VT to join states mandating coverage for home midwives, home births

While doing some research on home births, I stumbled upon this article stating that Vermont will be joining New York, New Hampshire, and New Mexico in laws mandating insurance companies to cover midwives who attend home births. Vermont has the highest rate of home births in the United States at around 3% according to the article siting information from 2010. It will be interesting to see if that rate increases in the next few years now that more women will be able to afford the care they may desire.

The one thing that I had issue with in this article was the claim that "home births are not as safe as hospital births and that the change could lead to higher costs if a mother must be transferred from home to a hospital because of problems during birth."  My understanding with home births is that if a midwife feels that the pregnancy is not low enough risk, she will encourage a hospital birth. But most births are low risk making home births a safe option, and many births with complications in hospitals could be linked to unnecessary interventions by hospital staff that may not have occurred under the care of a professional midwife caring for a mother in a home birth scenario.

I find this to be exciting progress for women in their right to choose the care they deserve. What's your opinion?

Can you really raise a child to be "gender-less?"

http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/newsfeatures/article/995846--star-readers-rage-about-couple-raising-genderless-infant


http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/babiespregnancy/babies/article/995112--parents-keep-child-s-gender-secret



Check out these articles on a Canadian family who are not sharing their baby's gender with the child or the public in an effort to "let the child be who he or she is."

I'm still trying to compose my thoughts on this "experiment?" that this family is trying out. I hope they follow up on it every now and then. More to come on this later.

Embryo Screening?

I was listening to the radio the other day on my way home from work when I heard this clip from Breakpoint (link takes you to the transcript).  My first thought when I heard the term eugenics was not Nazi's, but the movement that took place in Vermont led by Perkins at UVM. Author Jodi Picoult wrote a novel that "[delved] into a very ugly chapter of American history and one that is probably not well known: Vermont's eugenics project of the 1920s and 30."

This Peds doctor now wants to do something similar--screen embryos for "inferior genes."

What disturbed me most was the thought that someone other than the parents of a child would decide whether or not that life was worth keeping. I have a feeling that a child with Down's or another detectable disability would be, as this article put it, "weeded out" because of "inferior genes."  What if a women decided that she did not want her embryos screened? Would she be sued by the State if her child was born with medical defects? What if her embryos were screened and found to have anomalies and she chose to not destroy it? Would that child be denied services that it might need to survive in this crazy world? So many unanswered questions. Either way, it is not something I agree with. How about you?

100th Year Anniversary of International Women's Day

It's the 100th year anniversary of IWD today, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I probably would not consider myself a feminist, but I do agree with equal rights and opportunities for all people--women, men, child, black, white, or a shade in between, old, young, born and unborn. I think we are all people and deserve to live life with respect and dignity. However, I sometimes wonder why women can't choose to be homemakers and have respect for it! It seems to me that women fought for the right to vote, the right to work outside the home after marriage and children, the right to equal educational opportunities, etc... but then they were expected to be just like men. 

What if I want to stay home and raise my children after they are born? What if I want to allow my husband to work and provide for our family? Shouldn't I be allowed to do that without being ridiculed or thought less of? I don't believe there is any reason to think less of women who choose to live a life that makes them happy.

Family Homeschooling and the Financial Question

So this morning I've been reading blog posts about homeschooling. I'm not a parent, but I do work with young children in a setting where I am pretty much free to run the day on my schedule. And someday, when I have children of my own, I do indeed hope to home school. So while I have lots of time on my hands to learn what I am interested in, that is what I am doing. I also realize that I will be prepared to counter my and my husband's families when the time comes to let them know that we have decided to home school, or possibly "unschool".

Anyway, after reading blog article, after article, after article I came across this one--Biking from Alaska to Argentina. I tried to leave a comment on the article itself, but there wasn't a button to click on to let me do that! So, I'm leaving it up to you all out there is cyberspace to answer my question--If both parents are biking with their children during this trip, how do they earn money to buy food, pay for lodging, and visit all the places they want to on their trip? If there is someone out there who knows the answer to this question, please let me know! It sounds like such a great family and learning experience to be able to do something such as bike across the country. I'm just wondering how they are able to pull it off.

Pain... Childbirth... and the Bible

Over the weekend I attended a meeting with my grandmother with a group she and I belong to. This month's topic was Life of Women in the Bible. I was super excited for this presentation given by a local minister because it is something I am deeply interested in. On my quest for a deeper understanding of the Bible and my personal journey of faith, I was looking forward to learning more about some of the amazing women. Of course, the presentation started with Eve-mother of all really. And while I am still not sure exactly how my views of creation are forming (it seems to be a lump of clay that is constantly shifting... interesting pun perhaps?), I did enjoy very much what this minister had to say on the topic of Eve.

One of the things we discussed was the misconception that women have been punished by sin to have painful labors. I say misconception because God never actually said to Eve that she would be punished because of her sin. In fact, he cursed the ground, not Eve! And the term sin did not even appear in the Bible until Cain and Abel. So lets empower women by breaking down the stereotype that women cause "The Fall." 

I've found another blog that mentions this very topic. You can read that post here.   I plan to do more research on birth practices, religion, and rights of passage for empowering women.

The rights of Donor-Conceived Children... Do they have any?

I recently read this article on children who were donor-conceived. There seems to be more and more in the news on this as children, who are growing up trying to figure out who they are, fight for their right to know their paternity. I hope these children win the right for updated medical history and to know the truth about their biological make-up. I hope that someday, those who choose to donate sperm are required to go through extensive psychological evaluations and counseled in how to handle their potential children contacting them decades down the road. What do you think? Should men be able to just donate their sperm for cash without having to provide information that could some day be critical to the children conceived from their DNA?