Prayers for her Boobies, and Praise for Herbie

Lavendar has Mastis, please send prayers her way. Here's the comment I left on her blog:

Sending prayers your way. Mastis is often a signal that you need to care for yourself, more.

At the first sign of trouble, I have my hot herbie. Organic flaxseed, sewn into a bit of fabric, about a pound. Then I microwave it until it is warmer than I can take, and put it on any sore spot on my mighty milk makers, with a shirt or something to mitigate the heat.

I rest and apply that at the first sign of trouble.

You may want to check with your midwife if heat is okay first. I've been lucky in my half dozen years of production not to get mastis, so I don't know the rules.

I think Herbie has kept my jugs a flowwing. I keep some in the freezer for booboos too. They can go from freezer to microwave in case a sore muscle wants heat too.

(Hopefully some unsolicited internet advice and a chuckle can help too ;)

For the Baby, not for the 'experience'

http://neonataldoc.blogspot.com/2007/01/home-ii.html

A small clip from his post: "I still think that the best solution is for hospital based deliveries to get better, to ditch the impersonal and degrading garbage associated with them."

Today NeoHero may have saved more babies than he realizes. The link above should lead you to his post. My reply is below:

Pro-homebirther here, I fled from the hospital based infirmary system to protect the baby, not for the experience. In all my reading I've only seen pro-hospital folks think we did it for the experience.

After reading Henci Goer, Obstretric Myths vs Research realities, I knew that the interventions cause the majority of the depressed babies. Even the IV was shown to delay labor. It dilutes the hormones in your bloodstream that the baby put there to say, "Now". The intake forms dismiss labor. Literally we get scared and shut down labor. Animals need a safe quiet place to labor, if they are threatened, they can delay labor until safe.

Thanks for acknowledging that hospitals must change if we want fewer dead babies. How 'bout if we start by forbidding the docs to say, "We must break your water or you have to go home"?

Too Much for Mothering

I posted the previous blog entry minus the title and the first paragraph at Mothering.com, with the Title Disappointed to see this moved to Breastfeeding. It was moved from the Lactivism forum to the general breastfeeding area.

My post was yanked and I was told that critisizing the moderators was against the user agreement. I thought disappointment expressed my feelings, not a critique of her skills. The mods must have a hard enough time with so many diverse members (chrunchy?). My disappointment is that people still don't get it, the way doctors are always putting down the boob, and honoring the formula through the formula reps repeated 'free educational' visits.

Any message from a doctor which states that formula has it, but breastmilk doesn't, so you need to do X to make up for not using formula should be countered by lactivism.

Thinking about sending the mod a note, but it would probably just make her bad day worse. I reposted the entry, minus the title line. What do you think? I removed the disappointed part, and just posted the rest. Capitualation?

I can't really think how to phrase a reply to the mod that wouldn't dig a deeper hole. I think I'm growing. Like how yesterday I started with a compliment about how I liked the new paper towel dispensers at work, before I asked to have one adjusted. The new ones you just pull the paper out, no handle to push.

Breastfed Infants Hassled gain - Lactivism vs the Doctors/Formula Reps

Disappointed to see the thread where a doctor suggested iron drops for a breastfed infant moved from the Lactivist forum at www.mothering.com to the Breastfeeding forum.

Peds give the message that "formula has X level of iron, and Breastmilk doesn't. You must give these drops (of basically poison if given in a higher dose) to make your milk as good as formula."

I see this as another message that breastmilk is less than formula. The formula reps have mal-educated the doctors, again. Yes it is true that formula has higher levels of iron than breastmilk. What they leave out is that the iron in breastmilk is much more adsorbable, and doesn't have the harmful side effects of artificially added iron. Also, since breastmilk doesn't irratate the stomach lining and cause that blood loss inot the intestines, a little iron goes a whole lot farther.

http://www.naba-breastfeeding.org/images/Just%20one.pdf

Let's go for a Walk

( posted as a commnet on a friend's blog. hoping to remember to post more about his later.)

What's the name of the diet? Which magazine?

I'll probably be starting Weight Watchers again here at work, but only because it's free, and that way I get on a scale every week. I signed up last time to see if I was losing too fast for no reason. Thinking about going back to Sommersizing again. The good old food combing from the sixties, seems to work for me.

Seems like I've tried everything except Atkins. Sommmersizing is close, but not restrictive on good carbs. The no white stuff rule seems to help me feel good.

Let's go for a walk when you have a minute. I've been pushing Nicky around, can't wait for his little legs to get a little longer. I figure he gets enough miles in my living room.

Can cord clamping increase Bilirubin levels?

( a comment I left at neonataldoc's blog, he was commenting on billilights possibles causing moles. )

Wondering if anyone has a link to support that the premature clamping of the umbillical cord may be the cause of high bilirubin levels.

Many natural birthers believe that you should at least wait for the cord to stop pulsing before clamping it. This allows the blood to go where it needs to. Funny thing is when I asked to delay clapming the cord at an OB practice, all four doctors gave me different answers why they had to clamp right away. Two were in direct conflict. One said the baby will get to much blood, another said that baby will loose blood back into the mom, another said mom would bleed too much, and the other said they needed to get the baby under the warmer right away or the baby would get cold. Funny none of that happened when I had a baby at the midwife's birth center, where they wrapped up the placenta and put baby, husband and I down for a nap, in the same bed, before clamping and cutting the cord hours later.

Sure, if neohero needs to help the baby, waiting for dad to fumble the scissors is silly, but for healthy full term babies I don't see the rush.

Where do we draw the line?

Welcome to Blogspot Fellowman, http:://bulgingbag.blogspot.com

In my mind there is no debate, it should be up to the parents to decide the fate of their baby, everytime.

When interviewing my care provider for my last pregnancy, one of my questions was, 'Will you help protect my baby from aggressive care?'.

I had a feeling with this one, that it wasn't meant to survive. I wanted to protect it from being delayed in becoming an angel, or tortured. Turns out that I chose well. When I called her at 10 weeks (LMP) to see what her protocol was, she said I could go for a D&C but she didn't recomend it. A previous provider had sent me to ER, and that was horrible. So much easier this time, just letting my body handle it. The medical industry messes with birth, why didn't I realize they would mess with miscarriage also.

I'm a natural birth advocate. I firmly believe we are safer birthing at home, with a qualified attendant and a nearby hospital.

Should I have tried to rescue my blighted ovum? Many people would think that by just miscarrying, with only a phone call for care that I didn't do enough. Where do we draw the line?

She seems Definate

Saw the Doctor last night. From what I described she said blighted ovum, no longer pregnant. No tests, just call if I have any extra bleeding. Since I hardly spot the pad after only three days, I think it's over.

I look pale as a ghost. My husband sugested the tanning booth to fix it. I asked him to go make me another chocolate milkshake, and he packed me lunch. I haven't really lost that much blood, I think it's just the hormones making a sudden change. I'm back to work today. I took two days to lay around the house. My timing is terrible. The misscarriage occured the last night of our holiday shutdown. At least this time I was only out for two days. Last time I was out for a week and in misery. It figures, the medical industry would be hurtful and harmful about miscarriage just like birth. Without the trip to ER, and the drugs, this time it was much easier. My body rocks.

Asking about birth control slipped my mind. Do I want another child or is four enough. (counting three I gave birth to, and one step-child.)

Well, if I think about it long enough, Gods will decide for me.

Likely to be over now.

Well, I think I have miscarried. It was easy this time. I wonder if the doctor's drugs made the first one harder. The first time I was given methergine and pain pills. I was in agony for more than a week.

This time, I spotted a little and lost the plug in the morning, and then that evening I emptied my uterus with a spash. Can't see how there could be a baby left in there after that much glop. I see my doctor tonight, and we'll see what she says. When I paged her to see what her protocol was, she said I could go get a D&C but she doesn't recommend it, and to keep my appointment today. That trip to the ER with the first was hell, glad to skip it this time.

It really wasn't a good time to have a baby anyways. My youngest is only two and we are still nursing. I work full time, and they just gutted my benefits. Maybe later, but the idea of hauling another one around seemed daunting.

Going to ask about birth control. I don't think there is any safe answer.

Really glad I didn't spared the news around in real life. Don't feel sad about this, I already have three children and a step child, five may have been to many.