birth decisions

our big easter party... i'm not too thrilled with my appearance in this picture, but i'm waddling now, i'm in that phase so there's nothing i can do. i'm not gonna look perfect. [because when i'm not pregnant i look perfect all the time, duh :)] saylor really does not like getting his picture taken and he was so overstimulated and tired from all the hub-bub that when we went to take this picture he just burst into tears... it was pretty funny actually, because it's not like him to just start sobbing. we had fun though and we've got a bunch of other things going on this month that will keep me distracted. i was quite excited to find out that i will get to have a real ultrasound when we shoot the commercial!!! so awesome. i was at a different practice with saylor and the 2nd ultrasound was at 35 weeks. at the place i am at now they do their second one at 19 weeks. and when i had it, the doctor rushed through it, didn't take time to find good pictures... i think i cried. it was pretty bad. so YAY! i'll have a pretend husband standing next to me acting excited but whatever yay!
so many decisions with childbirth! i feel very strongly on my not vaccinating or circumcising.... ok yes that took hours... months to research and decide but it seems like an easy decision now. the two things i'm diving into currently are antibiotics for myself during labor as at this point i am positive for GBS.. and the vitamin K shot. i am of course refusing eyedrops for her eyes as this is an antibiotic for STD's and the HEP B vax, which of course the midwives agree. they recommend antibiotics for GBS and the vit k shot though... and i've been spending hours reading about this... and my conclusions are...
i'm going to be retested for GBS and the prayer is that it will be negative. if so, i will share how i managed to do that!
if not, i still plan to not have the antibiotics unless my water is broken for more than 18 hours before labor, i go into preterm labor, or i develop a fever during labor. fortunately saylor's labor was short and i am praying this one is as well. my reasons for not wanting it, in a nutshell- i am allergic to penicillin anyhow so they next antibiotic they'd use would be even less effective. also for it to be effective you need at least 2 doses, every 4 hours. my labor with saylor was only 8 hours so i may very well not even have time to do it. and research shows the risk is so low of something happening, it almost equals the risk you have from taking antibiotics. besides allergic reactions, overuse of antibiotics is risky as well. i like this paragraph-

We can compare this to CDC estimates that 0.5 percent of babies born to GBS-positive mothers with no treatment will develop a GBS infection, and that 6 percent of those who develop a GBS infection will die. Six percent of 0.5 percent means that three out of every 10,000 babies born to GBS-positive mothers given no antibiotics during labor will die from GBS infection. If the mother develops anaphylaxis during labor (one in 10,000 will), and it is untreated, it is likely that the infant, too, will die. So, by CDC estimates, we save the lives of two in 10,000 babies-0.02 percent-by administering antibiotics during labor to one third of all laboring women. We should also keep in mind that this figure does not take into account the infants that will die as a result of bacteria made antibiotic-resistant by the use of antibiotics during labor-infants who would not otherwise have become ill. When you take that into account, there may not be any lives saved by using antibiotics during labor.
http://www.mothering.com/treating-group-b-strep-are-antibiotics-necessary

another link
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/33/1/2v

http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2008/01/group-b-strep-information.html
and this describes what i plan to use if i am still positive- wipes to use during labor

and here is a link for vitamin k info
http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/vitktop.html

of course i don't want to put my child at risk in any way- i understand these things were started in an effort to save babies. but they don't come without side effects. in the vitamin k case, i think the low risk of HDN will be immediately reduced when we take time before cutting the cord- so long as it wasn't wrapped around the neck or anything, i'd like to wait until it stops pulsing and/or i deliver the placenta. a paragraph i like-

The forces of nature are so focused on a successful birth that it just seems unlikely that all babies are deficient in vitamin K. Instead of simply accepting that nature goofed about clotting factors in newborns, I thought about all the ways that interventions at birth interfere with the normal physiological birth process regarding clotting. The most obvious intervention is premature cutting of the umbilical cord; this deprives a newborn of 25% to 40% of the physiological blood volume, and thus 25% to 40% of the physiological clotting factors that nature intended to be present in the newborn's blood. As someone who does Newborn Screening heelsticks on newborns whose umbilical cords were not cut prematurely (and some of whom did not receive supplemental vitamin K), I can tell you that they have no trouble clotting normally. This solves the problem of early-onset or classical HDN.

i think i will also take a vitamin k supplement myself in the first 10 weeks after birth, as it will then increase in my breastmilk and that of course will go to my daughter.
this has been hours of research and i encourage others to do the same, no matter what you ultimately decide! be informed

more words regarding vaccines

this is part of the forward of the book i am currently reading, 'mother warriors', by yes, jenny mccarthy. her path in life has drastically changed- i commend her for using her voice and doing everything she possibly can to speak loudly-for herself and thousands of parents. i've only just started the book but i would definitely recommend it.
doctor's are finally coming forward-he is one of many. this forward is brief, just the tip of the iceberg, i say...
"...Vaccines can cause autism. Diet and supplements and other alternatives to doing nothing can lead to recovery from autism. period. We doctors need to stop deceiving our patients into thinking that immunizations are 'free'. Every medical intervention costs the body something, and we have legal and moral obligation to tell parents.
When I give, for example, amoxicillin for a urinary tract infection, I'm almost apologetic as I describe the rash the kids can get, the possible yeast infections, and the diarrhea that can be caused by this and most other antibiotics. One in ten thousand children could have a dangerous allergic reaction.
When I discuss vaccines with parents, I talk to them about the benefits and the risks. The official position of the American Academy of Pediatrics may be the same as my personal position, but they are far too involved with the pharmaceutical industry to actually do anything but pay lip service to an open discussion. The CDC and the AAP are filled with doctors whose research, speaking engagements, and travel are often funded by the manufacturers of vaccines. Many of these same doctors are paid consultants, and some later go to work full-time for the pharmaceutical industry.
...Yes, most vaccines have much less mercury, but wait until the evidence against aluminum in vaccines becomes common knowledge. The body of research regarding aluminum's harm to human cells already contains hundreds of articles. The most damning conclusions were recently published by Dr. Robert Sears, a very well-known and well-respected pediatrician and the son and partner of Dr.William Sears, long regarded as 'America's Pediatrician'. Using the numbers he gathered from the FDA's own data and web site, Dr.Sears points out the unbelievable difference between the acknowledged toxic dose for a baby, 20 micograms, and the amount found in hepatitis B vaccine given on the day of birth, 250 micrograms. At two months of age, this same infant could receive immunizations containing as much as 1,875 micrograms of aluminum. This is disgraceful and dangerous, and Dr.Sears goes on to say that his "instinct was to assume that the issue had been properly researched, and that studies had been done on healthy infants to determine their abilitiy to rapidly excrete aluminum."
No studies have been done. None. He, and we, can conclude what scientists have known for a long time: Evidence has existed for years that aluminum in amounts this large is harmful for humans. We can only guess what harm we might be causing to babies with these huge overdoses of aluminum.
In mid-2008, Dr.Bernadine Healy finally spoke up. Dr. Healy is the former head of the United States National Institutes of Health [NIH] and a key member of the Institute of Medicine. Referring to the association between thimerosal, vaccines, and autism, Dr. Healy said "I think public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the hypothesis as 'irrational', without sufficient studies of causation...without studying the population that got sick". I believe she's just one of many intelligent doctors and scientists who know that we need to study the link between vaccines and autism and other neuroimmune disorders.
Like many of you and some of my colleagues, I'm extremely concerned about what has caused the tremendous increase in autism and related disorders over the past decade. The presumption that doctors are much better at diagnosis is absurd and unscientific....The truth is that we have to look much harder at what happens when we directly and repeatedly inject toxic material into babies, toddlers, and children. The benefits for most healthy children are easily matched or outweighed by the risks of the immunization schedule used by almost all pediatricians. Some of our vaccines have outlived their usefulness in the united states and elsewhere, and others need reformulation to make them safer for those families who want their children to receive them. additionally, pediatricians and the medical community at large have to begin listening very closely to parents who know their children better than we do....."
Jay N. Gordon, M.D., F.A.A.P., I.B.C.L.C., F.A.B.M.
Assitant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
UCLA Medical Center
Former Senior Fellow in Pediatric Nutrition, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute