Posts by bluebirdmama
Priorities
Have you ever wondered what you’re made of? I always thought I was kind of a wimp. Cold all the time. Can’t lift much. I complain about papercuts. The first year in the bus made me realise that I was a lot tougher than I ever gave myself credit for. We had this idea that the bus conversion would go quite a bit more quickly than it really did and we moved in before much—ok, let’s face it—before anything was completed. For the first year, we gave up some pretty basic modern conveniences: No furnace. We had a small woodstove but the fire would go out after about 3 hours. This was a bit of a problem during a Canadian winter but thank goodness we live on the West Coast. We could see our breath in the morning when we woke up and when we got home from work. We gave new meaning to the suggestion to “wear layers.” No plumbing. We bought a port-a-potty after the first month peeing in a bucket. We got the Canadian Tire 24L camper model. With regular use they break after 1 year. We replaced ours yearly. We showered and did laundry in my sister’s place. Not a huge big deal but it did mean walking outside every time we wanted to have a shower. We kept a couple of 4L jugs full of water in the bus for washing up and we had a small Rubbermaid basin for doing dishes. No water heater. We boiled all of our water for dishes and washing up. We kept a pot of water on the woodstove at all times too. No stove. We had a single propane burner that looked like something from chemistry class. It was hooked up to a 20Lb propane tank (like you use for bbq’ing) that we kept inside. I used this exclusively for cooking that year. We boiled our water on it too. No fridge. Ok, that’s an exageration. We had a mini-bar fridge. It could hold a 2L of milk, a couple of Tupperware containers and a few veggies. A head of green lettuce stacked on the containers would fill it completely. No wiring. We had two extension cords so we could have power. For lights we used those small indoor Christmas lights. Aaron calls them fairy lights. We also had a lamp that Aaron made himself out of wire & cardboard and a desk lamp. No curtains. There are 11 windows on each side of Eliza, not including the back windows or windshield. Considering that we were parked on a corner, on a bike route in a fairly big city, beside a busy park that held a farmer’s market on the weekends, this is a big deal. Aaron used butter knives to stick blankets into the seams between the walls and the ceiling so we could have some privacy. We did have a phone, a computer and high speed internet though. Was it the internet that gave me the strength to weather all these other hardships? Or was it something inside...
Read MoreInternational Day of the Midwife
May 5th was International Day of the Midwife. This special occasion is near and dear to my heart. Both of my children were born with the help of midwives and I have spent the last 3 years spreading the word about how wonderful they are. I exhibited at the 2007 Canadian Association of Midwifery conference in Vancouver. The conference was held in Vancouver that year to also celebrate the 10th anniversary of the legalisation of midwifery in BC. At the conference, I bought a t-shirt that quickly became my favourite (coincidentally, I was even wearing it when I went into labour with my daughter last year) because of the colour, the fabric (organic cotton) and the message – 10 years of Registered Midwives. When I wear this t-shirt I often get asked if I am a midwife (sadly, the answer is no) and I always reply, “No. I just really like midwives!” Most of my friends have also had the opportunity to experience midwifery care so I occasionally get the mistaken impression that it’s more widespread than it is. Ann Douglas recently shared some of the results of the Canadian Maternity Experiences Survey and I was shocked to discover that only 6.1% of births are attended by midwives. I was well aware that though Vancouver struggles with a shortage of midwives I was lucky to live there because other communities have no midwives at all. I fervently believe that we need more midwives. Even so, I didn’t realise the numbers were as low as they are. The theme for this year’s International Day of the Midwife is The World Needs Midwives Now More Than Ever and you can read some info about this from a global perspective at the International Confederation of Midwives website. What does the picture look like in Canada? Midwifery is legal and government funded in the Western provinces and Ontario and Quebec. However, the territories and Maritime provinces are still struggling to have midwifery recognized and paid for through the healthcare system. Province Regulated Provincially funded Practising midwives Link British Columbia yes yes 120 bcmidwives.com Alberta yes in process* 30 albertamidwives.com Saskatchewan yes yes 5 saskatchewanmidwives.com Manitoba yes yes 40 midwives.mb.ca Quebec yes yes 100 canadianmidwives.org Ontario yes yes 450 aom.on.ca New Brunswick in process no 1 canadianmidwives.org Nova Scotia in process* no 7 canadianmidwives.org PEI no no 1 canadianmidwives.org Newfoundland and Labrador no no n/a canadianmidwives.org Yukon no no 1 canadianmidwives.org Northwest Territories yes yes 3 canadianmidwives.org Nunavut in process partial funding 3 canadianmidwives.org Source: Today’s Parent, March 2009 Some good news: Despite government regulation since 1998, Alberta just agreed to publicly fund midwifery. The deal was finalized in early April of this year. Nova Scotia has also proclaimed the Act Respecting Midwifery but have limited coverage to only a few districts within the province. Some bad news: The shortage of midwives is quite real and according to this recent Maclean’s article on the Midwife Crisis, it is just a part of a larger crisis within maternity care in Canada. The article’s byline goes so far as to say that “it’s a bad time to have a baby in Canada.” And in Ottawa, despite the fact that Ontario is one of the provinces that recognizes and funds midwifery care, there’s been a major step backward – the Ottawa Hospital has closed its doors to midwives. What Can You Do To Support Midwifery in Canada? Spread the word—tell your friends, family, co-workers about midwifery Share positive stories about midwives, doulas and birth Donate to your local midwifery association Join an advocacy group: Midwifery Coalition of Nova Scotia BORN PEI Yukoners for Funded Midwifery Learn more about midwifery in our northern communities – Inuit Midwifery Network Association for Safe Alternatives in...
Read MoreVoices: What Story is Your Birth Story Really Telling?
I recently had the opportunity to share the story of my son’s birth with a university class on Child Development during Infancy (conception-3 years). The students are in their early twenties and many had never seen a birth before nor had any prior exposure to the basics of childbirth. As I wrote out my story, I became increasingly aware that I couldn’t just tell it the way I remembered it. I had to bear in mind that the students would be forming impressions about childbirth from my words. I had an opportunity to cut through the noise of birth as pain and talk about what else it can be, beyond just a physical experience. I realized that to be taken seriously I would need to acknowledge that birth IS painful but I also decided to focus on the experience itself: preparations, perceptions, emotions. I spoke about why I chose to have a homebirth in a rational way so that my words would not be brushed aside as those of someone “brave” or “radical.” I had to make very calculated decisions about what to say and what not to say and I got to thinking about the stories our birth stories really tell. Is it a story of fear, pain, control, joy, courage, triumph, peace, dignity, sorrow? Do the details we give and the words we use convey what we intend? Are we aware of our audience when we casually explain about the day we gave birth? Do we pay attention to the fact that there might be a young pre-teen girl there who is soaking it up? What do we want listeners to take away from our tales? In a culture where birth is a medical event, we owe it to future families to tell a positive empowering story if we can. Young women today are bombarded with stories on tv and in the media of childbirth as being so painful and dangerous that the only way they will get through it is by putting their trust in the authorities, giving up the power in their bodies and taking the multitude of drugs offered to manage their birth safely. We can help shape future mothers’ perceptions of birth by carefully choosing our words when we talk about ours. Regardless of the circumstances—whether it was a blissed out waterbirth or a cesarean for breech presentation—we are the ones who tell our stories. We can choose to be positive and inspiring or to instill fear and dread. It’s your...
Read MoreIs homebirth safe?
The most recent studies have shown that with healthy pregnancies free of complications, planned home births attended by trained midwives are as safe as hospital births. There are some VERY important distinctions made in the above statement. Studies of home birth look at: Low Risk women Families who have planned ahead of time to have their birth at home and prepared for it. This does NOT include births that happened so fast that paramedics were called or mom delivered at home alone. Home births attended by trained professional midwives. These studies make no claim as to the safety of unassisted home birth, precipitous home birth or home birth for women who do not meet the criteria for being low risk. Please note the overall findings of a study on home birth reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, including some very important benefits of home birth: “there were fewer interventions during labour, including electronic fetal monitoring, induction of labour, episiotomy and cesarean section; women were more likely to have an intact perineum and fewer maternal infections and were no more likely to have third-degree or fourth-degree tears or postpartum hemorrhage; and there were no significant differences in perinatal mortality, 5-minute Apgar scores and meconium aspiration syndrome, as compared with women intending to deliver in hospital who were assisted by physicians or midwives.” – Régis Blais, Are home births safe? CMAJ 2002;166(3):335-6 There is a wealth of information available on this subject: Check out our articles & research...
Read MoreDelicious Slop a.k.a Raita
Rain loves raita and I usually make it every time we have Indian food or make curry. He gets really excited and says “Mom, you made that delicious slop!” 1 cup plain yogurt 1/2 cucumber, shredded on a cheese grater 1-2 tsp cumin cilantro to taste 1/2 tsp salt Stir everything together and serve with your favourite curry.
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