Posted by January Harshe on April 22, 2009
This little peanut has been hanging out breech and transverse. How do I know this? Well, my first answer is I just ‘know’. My intuition has just said so. I am not an expert in palpation and I am not an ultrasound technician. However, I am a mother and I do have a beautiful blessing from God growing inside of me and that does make me the expert. 
Breech Baby
If you are the type of person who needs a little something more concrete, then I will give another reason. I have been able to tell by palpation and the baby’s movements. I have felt kicks, and not gentle ones, but more like football field goal kicker-type-kicks, in my lower left abdomen. This baby has strong feet and he/she has made me very aware of this fact. Also, sometimes while the baby is kicking on my left I feel movement on the right (no, I don’t have twins in there). I think this has been due to a transverse and/or breech position. Also, at the top of my abdomen I have felt a little round ‘noggin.
My first baby was a frank breech presentation. She loved that position and did not have any want or need to turn. We tried it all. The Webster technique, standing upside down in the pool, and even a manual external inversion (ouch!). Her little head was stuck. This was my start of cesarean sections and my journey towards my VBA2C and now unassisted birth.
So, it has been on my mind that I want this little one to get into a more favorable head down position. Am I comfortable with a breech unassisted birth? Ya, actually, I am. I would prefer a head down presentation. I do not want to have to worry about any complications that comes with a breech birth. I have of course read up on how to handle this if it does happen during my labor/birth!
I had another birth dream about a month ago. The actual dream itself was not a birth dream. It was one of those dreams that is all over the place…lots of people and places. At one point though, I found myself in a movie theater (one of my favorite things to do) with my hubby (one of my favorite people). The baby started moving around a lot. I knew in my dream that the baby was moving from a breech position to head down. In my dream, I told Brandon that the baby had flipped!
I awoke the next morning feeling very comforted. I knew after this dream that my baby was letting me know he/she intended to flip when ready! My faith has been strong in knowing this to be true.
Two days ago, the baby moved ALL DAY! When I say all day, I really mean it. Never before has one of my children moved so much in one day. This sweetheart did not stop jumping, flipping, kicking…you name it! Today I was feeling my belly and realized the baby has turned! I no longer feel the kicks in my lower left abdomen. Up top it feels like a booty/body! I am not sure which way the baby is facing (not good at figuring that out), but I am feeling less movement.
head down presentation
The movements went from strong, all over the place to slow and relaxed. Think of the movie Nemo. The movements I have been feeling went from Dori…fast, all over the place, sporadic, high energy, little crazy and are now more like the turtles…totally chill, slow, go with the flow, dude!!!
I am feeling confident and happier with myself. I am getting more intune once again and having faith that my baby, my body and God know exactly what they are doing.
Posted by January Harshe on April 17, 2009
This was a hard week. It started out with a horrible headache that did not want to go away. My adjustments were not holding either. All of this was due to lack of sleep. Our bodies are amazing, but they do need rest. God rested a season after the Earth was created! Well, my body needs to rest as it creates this life growing in my womb!
My husband went out of town yesterday, I was exhausted, still had the headache and just needed someone. I do not have family I can call for support and I was left feeling like I wanted a mom to call. Someone to listen or someone close to come love on my kids while I get a much needed break. My pregnancy hormones kicked it and I cried and cried more.
When these feelings arise, I start to feel despair. This is when Satan likes to creep in. He wants me to feel down, hopeless and fearful. I question everything including and especially my unassisted pregnancy and birth. Yesterday, this led me to contacting a midwife whom I like in the area. She asked me via email what my actual plans were. I was honest and so was she. She does not support my decision. I understand.
This has left me feeling like I need to go inward, not outward. When I am feeling down or upset I always go outward for help or to get reassurance. It is nice to have support and love, but that is different than not trusting myself. This pregnancy has been full of emotion and I am at a point where I either need to give over my responsibility and trust to someone else (i.e. midwife or doctor) or need to love myself, have faith in the Lord at all times and go inward. I need to focus on a relationship with my unborn child. I need to tune in to my intuition. I can not do this by looking to others, including a midwife or doctor. I have done so in the past and was left feeling disappointed and frustrated.
Last night I went to bed at 10 pm and slept through the night! I feel so much better this morning already. Sleep is key to great mental and physical health! So, this is going to be my focus right now. I am going to take time to relax, pray and meditate. I am going to turn to my scriptures and the Lord when I am feeling like things are crazy! Last, but not lease I am going to eat and get sleep. I need to be like a child…having childlike faith and listening to my body. When my kids are sick, they rest and eat healthy food. They listen. They go inward. Sounds good to me!
*An afterthought is that by getting in a place of trust and faith, I can then know if and when I really do need help and I can know when things are well and gestate in peace.
Posted by January Harshe on April 16, 2009
http://www.momlogic.com/2009/04/home_birth_advocates_baby_dies.php
This article was shared on an LDS forum I visit. I went ahead and read it despite the warning that it involved a stillborn death of a baby recently. I just read it last night and I can not get it off my mind. I have to write about it.
When I first read the article, I felt really sad for her. To lose a child and to have to deal with all this criticism. That would be more difficult than I can comprehend. I think the article is crap. It is very, very biased. No where does it state how many babies die in the hospital vs. how many die at home. There is no information what really happened during and after her labor. Also, I want to note that I don’t think most women who suffer the loss of their baby in an unassisted birth (though rare, it happens) normally go through this. It is because of her status and being outspoken about unassisted birth, etc that has made this so.
“But her decision to forgo medical care entirely — even after her labor continued for a week — is tantamount to reckless endangerment of a child.”
This is the fear inducing talk and beliefs that I can’t stand in our society. Many women have long early and even active labors when left to labor on their own without interventions like pitocin. With my last baby, I had prodromal (early) labor for a week with contractions 10 minutes apart. It wasn’t painful, but exhausting. I was in active labor for 48 hours before I went to the hospital! So, a longer labor may have been very normal for this mom.
“In the past century, childbirth has gone from being the single most dangerous event in a woman’s life to something routine. We can thank Western medicine for that.”
This is a ridiculous claim too. Birth was the single most dangerous event in a woman’s life? Are you kidding me? The BIRTH wasn’t the dangerous part, but the conditions surrounding the birth. I do have to say that I have read (just recently in Hypnobirthing) where Western medicine was also responsible for causing a lot of those problems (i.e. deaths). When births started moving from homes to hospitals, there were some places where death rates went up because the hospital staffs were spreading infections among the birthing women!
My goodness, you know why the infant mortality rate is high in our country (it still is people)? Because of all that medical intervention. Because all the premature babies born. NOT because of free birth. There is no mention if the baby would have lived if born in a hospital. There really aren’t any good details or facts in this article in my opinion.
“It doesn’t empower women to take control of their own bodies. It sends them and their babies into the dark ages of medical care – where women give birth with no medical care at all and face the very real possibility of death as a consequence.”
And yes, it can be empowering. No wonder women don’t take responsibility themselves (if they want to). It’s all FEAR, FEAR, FEAR.
This article didn’t make me afraid of my UC, it made me want it even more.
After thinking over it last night and this morning, I also started thinking about Western medicine and how it specifically applies to birth. I have many opinions on how overused it is and how much I dislike interventions and the fear placed on birth in our country. With all that said, I do want to say that I do believe it has its place and can be a good thing.
What it comes down to in my opinion is women need to make informed choices by educating themselves. I would never say that all women should birth unassisted or even at home with a midwife and never in a hospital. Women just need to have the right to choose what is best for them and have the birth she wants!
