Woman's choice of birth place at risk in Australia

The government in Australia is trying to control a woman's body by jailing them and fining them for giving birth at home. Huge woman's rights issue.

Here's a news clip from Austria on the protests:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bjc3TBLAHM&feature=PlayList&p=CC6EA57B9C8EDDB1&index=3&playnext=3&playnext_from=PL

Why save candles for birthdays?

[Previously published for sfgate.com/moms]

I can think of one good reason. Fire isn't a game and I shouldn't be teaching Mikey that lighting matches and birthday candles over and over is fun. Nonetheless, this candle game happened organically this morning and Mikey loved it.

He found the box where I keep the leftover candles from birthday cakes (all two of them) and wanted to light one. Mikey wasn't able to blow out his second birthday cake's candle. He almost scorched his eyebrows trying. So I thought maybe he could use a little practice. A pear was handy, so I sliced the pear and stuck the candle in it. I sang, "Happy Birthday too you..." and he blew it out right on cue. His face glowed like he had won Wimbleton. Then he wanted to do the next candle and the next. Soon he didn't wait for me to finish singing and by the end I wasn't singing at all. He was blowing out the candle and the match with one big puff. He was done with the game when we had lit and blew out each candle in the box. I used this opportunity to review colors and numbers and other things listed below:

The Candle Game

1) Discuss the difference between smoke and steam.
2) Practice blowing which isn't an obvious skill.
3) Use fine motor skills by putting the candles in the pear hole.
4) Name each candle color.
5) Teach about matches and that he is not to play with them without me. Fire is dangerous.
6) Sing Happy Birthday which boosts self-esteem and makes a child feel special even on an ordinary day.
7) Count the candles and matches.

Candles can stand in anything. It doesn't have to be a cake or cupcake.

Can my two-year old understand me?

[Previously published for sfgate.com/moms]

Mikey is going through a very frustrating developmental period for me. He is unhappy mostly everywhere except home. And at home, I can't even finish unloading the dishwasher before he says, "Mama come." He needs my full attention all the time. I really enjoy hanging out with him but lately it's been difficult. I didn't realize how drained a felt, until Mikey's papa came home tonight, and I scurried off into the office and closed the door.

I was hoping for a little peace. My goal was three minutes. I didn't even make it three minutes alone before Mikey started screaming for me on the other side of the door. I heard Zack saying, "Let's go play in the yard." But, by that point Mikey was so worked up nothing would satisfy him apart from being in his mommy's arms. I opened the door and grabbed my keys. I needed out. I felt trapped and I needed some space. My decision didn't help the volume of screaming and Zack didn't know what to do, so he followed me down to the garage with our wailing child.

At this point, Mikey was so red and horse from crying that I couldn't leave him. Nonetheless, I was still upset and needed a walk. So, I took him and marched off into the street with no idea where I was going. Zack stood on the steps with no shoes and the whole house open, "Where are you going?" he asked. I turned to look but didn't respond. I just didn't know.

I held Mikey tight in my arms and walked in silence. Tears dripped down from under my sunglasses. When we reached the Panhandle park, I let Mikey down to walk. He reached for my hand and held it as we crossed the bike lane. Mikey never wants to hold my hand when we walk. He swats it away every time. But tonight it was his hand that held mine. "He is holding my hand to comfort me," I thought.

His hand transmitted so much love that I came out of my depressed state and into the present moment. It was a warm San Francisco Friday night. A woman sat on the grass with her newborn baby. Dogs ran after balls. Crows cawed loudly in the trees. Bikes zipped back and forth on the path. The warm offshore breeze dried my tears.

We continued to walk hand-in-hand without talking. Mikey would pick up a leaf or an acorn and show it to me. I would nod or smile. Just as soon as he'd let go of my hand he'd say, "hand, hand," and want it back. But this time, it wasn't for him, it was for me.

He maintained a steady walk. Normally, he can barely walk up our small street in under an hour and getting him to walk up the stairs to our apartment is about as frustrating as it gets. But in that moment, he walked. We stopped briefly to watch the basketball game and the skateboarders, and then we headed out of the park and back up the hill to the house.

We passed the newly painted orange Buddhist meditation house and Mikey looked up at me and said, "Orange." When I looked back into his eyes they weren't the eyes of a two-year old. He held my gaze with the most beautiful smile that I have ever seen. For a brief moment, my son knew more than I. He was all knowing, comforting, loving, and still. Mikey held my hand all the way home and he didn't let me go.

Zack caught up to us on the bike just before we turned onto our street. I ran a lavender bath as soon as I walked in the door. Mikey climbed in and Zack leaned over the side of the tub and washed him while I relaxed and enjoyed their company.

Take away the incentives for too many c-sections

"On average, Medicaid pays $5,000 more for a C-section than for a vaginal birth, and private insurance pays a far greater premium. You don’t have to be a cynic to wonder if that could have something to do with the rise in unnecessary C-sections."

Read this article about Obama's plan to change our nation's huge unnecessary c-section rate:

http://crosscut.com/2009/08/06/health-medicine/19144/

Why do parents who don't need the money go back to work?

[Previously published for sfgate.com/moms]

I was talking to a mom at a baby shower who explained why she chose to go back to work even though she didn't need the money. As she told me the story, tears swelled up in her eyes. She works at a company that offers a year maternity leave (amazing, I know). She took the full year with her first child but returned to work after three months with the second. She said that she couldn't handle it. Two kids were too much for her. She felt like she would snap at any moment. So she hired someone to do the job for her. She said that she feels really guiltly about her decision.

The reality of her situation saddens me. People have kids but don't want to do the work or feel someone else could do a better job. She loves her children but she can't be with them all day long. My interest in her story stems from my own mom not wanting to be with me or my two siblings. My mom left my dad and the three of us young children when I was only four years old. She gave my dad custody and went to live in Florida to get her Ph.D.

Maybe it's good that my friend at the baby shower went to work. If that's what keeps a family together, then so be it.

Diaper Free Baby. Well, Not Yet!

I swear, once you start to put your baby on the potty, you'll never turn back. I have bought a ton of different types of diapers: custom cloth from San Francisco's East Bay Jessica

here

, cheapish cloth diapers from Green Mountain Diapers

here

, biodegradable diapers

here

, and

Huggies

from Lucky's down the street. And, nothing compares to NO diapers at all!

When West has to go poop, he works on it for a good hour and sometimes three hours if he is on his back in bed. I was getting no sleep listening to him grunt and moan for three hours. At first, I thought that he needed to burp. So, I picked him up for a burp and he pooped. It turns out that laying flat on your back isn't the best position for pushing a poop out or a baby for that matter. Plus apparently, we can't pee or poop in our sleep. We have to be awake for the bowels to open. I believe it. If I potty West right when he wakes-up, his diaper is often dry.

It all started when

Lydia

told me about a friend of hers who pees her baby in her sink when she comes over for a visit. It sounds completely unladylike but putting manners aside for a moment, pee is sterile and is okay for the kitchen sink. So, no big deal?

I asked Lydia if she knew of any books on the subject and she pointed me to

Diapers Free

, which she remembered seeing at her

pediatrician's office

. I checked it out from the library and read it. Serendipitously, I received an email about an Elimination Communication (i.e. Diapers Free) workshop in San Francisco by

Willow Lune

. I signed up. I was curious.

I decided to do a 24-hour trial period before the workshop. My first goal was to "catch" West's nighttime poop so that I could get some sleep. So, when he woke me up in the middle of the night with his groaning and moaning, I took off his diaper and held him in a squat position over a cloth diaper. I can tell if he has to go because his penis is sticking up and looks full. Sure enough, he pooped and peed right away and we happily went back to sleep. I didn't have to clean up a sloppy mess of poop smeared all over his butt either. Now I use a potty and not the cloth diaper and I have less laundry!

Once he is over the toilet, he poops. It's like he waits for it. I don't catch a lot of his pees right now, but I am hoping to as I get use to this new method of diapering or should I say not diapering. I catch the obvious pees like after nursing and first thing in the morning.

Ah yes, I have been pooped and peed on, but it has only been once or twice and isn't much worse than a diaper blowout, which I just had to clean up this morning because I was too tired to poop West in the potty. After changing the bed and doing laundry, I'm motivated again to listen to his cues and put him on the potty. Putting West on the potty isn't much different than reminding a toddler to go to the bathroom at key transitions in the day like before leaving the house, before bed and in the morning.

The concept seems outlandish, but when I started thinking about what most of the world does for diapering babies, it totally makes sense. Most places don't have a Lucky's down the street with

Huggies

. And the people living in these places don't have the money to spend on diapers. They carry their babies close to them and learn their signs for peeing and pooping.

Yes, I realize that we don't live in India or Tibet but baby instincts are the same. Babies don't want to defecate on themselves. What animal pees and poops on themselves and sits in it for hours.

When I asked Zack this question, he answered, "worms." I responded, "I think worms are insects." Actually, we are both wrong. In any case, I think that we can agree that worms are a far cry from human babies.

I mean really, the more that I think about it, the more that it grosses me out. Would I want to sit in my poop? Diapers are a convenience of modern life for adults. I bet if the babies could talk, they would have something to say about it.

West is five weeks old and wears diapers. I take them off like I would pants when he has to pee or poop. He still sits in his pee sometimes if he is sleeping but it's less now. And, I do hope to have him out of diapers by his first birthday.

Now if only I can get my three-year old out of his nighttime diaper.

Should I Follow My Own Rules?

[Published previously for SFGate.com/moms]

I think that everyone can agree that one kid grabbing a toy from another kid's hands is a big "no,no." Now I ask, what about me (mommy) snatching an open magic marker from Mikey? I have done it before. But it felt hypocritical. Why should I expect him not to take what he wants when I demonstrate the opposite? If it's not life threatening, it can be a perfect learning opportunity and a way to treat him like a sensitive human being.

If I really believe in talking it out and asking for things rather than taking them, then I need to practice what I preach. And so, now I do.

I put my hands together like I am begging for food and kneel down right in front of him. I look at him in the eyes and I am very serious. I say, "Mikey, please give mommy the marker. We only draw on paper. Mommy wants to put the marker away until art time. Please give mommy the marker." He normally drops it gently into my open hands and I say, "thank you." Or, he says, "thank you, Mikey," which means that I should say it. If he refuses then I tell him that I am going to take it on the count of three if he doesn't give it to me. It isn't quite playground rules but I do recognize that I do need to make executive decisions sometimes.

These moments allow me to practice being present. I stop whatever I am doing and embrace the moment. I remain separated emotionally but completely focused on it. These moments don't last more than a few minutes but they are intense and a great spiritual practice. It takes a lot of will power for Mikey to give up the marker and for me not to take the easy way out and grab it from him. Mikey always runs away from the ordeal quite happy and content with himself. And, I save my walls. It's a win win!

Helping with the dishes

If Mikey is begging me to play and the dishes are piling up, I put him to work. Including him in everyday chores is easy and he loves it. In this picture, I am just to his left washing dishes. I made a tub of soapy water and pass him dishes. When he starts getting bored of a dish I say, "Thanks, that one looks done; here's another one. " Sometimes it morphs into water play with two objects. Often, I finish the dishes and he still wants to play with his tub of water.

I always put a towel under him because water never stays in the tub.

Good Communication Skills

[Published previously for SFGate.com/moms]

If Mikey wants something and it conflicts with what I want, I can be sure that the conversation won't end there.

Here's a scenerio: Mikey is standing on a foot stool in the pantry holding the jar of fig bars. We are just about to sit down to dinner and he wants yet another fig bar. So, I say, "Mikey wants another fig bar. Yep, I hear you sweety, you want another bar." His shoulders relax and his face softens and he nods his head. Then I say, "Mikey, you've already had two fig bars, no more, just two."

Most of the time he'll repeat back, "just two." And sometimes we'll do the scenerio again or I'll have to look for a compromise like asking him if he'd like to start eating dinner a little before papa gets home.

What amazes me about this scene is that it works every time no matter what the conflict. By just repeating back to him what he wants, he is soothed into listening. The poor guy just wants to know that he is understood. Don't we all!

Write for Choice!

Here's me on KPOO radio yesterday campaigning for Certified Professional Midwives to be included in the Obama Health Care Reform bill. That's my cute little red-headed baby with me.

When looking into using a midwife for my pregnancy and delivery, I wondered what the difference was between a Certified Professional Midwife and a Certified Nurse Midwife. Here's my unofficial knowledge of the differences:

Certified Professional Midwives specialize in out-of-hospital births like at a birth center or a private home. Certified Professional Midwives can only work outside of hospitals; and therefore, have a lot of experience with low-tech, unmedicated births.

Certified Nurse Midwives specialize in hospital births and are licensed to work in hospitals. Certified Nurse Midwives have gone through more schooling than Certified Professional Midwives. The extra schooling allows them to work in hospitals. Most of their experience comes from working with mamas in a hospital setting, so they are more familiar hospital births than out-of-hospital births.

---------

Health Care Reform

Certified Nurse Midwives are currently included in the first draft of the Health Care Reform bill, but Certified Professional Midwives are not. Certified Professional Midwives are licensed by their states and should be added to the list of Medicaid-eligible providers recognized at the federal level.

Because I had such a fabulous prenatal, birth, and postnatal experience with a Certified Professional Midwife, I would like to see them included in Obama's Health Care Reform bill. Around 50% of births are paid for by Medicaid users. Medicaid only covers Certified Nurse Midwives not Certified Professional Midwives.

I would like to see women given more choice. And so, I am working to get Certified Professional Midwives covered by Medicaid. It's one sentence in the bill. If you're interested in helping, please go

here

to the MAMA Campaign to send a letter to Boxer, Feinstein, and Pelosi.

Please send your letter this weekend because they're moving fast on the hill and we want our voices heard.

More choices for women!

Listen to me and midwife Maria Iorillo on KPOO radio Thurs. July 16th

Midwives and Mothers talking about Health Care Reform and how Certified Professional Midwives can be a part of the solution!

I'll be there because I've had both a hospital birth and a birth under the care of a Certified Professional Midwife. Listen to my birth story and what care I prefer and why. Plus, listen to one of the most experienced San Francisco midwives, Maria Iorillo, talk about Certified Professional Midwives and our nations health care reform.

It's this Thursday, July 16th, from 12noon to 1pm PST on Reality Sandwich, KPOO, 89.5.

Tune in on your radio if you live in San Francisco or listen from the Internet at http://www.kpoo.com/hearus.html. Click on the jukebox image on the right.

Wisdom of Inconsistency

{Published earlier for SFGate.com/moms]

I remember my mom killing herself to keep everything equal between the three of us children. As parents, we are told that it is important to be consistent.

I was relieved to read in Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering, by Dr. Sarah J. Buckley that it is okay to be inconsistent because it's human nature. Have I ever cancelled an engagement or changed my mind about something? I feel relieved because it's hard work trying to line up the way Zack does things and the way that I do them. Buckley says:

Consistency between parents is artificial and unnecessary. ...I also believe that we can have different attitudes, thresholds, and responses, yet still parent together with ease.

I no longer have that nagging voice in my head saying that I am doing this whole mothering thing wrong when I let Mikey make a huge mess with the packaging poppers one day and not let him do it again the next day. Each day is different, each moment is different. Sometimes I feel more tolerant than other times.

If I say no to another book because I am tired from a day of fun with my little bundle of joy, but papa wants to read one more, fine. I don't need to feel like we're giving in to Mikey's attempt to delay bedtime.

Mikey is learning that at different times people are willing or unwilling to oblige. Buckley says, "Our children know that we will respond differently because we are different people. We don't want them to manipulate those differences, but it's okay to do things differently."

Since I have let go of the feeling that I need to be consistent, I feel more real and honest. Inconsistency has allowed Mikey to see more of me as a person and less of me as an authoritarian mom. I hope that he is learning how to be more true to himself as well.

Another grassroots campaign to include Certified Professional Midwives in Obama's Health Care Reform Bill

Watch this youtube to learn more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps7WANXhZXA&feature=related

The Big Push for Midwives Campaign empowers midwife advocates and moms/dads groups as they promote increased access to out-of-hospital maternity care and the Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) who are specially trained to provide it.

Our dedicated campaigners, or "Pushers" as they are affectionately known, help to educate the people in power (at the insurance companies, in the hospital associations, in the Statehouses, and on Capitol Hill) about the reduced costs and improved outcomes associated with using out-of-hospital maternity care and Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who are specially trained to provide it.

The Big Push campaign works to widely share the stories of U.S. citizens who choose CPMs as their maternity care providers and the multiple benefits to society that come from fully integrating out-of-hospital birth and Certified Professional Midwives into the health care systems of our states.

July 2009 Article on Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs)

A July 2009 article on Certified Professional Midwives, politics and health care reform!

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=delivering_affordable_healthcare

I live on a relocated cemetery

[Written previously for SFGate.com/moms]

This Friday I was alone in my apartment. Husband and 2-year old were elsewhere for the night. I had a nice night out: yoga and dinner. I cleaned up that day's breakfast and the rest of the house from 11pm to midnight. I lay in bed alone. I fell asleep and then awoke two hours later because I felt someone holding my hand. I don't think that I've slept alone, I mean really alone for two plus years. So, I thought maybe I was just imagining that Zack was in bed with me, but I woke to the same feeling every two hours until finally morning came. Much of the Richmond District was a graveyard. The Encyclopedia of San Francisco says:

Golden Gate Cemetery was created in 1868 on about 200 acres purchased by the city north of Clement between 33rd and 43rd avenues. It was also known as Clement Street Cemetery and the City Cemetery. In 1909, it was turned into Lincoln Park Golf Course. It is unknown how many remains were moved, and several hundred were discovered when the Palace of the Legion of Honor was being renovated in the 1990s.

My house was part of a housing development put on top of an old cemetery, one of "The Big Four" cemeteries. After we moved into our house and started digging in the garden, we found a large piece of a tombstone. If they forgot to remove a piece of tombstone, what else did they forget? My neighbor has a fully intact tombstone in her yard. She calls it, "Our New Yorker." He was a pioneer from New York. Although she jokes about it, she confessed that she got holy water from a church and poured it over the top. I am starting to think that I should do the same thing.

It was like people were hanging out in my house, but I couldn't see them. Like trying to sleep with someone watching you. Or, trying to sleep with the lights on. They weren't mean or unfriendly just there. I've felt them before with Zack home but somehow I was able to ignore them better. Friday night was a haunted, sleepless night. I am glad that I've got a full house again.

My Baby

"This is MY baby. This is MY baby," I repeated over and over in my head right before each wave to push consumed me. The urges were so strong that I felt like I could loose my breath completely.

The sun shown bright and I listened to the neighborhood children play outside as I labored calmly in my birth tub. I had wonderful rests between surges where I listened to birds and dosed off to sleep. My doula whispered, "You are having a beautiful birth, Thais."

I was, but I also struggled with doubt the whole time. I was scared that I might not be able to pull it off. Even when West's head had crowned, I thought that he would get stuck and

Maria

would have to transport me to the hospital for another cesarean. And then, the hospital would have birthed by baby not me. But somehow, I managed to overcome those doubts right before each surge with my simple chant, "This is MY baby." Sometimes I would say, "Let's just get through this next one. Just one more."

The realization that only I can birth my baby in the way that I want was an on going theme for me throughout my pregnancy. People that I felt dependent on and wanted at my birth didn't work out for one reason or another. Even Maria had to go lobby in Washington on my due date, and I had to come to terms with the fact that she might not be there for the birth. Luckily, West came when she got back. I am so grateful for that.

For my first son's birth, subconsciously, I always thought that I'd be saved like Cinderella is saved from her evil step-sisters. I assume that it is a cultural message ingrained in my psyche since I was a little girl. It's important to have support, but the reality is that only the Mama can birth the baby. It is hard to be alone on such a hard journey, but the belief that I could do it and my two years of preparation allowed the baby to come. I pushed as hard as I possibly could. I wanted him to arrive protected at home and in peace.

"This is MY baby," I chanted over and over again to myself. And I did push him out. He came right out like he should. It took only one hour of pushing after seven hours of active labor. Baby West was born at home on a gorgeous, sunny day. His demeanor is as peaceful and calm as the way that he joined us. And, he is so loved by me and so many others who have followed my recovery from my first son's birth to the discovery and actualization of a home birth with my second. When Maria put him on my chest, I rejoiced, "I did it! I did it!"

Kara

, my doula, cried with joy next to me as she listened to my reaction. I feel so powerful. Birth really is empowering.

As I celebrated holding my new baby in my arms and watching him nurse perfectly without any instruction. Maria said, "Now that is an unmedicated baby." After a brief celebration, Maria was looking serious again because I still had not birthed my placenta. We waited an hour and tried everything from angelica root, to nursing, to a shot of pitocin. Finally Maria had to make the decision to call 911 and have an ambulance transport me to UCSF. I needed a manual removal of the placenta. It was only Maria's fifth ambulance transport in her 23.5 years of being a midwife. Four of the five transports were placenta related.

Maria can perform the procedure herself, but since I had had a previous cesarean the chance of hemorrhaging was too risky. The procedure at UCSF was short and I was back at home shortly afterward. I am happy to have had a good hospital experience rather than one of a victim. It was a necessary part of my healing.

As Maria and I waited for Zack to pull the car around in the quiet lobby of the hospital at midnight, she said, "This is what home birth is all about, it's a collaboration with the hospitals. We come to them when we need their services and we only use what we need."

Please join the MAMA Campaign to help lobby to include Certified Professional Midwives in the Obama's Health Care Reform bill.

Born at Home! Welcome home baby West.

All went well and I had my beautiful baby at home on my side of the bed. I used the tub but it wasn't where I chose to birth my baby for whatever reason. I was in active labor for seven hours and pushed for one hour. He latched on right away and I had a glorious hour with him before I had to go to the hospital for a manual removal of my placenta. The procedure was short and I was back home in bed with my baby shortly afterward. I feel like the hospital experience was a vital part of my healing, but I am glad that it was a short and relatively easy visit.

I am writing a more detailed birth story for this blog and

Maria

's blog. It will still be abbreviated. I really need to write a book to cover the full two years of my experience.

I am sure happy to be on the other side and to have had a successful and joyful birth experience. What a load off! Time to move on but not from the home birth community; I am here to stay.

West weighed 8lbs. 10 oz. He was 21 1/4 inches long. And, had a head of 13 3/4 circumference.

More about my home birth journey

here

.

Midwifery and Health Care Reform

Three San Francisco midwives are going to DC this week to speak with key Senate staffers from Boxer and Feinstein's offices about how Certified Professional Midwives can be an important solution to the difficulties with American maternity care. Obama's three health care reform principles include: reducing costs, guaranteeing options and providing affordable, quality care to all Americans. Midwifery can do all three!

Here are two videos taken at Maria Iorillo's home to help promote Midwifery in Health Care Reform:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4atqJNTmPrs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeYQrDzB2lY

Subscribe to the Mama Campaign to support the purpose. Numbers of subscribers is important when lobbying.
http://www.mamacampaign.org/

2008 San Francisco Department of Vital Statistics for Birth

These are the official Mode of Delivery rates for San Francisco Hospitals in 2008.

The Categories are

Primary (first baby)
C/S (cesarean)
Repeat C/S (repeat cesarean)
Forceps
Vacuum
Spontaneous (natural vaginal birth)
VBAC (Vaginal Birth after C/S)

This is the percentage breakdown based on total births at that hospital.

This is public information.

Hospital	Primary Cesarean	Repeat Cesarean	Total Cesarean
CPMC	20.6%	10.3%	30.9%
Kaiser	24.2%	7.5%	31.7%
SF General Hospital	11.8%	8.8%	20.6%
St. Lukes	11.5%	9.0%	20.5%
UCSF	18.8%	8.2%	27%

Hospital	Forceps	Vacuum	Spontaneous
CPMC	1.8%	7.6%	58.5%
Kaiser	0	2.7%	64.7
SF General Hospital	1.1%	4.6%	72.8%
St. Lukes	.4%	3.4%	75.7%
UCSF	4.3%	3.1%	64%

Hospital	VBAC
CPMC	1.3%
Kaiser	.9%
SF General Hospital	1.9%
St. Lukes	.1%
UCSF	1.7

Are you scheduled?

My due date is tomorrow and I can't believe that what inspired me to write a post tonight is induction of labor. Since I am looking fairly large, many people ask me, "When are you due?" I say, "Tomorrow." And, they say, "Oh, are you scheduled?"

By scheduled, I am assuming that they mean scheduled for induction of labor. I am truly surprised by the number of people who ask this question.

How did this become the socially acceptable response?

Why don't people say things like, "Oh that's wonderful, best of luck for a healthy baby."

As I write that phrase, I think to myself, "Of course, people must say that nice cliche phrase. "

Sadly, they really don't. Instead when they hear that my due date is tomorrow, their eyes pop out of their head and they look at me in dread and fear. They can't believe that I am at my son's swimming lesson or the grocery store or walking the Lyon St. steps.

Why do we react this way?

It is not beyond me that I am sheltered from our mainstream world of fear-based maternity care. If I were receiving care from an OBs office right now, I would surely be pressured to schedule an induction date or rather in my case a cesarean date (induction shouldn't be done with VBac mamas). I am so happy not to have that pressure and to be allowed the time and space to have my baby when my baby is ready to be born. I am certainly ready as most women are at 40 weeks. I hope he comes soon.