... still so high from my awesome seminar. It did all come together at the last minute. The trainer is wonderful, she is a super-knowledgeable lady who is super disorganized and has bitten off more than she can chew. Really she needs an assistant or something. We talked about it, and I apologized for the nastygram I sent her, and she apologized for not answering my billion messages, and it's all ok now.
What do I want to remember from this week? First, the awesome women that were there. Five were from Puerto Rico, members of a program that works with low-income pregnant women, many of which are Medicaid recipients/teenagers/impoverished/drug addicts/in domestic violence situations/ etc. The pregnant women, not the nurses. Anyway, more on them later because I just loved them, so much. Anyway, one was a woman who doesn't know how she plans to use her LCCE. And the remaining 5 were doulas, including me. One, a mom of ten who had her gorgeous 6-month-old. Our host had her 7-week old, an adorable mohawked little boy who was nearly 11 pounds at birth, born underwater @ home. (And no tears!) One, a very sweet lady who herself has no children but grew up in a family where normal birth is the norm, and so she just sort of inherited it. I learned so much about doula-ing from just listening to these women talk about their clients, the births they have been at, the hospitals and their crazy policies. Oh I wanted to talk to these ladies forever!
Second I want to remember everything I learned about being an effective educator. Teri's mantra is to have ten ways to teach every topic. And she does! And best, she generously shared her ideas with us. I have so so many things I want to do now that I never would have come up with on my own. I never would have thought a trip to the dollar store could yield so much good teaching material...
I found out that in Puerto Rico, insurance doesn't cover epidurals. So women either go natural or they have a c-section, because most can't or won't pay the $700 out of pocket. The section rate there is terrible as a result, the worst in the US just ahead of Mississippi. And their L&D ward in this particular hospital anyway is just that - a ward with curtains in between the beds. One of the nurses that I really liked said that at any time she may have as many as 17 women she is caring for. And she is one of the few there who understand that laboring women need to be up walking around, need to eat and drink in labor, need to do anything besides lay in that bed. I imagine that when she leaves the quality of the care really declines.
I found out that the world's largest manufacturer of hospital beds is the same company that makes caskets - the Batesville casket company. Seriously, am I the only one that finds that crazy?
Also, we discussed a medical textbook from the 1400s that stated that when a man passes gas, his penis gets larger. The potential responses to this are too numerous to list here, but my brother wins hands-down for the crudest one.
Also, I have to register for my exam by 15 March. The exam is 22 April. I have a doula client who will be 42 weeks that day if she goes that long. I should never have signed her up but I like her too much. So I told her that I can't make that date and if the baby should happen to be born that day, I'll refund all but her deposit. I seriously hope it's not a problem. Most OBs are itching to induce well before a "due date", and they sure won't let you go quote-unquote "past dates" without a lot of serious grief. Never mind that the average length for a first pregnancy is 41 weeks and a day. If this mommy does go past 40 weeks, they're going to be on her like a duck on a june bug to induce and she does NOT need that garbage.
Anyway, back to Lamaze, I have to finish working through the study guide and recommended reading, and also teach a class with an observer. And that's it. it's two months away and then hopefully I can ace the exam. For my class I want to try to throw together a prenatal yoga thing with an established class. We'll see.
More tomorrow, loves, I gotta go snuggle with my honey and then hopefully sleep late tomorrow!
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wakeful dreamer