Comments on: A West-Coast Introduction

By: Noble Savage

Noble Savage — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:40:42 +0000

I am thrilled to see a voice presented for out-of-hospital and reduced-intervention birth, and for the complex issues surrounding breastfeeding in our culture. Both are issues I am very passionate about. It is vitally important that these discussions are brought to the forefront of feminism as we work towards providing more choice and better outcomes for mothers and babies.

By: Amie Newman

Amie Newman — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:11:32 +0000

Aw, thanks Rachel! You’re pretty amazing yourself!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:44:24 +0000

Delurking to welcome and encourage Amie, who is awesome at RHRC. :)

By: Amie Newman

Amie Newman — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:36:41 +0000

Willow, thanks so much for your fantastic comment. I will respond in greater detail later but, as a mom who both breast and bottlefed and who has very strong feelings about supporting women no matter how they feed their babies, I not only plan on discussing in the video, I am working on another project that addresses this. I also wrote about this not too long ago: Breast, Bottle and The Beauty of Motherhood. My first interviewee for the video said something quite interesting to me. She relayed that she hated hearing breast and bottlefeeding framed as “choices” women make as if it’s choice b/w vanilla or chocolate ice cream when, in reality, there are SO MANY forces at work that allow for a women to feed her baby one way or the other. She went into more detail, of course, but the gist is that this is a societal issue not just a simple choice issue.

As for breastfeeding and women’s health, here are a couple of links to start out with:

http://www.rcm.org.uk/midwives/features/breastfeeding-saves-motherslives/

http://www.med.unc.edu/www/news/2009-news-archives/april/breastfeeding-has-twice-the-benefit-of-bottle-feeding-unc-research-shows

I may have been a bit quick to write that breastfeeding reduces maternal & newborn mortality without more context. I can go into more detail but you are absolutely correct that it has benefits longer term. Finally, as for religion/spirituality, I think I’ll need to address that at a later date but it’s a fascinating idea, though I tend to think it’s less about spirituality or religion and more about a combination of factors that may include personal faith but also so much more.

Paige – yay! Great to “see” you too, mama. Love to hear your thoughts on this discussion as well…

By: Ms. Booty Homemaker

Ms. Booty Homemaker — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:20:21 +0000

Fantastic to see you here, Amie!!

By: Willow S.

Willow S. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:22:29 +0000

Hey, out of curiousity, in your documentary on breastfeeding are you planning to discuss women who cannot naturally or safely breastfeed? In terms of societal implications, I’m thinking mostly from an economics/practicality-oriented point of view, but also a little bit about social stigmatization of women who can’t breastfeed.

I’m really intrigued by your mention of a connection between breastfeeding and *mortality* rate, as most of the studies I have seen (disclaimer: my sources are very male-oriented) deal with later health implications. It would be awesome if you could discuss that.

And now I’m probably jumping ahead eight or nine posts, so sorry ’bout that, but this is something I’ve been wondering about for awhile and you seem to be the first person who might actually have an idea. In terms of home versus hospital birth, have you found religion/spirituality to be a factor in the decision? Either the particular set of beliefs or the strength with which the woman believes?

By: Amie Newman

Amie Newman — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:56:43 +0000

Mikeymikemike – I absolutely agree – all costs, no matter what kind of birth a woman has or where she births, should be covered! I think the conversation around out-of-hospital childbirth from organizations that are working for federal regulation of certified professional midwives, thus expanding access to out-of-hospital birth options, focuses in part on economics because it is part of the larger conversation around health care reform and access. That is, if CPMs are federally regulated, de-criminalized, and are able to be covered as Medicaid providers we’d be reducing the costs associated with hospital births from unnecessary medical interventions and unnecessary c-sections. Homebirth is only “cheaper” in the sense that if all women with low-risk pregnancies had access the evidence shows that there would be a tremendous reduction in unnecessary medical interventions and maternal and newborn health outcomes would improve, saving costs as well.

Dawn, great to meet you too! Glad you enjoy RH Reality Check. I am on the road towards gaining my Post Partum Doula certification and believe that doulas are tremendously significant to this discussion. Are you a doula? I do think, though, that for so many women doula assistance during or after childbirth is not financially feasible just yet and that now is the time for us to lay the groundwork and advocate strongly for the importance of this kind of support for all women. As for health care disparities, one that particularly plagues me is the fact that African American women are nearly four times as likely to die during childbirth as white women – in the United States! Now! It’s criminal, really.

So, yes. Let me know your thoughts because I’d love to have a continuing conversation! Thanks for the welcome!

By: Dawn.

Dawn. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:24:21 +0000

Pleased to meet you, Amie! I absolutely love RH Reality Check. Looking forward to your guest posts here. I’m especially interested in hearing more about the “health care disparities on the basis of race/sexual identity/ethnicity/gender/age,” and about CPMs and out-of-hospital births. Will you be including doulas in your discussion?

By: mikeymikemike

mikeymikemike — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:04:39 +0000

I look forward to hearing more about alternatives to the hospital OBGYN centered way of birth. I hope you get to write about it and could mention different sources of information out there. (Most imformation seems fairly biased in both directions). All I would comment on the debate is that I do believe that all costs should be covered for pregnancy and childbirth (and everything else), I do dislike the recent concentration that at home childbirth may be cheaper and that she considered when making a decision. (No woman should have to calculate the costs of either model)