Last week, our local ICAN group hosted a showing of the film Pregnant in America, followed up by a panel discussion featuring local doulas, midwives, and mamas. We didn’t stay for the panel, but the film presentation was nice. I’d already seen the movie, but it was good to see it again. It’s no Business of Being Born, but I think I cringed less the second time through than I did the first time through. Also, it’s interesting to note, the things that annoyed me about the film (such as the filmmaker’s use of the word “bogus,” didn’t bother my husband at all!

The first annual Des Moines Green Gifts Fair will be held November 15, and we are currently accepting vendor applications. You can find out more over at Natural Living Des Moines.

May 7:
6:00 pm: Cloth Diapering
7:00 pm: Babywearing
Franklin Public Library

May 16:
9:00 am: Cloth Diapering
10:00 am Babywearing
Urbandale Public Library

These classes are sponsored by Des Moines Babywearing and Des Moines Cloth Diapering and are NOT sponsored by Wallypop or any other business.

The Cloth Diapering classes will go over the basics of cloth diapering, the types of diapers and covers available, pros and cons of the types of diapers, laundering, etc. We’ll have lots of samples to look at!

The Babywearing classes will provide a demo of several different carrying positions in at least four types of carriers, with plenty of time for participants to try them on if desired. We’ll also talk about babywearing in general.

Bring your questions, concerns, or doubtful family members!!

It seems lately, I’ve been hearing lots of scuttlebut about how long cloth diapering has existed in Des Moines. When did it start?

It’s kind of a silly question, in a way. Cloth diapering never went away, of course!

Obviously, many years ago, families in the area used cloth. I was cloth diapered, despite widespread availability of disposables in the late 70s. Twenty years later, when my nephew was born in the mid 90s, my sister in law used a diaper service here in Des Moines.

That service closed several years later, but at least at the time he was born, there were enough families in Des Moines using cloth to warrant a service. Experience shows that, generally speaking, far more people home launder than use a service, so if there were enough families using cloth to warrant a service, there were probably a fair number of families home laundering – quite the community.

When I started diapering Wally five years ago, I was the only one I knew who used cloth. A few months later, another cloth diaperer moved to town (Sara J), and I talked a friend into giving it a try (Louisa) and the three of us discovered another CDer with an older child (Laurie) who was friends with yet another CDer with a child about the same age as her own (Tanya).

I am not under any sort of delusion that we were the only ones in town using cloth, trying to live naturally, and practicing attachment parenting. We were just the only ones we knew.

What’s different now than 13 or 14 years ago when my nephew was born? Community. I decided that the area cloth diaperers needed some sort of community, some sort of organized something, so we didn’t feel so alone, so we could turn to each other for support, so we didn’t have to continually re-invent the wheel. OK, originally, we just wanted to show off our diapers to each other, lol!

I still run into babywearers or cloth diaperers who have no idea that there are others in Des Moines, and they think they’re the only ones!

Iowans: this is for you.

There is a bill in the House right now to license CPMs in Iowa. This is important for Iowa’s birthing women. Let’s get it passed!! (more below the break.)

What can you do?

– Write an email. Express your support of House Study Bill 229. Put it in your own words. It doesn’t have to be long or poetic. (There is an easy list of do’s and don’t’s for writing good emails below…)

– Copy and paste that email to each one of the following Representatives (be sure to address each Representative by name, including his/her title):

Representative John Beard john.beard@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Marcella Frevert marcella.frevert@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Mary Gaskill mary.gaskill@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Brian Quirk Brian.Quirk@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Paul Shomshor Paul.Shomshor@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Mary Mascher Mary.Mascher@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Doug Struyk Doug.Struyk@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Christopher Rants Christopher.Rants@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Jack Drake jack.drake@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Dawn Pettengill Dawn.Pettengill@legis.state.ia.us (Ms Pettengill feels overwhelmed by the email she’s received, so maybe not her.)
Representative J. Scott Raecker Scott.Raecker@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Rod Roberts Rod.Roberts@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Rene Schulte renee.schulte@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Kevin Koester kevin.koester@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Dennis Cohoon dennis.cohoon@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Charles Isenhart charles.isenhart@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Todd Taylor Todd.Taylor@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Jeff Kaufmann jeff.kaufmann@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Nate Willems nate.willems@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Vicki Lensing Vicki.Lensing@legis.state.ia.us
Representative Roger Wendt Roger.Wendt@legis.state.ia.us

These are the people on the State Government Committee, where the bill currently is. It would also NOT be a bad idea to go ahead and contact the remaining legislators. http://www.legis.state.ia.us/aspx/Legislators/HouseEmail.aspx

NOTE: you only have to compose one e-mail message, but don’t send one e-mail to all of those addresses. Instead, copy and paste your message into separate emails. If you don’t have time to do all of them, start at the top of the list and do as many as you can. (The list is prioritized.)

Once you’ve done that, you’ve already helped tremendously! Thank you!

But wait…
Want to do more? Got 10 more minutes?

Start calling and leaving short phone messages, too! If you can leave a message for just one Representative, great! If you can leave a phone message for each one of these people, even better! Start at the top of the list and call as many as you can!

Phone messages can be brief, and should follow the same basic guidelines as the e-mails.

Call the main switchboard: 515-281-3221. Ask to speak to the Representative. Almost guaranteed you will be connected to voicemail. Or, you may talk to a Representative’s clerk; you can leave a message with the clerk, too.

What? You’re not exhausted yet, and you’re so dedicated to getting this bill passed that you want one more assignment? There is ONE more VERY IMPORTANT thing you can do…

Tell your friends!

Know someone who is supportive of midwives but hasn’t gotten around to joining FOIM? Get them involved now!

Know a HEALTH CARE PROVIDER of any kind who is supportive of midwives? ABSOLUTELY MAKE SURE that he or she calls someone on this list and lets them know that there are physicians, nurses, chiropractors, etc. who support House Study Bill 229!

Let’s make this happen!

Now, as promised, here’s your list of do’s and don’t’s:

DO: Say “Please Support HSB229″ in the subject line of your email.

DO: Urge the recipient to support HSB 229 in the body of the email.

DO: Say who you are. list relevant credentials (nurse, professor, etc.)

DO: If you are a parent who has given birth at home, or someone who wants to have a legal direct-entry midwife attend your next birth, say so!

DON’T: Don’t say anything bad about hospital birth or hospitals or doctors or OB/GYNs. Don’t say their rates of intervention are too high. Focus on the positive things about midwives.

DON’T: Don’t say “lay midwives.” Refer to Certified Professional Midwives or Direct-Entry Midwives.

DON’T: Don’t mention insurance or medicaid. It’s not a part of this bill and mentioning it sidetracks the issue.

Talking points:

-1% of the population gives birth out-of-hospital. In Iowa, that was about 400 families last year. We need to make sure these families have access to midwives.

-Research shows that planned out-of-hospital birth with CPMs results in outcomes equal to those for low-risk women giving birth in hospitals. (BMJ study, published 2005)

-It is in the interest of public health and safety for Iowa to license midwives so that the small number of Iowans who choose out-of-hospital birth can have access to these highly skilled care providers.

-CPMs are recognized in 25 other states, including our neighbors Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri. and are the only care providers specifically trained in out-of-hospital birth.

*source FOIM*

OK, just kidding about the clap hands part. I thought I’d pass along three of my recent local faves…

I am now going to serenade you with some favorite l0cal stuff I’ve used recently, while I work on a post in drafts about buying local.

Prairieland Herbs Breathe Easy Wand. Way better than Vicks. Effective, nonstinky, no watering eyes.

Repair.com. Worth the drive to Altoona. I have found him to be fair, honest, fast, and to do quality work for less than big stores.

Metro Sales and Service. (no website). They repair sewing machines and vacuums. Their repair guy is nice and really good. They are reasonably fast, depending on workload and how difficult your repair is. They will consistently try to fix what you have instead of replacing parts. (For example, he’s filed down my bobbin case three times now because I keep scratching it somehow, instead of just replacing it. next time, he says, it’ll need to be replaced, but it’s cheaper to file down than to replace, and it keeps it running longer.)

Alright, all you midwifery supporters, this post is for you.

Friends of Iowa Midwives is a statewide grassroots organization working to:

* Promote access to midwifery and out-of-hospital birth in Iowa
* Protect the rights of Iowa women to choose their place of birth and birth attendant
* Provide education about childbirth options
* Create supportive community for birthing women and families

Their current legislative campaign aims to license Certified Professional Midwives in Iowa so that families who choose out-of-hospital birth can have access to safe maternity care with legal midwives.

Many families in Iowa believe that Iowa is sort of “a-legal” when it comes to CPMs. They are not recognized by the state, but they are not outright forbidden. Many midwives, and many consumers, have been content to leave it this way. (I am one of them.) But then Melanie Moore was brought up on charges of Practicing Medicine Without A License. (Her prosecution was not brought on by any negative incidents, by the way.)

And, to some people, that changes things.

I will admit to still being on the fence about this goal of licensure. In many states, licensure of CPMs has led to a significant decrease in the options available to certain high-risk women: those with twins, those wanting a VBAC, and those with breech babies. These are women who are close to my heart and I don’t want to do anything that would make their lives even tougher!

However, it all depends on the language in the bill and whether FOIM is willing to compromise on the language that would protect these women, as well. A few ladies from ICAN are involved with FOIM to help protect the interests of these women, which is reassuring.

If this is an issue that interests you, that you’re passionate about, or that you just want to keep current on, please head over to the FOIM website, Yahoo Group, or Facebook page. Volunteer if you’re able!

I’m sorry, I hate so many posts without pictures. I actually was going to take a picture of the flooded office, but was so busy cleaning up said office that I didn’t ever run up and get the camera. I’m largely back to normal in the office – for the time being. But I haven’t put everything away yet, since it’s supposed to keep raining…

Water in the basement is something we plan on, really. I keep my computer on a brick, all the cords off the floor. Everything in my office is in plastic boxes, for the most part. Inventory that sits on the floor under the shelves is held in boxes with feet that keep them about an inch off the floor (usually more than enough for the office). But the office usually does not flood.

But over the last several years, I’ve noticed what I’ve been calling Mystery Pond developing in one particular spot. I’ll come down after a rain storm and Poof – Mystery Pond. I’ve come down during rain, and not been able to spot the source of the water. I’ve put scrap paper around the perimeter of the area, hoping to spot at least the vicinity of the source. Nothing. I thought perhaps it was seeping up from underneath. Then, this year, we noticed our garage flooding regularly. We suspected the downspout. It empties into an underground cistern that hasn’t been inspected for years, and was not in use before we replaced the gutters.

Well, now we know why. Apparently, the cistern is cracked or something, sending water directly into the basement area where my office and the garage are located. I did find the source of the water into my office. It’s a small area where the wall meets the floor. Thursday night, there was so much water shooting in, it looked exactly like a drinking fountain – that volume, and that type of arch off the floor. The shop vac could not keep up. We emptied it (25 gal) about once every 10 minutes. Yeah.

All things considered, though, it was not too bad. I just moved everything off the floor, even the plastic boxes. I lost two boxes of FedEx shipping supplies, not a big deal since hardly anyone chooses FedEx these days. (I had to choose between rescuing Wally’s play tent from the water encroaching from the Family Room, or the shipping supplies. Uh, easy pick, there.) I moved a lot of things that I’ve never been concerned about before, just in case.

And then I closed down, left town for the weekend, and came back on Monday to mop up the giant Not Longer A Mystery Pond and get orders processed.

I’m leaving things off the floor, and that means that some things are oddly stacked. The asiles of my fabric storage area (on higher ground) are packed with plastic bins that belong elsewhere, making the process of getting fabric somewhat tedious. And the place looks awful for in-person shoppers, but they’ve all been very understanding.

—

For those of you wondering, I live close to downtown Des Moines, which is experiencing and will continue to experience flooding in the streets. But we live far enough away, and far enough uphill, that we will be largely unaffected by the general street flooding that is happening. Unless the storm sewers back up, and then we’ve got a real problem on our hands!

Look! A local babywearer in the Register! And I do believe that’s a Wallypop ring sling she’s got on there.

Craft Saturday was a lot of fun! Thanks to those of you who came out! Hopefully, we’ll see the rest of you at the next one in March!