2006 – Page 22 – a hippie with a minivan

Interesting day…

I gave a little babywearing presentation again yesterday to a small group of moms to 6-12 months old. Again I was a bit aprehensive that they would listen or be attentive to babywearing as it seems so many believe that after the infant stage babies are no longer supposed to be held and the revious experience with wearing has been with a Baby Bjorn type carrier that is akward and uncomfortable the more the baby grows. I explained the advantages, the fun of baby wearing and then the different types of carriers… they then had the fun of trying them out for themselves. That is where the real transformation takes place. While watching me they are scared that the wraps and slings are not safe and say that their babies are too big and heavy (even though I use Colin to show them many of the positions)… When they try them on they realize how the weight disappears and love the handsfree that they never experinced with the carriers they tried in the past. Each took me card and I have a feeling that I will be getting a few phone calls…

I also had a very interesting conversation with a mom there who is also a nurse and remebered me from an interview I did about breastfeeding in a local paper when Colin was tiny and had thought that the sling was an amazing idea. That day was also the day that she found out she was expecting her daughter.. Another conversation with her and the others came upon unassisted birth with the explanation that she had a very fast birth with her first and had trouble making it in time to the nearest birth center and said that next time she would be having a homebirth, assistance or not and we explained together how birth can be a very different experience when compared to the hospital. Surpising (or not) she is also a nurse…
I came back home for a few minutes and then needed to leave to get Simon at the bus, come back home to get my 4 season tires, grabed a sandwich at Dunkin Donuts and went to the garage to leave the car to get the tires and oil changed and a fellow volunteer picked me up from there to go give a prenatal. (she wanted to see how they where done before she will do one by herself)

The Pre-natal was cool.. the moms were all interested though the dads were a bit distracted talking about missing the hockey game a few times… The nurse that was there is really cool. I have already given a pre-natal with her and we get along very well… I mentioned this last time I did it with her also, she finds it so hard giving these classes because sh doesn’t agree with many of the things that she is supposed to say. (She believes in Co-sleeping, Being a volunteer however, and not having the same “responsibilities” I have a bit more leway in that area and can at least instill an idea of questioning in the moms when it comes to the automatic pill prescription and automatic Vitamin D even in a summer baby…

When it was over I asked the nurse if she could check my Blood pressure just to see if I have been getting comparable readings. The fellow volunteer that brought me left and got a ride with the nurse. We talked quite bit while we cleaned up after the meeting and one thing that came up was the misinformation that moms often get in the hospital when they give birth. She said that they have also seen the same especially since the new pediatrician arrived and they have seen many moms get conflicting ideas from her. This of course is the same doc that I felt like hitting a while back… I am glad to find to have found out that they are gathering a lot of info and will be confronting her soon.

I also told her that I was going unassisted at the moment i my pregnancy and she had many questions about it. One of the things she asked about was the clamping of the cord then I explained that I beleive things would have been different with my last birth if the cord would not have been clamped and cut immediately (Colin had trouble breathing and I had a bit of hemorraging) She said that she was concerned of the “new trend” of wanting to delay cord cutting because she heard from others that because of the baby getting more red blood cells that Jaundice would be more frequent. I told her that I didn’t believe that to be true and she said that she is very open to knowing more and to please send anything her way… (I found some studies within a few minutes of searching when I got home), she also said that she would love to get together with me to discuss more about it all which would be a very cool thing to do…

Anyways… the day turned out to be quite interesting and I found support from people that I really didn’t expect…

The Parenting Golden Rule…

Here is a cute little article by Jan Hunt….

http://www.naturalchild.org/jan_hunt/goldenrule.html

the Circ debate…

Well.. I did it again and got myself into a debate.. This time it was about circ and on Mothering. Isn’t that an oxymoron.. A NFL (Natural Family Living) site and people are actually advocating circ on the birth board. Luckily, it is MDC (Mothering dot commune) and I got help…

This is the first time I have ever really spoke out against Circ… It is not an issue I have brought up before because it saddens me and scares me that people would actually do that to their child and I just never really wanted to bring it up.. However, I truly believe in the position that the “Canadian Children’s Rights Council”has and that is that Circ is the genital Mutilation of children.

It is unnecessary, there are no medical reasons for it , it is painful and it should be criminalized the same way that female circumcision has been.

I hate the “Parents Choice” argument… Parents are parents and their role should be to protect their children from unnecessary harm. Sitting around the table and making a decision to cut a piece of your child’s genital organ off is not a decision that should be up to the parents to make… It is a purely cosmetic surgery and the only person ultimately involved in the outcome of that decision is the child. He and he alone should be the one to make decisions about his body… Children are not out property, it is not a decision for a parent to make.
The “look like others” argument” in Canada the numbers of circ are getting to be quite minimal so the circed boy is most likely to be the odd one out, the US is down to almost 50/50… I doubt the topic will really come up…

The Medical Argument: Has NO foundation.. pretty much it is like saying “hmmm… lets cut of his foot so that he never gets an ingrown toenail”or “lets cut of her mammary glands so she doesn’t get breast cancer”

The Cleaner Argument: Again NOT true… the intact boy is easy to clean… splash a bit of water and that’s it.. they should never be retracted and don’t retract naturally until about the age of 4-5 and even up to puberty… there is no special care and and pretty much no care needed for an intact boy… and beside, the foreskin has a purpose, it has good bacteria that keep it clean just like us women are not completely dry… that’s how it is made and how it works!!

The “look like dad argument”… OK how much time do dads and boys compare their penises… really? If dad had a finger amputated would you do he same to the child to look like dad? No? No they may not look alike… so what!!! You can just explain that dad had a surgery that removed part of his penis and that parents are now more informed and know better…

Circumcision isn’t just a little snip. It is a risky surgery and the it is not just a little piece of skin that is removed it is a organ in itself that has multiple functions.

Circumcision is Genital Mutilation. There is not way around that Fact. It should be criminalized as it has been in other parts of the world. It is not just another parental decision.

Here is a great article on Mothering.

The Case Against Circumcision.

Egg hunt…

Dh made a little egg hunt in the back yard today… I am not a big fan of this holiday, it just has no meaning for me except for chocolate… but it was a lot of fun watching the boys look for their eggs… there were 12 eggs in all 6 marked with X and 6 with a C… so the boys would find eachothers and hand them over to the other without a word… Xavier of course was the one who determined which eggs went where in most cases…

Anyways… here are a few pics…