Thinking Outside the Bottle

For the past couple weeks, I've been sweating how on earth it's all going to work out when I go back to school in September. In particular, I've been worried about Luke getting the milk he needs while I'm gone since I'm his sole source of it. With Micah, I stayed home for eight months and by then he could go for longer periods without nursing and I didn't worry if he didn't take a bottle so well. In Luke's case, I had vowed that I would get him started on a bottle sooner since I'm going back to school when he's so young (three months).

Well, we've been trying to introduce the bottle for a few weeks and he's not so much into it. So, I started getting even more anxious about this fall and even thinking maybe I shouldn't go back to school. But then last night I picked up my copy of The Complete Book of Breastfeeding hoping for some ideas about how to get your baby to accept a bottle.

What I got was a reminder that bottles, like many things, are simply a socially accepted means of delivering milk to a baby, not an absolute necessity. There are several other ways that Luke can get milk, including a cup (yes, even babies drink from cups!) or an eye dropper/medicine dropper. More tedious to deliver, perhaps, but might be easier for Luke to take.

It was a forehead-slapping moment for me. Of course! Sometime in history, someone decided to create a pseudo-boob, which we now know as the baby bottle, to feed babies. But that doesn't mean it's the only way to feed a baby when a breast is not available. What kind of sociologist can I expect to be if I can't even see the social relativity of my own child-rearing practices? Doh!

Here's what the Book had to say:
"In our society we have generally assumed that babies who are not breastfed need to get their milk in a bottle. But in many countries around the world babies who cannot be nursed receive all their liquid nourishment in a cup, sometimes right from birth. United Nations agencies do not distribute feeding bottles at all even to babies who cannot be breastfed." (p. 232).

Jerry tried it this morning and it worked pretty well, though a bib is definitely a necessity. Luke was content with the couple ounces he got and it gave me more confidence about leaving him for a few hours when I have to. This way, too, he'll save all his good nursing just for the two of us!

Opinionated

I haven't had much time to blog lately...somehow I thought I would with a newborn baby. Ha ha. But I did have a chance to sound off on on home birth in the Star Tribune. I made it in as a "Netlet" online, alongside my friend Heather from ICAN. Click the link or read it below:

Her well-informed choice

As someone who has experienced both a hospital and a home birth, I can attest to Jennifer Block's assertion that hospital maternity care is not supportive of the natural labor and birth process. My first son's birth began with induction via Cytotec and ended in a c-section. My second son, born just seven weeks ago, was delivered on his own terms (and mine) in a birth tub in our dining room. I chose my second son's birth setting based on the sound research Block cites as well as my own experience: that medical practices and hospitals are making it next to impossible for women to have vaginal births after c-section (VBACs) without unnecessary and intrusive interventions based on fear of malpractice suits.

I am a highly educated and highly responsible woman -- that the AMA should suggest otherwise because I choose to birth at home is not only ridiculous and insulting, it demonstrates an irresponsible disregard for scientific evidence. I wanted both a healthy baby and a natural birth process; generally, the two go hand in hand. For me, the only place to get that is at home.

SARAH SHANNON, MINNEAPOLIS

Mixing sociology and birth

I had a great time this morning talking with Rachael Kulick, a fellow grad student in sociology whose dissertation research is titled, "What will I do with the placenta?: The social meanings of home birth in the United States and the Netherlands." I heard through the grapevine about Rachael and her project and just had to meet her!

Our conversation traveled down many paths, some of which I can't share due to confidentiality (the home birth world is a very small one!), but one well-traveled topic was that of socialization - that in our culture we are raised to believe that the hospital is the safest place to give birth, home birth is scary and unsafe and "granola," etc. What most people don't know is that these are notions that science simply does not support for normal, low-risk births. Here are a few scientific studies from reputable, peer-reviewed journals that establish the safety of home birth (as cited in a recent newsletter from Ten Moons Rising):

The change to planned hospital birth for low-risk pregnant women in many countries during this century was not supported by good evidence. Planned hospital birth may even increase unnecessary interventions and complications without any benefit for low-risk women. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008 Issue 2

Planned home birth for low risk women in North America using certified professional midwives was associated with lower rates of medical intervention but similar intrapartum and neonatal mortality to that of low risk hospital births in the United States. BMJ 2005;330:1416 (18 June)

Home birth can be accomplished with good outcomes under the care of qualified practitioners and within a system that facilitates transfer to hospital care when necessary. Obstet Gynecol. 1998 Sep;92(3):461-70

Home birth is an acceptable alternative to hospital confinement for selected pregnant women, and leads to reduced medical interventions. Birth, 1997 Mar;24(1):4-13

...under certain circumstances, home births attended by lay midwives can be accomplished as safely as, and with less intervention than, physician-attended hospital deliveries. The Safety of Birth: The Farm Study, Am J Public Health. 1992 March; 82(3): 450-453.

... in a self-selected, medically screened, low-risk population, home delivery with medical facility back-up can be a reasonable alternative to hospital delivery. Mehl et. al, Journal of Reproductive Medicine, 1977

Rachel's study will certainly shed some interesting (and much needed) light on home birth from the perspectives of those who have experienced it and the midwives who help facilitate it in two very different settings: the Netherlands, where approximately one-third of all births take place at home and the U.S., where only 1 % of all births are at home. She will be traveling to the Netherlands this coming academic year as a Fullbright scholar. I can't wait to hear (and read) about what she learns!

A tale of two births: In pictures

Micah's first moments of life after his c-section:














Can you even find the baby in the sea of gloved hands?

Micah's first moments with mommy (two hours after birth):














Luke's first moments of life AND his first moments with mommy:














Micah meets daddy:














Luke meets daddy:














The new fam #1:














The new fam #2:

One month!

My baby boy is officially one month old today. The midwives were here on Tuesday and took his measurements. He now weighs 13 pounds, has a head circumference of 15 inches and is 23 inches long. That's an increase of 3 lbs, 12 oz in weight, 2.5 inches of circumference, 2 inches of height! So, I guess you could say that he's eating and growing just fine.

We're doing really well. My biggest challenge is being content with the day to day activities of babyland, which are not particularly intellectually stimulating. It's hard to go from full engagement in academia to stay at home motherhood. On the whole, it's good. I'm trying to remind myself that these early days go by so fast, he won't be so little forever, and it will be back-to-school in the fall before I know it...

Feminism & birth

My friend Heather D. published this commentary in Minnesota Women's Press:
http://www.womenspress.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=3100

She raises the issue of feminism: how is it that we women who consider ourselves feminist - educated, empowered, and capable of any career or life we choose - completely lose this mindset when we get pregnant? All of a sudden, the doctor, not our body or our instinct, knows best. Many of us are perfectly willing to fight for our reproductive rights when it comes to abortion, but giving birth? How could we possibly do that without an expert, more than likely a male one, to help us? To tell us what is right or wrong about our bodies, our labors, our babies?

Eek.

It strikes me that there are two ways that women might look at birth, both claiming to be feminist. The first is to step completely out of the medical birth mindset, like I did, and strive for natural, homebirth, rejecting the perceived (or real) oppression of the patriarchal establishment. The second is to embrace medical technology as progress and seek to use it to your best advantage, such as the use of epidurals and other drugs for pain relief. Believe me, after Luke's natural birth at home, I get the appeal of epidurals all the more now! Why shouldn't women be free to capitalize on the best that modern technology has to offer?

Both options come with their own pitfalls, fears, and potential risks. It's obvious from this blog which one I have chosen. But here's the deal: I think women ought to be able to give birth wherever they feel is the best place for them. If that's home, great! Homebirth ought to be legal and non-stigmatizing to those who choose it. If it's a hospital, great! Hospitals ought to provide laboring women with evidence-based (not fear-based) care and support and women should be free to choose how they birth (what position, with or without drugs, in or outside of water, etc) within the hospital environment. Unfortunately, hospitals do not currently practice this way, especially not for women like me with a scarred uterus.

This is what I strive for. I want birth, wherever it happens, to be the best it can be for all women and their babies. The two go hand-in-hand.

Five years ago this morning...

I woke up to meet my first baby boy for the second time. Our first meeting was through the haze of waking from general anesthesia two hours after he was surgically born the night before. Though I was sore and sad, we started our bonding as mother and nursling that morning and the rest is history. I know it's cliche, but I really can't believe that my baby boy is five years old and about to begin Kindergarten in the fall. Truly, his birth is as fresh to me as his brother's that took place three weeks ago. Yesterday, when Micah objected to my calling him my baby, I told Micah that to all mommies, their babies are always their babies in their hearts. Micah may be a big boy, and one day will be a man, but he is always, always, that little babe fresh from heaven in my heart!