Modern babies

[tasteetriceps]

On Monday i watched my first surgery, in the context of my first birth. Wheeling the baby transport device to the operating room with the two experienced nurses in our spacesuits, we didn't look like we were off to fetch a basically routine new human--we looked like a Hazmat team preparing to isolate a contaminated object. Ah, anyway, an OR is a

Comments

[pene]

Luckily My experience of watching our baby be born via caesarean was mostly warm, sweet and while I guess there were hygeine requirements most of the rules were to do with contact and looking after the tiny burrito of a baby and later getting confident not to drown him.

[tasteetriceps]

Congratulations! I'm so out of the loop i didn't even realise you'd had one! That is beautiful. I love that you called the baby a burrito--i always liked holding burritos in my hands because they felt like newborns, all warm and soft and just that degree of squishy, haha. Wow, dude, i am so happy for you. How old is he now? What's his name? How's it going?

I don't object to C-sections by any means--it's the system surrounding my experience in that ordinary hospital that horrifies me. I spent most of the rest of my day trying to get my hands on the kids, holding and rocking them, singing them love songs, trying to communicate an acknowledgement of their humanity, helping them feel happy and secure. It was sad to note the utter lack of connection my classmate with me that day was able to give those kids. She claims to want to be an OB or pediatric nurse, but she kept handing the babies off to me because they kept crying in her arms! I don't have some rarefied gift. Something so simple was so lacking throughout that place. At least we

[klingrap]

Wow, this is fascinating and rather horrifying. After I pop a baby out they're gonna take it away? This may have just turned me into a bigger hippie than I already was.

Nice to hear from you as always.

[tasteetriceps]

It's worth getting well-educated about your options and the processes involved before giving birth. I think home births are lovely, but if yours is not a low-risk pregnancy, many birth centers are fantastic for offering more options, and in a setting that has assorted emergency-type services available should you need them. Birth centers may be part of or totally separate from hospitals, and i know people having water-births assisted by midwives in these places.

blanket policies

[gossamermaid]

you're in west virginia??

we should meet up at the homestead (jefferson pools) when they reopen.

also, if you can/are interested margaret cho is coming to richmond.

yeah, i'm really wary of things that are done on an industrial scale-- that shit's so passé. i expect such a highly specialized (and expensive) profession to deliver a highly customized, thoughtful service.

fortunately cultural trends demand a shift towards authenticity, balance, and nuance.

[tasteetriceps]

The wonderful thing about my role in this picture is that i am part of that shift towards authenticity, balance, and nuance. I've rarely seen my work so clearly cut out for me as since i've begun actually working in the dominant system that so deeply seeks my revolution.

I still live in Ohio, but my rotation this quarter is in West Virginia, less than an hour away.

What is the Homestead/Jeff Pools? I know there's all sorts of gorgeous outdoor whatnot in that state, but i ain't yet explored it much. When's Margaret Cho? I would love to see you more than Margaret Cho anyway--if i timed it to coincide she'd practically be an afterthought.

[gossamermaid]

the jefferson pools are great-- they're actually in bath co va (i wonder if anyone calls bath county that, bathcova. i hope not

[tasteetriceps]

I watched a circumcision yesterday. I cried. I just now remember conversing with you many years ago, or maybe hearing you and Mikhaela talk, about preferences regarding un/circumcised men; i think we were on the same team. Anyway, they didn't even use anesthetic. And the doctor was an asshole.

Warm springs! sound amazing. I didn't know how far i'd have to venture to find such things in this part of the country; out West they seem to be everywhere. Looking at a map, there IS a place called "Bacova" not far from Warm Springs--only a th amiss. And near Warm Springs is Hot Springs, sweet, so you have a choice. In any case, it's all about 250mi from here. Not bad.

I would respond more but i'm distracted by a hunger tummyache with absolutely no appetite. I don't know what to do. Forcefeed?

[aslant]

my parents had to sign some ridiculous YOUR BABY WILL DIE waiver just to get them to skip the eye goop for five minutes while they gave me a warm bath together, so that i could see them properly and bond. aww. my mom is a nurse and she talks about going to the damn battlefields in order to have a semi-human birth in the hospital these days, unless you are ultra-rich.

[tasteetriceps]

I know, it's mad--you really have to be well-informed yourself in order to bypass all these bizarre defaults. I can see the use of the erythromycin if a mother actually tests positive for gonorrhea or the chlam before birth, but this wide-scale use is unnerving to me. In any case it's no emergency--why not let a child enjoy gazing into human eyes for a little while first?

[agaperos77]

"Do you remember what it was like to encounter the world after nine months assuming form in your mom's womb?"

Yes, in bits and pieces. It's one of the reasons that I consider western medicine to be cruel and barbaric. My first vivid memory of my sexual bits for example was of having them sliced up. Call it circumcision if you want; I call it genital mutilation. Is that still standard practice in hospitals ? Sure there have been worse ways of doing things in the past and there still are worse ways of doing things if you're American and too poor to afford the system or living somewhere without a system...don't mean it's the best way to do things.

Anyway good to hear from you.

[tasteetriceps]

Oh my god, Grug, it is still so routine, it breaks my heart, and not just because of my personal taste for the turtleneck. I bring up mere considerations among my poor Appalachian classmates who often had kids of their own when they were 19, and they're just so convinced that circumcision is better, because they believed some other authority some other time. People are so afraid to suppose that the powers that be should not be so wholly trusted. It's true that you needn't a heavy hand to oppress people--they'll help oppress themselves with ignorance and fear.

[agaperos77]

" It's true that you needn't a heavy hand to oppress people--they'll help oppress themselves with ignorance and fear

[tasteetriceps]

Truth. I was speaking of adults' ignorance & fear in isolation, but i spose there's no isolating.

I do wonder what it would be like to return to newborn awareness for a moment. The earliest memory i can bring to mind right now is of standing in my crib at night, holding on to the rail. I wonder if time could possibly have dragged on longer then than when i was somewhat older.

There's a lot of work to do.