2009: A birth blogger's year in review

A doula wrote in a forum earlier this year that I seemed like a “very angry woman”.  I burst out laughing when I read that because I usually only sit down and write blog posts when something infuriates me.  When I’m happy and joyful I do something else.  So, here are the things that zinged me up and got me writing in 2009.

JANUARY—Octomom gave birth to her babies on January 27 to initial press reviews of a “miracle birth”. I responded with “The Dark Side of the Octuplet Birth

FEBRUARYErykah Badhu gave birth at home on February 1, maybe I do write about some happy things. . . When Stars Have Homebirths.  I must have been in a good mood in February because the only cranky rant I wrote was on Stripping Membranes.

MARCH—the Obamas were in the White House and hundreds of people marched in Washington for GENITAL INTEGRITY AWARENESS WEEK.  In a year that was rocked by financial crises, many people started to see the merit in saving medical dollars by abolishing circumcision.

APRILDON’T LET THEM INDUCE YOU!  If there’s one thing we could do to reduce the trauma to women and babies in birth it would be getting this message across. (now why do some of my links come up in blue and others in pale green? . . . don’t know.)

MAY—May was all about going to Australia (happy again).  Despite all the love I got in Oz, I had to do a couple of rants about how Meconium in the Amniotic Fluid is managed in hospital. Our local (Vancouver, B.C.)  hospital had a $4 million dollar payout to a child injured during an induced VBAC

JUNE—I celebrated my 100th blog post.  June is the month when the Gay Pride parades start and our anti circumcision folks do lots of educating at those events.  NOCIRC leader, Marilyn Milos, got a nice acknowledgement in the news AND even the doctors started saying (briefly) DON’T LET THEM INDUCE YOU!  Doctors beginning to realize that inductions are a big mistake.

JULY—everything was going well until the CNMs stabbed the CPMs squarely between the shoulder blades. See:  CNMs Don’t Want to Play with CPMs

AUGUST—the good doctors at ACOG decreed that it’s okay for women to eat during the birth process.  Thanks a lot!

SEPTEMBER—a 19.2 lb baby was born in Indonesia which prompted me to write “BIG BABIES CAN MEAN BIG DANGER”

OCTOBER—could only be called the month of H1N1 hysteria.  The hysteria was induced by Margaret Chan, head of the W.H.O. who has revealed that she didn’t take the shot.   Reports from an anti vaccine meeting in Alberta.  A 4 year old boy in Vancouver had his penis mutilated by his father on a kitchen cutting board.  The Breech Birth Conference took place in Ottawa, Canada and we had a seminar with Lisa Barrett from Australia which I caught a snippet of on video.

NOVEMBER—I’m chronically upset by the bogus diagnosis of “low amniotic fluid”.   Low Amniotic Fluid. . . I don’t think so.  I published a conversation about ULTRASOUND PRECAUTIONS between Carla Hartley and L. Janel Martin

DECEMBER—A doctor wrote a blog post about LEAVING THE PULSING UMBILICAL CORD INTACT   This video of the (mis)use of McRobert’s Maneuver got a lot of discussion going.

That’s the year that was 2009 on my blog, in brief.  Happy New Year and may 2010 bring miracles in protecting our babies from harm.  Love Gloria

♦*.¸¸•✧•¸¸.*• H A P P Y N E W Y E A R •*.¸¸•✧•¸¸.*♦ ♦*.¸¸•✧•¸¸.*• W E L C O M E 2 0 1 0 •*.¸¸•✧•¸¸.*♦

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