Strollerderby : Childbirth Education

Crocheted Doll Gives Birth

Madeline Holler — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:23:00 GMT

What do you get when you mix a natural birth advocate with a fiber artist in a manic phase? Why, this crocheted doll, that's what.

Billed as a childbirth education doll, she and her newborn son (that's him in the probably NSFW picture at the end of this post, popping out between her legs) are anatomically correct.

In fact, his belly button really is a button, which secures the carefully looped umbilical cord (itself connected to a detachable placenta!).

A pattern for this award-winning doll -- "Most Creative" at the 2006 Foster Old Home Days fair, Foster, RI and "Best in Show" at the 2006 Woodstock Fair, Woodstock, CT -- is available for $14.89 from CozyColeman's Etsy shop.

Other embellishments include earrings, a wedding ring and a necklace. Not that you're looking at any of that. Instructions include patterns for doll/mom maternity clothes.

Hey, I think I want one of these!

Mother-to-Be: Save The Baby's Life, Not Mine

They Say: Episiotomy Rate ... Cut!

A Really Graphic Homebirth

Japanese Pregnancy Dolls

Photos: Cozy Coleman's Etsy shop

Chicago Doula Works With Poor Pregnant Teens

Miriam Axel-Lute — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:30:00 GMT

For all those tempted to think of a doula as a luxury who merely provides pampering, it's worth taking a little time to watch A Doula Story.

Loretha Weisinger, the subject of the documentary, a former teen mom herself, works with pregnant teens in a poor area of Chicago. She's really a combination of childbirth educator, doula, lactation consultant, and parenting educator, which is a hell of a job, but clearly a crucial one.

I keep remembering the moment where she takes a cell phone away from a new mom who's trying to breastfeed in the hospital in order to tell her boyfriend that, no, breastfeeding isn't "nasty." Or her careful explanation that she wasn't going to leave the delivery room until one of her "girls" was ready to hold her baby and got to do so. Or her repeated insistence that her girls actually talk to their babies, in utero and out.

It's not exactly a feel-good flick, as the lives of these girls, and Loretha herself, are hard. But it also shies away from what I came to realize, as I found myself tensing for it, must be a stock documentary habit of sticking a tragedy in somewhere around 2/3 of the way through. No deaths or horrendous confessions. Just the day-to-day work of trying to improve the lives of babies and parents.

(Hat-tip: Citizens for Midwifery)

More by this author:

How Satisfying Was the Birth of Your Child?

Madeline Holler — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:02:00 GMT

No, no, I am not asking how big the baby was or the Apgar scores or how much hair or what color. That’s the baby, clearly the big payoff in this pregnancy/labor/childbirth enterprise, the central and highest concern of any mother, father, doctor and nurse.

What I want to know is about your births, which I would argue are a separate entity and also very important. Are you happy with how things went? Did the nurses follow your birth plan? Did your OB or midwife listen to you? Was it important that they listen to you? Did you get the pain medication you wanted or the support for pain management that you had hoped for? In short, did your labor and delivery go as you had planned? Was it what you expected?

I ask because a comprehensive survey of expectant women concludes that large segments of expectant and laboring mothers are experiencing inappropriate care. Do you feel like you got appropriate care? A summary of the report lists things like episiotomies, rupturing membranes, inductions, stuff most of us are already leery of. Then they mention IV drips, and electronic fetal monitoring and once-a-cesarean-always-a-cesarean proclamations – all standard practices in the U.S. for which there is no evidence for improvement in outcomes for the mother or baby.

To me, it’s always surprising to read, as mentioned in this summary, how few OBs have actually witnessed a natural birth (and, no, not every woman wants a “natural” birth. But for the ones who do, shouldn’t they have an OB who has a clue?). It’s also a real shocker to be reminded that Pitocin – the artificial hormone used to get contractions going or strengthen them – is unapproved by the FDA for that very use. And it's just plain weird to read U.S. rankings among developed countries on maternal outcomes in childbirth (ranked 42nd) and newborn outcomes (ranked 30th, behind Slovenia and Cuba).

Then I think about friends and acquaintances and friends of friends and sisters of friends and all their birth stories and factor in my own two different births (two midwives, one hospital birth with induction, one home birth with tub) and see the patterns that emerge and then I think, yeah, you know, this report sounds about right.

Former POW Jessica Lynch Gives Birth to Baby Girl

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:03:00 GMT

Jessica Lynch, the former POW who was taken hostage when her convoy was attacked in Iraq and then dramatically rescued shortly thereafter, gave birth to a "fat and gorgeous" baby girl on Friday. Lynch and her fiancé Wes Robinson are said to be "thrilled."

The 7 lb., 10 oz. baby girl is named Dakota Ann after Lynch's close friend, Pfc. Lori Piestewa, one of 11 soldiers killed in the convoy ambush. According to a Lynch family spokesperson, Dakota is a Native American word for "friend or ally" and Ann was Piestewa's middle name.

What a touching tribute to a friend. Congratulations Lynch-Robinson family!

[via People]

Australia Brings Up "God Machine" to Reduce Abortions

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:30:00 GMT

In a move designed to reduce abortions in Australia, the government's health agency brought on board the Catholic Church to help offer pregnancy counseling services. A furor erupted, and now the health minister himself is running from the decision, saying it ws his agency -- not him -- that made the call. Meanwhile the church's welfare arm, Centacare, is saying it can provide bias-free counseling services -- regardless of a woman's decision to keep or abort a baby.

That just doesn't make sense. The whole idea behind the program is to reduce abortions. So the Catholic Church is brought in to offer counseling. And they're going to say what, exactly? Go for it! I don't think so.

Says a Centacare rep: "We're looking at making sure a client has all the information available and yes, some will definitely be making that choice to have a termination of pregnancy and we don't at that stage adopt any particular bias against that. We simply support them through that decision making and afterwards."

"At that stage"?

Translated, that sounds like: "We tell them they'll burn in hell if they have an abortion but if they ultimately decide to go through with it, we just shut up and think it."

Keep running, health minister, keep running.

It's Time to Play: Weird or Waldorf?

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:03:00 GMT

Yes, ladies and gentleman, that's right! It's that time again! Time to play—Weird Or Waldorf!

You are today's lucky contestant and it's up to you to decide if today's item is weird or Waldorf. We know how hard a distinction that is given that Waldorfians are known for their creepy, faceless dolls and cold, impersonal wooden toys.

Allrighty, let's play!

Today's item is a felted wool placenta! That's right, ladies and gents! It's a placenta hand-crafted out of soft, cuddly wool! (All natural fibers, of course.) Not only that, nature's only disposable organ is still attached to the baby by—you guessed it!— the woolen umbilical cord!

The placenta is criss-crossed with dyed-wool arteries and veins which adds to its authenticity. It even comes with a handy carrying case in the form of "a laboring woman's womb." Those Waldorfians think of everything, don't they?!

Okay, we're getting down to the wire here and I know what a tough decision this must be. You hand this toy to your kid. Does she love the little baby or run screaming from the room?

It's time to decide: Weird? Or Waldorf?

[photo credit: Fairy Wool Dolls]