Homebirth Study -- Yet More Evidence on Safety

We hope you've already seen plenty of press coverage of the CPM study of planned homebirths. It is a tremendously valuable study for reinforcing that homebirth is a safe and reasonable option for low-risk pregnancies. Although there have been many studies over the years that reach the same conclusion, most were conducted outside the US, and/or were small in size, and/or were not prospective studies. (A prospective study is one where the participants are registered in the study at start of care and the data on the outcome of their care is added later. This is a better study design than one where outcomes are reported without prior registration--in that scenario there are a variety of reasons why less good outcomes may not be reported as often as good outcomes).

The CPM study addressed all these issues. The participants were all low risk women who planned homebirths in the United States in 2000. There were a total of 5418 women who were registered into the study at start of care. Interestingly, the study was published in the British Medical Journal rather than in any of the various American medical journals, apparently because the study was considered not to be of interest to doctors in the US!

The conclusions of the study: your chances of having a healthy safe delivery are the same whether you plan a homebirth or hospital birth, and you are much less likely to experience interventions if you plan a homebirth. For example, for low-risk women, the cesarean section rate in a hospital birth was about 19% in the year 2000 vs 3.7% for the moms in the homebirth study.

This study could be very effective reading material for calming the nerves of relatives or friends who still believe that the hospital is the only safe place to have a baby. For more information on the study and a link to the study itself, please visit the Citizens for Midwifery website at: http://www.cfmidwifery.org/Resources/Item.aspx?ID=84

Although there has been plenty of national press coverage (Fox News, CNN, New York Times, to name just a few), the local Washington press has not reported on this study at all. If you have any press contacts in the local print or broadcast world, please help spread the word on homebirth safety by forwarding this on to them.

One final note: many babies born at home with PSBC midwives were included in this study. Thanks to all the moms who agreed to have their data submitted!  

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Two Upcoming Events: Tag Sale and Picnic

Couple of dates to remember:

• Tag Sale on August 20th in the PSBC parking lot
  
• Annual Picnic on September 17th at Cottage Lake Park. Click here for more details!

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Help the Birth Center While Buying School Supplies

by Liz Chalmers, mom of four school-age kids

It's almost that time again! For those of you that have children in school, Back to School shopping is probably on the to-do list. Last year, I ordered the school supplies online for the first time and found it much less stressful than dealing with the various demands from my little people at the store ("But I want the [ridiculously expensive] pink sparkly backpack!" "Why can't we buy the box of 250 crayons?" "No, mom, there really isn't a rule saying we can't have zipper binders"......). Instead, I ordered through one of the office supply store websites, and received the box of whine-free supplies the very next day.

There's a wonderful side effect to online ordering: if you register with iGive and access the office supply store website via the iGive website, the birth center receives between 1% and 2% of the amount you spend.

To register with iGive, simply visit their website at http://www.iGive.com and during registration, choose Puget Sound Midwives and Birth Center as your chosen cause.

There are 3 major office supply stores that are listed on iGive: Office Max, Office Depot, and Staples. Although the first two give a higher percentage to the birth center, I recommend Staples because they have very easy-to-use lists of typical school supplies organized by age, which makes shopping so much quicker. Remember, though, that the birth center only gets a percentage if you register with iGive first and access the Staples website from the iGive website. Back to Top

CDC Guidelines on Breastfeeding

In the last newsletter, we included information about the Academy of Pediatrics' latest breastfeeding guidelines. This time, it's the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) who is speaking up on the benefits of breastfeeding and the environmental factors that influence a woman's decision to start breastfeeding and stick with it. Their website is packed with information, both for families and healthcare professionals.

http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/

According to their website, the one environmental factor that most strongly influences whether nursing is successful is breastfeeding education for the mother. Birth & Bodywork offers a very effective breastfeeding class. The next Basics of Breastfeeding Class will be taught by Wendy Dean, September 24th 9:30 am - 12:30 pm. For more details, visit the Birth & Bodywork website.

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Sling Lending Library

This is one of those ideas where you wonder why no-one thought of it sooner! Corey Colwell-Lipson has recently moved from California to our area. She runs a free sling lending library! She is passionate about slings and all sorts to try and borrow so moms find the right sling for them. She does not sell slings. If you or anyone you know is interested in borrowing a sling or has questions about slings, you can reach Corey at: 425-427-6666 or Skye-blue@comcast.net

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Greener Meals

by Ali Toperosky, LM, CPM

What's the deal with people not eating enough greens?

As a midwife I've noticed during nutrition counseling with my clients that most people don't eat dark leafy greens. Greens are the most nutrient dense food out there providing vitamins and minerals that pregnant women and children desperately need, not to mention they provide anti oxidants that help to fight cancer.

Usually when I mention words like kale, chard, collard greens, women look at me like I have six heads. The July issue of Mothering Magazine has a great article about dark leafy greens with lots of recipes and tricks for getting kids to eat them. My favorite concept for people who think they don't like greens is this: get a bunch of organic kale from your local farmers market or natural food section of the grocery store. Mince it up so small that it feels almost like fake snow (what you don't know what fake snow feels like? Neither do I, I just made it up, basically, cut it up really small.) Now you can hide kale in just about anything....soups, casseroles, meat loaf, burgers, pasta sauces, smoothies, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese. I promise you can't taste it and when it's cooked in things the texture isn't noticeable either. If kids are started on food with little green flecks in it, they get used to it. If they fuss, well I don't have kids yet, but when I told my nephews the green flecks were chopped up grasshoppers, they pretended to be Shrek and ate it up. Bottom line folks, we are meant to eat greens. Start now, you won't regret it.

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