six word fridays: the best

Today’s best imaginings (not really happening):

Hot cookies on a cloudy day.

Green tea, early in the morning.

Kids playing Uno without help, happily.

Magical solution to ease back pain.

Newborn smell, before spit up happens.
(No baby yet—I’m just imagining.)

The best I can manage, really:
Feet up. Ice water. Momentary quiet.

The best: yet to come? Always.

six word fridaysWhat’s your BEST? Best news, best ideas, be the best you can be… give it your best shot. In six words!

Write yours in the comments here, or post on your own blog (and then add your link to our list!).

Or tweet it, with tag #sixwordfridays.

Want to know more? Need me to email you next week’s topic? No problem. Check out the six word fridays info page!


 seasonal

O raspberries, o blueberries and strawberries and cherries and whatnot: your season is almost over. How shall I live without you?

Sometimes I wish we could choose a month to visit. Like right now, I wouldn’t mind a quick visit to February. Less fruit, it’s true, but the baked goods and the utter lack of sweltering heat would more than make up for it.

I don’t want to skip through time, though—I don’t want to lose the months in between—I just want to stop in there for a visit, and then come on back.

Recreational time travel, for culinary and weather-related purposes. I’m sure that’ll be invented any day now…


 for your information

Peeing in the dark—so as not to wake yourself any more than necessary at 1:00am and 2:18 and again at 3:56—is all well and good, until you realize you just stepped on a silverfish.


 waiting for something

I have officially arrived at what might be considered the Bargaining Phase of pregnancy, where I start thinking the baby will be born only after I [fill in the blank with increasingly bizarre tasks that no baby could ever possibly care about: get a dresser for more kid clothes, reorganize the playroom, dust the ceiling fan, remove cobwebs from ceiling corners inside closets].

So I wash baseboards and clean full-length mirrors and pack away too-small sneakers and pinch off the flowering ends of the basil plants and dust all the light bulbs in the house (!), just in case that was the thing the baby was waiting for me to finish.

This never works. Never once have I gone into labor after finishing an obscure-but-obviously-necessary feat of nesting. In fact, when Sadie was born, much of our house was in complete disarray. She managed to arrive when she was ready anyhow.

Someone should point this out to me later, when I’m soaking the shower curtain liners in vinegar and washing the top of the refrigerator, okay? Because my feet are swelling up like… well, like swollen pregnant lady feet, and I really would prefer they didn’t.

So let’s try this mantra: the baby is waiting for me put my feet up and comment on more blogs. The baby is waiting for me recline and tweet something. If I lie down and spend much of the day updating my facebook status, the baby is sure to come. (This is at least as good a strategy as the other one, yes? Worth a try?)


 photographic evidence

My new driver’s license came in the mail! Woohoo, I can… uh, have a not-expired license.

Dane and I looked at my old license and new license side by side today.

“Well, you’re probably wearing a different shirt,” he offered.

Since I wasn’t pregnant the last time, and I’m very pregnant this time: let’s hope so.

Otherwise, the new photo is nearly indistinguishable from the old one. Apparently the increase in grey hairs and fine lines isn’t obvious enough to appear on a one-inch digital photo.

So glad we spent hours on a weekday afternoon figuring that out…


 six word fridays: this much I know

Sometimes necessary: a leap of faith.

I am braver than I think.

(And I bet you are, too.)

six word fridaysYour turn: THIS MUCH I KNOW. We await your wisdom!

Write yours in the comments here, or post on your own blog (and then add your link to our list!).

Or tweet it, with tag #sixwordfridays.

Want to know more? Need me to email you next week’s topic? No problem. Check out the six word fridays info page!


 what not to name

In the latest round of the Great Baby Name Debate of 2010, I pointed out that the Puritans sometimes went with hyphenated phrase-names, like Fight-the-Good-Fight-of-Faith, or Fly-Fornication. (I wasn’t advocating for such a name, just mentioning their existence.)

DANE: Fly…? like housefly, or fruit fly?
ME: No, no, not flies. The verb. To fly. To run from. Like that.
DANE: Wha–?
ME: Like… [with hand gestures] … fly! Fly! Fly away.
DANE: Fly-Fornication? That’s like… that’s like naming the dog Flee-Devil.
ME: What do you think they called him for short? Flyf?
DANE: Fly-fo?
ME: Yeah, not good.

So at least we got that settled.


 about that study…

Lately, I’m having this conversation over and over:

ACQUAINTANCE: When’s your baby due?
ME: End of August.
THEM: That’s coming up! Where are you having the birth?
ME: At home.
THEM: Oh! Wow! Hey, did you hear about that study…

Let me just say right now: Yes. Yes, I have heard about that study. Whatever study it is, if you’ve heard about it, if it’s been in the news, I’ve heard about it too. Unless it’s brand-new, I’ve probably read it already. And I’m happy to talk about it!

I’m not interested in telling anyone else where or how to give birth; that’s a decision every pregnant woman ought to make for herself. But I do think we all should have access to accurate information when we’re considering our options.

So. Given that the biggest, best-designed, most comprehensive studies available all conclude that home birth is at least as safe as hospital birth for healthy, low-risk mothers and babies, how do studies in the news come up with “evidence” that suggests otherwise?

Often, like this: They compare normal, low-risk hospital births to something other than normal, low-risk home births.

- Some studies have compared planned hospital births to unplanned home births.

Why does this matter? For two reasons.

First: a planned home birth is attended, almost always, by a certified midwife. Midwives carry equipment and medications to address emergency situations, and midwives have training and experience to help them identify those uncommon situations where a mother requires medical assistance. Research shows that out-of-hospital births attended by midwives have excellent outcomes. Unplanned out-of-hospital births don’t have access to those same benefits.

Second: while some unplanned out-of-hospital births involve healthy, full-term mothers whose labors simply progressed too quickly to get to a hospital, research tells us that many unplanned out-of-hospital births involve women whose pregnancies are at higher risk. Women who have unplanned out-of-hospital births are more likely to smoke, less likely to have had prenatal care, and their births are more likely to be preterm, all of which means they’re more likely to experience complications and poorer outcomes.

Unplanned out-of-hospital births, then, aren’t the same as planned home births, and studies comparing planned hospital births to unplanned out-of-hospital births don’t give us any information about the relative safety of planned home births with a qualified attendant. (This, by the way, is where the most recent AJOG headlines went wrong; their widely-reported-on study relied on data that has repeatedly been criticized for, among other problems, including unplanned out-of-hospital births.)

- There are other studies comparing hospital births to planned home births that took place decades ago.

Why does this matter? Today’s certified midwives have access to education and training that wasn’t as available years ago, and carry emergency equipment and medications that midwives didn’t have access to decades ago.

Planned home births that took place in decades past weren’t necessarily similar to home births today, so older studies of home birth may not offer us accurate information about the safety of home birth today.

- Some studies have compared hospital births to home births that took place without medical backup.

Why does this matter? Because no one is suggesting that home birth is always safe, in every circumstance; only that, for healthy mothers carrying healthy babies, laboring and birthing at home is a safe option.

But when a mother or baby ceases to be healthy—or when a labor moves beyond the range of what’s normal—medical care can be helpful or even necessary. Planning a home birth, then, typically includes having the ability to transfer care to a medical facility if needed.

Remote areas don’t always have nearby hospitals. Studying out-of-hospital births taking place in such areas—out-of-hospital births with, essentially, no medical backup available—will not provide useful information about the safety of planned home birth with medical backup available. And most planned home births have some sort of medical backup available.

So yes, I’ve heard about that study. I hope you get a chance to hear about this one and this one and this one, too. Because we all want to know—deserve to know!—which options are safe. And the best-designed studies show that planned home birth is at least as safe as hospital birth.

Thanks for asking, always. Have any other questions I can help with?

For more information on birth, midwifery, and safety, check out the birth resources page.


 listing

Thing 1: My floors are not going to get swept today.

Thing 2: But only because there are train tracks set up all over the place.

Thing 3: And three out of four kids are playing with them, all at the same time.

Thing 4: That’s not such a bad reason to avoid housekeeping, I think.

Thing 5: Though the inability to nest via sweeping is kind of killing me.
                   Later. Later. There will surely be time. There’s always more time.


 six word fridays: temptation

Blog reading, in the wee hours…
One more ebook for the reader…
The library stack, threatening to tumble…
Book lamp to extend reading time…

No! The newly made bed beckons!

six word fridaysSo tell us: Which TEMPTATION are you giving in to? Or do you resist? What’s tempting you, in six words?

Write yours in the comments here, or post on your own blog (and then add your link to our list!). Or tweet it, with tag #sixwordfridays.

Want to know more? Need me to email you next week’s topic? No problem. Check out the six word fridays info page!