h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Meg


It's been ages since we've chatted - my fault, I forgot to put you on my friends list and so didn't see your journals.

As you posted in my journal thread, I thought I'd pop over and say hi, and to ask you a couple of questions if that's ok?


I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant, and although most of my nausea has gone, I'm still having headaches. They're mostly on the left side of my head above my eye. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine point of view I understand what they're about, but I was wondering if you had any thoughts? My midwife told me that taking paracetamol was ok, but I worry about the fact that I need to take them fairly often.

I've also had problems with my lungs and heart.
I have mild asthma (which hasn't really got much better despite my giving up smoking over a year ago), and I'm feeling quite out of breath. I thought it was too early for that! My midwife told me that using my 'preventative' inhaler was ok, but I'm dubious. I caught a cold early on in the pregnancy, and it keeps flaring up leaving me with a stuffed up nose and wheezy lungs, and I find that using my preventative inhaler (which I never use on a day to day basis - I try to avoid taking drugs if I can) helps keep that at bay.
My heart is racing most of the day, just standing up from sitting down can set it off!

I'm not sure what I'm asking of you here - maybe it's just an opportunity to moan a bit...


Oh and another thing...
I recently read a report about the use ultrasound, which in a nutshell (I'll try and find the URL if you're interested) said that there may be a link to it's use and the rising incidence of learning disorders. I've decided not to have any scans (I didn't think that I'd ever have kids, so I'm trying to rely on faith and trust that everything's ok), but my midwife wants to do a scan at 36 weeks to see if I have placenta praevia. Is this *really* necessary?
I also wondered about listening to the baby's heartbeat. At my last appointment with the midwife (just over a week ago) we heard the heartbeat for the first time - an emotional moment for me. As I want to limit my exposure to ultrasound as much as possible, I was wondering if there is an alternative way for her to listen to the heartbeat without using doppler?

Thanks Meg!
You probably need a and after all that!

The headaches are hard to comment on as I can't ask you your full medical history, but are they normal for you or just pregnancy related. headaches later on in pregnancy could be signs of pre-eclampsia (high bp, swelling and protein in urine) and need to be investigated.
I'd contact the asthma association re the inhalers. My understanding is that becotide is very low-dose and coats the lung lining, so not much gets absorbed but I'd limit it's use.
As far as scans go you are quite right, there has not been enough research done to prove safety. The Association for Improvements in Maternity services (AIMS) and the National Childbirth Trust should be able to provide you with some literature if needed. I accepted everything with my first child but with my son I declined ultrasound. I knew when I conceived, knew that I was carrying one baby and that I'd be happy with him no matter what. If I had placenta previa I would have lost blood at some point. saying this I did have a scan at 39weeks as he wasn't growing or moving much. This was reassuring. A large percentage of women scannned at your gestation will have a low placenta as that's where they grow. They move up as the uterus enlarges.
Yes, There are other ways to listen to your baby's heartbeat. A pinnard looks like a plastic ear trumpet and a fetoscope (looks like a stethescope with funnel at one end) both difficult to hear before about 24 weeks gestation. Not widely used but midwives should have acess to one. Near term your husband can put his ear to your belly or use the inside of a toilet roll to hear baby. One of the good indicators of baby's well being is it's movements. You will get to know what's usual behaviour and this should reassure you.
You don't have to do anything that is suggested in pregnancy. You will know instinctively what is the right thing to do
There are some brilliant pregnancy books. I'm a great fan of Ina May Gaskin's Spiritual midwifery and her new book the essential guide to child birth. She's a midwife who has fantastic results without the aid of modern technology

I do tend to suffer from headaches.
When I was in my early teens, I started getting migraines (a family pattern) reasonably regularly, presumbably due to hormonal upheavals. These levelled out after a couple of years, and I now tend to get a full on migraine about once every year and a half.
Mind you, I did have a particularly stressful time in June last year and ended uo having 3 migraines in 4 days, which was truly dreadful. By migraines I denote those awful times when my vision goes bizarre, my brain feels too big for my skull and is trying to bulge out through my eyes, and awful retching.
In between those (thankfully fairly far apart!), I tend to get long drawn out 'sick' headaches, where the pain settles over my left eye. I presume these are a milder more drawn out form of my more violent migraines.

I understand the pattern according to Chinese medicine, which is that of an unhappy Liver - it's energy gets stuck and then surges upwards, resulting in the headaches (oh and irritability... .


Aha! That's where I saw the report on ultrasound!
Thanks for the info on alternatives to doppler - I'll tell my midwife.
Would these still be used during labour?

I love the idea of The Man listening to the baby with a toilet roll!

I have Spiritual Midwifery here, and the pictures are wonderful. I'd love to visit the Farm one day.

It's still in my mind (somewhere) that I may train as a midwife one day. The thing that puts me off is having to be involved with the NHS for 3 years!

I forgot to say thank you!

You've reassured me about the headaches. If it is something peculiar to you it is probably due to the increaded blood supply and vascularity of pregnancy. I'm afraid I don't have any solutions to this except perhaps cold packs over the area.
Pinnards can be used throughout labour but require the midwife to be flexible around you. impossible to use under water in waterbirth, but you can rise to the surface to enable it's use.
Spiritual midwifery is my all-time favourite midwifery book
I visited The Farm in 2002 whilst doing my refresher course to balance out what I saw in hospital! Ina May is truly inspirational and an advocate for woman's rights. Her new book is very informative on how to maximise your chances of normal childbirth.

Just looked at my copy of Ina May's new book. It is called Ina May's Guide To Childbirth.

I forgot to mention that I had M.E. for several years. I consider myself to still have lower energy levels than I had before (probably about 75%) and still have bouts of cr*pness . This probably isn't helping the headache sitation.

I'm looking forward to mentioning the Pinnard to my midwife. I've kind of avoided being confrontational about what I *don't* want, and now that I have an alternative to the doppler, I feel more condfident about speaking up. So thanks again!

I'd love to meet Ina May. I seem to remember that she spoke at a conference here in the UK last year some time which I wanted to go to, but couldn't make it.
I'll have to get her new book!

lovely to hear from you again. I don't usually have much computer acess as my Beloved works from home on it. But he's just moved his work to the garage and built a computer for the children and I, Yippee.
Sorry to hear of the ME. Even more reason to aim for childbirth without interferrence. I know what you mean about being non-confrontational, but this shouldn't be a problem. If you state your plans, health care professionals should aim to support your choices. I said 'should', because some doctors/midwives feel threatened if women request something that is out of their field of expertise (I love it personally). If you feel that you are up against a brick wall ask to speak with a Supervisor of midwives. The UK midwifery group can also be a great support. It's good to remind professionals that you are more interested in you or your baby's wellbeing than they are
Ina May is a very vibrant soul. Her body shows signs of aging, but you can almost see the power eminating from her. I don't think I've ever felt anything this strong from any other person
Rest lots and grow a big baby. There was a lovely waterbirth of a large baby at work last night

Hi Meg

I really appreciate your help!

Do you think I should ring up my midwife (at the local birth unit)a few days before I'm due to see her at my next ante-natal appointment and tell her that I want her to use a pinnard/fetoscope instead of the doppler so that she has time to arrange to get hold of one, or would she already have it with her as part of her kit?

I've been told that I'm 'lucky' to live in the area that I am as home births are not actively discouraged here, but if they're short on staff they may 'have' to call me in... Hmm, I'd like to see them try and argue that one with me in the middle of labour!


I told my midwife on our first appointment that I wasn't interested in all the testing and scans, but she wrote down on my notes that I'm "undecided" about the 20 week scan.
She told me that I'd have to have a scan done at 36 weeks anyway (I mentioned this in my first post) to check for placenta previa - I take it that I can refuse this? I presume that there would be signs before I went into labour if that was the case? Or would it only become apparent once my cervix started dilating?
Obviously I have my baby's best interests at heart, but I don't want to get myself all worked up unnecessarily!

I'm glad that you've met Ina May - her Spiritual Midwifery is a real inspiration, and makes such a welcome change to hear birth being spoken about in such reverent tones.

As for resting a lot, I don't seem to have much choice!
If I get up too quickly, my heart starts pounding and my vision goes a bit blurry... so I'm taking it easy.

I'm planning on hiring a birth pool, or maybe getting one of those inflatable ones - a hell of a lot cheaper, and we get to have a huge paddling pool! A friend whose birth I attended in March had one of those, but the problem with it was that the temperature of the water couldn't be relied on, and her mum was running back an forth with kettles and saucepans of hot water!
I'm trying to find an independent water heater that would solve that problem, but I haven't had any luck so far.

Do you find that waterbirths are gentler and easier on the mum?

Ahh, so many questions.
I hope you don't mind! If so, I'll slink off and leave you alone...

Sorry to butt in - but I had many of the same concerns as you when I was preggy Fynn.

Inhalers - I was told that it was worse for the baby to not take the inhaler that it was to take it, because during an attack the baby would take most of the oxygen, and if there wasn't enough for either or both of us that wouldn't be any good for either of us. I stayed on my reliever/preventer the whole time - not much gets out of the lungs apparently anyway.

As for scans, I'd read about scans as well - I can't remember what they were saying were wrong with them at the time, but I didn't really want one. In the end I just gave in when they kept on about it, but I had as few as I possibly could - the placenta 'moves up' as the pregnancy progresses, so if it's low early on it doesn't necessarily mean that it will stay like that - I had two scans because on the first one mine showed up as low. I had the second one, because although they told me that it would most likely be ok, my mum's experience made me go through with it.

My mum had placenta previa with her youngest and had to have an emergency ceasarian half way through labour. It dried up all her milk, she was forbidden to drive or lift anything and it made her miserable. The scar went right up to her belly button. She convinced me that if scans were common at the time, she would not have had to go through that.

Hi to you all.
I don't mind questions at all but am certainly not an authority on everything. I've been qualified for 4 years working with normal pregnancy and childbirth so often have to research things myself before replying.
Glad to hear you're resting lots.
A midwife's kit should include a pinnard but most midwives can be rusty on it's useage. I'd contact your midwife or birth center as soon as possible to ask that if midwives have lost the skill, that they be re-trained before your baby is due. It's not difficult, but requires concentration to count the heartbeat rather than looking at a machine.
The issue of attending a homebirth is a complex one. A hospital doesn't have to guarantee to provide a midwife to attend you, but when a midwife is called, she has a duty of care to attend. Which often means that if you stand your ground a midwife can be found to attend you. Not an ideal situation, and I've encountered a few people who've had unassisted childbirth to avoid such hassle. I wouldn't recommend it though as midwives carry life-saving drugs with them to all births - just in case of emergency. I think you said you couldn't afford an independent midwife, but it may be worth making contact with one or two in your locality to enquire how you could pay for their service (have you been following the UK midwifery thread?) You're too far west for me to offer my services.
I'm not an expert on placenta praevia but know that it is quite rare and bloodloss at any stage would be an indication to consider locating the placental site. From about 37 weeks the baby's head should start to engage in the pelvis. If it doesn't or if a bottom or shoulder present I would need to know where the placenta is. There are of course different grades of placenta praevia not all needing operative delivery. Ask your midwife (or UK midwifery site) about other ways of detecting the placental site.
Waterbirths are great for mum and baby Not much research out there, but big study underway currently. Annecdotally I've seen it to be great for relaxation and pain relief at any stage of labour. Babies seem to enjoy the gentle transition onto the world and parents report how calm they seem to be. This can sometimes appear scary at birth as they don't usually cry, and sometimes take a few seconds to realise that they actually need to breathe. This is not a problem as the baby is still receiving oxygen through it's cord at this point.
I don't know how to keep the pool water warm except by bailing and re-filling but you can hire posh pools that have a built-in heater.
Glad that you like Ina May's work, she's a real inspiration to me. Unfrotunately not all midwives have even heard of her
I'm planning to give one of my 3 copies of spirtual midwifery to my maternity unit when I leave

Hi Mina


That's what my quacks said about the inhalers, but I trust doctors about as far as I can throw them. My asthma is fairly mild so I don't normally bother with the reliever, but lately I've been breathless more often.

If your mum had placenta praevia, wouldn't she have had to have had a c-section anyway, depsite the scan?

The very thought of having a c-section fills me with fear!

I've found a place online where you can buy a pinard... So if my midwife doesn't have one, she can borry mine!
http://goddessmums.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=26&products_id=59


That's a good idea about contacting my midwife about pinard use and training.


"A hospital doesn't have to guarantee to provide a midwife to attend you, but when a midwife is called, she has a duty of care to attend you."
I'm not sure what that means...

I've thought about unassisted childbirth, but decided that for a first child it probably wasn't a good idea.
I'd love to have an independent midwife, but money is a bit of an issue at the moment. My midwife seems to be fairly nice and the local birth unit is midwife led, and has a UNICEF Baby Friendly Global Award for breastfeeding apparently - so that hopefully bodes well for me. I'm determined to have the baby at home though (all being well), and if it looks like I'll be under too much pressure with the NHS, I'll have to make myself afford an independent midwife. Well worth the money I know, but we just don't have it at the moment.

I'll ask the midwifery list about the placenta praevia question, that's a good idea.

I'm going to look into the birth pool situation - there just seem to be so many companies hiring them!

Do you think that your maternity unit will read Ina May?

"If your mum had placenta praevia, wouldn't she have had to have had a c-section anyway, depsite the scan?"

Yes, but she could have had a planned one before labour started, rather than an emergency one that's left her a nasty scar.

Have you met my youngest brother? We think he's the way he is because of his traumatic birth. I should get my mum to trace the notes, in case he was starved of oxygen before they realised there was a problem.

Leo,
great to hear from you again. Hope you're feeling good having achieved the "half way through pregnancy" point
Good on you for getting a pinnard. Hopefully your partner will have lots of fun listening in. Babies are very mobile at this stage and can be difficult to hear heartbeats, but movements, kicks and your pulse may be heard.
It is difficult to explain our duty of care to attend births, but I'll try. Hospitals often cannot guarantee they will have enough staff available to send to a homebirth on any given day, so cannot guarantee a homebirth, and will advise women planning homebirth to come in to hospital in this situation. It is illegal for anyone who is not a midwife to attend a birth, except in an emergency (i.e. quick labour). So, if you decline going in to hospital the midwife-in-charge has to do everything possible to try to send a midwife out to you. It would be negligent not to attend a woman in labour.
This is a horrible situation that can really put pressure on a labouring woman
I suggested contacting an independent in your area to discuss costs as all independents work differently (as per discussion on the uk midwifery group recently) Most charge a flat fee but are willing to spread payments over several months. A few accept services-in-kind such as painting, plumbing, car servicing, or whatever you have to offer. Did you read that one midwife accepted a flower (an orchid I think) as payment? Don't kinow who she was by the way Worth enquiring though.
I don't know how Spiritual Midwifery will be received in the hospital but on really quiet shifts we're desperate to read anything. So there's hope.
Take care of yourselves

Mina,
so sorry to hear about your mum's awful experience. An emergency situation can be very traumatic for all concerned, but are thankfully rare.
I agree that it would be a good idea to look at the cause of your brother's problems. Your mum can contact the hospital and ask to do this. It may be that no cause is found (sadly often the case) but at least the full facts may come to light.
I suffered one traumatic experience and felt better after seeing my notes. I now know it wasn't my body that went wrong, it was bad luck and staff negligence!
Sending positive thoughts to you all

Hi Meg and Mina



Well I'm now 24 weeks, and the babe is wriggling constantly!
It's so very life affirming, but also deeply weird...

I've just started developing pain in my right hip/groin area when I walk.
It started about 2 weeks ago, and I have an appointment to see an osteopath next monday. The right side of my pelvis has always felt misaligned with the left, and the right hip has been feeling loose lately. I think I may have overdone it a bit at a belly dance workshop!

I saw a different midwife at my antenatal appointment on Friday. I'd been putting off going as my 'usual' midwife didn't seem to accept that I wasn't going to have an ultrasound scan and put on my notes that I was "undecided" about the 20 week scan, and that I would have one at 34 weeks. As I really don't want to have to be confrontational (unless I have to be )about not wanting *any* ultrasound I decided to wait for a few extra weeks -it turned out she's on holiday, so I saw a different midwife who was lovely and made it very clear on my notes that I'm not going to have any scans.
My heart lifted when I walked in and saw a pinnard on her desk!

She didn't think that she'd be able to hear the heartbeat with the ear trumpet this early, but when she placed it to my belly she picked up the heartbeat straight away and laughed when the babe kicked at the intrusion! That's my girl!

I bought a beautiful book in Glastonbury yesterday by Jeannine Parvati Baker on antenatal yoga.
The birth stories in it are inspirational.

24weeks. It is sooo lovely that you can feel your little one communicating and reassuring you so frequently.
Belly dancing is great preparation for birth but do take it easy. The wonderful pregnancy hormone progesterone is softening ligaments in preparation for the birth, so joints aren't so stable. Hope the osteopath is helpful, if not your midwife should be able to refer you to an obstetric physiotherapist.
So glad to hear that you met a nice midwife (we do exist). Your partner can listen to movements etc with the pinnard so he feels connected too. Can't remember where but I read that most men find it hard to feel a connection with the babe until very late in pregnancy.
Your notes by the way are exactly that. Some notes contain sections where you can add comments, so if you disagree with something that's been written you can add your say.
Glad you've been inspired by the book. I don't know that one.
Feeling rather gutted that I'm not going to the glastonbury festival this year (we've been every year since 1992) I went with the radical midwives last year They wanted me to go again but didn't have a spare ticket for hubby
Going to smaller festivals instead Endorse it - in Dorset in August,
one in Eastleigh and maybe Guildfest too!

I recently completed a post grad diploma in shiatsu in maternity care, and did my project on belly dancing in pregnancy. Fascinating to find out all about it's roots as a fertility and birthing dance.
I think I posted it on this site somewhere, but not as a fully edited entry. I'll just go look...
Ah, here it is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A3413224

I know what you mean about the progsterone - I can feel myself softening daily!

The midwife did offer to make an appointment with a physio, but I decided to see the osteopath first and see how I get on. I walked up to the top of Glastonbury Tor on sunday (in stages! ), and strangely enough it's felt fine since then.

My Man has been more 'into' the babe since he felt it move - she kicked him in the face!
I find that when he puts his hands on my belly to feel the babe, she stops moving. He seems to be a calming influence which is a great sign as far as I'm concerned...

I can understand why men can find it difficult to connect with their unborn child, after all it's not them that are growing the babe. In my experience men aren't too great at forward planning so maybe some find it too difficult to see that far ahead?

I'll see if I can find that book on Amazon so that you can have a look. She's quite an amazing woman, I've got another of her books about herbalism, and she has a website I think...

http://www.freestone.org/

http://www.birthkeeper.com/


I didn't know the Radical Midwives were at Glastonbury! What a shame that you're not going, but if it helps any, I'm not either!
I used to go pretty much every year, but since I moved about 14 miles away from the festival 3 years ago, I haven't been once.

I keep meaning to get my working ticket sorted out in the Healing Field, but for seem reason keep putting it off until it's too late.
I'm thinking of going to the Big Green Gathering, but it's quite pricey once you have to pay for car parking.
What's the Endorse It festival?

My plan for festivals next year is to have a combined space with some friends of mine - she's a yoga teacher and has a one year old, and her hubby wants to set up a mother and child space. I was thinking of running belly dancing in pregnancy/birth dance workshops (as well as the shiatsu and ear acupuncture) so I think they would all work well together. It would be good to have a midwife on board too...

Wonderful info on bellydancing. It makes perfect sense that the movements help babies be born. Women, left to their own devises do do a birth dance. Those that take to the bed and become immobile seem to have most problems.
Glad to hear your back is better.
Nice for the father to know he's a calming influence on the baby already I know what you mean about them not being great at forward planning
I looked up the yoga book links. The author sound like she has a lot of good thoughts about childbirth. I do believe that it can be a beautiful and spiritual experience (even in hospital)
It was our first ARM stall at Glastonbury last year. I think we were in green futures last year and in the healin fields this year. I'd love to meet up with you at Glastonbury if it's on next year if it's on. Can't remember who's playing at Endorse it but it's a small festie in Dorset in August (12th I think).