Monday, September 27, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
Non-traditional birthing gains popularity
Continued from page 1A
women to use epidurals if they said they wanted them. She said the care nurse midwives provide varied from clinic to clinic.
"My personal philosophy is that I don't want to put my values and my judgment on someone else and make them feel bad because they want an epidural," Elliot said. "When we sit down with them and figure out their birth plan, we let them decide whether they want an epidural, because when they deliver, we want them to have a happy moment."
Elliot said she could not estimate the number of women who made that choice.
But Howe was not one of them.
But Howe was not one of them. "I could have done that," Howe said. "It was my choice. But my sister said she felt better when she didn't have an epidural compared with when she did."
Luann Baumchen, staff nurse at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, 325 Maine St., said roughly 60 percent of the hospital's birthing mothers used epidurals to alleviate labor pain.
Nurse midwives say the alternative pain-reliving methods they use can serve to empower mothers and lessen their pain through other means. Elliot said the midwives at the clinic utilized diversional activities such as music for their patients. Nurse midwives encourage women to walk around, use water therapy, such as taking a dip in a whirlpool spa or basking in a shower, and sit on a birth stool, which allows the mother to rest on a bar while leaning against her partner.
"We are empowering her by getting her out of bed," Breedlove said. "It makes such a difference in how the woman thinks and feels about the pain of labor."
Partners can get as involved in the labor as they feel comfortable with.
"Some just want to sit and watch," she said. "But others are in there with our hands and their hands working together."
Collaborating with physicians
Collaborating with physicians Elliot established the nurse midwifery practice at the Women's Healthcare Group in 1993, and that year she single-handedly delivered 150 babies. Since then, the practice has grown to four part-time nurse midwives and five on-call doctors, with two midwives working every day. All the nurse midwives have masters degrees in nurse midwifery.
Although Baumchen said midwifery occupied a medical niche, it is a niche Lawrence Memorial has not filled during the 16 years she has worked there.
"Nurses and physicians are always looking for ways to provide better care, and midwifery is a way to provide that," Baumchen said.
"My impression is that midwifery is a respected field when under the auspices of a physician. It's a collaborative effort."
Henry Buck Jr., head of gynecology at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said he agreed that nurse midwifery was becoming an accepted part of obstetrical practice, within the confines of state law, which mandates that the midwife have a medical license. Nurse midwives also have a doctor on call in case an emergency arises during the labor.
"Around here, there are some lay midwives who deliver at home, which is against the law in the state of Kansas," Buck said.
About 70 percent of licensed nurse midwives in hospitals. The other 30 percent practicing in private OB-GYN clinics such as the Women's Healthcare Group.
Although registered nurses attend mothers throughout labor, an obstetrician is not always in the room
until later in the labor process.
"Our standards do not indicate that constant care is needed until the advanced stages of labor unless there are complications," Baumchen said.
unike obstetricians, midwives supply constant care. And Breedlove said that having another person in the room could lessen the laboring mother's panic.
"We offer emotional support by providing continuous presence." Breedlove said. "There is such a calming effect of just not leaving a laboring woman alone."
Howe returned to the Women's Healthcare Group when she found out she was pregnant again. She is due Oct. 17.
"The midwives have an extremely calming effect." Howe said. "I am extremely satisfied with the care I've received. I've recommended them to many, many people."
—Edited by Kelly Clasen
By Clare McLellan
Kansan book critic
Bottle the water, pack up as much granola as you can, grab some candies and your favorite blanket and head for the hills. As of Jan. 1, 2000, life as we know it, is over.
Or at least this is what Mike Oehler would have us believe in his latest book, "The Hippy Survival Guide to Y2K." Oehler, author of "The $50 & Up Underground House Book," is a homesteading, hippy who lives a self-sufficient life in the woods. He also is quite confident that the year 2000 computer glitch is going to severely alter, if not end, our concept of civilization.
Review
His book is divided into three sections and three appendices. The first section, "The Count Down" — or more appropriately, "The Sky is Falling" — chronicles reports of the computer glitch issues and Oehler's growing concern throughout 1988. After reading this section you will either be scared out of your mind or cynically amused. I was of the latter persuasion.
1 mayoe eat my words come New Year's Day, but it seems unlikely that everything Oehler predicts will actually transpire. If it does, God help us. And bless his heart, thats
just what Oehler is trying to do in this book.
Just what Oehler is trying to do in this book.
He does put a disclaimer on it. He admits the book is highly subjective and acknowledges it's not for everyone. Anyone who questions what a hippy knows about the computer glitch is ordered to stop reading in the introduction.
"No martini-slurping. Prozac-dropping. Viagra-needing, suit-wearing, affluent-affecting, knuckleheaded numbskull is fit to judge this book." Oehrer warns. Point taken.
Oehler has some amazing ideas and makes building an emergency trench house sound like a breeze.
The second section, "Survival Strategies," details how to obtain and store the necessary food and supplies to endure potential Y2K disasters. He also describes how to build a self-sufficient home that will keep you warm without electricity, clean and hydrated without running water and safe from the elements without expensive shelter. One attention catching tip was the concept of building a nest for a bed in the trench house; reverting to our animal instincts for survival.
Book facts
The Hippy Survival Guide to Y2K
Pages: 279
Publisher: Keokee Co. Publishing, Inc.
Price: $14.95
Grade: C+
The third and most enlightening section is called "Silver Bullet Solutions." Now these are not magical remedies to the actual Y2K computer glitch but solutions to the problems that could ensue. Oehler describes how this could be the catastrophe that saves our society...in the long run, that is.
Being a true hippy, he believes deeply in a back-to-the-land mentality and in putting an end to industrialization. This last section of the book is a description of how some of the forced changes the computer glitch could induce would benefit America and the rest of the world.
The appendices include lists of Y2K Web sites, companies that sell essential food and supplies and other books on survival strategies and Y2K.
These are all wonderful tips and even if they
aren't needed for Y2K, they are still good to know for any emergency situation. Oehler has a quote from Gandhi at the beginning of the book, "...without an intelligent return to simplicity, there is no escape from our descent to a state lower than brutality." I believe there is a great deal of truth in that, and urging people to consume less and give more back for the greater good are wonderful ideas and the strongest points in the book.
Although all of this information is helpful and well-intentioned, it is overblown. I am not an expert on the computer glitch. In fact, I know very little.
very little. Oehler presents article after article of supposed Y2K experts detailing potential problems. Potential. The problem is, they never specifically state the likelihood of these things happening or more importantly, why.
Lists of companies that aren't year 2000 compliant does nothing more than scare gullible people, perhaps unnecessarily. Some of the data in the book is already dated and even the companies still working on the problem won't necessarily have such a severe impact on society.
There are less than 100 tu Bettert start building your nest.
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Essays, Rumors, Field Notes & Photographs from the Edge of Fury
Lawrence journalist / photographer will speak about his travels to the volcanic Caribbean island Montserrat and sign copies of his book
7:00 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.
Alderson Auditorium
Level 4, Kansas Union
Thursday, September 30, 1999
Free and open to the public - Everyone Welcome!
See an exhibit of Gary Mark Smith's photographs entitled Molten Memoirs: Ignoring the Rational Voice Kansas Union Gallery Sept. 20 - 30, 1999
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store hours: Sat 10-4
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