#birth advocate

[harmonyhealinghub]

Birth Doulas: Empowering Support for Expectant Families

Shaina Tranquilino

December 12, 2023

Bringing a new life into the world is an incredible journey filled with joy, anticipation, and sometimes, uncertainty. During this transformative time, many women seek additional support to ensure a positive birth experience. Enter birth doulas – compassionate professionals who provide continuous physical, emotional, and informational assistance before, during, and after childbirth. In this blog post, we will delve into what birth doulas are and explore their invaluable role in empowering expectant mothers.

Understanding Birth Doulas: A birth doula is a trained individual who offers non-medical support to expectant mothers throughout the entire childbirth process. These dedicated individuals are typically experienced in various birthing techniques and possess extensive knowledge of the physiological and emotional aspects of labour and delivery.

Their Role: 1. Emotional Support: Birth doulas provide unwavering emotional support during pregnancy, labour, and postpartum periods. They assist expectant mothers by actively listening to their concerns, fears, hopes, and dreams surrounding childbirth. By offering empathy and reassurance, these caring professionals help alleviate anxieties while fostering confidence.

2. Continuous Physical Comfort: Doulas employ an array of comfort measures to ease discomforts associated with labour pains such as massage techniques, breathing exercises, relaxation techniques, positioning suggestions, and more. Their presence ensures that the mother's physical needs are addressed consistently throughout the birthing process.

3. Advocacy & Communication: One significant aspect of a birth doula's role is to act as an advocate for the mother's preferences and desires when communicating with healthcare providers or medical staff. This may include discussing pain management options or ensuring the mother has access to accurate information about procedures being performed.

4. Informational Support: Birth doulas empower expectant mothers by providing evidence-based information on various aspects of childbirth like different birthing positions or breastfeeding techniques. They ensure that the mother is well-informed, enabling her to make educated decisions regarding her birth plan.

5. Partner Support: Birth doulas also extend their support to partners or other family members involved in the birthing process. By guiding them on how best to assist and comfort the labouring mother, doulas help create a harmonious environment where everyone feels included and informed.

Benefits of Hiring a Birth Doula: The advantages of having a birth doula during childbirth are numerous:

1. Increased Satisfaction: Studies have shown that women who receive continuous support from a birth doula report higher levels of satisfaction with their birthing experience.

2. Reduced Interventions: Research indicates that with the presence of a doula, there is often a decrease in interventions like cesarean sections and epidurals, leading to more positive outcomes for both mother and baby.

3. Emotional Well-being: The emotional support provided by birth doulas significantly reduces stress levels for expectant mothers, promoting overall emotional well-being throughout pregnancy and beyond.

4. Lowered Risk of Postpartum Depression: Women supported by birth doulas tend to have lower rates of postpartum depression due to the consistent guidance and nurturing they receive during the vulnerable post-birth period.

Birth doulas play an essential role in ensuring positive experiences for expectant mothers during childbirth. Their unwavering support, knowledge, and advocacy empower women to navigate this transformative journey confidently. By providing physical comfort, emotional reassurance, informational assistance, and acting as an advocate, these dedicated professionals contribute significantly to creating fulfilling and empowering birthing experiences for all involved.

[reasonsforhope]

"The number of teenage abortions in Finland fell by 66% between 2000 and 2023, its public health institute THL said on Monday, attributing the reduction to the offer of free contraception to adolescents and compulsory sex education in schools.

Finland also passed a law in 2022 liberalising abortion, at a time of deep divisions over abortion rights in Europe and court rulings in the U.S. that restricted access to terminations of unwanted pregnancies for millions of people there.

The number of abortions among women under 20 rose during the 1990s in Finland, which led the Nordic country to respond at the start of the 2000s by making morning-after pills available without prescription from 15 years of age and sexual education compulsory in all schools.

"We can assume that sexual education plays a significant role," THL's research professor Mika Gissler told Reuters, adding that increased access to contraception from a young age was another factor behind the change.

The number of abortions fell 66% to 722 in 2023 from 2,144 in 2000 among all teenagers aged 19 or younger in Finland, while the drop was even steeper at 78% among those under 18 in the same period, THL's statistics showed.

"Since the latter half of the 2010s, the decline in the number of young people's abortions has also been influenced by the introduction of free contraception in many welfare regions," THL wrote in a report...

Under the 2022 liberalisation, Finland from September 2023 stopped requiring women to give a reason for having an abortion, making it available upon a pregnant person's request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

[Note: That's actually not a very long window for abortion! Many conservative states in the US have actually instituted 12-week bans, and it's caused terrible upheaval and limits to medical services. Sounds like Finland should liberalize further, imho! Still, important progress!]

THL said it was too early to conclude whether the legislative change, which took effect last year, will have an impact on the number of abortions."

-via Reuters, June 3, 2024

[belovedfoxincrocs-shadowbanned]

@foropinionssake I don't like long threads so I am continuing this here to keep from killing peoples' dashboards.

The examples I gave of toddlers and adults are to draw on the philosophical notion of rights of people in relation to one another. We are discussing abortion as an exercise of a woman's right to bodily autonomy. My position is that a person does not have the right to violate another person's rights in pursuit of their own. You do however have the right to take action that would normally be a violation of another's rights in defense of your own. The key distinction is that acting in defense requires that someone else be the aggressor. That's why in my hypothetical examples I referred to both children and adults.

An adult somehow using you as a kind of life support system would be violating your rights and you would be within your own rights to defend yourself against it, even at the expense of the other person's right to life. That is because an adult has both the agency and capacity to be an aggressor. A fetus, however, does not have the same agency or capacity as an adult. A fetus is incapable of being the aggressor. He/she still has the right to life, and for you to use an abortion to exercise your right to bodily autonomy, you would necessarily be violating that fetus's rights and that would make you the aggressor in this scenario.

I used the less extreme toddler example to reinforce the idea that children cannot act as an aggressor in the sense of violating a person's rights.

[thottybrucewayne]

Did I tell yall I signed up for doula classes?

[lanaevyssmoved]

i hate how prevalent the use of AI has become in the modding community especially for bg3, there's even mods that replace the narrator's voice with AI generated ones

it's never gonna reach the level of skyrim ai modding, which has gone so far that you can have ai conversations with npcs and ai can generate entire quests for you as you play, but it is definitely quite popular and it is disappointing.

unfortunately the amount of people who find ai to be a fascinating tool that changes the landscape of well... everything entirely will always outweigh people who understand how dangerous and irresponsible it is. the average view of it is 'wow this is amazing' and they will always outnumber us.

[snekdood]

ive literally never understood antisemitism and i dont think I ever will. literally 0 basis for any of the conspiracy theories. its always just projection from christians.

[sukibenders]

Listen, and I say this as a Rhaenicent fan, but seeing some on Twitter going "Alicent would never hurt Rhaenyra like that," or "But if she were with Alicent..." really has me shaking my head because, really? That's what you thought coming out of this episode?

[simptasia]

mum and i were almost not able to buy our house because a real estate lawyer heard us casually say i'm autistic and alarm bells went off in her head, because she believed that meant i wasn't mentally capable of understanding what i was signing up for

[panb1mbo]

bro i love being a birth worker who luvs abortion. if i got pregnant rn? it's not about it being a girl or a boy. it's a-borted. this is not a spicy take either but some ppl think it is and i love seeing their reactions

[cranialgames]

I’m having a baby in 3 weeks, maximum, and one of my partner’s colleagues tested positive for covid and still went to work today

And I’m lying here at almost 2am wondering why I can’t sleep lol

[chicago-geniza]

These portraits are slaying me, Irena’s public persona is exactly what it says on the tin, she is presenting “I am sexy, tragic, noir, clothed in silks, garlanded in pearls, draped in furs, why yes, I am in a menage a trois with a married man while also being married myself due to the vagaries of Second Republic marriage law and was raised by a single mother while my father was sentenced to hard labor in Siberia as a political prisoner and died of tuberculosis, why do you ask?”

[theanonymousadoptee]

The History of Adoption in the United States

If you know anything about our government and its operations, you know that the church (specifically the Catholic Church) has been involved in adoption practices throughout the 1940s and into the early 1970s before Roe v. Wade. They are also responsible for the invention of birth control, fun fact. What you probably didn't know was that the practice began in the 1850s, with the first formal adoption law being put into place in Massachusetts in 1851, which allowed a judge to take away a parent's rights if they were deemed unfit to be parents, and was enacted in part because of the work done by a Reverand who went by the name Charles Loring Brace, who is 1853, founded the Children's Aid Society in New York City.

A Little Bit of Context: Before the 1850s

Before this, adoption was informal and usually used between more prominent families to secure wealth via property and other desirable assets for the period. They were like arranged marriages in that they generally benefited both parties. It's not hard to imagine scenarios where the daughter of a prominent wealthy family gave birth to an illegitimate child that her parents forced her to relinquish to save face and protect the family name and remain in good standings with society; in other words, to avoid what today we might call, "a PR nightmare." So in retrospect, the first adoption law in Massachusetts seems like a significant step forward (and let's be honest, the fact that the birthplace of any form of adoption law has me saying, "Okay, Massachusetts, good for you, girl," in my head because I'm vaguely aware of the petition at a Massachusetts public school to, and I quote, "bring back slavery," and like, no?) and in a lot of ways it was, but to say there weren't negative consequences that could be born out of this was obvious.

A Historical Example of Mob Mentality and How it Relates to Adoption

For starters, the earliest example (and one that, right off the top of my head, I know that everyone, young and old, is guaranteed to understand) I can think to use to explain "mob mentality" would be the Salem Witch Trials (and yes I promise this has a point), because some people began to accuse their friends and neighbors of witchcraft out of revenge for some act committed against them (either real or imagined). Is your friend's business doing better than yours? Witchcraft. If your neighbor produced higher yields than you this season? Witcraft. Too many successful births? Witchcraft. Did your neighbor get offered a top position in the church over you? Well, indeed, it must be witchcraft.

With that example fresh in your brain, it becomes pretty easy to spot the potential issues. Parents relied on children during this time to help their mothers on the farm and to do housework and other menial jobs required by the period. If parents lost their children (especially if they were older and unable to do the manual labor required), it could leave them destitute with no food and no money or ability to pay their way. If there is as much government corruption as today, you can probably bet that judges held their coffers wide open so the wealthy and influential business people could fill them. Once again, tipping the odds in favor of the rich.

The Church's Motto

The church, much like Reverand Charles Loring Brace, has always said that it is their duty as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ to help the homeless, widowed, and poor, to be an advocate for children born into such circumstances, and to compel the sinner to rise from their misfortune, repent for their sins and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and accept him into their lives and hearts. It began with orphanages for children whose parents were unfit or died and eventually morphed into "Magdalene Asylums" or "Mother and Baby" homes. Then throughout the 19th Century and into the first half of the 20th Century, many of these institutions were run by religious organizations. Their primary focus was providing education and healthcare services to communities. Later this turned into institutions for unwed mothers. It allowed women and girls who became pregnant out of wedlock or (in the most unfortunate scenario) were molested or raped. Unfortunately, during this period, society generally believed that in these horrific cases that it was the fault of the woman and not the man who had assaulted or raped her. Women were accused of tempting men, promoting this behavior, and deserved whatever happened to them. This attitude towards victims of sexual assault highlights a problematic societal mindset.

The (Forced) Relinquishment of Illegitimate Children

In the years before Roe v. Wade (If you don't know, the court precedent set stated that a woman has a right to privacy and to make informed medical decisions regarding her reproductive health without interference from the government or any other party) it was social suicide to be considered sleazy or uncouth. It could hurt her prospects of marriage, and this was especially important because, at this time, women did not aspire to have careers or do anything outside of the home other than teaching or caregiving. From the 1940s through the mid to late 1960s, society expected women to be good, god-fearing women who cared for their husbands and gave them many children. A woman's ultimate goal was to be a homemaker. Raise polite, happy, and successful children who become well-rounded adults who don't get in trouble and attend Church every Sunday.

Any woman who strayed from the mold forged by the church and affirmed by society, their family name and personal reputation would be in ruins—severely damaging any fruitful marriage prospects. In the book, The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler talks about the lengths some women and their family members went to save not only themselves and their reputation as parents but also to protect their daughters from being shunned in the community, making her fate all but inevitable.

The idea of a family member, a mother, a father, or even a brother coercing their daughter or sister (sometimes even forcefully, giving them only one of two options: relinquish their children or be selfish and condemn the child to a life of poverty and shame (great options, right? Dark, I know) probably seems unthinkable. At this time, however, this was the reality.

Right around this time, the Catholic Church saw a rise in demand for those "Mother and Baby" homes; because of this demand, many institutions began accepting only women who were unwed and pregnant and were permitted to stay until their babies were born. Then they were sent home (often coming from nearby towns far enough away from their hometowns that they wouldn't be spotted by anyone they knew) with vague, empty promises that their notes, letters, mementos, and photos they wanted their children to have eventually, would be saved and documented for when they were older. Contact between the birth mothers, their babies, or even the families adopting their children was little to nonexistent. Adoptive families during this period were also encouraged not to mention the adoption to their children (except in the cases of transracial adoption, but even then, as a transracial adoptee, I've heard some crazy things said to me that felt kind of insulting. So if the parents of these children were also encouraged to do the same, it wouldn't be surprising to me) and if they couldn't, they usually opt for something along the lines of, "They didn't want you because (*insert drugs or alcohol or promiscuity here*), and we (the adoptive family) wanted you because we (*insert the reason of infertility or charity or loneliness/sense of duty here*) and were more equipped to care for you than your birth mother was," (at least this is the thing I have not only heard the most in my house but other adoptees have also cited as frequently hearing, either by their family members or friends).

The Girls Who Went Away

Often, pregnancy would befall young women who still attended school. These young women didn't have access to sex education in their schools. Most of the time, these lessons were faith-based and centered around abstinence and purity. Their teachers didn't teach them about the risks of sex (or sex at all), and sometimes these young women had naive, childlike assumptions about sex based on what their parents told them about the subject (often minimal, if at all) in their homes.

Some birth mothers were so fearful of their parent's reactions that they engaged in risky behavior like drinking, drugs, and smoking to cause a miscarriage. Others attempted to will it away, denying the obvious until it was no longer possible. As you can imagine, some girls were denounced by their parents and left to fend for themselves on the street. Others had no other option but to go to their church leaders to secure a bed in one of these homes for unwed mothers (as mentioned earlier, usually several towns over), isolating them from the support of their friends and family while simultaneously protecting their reputation), tell her school that she'll be taking a leave of absence for either medical procedures, sick family members, or any excuse that would explain their absence for months at a time. If these girls were exposed by school staff or any community member with any authority to be pregnant out of wedlock, the school also had the right to kick them out, citing that their child posed the risk of corrupting other girls to sin similarly and, therefore barred from attending the school. Most of the time, the cover-up was unsuccessful, and even though it wasn't expressly said out loud, people often assumed that the reason they weren't around was that they had sinned against the Lord, and this was their punishment for consummating with the other sex. *Induce Automatic Pearl-Clutching Here*

When these women came home from these homes, everyone around them was inclined to pretend that the whole ordeal had never happened, and parents had the idea that their daughter's life would continue as usual. Women who have openly discussed the trauma they experienced relinquishing their babies have cited that upon their return, they felt different from everyone around them. Some women, to cope with the pain of giving up a child that everyone around either didn't know existed or pretended not to know existed, engaged in even riskier behaviors than the ones that had led them there in the first place. Engaging in even more unprotected sex, drinking in excessive amounts, being promiscuous, and even going so far as to start taking hard drugs or becoming obsessed with the way they look. Some women immersed themselves in ensuring everything returned to normal while secretly feeling like some part of them had died the minute the baby had left their arms but could not speak about it. Some women never did.

The Condition and Staff of the Homes for Unwed Mothers

The last thing we have to talk about is the staff of these facilities along with their conditions. As much as I would like to denounce every single one of these institutions based solely on their purpose, not all of these homes had deplorable conditions and unkind staff. Some women described their experiences (apart from the circumstances that led them there) as relatively positive. They said that the nurses showed them kindness and understanding that wasn't always present throughout this practice. At other homes, the conditions weren't excellent, and they operated almost like a prison. The women described their time in these homes as lonely, isolating, and often scary experiences. The prenatal checkups and other routine appointments were described as invasive, with the doctor or nurse not explaining what they were doing and why. This was also true if there were complications during birth; the women were sedated and never told what was happening to them, further making the experience even more traumatizing than it needed to be.

When it was time for relinquishment, the mothers got no time with their children. Some staff did feel bad enough to allow them time with their children, but most of the time, nurses were trained to remain as detached as possible. Some even go so far as to guilt the more reluctant women to give their children away. Telling them that they're dooming their children to a life of poverty, meaning the birth mothers were sluts and didn't deserve to have children; some were kinder, but the practice was just as manipulative. The more considerate nurses would only pretend to care, not using as forceful language but asking questions like, "How are you going to take off this child?" "Where would you live?" "Your parents would disown you, and then what will you do?"

These methods worked. Nurses would then take the children of these unwed mothers to live with other well-off families. As much as we like to vilify birth mothers, I think it's essential for us as adoptees to understand the pain and damage that this practice (when not done correctly or with all parties involved in mind) can cause. Once we begin to process our adoption loss and grief, we tend to become angry at our adoptive parents and birth parents. Still, it's important to remember that they're also victims of this institution. We can't process our loss without understanding that everyone kind of loses uniquely. Birth mothers miss out on raising their children; adoptive parents will never look at their child's face and see one that resembles theirs, and adoptees will never experience the mother-daughter bond that is so crucial to the growth of a healthy and well-rounded child. Instead, it leaves the adoptee feeling empty and lonely, with abandonment looming over their shoulders as they struggle to find home. Everyone loses, and it's my personal goal to spread awareness about the topic since no one else seems to be doing so. I want to provide you, the adoptee, a safe place to discuss these feelings. I don't want you to feel like you're judged for being angry or shameful, or hurt because you have every right to feel these feelings. You deserve a place to express them.

[lexa-griffins]

I’m sure the first few years of clexa’s relationship in canon must’ve been tough. Obviously, they must’ve been hiding at first because Lexa dating an ambassador would be a complete conflict of interest. But Clarke doesn’t have much of a choice. She’s the ambassador, and all she’s ever been has been tied to representing skaikru, it’s not like she can just have another position in polis. Getting another job for her clan would mean she has to move away and won’t be living in Polis anymore. And well, I can’t imagine Clarke just deciding she won’t do anything anymore, she has the biggest savior complex.

Yup, yup, I'm sure it would not have been an easy thing at first. I think it wouldn't be a secret so to speak - Lexa's feelings for Clarke were never really a secret to begin with since everyone and their mom was aware of Lexa's "weakness" - but it would also be something people don't talk about.

But that also means Clarke being an ambassador can create tension and, like you said, its a complete conflict of interest. Now, do I like to believe people have more faith in Lexa than thinking that she'll bend over for Clarke at any given time? Of course, their bedroom life is none of their business (sorry adsdfjdsfkh) but sure, there would always be ambassadors, especially those that have rockier relationships with Polis, that would accuse her of such.

I really think Clarke would have to embrace her Wanheda title, cut any association line with Skaikru as their leader/ambassador and really become something that's associated with Heda directly; be it an advisor, an executioner, something that serves Heda and the coalition directly. Because you're absolutely correct, there is no way Clarke would spend her days just frolicking around Polis or closed inside Lexa's room drawing and be happy with that. I think even going back to her healer roots would not be very doable for her, Clarke would need to still be trained (Clarke has needed Abby to come in and actually save people at least a couple of times, she is not fully medically trained or at least still needs a lot more practice) and after all she's been through I cant see Clarke particularly wanting to go back to being a student for something that doesn't even fulfill her. And yes, with the massive saviors and hero complex Clarke has it feels almost impossible for her to not want to be involved in being at the very least, an advisor of sorts. And even Lexa, I dont think, would accept Clarke not being an active part of the coalition, "you were born for this, same as me", Lexa knows very well that Clarke would never stay put and she trusts Clarke's judgement far too much to not have her by her side.

[beemovieerotica]

No wonder “gender identity,” understood by well-meaning LGBTQ+ advocates as an abstract feeling, has done such a poor job of justifying sex change. If biological sex is part of a material structure of value, then society has a concrete interest in any potential gains or losses that may result, feelings be damned.

Gill-Peterson tells the story of Robert Stonestreet, a 10-year-old boy who was brought to the Johns Hopkins Hospital for a rare urethral defect in 1915. When the doctors informed his father that the boy had ovaries and should be reassigned as a girl, the man refused, explaining that he already had six girls at home and his son was a great help around the family farm. Of course, Stonestreet was prepubescent. Whatever biological advantage he had over his sisters was the natural spoils of working daily on a farm. The point is that his father’s social validation of his gender was the basically incidental result of an economic calculation about his sex. Twenty-one years later, Stonestreet asked the same doctors to certify him as male so he could wed his fiancée. They refused — one suspects because a marriage with no reproductive potential struck them as dead in the water, especially with the national birth rate at an all-time low. Three days later, Stonestreet committed suicide — the victim of a society that could not make up its mind on how best to make sense of his gender while also extracting value from his sex.

This is the larger historical reason why the anti-trans movement does not want transgender people to receive sex-altering care. It is not clear how, if at all, such people will fit into the division of sex in America.

-Andrea Long Chu

[trikadekaphile]

[dduane]

"GOP operatives have already crafted an expansive blueprint, 887 pages long, laying out in painstaking detail how they intend to govern, including plans to leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion access. The document explicitly names their intention not just to rescind FDA approval for the abortion pill if they regain control of the White House in 2024, but to revive a 150-year-old law that criminalizes sending or receiving through the mail any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used to facilitate an abortion. That law, the Comstock Act, is viewed as a de facto federal abortion ban by reproductive rights advocates and anti-abortion activists alike."

When somebody tells you in that much detail what they're going to do if you let them... believe them.

Please get registered early, and vote.