Strollerderby : AMA

Best of FameCrawler: Week of November 28th

Whit Honea — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Joely Fisher Introduces Daughter Olivia to the World

A Message from Suri Cruise

Video: Christina Aguilera's AMA Performance

Gordon Ramsey- Adulterer Extraordinaire

Nicolette Sheridan and David Spade Are Having Sex

Five Reasons Why Naming Your Kid Bronx Mowgli Makes You Look Like An Ass

Madonna Takes A Page From Sarah Palin's Turkey Slaughter Notebook

Three's Company: Heather Locklear, Richie Sambora, Jack Wagner Will Spend Thanksgiving Together

Gwyneth and Chris Are Splitting Up?

Brad & Jen: The Real Reason They Didn't Have Kids

Gwen, Gavin, Kingston and Zuma: Pictures

Killers' Brandon Flowers Says Fatherhood Gives Life Context

Teen Mom Tasered by Police Trying to Take Her Baby

Shannon LC Cate — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:00:00 GMT

The Canadian Press reports that "Vancouver police are defending their use of a Taser stun gun on a teenage mom, saying officers took the action to save the life of a critically ill one-month-old baby."

This is the sort of news that puts a damper on my pipe-dream that if McCain is elected, I'll move to Canada. The police claim that the young mother was a threat to her own newborn when she resisted them taking the baby from her. Supposedly, they feared she might smother the baby as they tried to force it from her arms, so they used the taser.

It is hard to imagine how a scenario like this could really have escalated to the point that such dangerous force was actually required.

First of all, I'd be much more concerned about harming the baby with the taser than I would about leaving the baby with its mother for a while until someone with better negotiation skills could arrive at the scene and help. Would it be so difficult to allow the mother and baby to come together with the officials supposedly trying to help?

Tasers, while vociferously defended by their producers and retailers, are far short of 100% non-lethal. There have been hundreds of cases of people dying after being tasered and the connection, while not clearly related to the taser is not clearly unrelated either.

The American Medical Academy, worried about overuse and uncertain about the safety of tasers has called for better study of the effects of being electrocuted in this way. But I don't think it takes a brain surgeon to figure that if grown men have died after being tasered, 16-year old lactating mothers and newborn infants should not be candidates for this type of force.

Two women found guilty of illegal midwifery

Brett Singer — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:00:00 GMT

This is a serious issue, but I have to say that the term "illegal midwifery" sounds like something out of a bad Shakespeare parody.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, here's the story:

"Tonya McGlade was found guilty of Attempting Midwifery Without a License. Linda McGlade was found guilty of Principal to Practice Midwifery Without a License.

"Prosecutors say the women helped Linda McGlade's other daughter-in-law deliver her baby boy. She died of internal bleeding two days after giving birth back in 2004."

In other words, they attempted to deliver a baby without having a license to do so. Sadly, the mother died; the baby survived. This site has a lot more detail if you're interested (fair warning: it's very sad).

What I'm wondering is, just how prevalent is this practice? If someone decides to give birth at home without a trained person present (midwife, doctor, nurse, whatever) and nothing goes wrong, would they be prosecuted as well? Judging by what I've seen on Babble, home births are far more common than I realized. If I had to guess, I would say that a large percentage of these births are against the law. And something else: isn't the problem that the patient died and received poor treatment, rather than the midwife's lack of license? I mean, you can get a midwife license online. (CORRECTION: according to a commenter, that web site only offers the coursework; to get licensed you have to complete your training under supervision.)

Image/source: mysuncoast.com

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Only 43% of British Moms Offered Home Birth! Outrage!

Miriam Axel-Lute — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:55:00 GMT

Here in the states, we know things are a little different across the pond. British nannies have a certain something, their weather lacks a certain something, and there's that whole royalty business.

But sometimes we forget just how deep the differences can go. Take maternity care. In fact, in order to avoid a rose-colored-glasses look, take what bugs Brits about their maternity care, as described in a government-sponsored survey, and reported under headlines like "Maternity Nightmares!"

The top concerns, according to one TV station that has done a recent follow up, are:

"43% of women were not offered a home birth
23% said they were underfed in hospital
36% were not offered antenatal classes
18% said toilets and bathrooms on wards were not clean"

Well now. Certainly dirty bathrooms and not feeding new mothers enough is unacceptable. Sounds like there's some serious funding and staffing issues at NHS.

But to American eyes that top item feels a little like hearing someone complaining about the freshness and flavor of their food while you're starving. Natural childbirth and midwifery advocates here would be doing a ~~little~~ major happy dance if anywhere near 57 percent of pregnant American women were offered a home birth. (Or, you know, even if fully trained home birth midwives were no longer treated as criminals.)

Even though the survey found only about 3 percent of British moms actually did give birth at home, even the mainstream British media clearly thinks having the choice presented to everyone is important. How strangely refreshing. Perhaps the AMA (which is trying to make home birth illegal) is overdue for a British invasion.

BirthChoice logo used with permission.

Is Home Birth a Civil Right?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Most people agree that where and how to give birth is a personal choice. But what if your choice is one that many doctors feel is dangerous for you and your baby?

A resurgence in the home birthing movement has doctors and midwives grappling with this question, and Babble’s own Ada Calhoun has researched the heck out of the issue for Time.

Women who opt for home births argue that this method allows them more control over their birthing experience, making it unlikely that they will undergo interventions, such as C-sections or episiotomies, that they don’t feel are necessary. Midwives only assist at home births for low risk patients, and are trained not only to deal with emergencies themselves—often in the exact same way an obstetric nurse would—but they also know when it’s necessary to bring a patient to the hospital as quickly as possible.

But many doctors argue that the best medical care can only be accessed in the hospital—period. The American Medical Association is urging lawmakers to restrict the home birthing movement, in part by making it more difficult for direct-entry midwives (who don’t have nursing degrees) to get licensed.

Currently, only 1 percent of U.S. births occur in the home. So midwife Joan Bryson seems justified in defending home birth’s safety in these terms: “We [the U.S.] rank 42nd in the world in live births, and we spend more money than anyone else. You can’t blame it on home birth.”

My personal experience makes me naturally inclined to side with Bryson. Both my sister and I were born at home with a midwife, and my parents describe the experience in near ecstatic terms (honestly, their extreme enthusiasm when recounting my mother's 12-hour labor can be a bit disconcerting). Also, my older sister never exhibited the jealousy and sense of displacement that many older children feel after the birth of a sibling. I believe this was in part because she was present in the house while my mother was in labor, and was able to see my mother and me almost as soon as I was born. There was no sense that her mother had disappeared, and then returned carrying the reason for her disappearance.

It goes without saying that giving birth at home is not for everyone—but neither is giving birth at a hospital. Competent midwives should not be subject to prosecution for allowing women to opt out of a traditional hospital birthing experience.

Photo: Time

Breakin' the Law with Birth

Adrienne Martini — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Strollerderby's own Madeline Holler has done something that has amazed us all in the 'derby "office." No, it's not that she sorta broke the law when she birthed her second daughter. No, it's not how she handled said daughter's placenta. None of those things impressed us much.

What really stunned us all is that Holler delivered an almost 11 pound little girl without any drugs. Seriously. I need an Advil and a sitz bath just thinking about it.

Read Holler's excellent essay on midwives, natural births and kiddie pools. The betting pool on how long it takes the AMA to discredit our little Miss Holler will open later in the week.