Goin' Boatin'

One of the aspects of my new landscape design for our new church, Immanuel, was to somehow build the playground around a theme. I dislike theme's because most are cheesy or lame so I played with how to do this and not be either of those. Another problem was the dramatic slope where I have envisioned the playground to go... a drop of 5 feet in about a 100 foot area. As with so many of my ideas, they came to me while I was pondering at night, unable to sleep.

My first thought was a boat or other feature to give the kids a dynamic place to play that would anchor the playground, be the focal point. I kept going back to a boat and I saw it as similar to the boat in the spray park at Bud Miller in Lloydminster. But I didn't want the galley at the back and I wanted it more accessible... and without the water dynamic... that would be a separate feature. My vision was to "sink" this boat into the slope with a retaining wall that would define two areas... the upper area for preschool play, the lower area for grade school. The hull of the ship would be emerging from the retaining wall with the back half "sunk in" to the hillside. The lower area would give entrance to the "hold" of the ship through an opening at the front with a short, immovable ramp. The upper area would look very much like the main deck of the boat at Bud Miller, though the entrance to the deck would be at ground level with the galley being a covered "house" with the design much closer to the Ark... and it came to me... how about a Noah's Ark theme? With a real ark!!

I latched onto that idea and started calling around. Guy at the Lloyd city office was very helpful and gave me the information on the parks designer (who should be congratulated, Bud Miller is an INCREDIBLE park that everyone should see). I then called Ted of EDC Collaborative, the landscape designers for the project, and not only does he know a great deal about it, he is willing to provide us with the boat plans if the city of Lloyd does not object. Our boat will be quite a bit different, but of the same size and dimension as the Lloyd boat. But any plans would be wonderful... especially for this completely boat illiterate person. A local contractor had built it from the plans so we don't need a boat builder to erect our Ark... though in hindsight Noah was certainly not a boat builder before his 100 year project of Ark building with his sons.

Speaking of which, in church on Sunday we had guest pastor, Russ Lee. He is a reknowned Christian singer, and former drug dealer, from Tennessee whose concert at our church was the night before. The boys attended and said he was phenomenal. Anyway, he closed his sermon with this thought... a team of professionals build the Titanic and a complete amateur build the Ark. Think about that.

ICAN Needs Volunteers

Fresh out of an ICAN board meeting, we are so excited about how much ICAN is doing for women through their many chapters, our successful conference in May and our many avenues of support through ICAN International. However, with our growth comes the need for people to step forward and join our team both on our board and in supporting positions.

The International Cesarean Awareness Network, Inc. (ICAN) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve maternal-child health by preventing unnecessary cesareans through education, providing support for cesarean recovery, and promoting Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC).

With today's escalating cesarean rates more and more women are being subjected to unnecessary and unwanted surgical delivery of their babies. In the US many hospitals are telling mothers they are not allowing them to labour in their hospitals if they have had a prior cesarean, but that all of these mothers must submit to a repeated surgical delivery, totally unethical and violates the rights of these women.

Would you like to make a difference in our work to provide women with healthier outcomes and better birth experiences? Join our team today and support womens' and babys' rights by making a difference through ICAN. Click on the blog title for a list of volunteer positions... I look forward to your joining us!

Landscaping - A Refound Passion

One of my passions outside of birth and parenting is landscaping. Having designed and lanscaped three residential yards I have offered to put a proposal together for a landscape design of our church's 10 acres. I have thought a lot about this because they have this absolutely incredible new building which stands proudly above... well not too much but gravel parking, grass and backdropped with naturalized trees left to overgrow the old cemetary.

I am excited about the rich history of our church, its longetivity in the community of over 120 years and its amazing recovery from when it was slated for closure nearly 30 years ago. A new pastor, fresh out of the seminary, was sent here to "put the affairs in order" and instead grew that tiny church to where it is today... a solid cornerstone in the faith community here. I want to build on that rich history and see it grow to even greater heights!

In seeing that vision and growing from within with our Healthy Family Ministry, I am working towards an improved outward appearance, including family support structures like a family centered patio/picnic area adjacent to a new playground and sand volleyball court (I will be seeking further input from the congregation), all overlooking a nature area complete with pond (already existing, just needing some work to make it wonderous).

The playground idea itself is soo exciting, based on Noah's Ark, it will feature a large ark half buried in the hillside and surrounded with three play areas, one for preschoolers (including water, sand and gardening play), one for grade school (ensuring enough gross motor simulus while allowing interaction with others on a smaller scale through a tiered "fort") and one for older youth (climbing wall, grind rails and having part of the nature path wide enough to be dirtbike-friendly with hills and ramps while allowing others to walk unimpeded). Can you tell I have been studying what kids want in a "playscape"? I want to address their needs beyond a steel or plastic wood structure that dominates today's playgrounds and are not well used because of their limitations. I will continue to learn about this, especially what our member youth want, in the near future.

I also am focused on all areas being handicap accessible with an ample parking lot and beautiful signage (something that I found lacking when I was in search of Immanuel last October) surrounded by trees and shrubs... all low maintenance for ease of upkeep... I cannot wait to put it all together! My preliminary drawings are on paper, now I have to flesh out the details, the costs and a proposal that will have everyone as excited as I am about our church facility!

Homebirth Study Outcomes

Woohoo!! The largest homebirth study with certified professional midwives has finally been published in the British Medical Journal (full text version, also available in abstract and abridged versions):

Kenneth C Johnson and Betty-Anne Davis. Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America. BMJ, Jun 2005; 330: 1416.

I am so excited to see this paper in print and the solid evidence provided:

Results 655 (12.1%) women who intended to deliver at home when labour began were transferred to hospital. Medical intervention rates included epidural (4.7%), episiotomy (2.1%), forceps (1.0%), vacuum extraction (0.6%), and caesarean section (3.7%); these rates were substantially lower than for low risk US women having hospital births. The intrapartum and neonatal mortality among women considered at low risk at start of labour, excluding deaths concerning life threatening congenital anomalies, was 1.7 deaths per 1000 planned home births, similar to risks in other studies of low risk home and hospital births in North America. No mothers died. No discrepancies were found for perinatal outcomes independently validated.

Conclusions Planned home birth for low risk women in North America using certified professional midwives was associated with lower rates of medical intervention but similar intrapartum and neonatal mortality to that of low risk hospital births in the United States.

Now before any Canadian's get their tail in a knot, the women in this study were from both Canada and the US, though the control group were all US based. The paper's discussion concludes with:

An economic analysis found that an uncomplicated vaginal birth in hospital in the United States cost on average three times as much as a similar birth at home with a midwife in an environment where management of birth has become an economic, medical, and industrial enterprise. Our study of certified professional midwives suggests that they achieve good outcomes among low risk women without routine use of expensive hospital interventions. Our results are consistent with the weight of previous research on safety of home birth with midwives internationally. This evidence supports the American Public Health Association's recommendation to increase access to out of hospital maternity care services with direct entry midwives in the United States. We recommend that these findings be taken into account when insurers and governing bodies make decisions about home birth and hospital privileges with respect to certified professional midwives.

Parental Decisions - A Rant

I am very, very angry right now. Allan in all of his infinite wisdom decided today, while angry with Eric, that Eric should go to school this fall in an institution. I am crying inside for selfish reasons, I want my son home with his family, not stuck in a school for 8 hours a day only to face 2 hours of "homework" each evening. I am also really enjoying homeschooling right now because we are past the tedious hours of basic skills like reading and writing. We are now in the meat of indepth research and exporation of life skills which is fascinating and so rewarding. I see all stages of learning as important, but the critical indepth research tools during Jr. and Sr. high that mainstream schools do not teach are critical for long-term learning.

It is also the circumstances that make me angry. I am struggling to find the meaning in this and why Allan chose to do this without discussing it. I realize that Allan is not around a lot to see the changes Eric is going through as an adolescent or understand the emotions and frustrations inherent with being a 13 year old. Does he not remember the frustrations, the heightened emotions, the feeling out of control that being 13 brings? I know he had a difficult adolescence as the youngest of six and carrying an emotional burden larger than he should have carried because of the circumstances of his older brother. But is that a reason to heap this on his own child? What will he do when his second and third son "come of age" and are struggling with their new bodies and hormones? Or his daughter, who will be the toughest of all, as girls will be during this time?

I know Eric will do well and excel in school because he is a wise young man who is confident and outgoing. However, what makes me even more angry is Eric's resignation on this. We, as a family, have talked about moving to an institution before, allowing the boys to decide which route they would prefer, knowing that I was open and willing to homeschool if they so chose... and indeed they have each time. However, Allan sees everything the boys do wrong as the fault of homeschooling. If they don't do their chores willingly and perfectly, if they are having a bad day, if they are which annoys Allan, he threatens sending them to school. Because they hear this threat so often they have become sullen and despondent to its news... and prepared to "face the music" if ever he followed through. In a way I am glad that they have thought about the option of attending school in an institution, but it is how it was done that in my opinion is wrong.

I am trying so hard to see the good in this situation, to pull benefits to our family from this decision... but I can't. I cry and hurt and feel that it is somehow my fault, as I often do when Allan is upset. Indeed I do see his frustrations when he doesn't see the boys working while he is home. I have told him why, because we work hard to do our work around his schedule so that we will have time to spend with him, but he seems to not fully realize that. I also wonder if this has more to do with his having to work today and the frustrations that entails than Eric not wanting to vacuum the carpet.

All the Time in the World...

I got this idea from Anne.

13 things you'd like to learn, given enough time and resources. In no particular order:

1. Midwifery
2. Landscape design
3. Theology
4. How to fly a plane
5. Play music - keyboard, clarinet, drums or violin (fiddle)
6. Interior design
7. Languages - french, swedish, german, greek, cree
8. Ballet
9. Homeopathy
10. Naturopathic medicine
11. Medieval costumery
12. Watercolour painting
13. Asian history

Immanuel's Healthy Family Ministry

It's official. The proposed Christian prenatal and parenting programs I am working on are coming together beautifully! WE have officially named it Immanuel's Healthy Family Ministry.

My proposal to the church in April, designed to strengthen Immanuels' healing and family ministries, met with much excitement. Now that we have equipped our leaders through doula training, we are readying everyone for our launch in September. I have been so busy with this for the last few weeks, and though there are a few decisions to be made as a group, we have the bulk of our program developed and ready to go. Our office is coming together well too. The promotion and paperwork are nearing completion and all we need to finish are cataloguing my books for the lending library, getting the printing costs approved, order the parenting program we will decide on in early July, and have made or make the signage. The programs will not be on the website until later this summer, but our launch date is planned to coincide with the start of the school (and Sunday school) year.

Our Immanuel Healthy Family Ministry will include:

Christian Prenatal Education

Our childbirth classes are designed specifically for you with their in-depth approach and small class sizes. Immanuel’s educators are dedicated to spending plenty of time reviewing the material, as well as spending time in prayer, worship, and fellowship.

Birth Doula Services

Proven benefits provided by trained professionals await you as you prepare for the birth of your baby. A birth doula is a woman trained and experienced in childbirth who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to a woman before, during and after childbirth.

Postpartum Doula Services

Get the best start possible for your new family with the comforting guidance of a postpartum doula. Postpartum doulas care for new families in the first weeks after birth by providing breastfeeding assistance, general family and household support, newborn care and instruction, mother care, emotional support and offer information on available resources.

New Moms Ministry

New Moms is supportive and nurturing group where new mothers come to find camaraderie and information. Mondays from 1 to 3 pm, come join the fun!

Helping Hands

A wonderful program for Immanuel members, Helping Hands provides support for new parents as they begin their parenting journey after the birth of a new baby. This support includes one hot meal each evening for a week after Mom and baby arrive home, limited postpartum support to ease the adjustment of a new family member and more.

Parenting Programs

Our parenting programs are designed to encourage, educate, and equip parents for the most important yet toughest job in the world, parenting.

Business Finances

I am in the completion stages of writing Business Plan Basics for Canadian Birth Professionals and am heading into the heart of Record Keeping for Canadian Birth Professionals today. This leaves me working on the financial aspects of running a successful business. So why do my eyes glaze over as soon as I start outlining the how to's of income and expense forms or budget summaries?

I can't imagine actually wanting to do accounting for a living, how incredibly dreary can that be?! I guess I could ask my brother-in-law who is a very successful self-employed chartered accountant. We will be celebrating Father's Day at his home with my husband's family this weekend. Or maybe not, the glazed look in my eyes when he tells of the excitement of his work may give away my apathy on the subject. I think I will steer clear of the subject and enjoy the celebration. Or maybe I could ask if he is interested in co-authoring... to reduce the sheer boredom of putting it on paper. Hmm.

Cowboy Randy

Last night our family, with my parents in tow, attended a benefit Dessert Theatre and Silent Auction for our Mission to Mexico (M2M). The reason I went was to "officially" finally hear Randall McLeod (aka Cowboy Randy) sing on stage the many amazing songs I had heard him sing during rehearsals before church.

Eric has been working with him and his band In the Beginning as their hmm... I don't know his official role, but he does all of their video presentations which play in the background behind Randy and the band. He loves working with them and we have so much fun singing and fooling around with images and ideas for his presentations. They always rehearse for Sunday school (yes there is a separate band for the services and for Sunday school) so we are at church 1 1/2 hours before church on the days Eric helps (usually two Sundays a month) because of the other programs going on.

But back to last night. A folk singer, a hip hop dance and a drama of a modern day Good Samaritan were also presented which rounded out the evening perfectly. We also came away with much more than that, literally. We brought home several of the great things up for auction. Eric has an 18-hole golf pass at a local golf course for Father's Day and I "won" tickets for the Russ Lee concert in two weeks for Eric and Ryan. I knew I was holding off in purchasing them for a reason, now I know what that reason was. My parents purchased several things and MC thanked them personally for coming which brought a huge laugh from the crowd. The evening exceeded my expectations and I encourage everyone to listen to the voice talents of Cowboy Randy!

Oh, did I mention he is also the chiropractor who I will be working alongside with our new Immanuel Prenatal & Parenting Ministry I blogged about earlier? We will all be working together as a part of Immanuel's Healing Centre. More on that in an upcoming blog.

Canada's Caesarean Rate Highest Ever

How ironic that on the heels of my blog on caesarean issues yesterday, CIHI released their Health Care in Canada 2005 report which includes our country's caesarean rates, among other things. Given that our caesarean rate has hovered at 20% for most of the 1990's, a dramatic increase from 7% in the early 1970s, we have an all new record of "achievement," a shocking 23.7%. Not only that, BC, NB, NS and PEI are all soaring at close to or over 27%!

The World Health Organization publicly states that a caesarean rate of over 10-15% puts women and infants unnecessarily at risk. Incredulously, in their formulative meeting on this topic, all worldwide studies showed difinitively that any caesarean over 8% was deemed too high of a risk. The reason it was increased to the 10-15% recommendation was because those who worked in the American health care system knew that no one in North America would take that figure seriously, given their already high caesarean surgery rates. How frustrating is that?

Increasing numbers of women are put at risk every day on operating tables across this country because of the immediate risks of surgery and anesthesia. More importantly, their longterm reproductive health is endangered, along with that of their future offspring, because of the risk of uterine rupture, placenta accreta and percreta, hemorrhage, placental abruption, placenta previa and stillbirth.

Obstetrican Refuses to Increase Her Cesarean Rate

Many articles cross my desk in any given week, most bring frustration from lack of research on the part of the reporter, and some even brilliant. One such article, which also covered a very exciting surprise that I had hoped would happen, is about an obstetrician in North Carolina. She is moving to Mississippi because the hospital she works in told her to perform more cesareans and she will not. I am surprised it took so long for a physician to stand up and take a stand like this, though I know how terribly difficult it is to work in the political minefield of modern medicine. I have worked with some incredible obstetricians and family physicians who have asked us attending to not mention their avoiding "routine" procedures that are highly unnecessary though expected standard of care. Where hospitals would not stand up against ACOG's decision to take choices away from birthing women to reduce their malpractice risk, women and physicians are. Bravo!

ICAN is also working on an important paper on women's rights and legal options regarding cesarean section. Where women are told they have no options regarding VBAC, women indeed have every right to labour and birth as their body was designed, not through a surgical incision in their abdomen, if they so choose. The coercion rampant across the US by physicians and hospitals will not stop tomorrow, but women making informed decisions about their care will turn the tide and show the true face of ACOG. As Dr. Marsden Wagner stated in Critique of ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 5, 1999, “ACOG is not a college in the sense of an institution of higher learning, nor is it a scientific body. It is a “professional organization” that in reality is one kind of trade union. Like every trade union, ACOG has two goals: promote the interests of its members, and promote a better product (in this case, well-being of women). But if there is conflict between these two goals, the interests of obstetricians come first.”

Outrage and Sadness

I am preparing for moving my "office" or rather all of my books/posters/teaching stuff to my new office at our church. In sorting through what to bring, I cut out an article from the Western Catholic Reporter, May 16, 2005 edition, entitled Christ's power saved aborted baby. The same article is online at Kairos Catholic Journal.

How incredibly sad to hear her story and how outraged I am once again that abortion, at any fetal age, is legal. I talk about preborn life at every training I do. I show and pass around a tiny model of a 12 week preborn while I explain his (the model is very much a boy) "milestones" at 12 weeks:

• The neck is present and the face well formed.
• The eyelids close and will reopen at about 24 weeks.
• Tooth buds appear.
• The arms and legs move.
• All body parts and organs are present.
• The fibers that carry pain to the brain are developed.
• Definitive signs of male and female gender are present.
• A heartbeat can be heard with electronic devices.
• The length is about 2 to 3 inches.

I had never heard of a saline solution abortion (how the woman above was to be aborted but somehow lived) so I googled and came across the most horrifying and sobering images blogged at Three Knockdown Rule. I pray daily that our church counsellor Carla Houston's post-abortion ministry continues to support and hold up women after their decision, informed or otherwise. I also pray that our prenatal ministry will evolve into the Crisis Pregnancy Center Pastor Eleanor and I have envisioned.

Communication

Communication is so vital in a marriage and all relationships. We all know this yet it is a struggle to find the time to communicate with our spouses when so many other demands take our precious time. With four children it is even more difficult as we juggle their communication needs with our own, especially when they are so young and need that extra time.

It came to a head today as we are coming out of a very busy weekend with both Allan and I working. He has to protect his sleep time carefully because of having sleep apnea, something that didn't happen with Breanna waking several times each night and construction crews starting early both Saturday and Sunday morning. Needless to say we were both cranky this morning and the lack of communication over the past several days was evident this morning with our focus in two different directions - mine on the kids and his on work.

I am very glad that he has the next two days off so we can refocus and do some planning for our future... vital communication goals for any marriage.

Postpartum Doulas

What an amazing weekend! I returned home from the most wonderful experience of training new postpartum doulas, spending 2 1/2 days learning, growing and sharing with a group of experienced mothers who felt the calling to support new mothers. To gather with like-minded women twice in one month to teach them how to support mothers through doula care has been such an enriching and rewarding experience for me.

Though I love and miss the one-on-one support of providing doula support to pregnant and new mothers, I absolutely love the experience of training new doulas and providing continuing education for experienced doulas. Having successfully fine-tuned my postpartum doula workshop this weekend (after several improvements I had added since my last workshop), it was so exciting to see how smoothly it all went, time wise and education wise. With each improvement I can see the increased retention of the students and the increased excitement about the career they are to embark on.

Now my focus switches to the continuing education programs I am developing, especially the body awareness workshop that I am doing some great changes too. I am also very excited about a possible sponsorship of a five-day training workshop that I hope to sponsor next May. I can barely contain myself with the excitement of this prospect for new and practicing birth professionals as the information that will be presented at this workshop are dear to my heart... but I won't divulge more until we have worked out the details.

Peace

Wednesday I alluded to the spiritual desert I experienced while living in Lloydminster, struggling with a trust betrayed and the lack of security of a church family. I have been through several spiritual deserts in my life and from each of them I have grown as a woman, stronger and better equipped. Though life is a perpetual season of growth, it is through the lean times that I have either clung to my Christian faith or turned my back on the Lord, feeling betrayed.

There are also the wonderful seasons of peace and fulfillment when accomplishments are fulfilled, stress is low and life is going well. It is in this season that I am enjoying life right now. The stress of our move is past, our homeschool year was incredible and Mother Care is flowing smoothly. I am also enjoying this season of emersion in my faith, absorbing the wisdom of those whom I am getting to know in our new church and community. There is a huge Christian population here, real Christians who you can trust and whose biblical wisdom is inspiring.

In this season I am also focusing on reading great books, easily found though a wonderful used bookstore in Stony Plain called Heaven Bound Books, owned by one of our AWANA leaders. The first one I am reading, Finding Inner Security by Janet Congo, has been a very healing and affirming book for me. I am finding myself given permission through the Lord, allowing me to lay the insecurities I have harboured for far too long and move on. That sound so blaze, but when you don't even recognize some aspects of your life as insecurities, by recognizing them and allowing yourself the forgiveness of harbouring them, the freedom is a relief and blessing. Beloved Unbeliever: Loving Your Husband Into the Faith by Jo Berry is one I will be working through in support of my beloved husband who himself is struggling spiritually in a world where providing for your family as a single wage earner and being family focused (while trying to balance career) is looked upon as irrational. And finally, Spiritual Mothering: The Titus 2 Model for Women Mentoring Women by Susan Hunt is my newest acquisition in preparation for our church’s Titus 2 program. I have only just begun and am very excited about the wisdom this book contains and the potential of our new program.

Have a wonderful weekend and I pray that each of you reading my blog are enjoying a season of security as well.

Christian Programs

It has long been on my heart to use the wisdom I have gained as a birth professonal to start a Christian program. I had started teaching Christian prenatal classes in Camrose before we moved, though the move happened before they were well known. Our two and a half years in Lloyd were very difficult for me as shortly after our move there I had entrusted someone and was betrayed severely for that. I found myself not wanting to reach out during that time and despite our seeking a church, we were unable to find one that met our needs.

Since our move to Spruce Grove a year ago, we have been met with open arms by everyone we have met and joined an amazing, Spirit-filled church that has met each of our needs. That church is Immanuel Lutheran Church of Rosenthal which also has a healing ministry of counselling and chiropractic care. In April I approached the clergy about starting a new Prenatal & Parenting ministry. My ideas were met with open arms by both pastors and the church members as it has been a long-term vision to expand the healing ministry. My vision is to expand the current ministries (which includes a New Mom's ministry) to encompass support programs including:

• Christian Childbirth Education
• Childbirth Doula Support Services
• Postpartum Doula Support Services
• Titus II Ministry (experienced mothers mentoring younger mothers)
• Toddler Time (for "graduates" of our New Mom's group)
• Parenting Workshops
• and more

There are a core group of four of us now and through my recent childbirth doula training in May I have another woman whom I hope to attract to our church as well to join our team. The postpartum doula training I will be teaching this weekend will complete the first phase of our program from which we will plan how the proposed programs will work next week.

I will continue blogging on this as it is very near my heart as I grow as a Christian and continue to minister to mothers and their families through these programs.