Random Birth Thoughts

I spent last night perusing my birth blog links (midwives, doulas, etc.). There's so much inspirational stuff out there. It reminds me I should spend more time reading when I'm on-line and less time playing WordTwist in Facebook.

And I should spend more time writing when I'm on-line than browsing groups on Ravelry.

But then hasn't many a therapist said we fill our lives with too many "shoulds?" The kinder approach to oneself is to be forgiving, especially of small vices and transgressions (Mountain Dew, buying more yarn than one could possibly use, Scramble...).

Anyway, I wonder how many of you have heard about this reported link between surgical birth and the risk of Type I diabetes for the baby? They don't seem to understand the mechanism yet. Still, another reason to birth vaginally if you can.

I do not have any clients for the fall. At the moment I'm appreciating the break from call and visits. My guess is that will fade by October and I'll add someone before the end of the year. I am still in touch with my most recent two clients, one of whom just went back to work, the other of whom will go back in about two weeks. Neither was ready. Why do we rush our mothers back to work so soon?

My recent insight was that as much as I dread long births (like, 20+ hours long), those are invariably the births at which I feel most useful and from which I form the closest bonds with clients. A special bonding happens when you cover epic birth ground together. It's just not the same when you're with a client two or three hours and the baby's born. NOT that we complain about those births. And not that I've had so many of them on which to base my judgment.