I have decided to start every post with a fact of some sort.
Did you know that using a pacifier with a baby before breastfeeding has been fully established (6 weeks give or take) can reduce supply, cause nipple confusion or even poor weight gain in extreme cases. They should be avoided until that point because babies nursing on demand for the first 6 weeks establishes a strong milk supply... I believe that early introduction of pacifiers or feeding schedules is one of the reasons why so many women have supply issues causing them to abandon nursing early. (only a very very small percentage of women cannot produce enough milk)
I met with an old friend who is now a doctor this week. It was a wonderful visit with his family. While chatting about my interests I was asked why I did not pursue a career as a labour and delivery nurse if becoming a midwife was not feasible. While my head said something stuck up about the issues with the medical birth model filled with unnecessary management and intervention... my mouth respectfully said that I preferred to remain on the holistic side of birth and I was not as interested in working with known high risk or high intervention births. I said that I would prefer a more natural side of birth that midwifery or Doula training would allow.
Well... I have not been able to stop thinking about it ever since.
I feel that I am somewhat of an advocate. I am passionate about trusting our bodies and good food, respect for all and striving for a peaceful planet. I tend to 'share' that...well... lots.
Apparently though... I have issues with putting my money where my mouth is.
I do not have a huge amount of trust in the medical model of treatment for many things. I do not agree that a pill should be taken if food and lifestyle adjustments can remedy an ailment nor that high risk procedures should take place unless the patient is fully informed and has had the opportunity to try lower intervention or holistic routes if they so desire.
I do not think that birth is a dangerous emergency that must be managed, I think that in far more than the majority of births it is, can, or should be as normal and natural as getting the baby in there in the first place.
I obviously have issues with aspects of the system... I knew this all along. Yet I self righteously stood on my side of the fence with my eyebrow raised and hand on my hip. This is what I could not stop thinking about.
Then I started thinking about the birth stories I had heard from friends, family, read online and thinking about how they could have been improved.
What about instead of leaving a young mother alone for hours, scared of birth completely alone, someone took the time to explain what their body was doing, how the contractions were moving the baby down and that the easiest way to reduce the discomfort is to relax and move with them rather than tensing and bracing against them. Or when a mother is close to losing the ability to cope, offering to help her onto a birthing ball or into the shower rather than calling for the narcotics. Or even something as simple as waiting until between contractions before asking questions.
These things are all easily done by a nurse. They are also HUGE opportunities to empower a woman so she may have a more positive and safe birth experience.
How can I sit on my high horse expecting the medical ideals to shift (so our catastrophic c-section rate and infant/mother mortality rates can improve)... without doing something about it. As long as people with an innate confidence in our bodies ability to function, birth, and heal avoid the medical system. It will only get worse.
So, I have made a decision to consciously be the change that I want to see. I will apply to the RN program here in the Valley when my transcript gets here. The waiting list is 2 years long, so while I feel at the moment like I did a cannon ball, I really just dipped a toe in. As a bull headed alternative thinker... I know it will be extremely difficult to keep my mouth shut at times... but self discipline is such a huge huge skill and talent that I would love to master. At the same time though... I keep hearing about these holistic minded nurses out there that everybody loves and do a wonderful job, so it must be possible. At least I hope it is.
Whether Nursing actually pans out or not, I feel like I made a break through. I feel like the world got a little bit more sunshiny when I took some responsibility for my own issues and found a solution.
With all the problems with the world, there are opportunities to share and empower and improve through love, trust, following our instincts and lifting people up.
