Thursday, July 16, 2009

Links - breast reduction, questioning your OB, and midwives as health care reform

I have multiple posts in the pipeline but my work is making it tough...sitting in front of the computer for 9 hours a day at work makes me want to do anything but, once I get home! And I'm leaving tonight to fly cross-country for a wedding. Which will be awesome, but will not leave me any more time for posts. So in the meantime I leave you with some starred posts from my Google Reader:

What one woman heard when she started asking her OB the tough questions (she has decided to switch - sounds like a good choice.)

FABULOUS post on why "you can't get there from here" - that is, you can't get from a medically managed first stage to a physiologic second stage very easily. You can't get from a Pitocin induction to an unmedicated labor very easily. And when everyone starts with interventions, of course any other way seems impossible.

Important things to know about breast reduction surgery and breastfeeding. I am not a big fan of breast reduction surgery, partly because I know what a difference the right bras can make, and also because I believe it's another way in which our society medically legitimizes the "abnormalization" of ALL women (small breasted, large breasted, etc.) I also don't think there's good information out there about its effects on breastfeeding.

Interview with a homebirth midwife who is doing research on, and developing a protocol for, interactions between OBs and DEMs. Super interesting perspective on the OB/DEM relationship. She talks about "birth story telephone" and why both professions hold skewed version of each other.

Radical Doula writes on the connection between health care reform and midwifery care in the American Prospect. Awesome!

My flight leaves in about 4 hours...have a fun weekend!

No comments: