Epidurals

A very informative paper on medical risks of epidurals

Very interesting in light of the recent Christmas Miracle baby. Especially since in the Good Morning America interview the mom says she had just received an epidural minutes before (in fact, the anesthesiologist was the one doing cpr when the doctor came in).

From the section "Deaths from Epidural Anesthesia"

"Women are almost never given informed consent for epidurals. Even if they were just read two paragraphs from the package insert that comes with the medication used for epidurals (manufactured by Abbott Laboratories), they might think twice. The package insert states:

Local anesthetics rapidly cross the placenta, and when used for epidural, caudal or pudendal anesthesia, can cause varying degrees of maternal, fetal and neonatal toxicity.... Adverse reactions in the parturient, fetus and neonate involve alternations of the central nervous system, peripheral vascular tone and cardiac function.... Neurologic effects following epidural or caudal anesthesia may include spinal block of varying magnitude (including high or total spinal block); hypotension secondary to spinal block; urinary retention; fecal and urinary incontinence; loss of perineal sensation and sexual function; persistent anesthesia, paresthesia, weakness, paralysis of the lower extremities and loss of sphincter control all of which may have slow, incomplete or no recovery; headache; backache; septic meningitis; meningismus; slowing of labor; increased incidence of forceps delivery; cranial nerve palsies due to traction on nerves from loss of cerebrospinal fluid.

Who would sign a consent if it included the above language? The degree to which the facts about the risks of epidural anesthesia are hidden from women in labor is astonishing.

Mothers who have a fever are significantly more likely to have had epidural anesthesia.⁸² Therefor increasing the incidence of septic workups on newborns and the subsequent complications of this procedure.

We would hope that pregnant women would have a more informed explanation of the risks of epidural anesthesia than what is currently given, and would suspect that many would make other choices if true informed consent was given (before labor, when the woman still has time to prepare to cope with childbirth pain in other ways)."

Opinionated

I'm super duper opinionated and judgmental. This usually isn't in real life since in real life I go out of my way to make other people feel comfortable and un-awkward and accepted and I have confrontation phobia. But, for some reason, I have this internet alter-ego that is kind of out of control. And, sometimes I don't even realize how I may come off to other people.

Also, can I just add that when I heard Mike's mom had all of her 6 kids unmedicated I was seriously, seriously disturbed by this fact. I could not let it go and made him call her and ask her why she would do that (this was before I knew anything about birth). A few weeks later, after researching things, I was begging him to have all of our future (we were engaged at the time) babies be born at home.

I have this friend... we talk occasionally online, I had told this friend who is pregnant- how birth isn't really bad (I tell every pregnant person this, and my entire childhood I said I would never have children because I never wanted to go through it and all the media portrayals are scary!). And we got started talking about her OB because she said she was an awesome doc and how I should use her when I get pregnant again. I said that I was hoping to have a homebirth (doubtful! I hate you, tricare!!!) next time so I don't think her doc would be up for that... and she thought I was crazy and I said it wouldn't really be much different since I didn't use any drugs in the hospital... she thought I was even crazier. This was a few months ago and I was very proud of myself for not being pushy and all "don't use drugs during labor or your baby will die!" haha

Fast forward to now, she posted something on facebook about taking a lamaze class and I asked her if it was all crazy breathing and said not too bad and they learned a bunch of different positions and massages etc. I was like "cool, are you planning a natural birth then? You can't exactly use positions with an epidural ;-)". Sometimes I'm an embarrassment to myself. I really didn't even think anything about it (until she didn't respond... or maybe she hasn't seen it yet)... what if she wasn't planning a natural birth- thats just mean! Usually if I think something is on the verge of inappropriate or rude, I have to consider it for a long time before typing it and I didn't.

If only I was as evangelistic about Jesus as I am about birth, circumcision, ecological breastfeeding, babywearing, cosleeping, homeschooling, EC, cloth diapers, etc. why is that?

So, I hope nobody hates me and sorry if I ever offend anyone. I'm just so passionate about things (besides Jesus :(, apparently) and never consider the possibility that there might be legitimate reasons why someone would not want/be able to do these things. Now, I need to apologize to my preggo friend.

I'm in Kansas and Faith has been nursing/sleeping on me (yes, they are synonymous) the whole time I've been typing :)

It's Not About Us

Lately I've been getting frustrated with Faith. She loooves cords. Here is something I saw & found it helpful today in remembering its all age appropriate and she's not doing it to be rebellious. Just thought I'd share in case anyone else is having their baby teach them patience. It's Not About Us

I heard a newly-soon-to-be-Father responding to the comment from a child

"I bet you guys will fight over who holds the baby"

Father: "No... we don't want to hold it too much"

:-( sad, sad day for babies.

Nursing for comfort

(I'm posting a lot the last few days... I get stuck on the couch and Faith falls asleep on me. thank goodness for laptops)

Since Faith is crawling and pulling up now, she gets hurt a lot. And, its so amazing to me how quickly she calms down if I just pop her on. Why do some people say not to nurse for comfort or nurse to sleep for that matter (I know, I know, so they self-soothe and not become dependent on "aids"... America and its independence lol)? bleh! This is so easy!!! Faith- please still be nursing when you are a toddler and have temper tantrums. seriously. :-)

“For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.” For this is what the LORD says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”
Isaiah 66:11-13

She bear crawls... its the cutest thing! Usually we have her nakey from the waist down at home (its just easier that way for EC, but now I'm going to be raising a nudist lol) so it hurts her knees on the hard floor (we only have carpet in our living room), I think. She is so adorable. She loves standing up and looking out the window. And its funny when she is standing and there is something on the ground she wants, so she tries to squat and hold on and grab whatever it is she wants... she ends up falling, but its cute.

And, can we talk about baths? How often? Every day is ridiculous, but then I forget so its like Oh... when was the last time you had a bath... i dont remember... last week? lol And then once I get her in the tub I can't get her to lean her head back to wash her hair so I just end up pouring water down her face, which she doesn't like.

She is over 19 pounds and will be 7 months in 10 days.

Maria Montessori

A quote from Maria Montessori

"For it is not at all paradoxical to say that, while adults suffer among the poor, children suffer among the rich. Let us think, for a moment, of the many peoples of the world who live at different cultural levels from our own. In the matter of child rearing, almost all of these seem to be more enlightened than ourselves-with all our Western ultramodern ideals. Nowhere else, in fact, do we find children treated in a fashion so opposed to their natural needs. In almost all countries, the baby accompanies his mother wherever she goes. Mother and child are inseparable... Mother and child are one. Except where civilization has broken down this custom, no mother ever entrusts her child to someone else."

sad blogs

I happened to stumble upon this blog . wow! This guys wife has breast cancer, finds out she is pregnant, gives birth to a little girl 3 weeks early and dies a few days after they bring their baby home from the hospital. They should not let mothers read this stuff! Way more sad than any sad movie.

Sometimes I wonder why God has never really given me a huge trial to test my faith... but then I read things like this and I'm like "Please Jesus, never let anything bad happen!" I really could not handle it. Seriously, I use to cry in bed at night from the ages of 6 to yesterday 12 because I was afraid my mom would die. I'm sure this stemmed from watching Full House, and really, why was the mom always dead on every show/movie marykate and ashley ever did? I also cried when I was 2 at Rock-a-Bye Baby because I wanted to know where the mama was!

So, as I'm sitting here crying; Faith asleep in my arms, (by the way, I never really know when to use a semicolon, guess I skipped that part in homeschool lol and the part about overusing parenthesis and "...") I'm so thankful that God has protected us. So, thank you people with sad stories who write blogs... you cause me to remember my blessings!