In a message dated 97-03-06 00:08:30 EST, Kathleen notes:

<< there are other issues here, and  yes, if a baby is lost at
 home, this is a *terrible* tragedy.  There are victims from hospital births
 also, though, and I personally can attest that many breastfeeding
 relationships  are lost, victim to hospital intervention that is
 unnecessary, untried, and *dangerous.*  I spend most of my time fixing
 screw ups where I live, of the medical establishment, of which I am a
 dubious participant. >>

I wonder if we ever look at the fact that yes, babies also die in hospitals,
and would they have been saved had the mother given birth in a SAFE
environment -- at home or in a birthing center such as Kathleen described.  I
too was the victim of two terrible hospital experiences -- the second one
wasn't as bad as the first -- and chose to have baby number three at home
primarily because we were no longer in Michigan where there IS a wonderful
out-of-hospital birthing center (of which I was privileged to help develop
and was the first head nurse), and because I had no intention of submitting
to all the rules and regs of the hospital.  Often when a woman has a dreadful
experience, and she or the baby suffers from multiple interventions leading
to problems, our response often is, "but all that counts is that you have a
healthy baby."  While having a healthy baby and a safe birth is OF COURSE the
number one desire of all health professionals and parents, why must that
healthy baby and safe birth come at the cost of a pleasurable experience?  We
all know the cascade effect of birth interventions -- even those that seem
innocuous at the time.  I've recently had to pick up the pieces r/t
breastfeeding from women that were offered the option of being induced
because the doc was going out of town; she's 38 weeks, and "could deliver any
time."  When will we learn to stop messing around and sit on our collective
hands??!!

Scuse me, but this too touched a sore point with me.  At the BSC conference
in Nashville was one of the nurses that was with me in the birthing room when
Torrey was born, nearly 19 years ago!  (WOW!)  She too worked in the birthing
center a lot -- she was the nurse for the OB that was medical director of the
FBC.  Her coment to me at some point was that "we didn't seem to have the
problems with breastfeeding in the birthing center that we had with moms in
the hospital....."  Truly truly.  Babies went to breast immediately after
birth; there was no separation of mom & baby; no drugs, no inductions, no
stimulation with Pitocin, no epidurals....committed staff; committed moms;
happy, breastfed babies.  If it hadn't been for all the politics that go
along with doing something a bit out of the ordinary, especially given that
this was 1979 (!), working at the FBC would have been -- and I guess truly
was -- the dream job.

Jan Barger -- who still considers the Family Birthing Center, affiliated with
Providence Hospital in Southfield, MI "hers" even though she's been gone for
15 years!!!