We ♥ Baby!

Babycenter.com is a website I check every so often for updates on our little Bean’s development. Today, I came across this article about controversy over Ricky Lake’s movie about home birthing. Dan and I watched her documentary several weeks ago and thought it was great. Check out the trailer here:

If it weren’t for the medical industry being controlled by insurance companies, I would opt for a home birth. Alas, in order save money we’re going to be having the baby at the hospital. Luckily, the practice we chose has several midwives on staff. We’ve elected to get care from the midwives, which means that one of them will attend the birth, not an OB. At least we had that choice, as many do not.

But I digress! Not surprisingly, the AMA has come out and released an official statement about how the safest place for a woman to give birth is in the hospital and how when a woman chooses home birth, it increases her risk of hemorrhage, etc. I say HOGWASH! Of all developed countries, the US has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates, and as Ms. Lake so clearly points out, this is precisely because of hospital intervention. The countries with the lowest rates are the countries in which home births are standard. What’s more dangerous to women are unnecessary C-sections, episiotomies, etc. I was so pleased to see that the majority of the comments under the article on Babycenter.com supported this viewpoint! Score one for the little folk!

This video, while old, is still totally relevant today. It shows how natural it is for children to mimic everything they see adults do, even the stuff we wish they wouldn’t.

For me, this is probably the most poignant example of why our society is so bass ackwards in that violence is so commonplace in the media, whereas there are strict limitations on showing sex, or even naked bodies. Even cartoons and other shows geared toward children are super violent. And people wonder why teenage boys, like those at Columbine High School, see violence as an option to solve their problems. Aggression as a conflict resolution tactic is modeled in almost every facet of our society. What a tragedy.

And I mean that in all seriousness. I’ve been feeling great. I’ve been essentially feeling like my old, pre-pregnant self, just with a foggier head, bigger appetite, less coordination and more gas. Which, since I feel so good otherwise, is totally manageable, and (dare I say it?) kinda FUN! I’ve been regularly feeling the baby move, which has been such a thrill. It’s such a great confirmation that a real, live human being is growing in there! Plus, I’ve been enjoying looking pregnant, not like I just ate a bit too much Mexican food. Finding maternity clothes without spending a fortune hasn’t been the easiest job in the world, especially since I’m not a huge fan of shopping. But I believe I’ve managed to put together enough outfits to at least avoid repeats in a work week. Another fun development is that I have officially succumbed to the waddle. I resisted it for a while. I found myself holding my tummy in for no apparent reason. I figured out that I was in the cross over stage between normal walk and pregnant walk. Now, my belly is just big enough that I have to swing my hips to walk comfortably. And boy do I swing them! I jut that belly forward and waddle just as proud as can be! Read the rest of this entry »

Dan just found this story online:

A giant study, which surveyed more than 13,000 children, found that using the handsets just two or three times a day was enough to raise the risk of their babies developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age. And it adds that the likelihood is even greater if the children themselves used the phones before the age of seven.

Uh oh, indeed. This is a serious problem not only for me but for perhaps almost every woman who is pregnant in our modern society. Dan and I chose to get rid of a land line years ago. My cell phone is my only phone. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to “limit” use. I also have a cell phone for work that I use periodically throughout the day since I’m on the road so much. We certainly can commit to not letting our child have a cell phone until over the age of seven, but to not use my cell phone? Nearly impossible! There have been lots of little adjustments I have made to keep my baby as healthy as possible, but this is really quite the conundrum!

Link to story

Picture used in this post by Max Shirley