Passion
10:06 AM Edit This 3 Comments »
I can't remember being as passionate about things in the past as I am now. I love the feeling, though I am working on tempering them with compassion and tolerance. To me, my developing interests in sustainability, food, and childbirth are all connected with one another. When I think about childbirth, I naturally think about health, the food a woman consumes and how it affects her growing baby, and how the choices during her pregnancy, labor, and delivery will have an effect on her family; and ultimately, how people perceive these things around the world. For example, the more people that choose to labor and deliver naturally, the more that doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies may take notice (we can hope). The more women that choose/attempt to breastfeed, the more accepted it will become and women may stop feeling like they have to nurse their babies in fitting rooms and public bathrooms.
There's one speaker in "Pregnant In America" that describes the c-section rate in America: 30 years ago, the c-section rate was 7% in the US. Today, it is 30% (and much over in some hospitals). She asks, "What has changed in those 30 years? The documentary then cuts to another scene, so the speaker does not answer her own question, but in my opinion (and not that I have an credentials to be arguing or defending this opinion), it's the food that we eat - or like Michael Pollan describes it: The "food-like" substances that we eat, because the processed foods that we buy in the grocery these days cannot even be called food; they are so full of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) that they no longer resemble real food ... you know, vegetables, grains, and generally things that grow in the ground?
I don't mean to talk about just c-sections; the rate of interventions during birth is higher, too, which some call the "cascade of interventions." The use of pitocin ("fake oxytocin" - the "love" hormone) during labor increases the chances that a woman will have a c-section: the pitocin makes those contractions stronger, which lowers baby's heart rate. Doctors get worried about that heart rate and suggest a c-section. Who wants to argue about your baby's heart rate? No one. So the woman gets a c-section. And why do women get pitocin in the first place? To speed up labor.
The US is 28th on the list of infant mortality in the entire world. A great nation? In a lot of ways, yes ... but an exceedingly unhealthy nation that is eating itself to death. Think about it: obesity, heart disease, heart attacks, cancer. Genetics does play a role in these diseases (call me cold-hearted, but I still refuse to accept obesity as a disease), but they are so much more prevalent today than 100 years ago, and what has changed? Our food. There are cultures around the world that eat meat and fatty foods, but their foods are not injected with hormones, modified with high fructose corn syrup, or grown with pesticides, and their rates of these diseases are much lower.
With such unhealthy eating habits (that many people either just don't know about, or they refuse to acknowledge ... though I realize there is the issue of cost, and I just don't know what to make of that at this point), is it any wonder that our c-section rate has jumped so much in the past 40 years? It makes perfect sense to me! Which is why I am trying to be healthier for myself, my family, and my future children. I know there are those that will "defend" c-sections and say that their baby is just fine and they don't know what the big deal is. Don't get me wrong - c-sections are an amazing thing and they have saved a lot of babies! But the bottom line is that c-sections are not natural and they're not how babies were meant to be born. Maybe some people don't care that the rate of c-sections has risen so much, but I think it says a lot about our health and our attitudes toward the environment and the food that we eat.
So, that's how I see all of them connected, and I'm doing my best to learn, read, and listen to everyone and everything I can, so I can try to make a difference. Isn't that all most of us are trying to do on a daily basis anyway? Whether you're trying to be happier (which, as a result, affects those around you), raising a child, starting a club, growing a garden, choosing one food over another - whatever it is, I feel like that's the underlying objective. That's what I'm trying to do, at least, now that I've found my passion. One day and one choice at a time.
This is just my opinion. Others welcome ... just please try not to be snarky. :o)
There's one speaker in "Pregnant In America" that describes the c-section rate in America: 30 years ago, the c-section rate was 7% in the US. Today, it is 30% (and much over in some hospitals). She asks, "What has changed in those 30 years? The documentary then cuts to another scene, so the speaker does not answer her own question, but in my opinion (and not that I have an credentials to be arguing or defending this opinion), it's the food that we eat - or like Michael Pollan describes it: The "food-like" substances that we eat, because the processed foods that we buy in the grocery these days cannot even be called food; they are so full of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) that they no longer resemble real food ... you know, vegetables, grains, and generally things that grow in the ground?
I don't mean to talk about just c-sections; the rate of interventions during birth is higher, too, which some call the "cascade of interventions." The use of pitocin ("fake oxytocin" - the "love" hormone) during labor increases the chances that a woman will have a c-section: the pitocin makes those contractions stronger, which lowers baby's heart rate. Doctors get worried about that heart rate and suggest a c-section. Who wants to argue about your baby's heart rate? No one. So the woman gets a c-section. And why do women get pitocin in the first place? To speed up labor.
The US is 28th on the list of infant mortality in the entire world. A great nation? In a lot of ways, yes ... but an exceedingly unhealthy nation that is eating itself to death. Think about it: obesity, heart disease, heart attacks, cancer. Genetics does play a role in these diseases (call me cold-hearted, but I still refuse to accept obesity as a disease), but they are so much more prevalent today than 100 years ago, and what has changed? Our food. There are cultures around the world that eat meat and fatty foods, but their foods are not injected with hormones, modified with high fructose corn syrup, or grown with pesticides, and their rates of these diseases are much lower.
With such unhealthy eating habits (that many people either just don't know about, or they refuse to acknowledge ... though I realize there is the issue of cost, and I just don't know what to make of that at this point), is it any wonder that our c-section rate has jumped so much in the past 40 years? It makes perfect sense to me! Which is why I am trying to be healthier for myself, my family, and my future children. I know there are those that will "defend" c-sections and say that their baby is just fine and they don't know what the big deal is. Don't get me wrong - c-sections are an amazing thing and they have saved a lot of babies! But the bottom line is that c-sections are not natural and they're not how babies were meant to be born. Maybe some people don't care that the rate of c-sections has risen so much, but I think it says a lot about our health and our attitudes toward the environment and the food that we eat.
So, that's how I see all of them connected, and I'm doing my best to learn, read, and listen to everyone and everything I can, so I can try to make a difference. Isn't that all most of us are trying to do on a daily basis anyway? Whether you're trying to be happier (which, as a result, affects those around you), raising a child, starting a club, growing a garden, choosing one food over another - whatever it is, I feel like that's the underlying objective. That's what I'm trying to do, at least, now that I've found my passion. One day and one choice at a time.
This is just my opinion. Others welcome ... just please try not to be snarky. :o)
3 Observations or Opinions:
I'm so happy and inspired to have read this! I am also happy to have found your blog. Such a great thing to find a like-minded person!
katherine, i've been really enjoying your blog lately because i totally sense that you are trying to rid yourself of snark, and i appreciate that. i know it is hard to do that when you are passionate and informed about something.
obviously, the benefit of natural childbirth, in part, is that it is "natural," which i get. i just wish that those in favor would consider (before ranting, which i don't think you were) that chemotherapy isn't natural, organ transplant isn't natural, the insulin pump isn't natural, and so on. without those things, people that i love wouldn't be alive and, in the case of the insulin pump, neither would harper and i. i went into our birth with hopes, information, and a backbone, but nothing more. i didn't think that it was right to have certain expectations and to put my health and the health of my baby on the line so that i could stay on my soapbox. honestly, i think that is what some people are doing, and i think they have their priorities confused. there is no need to cry or scream at the doctor over a c-section. you do what is best for the amazing, perfect, astounding miracle that you are about to meet ... and you move on. that's what i think, at least.
it's probably good that i feel that way, because harper had to be delivered via emergency c-section. do i wish it was different? yes. will i regret it forever? no. i'm kind of over it already, really. it's what had to happen. she is here. she is amazing. she is healthy. i think that her health and my health is what is important in all debates -- birth, sleeping arrangments, breastfeeding or formula feeding, and so on. to take a stand without finding out what actually works best for your child seems, to me, to be a mistake.
sorry for the long comment!
Don't be sorry for the long comment! I welcome them! I know I still have a lot to learn, but I am really working on trying to share my beliefs and understand other perspectives. So I sincerely welcome different views and perspectives.
In cases such as yours, I am most definitely thankful that modern medicine exists. C-sections, insulin pumps, and organ transplants are lifesavers when they are necessary, and that is AWESOME!
The thing that frustrates me, though, is that I personally feel that a lot of times women go through their pregnancy and go into labor (now, I'm talking about low-risk women - not those in special cases with specific health concerns) without researching and knowing their options. Maybe they do; I don't know. But if a doctor came in and said, "Let's break your water," the response should be (in my opinion!) 'why' instead of 'okay.'
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish women would take time to know the risks and/or benefits of epidurals, having your water broken, pitocin, breastfeeding, formula feeding, etc. Don't just go into it saying, "Oh, I'm going to do this and this and this because so-and-so said I should." Does that make sense? I hope it does.
I know we didn't really hang out at Centre much, but if you're ever up for a playdate, I'd love to see you sometime! You live just down the street from my in-laws. :o)
Post a Comment