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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Birth Junkie

So yes, I've come to realize that I'm a birth junkie. What, you may ask, is a birth junkie? Well according to my definition, it's someone who is passionate about anything and everything having to do with birth - including pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum. I've found myself continuing to read articles and research even after Kaylee was born. But why? Who cares? Kaylee is here and I got the birth I wanted right? At first I wasn't sure. What in the world was making me want to continue reading about the history of labor and delivery in our country, how drugs could affect labor, the "sphincter law", what the placenta does and how it changes and its benefits postpartum, delayed cord clamping...I could go on and on. But I think I realized what's driving me to continue to learn. The more I learn about how the aforementioned works - or rather, was designed to work - the more amazed I am at our Creator!! Seriously, it's BEYOND amazing what our bodies are capable of doing both when interferred with as well as when not.

I understand this tends to be a sensative subject that can spark much debate. That's not my intention. Here's my point of this post. If there's any woman out there who's interested and open to learning more about pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum, I'd love to help! If I could, I think I'd become a doula. But I just don't have the time to sacrifice with having a family right now. Maybe I can be more of a birth consultant. :)

So, if you can't afford a doula (and I highly recommend having one) but you at least want someone to bounce things off of as you read or have appointments or become concerned or are told things by family that you're just not sure of, I'll do everything I can to help as long as it doesn't interfere with my family responsibilities!

If you're not a birth junkie, may I recommend at least getting your feet wet - perhaps reading Ina May Gaskin's "Guide to Childbirth" (very informative!) or just start Googling and read away! It doesn't mean you have to have a natural, drug-free birth at home and consume your placenta afterwards. But how cool to learn about God's design!!

1 comment:

Christine said...

Hey Susan, Anna McCarnan has been talking to me about you lately, haha! About getting antibiotics in advance for having group b strep and also about refusing the gestational diabetes test at Greer OB (which is where I go too)? We should chat sometime, definitely seems like we are passionate about a lot of the same things! I'll look for you in church this Sunday.
PS- you are the only person I know of who has used the Kawaii diapers (which is what I am currently planning on buying for my whole stash) so I would love to know more about that too!