Natural Mother's Say No to Circumcision

...I couldn't have said it more eloquently myself. Everything the author mentions in this article I completely relate with; their decision not to circumcise their son, why, their reasoning, etc.

I'm still surprised when people ask me if I have to retract Levi's foreskin. ????? I guess that's just the common belief? To me it just seems like such outdated misinformation, it's hard for me to believe that it's still out there.

My response is always, "Noooooooooo. His foreskin should never be retracted, unless he's the one doing the retracting."

Boys foreskins will automatically begin to loosen at puberty or just before. Prior to that, the foreskin acts as an extremely important barrier for the glans of the penis; keeping it moist {which it should be, not dry and chafed like the glans of a circumcised penis}, and keeping harmful bacteria out.

Keeping Levi intact was one of the healthiest decisions we ever made for him. Like the author of the above article, I'm committed to getting the word out in our country that foreskins are our friends! Parents....put...the...knife...down.

It's not our decision as parents to decide which perfectly healthy body parts our children get to keep. We don't cut our daughters. We shouldn't cut our sons.

I especially love this quote from the article...

"When I found out I was having a boy in 2001, I hadn’t really thought much about circumcision. I did about five minutes of research and knew immediately I would never allow unnecessary surgery to be performed on my healthy baby boy. Luckily, my husband (who is circumcised) agreed after I showed him just one picture of a circumcision being performed. If my husband hadn’t agreed, I still couldn't have allowed it to happen, so I was glad to avoid a disagreement."

Most of the women I've talked to who made the decision to circumcise their son, cited there reason as mainly that their husband's wanted him to be. Ummmm....yaaaah. I'm his mother. After the research I've done, which like she said, took literally five minutes to come to a logical decision, even if my husband did still want him to be circumcised, it just wouldn't happen. Like I said, I'm his mother. Protector. Life-giver. Nurturer. I love my husband, I honor him and I submit to him. But I protect my babies too. It's my God given job. And my passion.

But I never had to go through that with Dave. I knew what kind of man I married. I picked him for a reason. He was open minded and logical about it. I showed him a couple of youtube videos, cited a couple of studies and we had a heart to heart and that was it. No circumcision.

Giselle, a SAHM, frustrated with the lack of support for a VBAC, wrote a consent form.....for her OB. Read it here. SO great!!! And SO needed.

Thanks Sheridan for passing along :D

If I didn't have a lump the size of Texas in my throat right now I would write more.

Watch for yourself...an absolutely STUNNING, moving and beautiful photo documentation of a homebirth.

I so so so so wish more women in our country got to experience birth the way it was meant. It's so not right that only a tiny few of us have seen the reality of normal birth. It's....soul altering.

Thanks Joy for posting :)

My Breastmilk Tastes like Strawberries

So the other day my daughter was getting dressed after her bath and she looked down and exclaimed proudly, "I have nipples!" She said it like she just realized it. Then she looked at me and said, " I have nipples, and you have mama's {our codeword for boobs and nursing}."

"Yep." I said.

"I used to suck on your mama's when I was a baby." She said.

"Yes you did." I said. Then I asked her, "Did you like it?"

"Mmmm-hmmmm." She said with a grin.

"Do you remember it?" I asked.

"Mmmm-hmmmm."

"What did it taste like?" I asked her.

Stopping to give it some careful consideration, she said, "...........STRAAAAAAAWBERRIES!!!" with a huge smile on her face!

How great is that?! But the totally cool thing is that strawberries were and still are her all-time favorite food. What a huge compliment coming from her. I love to know that she equates nursing with the sweetest, happiest food/feeling she knows :)

*Siiiiiigh* Just wish we got to see more of this on our television screen here in the US. When the only exposure most women are getting to viewing birth is "A Baby Story", it's no wonder so many women have such a fuzzy, mislead idea of what real birth is actually like.

If only we got to see commercials like this...

Thanks Sheridan for passing it along!

Naitre Enchantee

Women NEED to see more births like this. This is NORMAL birth.

I love this video because it shows the mama vocalizing in a very productive manner. Not screaming, not yelling, but opening her mouth wide and letting the energy out. This was such an amazingly therapeutic and I think necessary act for me when I laboured and birthed Dakota and Levi. The "oooooooooooh"s and "aaaaaaaaaaah"s truly open a woman up on the inside. It's such a dance, labour and birth. I love the way her husband and her midwife were touching her also; soft, gentle stroking, not pushing her around or barking orders at her. So respectful.

Notice the babies reaction to being birthed. I always notice this about homebirth/natural births in general compared to the average medically-managed birth. Generally speaking. The baby cries a little, then when he is held close to his bare mama's chest, in the quiet, in the dim light, he's still. He's calm and very at peace. He's still naked, he's barely but thirty seconds old, but he's calm. His arms aren't out at his sides, he's not screaming, he doesn't have his eyes clamped shut to block out the glaring lights. He's calm, because his surroundings are calm.

It's just such a beautiful thing. It makes me sad to think that so many women in our country don't get to have this with their babies. And it's not like we're even giving this up in order to have safer births and newborns, because birth in the U.S. ranks VERY low on the safety index when compared to other industrialized nations. When you consider that about one in every three women who walk through a hospital's doors will be wheeled out with a major abdominal incision, or that a third of all women in our country will be given an episiotomy, is that safe? These are rates are MUCH too high. And it's not healthy. It's not healthy for women, it's definitely not healthy for babies, and it's not healthy for our society.

What is healthy is when women are given the ability to make informed decisions about their health care and that of their babies so that they can have safer, happier births with better outcomes. And then, have the resources available to act on their informed decisions. This means more hospitals with way lower cesarean and intervention rates {along with completely re-evaluating and re-constructing the current model of maternity care to INCLUDE midwifery as a fundamental part of that care}, and WAY more birthing centers with more midwives. The sooner the U.S. can catch on to what other countries already know, such as Sweden, where midwives and ob's work together with the support of the community and state, the sooner we can start to enjoy healthier, happier and safer births for ourselves and our babies.



Naitre_enchantee
Uploaded by magalidieux

Thank you to Mommymichael for sharing this video!

Salma Hayek Breastfeeding an African Baby Boy

Right on!!! Go Salma!

*EDIT*
Since this clip has now been cut by youtube {whoooooole other blog entry! ARG!}, you can find it here...

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6864594&page=1

Thank you to Megan for passing it along.

During a visit to Africa, actress Salma Hayek came upon a mother who had no breastmilk to feed her one week old baby boy. Salma, who's own child is one year old, took the opportunity to breastfeed the baby, with cameras rolling.

I got tears in my eyes watching this clip. I think, seeing a baby gulping human milk like that, knowing he was longing for it for days and days, made me sad. But also to see the widespread hunger of these little ones at such a young age. Then to think of my own rolly polly breastfeed baby{s}. Just makes it feel not so fair to them. But the world isn't a fair place. Which is why it's paramount to give major props to people like Salma, willing to do something so controversial for the simple sake of a childs health and happiness.