Ever tell someone you were dissatisfied with your birth experience? That it left you feeling lost, unhappy, frustrated, or something worse? And then been told that you were selfish because you had a healthy child and all that should ever matter is that your child is healthy and happy, no matter how he or she came into the world?
“We’re not as skilled in vaginal deliveries as before, and patients won’t put up with damage.” - One doctor on why c-section rates were rising in 1985
I want to highlight the primary article in this current volume though as it is the summary of a case in Ontario that paved the way for the legalization and licensing of midwifery in Ontario.
The fourth installment of Re:Birth Newspaper!
30% can mean nothing or it can mean a lot. In my case, it was a non-entity, a number I never gave much thought to until June of 2009.
The article that stood out was the summary of research on homebirth, one of the first articles of the paper, but I’ve already written on that and sadly the articles seem a little too similar to have been written 25 years apart. But a little aside – if you read this issue closely, I get a few mentions, including a brief synopsis of my birth!
I was diagnosed with Peripartum Cardiomyopathy, a form of dilated cardiomyopathy defined as deterioration in heart function between the last two months of pregnancy up until five months post pregnancy.
I remember the looks. Sitting down to dinner with my husband at around 7 months pregnant and ordering a glass of wine. No one says anything, but they take that extra second to take it all in, contemplate saying something, and then walk away. But their eyes say it all.
In this second issue of Re:Birth, there are articles on the Ultrasound (which was quite new at the time), mothering the mother, VBACs (yes, they were talking about them 20 years ago) and C-sections, support during labour, and breastfeeding policies.
Starting today I will start sharing some pdfs of an old newspaper that was written and distributed in the 1980s in Ontario, Canada – Re: Birth. It was created by a group called Choices in Childbirth and the goal was to promote women’s options for their births...
