I don't mind...

If I make people think sometimes. My birth control posts are still getting lots of action.

And the blogosphere has pricked my mind as well lately.

I LOVED Cjanes' post this morning - It reminded me so much of myself. The feelings of being done with children - then the overwhelming feeling of being open to more. The goal of less visits in pregnancy. I didn't start seeing my midwife until almost the halfway mark. And I toyed with the idea of nixing weekly visits at the end but was too shy to ask.

then Banned from baby showers put up this quote:

Here is a growing evil in our midst. It will be so in a little time that not a woman in all Israel will dare to have a baby unless she can have a doctor by her. I will tell you what to do, you ladies, when you find you are going to have an increase, go off into some country where you cannot call for a doctor, and see if you can keep it. I guess you will have it, and I guess it will be all right, too." - Brigham Young

and Mama Birth - wrote about my thoughts recently. Except she doesn't even know me and she wrote much more eloquently than I do. Her post THE C SECTION AS BIRTH CONTROL:

We can talk all day about the monetary cost of the c-section or about how it saves lives or about bacteria in the birth canal and trouble breathing, but you can not put a price on the damage we are doing to women.

This is cruel. This is abusive. This is wrong. And- this is how we are treating women at the time of their babies births. We are literally hurting women so deeply that they are scared to death to ever bear another child.

How often does a normal, natural, un-medicated birth do this?

And Well Rounded Mama - writes about the new research stating that (insert eye roll) surprise, surprise - Inductions increase C-sections. Specifically it TRIPLES the risk for first time moms.

You know what helps talk a mom into an induction?

2 things

Most women aren't prepared truly prepared to go PAST their due date. They always think it won't be them. And that magic date becomes a finish line - instead of a guess. When you get that big fat positive pregnancy test and look up your due date- think of it as your birth month. You can go two weeks before - but you'll probably go two weeks after. Plan on that. If you get to the end and you are miserable - most are. And someone gives you a way out - its almost irresistible.

The next thing is two words: vaginal tearing.

Its the thing the scares women from the moment of realization that the baby has to come out of THERE! Then with the modern technology of ultrasound you have doctors and their assistants more than willing to scare you with the BIG BABY card. They did it to me remember?

They say - Whoa this baby is BIG and you think of tearing from stem to stern and you are miserable anyway and going past your due date seems like a cruel form of torture.

But take a deep breath and think it through.

The baby's skull is what you need to focus on - get that out and the rest of the baby is a-ok - last month weight gain is not as huge of a factor as one would think- the skull is not going to get bigger and bigger. The bone structure is what it is - the weight your baby is putting on is pudgyness. They work on getting a butt the last few weeks - ever seen a premie? - they have no butt.

If you can get out the head - you can get out the pudgy body. My midwives said bigger babies cause LESS tearing in her experience. They come out slower. Your body accommodates.

Don't be intimidated into an induction because of the fancy term MACROSOMIA (big baby) 0r CEPHALOPELVIC DISPROPORTION (your hips are too small). They are mis/over-diagnosed ALL OF THE TIME - and the hyped up fears are only causing more c-sections that aren't needed.

C-Section rates hit ALL TIME HIGH:

"Obviously, a 34 percent C-section rate is far too high," said Jacqueline Wolf, a researcher at Ohio University who wasn't involved in the study. "Medical reasons alone cannot possibly explain why more than one in three American women need major abdominal surgery in order to safely give birth."

Already had a c-section?- studies are now supporting the fact that vaginal births after ceseareans are safe:

Anyway if you schedule that induction - prepare yourself for a C-section. I feel like I dodged a bullet. I knew so little in the past. So, so little. I wish I could go back and educate myself better.

Do I think c-sections shouldn't exist - NO WAY. I'd gladly have one if needed and feel blessed to live where I have had safe access to them. Bless these women who didn't.

I am frustrated with a situation that is happening TO women.

another blogger, Rixa put it best:

I think that some of my readers are equating my condemnation of a general circumstance (our high cesarean rate) with a condemnation of the women who undergo these surgeries. Disapproval of a general situation does not at all translate into judging women who find themselves in that circumstance, for whatever reason.

Did you see the new pampers commercial with a homebirth? Love it:

PS. I would love to channel my childbirth energy into a real venture - The Bradley training session will be in Dallas in December - but its $1200!!!! to become certified. I just may save for it though........