Security

Go check out another excellent post by the amazing Gloria Lemay, if you haven't seen it already!!

Living Exposed

I live under no false assumption that by being certified and licensed, I am 'protected'. Codswallop. Midwives need to let go of the assumption that if they always follow their protocols to the 'T' and keep up their license, they will never be liable to prosecution. As Gloria says:

"There is no safety to be had in birth work. No amount of butt covering will avoid the fact that you’re not perfect. If you do something, you will be attacked and, if you don’t do anything, you will be attacked. If you have a certificate, someone will want to take it away from you and if you aren’t certified people will make that wrong."

Can't we just have Gloria cloned and distributed throughout the world, so that we can all have some of her sanity and wisdom in our community? :p

Birth Stools

Ok, ok, I know that I'm a neglectful blogger. I really do promise to have more interesting, fun and insightful posts in the near future! Including one all about the maternity system in Peru. Ahem...

Starting up a practice is hard work, though! I'm spending most of my days writing client handouts. Oh, and shopping for supplies....which isn't really hard work at all, but quiet fun. I'm having a hard time deciding which birth stool to purchase. I want one that doesn't inhibit the sacrum, which is harder to find than you'd think. Here are the ones I fancy so far:

Wooden birth stool
DeBy birth stool
and if money were no factor,
the Birth Mate stool

I need to decide soon. I've personally given birth on the wooden version, and I like it well enough. But, I'm intrigued by the DeBy. I've heard both positive and negative feedback from mothers who've birthed on it.

What???

Has everyone heard about what Poland's health minister is proposing?

New mother and child department in Poland draws protest

Regardless of your views on abortion rights, this is a direct violation of women's right to privacy. Frightening!