Clever boy!

Jack now knows how to turn the xbox on via the Guitar Hero guitar. He takes great delight in pulling the guitar out from under the TV cabinet and going straight for the on button, once it lights up he will then be entertained by flicking the toggle to navigate around the menu on the TV screen. He can definitely tell that what he does on the controller has an effect on the TV as he looks up to see what his actions have done!

In other (but related?) news I have recently joined my local home education yahoo group and am very excited to see that it is fairly active. There are language classes, a climbing group, story circle, trips to Doncaster Dome and I expect many more activities I have not yet seen advertised. I just hope it stays as active over the next few years until Jack is old enough to join some of the groups! But for now it looks promising and is giving me ideas about how I can direct his early years learning.

I'm going to be putting together a development review of his first ten months over the next few days, following a dispute on the parenting forum where I have been keeping a journal. I will try not to bombard this blog with too much at once and keep my backlog to the point lol!

Maternity Matters

I've been involved in the NCT 'Location, Location, Location' campaign to hold NHS Trusts accountable for meeting the deadlines for birth choice in the government Maternity Matters document. My MP has actually been very helpful and I have had replies from the Undersecretary for the Department of Health as well as the Chief Executive of my local Trust. The former was not very promising, she basically fobbed me off saying that they had recruited more staff and therefore met the deadline (end of 2009), despite the fact that only 4% of women actually have a free choice of where to give birth - the target was 100%. My local CE however, was very positive, there are two new midwife-led units in development in the area and the Maternity Services Liaison Committee has been relaunched. I promptly replied saying I would like to join the MSLC! I am very driven to see changes in the maternity services offered and this is a great way for me to help do that.

All of this has fuelled my desire to help inform and empower women. Unfortunately, I am always finding people who do not welcome information. They would rather be afraid, surrender to the doctors in white coats because I suppose that is easier than finding strength from within.

I recently had a conflict with someone on an internet forum who said that she was "not allowed" to go past her estimated due date due to history of placental abruption. She lost her baby at 20 weeks because of this, so I understand why she is afraid. However, when I pointed out that no doctor can "allow" or "disallow" anything she became very upset and hostile towards me. She turned her story around, saying that she had asked for intervention if she did not go into spontaneous labour before 40 weeks as she felt that the stress and worry of another problem would cause her to have a traumatic birth. I tired to point out that there is nothing magical about her estimated due date and that her using the word "overdue" to any day beyond that is factually inaccurate and not helpful to her own state of mind. She really didn't like that!

I have been stewing over this for a few days and need to get this off my chest. Whenever women talk about doctors "not allowing" them to do something they are perpetuating the myth that doctors have power over our bodies during labour. It is this myth that keeps victims of birth trauma from realising that something wrong was done to them. Birth trauma is physical or psychological abuse, it includes intimidation ("Your baby will die if you don't let us do this") and sometimes even rape (vaginal examinations without consent). So when I encounter someone who is saying that she is "not allowed" to go past her EDD and that this isn't even the truth as she perceives it it actually makes me quite angry.