Kayla's Crunchy Quest

My newest addiction

2009-03-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

Cloth pads that is! I bought two more tonight, and should get them within the next few days. Both overnight/long since I don't really plan on wearing them out of the house. If I decide to use cloth more than part-time, I'll invest in some day pads and possibly a few more liners. Here are the pictures from the site where I bought it from.

First is the red velour minky...a friend swears that these are heaven on earth

The other is regular fleece, pink and black zebra print

Pictures!

2009-03-06T16:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of my cloth stash, which now totals three whole pads! For the squeamish, don't worry, these pictures were all taken right out of the package, before use :)

My first...the monkey one! It's a Party In My Pants regular pantyliner.

My second, a peppermint print Party In My Pants wide pantyliner. It's bigger than the monkey one, being a wide, and I prefer it.

Finally, my third one which I splurged on today. Hey, it's like $13 plus shipping online, and I got it for $10.99 in the store! It's another Party In My Pants, purple tropical print overnight.

And just for fun, here's a picture of my pup :)

Missouri/Diva Cup/Cloth

2009-03-03T22:16:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wonder where time escapes to. If I break down my day to day life, I'm not THAT busy. Maybe I just suck at blogging ;)

I went down to Missouri last week/weekend, and I was so pleasantly surprised by the pro-natural living attitude so many have in Kansas City! I saw several Obama stickers on cars, which obviously made me very happy...I was expecting it to be like the deep south. Thankfully, no. I went to a small-ish co-op near my mom's office, and was thoroughly impressed. Plus, the cost to join is $15...compared to Minneapolis's much smaller one charging $100! I also went to Whole Foods for the first time, which was essentially a religious experience. Amazing. My cashier at the co-op, which is closer to the house we have down there, was incredibly friendly and very excited for me to move. We had a nice chat about how she moved from California several years before, so she understood completely how hard it is to move. What she doesn't know is that as a retired army brat, moving is in my blood...I'm a gypsy!

Oh, and on the doula front...I'm looking at joining ALACE in the fall! My mom is being very supportive, which is awesome.

So, onto the diva cup and cloth. I combined a life update with my crunchy update.

I've been considering a diva cup for well over a year now. However, I just never got around to it. After a few periods where tampons slowly became less and less reliable, I said screw it and ordered my diva cup. I got a great deal online...$22 including shipping! So I also headed down to the co-op, picked up a P.I.M.P (party in my pants) cloth panty liner. I figured I'd jump into this headfirst!

My diva arrived the same day as my period, and I was very intimidated. However, I sucked it up and read the directions. It was almost instant success. It's incredible to be able to go 12+ hours without worrying about leakage. It took a few days to be able to get it in and out quickly and easily, but it's like riding a bike...once you've got it, you've got it. My cloth liners, which I'll post pictures of (before ever being used, haha) are even less gross. Very dependable, cute, and comfy. I used the bigger one alone on a light day and it was much more dependable than a sposie pad. I'm sold...so now I'm encouraging you to try it! I cannot fathom how someone could try these and not love them! I'm as pro-earth as the next person, but let's face it...almost nobody would sacrifice their comfort to make a small impact. The diva is way easier, more comfortable, more reliable AND better for Mother Earth...who says things are too good to be true?

I promise...

2009-02-09T22:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't forgotten my beloved blog! Life has been hectic with work and such, so I haven't had much spare time to compose and in-depth blogs or do any reading...so stay tuned kiddos.

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

2009-01-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the hold up! I've been working like crazy, and I have the flu on top of that! I've since also read "Pushed" by Jennifer Block, and I'll write it up later.

I've had so much respect for Ina May for a long time. I mean, how many midwives have a maneuver named after them that has been used by countless doctors?! Not many. For some time now, I've been absolutely dying to take a workshop down at The Farm. That's another day's story though.

Naturally, her book was wonderful. I mean, it's Ina May Gaskin, what else would it be? The only thing I didn't like was how she mentioned vitamin K shots and eye gunk in a positive manner, which I obviously don't agree with. However, I digress. For those of you who have not read it, the book is divided into two parts. The first half consists of birth stories, complete with pictures. After growing up with the Americanized view of birth, it was very, very informative and almost shocking to read. None of those women used words like painful, unbearable, unnatural, bad, etc. Instead, the stories showed birth as intense, empowering, and for a surprising amount of the women, minimally painful, or even painless. Talk about culture shock, since we live in the world of hospitals, sections, drugs, and women screaming their heads off!

Something that surprised me was that The Farm doesn't necessarly stick with just safe pregnancies. They've done VBACs...all except two delivered vaginally. They've done 19 twin births with only two transfers, all born vaginally. They've had no maternal deaths, and their infant death rates are far below national averages. They've even done breech babies, something unheard of in today's lawauit-happy world. The births stories were by far my favorite part of the book, though the second half was extremely informative and interesting.

In the second half, there are a few things that Ina May repeats over and over, so I'll focus on those. The first is the mind body connection, which makes sense to me, but apparantly doesn't for a lot of people. Essentially, short of rare cases, your body can have your baby with no medications and no problems, and if you expect it to be painful and unbearable, it will be. Another thing is relaxation. Giving birth puts you in a vulernable situation. The cervix is a sphincter, and if you are not in a position where you trust those around you and you are not comfortable, there will be problems. She also stresses good nutrition. Thanks to the healthy diets she reccomends for her clients, there have been no cases in 3,028 births of pre-eclampsia. Gaskin also focuses on the perineum. Episiotomy is a nasty procedure, very unnecessary, and causes far more problems than it suppossedly fixes.

All in all, I would suggest it to anyone, even if you're several years from even thinking about having kids, such as myself. Knowledge is power, and if you wait until you're 25 and pregnant to research anything, you'll run out of time to learn all there is to learn and chances are, you'll have regrets. I know it's not common for 19 year olds to want to be midwives, or know what I know, but someday when I can sit back and enjoy my pregnancy because I already know what I need to know, it'll be well worth it!

Homophobia

2009-01-21T21:04:00.000-08:00

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am a male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the man who died when the paramedics stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I did not have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the person who is afraid of telling his loving Christian parents he loves another male.

Re-post this if you believe homophobia is wrong. Please do your part to end it.

Almost done...

2009-01-15T19:47:00.000-08:00

I'm almost done with Ina May's book, "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth." It's incredible, so look for a review soon :)

Check it out!

2009-01-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

I added a blog that will be about my personal life apart from midwifery and various causes. I guess to prove that I really am a normal girl with a normal life :)

http://snowandsurf.blogspot.com/

You mean some babies actually SLEEP in their cribs?

2009-01-13T13:24:00.001-08:00

Since a lot of what I plan to post is full of statistics, research, etc I thought it'd be nice to post something completely free of anything other than my personal experience. So here goes.

A little background is needed first. My parents are (now retired) military. They met, got married, and both got out. Then, alas, my mother found out in December 1988 she was knocked up. My dad, who was doing such glamorous work as driving beer trucks, re-enlisted and within two weeks was shipped to Korea for a year. My mom moved back home with her parents, so that she wouldn't be alone. My dad, who got a month's leave, made it home the morning of August 17th and went straight to the hospital, where my mom was in labor with me. Later that day, I arrived, almost 3 weeks early but perfectly healthy.

I might add my mother is exceptionally paranoid, especially with her children. When I was 7, she called the police when I was gone at the playground an hour longer than I was supposed to be. SIDS was her biggest fear. My dad spent his month home spending the whole night rocking me. When he left, my mother knew me sleeping in my crib would probably give her a nervous breakdown. So, right into bed with her I went. Despite doctors, friends, everyone else telling her that she was out of her mind, she was convinced that I wouldn't stop breathing because she was next to me, reminding me to breathe. Lo and behold, turns out today that is proven true.

As the months went on, she'd try to put me in my crib, but neither of us would have it. The crib was simply used for the occasional nap. When my dad came home, when I was 7 months old, in the bed I stayed. My mom was jealous because now I just liked to snuggle with him. So in the middle I went. Both of my parents LOVED having a family bed. We all slept our best. Finally, when I was four I moved into my own bed. I was starting school and only a few months away from a new baby sister, so it seemed a good time. When my sister was born, there was many a night I'd sneak in and all four of us would be snuggling, but I mostly slept in my room.

When I was 5 and my sister was 1, she had a series of seizures and spent quite a bit of time in the hospital. It was traumatizing for me, so I went back into my parent's bed with whichever parent wasn't spending the night in the hospital. A few months later when everyone was home and my sister was healthy, I was back in my own room full time, short of the occasional bad dream or when I was sick.

Both of my parents will adamantly tell you that our family closeness is because of co-sleeping. Now I am 19 and my sister is 15. Us girls and my mom still pile in bed and watch tv and talk. When I have a bad dream, I run straight up to my sister's room so I'm not alone. I was an exceptionally independent child, and have never questioned my parent's love. I've always been extremely secure. To this day, it still seems odd and unnatural for babies to sleep in different rooms in cribs. Why the push for independence? They're babies! I can't fathom the thought of not co-sleeping when I have kids someday. I still have that 5 year old mentality..."What do you mean mommy, some babies sleep in cribs? Why don't they sleep with their parents?" I'm not saying any of this to bash crib sleepers, but when something that's not mainstream is how you were raised, it's hard to understand.

Good news and some ink :)

2009-01-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

My Ina May book arrived today! I'm just about to crack it open. Look for a review within the next few days, followed by my promised post on donation. I'm crazy busy, but it's coming along :)

Meanwhile, check out the new tattoo. It's on my left ankle.

The Journey Begins

2009-01-05T18:27:00.000-08:00

I officially ordered "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" by Ina May Gaskin last night! I also ordered "Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care" by Jennifer Block. Ina May's book is on the DONA required reading list, so slowly but surely I am starting my doula certification. I'm hoping to go to a workshop sometime within the next 4 or 5 months.

Look for a happy, upbeat post soon. Likely on blood and organ donation!

xoxo

Suggestions?

2009-01-02T21:47:00.000-08:00

I'd like to know if anyone has any requests/suggestions for future posts? I want to touch on a large variety of issues, and I'm always up for learning more! Here's a list of things I am hoping to touch on, I'd appreciate some additional ideas!

-blood donation
-organ donation
-dangers of hormonal birth control
-cloth diapers/pads
-organic
-dangers of formula feeding
-benefits of extended breastfeeding
-benefits of home birth
-questioning vaccines
-recycling!

thoughts?

The Snip Snip

2008-12-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

After reading Arkansas Mom's wonderful posts on circumcision, I decided that'd make a good first blog. However, she is much more well-spoken than myself, so I suggest you mosey on over and read hers as well.

First of all, watch this video. It's full of great information, including pictures. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJGKvXU8Aog

If you live in America, chances are that you are either circumcised if you are a male, or you have been with and likely prefer a cut penis. This is because America is the only country in the western world that performs routine infant circumcision, or RIC. Why, you might ask? Initially it was at the urging of men like Dr. Kellogg. Yep, the Cornflakes guy. Back in the late 1800's, masturbation was thought to be the cause of anything and everything, from STIs to mental illness to blindness. Kellogg supported circumcision at birth without any pain relief so that the child's first experience with his penis would be a negative one. He also called for infant females to have carbolic acid put on their clitoris. These procedures were supposed to curb masturbation.

By the time it was realized that it did not indeed curb masturbation, it was preached as cleaner. Only those dirty immigrants were uncut. This is of course, completely false. Until the foreskin naturally retracts, generally between toddler age and puberty age, it is fused to the glans much like a fingernail to a finger, and self cleaning. It should never be manually retracted, as this can cause problems and is painful for the child...after all, imagine cutting your thumbnail off with a razorblade...yeah, it's worse than that. After it retracts, all the cleaning it needs is simply soap and water. Does it take a few seconds longer to get clean? Yes. But I can assure you I'd much rather spend an extra 5 seconds to thoroughly clean myself over undergoing FGM(female genital mutilation) to save that tiny amount of time.

Another reason people use to circumcise is that studies show that HIV is 50% more likely to occur in intact men in Africa. While many, myself included, wonder about the validity of those studies, for this entry's sake let's go with it and say that being intact makes you 50% more likely to get HIV. Let's compare it to breast cancer. By breastfeeding her children, a woman lowers her risk for breast cancer. Just like being cut lowers the risk of HIV. However, is that to say breastfeeding mothers never get cancer? Of course not. Does that mean formula feeding moms are all cancer ridden? Certainly not. Wouldn't it be better in the case of breast cancer to just do monthly breast checks, and then mammograms once you hit that time in your life, regardless of how you fed your child as a baby? Just like a good sex education and using condoms without fail will prevent males, both cut and intact from getting HIV. As far as STDs in our country, while cut men had a lower incidence of syphilis and HIV, they had higher rates of herpes, hepatitis, and chlamydia. So sex education and using condoms it the way to prevent STDs, not circumcision.

Now, some of you may heard that it's beneficial to circumcise due to the fact they reduce the chances for penile cancer and UTIs. Now, 1 in 100,000 men will get penile cancer in our country. That means that, assuming circumcision prevents penile cancer, 99,999 infant boys will undergo a completely worthless circumcision. I might also add that is does occur in cut men, so obviously circumcision is not effective at eliminating it. 1 in 100 intact infants will get a UTI, or urinary tract infection. While uncomfortable, they are easily treatable with antibiotics, and prevent 99 other boys from undergoing a useless procedure. Left intact, there is less than a 1% chance a man will ever require a circumcision for medical reasons, while an estimated 2-6% of cut men will have problems directly related to their circumcision. RIC has complications 1 in 500 times. Is it worth it to you? Hemorrhage, severe infection, even death has and does occur. Is it rare? Yes. But to the parents who have lost their sons, it's very real.

"Circumcision is estimated to be a $400 million business in America. The average cost of the procedure ranges from $50 to $350, with $115 being the average. The usual insurance reimbursement to doctors is around $95. Dr. Van Howe claims that a busy doctor can generate $25,000 a year from circumcisions alone."

As usual, money and not the patient's best interest, is what takes precedence. (above taken from the NOHARMM site, link provided below)

It is done with no pain relief. "So what, they won't remember" you might say. Does that make it ok? You could burn your child with a cattle prod every day for the first year of their life, and they wouldn't remember. Does that make it ok? Of course not. Infants experience pain in a very real way. When they are strapped down in the circumstraint, their limbs are pulled away from the body and strapped down. Very upsetting for a newborn who has spent the last 9 months curled up and just wants to cuddle mom and nurse. 50% of his penile skin is then removed with clamps, scissors and scalpels. The pain relief? A pacifier coated in sugar water. Between 64% and 96% of infants don't receive any pain relief. So, just give them drugs. Not really a preferable option. Anesthesia comes with a lot of risks for a full grown adult, imagine how bad it is for a 12 hour old baby.

Many men argue that they want their sons to look like them, hence circumcision. To this I ask, how many men see their father's penis up close and personal? If a child noticed his father's penis looked different at a young age, it could simply be explained that the father's looks different because he is an adult. When the son gets old enough, they can discuss why the son is intact and the father is not. Given the facts, any son would be happy that his father chose to break the cycle. It takes a big man to accept that there is a better alternative to circumcision, and that is leaving the penis exactly as nature intended.

For myself and many intactivists, the main issue is that the foreskin belongs to the child. Genital integrity. Any sons I ever have will have the right to make the decision for themselves, simply because it is not my body to permanently alter. The foreskin is not like an appendix. It serves a purpose. It decreases friction during sex due to the looser skin gliding. It protects the glans of the penis from being rubbed during everyday life and from dirt and debris. An intact male's foreskin is much like an eyelid, if we're doing comparisons.

As far as religion goes, I will briefly touch on that. I personally am not religious, and would never view religious beliefs as an acceptable reason to cut my sons. I will agree that religion is a personal thing. I simply urge anyone considering religion as a reason to circumcise to read the following links.

http://www.catholicsagainstcircumcision.org/
http://www.jewsagainstcircumcision.org/

Here is a circumcision with the actual audio. Would you put your son through this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwBCElbVkuY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmX6RdRNoqk&feature=related

Just a snip? I know I could never live with putting my perfect, healthy son through that.

http://www.mothersagainstcirc.org/

http://www.noharmm.org/separated.htm

http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/all_about_breast_cancer.html

Introduction

2008-12-27T05:20:00.000-08:00

Who exactly am I? I'm Kayla, a 19 year old who lives in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. I started this blog to document my journey towards self-improvement and my slow but sure journey towards my dream job...being a midwife! I'll warn you now, my thoughts, beliefs and opinions are different than mainstream America and I have no shame in expressing them. I promise I'll always back them up with facts, or on more personal issues, my own opinions and my own reasoning.

So, for my introductory post :)

What is a midwife?

A midwife is a trained professional who delivers babies and provides well-woman care. Essentially, they are an alternative to an OBGYN, and arguably a far superior alternative. It's laughable that midwives even are considered alternative, because until the past 100 years or so, doctors did not deliver babies regularly, if at all. Midwives have been around as long as people have been around. All sorts of babies were delivered by sisters, mothers, friends...breech, twins, posterior. Of course the death rate was higher. However, that was most certainly not due to the person catching the baby. People didn't wash their hands because they didn't understand infection. There was no technology. Now, I'm as natural as it gets, but even midwives believe in having some life-saving equipment on hand and any midwife worth her weight will know when to use it.

There are essentially two types of midwives here in the US. The first is a Certified Nurse Midwife. They are nurses who completed additional schooling after getting their RN. They generally work in hospitals. Then there are direct entry midwives, which is what I want to be. There are multiple ways to get into it. As of now, my plan is to start my doula training sometime in 2009. I plan on picking up a few of the books on the reading list in January. Living in a metro area, there are several DONA workshops throughout the year. I also hope to attend the Farm's midwifery assistant workshop in early 2010, once I have my debt paid off from school. I'm not sure exactly how my journey will end, but it's just beginning :)