Thursday, February 11, 2010

Healthy Birth Blog Carnival #4 is up! Avoid interventions that are not medically necessary

birth interventions tubes monitors

I wrote the article "Forgoing vaginal examinations during labor" as part of Science & Sensibility's Healthy Birth Blog Carnival #4, and Amy has now posted all the carnival links here:

                         Healthy Birth Blog Carnival #4:
     Avoid interventions that are not medically necessary


Go take a look. There is a section of posts on the roles and pros and cons of interventions in labor (such as Pitocin, epidurals, episiotomies, artificial rupturing of membranes, etc.), of course including my own article on vaginal examinations, which has gotten a lot of good comments that have helped me (and I hope other readers) process that topic even further. Some of you wrote in to say you'd had a lot of cervical checks, some to say you'd had none. Some mused on the intrusiveness of having professional fingers inside the vagina, and I was glad some of you brought up the physical pain involved since I'd completely blocked that aspect of it. Toward the end of the thread, a labor and delivery nurse stopped by to comment on the pain issue, so check out the discussion.

Back at the Healthy Birth Blog Carnival, there's a second section that describes women's own experiences with interventions in labor, including the birth story of Amy's sister, who had a lovely home birth-turned-C-section, which was especially intriguing and beautiful to me.

Lastly, there's a section on changing the culture of birth, looking at how transparency and health care reform might affect the incidence of unnecessary interventions.



Remember a couple other items as well:
  • Today, Thursday, is the last day to enter to win one of the FIVE On-the-Go Inflatable Potty Seats up for grabs. Perfect for a little elimination-communication baby or your potty-learning toddler. It will keep your little one comfy on a public toilet, and then deflates to store easily in your bag till the next go-around.
  • Did I mention we had a carnival around here? The February Carnival of Natural Parenting was a smashing affair, lots of love for co-parents as well as a couple stories of going it alone or starting over. Thanks so much to all our lovely contributors! Keep in mind that submissions to the March carnival on "Vintage green" are due Mar. 2. What sorts of "green" things did you do as a kid (even if you didn't know at the time they were eco-friendly) that you now do with your own kids? If the answer is that you did nothing green as a kid, feel free to share ways you are bucking that trend in your current family!
  • If you want more blogging carnivals to enjoy, be sure to check out my current list of parenting carnival topics and due dates. I know I checked it today to make sure I'm on target! Looks like I've got one due tomorrow, so I'd better get started...



In other news, I am a couples steps closer to getting my blog redesign under way. I know, you're all so excited! Well, trust me when I say there's lots of boring stuff scintillating technological miracles going on behind the scenes, and once the design is finished I have complete faith that all our lives will change terrifically for the better and you won't even believe how you managed before the new Hobo Mama went live.

And if that's not true, at least it will be pretty.



I also have it on good faith that Sam is hard at work writing a guest post. Cool, no?

I can't wait to see in what ways he's going to out me.

If anyone else would like to guest post, just let me know. (And then don't be really offended and worried if I'm terribly slow at replying to your email. Procrastinating is my bag, baby.)

I realize that article requesting guest posts is old and all, but the gist is true even if the details are different. For instance, you could give yourself an extra entry into my Mama Knows Breast giveaway instead. Potato, potahto.

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