Posts Tagged ‘Cesarean’

February 12th, 2010

Karen Angstadt & A Labor Of Love

Monday myself, and Gina “The Feminist Breeder” are going to be on A Labor of Love with Karen Angstadt.
The topic of the show for the afternoon is “Why A Healthy Baby Isn’t All That Matters” and we will have not only Karen’s awesome input, but the stories of Gina with her unnecesarean and VBAC which she had to fight for, but my perspective of as a mother who has had one unnecessary c-section, and one medically necessary one.  I think it is going to be a great hour!
So join us Monday February 15th at 1:00pm EST to chat!

But there is a reason why this is something that is important to me. Most of you know my history, or birth stories of my two boys, and if you do not I invite you to click on births above in the navigation bar and take a couple minutes to read. I think it may give you a better understanding of why this subject is so important to me.  And just on a side note, I have been seeing more and more posts around blogs, the internet, and support forums on the internet. I am not sure if it is more women actually having bad experiences, but I can tell there is a slow movement of better understanding for women who have had negative birth experiences.

But in reality, our society today is so quick to discount the feelings of women and their birth experiences. I learned that first hand after my oldest was born and I realized months after the fact that something was just not right about his birth. When I started to read more, learn more, and understand today’s Obstetric model of care, it all clicked.   I had been put through the “cascade” and when my OB was done for the day, so was my chance at laboring. Nothing more, nothing less.
Had I learned more, I am sure I would have ran screaming from that practice much earlier, but I was young, and only semi-educated, and most of the education came from those books like “What to Expect when Expecting” so you can see where that is going… Another reason I think that book is nothing more than paper to start my fire place with.

But the flip side to me, which gave me an amazing understanding, and gave me up opposite side of the discussion was my youngest son needing to be born by cesarean after over 26 hours of labor.  It was a long labor, it started on a day I had very little sleep from the night before, I had a ton of things I needed to get done that day for an ICAN baby fair, and of course, my luck, and my little stubborn child, he decided he wanted to bust a move in the middle of things!  I shouldn’t have expected any different from him though.

Benjamin got stuck.
It was a scary experience, but I was lucky enough to have a midwife who noticed this, and knew something was not right. My mothers intuition kicked in even before she discussed his positioning with me, and at that moment we decided because of both my own body’s reaction to what was taking place, and what Ben was doing that a second cesarean section was necessary. Which was fine with me. Without that surgery, my son would not be here, and I very well may not either.

While it was disappointing for all the hard work I had put into a VBAC, it was less upsetting than my first, or should I say it was upsetting in a different way since what took place was nothing short of my own bodies fault.

Many women do not understand birth trauma, and do not understand why a cesarean is such a big deal for some women. And unless you have been there yourself, not meaning you have simply had a cesarean, but have been though the hard time, the emotions, the lack of bonding with your child, the hate for your birth, or dealt with PTSD, then you can’t throw out the “healthy baby” card. It simply is nothing more than an insult.

Which is why I have already chosen to plan a HBA2C for my next child. If you do not know what HBA2C means, it stands for Home Birth After 2 Cesareans. With the birth climate in my state, the only option I have for avoiding a repeat cesarean at this point is a home birth. I am not too disappointed though. Our local home birth midwife has also had two cesareans, and I love her to pieces. We have already talked in detail about my next child and she is fully on board with me.  Although we aren’t planning #3 for quite a few YEARS.
I must say though, hearing about all the ladies TTC on twitter has given me the bug….
Till my 9 month old promptly squashes it!

I invite you to join us on Monday for more of a discussion. I am sure between Gina, Karen, and myself it will be a great hour full of lots of information, hope and education.

February 7th, 2010

Cesarean Recovery Kit Winner & Win a Hotslings Pouch Sling!

I am glad that I was able to do a couple posts last week about cesarean recovery, as well as cesarean awareness since it is really a huge issue. Not many people really know the depth of the cesarean epidemic that really is taking place in our country.

So the moment we have all been waiting for!  The Winner of the Cesarean Recovery Kit from Earth Momma Angel Baby!

And the winner is!   Embee!
Please e-mail me within the next couple days to collect your prize!
CTBirthAdvocate@aol.com

But here comes the best part!  Since we are still in the middle of the Momotics 2nd Blogaversary giveaway, we have yet another NEW Giveaway to announce!  This giveaway is going to run for a week and a half, because I noticed the last two giveaways that have only run for a week, there have not been very many entries. The winner will be announced on Wednesday February 17th!

But what are we giving away now?? We have given away a Labor Kit, A Diaper Bag, and a Cesarean Recovery Kit… so what in the world could it be?

A Hotslings Pouch Sling in Size 3 in the Shabby Chic Pattern.
I can honestly say, I am not familiar with the sling sizing though.
So here is a link to their sizing chart.

So how do you enter to win?
Well since I moved from Blogger, to WordPress, I have lost an awful lot of my followers who had become followers through google on blogger. Unfortunately with the move, I lost them all!

So, one of the ways you can enter is by becoming a google follower again!
If you scroll down on the left hand side, under My Favorite Ladies, and Above my Ask me Anything button you will see the new Google Friends Connect!  Sign up there!
Don’t forget to comment below to tell that you signed up!

Another way to enter for this giveaway is by writing a blog about it on your own blog, or on a site that you write for.
Include the link to the blog in your entry/comment below.

Write about it on Twitter!
Be sure to include @BirthBabiesBlog in your tweet!

Become a fan of Momotics on Facebook!!
Don’t forget to comment below, and let me know who you are on FB!

So now that you know all the ways to enter to win, get on it!  And make sure to tell all your friends about the giveaway, and the new Momotics Site!  I have lost a decent amount of traffic from my move, and I think a lot of my readers just don’t know where to find me!  So help everyone know that we moved to our own domain finally!

February 3rd, 2010

Welcome to the NEW Momotics!

Most know I had been tossing the idea around for a long time about making my blog an actual .com and yesterday with a little extra time, a great friend to help (Sarah from One Starry Night) and the encouragement of everyone on twitter telling me how awesome WordPress is, I made not only the move to wordpress but I purchased the domain name.  While it only ran me a whopping $10.87 I am pretty happy I did it.

I posted a forward over to this blog on the old momotics hosted on blogspot, so I am hoping everyone will slowly make their way over here.

So what is new?  I am going to continue to work on the site over the next couple days, add some pages, some great categories, and just getting used to wordpress, but I will continue to move forward with all the great blog topics I have coming up for the next couple days… which include :

• A wrap up on Transparency & the  Radio show with Amy Romono.
• Being a Feminist Stay At Home Mom
• Teen Pregnancy Rise in America
• Co-Sleeping/Family Bed & A Healthy Sex Life

Sounds juicy huh?   So stay tuned!

Tonight though, in honor of my giveaway of a Cesarean Recovery Kit from Earth Momma Angel Baby, and me dubbing this week “Cesarean Awareness Week” on the Momotics Blog… I will have Michele from Birthcut.com on the Momotics Radio Show and we will be taking about Post Cesarean Feelings and emotions, and ways that you can work towards recovery from your experience.  Be sure to tune in 10:00pm EST!
Remember… EASTERN STANDARD TIME!  A lot of people get confused so I like to stress that! LOL