Pregnancy & Natural Birth - Women are fighting to have the birth they want!

41 weeks, 6 days and Strong!

Its been a rough ride along the the road of Pregnancy the last few weeks. As we move into our 10th month, and are nearing our 42nd week of pregnancy, a lot of pressure has been placed on us by doctors and other medical staff to induce labor.

From the start of our pregnancy journey I had planned on pursuing a natural birth. I read book after book, watched a million natural birthing videos on you tube and have conversed with many people on both sides of the fence in regards to interventions and the complications that arise.

To me birthing in a hospital seems like a vicious downward spiral starting with the manual breaking of the bag of waters, from there it goes to the use of pitocin, from there to strong unbearable contractions, the need for an epidural, the drop if the baby's heart rate and then finally uh oh mom needs a c-section! Whew I'm exhausted already!

I think that it's time women stand up for their right to birth the way they want to birth! Naturally! Our bodies have been giving birth for thousands of years without pitocin, without epidurals, without interventions! Some women give birth in the red dirt of Africa for heavens sake. If they can have healthy births and dirt stained newborns why can we have no time limits and happy, natural births at home or in a hospital without pressure and without fear?

Did you know that America has one of the highest infant death rates in the world due to medical interventions? Now that's SCARY!

Along my educational travels I've come across many a website about natural birth and so I wanted to share some of the resources I've been using along the way:

1. spinningbabies.com - positioning and birthing exercises to help start and move along labor. Oh and Belly Mapping...fun!

2. gentlebirth.org - great resourse for pregnancy and natural birth questions

3. Barefoot Mamma's Network - Inland Empire - Lara Carlos (my Doula) runs this network and reaches out to many women in the Inland Empire and beyond - to promote and provide proper natural birth education and empowerment to women. Plus her husband does amazing acupuncture (what a plus!)

4. Induction and Fertility Massage - Los Angeles, CA - Rosa Rosales is a wonderfully educated individual who gives the most amazing induction massage! She currently works out of her home in Duarte, CA but is in the process of opening up her first Massage studio! Congrats Rosa!

5. What is a Doula? Dona International  - good resource for Doula questions

My only request to you pregnant women out there: when you make your next birthing decision, please take a moment to really think about what is best for you and your baby. You are strong, you are built to birth and you can be empowered!



Backyard Chickening

When my family we moved onto our half acre lot in Yucaipa, CA in 1983 there was an old abandoned chicken coop with washed out red siding and latch doors back in the far corner of the property. My dad broke it down and took it to the dump, along with the leftover pieces of a makeshift duck pond.

This memory floats slowly back into my mind as I now start to consider raising my own backyard chickens as an adult making healthier food choices and getting ready to start a small family. Wouldn't it be great to have the kids grow up around chickens? 

I had my first encounter with backyard chickening (yea, thats my own term) while living in our two story 1920's brick rental house in downtown Riverside, CA. Our neighbors Cindy and Bryan decided to engage in keeping chickens and then purchased their first 3 hens about a year into our rental. They built their very own chicken tractor out of MDF siding and a small wheel cart complete with an old barn lantern and a few trap doors for easy egg picking. 

Cindy would regularly bring eggs over for our enjoyment and on warm spring and summer mornings I would look forward to the muffled sounds of the 3 hens cooing and pecking from the neighboring yard. I remember the taste of Cindy's backyard eggs being far superior to those purchased at the grocery store (even though I bought cage free, hormone free ones from Trader Joe's) and they were just beautiful eggs. Some were green with blue and brown spots, some small and brown and some a creamy white. They were kept at room temp and were just delicious!

With the lease signed and the deposit down on our new house in Redlands, CA, I've now decided to start my own research in order to prepare myself for my own mini-flock of backyard chickens. There are a few great websites and books I've looked into, so far here is the best, most fun and most clearly written book:

Ashley English also has a great Homemade Living Lifestyle blog with great information on Beekeeping, Canning, Homesteading...etc: Small-Measure Blog
In addition to chicken literature, Ive also been researching the different types of build-it-yourself chicken coops and tractors. The tractor I like best so far is made from a rolling cart which was used as the chassis, then the frame and coop were built on top, making the entire structure easily movable. The design is the brainchild of Erin Moser and her husband Rusty. This model would prove beneficial as we are renting once again and may need to relocate the tractor and our chicken heads from time to time:

Here is Erin and Rusty's construction from start to finish:

You can see more of their amazingly simple designs on their blog and can even contact them to purchase one here:

Creme Del La Coop

As for breeds, the birds I like best are those that have high egg production are low maintenance breeds who are confinement friendly and those whom are not too fussy. The breeds I have researched and whom I prefer so far are warm weather breeds such as Plymouth Rock Standard, Wyandotte, Belgian D Anver, Dominique Standard, Dorkling, Hamburg, Holland, Longshan and New Hampshire Red.

Here they are in listing order:

I will be sure to post more as I continue my research. Goodnight for now and happy backyard chickening!