Doula Adventures: Guest Reviewer of Ina May!

Hey friends, today I am thrilled to have Victoria guest reviewing Ina May Gaskin's book! As you may recall, Victoria and I go way back {like, to 2010 or 2011, which is practically forever ago}, and she has been one of my most enthusiastic cheerleaders on this doula journey. 
A few months ago, I asked her if she would like to do guest post a book review, since she has a yummy baby and could tell us what was really useful during her labor. Victoria agreed immediately, and when I asked her which book was the most helpful, I was thrilled that she answered "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" because it's one of my favorites, too. So without any more ado, here's Victoria!

When Rebekah asked me to review Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, I said yes. It was an easy decision. I love Ina May, and I seriously love Rebekah. I'd let either one of them catch my baby. #gettingrealupinhere

After I did all the freakings out about being pregnant, I started to get a tinsy bit into a thing called childbirth.

And by a "tinsy bit" I mean makes-my-husband-uncomfortable and I-would-totally-eat-my-placenta into.

I can't remember exactly when I feel in deep like with Ina May. Probably from watching The Business of Being Born. So, yes, I am a bandwagon fan. Sorry not sorry. Let's just think of it as an introduction, ok?

What I enjoyed about Ina May's Guide to Childbirth is the non-medical nature of her writing. She writes from immense hands-on experience, but her writing is accessible to the everyday woman. Reading her book I felt as if she were my midwife, sitting across from me, explaining what I could expect during my labor and delivery. Her words were very soothing in that way.

Another fun feature of this book are the birth stories that comprise the first half. While pregnant, it was helpful to get a sense of the "variations of normal" that can occur during labor and delivery. However, if you're more interested in the guiding bit, it's totally okay to skip to that section. You won't miss a thing!

As I mentioned, Ina May's writing is very relatable. While medical resources describe birth in very flat terms - something like, "Your cervix will dilate to 10 cms and the baby will descend in the birth canal." - Ina May puts matters far more poetically, calling contractions "rushes," for example.

Think of this book as a primer on what to expect in childbirth. She discusses routine medical procedures around birth, and which ones a mother could safely reject. Ina May also shares in depth what to expect postpartum. {Postpartum bleeding? Yeah, had no idea about that until I was seven months in!} I found it to be a very thorough resource.

This pregnancy-face-glowing review of Ina May's Guide does come with a few warnings, though. To be fair, I am not completely sold out on the whole Ina May experience. I feel she has been known to take "no interventions" to extreme places that are not necessary, especially with today's medical technology. And I get the sense from reading her that she pushes {no pun intended} natural childbirth to the exclusion of other options. I delivered my daughter naturally, but I certainly don't think au naturale is for everyone. Rather, I advocate women being fully informed and fully empowered to make decisions about their births. Decisions that should never be fear-based, but decisions all the same. Want to schedule that C-section for June 10th? Go right ahead. Willing to wait for baby until 42 weeks? Be my guest. Expectant mothers should have access to care providers that would help weigh the pros and cons of each decision, but I fully believe a woman should be in charge of her health care.

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth gets 5 stars in my book. Her wisdom really was that helpful to me during my labor and delivery. Though do read the book knowing Ina May comes from a clear bias. If you 1) are completely freaked out by natural birth or 2) avoid barefoot hippies like kale grass, you probably won't enjoy the read. However, if you're interested in natural childbirth, or even wonder about the mechanics surrounding birth, I think you ought to give this book a try. If you do, I'd love to hear!

Thanks for asking me to review this book, Rebekah! Love following your doula adventures!

Thank you for this awesome review, Victoria! You know I'll catch your baby anytime!

Finish This: Week Thirty-one

Linking up with Nicole at Three 31, Jen at The Arizona Russums, Becky at The Java Mama, and Lisa at Coastlined. Join the fun on their link-up!

If I went back to school, I would study entrepreneurship or more consumer behavior. I think the psychology behind decisions is really fascinating, even though I only took one Psych class during my college career. The Consumer Behavior class I took was awesome, and I'd love to get into that more. 

My favorite subject in school literature. Junior and senior years were classical and British literature, respectively, and I had so much fun in those classes. AP English was also one of my favorite classes, because we read Shakespeare aloud and interviewed experts about their definitions of literature. 

I also enjoyed algebra, history, and Rhetoric II {Rhetoric I was painful, but the second year was much more fun and applicable}. 

I wish I had paid more attention to the activities I really enjoyed, instead of focusing on the things I'd limited myself to because I was afraid. 

The dumbest thing I did in high school was convince my history group that we could do our presentation on Alexander the Great using puppets. While our presentation was amusing, it was also immature and ill-prepared. Oops.

In high school, I thought I knew the direction life would take me. Ha! When I graduated from high school, I wanted to be a physical therapist and use ballet for therapy. When I started college, I took one look at how many science classes PT would take, and I cried. Then I changed my major to business, transferred to a school in Kentucky, and am looking at a completely different career than I had planned. I couldn't have imagined all this in high school, and it would have scared the crap out of me if I could. Thank God He only gives us what we can handle!

Thanks for joining! If you want to Finish This, answer the prompts in the comments or add your link to the party. See you next week :) 

Doula Adventures: Bradley Class

Well, I went to my first childbirth class on Monday. It was fantastic! The instructor, Stephanie, just had a baby a month ago, so it's really fresh for her. There are two couples in this class, and they are both pretty cool. They are definitely not Awkward Pregnancy Pictures material. None of this:

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The class is for the Bradley method, which you can read all about on the Bradley website. I will be going to class for 12 weeks, which definitely fulfills DONA's requirement. Hooray!

Lesson One was about nutrition, exercise, and relaxation. I think that all the classes are going to include these elements, so bear with! There are also going to be vocabulary lessons each week, so we'll see what gets shared here as time goes on.

In other news, I finished Ina May's Guide to Childbirth! It is an incredible book. If you're at all interested in birth, get a book by Ina May. A review is forthcoming, I promise. I have just a couple books to get through first...

Adventure!

On Friday, I alluded to a new direction that I'm pursuing. Sorry for all the vagueness there... I wasn't quite ready to announce it to the internet/world. I still don't know how to transition from "telling you that I'm going to tell you" to "actually telling you." Here goes. Gulp.

I'm going to start the certification process to become a doula!!! 

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I know, I'm excited, too. 

It all started with an email from Laura at A Drop in the Ocean. She sent me the link to DONA International, which is the standard of doula certification. I looked at the requirements and thought, I could do this. I tried to dismiss the thought, but I couldn't! So I began to wonder if this was a subtle hint.

A couple weeks later, the conversation and lightbulb moment happened. Samara was relaying to a friend how people tell her "you just light up" when discussing one of her passions, and I was in the corner de-fuzzing my clothes and wondering what on earth made me "light up" and then it hit me: birth makes me light up. 

{True confession: when I'm bored, I go to Camp Patton's birth story link-up and read birth stories.}

So when Samara and Cami and I made our way down to the Oregon coast for an extended Memorial Day weekend, and we just so happened to stop in Portland a) for some yummy breakfast and b) for the mother of all used bookstores, and I just so happened to find my way to the childbirth section within 3 minutes of entering the store {seriously, less than 3 minutes!}, I figured that maybe this "subtle" hint was more like "a neon-lit sign with a marching band" hint. 

And I also figured that  purchasing one book on the subject should be thought of as an investment. I joyfully, gleefully purchased Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth. 

{True confession: I finished the first third of the book that same day.}

Yesterday, I was home alone for the afternoon, and I decided that I should finally watch some videos, because reading can only take you so far, especially when you *cough* have a history of *cough* fainting. Previously in my life, AJ showed me the documentary "The Business of Being Born" and I made it through that one alright. But that was a few years ago, and now I needed to know what all I could visually handle. So yesterday, I watched the first episode of "The Midwives" AND the first episode of "One Born Every Minute." And I didn't faint. I didn't feel woozy. I didn't get dizzy. I didn't see spots. I'm amazed, actually. 

The responses I've received from telling people have been incredible. So many people have encouraged me in this, from "You'd be great at that!" to "Wow, that's really cool." One of my concerns was that I wouldn't be completely qualified since, um, you know, I've never had a baby. But person after person encouraged me that it wouldn't matter and that actually it's easier when you don't have kids because of the crazy "schedule." 

So that's where I'm at. I'm thrilled and nervous and excited and scared and incredulous and awed and delighted. I'm at the very beginning of this journey, and my plans are to keep this little bloggy-blog updated as my journey progresses. I'll be posting useful links, book reviews, and general thoughts as I go, so stay tuned!

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