The Year in Celebrity Natural, Water, and Home Births

From Celebrity Baby Blog:

Women have been giving birth naturally (without drugs) for thousands of years. In a time when elective c-sections are on the rise, there are still many mothers opting to give birth at home, in water, and/or without medication. Here are a few celebrity mothers who went this route and talked about it this year.

Read which celebrities had “alternative” births this year at CBB —->

December 26, 2007 | Filed Under Births in the News | Leave a Comment 

State to offer tax credit to rural health care providers

From the Las Cruces Sun-News:

SANTA FE—The state Department of Health has announced an initiative aimed at attracting and attaining more health care professionals in rural areas.

The department announced Friday it will be offering $3,000 to $5,000 in income tax credits to eligible health care providers in underserved areas of New Mexico.

“If one out of four people cannot access a health care provider, then the community qualifies,” said department spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer.

The department will start accepting applications on Jan. 1. Read more

December 22, 2007 | Filed Under In the News | 1 Comment 

Not just for pregnant “geeks”!

The importance of keeping track of your baby’s movements during pregnancy cannot be overstated. When we reach the point in pregnancy care when fetal kick counts are discussed, I remind mothers I can only monitor the fetal heart and movements when she is with me but she can monitor her baby 24 hours a day. Most often a baby who moves regularly is developing in a healthy way. Decreased fetal movements can serve as a warning sign and warrant an evaluation of the baby’s wellness by ultrasound or non-stress test or with a combination of the two called a biophysical profile. Read more

December 20, 2007 | Filed Under Information, Pregnancy | 2 Comments 

Midwife centres as safe as hospitals

From the Queanbeyan Australia:

BABIES born in midwife-run birth centres had significantly lower death rates than those born in hospitals, an Australian study of more than 1 million births has found.Contradicting claims from doctors’ groups that birth centres increased the risk of the baby dying, the study of all births in Australia from 1999 until 2002 confirmed the centres provide care that is as safe, if not safer, as standard maternity units. Read more

December 20, 2007 | Filed Under Birth Centers, In the News, Midwives/Midwifery | Leave a Comment 

Woot!

Celebrities back midtown birthing center

A group of midwifery advocates backed by Ricki Lake, Rosie O’Donnell and Gloria Steinhem plans to open a $7 million birth center near Penn Station in 2010.

The group has obtained a donated lease for a 7,000 square ft. former retail building on 30th Street at Seventh Avenue and has hired an architect. Next year, it will make a certificate of need application to the state, says Rebecca Benghiat, executive director of Friends of the Birth Center.

Since the 2003 closing of the Elizabeth Seton Childbearing Center in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, pregnant women have had few alternatives to hospital birth in New York City. The Seton Center, part of the Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers system, closed in part due to the soaring cost of malpractice insurance for midwives. The new center will not provide that coverage but require practitioners to purchase their own, with midwives and doctors operating as independent contractors billing insurers directly.

Ms. Lake, Ms. O’Donnell and Ms. Steinhem are helping to raise money for the center. Fundraising kicks off Jan. 9 with a benefit screening of The Business of Being Born, a documentary featuring the home birth of Ms. Lake’s second son.

Here’s why this article is especially exciting for me: After the screening of The Business of Being Born that I organized on behalf of sponsor South Coast Midwifery in Newport Beach last month, I meandered through the lobby listening to all the buzz. There was a lot of networking and elbow rubbing going on that night! I stopped in briefly to join a chat with Elan McAllister who is part of the film and this birth center project talking with Wende Zomnir (Urban Decay Cosmetics) and witnessed their brainstorming. It came to Wende she should get in touch with Gloria and refer her to this project… and voila! It was rather serendipitous as well as Elan was only in town for a musical she was producing (Hairspray!) and decided to stop in and support her friend Ricki Lake. What a small world where big things can happen!

Congratulations to all involved in the birth center project!

December 18, 2007 | Filed Under In the News | Leave a Comment 

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