just in case you can't read that tiny print :)
Showing posts with label our 15 minutes aren't up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label our 15 minutes aren't up. Show all posts
November 15, 2009
November 4, 2009
So Proud
So, John applied for this little grant a few months ago and now:
Breaking News from Bettendorf Library
and
QC Online!
Hopefully tonight there will be a picture with an oversized a la publishers clearinghouse check. I bet when it's that large it's supposed to be cheque, huh?
We are so proud of you!!!
love darah & gus & baby
Breaking News from Bettendorf Library
and
QC Online!
Hopefully tonight there will be a picture with an oversized a la publishers clearinghouse check. I bet when it's that large it's supposed to be cheque, huh?
We are so proud of you!!!
love darah & gus & baby
January 2, 2009
daddy's famous again!
John published an article in the Bettendorf news.
Go check him out!
http://www.thebettendorfnews.com/news/doc4959406bca35c262894447.txt
We're so proud of the good work he does!
Go check him out!
http://www.thebettendorfnews.com/news/doc4959406bca35c262894447.txt
We're so proud of the good work he does!
March 13, 2008
article link
I've changed the link of the Gazette article, so it should lead you to a full text copy of the article within our blog. Please respect the copyrights, etc, etc. Thanks! And again, let me know if you have any problems!
March 12, 2008
mama's famous
I'm in the paper!
I spoke with a reporter from the Gazette last week for this story on the c-section epidemic. And here we are in print! 1 in 3 by C-section. Please email me or leave me a comment if you cannot access it and I'll give you further directions. You might have to create a (free) account to access the story. Also please note that this is a limited time link so look at it as much as you can in the next 30 days! I'll hopefully be able to provide a more permanent link later on.
It's been awhile since I've talked about Guthrie's birth to someone who doesn't know our family and our story already. Aside from it being altogether cathartic, it, of course, brought the experience back up for me. Which was surprisingly less painful than I anticipated. I'm happy to be on the other side of the raw pain my cesarean caused. This not to say that tears don't flow when I think about it and that some anger doesn't burn, but these feelings don't overwhelm me.
I am so thankful to Carly for writing this article and writing about women's experiences so honestly. There's such a gamut of experiences when it comes to c-sections. As there should be- there's a gamut of paths one can take to get to the point of having a c-section. One thing is for certain, all those experiences (and the resulting emotions) are valid. Frequently I read posts saying "at least you have a baby" "at least everyone survived" "you are so self-indulgent for feeling this way - it could be so much worse." And indeed, it could be so much worse, but it was pretty bad as it was.
My hope is that this article will open that discussion a little more to include a lack of judgment no matter the experience, no matter what that experience left in its wake.
It is funny how in my mind my labor and surgery was one long flow of time and then I read this article and in the real world three days passed. I remember light and dark outside my hospital room window, but time was so liquid. And even the weeks after her birth. It is all one giant, somewhat fuzzy memory. I am glad to be out of that. A lot of people are still experiencing it in their own lives.
One thing that the article didn't mention (and I'm ok with that!) was the months of counseling it took to get to this point. This point where we are trying again for another baby and this point where even if I have to have another c-section my experience will not be the same because I am not the same person I was.
I guess the tricky thing is that I would do it all again, in less than a heartbeat if that was required of me. Of course I would. Any mother would. Us sectioned moms are no less grateful, that gratefulness is just more complicated. Because if I'm truly honest, my c-section was the lowest, worst point of my life. And at the same time, at that exact moment, was the birth of my daughter. A beautiful pure spirit full of light and life.
Those are tough things to reconcile.
So, here's to more openness and less judgment and, in the end, so much more transformation and growth.
Thanks for the opportunity Carly!
I spoke with a reporter from the Gazette last week for this story on the c-section epidemic. And here we are in print! 1 in 3 by C-section. Please email me or leave me a comment if you cannot access it and I'll give you further directions. You might have to create a (free) account to access the story. Also please note that this is a limited time link so look at it as much as you can in the next 30 days! I'll hopefully be able to provide a more permanent link later on.
It's been awhile since I've talked about Guthrie's birth to someone who doesn't know our family and our story already. Aside from it being altogether cathartic, it, of course, brought the experience back up for me. Which was surprisingly less painful than I anticipated. I'm happy to be on the other side of the raw pain my cesarean caused. This not to say that tears don't flow when I think about it and that some anger doesn't burn, but these feelings don't overwhelm me.
I am so thankful to Carly for writing this article and writing about women's experiences so honestly. There's such a gamut of experiences when it comes to c-sections. As there should be- there's a gamut of paths one can take to get to the point of having a c-section. One thing is for certain, all those experiences (and the resulting emotions) are valid. Frequently I read posts saying "at least you have a baby" "at least everyone survived" "you are so self-indulgent for feeling this way - it could be so much worse." And indeed, it could be so much worse, but it was pretty bad as it was.
My hope is that this article will open that discussion a little more to include a lack of judgment no matter the experience, no matter what that experience left in its wake.
It is funny how in my mind my labor and surgery was one long flow of time and then I read this article and in the real world three days passed. I remember light and dark outside my hospital room window, but time was so liquid. And even the weeks after her birth. It is all one giant, somewhat fuzzy memory. I am glad to be out of that. A lot of people are still experiencing it in their own lives.
One thing that the article didn't mention (and I'm ok with that!) was the months of counseling it took to get to this point. This point where we are trying again for another baby and this point where even if I have to have another c-section my experience will not be the same because I am not the same person I was.
I guess the tricky thing is that I would do it all again, in less than a heartbeat if that was required of me. Of course I would. Any mother would. Us sectioned moms are no less grateful, that gratefulness is just more complicated. Because if I'm truly honest, my c-section was the lowest, worst point of my life. And at the same time, at that exact moment, was the birth of my daughter. A beautiful pure spirit full of light and life.
Those are tough things to reconcile.
So, here's to more openness and less judgment and, in the end, so much more transformation and growth.
Thanks for the opportunity Carly!
March 3, 2008
January 1, 2007
3 in 1 by C-Section by Carly Weber, The Gazette, March 12, 2008
Eastern Iowa mothers voice mixed reactions
By Carly Weber
The Gazette
Tiffany Leibold cried when her doctor told her she needed to have a Caesarean section.
"I cried because ... I'd never had surgery and that scared me," said Leibold, 30, of North Liberty. "We kept hoping that we would be able to experience having him come on his own." But, little Brady, now 4 months old, was breech, and a week before Leibold's due date there wasn't enough amniotic fluid to try to manipulate him into the right position.
Breech babies are just one of the reasons doctors routinely perform C-sections. And, Leibold is just one of a growing contingent of women to deliver their baby via C-section.
In 10 years, the proportion of American women having surgical deliveries jumped by 62 percent, from 800,000 women in 1995 to 1.3 million in 2005, according to a report released in February by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
That means nearly one in three pregnancies now ends with a C-section.
Dr. Jerry Yankowitz, director of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Iowa, said the increase can be explained partially by medical advancements that decrease the risk of a surgical delivery. A number of women choose to have C-sections out of convenience or to avoid some of the side effects of a vaginal delivery.
"You put it all together and it gives doctors more permission to do C-sections," said Yankowitz, 49. "Our threshold (for performing C-sections) today would be much much lower than any past decade." If there is any doubt that a labor and delivery will progress without harm to the mother or child, doctors today are much more likely to consider a C-section.
That leaves literally millions of women recovering from C-sections every year. The experience can be isolating and disappointing for some.
"At that stage in your pregnancy you have this idea about how things are going to be," said Tracy Peterson, 29, of Springville. She was surprised to find out her daughter Addison was breech three weeks before her due date.
"When you (deliver vaginally) you feel amazed that your body can do that," said Peterson, who had a natural labor with her son. With a C-section "you kind of feel like it's not in your control. It was really strange." It helped to talk to friends who'd had C-sections, she said.
Women say it also helps to remember that a C-section was in the best interest of both their health and their baby's health.
"We felt that it was an option that would put neither baby at risk," said Jennifer Schulte, 28, of Cedar Rapids, who had a C-section nine months ago to deliver twins who were breech.
Schulte was happy with the experience.
"It wasn't traumatic for me. My kids weren't traumatized by it," she said. "If I never get to experience natural childbirth I'm OK with that." Darah Hulse of Iowa City feels differently.
"The experience totally devastated me. It was so totally against what I wanted," said Hulse, 29, who'd planned a drug-free labor.
She ended up with a C-section after being induced two weeks early because of preeclampsia and laboring unsuccessfully for three days.
"At one point when I was pregnant I had told my mom that a C-section was the one thing I didn't think I would ever able to get over," she said. "I felt like I'd failed. There are still days when I feel like that.
Sixteen months later, though, Hulse has healed to the point that she and her husband are trying to have another baby. But this time she's hoping to avoid another C-section by delivering at home, unless complications make a hospital delivery necessary.
Leibold, too, would like to give labor and delivery a try.
"I'm glad that (C-sections are) an option in today's world. Obviously compared to old ages, if the child was breech and the mother tried to go through labor, complications for child and mother were fatal a lot of the time," she said.
But "if I don't have to do that again, I don't want to do that again."
By Carly Weber
The Gazette
Tiffany Leibold cried when her doctor told her she needed to have a Caesarean section.
"I cried because ... I'd never had surgery and that scared me," said Leibold, 30, of North Liberty. "We kept hoping that we would be able to experience having him come on his own." But, little Brady, now 4 months old, was breech, and a week before Leibold's due date there wasn't enough amniotic fluid to try to manipulate him into the right position.
Breech babies are just one of the reasons doctors routinely perform C-sections. And, Leibold is just one of a growing contingent of women to deliver their baby via C-section.
In 10 years, the proportion of American women having surgical deliveries jumped by 62 percent, from 800,000 women in 1995 to 1.3 million in 2005, according to a report released in February by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
That means nearly one in three pregnancies now ends with a C-section.
Dr. Jerry Yankowitz, director of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Iowa, said the increase can be explained partially by medical advancements that decrease the risk of a surgical delivery. A number of women choose to have C-sections out of convenience or to avoid some of the side effects of a vaginal delivery.
"You put it all together and it gives doctors more permission to do C-sections," said Yankowitz, 49. "Our threshold (for performing C-sections) today would be much much lower than any past decade." If there is any doubt that a labor and delivery will progress without harm to the mother or child, doctors today are much more likely to consider a C-section.
That leaves literally millions of women recovering from C-sections every year. The experience can be isolating and disappointing for some.
"At that stage in your pregnancy you have this idea about how things are going to be," said Tracy Peterson, 29, of Springville. She was surprised to find out her daughter Addison was breech three weeks before her due date.
"When you (deliver vaginally) you feel amazed that your body can do that," said Peterson, who had a natural labor with her son. With a C-section "you kind of feel like it's not in your control. It was really strange." It helped to talk to friends who'd had C-sections, she said.
Women say it also helps to remember that a C-section was in the best interest of both their health and their baby's health.
"We felt that it was an option that would put neither baby at risk," said Jennifer Schulte, 28, of Cedar Rapids, who had a C-section nine months ago to deliver twins who were breech.
Schulte was happy with the experience.
"It wasn't traumatic for me. My kids weren't traumatized by it," she said. "If I never get to experience natural childbirth I'm OK with that." Darah Hulse of Iowa City feels differently.
"The experience totally devastated me. It was so totally against what I wanted," said Hulse, 29, who'd planned a drug-free labor.
She ended up with a C-section after being induced two weeks early because of preeclampsia and laboring unsuccessfully for three days.
"At one point when I was pregnant I had told my mom that a C-section was the one thing I didn't think I would ever able to get over," she said. "I felt like I'd failed. There are still days when I feel like that.
Sixteen months later, though, Hulse has healed to the point that she and her husband are trying to have another baby. But this time she's hoping to avoid another C-section by delivering at home, unless complications make a hospital delivery necessary.
Leibold, too, would like to give labor and delivery a try.
"I'm glad that (C-sections are) an option in today's world. Obviously compared to old ages, if the child was breech and the mother tried to go through labor, complications for child and mother were fatal a lot of the time," she said.
But "if I don't have to do that again, I don't want to do that again."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
