Archive - Life RSS Feed

Geeky Nerds & Sundry

April 30, 2013 in Education, Life, Media, Religiosophy, Technology with 0 Comments

So, let’s define a couple words before we begin (for grins):

Nerd

A nerd (adjective: nerdy) is a person, typically described as being overly intellectual, obsessive, or socially impaired. They may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, obscure, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly technical or relating to topics of fiction or fantasy, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Additionally, many nerds are described as being shy, quirky, and unattractive, and may have difficulty participating in, or even following, sports. “Nerd” is a derogatory, stereotypical term, but as with other pejoratives, it has been reclaimed and redefined by some as a term of pride and group identity. (wikipedia)

Geek

The word geek is a slang term for odd or non-mainstream people, with different connotations ranging from “a computer expert or enthusiast” to “a person heavily interested in a hobby”, with a general pejorative meaning of “a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual”. Although often considered as a pejorative, the term is also often used self-referentially without malice or as a source of pride. (wikipedia)

And they both seem to described in similar terms:

  • Intellectual, academic, or technical hobbies, activities, and pursuits, especially topics related to science, mathematics, engineering, linguistics, history and technology.
  • Hobbies, games, and activities that are described as obsessive and “immature”, such as trading cards, comic books, fantasy and science fiction novels, television programs and films, role-playing games, tabletop games, and video games.
  • Interest in the fine arts, non-mainstream music, hobbies (i.e., collecting), or other “obscure” interests.
  • Heavy obsession with a topic that would otherwise be mainstream (such as a popular TV show or a sport).

Basically, a nerd is a geek is a nerd is a geek. I have to admit to liking or preferring ‘nerd’ over ‘geek’, but I think that’s just because I have a soft spot for Nerfighters.

I have jokingly and in passing referred to myself as a geek or nerd in the past, but I’ve never really and truly embraced my nerdtasticness. Likewise, I have never really tried to hide it either. Lately, I seem to be immersed in a rather nerdy world (yes, predominately online). I’ve always had at least one of my feet over the threshold of nerdland, but in these last couple years, I have fully moved in and embraced nerdhood. I give credit to my son, and some to my husband too.

Gaming:
I spawned a gamer or rather a game designer, as he’s not all that interested in actually playing most games, but incredibly focused on designing game concepts, levels, characters, and music for games. I, on the other hand, LOVE to play games (and I also have a bit of a desire to do some designing, especially in the area of world design and game writing: narrations, scripts, journals, packaging, and hints, because I hate most of the writing in games — hint hint for anyone looking for an emplyee). I grew up with a console in my hand. I was born in 1982; the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) came out in North America in 1985 and I am pretty sure that my parents bought one not too long afterwards. I remember watching my mum play hours of Tetris. Then I played tons of Tetris, Mario Brothers, and Duck Hunt; and I eventually went through every NES game that our local Blockbuster could rent out to me. I also played. All. The. Table. Top. Games. at my house and at my grandparent’s house when I stayed over. I discovered my love of crosswords and logic puzzles from my paternal grandmother, whom ALWAYS had at least two crossword puzzle books going at the same time. At some point I got a Gameboy and was made hip to the fact that we had the Internet on this thing called a computer — how rad! Then in 1991, again in North America, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was released and my nine year old self saved all my monies and bought myself one that Christmas. I was so fucking elated. My grandparents (I believe it was them, though it might have been my parents) bought me a tiny 10 inch TV to play my SNES on in my bedroom. Amazeballs!

Excited Girl Opening Present

So, the story doesn’t stop there, but a lot happened in the time between getting a NES and discovering American Online (AOL) chat rooms. I became a gamer and an online social network person who wasn’t even a teenager yet. I found out that there was a world of amazing folks online that I could chat with pretty much round the clock. And thanks to the ‘walled- garden‘ that AOL was, I could look up chat rooms by specific topics: video gaming, programming, hacking, class of 2000, Dungeons and Dragons, lesbians (um, yeah…), C++, BASIC, PRODOS, and various other random chat rooms. I was online as much as I could get away with. I wanted to absorb it all and take everything in. And it’s weird, because I also played outside and rode my bike like miles away from home and ‘normal’ kid stuff. In a nutshell, I discovered a world online that was, at times, more engaging and most definitely more accepting than my IRL (in real life) world. People who accepted me for me and without judgement. People who were honestly into the things I was into and who taught me all kinds of things that school was failing at. And it didn’t matter, nor was it creepy, that most everyone that I interacted with online was at least ten years my senior. I was 11 years old the first time that I hacked a payphone and made free calls; I felt like a badass and I was one, dammit! Discovering 2600 at the library via an IRC channel for queer hackers is a fond memory — I think that says something about me.

It was at this point that I became a bit of a computer gamer and less of a console gamer. In fact, I wasn’t exposed to another console until I was in 7th or 8th grade and played Sonic the Hedgehog with my best friend’s little brother on their Sega. And by play, I mean that I died a lot and mostly just watched J. play a lot. My next console exposure wasn’t until I married my husband in 2001; um, yeah, and I was still playing computer games then, but was watching him play Final Fantasy VII (“the greatest god damn JRPG ever made”, says he) on the PlayStation 1. I stuck with computer (mainly PC/Linux) games because as much as I enjoyed side-scrolling platformer games like Super Mario World, I really liked puzzle games and text-based adventure games, which were better executed on the PC. I didn’t revisit console gaming until after our son was about three years old and we bought him a LeapFrog Leapster hand held gaming system. He soon had a laptop and then we bought a Nintendo DSLite and a Wii and damn near everything since then (and in multiples w/ insurance, because E was breaking shit all the time).

One of my gaming loves that I wish I would have done more of and wish I was doing now was PnP RPGs (Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games) or tabletop RPGs. However, because my father is a heteronormative man (and assumed I was a heteronormative female) and was convinced that being alone with boys (the majority of gamers I knew) would some how lead me into a world of terrible things, I missed out on a lot of RPGing at a young age, you know, when I *should have* been doing it; RPGing would have kept me out of the world of terrible things I eventually found myself in, mainly because I wasn’t allowed to socialise like other children were allowed to (but that’s another ranty post all together) and well, when I was making out with fellow nerds in dusty basements or in bedrooms with the door closed (gasp!) it was rarely, if ever, with the penis-wielding nerds. I really like tabletop RPGs. I love creating characters, their back stories, and developing their personalities (even though most characters that I’ve made are nothing more than more awesome versions of myself or slightly skewed versions of myself, which makes things a little bit easier). Like, I would love to have a job where my main focus was designing starter RPG characters for folks or helping others flesh out their character ideas (hint hint to anyone out there reading who has the capacity to offer me a job like that).

In recent history, I have played a lot of Skyrim on PS3 (which I just absolutely love and was bought on the day of release for me by my incredibly awesome husband), Super Mario Brothers (Wii), Minecraft (Linux), Little Big Planet 2 w/ my son E (PS3), and my old standby Solitary (mainly played on my Linux-wielding laptop). I have also logged many hours watching and assisting from the sidelines while my husband plays through the Resident Evil and the Assassin’s Creed series of games — I like watching others play these games, but I’m not really into First Person Shooters (FPSs). And of course, I might have done a crossword puzzle or 50 and lots of rounds of Scrabble and Words With Friends recently.

Um, in case you want to start a game with me online using Scrabble or Words With Friends, find me on Facebook or start a game with fierylasirena. I sometimes have to skip a day or two of word-making, but I will happily play with anyone of any skill level.

Science Fiction (and TV/movies in general):
Because my mum is kind of awesome, I was raised on a steady diet of sci-fi (a tiny bit of fantasy): Star Trek franchise, The X-Files, The Twilight Zone,  Babylon 5, Quantum Leap, Stargate SG-1, Futurama, Mork & Mindy, 3rd Rock from the Sun, The Jetsons, Johnny Quest, Star Wars, The Transformers, and OMG, I could fill up an entire blog post on how the television played a huge role in my childhood. She also has a love for procedural crime/police shows and movies, so I was able to hone my deductive reasoning and research skills from logging many hours watching Law & Order franchise, Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, CSI franchise, Homicide: Life on the Street, Silk Stalkings, Miami Vice, and 21 Jump Street. Both of my grandmothers might have got me turned onto Columbo and Murder, She Wrote.

In later years, my husband has reintroduced or introduced me to lots of great things, such as: the Dr. Who franchise, Battlestar Galactica, the Star Trek franchise, Futurama, Monk, Psych, Criminal Minds, Columbo, and the Aliens & Hell Raiser movies. And of course, my son has picked up some great things all on his own, like Futurama, Psych, Red Dwarf, Torchwood, Warehouse 13, Alphas, and Eureka. William and I were talking about how most people who grew up being exposed to a lot of sci-fi are usually pretty rad, open-minded, and hopeful about the future.

Other Random Media:
I spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos with E since he does most of his research for gaming ideas online. We watch Let’s Plays, game reviews, game MOD reviews, game walkthroughs, and gamer related content like: Geek & Sundry. We also watch most VlogBrothers, Vi Hart, Vsauce, and MinutePhysics videos together. I’ve been getting back into TED Talks and William just turned me onto another podcast, Girl on Guy, which is hosted by Aisha Tyler. I just recently listened the fantastically nerdy geekery of an episode of Girl on Guy, Grrrl Power edition that featured Felicia Day (whom I totally have a crush on). As an adult, I’ve also started to find a love for comics and web comics; some of my favourites are: xkcd, garfield minus garfield, Penny Arcade, and what if? (which is technically not a comic, but so what).

Things that Get Me Fired Up:
And can we just take a moment to talk about weird, obscure, or nerdy hobbies and interests that my nerdy self is into? I’m just going to list some things, because that’s, you know, easier than writing complete sentences (the end-of-post-laziness is setting in).

  • Library and Research Sciences – I love to find things and would love a job sitting around finding things all day (hint hint to anyone needing to hire a research assistant or non-credentialed librarian) and well, I like to read and find cool books on interesting topics, though I have to admit to relying on the Internet more lately for my information gathering. I refer to myself as an Armchair Librarian, because I have no desire to go through a lot of the insane amount of college required to become a librarian; so much of the skills learned in ‘library school’ are innate skills for me and paying someone to ‘teach’ them to me again is not an efficient use of my time, energy, or money.
  • Maths – I don’t think I really have to explain this one. I LOVE maths. Maths are sexy and everywhere; you can not avoid maths. I LOVE logic puzzles and number magic.
  • Synesthesia – I’m a synesthete and I am really into hearing about other synesthetes’ experiences. I wrote a blog post about my crazy brain.
  • The Accordion – I don’t play well, but I want to be able to. I love accordion music and people who play the accordion automatically get bonus ‘hotness points’ (not that I actually give anyone ‘hotness points’).
  • Tea – I LOVE tea. Drinking and making tea is an art. I have my own tea ritual.
  • British English – Yeah, I don’t know why either. But, there are certain spellings or phases that I find more ‘right’ or aesthetically pleasing (except for spelling synesthesia like, synaesthesia and no, I don’t know why that one word bothers me).
  • Radical Unschooling and Education – How people learn, why they like to learn certain things or in certain ways, and how best to help them achieve their goals. How to make spaces constructive for learning to happen in organic ways. Proselytising the fact that children (and most adults) LOVE to learn and are naturally inquisitive; that all people learn best when allowed to explore their world as freely as possible and without the influence of external agendas. Working at a real freeschool or opening one of my own would be pretty rad; helping children in families who can’t or won’t unschool their children at home would be much more satisfying then the time I spent teaching at a public high school.
  • Childbirth and Midwifery – I’m a traditional midwife who attends homebirths and I talk about birthy stuff a lot. I am kind of absorbed in that world.
  • Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) and ZenTangles/zendoodling/repetitive doodling – Have you seen some of the amazing ATCs out there? I love making tiny pieces of art to gift or trade with friends. Showing children and adults alike how they can turn simple doodles into master pieces is a huge passion of mine; everyone can be an artist if they want to be one.
  • Crocheting – My mum taught me how to crochet when I was a very young girl and I’ve remembered how to do it throughout the years. It’s a great time passer at births and an easy way to whip up wash cloths, scarves, shawls, and other fun accessories.
  • Languages and Linguistics (yeah, grammar too) – My latest language of interest is Romani, the language of the Roma (Gypsy) people. Other languages that I have a lot of past experience with or interest in have been Czech, Latin, Greek, Spanish, and of course, English.
  • Magic – Not prestidigitation that would be my husband’s thing, but rather ‘real’ magic. Intuition, intention, energy, empathy, conduition (conduit + intuition), healing, and manipulation.

List of Distractions (started as a joke, but is truly representative of how I am easily distracted while writing a blog post):

  • editing my blog layout
  • watching The Guild
  • investing an RPG
  • trying to find new webcomics
  • playing Minecraft
  • reading up on suborbital travel
  • dishes, cooking food for my boychild, more dishes
  • being a parent
  • in depth 140 character conversations on Twitter
  • FACEBOOK
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation, which I was watching because W & I are going through the Chronology Project
  • various YouTube videos w/ E
  • Google+ Hangouts
  • making sure that Free Comic Book Day was still the first Saturday in May
  • investigating Gittip
  • Facebook discussions about midwifery care and midwifery politics (weeeeeee! imagine an emoticon of me gagging myself with a spoon)
  • …OMFG I am never going to get this thing finished (tantrum alert)

Yeah, it’s no wonder that it takes me two to three days to actually get a blog post done. Oh, well, I can’t say that I was bored.

And just in case you weren’t paying attention, I mentioned several jobs I would gladly take on:

  • world design and game writing
  • designing starter RPG characters for folks or helping others flesh out their character ideas
  • research assistant or non-credentialed librarian
  • working at a real freeschool – maybe as the librarian (oh, dear G-d, the awesome!)

And somewhere in all of that tangent, I was trying to say that I have recently been fully embracing my inner nerd. I hope all my fellow nerds out there are embracing their inner awesomeness too!

Don’t Forget To Be Awesome!

 

Educating Fellow Birthworkers

March 23, 2013 in Business, Education, Midwifery with 0 Comments

It appears that I am soon to be hosting my first educational class for birthworkers in the Pittsburgh area. My most recent adventure participating in birthworker education was a collaborative presentation on how to access labour progress without doing an internal vaginal exam (because who wants one of those while in labour?). I find it rather interesting that I will have lived in Pittsburgh for 8 years this coming July and I am only just now embarking on the task of educating fellow birthworkers. Hmmm…

Don’t get me wrong: it’s not like I haven’t been dropping information (mainly online) in an effort to educate others at all, but the concept of hosting my own classes/workshops or taking an active teaching role in other’s classes/workshops hadn’t really crossed my mind until recently. Yeah, I don’t know why either. Lame. Fail. I am sure that being incredibly, socially awkward isn’t a factor at all.

So, without further ado, I will be hosting a workshop featuring the amazing placenta!

Natural Attachment Midwifery: Placenta Study 101 WorkshopNatural Attachment Midwifery is presenting a Placenta Study 101 Workshop. Event details can be found on Facebook. This introductory workshop is intended for midwifery students, doulas, and other interested birthworkers, with a limit of 20 students.**Study sheets, non-latex gloves, and other supplies will be provided by Natural Attachment Midwifery** **This workshop has a hands-on component in which attendees will have the opportunity to touch, examine, and inspect real human placentas.

Embedly Powered

via Naturalattachment

 

 

Underserved and Often Invisible: Queer, Trans, & POC in the birth world

March 4, 2013 in Business, Health, Media, Midwifery, Politics, Procreation with 0 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about certain communities of people involved in the world of birth and parenting:
- Queer/Trans* (nonheteronormative)
- People of Colour
- Polyamorous families
- That awesome family of folks who result when those three overlap

I am wanting to feature posts on Natural Attachment Midwifery’s blog about queer/trans/POC folks, their experiences, and their advice to other people involved in the worlds of birth and parenting. I recently posted a round up of links pertaining to this topic and it’s been on my mind ever since. I’m hoping to share some people’s experiences who are not otherwise well represented, are underserved, and often invisible.

Topic suggestions:
- being a queer/trans/POC birthworker
- experience as a queer/trans person or POC giving birth (at home — mainly since homebirth is even more under represented in minority communities)
- perinatal care for queer/trans/POC clients
- how are care providers failing the queer/trans/POC community?
- reviews of media and educational materials (books, articles, studies, documentaries/films) portraying or discussing queer/trans people/POC and birth
- special needs or considerations for expectant queer/trans folks/POC & their families
- culturally significant needs regarding care for queer/trans/POC expectant families
- inclusive language and pronoun usage in the birthing/parenting world

Some topics/questions for queer/trans/POC birthworkers:
- positive and negative aspects of your career that you attribute towards your identity
- are you a more sensitive and qualified care provider for other queer/trans/POC clients because of your own identity and experiences?
- for queer/trans birthworkers: do you explicitly or implicitly share with clients that you are queer/trans? How has this worked out thus far?
- what advice would you give to other birthworkers (minority or otherwise) who are caring for queer/trans/POC clients?

Some topics/questions for queer/trans/POC expectant families:
- positive and negative aspects of your care that you attribute towards your identity- is there a care provider/place of service (concerning birth/parenting) that you have experience with that should be highlighted as a positive example for other care providers/places of service?
- do you feel under represented in media and education materials concerning the birthing/parenting world?
- general advice for care providers and other expectant people/families in regards to your identity

Some topics/questions for polyamorous families:
- positive and negative aspects of your care that you attribute to wards your family dynamic
- what are some ways the birthing/parenting world could be more inclusive of poly families?
- do you feel under represented in media and education materials concerning the birthing/parenting world?

I’m going to collect a few posts and then probably publish one or two a week on my site, which will also post them on my business Facebook page and Google+ page. If authors of submissions are willing, I’d like to include a short bio to go at the bottom of posts: feel free to include links to personal or professional websites/blogs. If an author wishes to remain anonymous (or use pseudonyms), that is fine as well.

My own experience, in a nutshell:
I’m queer; I’m a midwife; and technically speaking, ethnically, I’m a Person of Colour. However, to most people, I look like a poor to middle class liberal white woman and for the most part, I live in that social world of privilege. I’m not shy about who I am with my clients. I expect that at some point potential clients have at least read the About page on my business site, which plainly states that I am queer and that I offer my services in an inclusive manner. I won’t lie; this has been a barrier between myself and certain potential clients, but not as often as outright prejudice has been for expectant families in my community. In my own birthing community there have been midwives who have said deplorable things to their queer/homosexual clients about their clients’ orientation and about their clients’ queer/homosexual family members. I have had clients transfer their care to me and contact me seeking transfer or referral, because of the insensitivity and intolerance of fellow midwives, not to mention both the implicit and explicit racism as well. We don’t have enough midwives on the Western side of the state; the last thing we need is for some of the few we have to be bigoted. It boggles my mind and saddens my heart.

Questions, concerns, and submissions can be sent to Michele (fierylasirena at gmail (dot) com)

 

Wordless Wednesday 10.31.2012

 

{wordless wednesday}

link October 31, 2012 in Life, Photographs, Religiosophy with 4 Comments

The Daily Selfportrait Project

October 14, 2012 in Life, Media, Photographs, Religiosophy with 0 Comments

cropped-IMG_0743.jpg

I started my Daily Selfportrait Project 367 days ago, according to the number of pictures in my Flickr album. I never set out with a specific goal in mind or an official end date slated. My only ‘rule’ was that I had to take at least one picture a day, every day, no matter how I felt or how I looked. Most pictures have been completely spontaneous, with a few obvious exceptions. To date, all photos have been taken with my forward-facing Apple iPad 2 camera and posted via Instagram.

The project started because my Dear Other Half (DOH) wanted more pictures of me. As the project crossed the 200 photo mark, I thought about all the directions it could go. I decided to at least keep snapping away until I had a year of daily photos so that I could make a photo book for DOH. Well, huzzah, I’ve met that mark!

Without further ado, here is the slide-show of the current 367 Daily Selfportraits of my beautiful self.

It has occurred to me that this project has changed me in several ways. Instead of waxing on about each change with philosophical dribbling, I’m just going to give you a bullet list with things arranged in no particular order:

  • I’m in front of the camera more, not just with the project, but in general.
  • I have found that I have a smile that I like.
  • I’ve learned to embrace glaring imperfections, including, but not limited to, shitty lighting, grainy pictures, close-ups of terribly dry skin.
  • My self-confidence has surely risen :)
  • Sexy is not an adjective I would have used to have described myself with any bit of seriousness before I started the project. However, now it is one of the first adjectives I might be inclined to seriously use.
  • I hate referring to the project as, ‘the project’… I roll my eyes every time I type or say ‘the project’.
  • Hey bro, filters are annoyingly the shit. I absolutely hate filters, but LOVE using them. I believe that only one or two of my pictures is sans a filter.

And there you go! Once the book is all ready (probably not until December), you can can purchase one for yourself… If looking at a year’s worth of pictures of me is your kind of thing ;)

Will I continue with the project? It’s kind of addictive, self-gratifying, and has become a kind of ritual for me. I’m not sure how long I plan to keep taking daily pictures, but I don’t see a end to the project in the near future.

…

So I walk like I’m on a mission cuz that’s the way I groove.
I got more and more to do, I got less and less to prove.
It took me too long to realize that I don’t take good pictures
Cuz I have the kind of beauty that moves.
~ Ani DiFranco

 

Intuition vs. Evidence Based Practices

May 8, 2012 in Business, Health, Midwifery, Procreation with 0 Comments

An interesting concept, no? My first thought has always been, “well, that’s nice when it works out and when there are actually studies available”, but my second thought is always, “midwifery is NOT medicine, nor should it be conflated as such”.

I’ll say it again: Midwifery is NOT medicine. But what about nurse-midwives? These are people who have a nursing degree and have completed additional schooling to obtain a midwifery certificate; nursing and midwifery are NOT the same thing and neither healing art is practising medicine. Medicine, Nursing and Midwifery are all completely separate and different things and should NEVER be treated the same, nor should attempts at regulations be the same for each. All three professions operate from very different models of client/patient care, that yes, do occasionally overlap one another. (no citations here, because anyone can look up the definition and general scope of practice of each of these professions quite easily)

So, now that we have established that medicine, nursing and midwifery are all vastly different professions, we can move on.

If you are anybody even slightly involved with the world of birth then you have come across the phrase ‘evidence based practice(s)’. What does this mean exactly? In a nutshell: that one uses practices, usually in a professional sense, and modalities that are backed by scientific studies. There are differing opinions as to what makes a study qualify as evidence, but I won’t bore you with that here. Just know that the simplistic idea is that, for instance, a doctor shouldn’t prescribe a treatment for a specific ailment if there isn’t evidence, backed by studies, that supports such an action. There are times when things are done that there is no evidence to support AND do not fall into the realm of “that’s how we’ve always done it” — I’ll address these often ‘intuitive’ actions in a minute. (again, no citations here, as anyone can look up “evidence based practice” and see just how convoluted the process is, so much so, that it almost borders on what some might call pseudoscience.)

Now, a slight disclaimer before this next part: I know that other professions besides medicine and nursing encourage each other to enact their model of care/business in such a way that their actions are evidence based whenever humanly possible. I am aware that psychology and even architecture make use of evidence based protocols. And I do not think evidence based protocols are wrong, not at all; I think the more you can point science at something and things work out more in the positive than the negative, the better.

However, so much of what traditional midwifery, traditional ‘with woman’ care, employs is not evidence based or backed by studies. Mostly because the studies haven’t been done. And why haven’t the studies been done? Here’s a list off the top of my head:

  • Traditional midwives trust and believe in the inherent functionality and natural unfolding of pregnancy and childbirth (it’s hard to test/study this).
  • In the course of a typical pregnancy and birth, midwives don’t (or shouldn’t) *do* anything to altar the course of the perinatal path.
  • Midwives advise basic non-medical self-care and nutrition for expectant persons.
  • Midwives, as a whole, lack the financial lobbying power to have studies done to provide scientific evidence to support their protocols, some of which date back thousands of years and have stood the test of time. (example: placentophagia — see below for more information)
  • The world of medicine doesn’t want to fund studies that might support the midwifery model of care, for obvious reasons (yes, this is an opinion, but one based in reality).
  • And Midwives, unless their protocols have been influenced by medical-model training or licensing requirements, rarely engage in medicine based practices.

I haven’t mentioned one of the truly controversial parts yet! Some of the most powerful tools that Traditional midwifery employs are Trust in the process of birth, Connection to the birthing mother and family, and Intuitive instincts (both the midwife’s and clients’). Three things that are not easily studied in the same way that the effectiveness of a medicine on a disease can be studied or whether or not foetal monitoring positively effects the outcome of births. A very lengthy article written about midwifery and intuition by Robbie Davis-Floyd can be found here. The article explains and explores the unique dance of Connection and Intuition that a midwife and their client take part in. Midwives recognise that birth is not pathological and that its physiological nature is greatly influenced by a client’s state of mind, level of trust in the birthing process and attending midwife, the connectedness of a client and midwife, and the energy present at a birth (contributed to by everyone present). Birth is as much psychological as it is physiological and this is something that medicine (obstetrics in particular),  ignores, devalues or outright dismisses. (citation? read the article I linked to)

The interesting thing about Intuition is that, admittedly or not,  doctors utilise it as well. Doctors, nurses and midwives could spend eternity swapping stories about actions they’ve made based on intuition — actions and decisions, that in hindsight, often seem illogical, usually break protocol and are rarely instances that can be post-dated as evidence based. I haven’t met a birthworker of any stripe yet who has told me that they don’t rely on their intuition, especially when things don’t add up in the usual or scientific way. Intuition is a hard thing to really explain. Some people describe it as a ‘gut-feeling’ and those who are more religiously inclined even say that it’s G-d speaking to them. Whatever/whomever it is, it is an amazing force and I’ve seen it save lives. (nothing to cite here. move along or go talk to some birthworkers about their own experiences)

There is so much about the process of birth that we still can not wrap up with a neat scientific bow. And anyone can access Google Scholar to see the myriad studies done concerning pregnancy and childbirth. Part of me, at this point, just wants to stop writing about this, because I feel like this is about to make a turn in the direction of “throw hands up, exclaim that it just works and move along”. However, that’s just lazy and unhelpful. But, birth works and we don’t know all of the reasons why. There are things that we have learned to do and not do that help ensure it works and we don’t always know why this is the case. Unfortunately, studies are now done in the name of money and there is no money to be gained from studies that prove birth works and that interference is risky — the medical establishment can not afford to allow birth to be returned to women, their families and their midwives. (opinion, I suppose, but you can take any study and see the point of view it originated from. Studies that claim homebirth is dangerous are almost always set up from the beginning on a premise that they are dangerous and the reverse is true for studies pointing positive fingers at obstetrical practices. Remember, ‘twilight sleep‘ was peer-reviewed ‘science’ working for us in the past — enough said)

I mentioned placentophagia above. This is the act of most mammals eating the placenta after birthing it. While it makes perfect sense for wild animals to do this, to possibly hide the fact that helpless and easy prey might be around or for purely nutritional reasons, that doesn’t begin to explain why humans might do it. In my research, very little science and surely nothing considered evidence exists to back up the practice of encouraging mothers to consume their children’s placentas. However, this is a practice that myself as a midwife and many midwives and mothers before me have engaged in. Besides the nutritional and general hormonal benefits that are said to be true of eating placenta, there’s another benefit, a life-saving benefit, that I want to touch on. Postpartum haemorrhaging is a complication that can happen in childbirth. It’s often quick and silent and at times, can come seemingly without cause. Typically, this is a complication that occurs after the birth of the placenta and this is a time for the placenta to be put to work. Placing a piece of placenta roughly the size of a quarter or slightly larger under the haemorrhaging mother’s tongue or between her cheek and gums, allows her to absorb the hormone oxytocin from the piece of placenta. Due to the sublingual dosing of the placental oxytocin, the hormone enters directly into the women’s bloodstream and goes to work immediately aiding her uterus to contract — in effect slowing or stopping her bleeding altogether. I have never seen this not work to save a mother’s life, even when other measures, like uterine massage, are not used. The peer-reviewed ‘evidence’ is not there to back up my claims or hundreds of other midwives claims as to the life-saving qualities of the placenta. And for many midwives and their clients, when there are herbal tinctures and sometimes illegal vials of pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) at hand, why bother with the placenta, but I digress. (While it is true that in some states, it is not illegal for non-nurse midwives to carry pitocin, that is usually only the case for licensed and regulated midwives, who are expected to use the pitocin over other methods such as sublingual placental oxytocin — you can find this information by looking up the laws concerning midwifery in your state)

I have found it hard to preach to expecting and new mothers to ‘trust their instincts/intuition’ and not do the same myself. Some people might tell you that the difference between a good doctor/midwife and a bad one would be their intuition — do they take their scientific and empirical knowledge and apply it to the individual directly in front of them, tailoring it, using their intuition, or do they treat all their clients the same way regardless, because that’s the ‘correct’ and scientific way? The typical obstetrician in a hospital setting is not going to break the time constraints of their protocol and take things on a case by case basis — why would they? For example, if it *can be* risky to allow a woman to labour beyond 24 hours post rupturing of her membranes, then clearly, the default is to augment labour and get the baby out before time is up. I actually don’t blame doctors, as most of them have their hands completely tied by malpractice insurance and lawyers, not to mention that most of them don’t want to deal with a labouring woman, with ruptured membranes or not, for days at a time. But, we know, from countless years of observation AND scientific research that 24 hours is an arbitrary number, a decent number, but arbitrary just the same. What the science and empirical evidence points to is that women should be monitored for signs of infection and internal exams should only be done when absolutely necessary after the rupturing of membranes.   And actually, as a side note here, internal exams are so incredibly subjective with results varying between those administering them that I’m not sure why obstetrics insists on continuing them as common practice. I can think of no better way to cause an infection in a mother and possibly her baby, not to mention the obvious invasion of privacy and possible physical and emotional/psychological trauma.   Midwives know that membranes can reseal and that mothers can labour, quite safely, for days after their membranes have ruptured. (blah, citations — there are so many studies I could cite, both for AND against the 24 hours labouring period, internal exam frequencies and effects, and monitoring for infections, that I honestly don’t know where to begin — I think it’s best to visit Google Scholar or the Cochrane Consumer Network and see for yourself)

I would like to take this moment to point out that I did not set out in writing this post to point a finger at evidence based practices. On the contrary, I hope that all professionals use as much well thought out and sound science in their practices as humanly possible. However, I did want to point out that intuition is a powerful source of knowledge, which shouldn’t be ignored.

I have purposely written this post citing or linking to as few outside sources as possible. In an effort, to make the reader do some hunting of their own. It might sound lazy, but the exercise is a good one. If I were to thoroughly cite this post, amazingly, few people would do their own research, assuming I’d done it for them. I’m not one to try and make things difficult for others, but I have always encouraged clients and other people to not just take my word for things, to go and do their own research and soul-seeking. Because, in the end, even with stacks of studies in front of us, we make our own informed decisions with the help of our intuition.

The only time my intuition has ever ‘failed’ me, has been when I have ignored it.

**Full disclosure and disclaimer statement as follows: While I respect science, I approach it cautiously like anything else, much like I would a religion or dogma, especially now that practically all science is ruled by money. I have seen and been on the receiving end of ‘bad science’ (also known as ‘bad medicine’ by some) and I’m here to tell you that it exists. Spinning a study and its numbers to suit one’s needs is quite easy and done all of the time, by all sorts of people. I am a traditional homebirth midwife and in both my professional and personal life, I utilise natural remedies associated with herbology, homeopathy and naturopathy, as well as ancient and folk medicine and Appalachian mountain magic that has stood the test of time. I am not a religious person, so I can’t speak on ‘the voice of G-d’ claims, but I have been known to rely on my intuition, gut reaction or ‘sixth sense’ — sometimes, the universe causes us to just act, we can’t explain why, but things work out and that’s the important part. I do not fear or hate modern allopathic medicine and I make use of it in the forms of surgery, life saving medications and sometimes antibiotics and over-the-counter (OTC) medications. Does this mean that I am a professional who’s practice is solely evidence based? The short answer is no (and I’ve never led anyone to believe otherwise).**

—->I have decided to monitor comments on this post with a heavy hand. I don’t normally do this, but I haven’t the time for anti-homebirth and anti-midwife trolling or hate speech. And, this is *my* blog, not yours. This is NOT a scientific journal, nor would I ever want someone to conflate my personal thoughts with sound evidence for their actions. In an effort to keep things civil, if you think I am a quack, irresponsible or way off base, and you are incapable of expressing such ideas without vitriol, do us both a favour: refrain from commenting and just move along.<—-

 
Page 1 of 3212345»102030...Last »
%d bloggers like this: