Weekend Movie: A Breech in the System

I'm dying to see this. (Movie night soon, o friend of mine who has a copy?)



This is particularly timely as one of the videos we watched in last weekend's doula training was "Once a Cesarean: Vaginal Birth After a Cesarean", in which a VBAC-seeking mama reached the end of her pregnancy with a persistent breech. Lucky for her, this was filmed about 20 years ago, when some American OBs still offered vaginal breech as an option - no longer the case today. (More to say on this film and the ensuing discussion, which will be saved for another post.)

Weekend Movie: "Everyday Miracles"

I've been shopping around looking for videos to use in my childbirth ed classes. Many have spoken highly of this one: "Everyday Miracles". I plan on buying the DVD, but handily, it's also available to view via the excellent, resource-laden Mother's Advocate site.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. I think it could be good as an introductory video - it's a good overview, and I like that it shows some supportive, natural practices in a hospital setting (since, realistically, that's the majority of whom I will be teaching). It's only 8 minutes in its entirety, another advantage for class.




What do you think?


I do want to find videos that are a little more, well, graphic. While being more liberal than you might see on basic cable, these deliveries are still pretty sanitized, and I think it's a good idea to get both mom and partner very comfortable and accustomed to the realities of birth. Thoughts from a Doula had a great post about this - I do hope to follow her example! A sliced-up excerpt:

A few of the dads in my last series came in with some squeamish reservations, putting on a brave face but doubting their ability to view and support the act of birth without some sort of visceral or fear-based reaction. I had a lot of questions on the first day about the emotional repercussions that couples experience in their postpartum sex lives as a result of the dad’s ‘trauma’ by seeing the birth, and also a lot of questions about what exactly they would have to see, and if it was possible for them to see little, less, or none of it at all. I heard about fear of blood, and being afraid to watch their partners be in so much pain and not being able to do anything about it—the old adage that partners of laboring mothers are ‘helpless’. These are not uncommon questions, and I get them all in some form with every group.

I start slow, showing things on the more modest end of the spectrum, and work my way up to a few more ‘extreme’ births. Starting slow is no consolation to many dads, as they have never seen a birth in their life, and it seems so PRIVATE and INVASIVE and INTIMATE and PAINFUL to watch. To say they are uncomfortable when viewing these films is quite an understatement.

So, we start slow, but I don’t pull any punches. This is desensitization. I will explain exactly what they are going to see, what they need to watch for, and what I want them to learn from watching each film. My goal here is for them to see so much birth that it starts to look familiar, and no longer sounds the alarm in the part of your brain that detects danger. This same part of your brain produces anxiety as a fight or flight response to perceived ‘danger’. By watching these videos week after week, I take away the threat that theses birth images pose from the men in my classes. It’s a slow and subtle process, but it works. Even if they make faces, or turn away, they slowly acclimate to the images before them, so that when their partner is laboring, he has nothing left but the knowledge of what to do to comfort and support her, and his own emotions of anticipation, excitement, empathy, and perhaps a little sleepiness.

I perform my weekly ‘exposure therapy’, where we see bodies and births and babies galore. Eventually their responses grow less physical, and I see fewer and fewer grimaces, even as I start to show videos that are VERY graphic, and more intense than anything they are likely to see at their own birth—like the unassisted home birth of twins, where the second one is a footling breech. They may not enjoy the videos, but they don’t bother them much anymore. And since I have 12 weeks to do this, it’s quite effective, and in the end, they almost all thank me for showing the videos I did, realizing that this allowed them to attend their birth without fear—something birth classes often only focus on for the mother.

So for those who are more experienced teachers, what videos do you like? There's another classic childbirth ed video I've heard good things about called "Special Delivery", but I don't know if it's worth the higher price, especially if it seems dated. I'm also reluctant to use "Birth into Being"/"Birth As We Know It" since I worry about the freaky hippie alienation factor (though I myself appreciate the lessons therein). Can you tell I'm extremely picky? I do plan to use YouTube, for sure, so either formal DVDs or public YouTube videos are all fair game.

By the way, I'm definitely opening with this, a.k.a. contender for the best birth captured on film of all time:

Weekend Movie: "A Baby Story ". Yes, the TLC show. Yes, really.

At long, long last, it's finally viewable online: the episode featuring (gasp) a home birth with (squee) Amy Romano, midwife extraordinaire, writer for Science and Sensibility and Rh Reality Check, and all around righteous babe. Not to mention her eminent colleague and partner Vicki Marnin. It takes skills far greater than I possess to be able to embed this kind of video, but just click here to view on the Birth & Beyond site. Ignore the silly, overwrought intro and enjoy.

This was great to see, and I thank TLC for broadening beyond their standard issue cascade-of-intervention fare. Also of note on the same page (belonging to Romano's past practice, Birth and Beyond) is a wonderful slide show of another mother's home birth. I've seen some truly lovely ones, and this is right up there with the best of them. The photographer (Mellissa DeMille of SmileBaby Photography) does a wonderful job of telling the entire story - it's amazing to see just how much narrative detail you get.


True story: I came THIS CLOSE to going with Birth and Beyond for my own birth - though I didn't know who Amy was at the time, I lived in Connecticut during my pregnancy and for the first 7 months of Lily's life. I did a consultation with Vicki, really liked her, and was completely torn between them and midwives I eventually went with, Nancy Farr and her apprentice Gengi Proteau. It just came down to distance - Birth and Beyond was just too far from my area to be practical for prenatal visits. Two roads diverged in a wood . . . Of course I completely adored Nancy and Gengi, but it's always interesting so see those crossroads in retrospect.

Weekend Movie: Whattock Childbirth? (GRAPHIC)

I admit I was drawn in just because of the name. "Buttock" childbirth? Quoi?




But it sure raises some thoughts about vaginal breech birth, eh? The practice here, from 1987, seems to go against the "hands-off" guidelines - toweling the baby off before the head has emerged, doing a little more manipulation than the ideal, mom being on her back - at least as far as my own understanding of the developing recommendations for reviving vaginal breech (if you're in Canada, at least). The "psychoanalgesia" aspect is interesting, too.

The bottom (har) line is that it went very smoothly indeed, baby is perfectly healthy, and mom seems quite happy with the whole experience, even though it doesn't quite fit with what we're learning are the best practices. This, to me, is quite reassuring, actually. What say you?

"Face of Birth": A documentary on the battle for birth in Australia

I cannot wait to see this, and of course cannot wait until the weekend to share it with you. We have our maternity care struggles in America, that's for sure, hence my very existence here, but Australia has its own unique situation. Here, though there are still states where midwives cannot legally hold licenses, the choice to birth at home is, at least, still protected for the family. In Australia, that choice is at risk of becoming illegal, period. Here's the trailer for "Face of Birth":



Choice in birth is a human rights issue. How can we in the U.S. best stand with the women of Australia on this? I'd love your thoughts.

Weekend Movie: "Mother of Many"

For Oscar weekend here in the States, I present this all-too-brief clip from an animated short by Emma Lazenby, which recently won a BAFTA (the equivalent of the Academy in the UK) award. Her mother worked as a midwife for 30 years, inspiring her to make "Mother of Many":

It was my mum’s retirement that got me thinking about what an amazing thing it is she has done as a lifetimes work - to be the first person thousands of people touch and see, and to help women (and their men) through such a ridiculously hard time continuously day after day - just seems crazy. Such a worthwhile job. It makes me think about what I do and consider a change in career.

I haven't yet found any information on where and how to see the entire thing stateside, but I hope to find out more soon.

Kourtney Love

I am not much of a fan of celebreality shows, and never had any interest in the Kardashians one in particular (though I will confess to being reluctantly amused by the first "Rock of Love" towards the end of my pregnancy when I was growing increasingly immobilized). I'm also beyond irritated at the power and status currently given to privileged heiresses and other wealthy offspring. But today marks the third time I have been quite impressed by none other than Kourtney Kardashian.

First, she spoke out against the unrealistic image of postpartum mothers perpetuated by the tabloids, when her image was photoshopped on the cover of OK. See below for the reality vs. fantasy versions:

Major points to Kourtney for speaking out about it, and even correcting that, as WWD Media reported, she didn't gain 26 pounds, but 40.

Then, the Unnecesarean alerted me to the coverage of her birth as portrayed on the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" show. This was full of awesome for several reasons, including her relaxed demeanor upon her water breaking and throughout the subsequent early labor, but most amazingly, the public got to see a completely calm and composed Kourtney reaching down and pulling out her own baby.

You can watch the whole thing on Jezebel. The impact of such an image (standing in opposition to the hyperbolic panic, agony and chaos portrayed in both fictitious and "birth reality" shows like "A Baby Story") can be seen in the comments there, as woman after (presumably young) woman remarks that she had NO IDEA birth could be like that.

And today, Blacktating alerted me to a quote from Ms. K on nursing in public:

"If I have to feed him, I just whip it out. If I'm doing it in public and someone doesn't like it — don't look. I don't give a shit."

Apologies if anyone doesn't love the swearing, but to me the message more than makes up for it.

Kourtney, you've got me. I'm a fan. I don't care if you're privileged beyond comprehension, I don't care if most of your show is otherwise as vapid as they come. Like it or not, people, she IS a role model to a lot of young women, and though these might be small steps that aren't nearly as radical as we might personally choose or advocate for - these are small steps that can clock some major mileage.

Perhaps Paris Hilton will one day have a home lotus birth, complete with placenta encapsulation, will go on to model the finest in slings and mei tais, will breastfeed her intact child openly in the front row during fashion week, and eventually let her child wean whenever he/she likes, between 3 and 5 or so.

I can dream.

Weekend Movie: The mixed bag that is the Duggars' home birth

My feelings about the Duggars are mixed, admittedly. There's much to appreciate along with the things I might view more critically, but in the best, most thought-provoking way.

I won't digress into the pros and cons of the Duggar phenomenon here, but, like the Duggars as a whole, the episode of "19 and Counting" which features Anna Duggar's home birth leaves me a little befuddled as to where I stand. I finally got to watch the big event on YouTube (we haz no cable, or any other direct source, so have to download, use DVDs or watch things online; it keeps life simpler while still allowing for marathon Buffy festivals when needed).

Here we get to see Josh (the eldest Duggar child) and his wife, Anna, attending Bradley classes; having a baby shower, at which I was pleased to see they did the melted-candy-in-the-diaper game that I insisted my friends include at mine, which pretty much says it all about me; and eventually giving birth to Mackynzie Renee (breaking out of the J's) at home with a doula. More on that in a moment.




Check this out. I'm embedding the last of the 6 that comprise this episode - you can get to the other links in the "related videos" sidebar when you pop out the video into its own YouTube window or tab. The first ones includes some backstory about their budding relationship and then young married life, which should fulfill anyone's quota for wholesome viewing for at least a year or so. (The birth nitty gritty starts in part 6, if you prefer to skip the shower footage, and I would hardly blame you.)

So what's your problem, Dou-la-la? Isn't it so nice to see something other than the standard medically-overmanaged affairs of "A Baby Story"/"Maternity Ward" et. al. on TLC? Well, yes, it is. And yet . . . I still have some mixed feelings. Purely from what we are told in the show, the birth was, as I mentioned above, attended by a doula. Note, not a midwife and a doula, but a doula. In the video, Josh clearly says to Jim Bob on the phone the morning Anna went into labor that they were "considering a home birth" , and that they asked their doula if she would be cool with attending them if they stayed at home.

Now, this very well may be poor editing on TLC's part. The woman who attends them may in fact be a trained midwife who had previously been engaged to act as a doula if they were in the hospital, and the fact that she is seen wearing gloves, weighing the baby with the standard midwives' hanging scale, and has cord-clamping tools on hand SEEMS to imply this, but we just don't know. If she is only a doula (and I don't mean "only" in the pejorative, of course), then she is going WAAAAAY beyond the scope of practice. Josh mentions that Anna was "completely dilated" when she started to push. Doesn't that sound to you like somebody was doing internal exams?

AHEM! Note to possibly alarmed readers: this is not part of DONA's training! Even ALACE/toLabor's workshop, which includes the option of both giving and receiving a pelvic exam as a learning experience, in no way endorses ever performing them on clients, and has nothing to do with assessing dilation.

So. One of two things is possible: perhaps the doula actually IS a midwife, and TLC just bungled the information, which should really surprise no one. Or, they essentially had an unassisted birth. I have yet to address "freebirthing" here, and have been stalling on doing so for a while. I won't get into that now, but I do feel the presentation of this birth was confusing, for all its positive aspects (and there are plenty of those too - I love that they showed Josh catching his daughter, I loved her laboring in the tub, I loved the Bradley classes, and just generally loved the emphasis from everyone, including new grandma Michelle, on how peaceful and beautiful the birth was).

Anyway, true to form, another Duggar moment leaves me dazed and confused and unsure of where I stand, seeing both sides, not bearing them any ill will, yet having serious reservations about what is being represented and how.

Weekend Movie: A Walk to Beautiful

I had the opportunity to watch an incredibly moving and important documentary this week. "A Walk to Beautiful" tells the stories of several women in Ethiopia suffering from obstetric fistulas, caused by prolonged, obstructed labor that goes without treatment, their babies having died in the womb. The women (and young girls, too) are rendered permanently incontinent without medical care, and as such, become outcasts from their societies and even their own families.

Up to 5% of all pregnant women in the world develop fistulas, with a high incidence in places like developing countries in Africa where malnutrition is a root cause. Malnourishment causes insufficient skeletal growth, and thus the pelvises of many women truly are too small to safely deliver vaginally. This is true cephalopelvic disproportion, not the Big Baby Bull that is so often sold to women in our own American culture.

Here's the trailer:



Of course, watching this, I felt gratitude for living in a country and socioeconomic status where I have both quality midwifery for healthy, normal births with access to modern medical care for a complicated labor, should complications arise, and further for having grown up with more than enough nutrition to prevent stunted skeletal growth in the first place. But even more than that, I felt suddenly profoundly aware of another advantage I have that I take for granted every single day, one example of which I am exercising right now: the combination of information and connection to others.

The women in this video have been existing in emotional isolation, and sometimes near or complete literal physical isolation as well. They sometimes had no idea that there was a name for what had happened to them, or that it happened to other women, too. Literacy is an issue in itself, but even for those that are literate, information sources are scarce to say the least. They don't have an ICAN Facebook page. They don't have a bookshelf overflowing with empowering pregnancy books. They don't attend webinars. They can't watch "The Business of Being Born". They don't have a blog and a Google Reader full of birth-related material. They don't Tweet. (I certainly mean no disrespect to any of these things, participating in every one of those things listed myself.)

The Fistula Foundation, featured here in the film, provides not only treatment for afflicted women, but a safe haven. I was deeply affected watching these women, having been shunned and shamed for so many years (some from their early teens on, or younger), finally finding kindred spirits, finally a place of comfort and acceptance, a place to talk about their experiences. They are given not only care but caring company, for the first time since their unbelievably traumatic births. The camera captured some of the clinic's patients talking together about their stories, and I got the feeling that this may have been the first time they had ever been able to speak so freely about what had happened to them - and to someone who could really understand.

You can watch the full version below, and I hope that you do, but it's well worth purchasing the DVD to support the cause, or, if you watch online, consider making a donation to the Fistula Foundation, the organization behind this wonderful cause.

What to Expect When Hollywood Takes On Pregnancy

I probably don't have to explain why this is making pregnancy and birth advocates everywhere chase down their rolling eyeballs, but Lionsgate Films is actually planning to make "What to Expect When You're Expecting" yes, the instructional anxiety manual - into a feature film. (Here's just one example of why this book turns so many stomachs.)

Some are surprised to hear this, but honestly, given the celebrity baby obsession that constantly graces the tabloid covers, I'm actually not. Annoyed, and expecting the worst, yes, but not surprised. I suppose it was just a matter of time before Hollywood tried to capitalize on this more directly. I'm ONLY surprised the almost-as-irritating "Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy" (or perhaps even more irritating, depending on your POV) didn't get picked up first.

And, as The Feminist Breeder aptly points out in her comment on the article above, it's also possible that the publishers of the book have been seeing sales lagging, given the growing alternatives to their "classic" worst-case-scenario book, so this is as much a business move on their end as anything else. They point blank say as much in the article itself:

"We feel Heidi's book provides the perfect launching point to tell a funny and poignant story and start a wonderful franchise using this iconic and beloved brand," the upcoming film's producers said. "Heather [the screenwriter] has crafted a great tale, full of rich characters."

Ah, not just a measly little movie, but a franchise! Goody. So of course, the publishers must be thrilled. They've been putting out more and more variations on their original theme for a while now, not just the subsequent baby and toddler care books, but also with "Eating Well When You're Expecting" and "What to Expect Before You're Expecting" and who knows what else they'll come up with in time for movie tie-ins. They've been revamping the cover portrait of prematernal bliss over the years, from this:

To this:



And now this:


But obviously more drastic measures were needed. Thus, Hollywood, and whatever hackneyed jumble of cliches they're liable to come up with. I predict variations upon some if not all of the following elements: a childbirth class where the instructor is portrayed as a whacked-out hippie, breastfeeding advocates portrayed as shrieking harridans, the mother deciding to try to "go natural", then begging for the epidural (and possibly then told "Too late!", the message clearly being, you silly naive little thing, you should have just shut up and gotten it when we first offered), scenes of the father being hapless under pressure and nauseated by some aspect of the birth itself, and, of course, the doctor being the hero who saves the day. I'm sure the tone will be some combination of "He's Just Not That Into You", "Baby Mama", and "The Exorcist".

Let me take this moment to once again direct you to "Laboring Under An Illusion", an examination of how mass media portrayals of childbirth have affected us as a culture. I wrote about it a bit back here. (For my local peeps, we're going to be featuring this in our upcoming ICAN Birth Film Festival in April - more on that in the future.) I hope the makers of this film do even more promotion to offset whatever this "What to Expect" project unleashes.

Putting a fun spin on the news, Public Health Doula is holding a contest to see who can come up with the best plot proposal (the winner gets a copy of the new "Our Bodies, Ourselves"). Click on over to share your predictions/improvements/satire!

Kind of makes me want to rekindle my latent writerly ambitions and write my own danged screenplay. Seriously, I think the story of a woman seeking a VBAC and finding her way to midwifery, for just one example among scores of them, is as loaded with genuine drama and relevance as any great film out there. Maybe not a "franchise", but a moving, inspiring, and powerful journey. If *I* don't do it, I sure hope someone does.

Weekend Movies: Multiple Organisms

In case you haven't heard, a mother in Atlanta recently had a wonderful VBAC of triplets! Doulamomma reports:

The details are just coming out about this VBAC but apparently the woman had her triplets in a hospital attended by Dr. Tate. I am assuming she went natural, as in unmedicated, as that’s generally the way with a VBAC with Dr. Tate. From what I am reading so far, the first two babies were head down and the third was footling breech. Here are the babies stats according to the ICAN of Atlanta chapter posting.
3 girls, all vaginal, all Apgar 8/9.

A= 4# 6oz, 18.25in @ 10:24pm, vertex.
B= 6# 4oz, 18.25in @ 10:37pm, vertex.
c= 3# 11oz, 16.5in @ 10:39pm, double footling breech extraction.

All three babies are successfully breastfeeding as well.

What an amazing day for this mother, her family, Dr. Tate and the VBAC world as a whole!

Yes, yes, yes!

Great Apgars, all breastfeeding, with a fantastic doctor? I say THREE CHEERS are in order! (Ms. Unnecesarean resisted, but I shan't.)

In honor of this blessed event, I present this:



Congratulations to ALL these mamas!

Weekend Movie: Taye Diggs, his "Warrior" . . .

. . . and the emergence of his "Inner Gangster".

This is actually from back in October, but if you haven't seen these clips, I thought they were well worth sharing, since we were discussing fathers and doulas just the other day. Here, Taye Diggs discusses the recent birth of his son on Jimmy Kimmel. I just love how amazed and reverent and loving he sounds about the whole experience. He even discusses placenta encapsulation! (Or, as Kimmel hilariously calls the placenta, "the big gross follow-up baby".)




Side note: NOW I remember where I learned that they use cream cheese for vernix on in TV births! I was racking my brain on that one the other day. Also note: Taye and Jimmy were confused as to the origin of the word "doula". It's actually adopted from the Greek, meaning, simply, "woman who serves".

And a similar, shorter appearance on Ellen. (When he refers to a "midwife lady", he actually means the doula, it was just a slip.)



I think he deserves major credit for talking about all this openly, and also for managing to do it with humor but WITHOUT resorting to a lot of the lazy, hackneyed, husband-disgusted-by-childbirth cliches we've all come to take for granted in the media over the years. Congrats again, Taye and Idina. Hope little Walker is doing stupendously!

Weekend Movie: The most famous UC of all

Okay, so, not terribly realistic. Though I suppose it's possible Jesus was born without an umbilical cord . . . It's still better than "Maternity Ward".

I must say, I like the depiction of the star.

Weekend Movie: BAM! ("Birth in 3 Minutes")

Once again, contemplating use of technology in training.



For me, the question is, how much does this script change when there's a real human being (or two) involved?

Weekend Movie: Mastering the Maneuvers

Okay, you really have to be a die-hard junkie to appreciate these two videos, but I found them to be very educational. Two maneuvers are known to help with shoulder dystocia, the difficult situation in which the baby's head has emerged yet the shoulder remains caught behind mom's pubic bone. One technique is the Gaskin maneuver, where mom turns over onto her hands and knees, named for the midwife of midwives, Ina May Gaskin. The other is the McRoberts maneuver, where the mother is supine, and her legs are flexed all the way back - think knees to ears, opening the pelvis as much as is possible on one's back.

Here's a 3D animation of this - it's REALLY short, blink and you'll miss it, but it shows exactly how this action works on mom's pelvis and the baby's shoulder.



With that in mind, watch this longer, real-life situation.



It seems clear to me that the change of position is the key thing here; in the video above, mom had already been on hands and knees, so the Gaskin maneuver is, well, moot. So McRoberts was perfect. On the other hand, if mom was in anything like lithotomy, switching to hands and knees a la Ina May could really do the trick.

The threat of cephalopelvic disproportion and thus risk of shoulder dystocia is a common scare tactic used to frighten women into unnecesareans. Whichever maneuver ends up being the appropriate one, what I love about the second video here is how clearly it demonstrates that, with a skilled care provider who is armed with the knowledge of these options, shoulder dystocia, while something to take very seriously and address swiftly, CAN be coped with. The midwife worked efficiently and confidently, and there was no sense of panic or dire emergency. I can't help but wonder how this would have turned out in a hospital setting.

I Believe the Children Are Our Future

Weekend at the Movies: Just watch, it's less than 2 minutes.




Mouths of babes, eh? I can only hope Lily will be giving similar interviews in a few years.

Weekend at the Movies: Vive la difference!

The timing of this post I've been planning couldn't be better, what with the internet still abuzz and twitterpated from the birth streamed live by a woman named Lynsee just last night. But even earlier this week, a topic on Facebook was posited by Amy Romano: the great boon to the birth community that YouTube and other online video forums has been. We were all asked to share our favorite online birth videos, and there are a few absolutely incredible ones that are definitely my favorites (most notably the recent VBAC stories of Lindsey Meehleis and Alexandra Orchard, both of whom were so affected by their experiences that they became midwives themselves - truly transformative experiences in every way).

But the one that immediately sprang to mind for me was a black & white video that I had seen ages ago and tried to find again recently, to no avail. The film featured a blond woman, quite lovely, giving birth in a reclined but not supine position, alert yet relaxed, and best of all, looking absolutely, ecstatically amazed at what was happening! It's clear that she was watching herself in a mirror, and was totally enthralled and fascinated with her body and her baby, using her hands to feel what's going on, watching happily thrilled as the head crowns, rotates, and emerges. She pauses, in full, unpressured repose between contractions, no hollering to PUUUUSH or counting to freakin' 10, following only her own urges to push, including some pelvic shifting. It is astonishing to see, in a culture that focuses on the pain and angst and danger of birth - to see a woman filled with utter delight. The father (it seems clear) is guided through catching the baby himself, and when he brings it up to mom, the sheer, undiluted joy she expresses is equal parts infectious and touching.


(When you get to this video after you finish reading my waxings rhapsodical, take a moment: Can you envision what our birth culture would be like if THIS were the birth film they showed to the eighth grade health class?)

I had suspected YouTube might have removed it, and Ms. Unnecesarean confirmed this. Boo, hiss - I still have to give credit to YouTube for allowing so many birth videos, but it remains a bummer that they're censoring some. Luckily, the internet being what it is, I asked if anyone else might have seen this one, and might have any leads on other locations for it besides YouTube. Thanks to Amy's sizable following, someone procured it within MINUTES! I was floored and psyched - and I also got more than I bargained for.

The video I remembered is on there, starting at 3:40, and it's every bit as great as I remembered, but it's just one among 6 others in an 12 minute compilation - and all of the births offer something wonderful to witness. They are hospital births, but they are unlike pretty much any hospital birth I have ever seen (I imagine a birth with Dr. Wonderful or others in his rare, exotic species, would come pretty close). The women are mostly upright, many of them being supported in squats where their partners are acting as the birthing stool, and the doctors or midwives (my preschool level French couldn't distinguish this even if the audio were better quality) seemed engaged and positive, and largely hands-off. Young siblings are included in several of the births. Several fathers catch their babies with guidance, and one strips down nearly as much as his naked wife* (the mothers are all nude). Imagine an American hospital that encourages that much skin to skin not only with the mother, but the father, too. Imagine!

We get to see two perfectly vaginal, unhurried, relaxed births of twins. The first is a veritable feast. We start off with a gorgeous rotation shot at 1:06. As with most of the others, this one was extremely hands-off. Baby A lands softly on the towels, then a nurse gives the slightest possible bit of aid as the mother reaches down for the baby herself. Note: Meanwhile, no one is running around with instruments and towels and clamps and tables and suction bulbs. Daddy holds and talks to big sister about what she's seeing. Then Baby B backs into the world with absolutely zero sense of panic in the room, legs first and then rump, starting off with the same hands-off gentle landing that his predecessor got. (Speaking of, rather than being off getting weighed and measured and scrubbed, Baby A is simply being skin-to-skin on her chest, vernix and all.) Here the doctor, who we've barely seen up to this point, does step in with a little assistance as the head emerges - not yanking, but guiding the baby up in sort of a backward somersault. I'd be interested in seeing what people who attended the breech conference think of this maneuver - it seems gentle enough to my eye. Then Baby B, too, goes directly to the bosom. All this and we're 2 minutes and 10 seconds in! What a bounty.

The second twin birth, which follows the first, even takes place underwater. (I admit they had me biting my nails a bit on this, as they were quite leisurely in bringing the baby to the surface. I am all for not necessarily yanking the baby up as fast as possible, but this was just a bit too lackadaisical for me. Something between the two extremes would be my preference. Other thoughts? Please share.) Mom is the portrait of placidity.

And in the last video, though the birth itself was not a water birth, the baby is bathed in what I am assuming is a Leboyer bath shortly after birth - I have heard of (of course) but never actually seen this in practice before. I remember Peggy Vincent writing in "Baby Catcher" how Leboyer baths were a hot trend for a while among those families inclined to birth naturally, and how it was really mostly a headache for the nurses, trying to keep the water at the right temperature at the right time, and rarely went as smoothly as one hoped, with poor little ones squalling at the shock of a now-tepid bath. I can see how she would feel this way (though she appreciated how well-intentioned the idea was), and my impression is that the practice is basically obsolete today - but I can also see how this was part of the evolution towards birthing more gently, and I acknowledge its importance in that evolution.

I know, I know, quit yapping about it and show us the video already! Here's the thing, it's formatted so that I can't embed it here, and can't even directly link it, but the instructions are easy enough to follow. Go to this page, ignore all the other hospital videos on the page (or don't, but don't say I didn't warn you), and scroll down to #107. It looks like you may have to download this to Windows Media Player. If you don't have it, SRSLY, if you're interested enough in birth that you're reading this, it is worth it to install Windows Media to watch this. Get an upgrade if you have to, call Geek Squad, endure a tedious phone session with tech support, whatever you have to do. If it's not worth it, I hereby declare that I will pay you one million dollars**.

Laissez les bons temps roulez!

*If I recall correctly, this is also part of the Leboyer approach.
** Terms: one dollar a year for a million years.

Monday Movie - an "MBAC"?

I was going to skip my usual weekend movie altogether, and just post about the (faaaahbulous) Postpartum Doula Training I just completed*, but this is too good not to share immediately. I'm seeing it pop up on a lot of other birth community blogs, but in case you haven't seen it, here's a story that is so much more than a VBAC. It's also the birth of a midwife, born to her calling as a result of a cesarean - an MBAC, perhaps.

My Journey to a VBAC from Lindsey Meehleis on Vimeo.

I commented thusly on Unnecesarean:

I am completely blown away by this woman. Such an incredible story. She is already walking the path I am only barely beginning to follow, despite being 10 years (or so) younger, at least with regard to her "calling" as a doula, LC, and eventual midwife. I was lucky to have dodged a c-section with my first birth, but for her, it seems like it was - however traumatic and unnecessary - a catalyst that set her on this incredible path. I wonder if she sees it this way - that without the c-section, she might not have discovered her passion and her true vocation?

Major kudos to you, Lindsey. You're a hero and a role model and an inspiration.

*Manana! I promise!

Much, much kinder.

Weekend Movie: "We Can Be Much Kinder", a short film on delayed cord clamping.


We Can Be Much Kinder - Birth Matters Video Contest - More amazing video clips are a click away

This will be old hat to many of y'all, but for those who haven't seen it, it's a must! Bonus: a lovely appearance by one of the grand dames of the birthbloggin' community, Barbara Herrera, a.k.a. the Navelgazing Midwife.

Laboring Under an Illusion

Weekend Movie:

This past week's episode of Mad Men, titled "The Fog", included an extended plotline about the main character's wife giving birth to their third child. This series is set on the cusp between the fifties and sixties, and thus very much in the grip of the Twilight Sleep era.

Sure enough, Betty Draper was wheeled away from her husband (left to drink and smoke in the father's waiting room, both cliched and authentic), and injected with scopalamine in short order, and in no time, her mind drifts off, free-associating, while the restrained body left behind writhes in pain and snarls at the staff, freed from the inhibitions of consciousness. Asked later how it was by another mother, she replies distantly, "Oh, you know. It's a fog."

I thought this treatment was a bit more historically honest than many other shows and films set in the same time period, which was refreshing in a way (appalling as the treatment actually was). We've all been influenced by the media's portrayal of childbirth - asked to think of the earliest impression of birth I have, Little House on the Prairie comes to mind, followed by a medley of sitcoms.

Think about the stereotypical sitcom scenario - how many times have we seen a woman "go into labor" by falling instantly to the ground and writhing and screaming like she's being attacked by invisible panthers? And of course, the baby is arriving immediately, and she has to be rescued from this by the nearest male. Another cliche is the naive woman who foolishly think she's going to labor naturally, and initially refuses medication - and is later shown begging for it, only to be told it's TOO LATE! Ha ha, joke's on her. Message clear: don't be one of these silly feminists, just get the drugs ASAP like we told you.

And don't even get me started on the reality "birth drama" shows like A Baby Story, Maternity Ward, Birth Day, and the like. "Reality"moniker aside, they're about as helpful to birth as The Bachelor is to actual dating. I yell at the TV like a disgruntled soccer hooligan. (You can probably picture this.) I was thinking that if I ever worked as a childbirth educator (springing out of doula work), I would show some clips of these shows to my clients and we could discuss them critically. But with this new film, I might just be able to loan out this DVD!

So without further ado, enjoy this peek at Laboring Under An Illusion, which looks both insightful and entertaining:



Looks like it's slated to be shown at the upcoming Lamaze conference, as well as some other dates some of you might want to check out.