Your Birth on TV?

From an email I received:


My name is Zach Marion and I work at Video Arts Studios in Fargo, North Dakota. We produced the series House of Babies for the Discovery Health Network. Under the guidance of master midwife, Shari Daniels, at the Miami Maternity Center, the show follows couples during their pregnancy and ends with the delivery of their baby. It was very instrumental in raising awareness about non-clinical birthing practices on a national level.

Recently we have been approached to create a one-hour special on unique birthing practices worldwide. We are looking for families who would like to share their story on camera from pregnancy to delivery. Ideal candidates are expecting mothers due in or around early January who are planning to give birth outside of a clinic or birth center. This includes homebirths and beyond. The point of the show is to raise awareness about alternative birthing options with the help of a midwife in the US. Hopefully, the special will create a healthy dialogue among midwives, doctors, parents-to-be and the general public. Stories that are of particular interest are those that include interesting traditions during pregnancy and unique backdrops during delivery. For example, a Hindu family who want to deliver outside, or a family of hippies who are pursuing a homebirth in a tent.

As you can imagine, access is usually the greatest struggle. Families should be aware that our presence at the birth goes nearly unnoticed. We learned to be unobtrusive through experience gained while producing 26 episodes of House of Babies.

Do any clients spring to mind who might want to be a part of this project? I would greatly appreciate any and all contact leads. Feel free to contact me by phone with inquiries or information. I am available during weekdays between 8:00 and 5:00 CST. Thank you for your time.

- Zach Marion
Video Arts Studios
1440 4th Avenue North
Fargo, North Dakota 58102
(701) 232-3393
zach@videoartsstudios.com

November 7, 2008 | Filed Under Information | Leave a Comment 

CA: One-third of births at Palomar Medical Center attended by midwives

From SignOnSanDiego.com:

ESCONDIDO – Tatiana Sanchez was 8 centimeters dilated and having rapid contractions as midwife Kelly Walsh coached her along.

“Largo y duramente! Largo y duramente!” Walsh said, urging Sanchez to push her baby out with strong, sustained attempts.

“Wait for the contraction,” a nurse added. “There you go, more like that.”

Walsh is one of 15 certified nurse-midwives on staff at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido. More than merely coaches, midwives serve as a mother’s gentle, knowledgeable guide from pregnancy to birth. Midwives offer prenatal care in one of five Neighborhood Healthcare clinics, attend the birth and provide postpartum care.

A midwife is on staff in the hospital’s birth center 24 hours a day, usually in 12-hour shifts. At times, a woman’s first birth can take up to 12 hours, Walsh said.

“We have some incredibly stressful days,” she said. “Last Monday I didn’t sit down for more than five minutes. I think I had five deliveries that day.”

Candace Curley, regional representative for the San Diego chapter of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, said there are 75 certified nurse-midwives practicing in San Diego County, about 40 to 45 of whom attend births. The county has one male nurse-midwife, based at Camp Pendleton, Curley said.

About 1,400 of the 4,200 births at Palomar Medical Center last year were attended by midwives instead of physicians. Midwives typically see those with little or no health insurance.

“The people that the midwives see are Medi-Cal patients,” Walsh said. “I know at other hospitals the midwives can see a private insurance patient.” Midwives typically make 65 percent as much as obstetricians, about $75,000 to $100,000 per year, or $55 to $60 an hour, Curley said.

Escondido resident Nadia Ventura said the midwife attending her delivery Oct. 6 was just as good as a doctor.

“She helped me, told me everything would go good and would be easy,” said Ventura, 27, clutching her newborn son, Isaac Sanchez. “She would say, ‘Don’t give up, don’t give up, everything will be all right.’

“I think it’s almost the same thing (as an obstetrician),” Ventura said. “A midwife is skilled. If there is a problem she can check with the doctor. … I feel confident with her.”

Nurse-midwives must have a bachelor’s degree in nursing, then obtain a two-year certificate in midwifery. Most midwives at Palomar Medical Center, including Walsh, have master’s degrees.

Sarah Starling, a midwife-in-training at Palomar Medical Center, delivered a baby Oct. 6 with Walsh’s guidance.

“I have a lot of respect for the midwives that I’ve seen and worked with,” said Starling, a labor and delivery nurse.

The hospital started using midwives in 1996. Susan Bass, a nursing professor at San Diego State University, has worked as a midwife at Palomar Medical Center for five years. She started there as a nurse’s aide in the 1970s after obtaining her license as a registered nurse through Palomar College.

Bass said she had longed to be a midwife since her daughter’s birth in the ’70s.

“It was back in the time when midwives were looked at very differently … as home birth midwives,” Bass said. “We refer to them a lot of times as the Birkenstocks midwife – the long dresses, long hair, much more earthy.”

Though the educational requirements are more stringent for today’s midwives, Bass said public perception hasn’t necessarily kept up with the profession.

“When you say midwife, they sort of think, ‘Oh, somebody’s going to do these deliveries at home,’ ” Bass said. “It’s still thought of as counterculture.”

Most midwives suggest natural, healthy birth options, Walsh said.

“For the most part we would prefer to use the (least) intervention possible – pain medication or internal fetal monitoring,” she said. “If you’re stuck in bed, your pain is probably going to be more intense, but if you can get out of bed and move around a little bit, the pain might not be that bad. … What can we do instead of just jumping to a Caesarean section?”

Midwives are trained to look for complications, such as toxemia, in which case an obstetrician or other attending physician would be called in to take over.

Like obstetricians, midwives know to let pain-induced insults and expletives roll off their backs.

“It would be so easy to just kind of get upset at the experience and be annoyed with her,” Walsh said. “Instead, we really work with her and provide compassion and reassure her that it’s a normal process and she’s doing a great job.”

When the pain is gone and women are left in charge of a new life, their transformation is remarkable, Bass said.

Giving birth can have a profound effect on a woman who has suffered physical or sexual abuse, Bass said.

“Labor and birth can be a really healing process, because now (their) body is working the way it’s supposed to be working,” Bass said. “That’s one of the most rewarding things … to see how it empowers them.”

October 18, 2008 | Filed Under Hospitals, Midwives/Midwifery | 3 Comments 

Send a letter and support midwives

Get your limited edition postage stamps promoting midwifery from Stamps.com!  Follow this link to see the four different designs celebrating midwifery.  Thanks to one of my favorite clients (hello Pamela!) for sending this to me.

October 11, 2008 | Filed Under Blogging | 3 Comments 

Happy Midwives Week!

October 5 - 11 is National Midwifery Week in the US– but let’s not stop there, let’s celebrate midwives around the world!  My celebration kicked off with the early morning water birth of a healthy baby boy!

You can read more about National Midwifery Week at the American College of Nurse-Midwives website.

October 6, 2008 | Filed Under In the News, Midwives/Midwifery | Leave a Comment 

KS: A rising birth place

From Hutchinson News:

YODER - In the middle of the night, when the clip-clop of horses’ hooves is heard turning into the driveway at 2913 E. Red Rock Road, it can only mean one thing: A baby will soon arrive in the world.

In this Amish community, the driveway leads to a gray brick building that blends in with the other homes on the edge of town.

A simple sign identifies the house as Yoder’s Birth and Women’s Health Center. It’s here, over the past four years, where 93 babies have been born in one of two rooms that look more like comfortable bed-and-breakfast retreats than hospital rooms, complete with private deep Jacuzzi baths for mothers who choose to soak during labor.

Nationally, the trend toward birthing centers and the use of midwives continues to grow.

According to the American Association of Birthing Centers, there were 125 birthing centers in 1984; that number grew to 178 by 2006.

Additionally, the American College of Nurse Midwifes reported that more than 10 percent of the more than 4 million U.S. births were attended by certified midwives.

In Kansas, the trend toward the use of midwives was recognized as early as 1997, when the Kansas Department of Health and Environment issued a report on birthing trends.

The report indicated that from 1995 to 1998 doctors attended 2 percent fewer births, while midwives attended 1.3 percent more births.

At Yoder, babies come into the world with the smell of cake baking in the oven and the help of Lois Yoder and Angel Schmutz, both certified nurse-midwives.

The center is only one of three in Kansas; the others are in Kansas City and Topeka.

Ten Amish and Mennonite churches in Reno County dreamed the center into reality, and a board of directors from the churches oversees the facility. It was built with the help of a “frolic,” an Amish term for an all-volunteer, all-day gathering in which barns are raised or other big projects are completed.

One-third of the families served are Amish, two-thirds are from surrounding communities and some expectant mothers drive two hours to the center.

“They come because they want a more natural birth and a say in their health care,” Schmutz said. “We believe labor and pregnancy is a family matter. We provide the education and let them make decisions and support them in it.”

The service is not only for obstetrics, but also for well woman exams.

Only low-risk pregnancies, however, are accepted. Narcotics and IVs are available, but few request them, and every safety precaution is taken. “We are always watching and monitoring variations of normal,” Yoder said.

So far, they have detected problems early enough to transport a mother by car, either to the Lyons hospital, where the center has privileges to deliver the baby, or to Wichita.

The entire cost from prenatal care to birth is about $4,000, Schmutz said.

Maria Grace Yoder was one of the center’s most recent arrivals, coming from a different branch of the Yoder family than Lois. Maria was born Sept. 23, about 10 minutes after her parents, John and Renita Yoder, Arlington, arrived at the center.

“It’s not unusual to have quick deliveries here,” said Lois Yoder. While in labor, the midwives are in contact with the mother by phone, but sometimes most of the labor is done at home.

During prenatal visits, the mothers-to-be chart their own weight gain and are trained to check their urine for protein levels. Fathers are very involved, so evening office visits are scheduled to make it more convenient for them to attend.

John Yoder cut the umbilical cord at Maria’s birth, just as he did two years ago when their son, Jeremy, was born at the center. He declined, however, to catch his daughter as she entered the world.

“It happened so fast,” John Yoder said of the birth.

So fast the midwives had to delay their traditional cake baking, which when completed is given to each family that uses the center.”I appreciate the care they give. It’s professional. They really care. We aren’t rushed through, but are treated like a person. That’s important,” John Yoder said.

October 5, 2008 | Filed Under Birth Centers, Midwives/Midwifery | 1 Comment 

← Previous Page — Next Page →