Podcasts and the forum
You might’ve noticed the Podcasts have been on hiatus for a while and that is due to the traveling nature of Unestablished Media Productions as of late. My producer has taken the computer and audio/visual equipment on the road for more episodes of his primary project, GymnastTV. I hope to get back into Podcasting in the late spring and summer.
The forums that were previously linked at Home Birth Talk have been removed. The reason is the spammers were more actively posting than the membership were. There are many wonderful message boards available across the ‘net so I defer to those previosly established. Thank you for joining– and thanks for noticing they were missing! I will stick to blogging!
For your pleasure, another lovely waterbirth found on YouTube.
Welcome Henry:
Water birth at home
The birth of Isabel Jean:
Visit Elizabeth Boyce’s website: Earth Bound Birth. She’s a doula!
CO Kaiser policies exclude maternity care
I recently learned that Kaiser Permanente will no longer provide individual policy holders in Colorado the luxury of maternity care. I have been unable to determine if this is true across the board due to the nature of their website being not very user friendly. Their press releases do not include this information either.
At any rate two things come to mind. Actually the first idea came to contributor Lynnette Chamber’s mind and I am running with it due to my recent absence from this blog!
- Kaiser may inadvertantly be promoting birth as a normal life process not requiring specialized medical attention. At the most I am hopeful more low-risk women will be driven to reexamine why they choose hospital birth. It would be nice to see women “shopping” for their doctors as intensely as they do their midwives. If more women did that they may realize that obstetric care is overkill for their low-risk pregnancies. I bet more obstetricians would be relieved as well to be left to their specialties caring for high(er) risk women.
Second thought:
- Kaiser cancelled maternity coverage as a result of losing too much money to medicalized and surgical birth. In Colorado the cesarean surgery rate is nearly 30%, which means a huge loss to families paying $20 co-pays. This means they made a mistake! Instead of cancelling maternity services, what they should have done is hire midwives to staff the obstetrical units of the hospitals where services are provided. There is no doubt the surgical rate would be reduced along with the rates of mechanical deliveries. Patient satisfaction would soar and costs would be reduced.
Here’s to hoping they rethink their strategies!
Editor’s note: I have learned the policy is restricted to the low co-pay plans. Policies that have deductibles do not include this stipulation.
VBAC at home in Colorado
I thought I should give an update on the recent rulesmaking hearing that was held at the Department of Regulatory Agencies in Denver. Many experts on birth testified in front of the director, including an obstetrician who likened the choice to VBAC at home to choosing to drive while drunk! The implication is that women who choose VBAC are irresponsible and reckless. At any rate it is the consensus of those present that the meeting leaned in favor of women continuing to have the choice to VBAC at home in Colorado. From the date of December 15, 2006, the Director has 180 days to make her final ruling.
We’ll keep you updated!
Podcasts
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Or listen/watch each Podcast on demand:
Podcast 1: Midwives
Podcast 2: Birth Places
Podcast 3: Thinking About Home Birth
Podcast 4: The Birth Kit
Podcast 5: Interview with Ricki Lake