself. For a moment I hated the woman having the baby, but I also began to realize that for Sharon, a laboring mother always takes first priority. I've heard midwives say, sometimes jokingly, sometimes with fierceness, that there is no profession quite like it. I agree, and would add that there is nothing quite like being married to a midwife. I hate what she does and I love what she does. I find it annoying and I find it exciting. Someone once told me that the divorce rate is high among homebirth midwives. I thought, Are you kidding? What with the low pay and the bad hours and throw in the risk of prosecution in our state, what man wouldn't want a midwife for a spouse? Am I angry? Sometimes. Do I want her to do something else? No way. How can I, when she comes home at 4 a.m. with tears in her eyes and tells me the story of a mother who was so afraid because her last baby had died in utero at 6 months, and how the grief and pain and joy combined as the 9 lb. baby burst into the world? She loves her work and she loves her women. She makes so many hard choices. I don't want to make her choose between her work and me. Besides, I'd probably lose. When our daughter, Hannah, whines and asks why her mother has to go out again tomorrow, Sharon says simply, It's my work, it's what I do. That's true, but it is also her calling and her passion. It's what she does to make a difference in the world. She is a lioness when she says, Women need to have a choice about where they have their babies. I admire her greatly at that moment--and then the phone rings. I listen as she explains about the importance of eating to feed the baby. She waves her hand as she talks, cutting to shreds the myth of minimal weight gain during pregnancy. She says, For God's sake, if you're hungry, eat! Eat lots of protein. Sure, four eggs with hot sauce is fine. We want fat, happy babies. She hangs up, and the phone rings again. One day Hannah answered the phone, and then called Sharon, who retreated into the bedroom. I asked my daughter who it was. She said she didn't know, but it sounded like a midwife. I thought, Oh yes, I know what you mean. The friendly but businesslike tone, the willingness to talk to children and the sound of sisterhood coming over the lines, 'I need to talk to your mother about something.' As Sharon shuts the door to the bedroom I hear her say, We use comfrey and rosemary in our sitz bath for postpartum moms and find. The homebirth midwives I know soak up knowledge like hungry sponges. I envy Sharon's single-minded drive for information, whether found in a medical bulletin or in the herbal lore that is passed around orally. She eagerly collects birth stories and medical texts, experiential knowledge and book knowledge. These women have to know their stuff, because they walk a pretty narrow line--especially in Indiana. Homebirth midwifery is not exactly illegal here, but neither is it licensed. Sometimes I feel like I'm living with an emotional roller coaster. Most of the births are uneventful, and Sharon returns home exhausted and satisfied. But sometimes when she gets home her face is filled with pain and she begins, We had to transport. A story of loss begins, and I go down with her into the anguish. Often the stories are not easy to listen to: the agonizing decision as it becomes increasingly clear that this birth is not going to happen in the home, the cold sterility of the ER room, the gruffness and sometimes outright hostility of the doctors who don't have much contact with midwives. And through it all, the grief, because often, though not always, a transport means a cesarean. The midwife goes along, assisting the woman's partner, suggesting options at the hospital. The
Re: [ozmidwifery] Birth, Trauma Personality
Thanks Suzi. I couldn't begin to imagine any regular school being concerned with how this information would affect a child. Regards Jayne - Original Message - From: Pinky McKay To: ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 10:13 AM Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Birth, Trauma Personality what an amazingteacher to acknowledge that - even though it should be 'basic commonsense'. Pinky - Original Message - From: suzi and brett To: ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 9:29 AM Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Birth, Trauma Personality WhenI was being interviewed by a teacher prior to the placement of my 7 year old son in a new (for him)school it was such a welcome change that thequestions began atour pregnancy, she asked how it was and then the birth...where was it, was there drugs? trauma? was itin water or on land, with midwife?Then we moved on to other things, for how long did he breastfeed? how did he sleep, how was he when he woke in the morning? what is he afraid of?...it was such a joy that these things were considered important to who Noah is and how he maybe in a class room. I knew he was to be with the right teacher. Love Suz x
