Some time ago my eldest daughter was told in a discussion that she shouldn't waste her time studying anything except the Bible. What a ridiculous thing to say! Do they really think that? Really?!
Seriously, the Bible has nothing in it about algebra, physics, US history (or much world history), carpentry, electricity, and I could go on and on. Is knowing about those things pointless?
God created the human mind with an incredible capacity to learn and an insatiable curiosity. Did he really give us that so we could only learn Bible verses? Can anyone honestly believe there is no value in learning about the world around us, how it works, its history, its present, and its future?
There is so much to learn and know. And I am very glad that the electrician who works on my house read something besides the Bible. I'm so thankful that the doctor who performed my surgery studied something besides the Bible.
And even if I don't need the knowledge for a career choice, what is wrong with just learning it just because I want to know? What if I just want to know about microbiology? Do you not think it pleases God that I am interested in his creation? What creator of art or technology doesn't like his creation to be admired?
Yes, the Bible is sufficient for matters of faith; but there is so much more to the world. So much to be learned and explored.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Parental Rights
A parent should be able to make decisions about healthcare and treatment for their children. Should I even have to reiterate that? Apparently so.
A friend of mine recently had a baby. This baby, S, was slightly jaundiced. The pediatrician on call ordered the baby to have phototherapy and mom and dad said no. They did not believe, and rightly, that the baby's condition warranted that. There are side effects to phototherapy and it would interrupt breastfeeding. The baby was in no imminent danger. So a social worker speaks to mom in the hospital and tells her that refusing the treatment is neglect.
Thankfully, mom stood her ground and fired back at them with the AAP's recommendation that phototherapy wasn't indicated for S. She was told that as long as they took S to the follow up the next day CPS would not be involved and she was free to leave the hospital with S.
Well, two days after being home, and making the follow up appointment for S, CPS shows up at her door!
I have heard about and seen so many cases like the above where some do-gooder called CPS on parents over nothing. Simply because they parent differently, or they had a bad day. What makes me so angry is that CPS harasses innocent parents and then lets others go when there were so many serious warning signs and kids end up dead.
It is truly frightening to me as a parent to see how much power government organizations have when it comes to my children. CPS can force their way into my house and forcibly remove my children without any evidence other than an anonymous 'tip'. The burden of proof rests on the parent, and not the state as it should. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. That is out the window though.
Why is it that total strangers think that they care more for children than the children's parents do? Why do these busybodies sic the state on anyone who makes parenting decisions that are different from the ones they would make? Why does the state believe that it owns our children? Why do we let the state get away with this?
http://www.parentalrights.org/
A friend of mine recently had a baby. This baby, S, was slightly jaundiced. The pediatrician on call ordered the baby to have phototherapy and mom and dad said no. They did not believe, and rightly, that the baby's condition warranted that. There are side effects to phototherapy and it would interrupt breastfeeding. The baby was in no imminent danger. So a social worker speaks to mom in the hospital and tells her that refusing the treatment is neglect.
Thankfully, mom stood her ground and fired back at them with the AAP's recommendation that phototherapy wasn't indicated for S. She was told that as long as they took S to the follow up the next day CPS would not be involved and she was free to leave the hospital with S.
Well, two days after being home, and making the follow up appointment for S, CPS shows up at her door!
I have heard about and seen so many cases like the above where some do-gooder called CPS on parents over nothing. Simply because they parent differently, or they had a bad day. What makes me so angry is that CPS harasses innocent parents and then lets others go when there were so many serious warning signs and kids end up dead.
It is truly frightening to me as a parent to see how much power government organizations have when it comes to my children. CPS can force their way into my house and forcibly remove my children without any evidence other than an anonymous 'tip'. The burden of proof rests on the parent, and not the state as it should. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. That is out the window though.
Why is it that total strangers think that they care more for children than the children's parents do? Why do these busybodies sic the state on anyone who makes parenting decisions that are different from the ones they would make? Why does the state believe that it owns our children? Why do we let the state get away with this?
http://www.parentalrights.org/
Thursday, March 31, 2011
"Constitutional" Rights
I am seriously beginning to hate that phrase.
Let us be clear. The Constitution does not grant rights to the people. It was not written for the people, but to restrain the government. We have the rights of free speech, press, association, bearing arms, religion, etc, because we are human, not because we live in America. Jefferson said it perfectly, "...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..." The Constitution specifically enumerates the powers of the federal government and they are very limited. It was not intended to confer rights upon the people, only to acknowledge that the people had those rights inherently.
So please, stop claiming your 'constitutional' rights, and just claim your rights.
Let us be clear. The Constitution does not grant rights to the people. It was not written for the people, but to restrain the government. We have the rights of free speech, press, association, bearing arms, religion, etc, because we are human, not because we live in America. Jefferson said it perfectly, "...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..." The Constitution specifically enumerates the powers of the federal government and they are very limited. It was not intended to confer rights upon the people, only to acknowledge that the people had those rights inherently.
So please, stop claiming your 'constitutional' rights, and just claim your rights.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Why I Birth At Home
or "Ignorant Obstetrician Alert"
Read this article.
Now, tell me how that made you feel? If you are like me, it made you hair pulling mad!
I could rant about nearly every sentence in that article. I won't rant about that much in this blog post, well at least I'll try not to.
"Not fear of childbirth, despite the fact that is is inherently dangerous..."
Childbirth is NOT inherently dangerous. Yes, there are things that can go wrong, but a knowledgeable woman who knows her body and herself or a good care provider will know when a woman needs care. The idea this OB has comes from her education. An education that stresses and highlights the dangers without the knowledge about how birth happens in the absence of 'management'.
"evidently only losers, the weak and the unempowered, fear pain"
No. No one likes pain and, yes, we even fear it. Pain does not have to be part of labor, not always. NCB advocates do not think women are 'weak' for needing pain relief or fearing pain. We just know that the risks often outweigh the benefits. Simple risk/benefit analysis.
" who is going to buy the services of someone who hectors you to avoid pain relief when you are in agonizing pain (a doula)"
Obviously, this OB has no idea what a doula actually does. And it is likely that the 'agonizing pain' is due to AROM or pitocin or being forced to lay in bed instead of moving around as a woman will when in labor if left alone.
"And who is going to let her precious baby be delivered by a high school graduate who knows nothing about science and thinks gems have "energy" and flowers having healing "essences" (a CPM, a certified "professional" midwife)"
I don't know any midwives who believes that. And the derogatory way she uses, "high school graduate" as if a midwife gets no other education is just disgusting. My midwife is a CPM and is excellent and very knowledgeable.
"Who is going to waste hundreds of dollars on goofy ideas "
I've had three home births and not spent a dime on any 'goofy ideas'.
"Craig Thompson, professor of marketing at University of Wisconsin wrote about this tactic in Consumer Risk Perceptions in a Community of Reflexive Doubt the in the September 2005
Journal of Consumer Research... "Advocates of natural childbirth seek to inculcate reflexive doubt by countering two common sense objections to their unorthodox construction of risk: (1) medicalized births would have never gained a cultural foothold if they were so risk laden and (2) the medical profession would not support obstetric practices that place laboring women at risk"
Medicalized birth gained a foothold by powerful and expensive lobbies to outlaw midwifery and promote medical licensure. Ever heard of the damage caused by the routine x-rays of pregnant women? Scopolomine? Thalidomide? Dorsal lithotomy? Routine episiotomy? Constant fetal monitoring? Mr. Thompson is obviously glaringly ignorant of obstetrical history, but then, he is only a marketing professor.
" That's why it is absolutely imperative for natural childbirth advocates to hid the fact that in the 100 years after its advent, modern obstetrics dropped the neonatal mortality rate 90% and the maternal mortality rate 99%."
And even so the US has just about the highest infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates in the industrialized world! What an accomplishment! What sets us apart from those countries with better birth outcomes? Numbers of midwives.
OBs can't even claim responsibility for much of the decrease in mortality. Antibiotics have had an enormous impact. So have other technological advances that are not attributable to OBs.
"such as forceps deliveries—as unnecessary intrusions whose primary function was enabling physicians to display technical skill."
Forceps deliveries would be much less necessary if OBs did not require women to birth lying on their backs. I will acknowledge that there are time when they could be necessary, but not always necessary as was purported by some OBs.
"The message, integral to natural childbirth advocacy is clear: Obstetricians can't help women because their technology is useless (except in the rarest of circumstances)."
I don't know of any NCB advocate that would say OBs are useless. We all know that things can, and sometimes do, go wrong and we are thankful that there are those that are able to help in those instances.
"You need to buy books and visit websites"
I've bought very few books and while I do visit a good many websites, that is free.
"And for the truly committed, you need to pay a high school graduate who is "trained" in normal birth (kind of like a meteorologist who is trained in forecasting only good weather) to do basically nothing except call 911 and disappear if things go wrong."
The insane hegemony is getting tiresome. This OB has no idea how midwives are trained. If a woman has to go to the hospital the midwife will go with her.
"NCB advocates must convince you to spend tens of dollars on books, hundreds of dollars on classes, and thousands of dollars for the company of women who are incapable of doing a blessed thing if complications occur."
Again, I don't spend much on books, and in any case, no one convinced me to buy them. I wanted them so I bought them. I don't spend anything on classes. And my midwife is very capable in the event of complications.
"They must fill women with misinformation about childbirth and keep those same women ignorant of what science actually shows. "
I love it! Obstetrics, the profession that uses evidence based methods less that any other I am aware of, saying the the NCB community is misinforming women! What a joke!
"NCB advocates must create an alternative universe entirely unmoored from the reality of childbirth dangers, unmoored from scientific evidence,"
Yes, because there is so much evidence for constant fetal monitoring, excessive use of ultrasound, the use of pitocin and epidural and those interventions have been thoroughly researched. Ma'am, you are ignorant about NCB and its advocates.
" or pay thousands of dollars for what are essentially lay companions with no particular knowledge of childbirth"
Your pedantic hegemony is nauseating. Really.
"When it comes to natural childbirth, follow the money. Without fear, NCB advocates won't make money."
Yes, follow the money. Know what you'll find? That birth in hospitals with OBs in attendance is the reason that the US spends more that any other country in the world and we still have some of the worst outcomes.
This article made me so angry and just plain sick that OBs like that can practice and influence women.
Read this article.
Now, tell me how that made you feel? If you are like me, it made you hair pulling mad!
I could rant about nearly every sentence in that article. I won't rant about that much in this blog post, well at least I'll try not to.
"Not fear of childbirth, despite the fact that is is inherently dangerous..."
Childbirth is NOT inherently dangerous. Yes, there are things that can go wrong, but a knowledgeable woman who knows her body and herself or a good care provider will know when a woman needs care. The idea this OB has comes from her education. An education that stresses and highlights the dangers without the knowledge about how birth happens in the absence of 'management'.
"evidently only losers, the weak and the unempowered, fear pain"
No. No one likes pain and, yes, we even fear it. Pain does not have to be part of labor, not always. NCB advocates do not think women are 'weak' for needing pain relief or fearing pain. We just know that the risks often outweigh the benefits. Simple risk/benefit analysis.
" who is going to buy the services of someone who hectors you to avoid pain relief when you are in agonizing pain (a doula)"
Obviously, this OB has no idea what a doula actually does. And it is likely that the 'agonizing pain' is due to AROM or pitocin or being forced to lay in bed instead of moving around as a woman will when in labor if left alone.
"And who is going to let her precious baby be delivered by a high school graduate who knows nothing about science and thinks gems have "energy" and flowers having healing "essences" (a CPM, a certified "professional" midwife)"
I don't know any midwives who believes that. And the derogatory way she uses, "high school graduate" as if a midwife gets no other education is just disgusting. My midwife is a CPM and is excellent and very knowledgeable.
"Who is going to waste hundreds of dollars on goofy ideas "
I've had three home births and not spent a dime on any 'goofy ideas'.
"Craig Thompson, professor of marketing at University of Wisconsin wrote about this tactic in Consumer Risk Perceptions in a Community of Reflexive Doubt the in the September 2005
Journal of Consumer Research... "Advocates of natural childbirth seek to inculcate reflexive doubt by countering two common sense objections to their unorthodox construction of risk: (1) medicalized births would have never gained a cultural foothold if they were so risk laden and (2) the medical profession would not support obstetric practices that place laboring women at risk"
Medicalized birth gained a foothold by powerful and expensive lobbies to outlaw midwifery and promote medical licensure. Ever heard of the damage caused by the routine x-rays of pregnant women? Scopolomine? Thalidomide? Dorsal lithotomy? Routine episiotomy? Constant fetal monitoring? Mr. Thompson is obviously glaringly ignorant of obstetrical history, but then, he is only a marketing professor.
" That's why it is absolutely imperative for natural childbirth advocates to hid the fact that in the 100 years after its advent, modern obstetrics dropped the neonatal mortality rate 90% and the maternal mortality rate 99%."
And even so the US has just about the highest infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates in the industrialized world! What an accomplishment! What sets us apart from those countries with better birth outcomes? Numbers of midwives.
OBs can't even claim responsibility for much of the decrease in mortality. Antibiotics have had an enormous impact. So have other technological advances that are not attributable to OBs.
"such as forceps deliveries—as unnecessary intrusions whose primary function was enabling physicians to display technical skill."
Forceps deliveries would be much less necessary if OBs did not require women to birth lying on their backs. I will acknowledge that there are time when they could be necessary, but not always necessary as was purported by some OBs.
"The message, integral to natural childbirth advocacy is clear: Obstetricians can't help women because their technology is useless (except in the rarest of circumstances)."
I don't know of any NCB advocate that would say OBs are useless. We all know that things can, and sometimes do, go wrong and we are thankful that there are those that are able to help in those instances.
"You need to buy books and visit websites"
I've bought very few books and while I do visit a good many websites, that is free.
"And for the truly committed, you need to pay a high school graduate who is "trained" in normal birth (kind of like a meteorologist who is trained in forecasting only good weather) to do basically nothing except call 911 and disappear if things go wrong."
The insane hegemony is getting tiresome. This OB has no idea how midwives are trained. If a woman has to go to the hospital the midwife will go with her.
"NCB advocates must convince you to spend tens of dollars on books, hundreds of dollars on classes, and thousands of dollars for the company of women who are incapable of doing a blessed thing if complications occur."
Again, I don't spend much on books, and in any case, no one convinced me to buy them. I wanted them so I bought them. I don't spend anything on classes. And my midwife is very capable in the event of complications.
"They must fill women with misinformation about childbirth and keep those same women ignorant of what science actually shows. "
I love it! Obstetrics, the profession that uses evidence based methods less that any other I am aware of, saying the the NCB community is misinforming women! What a joke!
"NCB advocates must create an alternative universe entirely unmoored from the reality of childbirth dangers, unmoored from scientific evidence,"
Yes, because there is so much evidence for constant fetal monitoring, excessive use of ultrasound, the use of pitocin and epidural and those interventions have been thoroughly researched. Ma'am, you are ignorant about NCB and its advocates.
" or pay thousands of dollars for what are essentially lay companions with no particular knowledge of childbirth"
Your pedantic hegemony is nauseating. Really.
"When it comes to natural childbirth, follow the money. Without fear, NCB advocates won't make money."
Yes, follow the money. Know what you'll find? That birth in hospitals with OBs in attendance is the reason that the US spends more that any other country in the world and we still have some of the worst outcomes.
This article made me so angry and just plain sick that OBs like that can practice and influence women.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Pete Eyre arrested for wearing a hat.
Pete Eyre arrested for wearing a hat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynoUudh20A8
First reaction was to blame the one wearing the hat. Then I thought about it. Does failing to adhere to some custom warrant the treatment the man received? Without question the man was trying to cause trouble. Or was he? Why should there have been an issue? Is it really that important? It is not the law, it is just etiquette. Older people will say it is just good manners, and maybe it is, but not having good manners doesn't justify the wrongs and the bullying that is going on in government.
The fact that the police believed violence was an acceptable response to a breach of etiquette is disturbing to say the least. It is sad that our first response is always to side with the 'authorities', at least it is mine. Why should one cooperate with authorities that are violent without cause? Why should one give up rights and enable our government to get its power fix? Our government is intoxicated with power and uses things like this to assert its authority and subjugate the population.
So I think that we need more people like this who are willing to go through this to prove a point. We need to push back or we are going to be trampled.
Here are a couple more links about the same kind of thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHCkAk0WrPQ&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GskOXEX2wk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynoUudh20A8
First reaction was to blame the one wearing the hat. Then I thought about it. Does failing to adhere to some custom warrant the treatment the man received? Without question the man was trying to cause trouble. Or was he? Why should there have been an issue? Is it really that important? It is not the law, it is just etiquette. Older people will say it is just good manners, and maybe it is, but not having good manners doesn't justify the wrongs and the bullying that is going on in government.
The fact that the police believed violence was an acceptable response to a breach of etiquette is disturbing to say the least. It is sad that our first response is always to side with the 'authorities', at least it is mine. Why should one cooperate with authorities that are violent without cause? Why should one give up rights and enable our government to get its power fix? Our government is intoxicated with power and uses things like this to assert its authority and subjugate the population.
So I think that we need more people like this who are willing to go through this to prove a point. We need to push back or we are going to be trampled.
Here are a couple more links about the same kind of thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHCkAk0WrPQ&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GskOXEX2wk&feature=player_embedded
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