YouTube - (Baby's perspective) barnets perspektiv!

Ever wondered what it is like to be baby looking out at the world from inside a pram? Wondered what it is like to be a baby being carried? This short video demonstrates the difference. The language is not English, but for those English speakers, the visual portrays the message brilliantly.



YouTube - Barnets perspektiv!

Tesco Ultra Softcarry Pack Mini 44 product information - Tesco.com

The effects of advertising on human behaviour is well known. Marketing psychologists are paid huge money for coming up with ideas, images, ways of presenting information that influences people subliminally so that they 'naturally' change their behaviour and buy the product.

Look what women and families are being 'sold' in the UK

What's the message here?

Tesco newborn nappies with a beautiful woman and newborn baby. That in itself is fully understandable. However, the packet shows the woman is bottle feeding her newborn. 

Hmmm.  

This photo is clearly a deal made with formula makers (do we smell money kickbacks here) and is the sort of socially corrupt marketing activities that are undermining breastfeeding as normal. This photo is an example of the way that marketing activities by big formula companies are working to make bottle feeding the 'norm' in a subliminal and unfortunately, powerful way.

This behaviour of undermining optimal nutrition for babies for corporate advantage is disgraceful. Many women struggle to breastfeed their babies already with the countless adverse social factors that mitigate against women feeling comfortable in their own bodies.

The future health of babies and society are influenced by this underhanded ' for profit' marketing

While the Code for marketing breastmilk substitutes has some clout, for other advertising there is no such protection. What a pity the genius minds of marketing psychologists aren't gainfully employed in producing campaigns for encourage people to work with their natural, physiological intelligence.  

Oh, wait, there's no money in that! 

UK Marketing Director of Tesco Carolyn Bradley can be contacted on: carolyn.bradley@uk.tesco.com 

Tesco Ultra Softcarry Pack Mini 44 product information - Tesco.com

Reducing infant mortality and improving the health of babies

A powerful video on  Reducing infant mortality and improving the health of babies from film maker and writer Debbie Takikawa


Reducing Infant Mortality from Debby Takikawa on Vimeo.


The risk of premature birth is discussed in  Report: 13 million babies worldwide born premature
and 1 million premature babies die each year

"The preterm birth rate in the USA is especially high: 12.7% of all babies are born early, according to the March of Dimes. That rate has increased 36% in the past 25 years, partly because of an increase in elective cesarean section, an increase in older mothers and the growing use of assisted reproduction, which increases the risk of twins, triples and higher-order multiple births, the report says. Most of the increase in the USA is in "late preterm" babies, born at 34 to 36 weeks of pregnancy, the report says."

The Role of Environmental Hazards in Premature Birth is being more closely examined, because, as Jennifer Howse states in her position statement preceding the conference report

" Not long ago, discourse on preterm birth was nearly always centered on the role of the mother. Increasingly, however, environmental hazards are being recognized as contributors to the devastating and costly problem of preterm birth"

The words reportedly attributed to Nicholas Fisk, director of the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research in Australia bear close investigation and consideration.

"Instead of focusing on acute preterm labor, researchers might help more women by identifying underlying problems, such as inflammation, that develop early in the pregnancy"

These emerging insights into the role of environmental toxins in premature birth and other disruptions to the whole process are providing a clarion call for the wholehearted support of all childbearing women by community and government structures to reduce stressors so that inflammatory processes are not switched on.

Norweigan Scientist says breastmilk is no better for babies than formula - mirror.co.uk

Interesting report on research from Norway, where breastfeeding support is high and most women breastfeed? What's going on?

Scientist says breastmilk is no better for babies than formula - mirror.co.uk

Statue in front of hospital on Margarita Island Venezuela

UNICEF has refuted the study

http://www.babyfriendly.org.uk/items/item_detail.asp?item=620

Ben Goldacre from Bad Science fame posts the press release that lead to the BIG STORY which has been subsequently plastered all over the media

http://bengoldacre.posterous.com/

These articles and responses to them are well worth reading to get the full story behind the 'story'.

Essentially, what the researchers are saying is that women who have high testosterone levels in pregnancy, have trouble breastfeeding.

There is a very thoughtful informed response by Australia's Karleen Gribble PhD School of Nursing and Midwifery, UWS, reproduced below.
Karleen's post was in response to a query about the study on en-net, " a free and open resource to help field practitioners have access to prompt technical advice for operational challenges for which answers are not readily accessible" The Emergency Nutrition Network is a UK registered international charity, set up by humanitarian agencies to improve effectiveness of emergency food and nutrition interventions through rapid identification and dissemination of lessons learnt in the course of operational practice, and through research and evaluation.

The en-net forum is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) and the support of the Irish People through Irish Aid.

http://www.en-net.org.uk/

Karleen wrote on the above list:

"There's a few things that you need to understand about this study (which I have read) and the context in which it was carried out. This research is from Norway, the country with the best breastfeeding rates in the Western world- 99% initiation of breastfeeding and 80% of women still breastfeeding at 6 months. Societial support for breastfeeding women in Norway is very good. The very small number of women who cease breastfeeding in the early weeks of their infant's life would include those whose have a genuine physiological problem with making sufficient milk for their babies. It was found that these women were more likely to have higher levels of androgens during pregnancy. This is not a huge surprise, it's been something that others have been suggesting for some time (see the book for mothers "Making more Milk" by West and Maracso). The researchers seem to think that androgen levels can account for pretty much every factor associated with early weaning....they are endocrinologists....it's a case of if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. It's a bit simplistic but there's no doubt that they have found a useful priece of the puzzle.
As to the idea that formula is as good as breastmilk. Well, the references cited in the study as providing evidence for this idea are 4 from the PROBIT study (the huge RCT of the implementation of BFHI in Belarus). The 4 studies cited looked at the impact of BFHI implementation (and lower of higher artificial feeding rates) on child behaviour, growth, dental caries, allergies/asthma- that's it. You'll get few people getting all het up saying you must breastfeed otherwise you're child will have behaviour problems or holes in their teeth. And to be perfectly frank any results from the PROBIT study on allergy and asthma is going to be questionable because the issue with allergic disease is exposure to allergens- and the only way to do this properly is a longitudinal study which records the time of the infant's first exposure to anything other than breastmilk- the only study I am aware of that has done this is one by Wendy Oddy in W Australia (and indeed, the critical factor was the timing of the first exposure to cows milk protein). There was nothing in the study that addressed the most common morbidities and mortalities due to artifical feeding, that is: diarrhoeal disease and respiratory infection.
Shall I be cynical and say that the researchers wanted to get media interest in their study?? (This was just a single small paragraph in the paper) Perhaps. Or maybe they just don't see the adverse effects of formula feeding since they are in Norway, where as I mentioned, just about every woman breastfeeds for a substantial period of time and where they have one of the best public health systems in the world.
And just a note about language when we talk about infant feeding. Breastfeeding is the normal way of feeding babies. It is extremely important and in fact it is vital, essential, indispensible to the wellbeing of infants and young children. It has NO BENEFITS. It is NOT best. Rather, artificial feeding is risky and dangerous. It actively and passively harms the immune system and the health of infants. Breastfeeding does not decrease disease, artificial feeding increases it. Breastfeeding is not best, infant formula is deficient.
This may seem pedantic but we actually have a growing body of evidence that if we talk about breastfeeding as best and the benefits of breastfeeding that we fail to effectively communicate the importance of breastfeeding and the risks of formula feeding- we actually assist in the promotion of formula feeding.
I can provide more evidence on this if there is interest".

Medical News: Childhood Abuse Linked to Migraine - in Pediatrics, Domestic Violence from MedPage Today

This important study shows why getting it right during pregnancy and birth are so important. Babies and children must be protected. We have clear evidence of what helps to provide an environment where babies and children are cherished and protected. Childbearing women need to have their needs met, feel respected and valued. Women and their partners who are supported to bond with their babies during pregnancy and experience skin to skin with their babies at birth are less likely to abuse them. Babies who are breastfed are less likely to be abused. If we get it right at the beginning, imagine all the suffering we can eliminate.

Child Abuse Linked to Migraine

by Kristina Fiore, Staff writer, MedPage Today
Published: January 07, 2010
Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner Some

" Research suggests that there's an interaction between early maltreatment and chronic stress that leads to hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation


"Studies suggest that emotional abuse may have more lasting consequences, including psychiatric sequelae, than physical or sexual abuse," the researchers wrote. "Our finding that persons reporting emotional abuse had a significantly earlier age of migraine onset may have implications for its role in migraine pathophysiology."
For the third part of their study, the researchers looked at the relationship between childhood maltreatment and comorbid pain conditions in headache patients.
They found that 61% of patients reported at least one comorbid condition, while 18% reported two, and 13% reported three or more.
Prevalence of pain conditions was as follows:

• Irritable bowel syndrome: 31%
• Chronic fatigue syndrome: 16%
• Fibromyalgia: 10%
• Interstitial cystitis: 6.5%
• Arthritis: 25%
• Endometriosis (in women): 15%
• Uterine fibroids (in women): 14%

They found that emotional abuse was associated with increased prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, and arthritis, while physical neglect was associated with arthritis.
In women, physical abuse was associated with endometriosis and physical neglect with uterine fibroids.

Medical News: Childhood Abuse Linked to Migraine - in Pediatrics, Domestic Violence from MedPage Today

YouTube - Controlling the Brain with Light (Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University)

Optogenetics: controlling brain cells with lasers
New Scientist Story
7th January 2010 by Ewen Callaway

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18353-optogenetics-controlling-brain-cells-with-lasers.html

Brain cells can be switched on and off like light bulbs using newly identified microbial proteins that are sensitive to the colour of laser light.

The discovery is the latest in the fast-moving field of optogenetics, which has already given researchers unparalleled control over brain circuits in laboratory animals. The technology may lead to treatments for conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and blindness. New Scientist explains the science and its promise.

If you have the patience to sit and watch this video, you will be amazed by what is happening with biotechnology and psychiatry. Great possibilities for much of what ails humanity.

What's this story got to do with birth and midwifery?  Psychiatry seeks to fix brains once they are broken.  The fields of perinatal psychology and epigenetics are explaining how prenatal programming sets the stage and the foundations for many diseases in adulthood.  Depression being one of the diseases that are increasingly linked to prenatal experiences of one kind and another, particularly those to do with elevated hypothalamic, pituitary adrenal axis stimulation in pregnancy (aka the stress response system).

Pregnant women feel better, that is, have lower circulating cortiosteroids (stress hormones) when they feel in control, have choices and feel listened to, valued and respected by their caregiver.  They are more likely to go to term, birth well and breastfeed well . They are also less likely to get gestational diabetes, hypertension and their babies are less likely to need nursery admission.  Midwives are the maternity care specialists who provide the sort of care that women want.  Long term relationships between mothers and babies are better with midwifery care, women feel more satisfied and depression rates are lower.  My take on this is that one to one midwifery care helps by supporting women to feel good, eat well, get enough rest, avoid toxins etc thus giving brains the best opportunity to be built right from the beginning.

YouTube - Controlling the Brain with Light (Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University)

Preterm babies grow better with Mozart's music

Gone are the days when babies were thought to be 'blank slates' requiring only sleep, clean nappies, warmth and food.


Advances in neuroscience demonstrate that babies need much more than cursory attention to their basic physical needs. Babies from birth, whatever their gestation, require love, sensory stimulation including movement, skin to skin experience with their mothers and the opportunity to engage eye to eye with their mothers. Babies are sensitive, social and interactive; constantly seeking to engage; adjusting, learning and developing according to environmental cues, feedback and experiences.

The environmental needs of babies who are born prematurely require thoughtful consideration as they are often in nurseries, handled by strangers even though they are generally kind and well meaning and subject to painful and unpleasant stimuli.

Exciting work, exploring the needs of premature babies is leading to brilliant discoveries by pioneers such as Dr Nils Bergman, who was the first to highlight the tactile needs of premature babies and developed kangaroo mothercare, or skin to skin baby wearing for premature infants and their mothers.

Dr Bergman demonstrated that premature babies who had 'kangaroo care' stabilise better and faster, cry less, fuss less, grow better and have enhanced brain development. Mother/baby bonding is improved too.

http://www.kangaroomothercare.com/


The recognition that babies are people too and thrive in an enriched environment has had another boost.

A new study carried out by Dr. Dror Mandel and Dr. Ronit Lubetzky of the Tel Aviv Medical Center affiliated with Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine has found that pre-term infants exposed to thirty minutes of Mozart's music in one session, once per day expend less energy -- and therefore need fewer calories to grow rapidly -- than when they are not "listening" to the music.
"It's not exactly clear how the music is affecting them, but it makes them calmer and less likely to be agitated," says Dr. Mendel, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University.
In the study, Dr. Mandel and Dr. Lubetzky and their team measured the physiological effects of music by Mozart played to pre-term newborns for 30 minutes. After the music was played, the researchers measured infants' energy expenditure again, and compared it to the amount of energy expended when the baby was at rest. After "hearing" the music, the infant expended less energy, a process that can lead to faster weight gain.
A "musical environment" for preemies
When it comes to preemies, one of the main priorities for doctors is to get the baby up to an acceptable body weight so he or she can be sent home. At the hospital, preterm babies may be exposed to infections and other illnesses, and a healthy body weight keeps them immune to other problems in the future.
While the scientists are not sure what occasioned the response, Dr. Mandel offers one hypothesis. "The repetitive melodies in Mozart's music may be affecting the organizational centers of the brain's cortex," he says. "Unlike Beethoven, Bach or Bartok, Mozart's music is composed with a melody that is highly repetitive. This might be the musical explanation. For the scientific one, more investigation is needed."
The study came about through an international project led by the U.S.-based consortium NIDCAP, whose goal is to create a set of standard practices to optimize the health and well-being of neonates. A number of environmental effects, such as tactile stimulation and room lighting, are already known to affect the survival and health of these very susceptible babies.

A sonata a day keeps the doctor away

Wonderful to see this work steadily improving the lot of premature babies and their mothers. However, we need to also focus on preventing prematurity as premature babies have extra risks and potential burdens to deal with as they grow outside the womb. One to one midwifery care with a midwife who respects, listens and cares for the individual woman provides a space place for the woman to explore becoming a mother; process her stressful feelings and develop self confidence. In such a capacity building environment, stress hormones are diminished because women feel valued and in control; inflammatory processes are not triggered and babies grow better and to term.

Aging well starts in womb, as mom's choices affect whole life - USATODAY.com

During the crucial "window of opportunity" before birth and during infancy, environmental cues help "program" a person's DNA, says Alexander Jones of Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and the University College of London Institute for Child Health. This happens through a delicate interplay of genes and the environment called epigenetics, which can determine how a baby reacts for the rest of its life, Jones says.

Through epigenetics, chemical groups attach to DNA. Although they don't change the order of the genes, the chemical groups can switch those genes on or off, Jones says.

Many things, such as chemical contaminants, can cause epigenetic changes. So babies exposed in the womb to synthetic hormones may begin responding abnormally to the natural hormones later made by their own bodies, says Hugh Taylor of Yale University School of Medicine".

"Babies and children also can develop abnormal reactions to stress, says Jack Shonkoff of Harvard University, co-author of a June paper on early influences in health in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

In the short term, reacting to typical, everyday difficulties can help people develop a healthy response to stress.

But persistent, "toxic" stress — such as neglect or extreme poverty — may program a child's nervous system to be on perpetual high alert. Over time, this can damage the immune response and lead to chronic ailments, such as heart disease and depression, the study says.

Aging well starts in womb, as mom's choices affect whole life - USATODAY.com

Wonderful to see the scientific literature on prenatal programming and epigenetics making into the mainstream arena. People who are thinking about becoming parents will find this information critical to their decision making. I wrote about preconceptual and pregnancy work in the book "Birth Territory and Midwifery Guardianship". For anyone who wants to learn more, they may find the book very useful.

Preconceptual counselling with a midwife is a big step in the right direction to managing the complexities of modern life and becoming a parent. Every parent wants the best for their children. This information helps them do take responsibility, seek out support and information before they get pregnant, then take the steps necessary to ensure a 'head' and 'heart' start for their child.

How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Adult Obesity - Yahoo! News

"Early adverse experience can disrupt the body's metabolic systems," says Shonkoff. "One of the cornerstones of biology is that our body's systems when they are young are reading the environment and establishing patterns to be maximally adaptive."
Researchers also posit that high levels of stress hormones caused by Adverse Childhood Experiences, known as ACEs can wear down the body over time. A temporary spike in blood pressure in response to a stressful event may be useful to power an adaptive fight-or-flight response, but over the long term constant high blood pressure could raise a person's risk for heart attack and stroke. Studies have also found that consistently elevated levels of stress hormones, like cortisol, can lead to permanent damage in certain brain regions linked to depression.
Recently, scientists have discovered that these changes can themselves be passed down from one generation to the next - a burgeoning new area of study called epigenetics. Such research may have significant and long-term implications for the prevention of obesity, addiction and other illnesses related to early life stress. After all, reducing childhood exposure to trauma in one generation may further benefit that generation's children and grandchildren.
If, for instance, a modern child's early life experience - in the womb and during the first five years, particularly - is constantly stressful, it would be incredibly energy-consuming, says Dr. Bruce Perry, senior fellow at the ChildTrauma Academy. "If your genes get the message that you are entering a stressful world, it makes complete adaptive sense to take the existing metabolism and tune it up to deposit fat and store energy to prepare for what the body is expecting will be a challenging and stressful life," he says".

How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Adult Obesity - Yahoo! News

Epigenetics is one of the fields of science that is demonstrating the importance of one to one midwifery care throughout the childbearing period for women and their families. Unmitigated stress leads to genetic, inflammatory and physiological changes that can be permanent. Homeostasis is disrupted and a process called Allostasis is triggered. Allostasis is when body systems are upregulated to cope with unrelieved stress and stress hormones.

Genes

When women feel cared about and valued and have a midwife to talk to about the day to day, moment to moment anxieties, fears and challenges that life and pregnancy brings, their stress response is dampened and their connection response is triggered. Discussing feelings, nutrition, exercise, relationships and changes with a midwife who cares and is interested is capacity building.

The human brain may contain up to one trillion neurons. These nerve cells are interconnected, as shown in this microscopic image, so that they can transmit electrical impulses—and information—to other cells. Image by 3D4Medical.com/Getty Images: National Geographic

When women feel in control, their stress hormones are down, their wellbeing hormones are up and they feel better about themselves. When women are informed and feel in control, they are more likely to do the self care things that help grow healthy babies.

Obstetricians attitude to delayed cord clamping

Obstetricians attitude to cord clamping

Midwives who work with women in a one to one relationship based way with childbearing women weren't at all surprised when researchers found massive benefits with leaving the cord alone after birth for the newborn. Midwives working with women they know are also very aware of the benefits to the mother of leaving the cord alone after birth. Mainstream maternity care has yet to recognise or discover that aspect.

Photo from Wikipedia

Now that current evidence indicates that leaving the umbilical cord to pulsate for at least 3 minutes after birth confers many benefits to newborns, recommendations have been made to change established hospital practice and leave the cord to pulsate. Benefits for the baby from the extra minutes of blood transferred from the placenta include: stem cells, optimal lung and cerebral perfusion, increased number of red blood cells, appropriate blood volume transfer and placentally transferred oxygen during those precious moments as the baby switches from intra to extra uterine life and circulation; reduced rate of sepsis, reduced rates of intraventricular haemorrhage and reduced rates of necrotising enterocolitis.

Two intrepid researchers, both consultant obstetricians, sought to discover whether obstetricians have changed practice in regards to cord clamping in light of the new insights about the value of cord blood to the infant following birth.

Doctors Ononeze and Hutchon‌ said in their article in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (2009)

"Questionnaires were given to obstetricians from 43 different units in UK, other EU countries, USA, Canada, Australia etc. There was a 100% responserate. 53% adopted the recommendation only occasionally whereas 37% have never. Difficulty with implementation in clinical practice was the main reason for failure to adopt recommendation. Unawareness of the evidence of the benefits of delayed cord clamping was the reason in half of the non-compliant group".

Interesting that so many obstetricians a) didn't know about the benefits of leaving the cord to pulsate after birth and b) didn't believe the evidence and c) found it difficult to do in practice. The researchers disagreed leaving the cord to pulsate was difficult in practice, so we can only assume it is because the doctors were not prepared to wait those few minutes.

Given that evidence informed practice is touted at every opportunity in contemporary health care, it is very surprising that our medical colleagues are not up to date and can't find ways to put evidence to work for the better health of babies.

"There is no consensus amongst medical and midwifery staff as to when to clamp the cord following delivery of the newborn. The tradition in obstetric practice is to clamp the cord immediately after birth".

The lack of consensus in timing of cord clamping may well exist in the system that approaches birth as a moving conveyor belt experience in a factory, however those of us who work in relationship based practice are agreed that the best time to cut the clamp and cut the cord depends upon the mother's thinking about how to manage her placenta. For those women who want to leave the baby and placenta attached, then the cord is never clamped and cut. The cord falls off the baby's umbilicus in it's own time. For others, they choose to birth their placenta, then clamp and cut it. Once women understand the process of third stage, they choose to manage it themselves and do very well.

Fabulous to see these two obstetricians doing such great work. Their perspective and honesty is commendable.

Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 2009 Apr;29(3):223-4.

YouTube - Ignorance Meets Knowledge (extended breastfeeding)

A delightful video normalising extended breastfeeding. Nutrition and health are hot topics at the moment. This video is a great message for our times.




YouTube - Ignorance Meets Knowledge (extended breastfeeding)

t r u t h o u t | Rethinking Education as the Practice of Freedom: Paulo Freire and the Promise of Critical Pedagogy

Paulo Freire has been an inspiration to me and his theory has underpinned and informed my work in my roles as educator and midwife ever since I first read his book "Pedagogy of the Oppressed". This respectful, thought provoking, beautifully written article "Rethinking Education as the Practice of Freedom: Paulo Freire and the Promise of Critical Pedagogy" by Henry A. Giroux, provides an inspiring lens on the most amazing educational theorist ever to grace this earth.

Giroux says, about Freire:

Occupying the often difficult space between existing politics and the as yet possible, Paulo Freire spent most of his life working in the belief that the radical elements of democracy are worth struggling for, that critical education is a basic element of social change and that how we think about politics is inseparable from how we come to understand the world, power and the moral life we aspire to lead. In many ways, Paulo embodied the important but often problematic relationship between the personal and the political. His own life was a testimonial not only to his belief in democracy, but also to the notion that one's life had to come as close as possible to modeling the social relations and experiences that spoke to a more humane and democratic future. At the same time, Paulo never moralized about politics, never employed the discourse of shame or collapsed the political into the personal when talking about social issues. For him, private problems had to be understood in relation to larger public issues. Everything about him suggested that the first order of politics was humility, compassion and a willingness to fight against human injustices.

For anyone who cares about education, liberation and personal mastery, this article is a must read.

t r u t h o u t | Rethinking Education as the Practice of Freedom: Paulo Freire and the Promise of Critical Pedagogy

Celebrate what's right with the world - Dewitt Jones on Yahoo! Video

The patron saint of what's right with birth, Dr Sarah Buckley shared this video. Sarah wrote the lovely Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering book. Sarah's book explains the possibilities with birth in language that is clear and accessible. The information, like that contained in this video, is also applicable by any woman who wants to birth her baby in an optimal way.

Celebrate what's right with the world - Dewitt Jones @ Yahoo! Video

As Dewitt Jones said at the end of this beautiful, inspirational video

"Incredible things happen when we are open to possibilities. The world is a wonderful place"

Mothers' views of maternity: interventions

Mothers' views of maternity: interventions
January 2, 2010 -The Age newspaper

The president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr Ted Weaver, said while a fear of litigation arising from complications of vaginal births had partly driven intervention rates in recent years, more women were also asking for them than before.

He said this trend meant many private obstetricians felt they should agree to interventions if their patients had been properly counselled on the pros and cons of the procedures.

''In private, most doctors will do [elective caesareans] because they think if I don't do it, someone else will do it. It's about consumer demand,'' he said.

Mothers' views of maternity: interventions

Now we are blaming women for asking for interventions after years of scaring women about birth! You will note it is still about money.

"If I don't do it someone else will".

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall to hear the 'proper counsel on the pros and cons of the procedures'? This statement reminds me of a great cartoon some time back in MIDIRS, the English publication on all matters to do with childbearing. The cartoon had a doctor, complete with stethoscope around the neck and white coat, sitting talking to an anxious looking pregnant woman sitting on the edge of her chair. The first frame showed the doctor saying "of course I believe in choice". The second frame had the doctor waving his hand expansively saying "you can bleed to death at home or have your baby safely in hospital!!"

I would encourage you all to obtain Labouring Under an Illusion. Have a look at my entry on 22nd December Social construction of Childbirth - how the media works for details and the trailer for the movie.