Hi all,
    Back after a visitor packed holidays (had to take some time off to
recover) and some medical concerns of my own (guess I'm going to have to
die, before someone considers it worth doing something)...I'm tired of
hearing it's just because I'm geting older. . . Anyway ...

    What gets me about the fogginess issue is that one, as pointed out here,
it is not a normal state for either mother or baby, and directly connected
to that is that many of the HCPs who should be concerned/interested appear
to be unable/unwilling to even acknowledge that this fogginess has an impact
on  - - (childbirth, breastfeeding, mothering, recovery, etc.). The second
issue is that now it seems, most expectant moms seem to be convinced that
they can't/don't want to deliver without drugs.

When I try to explain to the moms I work with that I was drugged with my
first and not with my second, and how vastly different the newborn period
was for ME, they look at me like I'm encouraging them to deliver standing on
their head. (They also seem to want to ignore that my non-intervention
labors were 2.5 and 1.75 hours compared to the 3 done in hospitals (4, 20
and 8.5 hours) to me, this alone would be an encouragement to avoid
interventions). This leads me to the second issue ...

The "older" mom. I heard that comment when I was in my 3rd pregnancy and
complaining of pain. I was 29 at the time. A few weeks later, I delievered
at 25 weeks because of a placental abruption and infection and since I went
on to have two non-eventful pregnancies (at 31 & 33), I seriously doubt that
being "old" was really an issue (I should have gone back and asked this Doc,
what he considered a 40 yo expectant mom???)

What is really at issue, with both of these situations, is that the people
who hold the knowledge/expertise of this area are subtly (I think one post,
said hypnotic suggestion) leading women in our culture to not be able to
trust their bodies to work, not believe that their bodies can work, not
wanting to make whatever effort to even work with their bodies, and as a
result, not having the emotional/physical sensations that are normal. And
then the people are on this list are the ones to have to deal with the
problems/wreckage that occur after these events with such moms who are
convinced that their bodies can't/won't work.

And very few people (mostly here on LactNet) seem to want to acknowledge how
cost effective, relatively easy and preventative that proper education of
both the HCPs and the expectant mothers would be in these situations. And
how critically important properly done clinical research (although even
anecdotal research has it's merit, even if it's just to be the basis for a
clinical study) is needed on most women's issues.

Oh I can tell I'm feeling better, hopped up on the soap box without a twinge
of pain . . .

Leslie Ward
Fort Hood, TX

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