University Daily Kansan, September 24, 1980
Page 7
'Birth scene' changes with new options
By KATHY BRUSSELL Staff Reporter
The typical "birth scene" has been rerun countless times in television comedies. Wife goes into labor, husband becomes hysterical and leaves the room. Wife and husband taxi and gives birth as husband pieces nervously around waiting room.
Such a scenario, however, is neither realistic nor necessary today, according to area parents who met last week. There are alternatives to traditional birth hospital.
LAWRENCE COUPLES who have used birthing rooms, non-hospital birthing centers and home-birth techniques related their experiences at the third annual Public Birth Forum held in the Lawrence Public Library.
The forum was planned by the Lawrence Association of Parents and Professionals for Safe Alternatives in Childbirth. The organization has been operating in Lawrence for a little longer than three years.
After being "singularly unimpressed" with the normal delivery rooms at Lawrence Memorial Hospital and other hospitals, Jane Betty, 1708 died in a birthing room. to have her baby in a birthing room.
Bettie said she had hoped to use the facilities at LMH, where a birthing room is located.
However, the hospital voted last June to postpone a decision on the proposed birthing room for six months. The department of obstetrics and gynecology submitted the proposal and will report to the hospital's board of trustees in December.
Betty then arranged to have her baby the birthing room at St. Francis Hospital.
"Hospital delivery rooms are, well,
just operating rooms," she said.
"The they're cold, brightly lit and have
no windows or curtains." She said
much warmer and more comfortable.
JEANIE MKEWAN and Michael Staver, 1803 Valley Lane, rejected the idea of hospital birth and opted for the Holistic Birth and Growth Center in Topeka. Their son, Nicholas, was born last May.
The birthing center, run by two to four hospital birthing facility in Kansas.
Its two birthing rooms are "honey," much like bedrooms, she said. Couples can bring tapes and listen to any kind of music they want during the delivery.
Two nurses and two aides, with whom the mother has worked throughout her pregnancy, are present during labor and birth, McKewan said. The couple can stay at the center as long as 24 hours after the birth.
The nurses visit the new mother in her home for the next two days to make sure that everything is going well.
THE CENTER has set up an emergency service with a nearby hospital to handle any problems during birth, and all couples who use the center must have a pediatrician in attendance to be available for consultation. McKewan said.
Staver said that the husband was involved in all aspects of a delivery at his home.
McKewan said she would like to have her next child at home but would not
trust an uncertified midwife to deliver her baby.
Her next choice would be to return to the birthing center, she said.
Cathy and Scott Dryden. 2613 Belle
home birth 11 months ago.
"We wanted to take full responsibility for the birth ourselves, and we thought it would be easier to do that at home," Cathy said.
Home birth is still a controversial subject, and most Lawrence doctors refuse prenatal care to couples planning home births, he said.
Dryden said a couple must be comfortable with its decision to try a home birth and must have faith in birth as a natural biological process.
"You have to learn to follow the birth," he said. "The hospital is there. If you have a medical problem, you'd be a fool not to use it."
The Drydens said they attended a prepared childbirth class and extensively studied nutrition and the birth process before their home delivery.
On the Record
One count of aggravated burglary and two counts of aggravated assault were filed yesterday in Douglas County District Court against Ronald. A. of Northwood St., in connection with an incident early Monday morning.
Payne was being held yesterday afternoon in Douglas County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bond. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2.
According to police, Payne allegedly entered a house in the 1600 block of Northwood and threatened a 22-year-old woman with a gun.
The suspect pointed his gun at one of the roommates, who shot both other rooms with another nearby room.
The woman screamed, waking her two roommates, police said.
The man, Roger E. Pitt, was being
bougainvillea Douglas County
Jail in lieu of $35,000 bail.
AN OCT. 1 hearing date has been set for a 56-year-old DeSoto man charged with two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and with two counts of enticing a child to a secluded place.
Pitts was arrested by Lawrence police Saturday night for allegedly mating minors—yew-yew girls in Edgewood Park earlier Saturday evening.
Freshmen begin selecting class officers
KU freshmen today began casting votes to elect their class officers.
roils will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today and tomorrow at the west end of the fourth floor of Wescoe Hall, the Information Booth on Jayhawk Boulevard, the Kansas Union lobby and the Satellite Union.
Poll also will be set up from 5 to 9 tonight in Gertrude S. Pearson, Joseph R. Pearson and Oliver hills, as well as in Pearson Scholarship Hall.
Poll will be open from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
Thursday at Delta Chi and Sigma Chi fraternities and at Naismith and Corbin halls.
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