Princess Piper's Boutique - New Additions!

Im excited to announce that I've learned to sew and I will be adding new items to Princess Pipers Boutique.  The pictures show what I've been working on.  I will be taking special request orders for size and fabric.

Posing with his Zebra Tie

The ties were initially intended for little boys but a friend of mine ,(Cindi) who showed me how to make these, made one for her dog, Bing and it was so cute I had to make one for my little Japanese Chin.  Isnt he just the proudest pup?

The Ruffle Onsie to the right was also inspired my friend Cindi.  The matching headband is an extra touch I added.  I love the little buttons, dont you?
More Ties:
More Pettiskirts:
Would love to hear your comments!  Still looking for feedback on which items readers would like to see in a giveaway!

Which Blog format do you prefer?

I have been using my wordpress blog for the majority of my blogging but I am considering changing because wordpress does not allow for advertisements, google firend connect, and some other money making opportunities.  Just wondering if anyone has an opinion about what format they prefer.  Comments welcome! Thanks!  http://www.princesspipersmama.wordpress.com/

Our First Birthing Story - Amber aka Pandapanda

Thank you Amber for being so brave and being the first to share your story!


My name is Amber, and I gave birth to my first son on 7/25/10.  
3:28am Sunday July 25th, 2010
    I awoke from a solid sleep, at first confused and disoriented. I began to roll over and slide out of bed when I felt the tightness and dull ache in my belly. There was no mistaking it, after weeks of doubt and prodromal labor. I laid back down to take advantage of any rest I could get before my contractions kicked in- this was going to be a life changing day. After what felt like a minute of sleep, I woke at 4:30am feeling the same pain I had felt before with more intensity and pressure. This was it, I knew. I got up to shower, with the help of my husband. At the beginning of my pregnancy, I had seen an obstetrician who had implanted in my mind that since I was petite with narrow hips, that I would not be able to birth this child if I went past 37 weeks. Today I was 40 weeks and 2 days. This idea came into my head and had me in a panic. My husband called my midwife about an hour after we had been awake. My contractions were a few seconds shy of two minutes and were coming every five to twelve minutes. Her voice was so calming so relaxed. She told me not to come until 4pm or when my contractions were two minutes apart. Over the next few hours I moaned, took warm showers, and did my best to keep moving. It took intense physical, emotional, and mental control to not fight my body when a contraction came. 3:30pm came and I couldn't take the intensity of the contractions. I did some aggressive convincing of my husband and we were out the door. I don't remember the beginning of the car ride to the hospital, only the part where traffic backed up for 15 miles leaving us with no alternate route for our trip. I hit transition while we were in the car, in 104 degree heat. Our AC went out at this point, so I drifted off into my own world and imagined sun basking on a beach. During this time I didn't feel the rushes of contractions and I became so silent that my husband began to worry. Poor thing.
    When I next opened my eyes we had arrived and my husband was helping me out of the car. I waddled across the parking lot and into the building, catching many stares from strangers. I didn't think it was funny at the time, but a full term pregnant woman (whom looks like she is smuggling a bowling ball) speed walking through the hospital must have been at least a little bit interesting to watch. When we turned the corridor into the Labor and Delivery unit, it took one look at me for the nurses to begin scrambling to get my room together. My midwife came to me in my room, while I was resting on the bed while my birthing tub was filled. She asked to check me. I was 8-9cms with a bulging bag of water. My nurses and midwife (we'll call her Blanche) were amazed at how far along I was with this being my first birth. Blanche held my hand and reassured me that I was doing a good job and that she was proud of my determination to bring this child into the world naturally. She guided me into the next room where my birthing tub awaited me. I was so unable to focus that my husband undressed me while my midwife supported me. The best part of the actual labor process was when I first sat down in the tub and felt the warmth of the water, the water pressure relieving some of my discomfort. My husband put on swim trunks and got in with me. I let my body float and just let my body and the water work together to finish the transition. Hours later I had not progressed much because I was so exhausted. I hadn't felt like eating all day. In fact, I had completely forgotten to eat or drink anything in the last fifteen hours. A nurse brought me some watered down apple juice and a few crackers. Shortly after eating, my labor kicked into high gear and I am certain this is because I needed nourishment. The biggest part of labor is having the fuel to run off of, and I had neglected this fact.
      I felt a sudden relief of pressure followed shortly by the most intense contraction of my entire labor. This one hurt. I knew than that my water had broken. My midwife came in and put on gloves just in time for me to tell her that the baby was almost crowning. Sure enough, within a minute his head was crowning- I did not appreciate comments about how little hair he had. The "ring of fire" as it is called is very accurately named. I took deep slow breaths while he crowned. I pushed and pushed for five minutes and my son did not budge. I recall saying "He's stuck! I can't get him out!". Blanche thankfully trusted that I know my body and had me get on all fours. My son still didn't budge, but the position change did turn him a little bit. I started to cry tears of frustration, and she instructed the nurses and my husband to gently lift me from the tub. As they lifted, his head slipped out. They laid me on the floor on my back and he rocketed out of the birth canal. The next few moments went in such slow motion that I will never forget them. Blanche placed him on my chest and I held him close, kissing his head and smelling his skin. Somewhere in the background I heard shocked labor attendants commenting on how big he was. They started to pat him and tried rubbing him, because he was not crying. This wasn't necessary. He had lifted his head to look at me, eyes open and alert before placing his head down on my chest. My husband began to get teary eyes, as did I- this was such a beautiful moment that every time I think of it, I begin to cry. Elijah was 9lbs 5oz, 21" at birth. The aforementioned obstetrician was so wrong. I gave birth naturally to a "large" baby with what I feel was ease. Shoulder dystocia aside, it was a perfect birth.
      There are a few things I feel are worth mentioning. Trusting your care provider, in my case a midwife, is a major factor in any birthing experience. On my forty week appointment two days before my birth, Blanche had told me, "Just wait it out, honey. I'm on call Sunday; you'll be in labor then." Sure enough, my labor began bright and early Sunday morning and I felt so at ease knowing Blanche would be attending my birth. There is only one thing I would change and that is: the number of people in my room while I was delivering. The nurses felt like they needed to instruct me on pushing and speak over my midwife and this caused unnecessary stress and frustration. In the future, I will make it clear that it is to be silent while I am pushing. I am a water birth fanatic, and all future births will be in a tub. My experience has pushed me to become a doula and water birth advocate in hopes that I can help other women have the birth they desire.
Posted with permission.  If you are interested in posting your birth story to this blog please contact us at princesspipersmama@gmail.com for more details.

Birth Story - Ava Piper

7 lbs 8.5 oz; 19.5inches

Mama and Baby first night together

Ava Piper 7/26/2009














Pregnancy –
I am a very organized person so of course about 6 months prior to planning to try to conceive, I met with my doctor (family doc not OB) and asked her what I should be doing to prepare my body and when I should go off the pill in order to conceive the month that I had planned.  Well, I decided to go off the pill in April of 2008 hoping to get pregnant by June in hopes of having an April baby.  One thing I did not expect was that my body did not cooperate immediately; my cycle did not begin until July, thus I did not get pregnant by June.  By June I was beginning to freak out thinking that something was wrong with me.  I took several pregnancy tests thinking that maybe I was already pregnant.  No such luck.  It turns out, my body just takes a little while to adjust from the hormones.  By August I was really frustrated and sad so I bought a puppy, which was not the smartest thing I have ever done because he was not potty trained until recently (December 2010) due to lack of energy and motivation on my part.  I digress; I found a few websites that helped to track my cycle and found some ovulation detectors and pregnancy tests that were quite inexpensive.  I began using the family planning method in order to become pregnant…and it worked!! I believe we conceived on Halloween of 2008! Immediately I was reading books and searching the internet for everything I could find on pregnancy and babies.


I called my doctor and confirmed my pregnancy at 8 weeks.  She referred me to an OB friend of hers and I had another appointment at 10 weeks with the new OB who used an ultrasound to determine the due date.  I was so excited and nervous all at the same time and had certain expectations of my new Doctor.  So when she walked in and said “Hi, my name is …” “Who’s this guy?”  I was a little caught off guard.  My husband was standing near me with his work jacket on.  My first thought was “You idiot, didn’t you read my chart?” Luckily, my husband has a sense of humor and said “Hi, I’m the Cable Guy, I’m here for the show” and laughed it off.  I was a little peeved and decided not to let that ruin what I was expecting to be more exciting than it had been so far.  So I got the ultrasound and the doctor told me my baby was due 7/27/09, I was bummed already because the internet estimated 7/21/09…oh well, I was having a baby!  I forgot to mention my appointment had already been cancelled and rescheduled twice that day which added to my frustration. Meanwhile the doctor was a little energetic and she kept buzzing around the little room we were in telling me to go off my prenatal vitamins that I had been on for over a year without any problems, telling me how to get ahold of her in an emergency, telling me what I could not eat, and all within a very short time. I felt like I should have been taking notes; she was talking so fast and continued to buzz around the room.  She kept saying “Hmm, is there anything else I should tell you?” Like I would know…  So, that experience made me question whether I should seek a new doctor but I kept my appointments for a short time until I heard from a CPS worker friend of mine who told me a few horror stories about this person.  I immediately switched doctors, and thus hospitals.  Unfortunately, I had to see all 5 doctors in the practice because I was a new patient.  I ended up liking two of them but they were hard to schedule with.  I saw them most of the time but the doctor who ended up delivering my sweet little Ava was the doctor I absolutely hated.  In the one and only appointment I had with him I expressed my desire to have a natural birth without drugs and told him my fears of C-sections.  He replied very matter of factly “If you need a C-section, you will have a C-section, and you will just have to deal with it” needless to say I was taken aback by his purposeful statement and lack of consideration for my uneasiness with the whole procedure.  I swear my husband was holding me down in the chair because I felt the urge to fly across the room and strangle him.  So that flashed through my head in the delivery room.  Otherwise, my pregnancy was fairly uneventful which was a good thing.  I was constantly concerned about gaining too much weight and exercising as to prepare for the duration of labor while also hoping that it would assist in my efforts to lose the baby weight after delivery.
Ava’s birth –
My due date fell on a Monday and no baby.  By Thursday I convinced myself that I was in labor even though my Braxton hick’s contractions were not too uncomfortable.  They were less than 5 minutes apart but not extremely painful.  I told myself that maybe I just had a high pain tolerance – yeah right.  So I called the doctor’s office around 4pm (their closing time) and the nurse instructed me to come in. As soon as we got there, the nurse took one look at me and said “You aren’t in labor, you look to comfortable”.  She was right; I was still dilated to 2 and effaced 95%.  I had been effaced 95% for like a month and dilated to two just as long.  Oh, and one of the doctors told me my daughter would be born before 4^th of July so I got really excited – she was 6 days late! So much for that prediction.  The fourth of July would have made her 3 weeks early.


Actual labor felt like period cramps to me so I disregarded them.  I thought I was constipated and bloated so I didn’t really think anything of it.  It was a Saturday and I was getting a head-start on my birth announcements. I make my own greeting cards and I thought this would be a great way to announce my daughter’s birth.  I remember talking to my mom during the day too and she mentioned that I should start keeping track of the cramps.  At about 6pm, I decided to go for a walk because the cramps were steady and ranging from 6 to 8 minutes apart.  It was a really nice sunny day and a lot of my neighbors were outside so I stopped to chat with them and casually mentioned I thought I was in labor so I was walking to see if the cramps would continue or go away.  I think I freaked most of them out because I was walking alone but I only went a mile very close to home and surrounded by neighbors that knew me.  I also called my dad to let him know I thought I was in labor during my walk so he wouldn’t leave town as he had planned.  My husband had consequently decided to take a nap just in case and when he noticed I wasn’t home in my normal 20-30 minute walk time frame he started to worry.  I was in the backyard talking with a neighbor that was kind of funny.  We ate dinner and I became increasingly more uncomfortable around 8pm.  I kept going to the bathroom because I thought I had to poop but when I sat down I didn’t go and it hurt to push.  I started pacing around the house, I couldn’t sit, or lie down, or relax at all.  The contractions were pretty steady at 5 minutes apart. 
We left the house around 9:45pm and got checked into the hospital by 10:30pm.  I was told to get to the hospital early so I could get the antibiotics for the Group B strep.  The nurses almost didn’t admit me because I was only dilated to 3 and when they hooked me up to the monitor the nurse told me “if your body doesn’t start showing some harder contractions, we might send you home and you can come back”.  I think something clicked at that point between my brain and my body because she came back 3 minutes later and I was having some very strong contractions.  They started the IV and it took them at least an hour or longer to get the whole process done and over with, they couldn’t find m initially wanted a water birth so this was the next best thing.  I was in there for less than 2 hours and during that time I dilated from 3 to 8! I was so excited but I didn’t want to get out of the Jacuzzi.  I did bump the back of my head against the side of the tub during a contraction. 
As a side note, I was making really crazy comments during my labor.  I noticed a sign in the bathroom about abuse put out by the Women’s Resource Center and I recognized the number first because I am a social worker and had called it several time for referrals.  Well I said “that must be from the Women’s Resource Center, I call that number all the time” and the nurse was standing right outside the bathroom door.  Later, after I had my daughter a CPS worker called me to verify some information in my case notes and I checked the number on the phone and said “oh, it’s just CPS, I’ll call them later” and of course, the nurse was standing in the doorway of my room.  I felt the need to explain myself to the next nurse to prevent a social work referral that was un-needed.
Back to my labor – So I got out of the Jacuzzi and was placed in bed on my back.  The worst position for birthing.  They also tried putting me on my side to push and it just wasn’t working for me.  I thought it was funny that they kept asking me “do you want to try pushing while on your side?”, all I could say was “I don’t know” because I didn’t even know if I could manage to move at that point.  I was in so much pain and I thought for sure the blueberries and cottage cheese I ate earlier was going to come back up.  Yuck.  Luckily the nurse reminded me to breathe and that helped a lot.  The doctor was called and I started pushing shortly after.  I pushed for 2 ½ hours!  When I saw the doctor arrive, of course it was the doctor I hated as I mentioned earlier.  So, in my head, I was telling myself “maybe he’s not the one, maybe it was the other guy” mostly to keep my cool and prevent myself from worrying.  He broke what was left of my water bag and I began the pushing marathon.  It must have been a change of shift at one point during this time because another nurse came in and the one I had in with me told the new nurse “she just needs to learn how to push”.  I was so pissed, I was thinking “wait til I push this baby out and then I’m going to push my foot up you’re a**!”.  Again, I brushed it off.  Then the ring of fire came and it scared me so I backed off on the push and the nurse scolded me and asked why I backed off.  I couldn’t answer her clearly, all I could say was “I don’t know” I wish I would have had someone there to guide me through and tell me that was normal.  So, more pushing and still no baby.  I kept telling myself “just one more push, you can do it” probably because the doctor kept saying it.  So eventually I started telling myself “maybe he meant one more after the last one”.  Eventually my contractions stopped altogether but I didn’t tell anyone because I was afraid to have a C-section especially after all that work.  I took a mini break and then pushed with all that I had, after about two of those mini breaks I had my little girl all slimy and beautiful at 4:50am. 
The doctor put her in my arms and I kissed her yucky little forehead.  I was able to hold her for about 2 minutes before they swept her away from me even though I specifically said I wanted them to clean her up while she was laying on me and allow us to have skin to skin contact for as long as possible.  The started cleaning her and weighing her and I remember yelling at my husband to get the video camera and take footage of the whole thing because I was totally out of it.  Apparently I had lost a lot of blood and a lot of fluids.  The staff looked worried and I briefly remember hearing something about my blood pressure being low (it’s always low).  The doctor wasted no time before her reached his gigantic (felt like) arm up into my womb and pulled out the placenta – thanks for allowing my body to work on its own.  And then he gave me a shot before sewing up my tear.  I never was told how big it was or how many stitches but my husband said it was really bad.  He wasn’t going to watch but said that he had a hard time taking his eyes off the whole process.  I was pumped with Pitocin while they were stitching me and encouraged to drink orange juice and water.  It took 2 hours before I was allowed to be transferred to the recovery room.  They told me I was grey and didn’t look well.  Well, they were right I was exhausted and went through trauma.  I could barely sit up, let alone stand up to get into the wheel chair. 
My dad and stepmom had waited all  night in the waiting room even though I told them not to.  They were so excited I think they forgot.  I hardly remember their visit because I was so exhausted.  I had the hospital bed almost completely reclined.  I look like a dying person in the photos.  Everyone was taking turns holding my daughter and all I wanted to do was hold her and snuggle.  I did get to hold her in the delivery room before they transferred me but I hardly remember that.  The nurses continually checked my blood pressure and I actually had to stay an extra day because it was still so low.  On the day they released me it was something like 82 over 54.  I kind of wish they would have told me how low it got earlier just to have a comparison.  I also forgot to use the bathroom after giving birth.  It was noon before I realized that I hadn’t peed since about midnight when I got into the Jacuzzi.  When two nurses helped me stand up I wasn’t prepared for a lot of fluids to fall out of my body.  I made such a mess and I was so embarrassed. 
Ava slept quite a bit on her birthday and screamed all night.  I didn’t sleep at all during the day because I had a lot of visitors and was excited to show off my perfect little angel.  My husband had to go home to care for our pets and he had to work the next day before his time off begun.  So I was left alone in the hospital to care for a screaming baby. I was determined not to allow my newborn to begin the pattern of sleeping with me because I thought behavior patterns would start right away.  I continually checked her diaper, tried to feed her and wrap her snuggly but once I set her back in the bassinet she would scream. It took 3 hours before the nursing staff came in to check to see if we were alright.  I was kind of angry because I thought that they would have come in sooner than that if they were so worried about my blood pressure.  I started using my alarm button more frequently after that.  The nurse suggested that I allow Ava to sleep next to me and it worked.  We snuggled the rest of the night but I still didn’t sleep because the bed was so uncomfortable and I was worried about rolling over on my little girl.  That was the beginning of almost 9 months of co-sleeping (I do not regret, by the way).  The next night I asked the nurse to take Ava for a couple hours so I could sleep and they took her for an hour before bringing her back.  Did they really think I slept during that time? 
Although I consider this a tragic birth event, the outcome is my beautiful baby girl.  I learned a lot about what I will change next time around and I learned that birthing a child is such an intimate event and I really need people around me who I trust to coach me in ways that my husband isn’t prepared for.  He was just as traumatized from witnessing the event.  Next time will be very different.  Ava’s birth will always be special but only because I have her to show for the challenges I faced.  I also have to say that I did not realize how significant the events that occurred in my birth experience were until I started talking to other moms about their birth experiences.  Most of them felt sorry for me when I thought most women endured similar challenges.  I knew childbirth was supposed to be difficult but it shouldn’t be too much to ask to be respected and treated with consideration and thoughtfulness.

Alexis - Introduction to a Home Birth Story

Here is a little about our pregnancy and childbirth, and what forms our opinions of a natural birth. While this may seem "extreme" to some, it is what came natural to us:
Prior to even getting pregnant, we realized an issue with Robyn's thyroid. Knowing that could become an issue when we decided to start a family, we had it confirmed by Bridget Houston, and began to strengthen her hormone systems. Robyn also started taking a prenatal, knowing that nutrition was vital long before a pregnancy even begins. In October of '07, Robyn's thyroid finally came into balance, and weeks after we suspected we were pregnant, only to find out it was a chemical pregnancy. Around Valentine's Day we had our first interview with Kathi Mulder in Traverse City, the closest midwife we could find that came to Petoskey (have since found out about another). Finally, on March 6th, we found out we were pregnant with our first child. We went and saw Bridget the next week, and confirmed we were expecting! With no intentions of having an ultrasound, we were quite surprised when Bridget asked us if we wanted to know what we were having. Our immediate reaction was no, but at lunch afterward, we changed our mind. Unfortunately, we couldn't get in touch with her that afternoon, and she was closed the next day. 2 impatient days later, we were told we were having a girl! A few weeks go by, and then the nausea started. With our cabinets filled with ginger lozenges, nux vomica, and sprite in the fridge, we tackled the all day, all night, what-idiot-coined-the-phrase morning sickness. At 20 weeks Robyn started bleeding, and we called our midwife. Turns out she was on vacation out of country, and I spoke with her apprentice, who assured us it was normal. The next morning, as the bleeding had increased, we got ahold of Bridget and she got us in immediately. Turns out her progesterone levels had plunged, which prepares the body for the monthly cycle! In our quest to find something that Robyn could stomach, we discovered she could eat Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits. As any good husband would do, I went out and bought several boxes. Come to find out that morning that the rosemary was causing her progesterone to drop! This event reassured us that our approach was right for our pregnancy. As we progressed further into the 3rd trimester, we were given a few tips to prepare Robyn for delivery. When we finally went into labor 10 days past our due date, Robyn birthed our beautiful baby girl at 9 lbs, 4 oz, and 22 inches at home in a birthing pool in our nursery. Such a fitting place! I gave Alexis her first adjustment just minutes later. We had her first check-up with Bridget at 6 days old. Mild jaundice, and the recommendation was to drink a hoppy beer! I couldn't have been happier! Then she said it was for Robyn. To this date, Lexi has never been to a medical doctor, never vaccinated, never on any antibiotics, eats organic, mostly gluten free, has a green drink (her power juice!) every morning, was potty trained at 15 months, and even says please and thank you! Her health care consists of regular chiropractic adjustments, and periodic trips to Hummingbird Health.
I was the first of 4 home births in my family. The first 2 were attended by midwives, the second two were not. They weren't unassisted, but my father (also a chiropractor) realized if it's uncomplicated, all you do is catch.
We are not sharing this with you because we think our birth is "better," or that it's "the right way to do it." We just wanted to share with you exactly where we are coming from, so you can get a better understanding. Does medicine have it's place? Absolutely. Without medical intervention, many people would not survive serious complications. What most don't realize is that it's the medical interventions that lead to the serious complications!
Stay tuned for the full birth story, coming soon!

Does Distance to the Hospital Matter for Pregnant Women? Part 2

Just sharing Part two to the BIRTH SENSE article: Does Distance to the Hospital Matter for Pregnant Women? From: BIRTH SENSE <bbcatcher@gmail.com>
Does Distance to the Hospital Matter for Pregnant Women? Part 2 Posted: 27 Feb 2011 07:44 AM PST In the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology article entitled Travel time from home to hospital and adverse perinatal outcomes in women at term in the Netherlands, authors concluded that women who must travel more than 20 minutes to the hospital while in labor experienced a greater risk of serious complications or even death to themselves and/or their babies.  They further concluded that this might have implications for women having home births but living further than 20 minutes from the hospital. Before applying these findings to women having home births in the United States, there are some points from the study we need to consider: The Dutch maternity system is very different from ours.  As explained in the study, women are seen early in pregnancy by a midwife, and are categorized as “low” or “high” risk.  Most women fall into the low risk category, and they will either give birth at home (about 30%) or in outpatient maternity clinics.  High risk women will travel to regional hospitals, which may be a further distance to reach than maternity clinics. Within the maternity clinic (which sounds similar to our freestanding birth centers) or Dutch hospital, the system is also geared toward viewing birth as a natural event, not to be interfered with unless necessary.  Only about 10% of Dutch women use pain relief during labor, because the prevailing view is that it should not be needed in a normal, physiological labor, unless there are extenuating circumstances causing excessive pain.  Women are left alone more in labor than they are in US hospitals, and although the midwives and medical staff are vigilant to watch for signs that intervention is needed, they do not do repeated vaginal exams, continuous monitoring, etc, on a routine basis.  This is a very important point, as many women will labor more effectively with less interruption by medical staff. The authors concluded that the risk associated with travel time could be correlated with the risk status of the woman.  For instance, high-risk women were more likely to be traveling to a larger, tertiary care hospital, which would entail a longer drive for most.  Since high risk women would already be more likely to experience complications of labor and birth, it is difficult to assess whether the longer drive caused problems or the womens’  health problems caused increased risk, or both. The authors admit that other studies have not shown that increased travel time led to increased risks. The authors speculate that traveling to a larger, more distant hospital for care might pose more risk to a woman than receiving care at home or in a smaller, closer hospital.  The authors found that “low risk women at the start of labor and delivering in an outpatient clinic under primary care [care by midwives] had the lowest mortality rates, and in this group no effect of travel time is observed. The highest risks were noted for women who changed risk status during labor and had a travel time of greater than 20 minutes to the nearest care facility. What parallels can we make to birth in the United States?  Here we have a system that does not view birth as normal, and nearly every woman giving birth in a US hospital will be treated as an imminent disaster, in stark contrast to the Dutch system.  In the Netherlands, birth is considered optimally supported with the least amount of necessary interventions.  A woman who must travel farther than 20 minutes to a US hospital is also taking increased risks upon herself by being admitted in early labor, because the odds are great that staff routines will interfere with the normal progress of her labor, setting off a cascade of interventions.  So what common-sense steps could the US maternity system take to apply the findings of this study to obstetrics? Increase support for home birth, including group meetings of midwives and obstetricians, to develop a system of seamless consultation, collaboration, and referral when needed. Increase the availability of birth centers near to hospitals, with midwives collaborating to offer home or birth center births, depending on a woman’s risk status and distance from hospital. While a hotel near the hospital is always an option (and I’ve delivered some babies in hotels myself), why couldn’t hospitals build “maternity homes” adjacent to their facilities?  If a woman wanted a hospital birth, but had some distance to travel, this would be a hotel-like facility where women and their families could sleep, eat, walk, sit in a jacuzzi, and relax in an attractive, quiet environment, until labor was well-established.  A nurse, midwife, or other trained attendant would be available at all times to assist in answering questions or monitoring the mother and baby’s status as needed, and full-time doulas would also be available to support the mothers. The most critical step that US maternity services must take is to change their view of labor and birth.  Beginning to see birth as a normal process, not to be interfered with unless absolutely necessary, is an essential first step toward improving maternity outcomes in the United States.

Distance to Hospital: Does it make a difference for pregnant women?

Below you will find a very interesting article about the cycle of induction and fast-tracked birthing.  I kept thinking about my own experience when I was reading this and it is so very real.  I was very uncomfortable at home and my contractions were almost always 5 minutes apart with some varying.  I had to travel 30 minutes to the hospital in my case and I was told to make sure I was at the hospital early enough to receive two doses of antibiotics for the Group B Strep and was very nervous about that.  So when I garbed up and they checked my cervix, I was only dilated to 3 and they told me "if your body doesn't start showing harder contractions, we might discharge you" and explained that would have to walk around Walmart (or something) until my contractions became more intense.  I think something between brain and body connected because within a minute (they gave me 3 minutes to prove I was in hard labor) my body pumped out some serious contractions and they decided to hook me up to the IV.  It's a good thing we stayed because I think it took them a good hour to get the IV in, they had to call a pediatric nurse to get the IV in correctly.  That seemed to last forever, but I'm glad I didn't have to have any pitocin prior to giving birth to my baby.  However, they did pump me full of it once the baby was out and they impatiently ripped the placenta from my body.  Sorry to be graphic but the words capture my feelings toward the unnecessary actions taken in my very real birthing experience.  I hope this article is beneficial to understanding the complications that induction can cause and many women (and families) may not be aware of prior to giving birth.
Copied from another Blog subscriptions from BIRTH SENSE (bbcatcher@gmail.com)
Distance to Hospital: Does it make a difference for pregnant women?
Posted: 22 Feb 2011 07:44 PM PST

A recent study published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology concluded that women who travel more than 20 minutes to the hospital while in labor are at greater risk of birth complications or even death. 
Dr Anita Ravelli, the principal investigator of the study said:
“In critical circumstances where the travel time is long, this may lead to complications for the baby including hypoxemia, asphyxia and intrapartum or neonatal death.”
This seems to be a no-brainer.  Anyone in “critical circumstances” who has a long travel time to a hospital is likely at greater risk of an adverse outcome.  This is why many midwives who practice in home birth settings recomend or even require that the home be within a few minutes of a hospital.
In the Netherlands, a two-tier system of midwifery is practiced.  Those who are low risk are cared for by midwives, those who are high risk are referred to obstetricians.  If the woman wants a hospital birth, but is low risk, she is often attended at home by a midwife until she is well into labor.  The authors of the study suggest that women who were higher risk, and proceeded to the hospital in early labor, actually had better outcomes than lower risk women who did not travel to the hospital until labor was well established.
What implications does this have for American women who give birth in hospitals?  at home?
The problems with early admission in labor in the US involve the cost of beds in hospitals.  Labor units make money by getting babies delivered and emptying beds so new patients can be admitted.  Most labor nurses get very nervous when a patient in early labor is walking the halls with a smile on her face, rather than in bed being “pitted” (receiving pitocin to hasten the birth).  Patients who are walking and comfortable are still assigned to a nurse who cares for them, but who otherwise could be assigned elsewhere.  This leads to the “cascade of interventions“, where one small intervention intended to improve labor leads to another, which leads to another, and so on. . .   If women who planned hospital births could be admitted early in labor and left alone, perhaps only checking in with the nurse when they felt a need, or at intervals to listen to the baby’s heartbeat, we might make a case for the benefit of early admission.  Unfortunately, early admission actually turns into an induction, because the mother is not even in established labor yet.  Normal labor may stop and start, off and on for days.  The cervix is not ready to respond to active labor contractions during the beginning hours of labor, yet women’s bodies are often forced into an early labor in order to “get things going”.
In my next post we will further analyze this study and its implications for American women.