Boy vs. Bench

We were playing at the park a couple of weekends ago and Liam had a run in with a big pokey screw on the back of a bench. This required an ER trip and stitches, but he was a big, brave boy. It is almost entirely healed now and I think the scarring will be minimal. Joe and I were joking how surprising it was that we haven't had any ER trips earlier in our parenting career!

April is Cesarean Awareness Month

If you are a woman- if you have given birth, if you haven't given birth yet but will likely in the future, if you know someone who will give birth, please read this. It is really important.

General disclaimer: Cesarean sections can be lifesaving for mothers and for babies. I am so grateful that is safe for the mothers and babies that need it.

My concern: In 2008, the national cesarean section rate was 32.3%
This graph has a breakdown of primary (first) cesareans, total cesareans and the vbac rate from 1983-2006.

The World Health Organization has found that a cesarean rate above 10-15% causes more harm than good. Between 5-10% seems to optimize outcomes. Midwives have been able to pretty consistently achieve a cesarean rate at 5% or below with as good or better outcomes: The British Medical Journal CPM 2000 study had a 3.7% cesarean rate and The Farm midwives made their statistics available in 2000. They have a 1.4% cesarean rate. If you click through to those links, you will be able to read more, but this is with similar mortality rates and much lower morbidity rates.

This means that many, many women are undergoing major surgery unnecessarily. With all the risks that go with it- immediate risks and those that impact future pregnancies. From Childbirth Connection:

Cesarean section is a major surgical procedure that increases the likelihood of many types of harm for mothers and babies in comparison with vaginal birth. Short-term harms for mothers include increased risk of infection, surgical injury, blood clots, emergency hysterectomy, intense and longer-lasting pain, going back into the hospital and poor overall functioning. Babies born by cesarean section are more likely to have surgical cuts, breathing problems, difficulty getting breastfeeding going, and asthma in childhood and beyond. Perhaps due to the common surgical side effect of "adhesion" formation, cesarean mothers are more likely to have ongoing pelvic pain, to experience bowel blockage, to be injured during future surgery, and to have future infertility. Of special concern after cesarean are various serious conditions for mothers and babies that are more likely in future pregnancies, including ectopic pregnancy, placenta previa, placenta accreta, placental abruption, and uterine rupture (Childbirth Connection 2006).

So what can you do to avoid having an unnecessary cesarean?

• Be a good consumer. Found out your care provider's cesarean rate. Count on being the rule and not the exception.
• Read up on modern birth practices. Most procedures and protocols in the hospital are *not* evidence- based medicine.
• If you have already had a cesarean, consider vbac. Go to ICAN to find out more.
• If you are a low-risk woman, get a midwife. In general, midwives have as good or better outcomes than doctors. Birth is a normal, biological function and not a disease- go to an expert in normal birth, not a surgeon. Visit the Midwives Alliance of North America, the North American Registry of Midwives or the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Homeschooling next year... gathering ideas

I was feeling inspired by the fresh spring air and new beginnings yesterday, so I was looking around the internet, hoping for some good ideas for our school this upcoming year. And some things that we can do over the summer, too.

My children are such good little learners, they are pretty agreeable to whatever I have come up with to work on. My first year, we used Mother of Divine Grace which was a good start, but I found it a little dry to teach.

This year, I have done a more eclectic approach-
Math U See
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
a little science experiment book (the name escapes me currently)
The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas
a book of ideas for the different liturgical seasons and feast days (which name also escapes me right now. I can picture the front of the book, but not the title).

When I first started to think about homeschooling, a friend lent me the book Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss. At the time, Issy was 5, Isaac was 3 1/2 and Liam was 2 (and quite a handful) and I just needed things spelled out for me. Hence, MODG. But I am revisiting some Real Learning ideas (basically, an education built on living books) and since I don't feel so much in crisis mode of parenting right now, I think it is something I would like to take on. I have been visiting Mrs. Foss' Serendipity blog and am looking at doing the Alphabet Path with the kiddos. Sticking with Math U See, since they have already started on it and they like it a lot. She also has a ton (an overwhelming amount!!) of ideas for feast days and such. So many resources, it is so hard to choose for an indecisive person like me!

I have to admit that I am feeling a little down about not homeschooling in Idaho. I was really looking forward to doing our nature study along hiking trails in the forest. Kansas is beautiful in it's own way, but it is just really hard to compare with the awesomeness that is Yellowstone. Hopefully, someday in Colorado, though.

Running

Yesterday evening, the weather was gorgeous. Warm, sunny, not too windy (for Kansas, at least). Just perfect for a nice jog outside.

I told Joe I wanted to go after dinner. He looked at me like I was slightly crazy but agreed to hang out with the kiddos. I putting on my running shoes, walked out of my neighborhood for a warmup and then took off.

I ran (HA!) into a problem pretty quickly. I wanted to run on the country road semi-close to my house. Because there is no frontage road that cuts all the way through, to get to it I would have to run 1/4? 1/3? of a mile in the ditch of the highway. Uneven ground. Trash. Very conspicuous.

Not very far into it, I remembered why I don't run. I find that it is one of those better-in-theory-than-in-practice kind of things for me. It makes my lungs burn. It makes my cesarean scar ache something fierce. I should say that once I got to 215th street, it was much better. I walked/jogged alongside a field of little green shoots of wheat and got appreciate the sun setting in the big sky.

Perhaps I would enjoy it more if I did it more often? I wouldn't be out of shape and the unpleasantness wouldn't be so unpleasant? All those good endorphins?

Or perhaps I will stick to walking briskly. And reading people's blogs about running. Like my friend Barefoot Angie Bee I will just live vicariously through her and my other running friends :)