Why Not Home?

It is a beautiful thing when you come into contact with someone who emanates your own thoughts back to you, in such an elegant, inspired way that you want to cheer. Or cry.

It is these moments that bring me peace and help me realize that I am on the right path. I am making the right choices. I am gently and purposefully moving through this life that I love, in a way that makes me proud.

Her name is Jessicca Moore.
(Yes, two C's. I saw it in two different places...I'm 90% sure that's correct). :)

She is producing and directing a new documentary about homebirth. It is rare that someone with such an intense medical background, (a nurse practitioner, in the field of neonatal and pediatric intensive care) shows this much impartial interest in educating the public about homebirth. Her documentary highlights those in the medical field who chose to have their babies at home, facilitating honest discussion about the safety and risks of this option in comparison to the traditional hospital birth.

By focusing on hospital birth providers who chose home birth, I hope to bring a voice of moderation to the discussion. Together, we can move toward real improvements to maternity care in hospitals AND at home for women, families, and society.

It speaks VOLUMES that doctors and nurses who see first hand the way the hospital machine treats laboring woman would choose homebirth. They place themselves in a challenging position of receiving negative feedback from their peers in the industry, and being forced to personally evaluate the standard intervention procedures so routine in most hospitals. Jessicca states that many kept their choice private so as to avoid such criticism.

Jessicca speaks my own mind when she says,

I looked at my risks in and out of the hospital and decided I felt that I had the best chance of as safe and uncomplicated natural birth in my own home surrounded by people I knew and trusted. My family and some of my colleges disagreed.

When 1 in 3 laboring women who enter a hospital, emerge as a surgical patients, something needs to change, and it's not the normal birth process, it is the system that surrounds it.

This is everything I'd want to share, if I were as smart and talented as this team! :) Enjoy!




Follow this link to donate to the cause!

http://www.documentary.org/film/why-not-home

Introducing Barbara Harper!!!

I was about to PASS OUT yesterday (okay, it could have been the coffee) when I learned that Barbara Harper was coming to little 'ole Myrtle Beach to give a conference on water birth.

From the moment my tired, unmedicated, contracting little body melted into the warm water of my birthing tub, I've been in love with this woman and all the work she has put into educating the world about how gentle and safe birth can be.

Barbara is the founder of Waterbirth International with the overall mission to enhance the well-being of women and children during pregnancy, birth, and early childhood experience, and the specific mission to ensure that waterbirth is an available option for every woman.

She produced this gorgeous documentary (Birth Into Being) about the beauty and spirituality of birth. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this from my best friend in the world and I truly treasure it.

It's just COMMON SENSE PEOPLE. WATER HELPS.

It reduces pain, allows for mobility to achieve the most beneficial birthing position (the WORST being ON YOUR BACK), the bouyancy to relieve the pressures of gravity, the lubrication to help stretch out skin and reduce tearing of the perineum, and sooo much more.

The cost/benefit and pain reduction comparison between epidurals and birthing tubs are something every woman should thoroughly educate herself on before she gives birth. Of course moms do have to do the work to ensure that they are low-risk pregnancies, or those surgeons will be more than happy to strap you down, hook you up to monitors and cut you open one way or another.

I'm so excited that Barbara will be coming to provide her expert insight and eloquence to our little community. You can find the details here.

Friday January 23 6-9pm at the Sands Ocean Club at 9550 Shore Drive off of Lake Arrowhead Road in northern Myrtle Beach. Map here.

On Saturday and Sunday, they will be providing training for nurses, doctors, midwives, doulas and any other professionals who want to be certified in this beautiful art.

The Most Beautiful Thing

Cullen Peter Gerace
November 16, 2008
4:02am
6 pounds 10 ounces
19" long
13.5" head