Breastmilk as a Human Right

It's always interesting to read news articles from other countries. The perspective is just... different. Take this one from India, for example:

Can fashionable young women who do not breast feed be pulled up for violation of human rights of the child? Alleging that many young women influenced by television ads on bras are not breastfeeding to maintain their breasts, CPI(M) member in Lok Sabha Varkala Radhakrishnan on Wednesday said: "It (denial of breast milk) is human rights violation."

Maintaining that "breast milk is not just the only wholesome food, but also the child's right", Radhakrishnan said that "breastfeeding must be strictly enforced".

Link: Breast milk denial is human rights violation.

Childbirth Classes as a Tax-Deductible Expense

ABC News reports a list of Tax Deductions You Should Know About, including the fact that:

You can deduct a number of medical expenses as they pertain to the expansion, or even delay, of your family. Deductions include fees paid for childbirth preparation classes, certain fertility enhancement procedures, birth control pills and/or legal operations to prevent having children.

Wonder if Doula services would be permitted, too.

NaBloPoMo - Redux

You might recall that back in November, I signed on to National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). The idea is, you write at least one blog post each day for the entire month. In one sense, NaBloPoMo was a failure for me - I posted a total of 15 times on my 3 blogs before running out of steam. In another sense, however, I was very successful in getting out of my blogging slump and just getting stuff out there.

So, I was really interested to hear that NaBloPoMo is going monthly ("This is not the same as Blog365. Those [crazy -ed.] folks are blogging every day FOR A YEAR."). Each month they will have a theme, and this month's theme is: Lists. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a list-kind-of gal. I am totally about lists. I can do this. So to kick off the month, here's an easy one: Movies I Want to See.

• All the President's Men
• American Dreamz
• Analyze This/That
• Anchorman
• Anger Management
• Around the World in 80 Days (Disney 2004)
• Batman Begins
• Bourne Supremacy/Identity/Ultimatum
• Catch Me if You Can
• Cheaper by the Dozen (modern)
• Cinderella Man
• Devil Wears Prada
• Dodgeball
• Facing the Giants
• Groundhog Day: The Weight of Time
• Hamlet (Brannaugh)
• Hamlet (Gibson)
• Jurassic Park 2
• Legally Blond
• Legend of Zorro
• Little Miss Sunshine
• LOTR: Return of the King
• Love Actually
• Man of the Year
• Manchurian Candidate
• Master and Commander
• Matrix 1, 2, & 3
• Music & Lyrics
• National Treasure I & II
• Ocean's 12/13
• Office Space
• Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure
• Pride & Prejudice (Kiera Knightly)
• Prince of Egypt
• The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
• Rocky
• RV
• Serenity
• The Seige
• Surf's Up
  
• Three Musketeers (Mickey Mouse)
• Topsy-Turvy (1999)
  
• Two Weeks' Notice
• War of the Worlds (Cruise)
• What a Girl Wants
• Yentl

There ya' go. As a mom of 3, I don't see many current movies, and some of these I've seen and just want to see again.

Midwifery Legislative Updates

The Big Push For Midwives, launched on January 24, is a coordinated campaign to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The website includes a page with links to news articles related to midwifery-related legislative efforts, and a map of states where licensure is available or where legislation is pending. Licensure is currently available to CPMs in 22 states.

Here's what's going on - at least, what's been in the news lately. Not a comprehensive list, but hopefully I'll get these updates out more often.

Alabama - SB240 and HB 314 establish a State Board of Midwifery. Link: Bill would allow home childbirth, a healthy option.

Idaho - HB 488 would provide for voluntary licensure for CPMs. Link: Idaho midwives want licensing option, ability to offer meds.

Maryland - HB 1407 would end the requirement that nurse-midwives practicing in Maryland have a written agreement with a doctor. Get the info from VBACFacts.com.

Missouri - Home birth supporters return with new midwifery measure:

Last year, lawmakers unwittingly approved a lay midwifery law after [Senator John] Loudon inserted an obscure medical term into a broader health insurance bill during the legislative session's frantic final days. The measure was signed by Gov. Matt Blunt but has since been overturned by a Cole County judge. An appeal to the state Supreme Court is pending.

Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons responded to Loudon's tactics by removing him as chairman of the Small Business, Insurance and Industrial Relations Committee. He earned the job back by promising to push a bill repealing the law allowing those with private "tocological certification" to offer pregnancy-related care.

Tocology is a synonym for obstetrics, coming from the Greek root word of childbirth.

On Wednesday, the Senate Pension, Veterans' Affairs and General Laws Committee considered two Loudon bills - one to repeal the midwifery law, and the other to create a state licensing board to monitor midwives - but took no action.

The Missouri bills are HB 1600, SB 1021 and SB 870.

New Hampshire - The NH legislature has passed a bill, SB131, which requires insurance companies to cover midwife-attended home births in that state:

The bill builds on New Hampshire's long history of supporting alternatives to hospital birth. For more than 20 years, the state has permitted "lay midwives" who do not have medical or nursing degrees to practice in the state once they obtain proper training. Two years ago, it approved a measure that required health insurers to pay for deliveries in birthing centers run by midwives.

The newest bill does not change much other than the range of places where a woman can deliver her baby, but that choice is critical, many of the bill's advocates said.

"This gives women a real choice," said Rep. Jim Martin of Sanbornville, a Republican who was one of the bill's sponsors.

link: Backing at-home births.

North Carolina - Midwives seek state sanction:

Rep. Charles Thomas, R-Buncombe, submitted language to legislative bill drafters last year but never turned it into a bill. He said the supporters didn’t meet with doctors and trial lawyers seeking common ground, as he had encouraged.

So Rep. Ty Harrell, D-Wake, won legislative leaders’ agreement to form a commission to study the issue. The panel includes medical professionals as well as Thomas, Harrell and other lawmakers, and is co-chaired by Rep. Bobby England, a doctor and Democrat from Rutherford County.

After the panel’s first meeting, Thomas was skeptical of the proposal he called “an end run around medical school” but said a compromise might be reached if concerns about safety and liability are met.

Ohio - Legalizing Birth: Ohio criminalizes midwives wanting to help women deliver at home:

Ohio law only recognizes nurse midwives, who are registered nurses with a master's degree in midwifery, according to Stephanie Beck Borden, chair of Ohio Families for Safe Birth.

"In Ohio, nurse midwives are not independent practitioners" but rather have a "written collaborative agreement with an obstetrician to practice," she says.

But CPMs or direct-entry midwives like Helwig, who care for women giving birth in their homes, lack official approval.

"Direct-entry midwives are at risk of legal prosecution for practicing medicine," Beck Borden says. "In Ohio there is no protection, no regulatory body for direct-entry midwives. (They can be) prosecuted for practicing advanced-practice nursing without a license or practicing medicine without a license, which is a felony."

South Dakota - Senate Bill 34, which allows Certified Nurse-midwives to attend home births, passed both the House and the Senate by wide margins. House Bill 1155 which would license and regulate Certified Professional Midwives, is struggling. See also Home Birth Midwifery "Smoke Out".

Babies at Work

Time Magazine had a piece in January, Bringing Babies to Work. It reminded me of a website I stumbled across a while back, Babies in the Workplace (www.babiesatwork.org), which details the why-tos and how-tos of developing a truly family-friendly workplace.

The Latest from ACOG

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists "reiterates its long-standing opposition to home births":

Childbirth decisions should not be dictated or influenced by what's fashionable, trendy, or the latest cause célèbre. Despite the rosy picture painted by home birth advocates, a seemingly normal labor and delivery can quickly become life-threatening for both the mother and baby.

Anyone besides me think that this statement is a response to The Business of Being Born?

Attempting a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) at home is especially dangerous because if the uterus ruptures during labor, both the mother and baby face an emergency situation with potentially catastrophic consequences, including death.

Oh, that's nice. More and more doctors and hospitals won't "do" VBACs, but they're telling you not to do them at home either. I think most HBAC-ing women would rather have been in the hospital, if they thought they would actually have been successful there.

ACOG encourages all pregnant women to get prenatal care and to make a birth plan.

Really??? Then don't ignore our birth plans when we make them. And put pressure on the hospital staff to respect them, as well. How come the L&D nurses think that birth plan = cesarean section? What's up with that?

The main goal should be a healthy and safe outcome for both mother and baby. Choosing to deliver a baby at home, however, is to place the process of giving birth over the goal of having a healthy baby.

But the two aren't mutually exclusive, the "process" and the "goal"! Don't you get it? A healthy process creates a healthy mom and a healthy baby. Disturbing the process adversely affects the outcome.

And I'm sorry, women who are so traumatized by their birth "experiences" that they will not set foot in a hospital again unless they are dying, are not "healthy". Women whose bodies are cut and then stitched back together are not "healthy". Babies who leave the hospital formula-fed when their mother had planned to breastfeed them are not "healthy". Healthy is not the absence of disease or medical condition. Healthy is body, mind, and spirit.

So ACOG, if you don't like out-of-hospital birth, start practicing evidenced-based medicine. Start trusting women's bodies to birth. Stop pretending that you know everything (anything?) about natural (normal, physiological) childbirth. Stop lying to women. Try listening to them instead.

Midwives & Malpractice Insurance

The Citizens for Midwifery blog discusses malpractice insurance for midwives:

When looking through this lens, it becomes clear that lawyers and insurance companies have more to gain from legislation mandating insurance policies for midwives than do birthing women and their families.

The impetus for CfM's post was an article by Judy Slome Cohain in the Winter 2007 issue of Midwifery Today entitled, "Mandatory Malpractice Insurance—Increases CS Rate & Profitability of Litigation, Decreases Planned Homebirths". I don't subscribe to MT, and the article isn't online yet, but the description in the table of contents is intriguing:

This frequent contributor argues convincingly that making malpractice insurance mandatory for midwives will lead to more profitable lawsuits and decrease the number of homebirth midwives to deliver babies, rather than improving birth outcomes or public health.

California Raw Milk Regulations

A new law regulating the amount of coliform bacteria allowed to be present in raw milk is angering some California consumers.

Moms in the Military and in Prison

Interesting blog posts this week; Angela White updates us on U.S. Military Rules for Breastfeeding Mothers at Breastfeeding 123. And Rachel Roth of RH Reality Check asks, "What Do Prisons Have to Do with Reproductive Rights?":

People in prison are the only group in the United States with a constitutional right to medical care. ... In practice, however, securing needed medical care can be daunting, as numerous lawsuits and investigations attest. Women encounter multiple barriers to care - from co-payments they can ill afford to having to convince a guard that they need to see a doctor. Gynecological and obstetric care is often woefully inadequate. In a nationally representative government study, 20 percent of pregnant women in prison reported getting no prenatal care, and 50 percent of pregnant women in jails went without care.

Things You Should Never Have to Say to a Customer Service Agent

"You've never heard of that? Let me pull up your company's website, and I will read you a description of the service I ordered."

Leftovers (or, a tale of two grandmas)

In 1950, my Grandma Jo won a Dallas Morning News contest for her leftover turkey recipe. Here you can read "the rest of the story".

My Grandma Pat died this week. I have years and years of Thanksgiving memories of her cooking a turkey and making gravy. One year, not too long ago, she decided she was done cooking. And she quit, just like that. She was like that when she had her mind made up. I'm speaking at the funeral tomorrow and I might post my comments, if I feel like it.

US immigration agency sets new policy after arrest of breast-feeding mother

Wow. I am just speechless. No so much about the arrest, but that the situation was resolved so quickly, with a policy being put into place:

U.S. immigration officials said they have enacted a new policy to show greater consideration for breast-feeding mothers, days after authorities arrested a Honduran woman in Ohio on an immigration violation and separated her from her crying baby.

Sayda Umanzor, 27, admitted to being in the United States illegally when sheriff's deputies and federal agents knocked on the door of a house in Conneaut, Ohio, on Oct. 26.

Umanzor was breast-feeding her 9-month-old daughter, Brittany, at the time, and the baby cried as her parents were led away.

"It was like a piece of me was torn away," Umanzor said Thursday, speaking through an interpreter.

The baby cried incessantly over the next several days as she went without breast milk and Umanzor suffered soreness from engorged breasts.

Greg Palmore, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said the agency approved Wednesday a new policy to address the needs of breast-feeding mothers.

"It basically ensures that you take humanitarian issues involving nursing moms into consideration," he said Friday. "It also ensures we make contact with state social service agencies to address caregiver issues."

In Umanzor's case, the first jail where she was held did not know it had a nursing mother until Monday, when Lucia Stone, a Spanish-speaking representative of the La Leche League of Ohio, alerted them, said jail commander William Schultz.

Schultz said jail officials then accepted a breast pump and tried to work with local Spanish-speaking mothers to get milk to the baby, but the two sides failed to connect, and the milk had to be thrown out.

Umanzor was transferred to a county jail in Tiffin, Ohio, before immigration lawyer David Leopold secured her release Tuesday night. Leopold argued it was inhumane to hold a nursing mother and unnecessary to jail someone who the ICE knew how to find.

Umanzor was permitted to rejoin her children and was fitted with an ankle bracelet that tracks her whereabouts. She is expected to be deported soon.

Umanzor's husband, Marcus Antonio Bejarano, also an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was taken into custody. A 5-year-old son, David, also has been ordered deported. The couple's 9-month-old baby and a 3-year-old daughter, Alexandra, are U.S. citizens.

Also, see my previous post on the UK addressing this issue last year.

Vaccinations Among Homeschooled Children

The authors of an article published in The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics advocates that state governments require vaccinations for home schooled children:

With the spectacular growth in the number of homeschooled students, it is becoming more difficult to reach these youth to ensure that they are immunized at all. These children are frequently unvaccinated, leaving them open to infection with diseases that are all but stamped out in the United States with immunization requirements. States should encourage parents to get their homeschooled students vaccinated through enacting the same laws as those used for public school students. This could be done by enforcing current laws through neglect petitions or by requiring that children be immunized before participating in school sponsored programs. As most states require some filing to allow parents to homeschool their children, it would be easy to enact laws requiring that homeschooled children be immunized or exempted before completing registration.

Abstract (subscription required to view full article).

This line of thinking - or rather, illogic - is similar to that of the recent push for a mandated HPV vaccine for school children. The state has an interest in seeing that public school students are vaccinated because in the schools, large numbers of children are congregated in conditions which make it easy for diseases to spread quickly. There is a logical nexus between the state's action (requiring vaccinations) and the context of the requirement (enrolling in school). HPV, however, is not spread by casual contact, so there is no reason to require it in order to enroll a child in school. Likewise, homeschooled children are not more likely to spread diseases while "in school" than anyone else is at any other time. If the government has the authority to require homeschooled children to be vaccinated, does it not then have the authority to require anyone and everyone to be vaccinated?

HT: Saying No To Vaccines

And for a related article, Parents Use Religion to Avoid Vaccines.

National Blog Posting Month

Angela at Breastfeeding 123 has issued a challenge to Breastfeeding and Mothering bloggers to participate with her in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). The idea is that you commit to write one blog post per day, for the entire month of November. Why do this? Cause, uh, you started a blog to make yourself write more often?

Anyhow, I'm in! If you haven't noticed, I am currently posting maybe every week or two. It's not that there's a lack of important things going which need to be blogged about, either. On the contrary; sometimes I feel overwhelmed by bad news and the amount of cruddy stuff still going on in the world.

I'm qualifying my participation by saying that since I have three blogs, I only plan to post to one of the three each day. Wish me luck!

Where does your candidate stand on health care?

This is a neat little tool for comparing the presidential candidates' positions on health care. Choose up to four, and get a side-by-side comparison:

Health08.org

One caveat: looks like the information was compiled from the candidates' websites, speeches, debates, etc. (sources are listed) rather than from questionnaires submitted to the candidates, so one cannot rule out bias on the part of the information-gatherer.

Why we have EMTALA

Foreign woman rejected 7 times by hospitals in western Japan after childbirth

The incident happened in August 2006, but was reported in Japan on Thursday in the wake of the case of a 38-year-old woman who suffered a miscarriage last month after ten hospitals refused to admit her and her ambulance collided with another car.

The cases have raised concerns about shortcomings in emergency care for pregnant women, an growing worry as Japan grapples with declining birthrates - among the lowest in the world - and a burgeoning elderly population.

...

Last year, a pregnant woman in western Japan died after being refused admission by about 20 hospitals that said they were full.

Ignore Us At Your Peril

Lawyer Mama writes We Won't Be Ignored:

I just want to remind the media and all of the Presidential candidates not to dismiss us. We "Mommy bloggers" are a force that can't be denied. We are well educated and vocal. We are doctors and lawyers and journalists and political followers. We care deeply about the future of our children and this country. We have checkbooks and blogs and we aren't afraid to use them.

Take heed, candidates. We may be mothers and we may be women, but we will not be ignored.

Planning a Protest

Well, I'm back from the Applebee's protest. I'm exhausted! We had 30 adults (moms, dads, and grandparents) and over 50 babies and children. But no press :( despite all my efforts at sending out press releases this week. One station (NBC5) did carry a blurb on the six o'clock news, just using the information we provided, but did not have the personnel to send a crew out to the protest itself. Numbers are still coming in, but looks like nationwide we had nearly 2000 people at 101 events in 43 states.

Oh, but the really exciting news (at least to me) is that I finally bought the shirt I have wanted for at least two years. Mine looks just like the photo and has "I Make Milk. What's Your Super Power" embroidered on it. I bought it at Granola Threads, and the owner, Keri, was most helpful in making sure I received it in time for today's event. You can buy shirts with the same slogan at Cafe Press and the like, but they are about as expensive and not nearly such good quality. Plus, it was on sale.

One interesting thing about planning this protest is that I learned a bit more about First Amendment law. Perhaps I should say "re-learned" - I'm pretty sure it was on the bar exam. I interfaced with an assistant city attorney, a police lieutenant, and a patrol officer. I discussed easements. I read through the Arlington Municipal Code and now know how to apply for a parade permit, should I ever wish to organize a parade. I didn't speak to the press, but I learned how to write and send out a press release. And I sharpened my skills at organizing people, by doing it and by watching others do it. I took the lead when no one else was willing. I'm looking at this big picture. I'm adding tools to my toolbox.

Eatin' Good in the Neighborhood?

Applebee's restaurants are the target of a nationwide protest to take place this Saturday, September 8, 2007, at 12:00 noon (local time), in a response to an incident that took place last June in Kentucky. While discreetly feeding her baby at an Applebee's restaurant, Brooke Ryan was asked to either leave or cover her baby's head with a blanket, in violation of 2006 Ky. Acts, Chap. 80 , which reads in part:

No person shall interfere with a mother breastfeeding her child in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be.

You can read all the details at Birth Without Boundaries, which is sponsoring the national event. However, I will summarize by saying that Lactivists do not call for nation-wide protests unless the response from corporate representatives has been less than adequate:

Shortly following the incident, Ms. Ryan retained the services of a lawyer who contacted Thomas and King, the company that owns and operates the Lexington Applebee's location. Nearly 2 months later, the company responded with a letter stating "we are considering keeping blankets in the restaurants for use by breastfeeding mothers that may not have them readily available,"...

Here's a list of bloggers covering the event (so far):

Our Applebee's is not nursing friendly... (Azuroo)
Breastfeeding Advocates Sending Nationwide Message to Applebee's (Breastfeeding 123)
Applebees Hates Babies, Try Hooters Instead (Breeders are Eaters Too!)
Applebee's accuses nursing mother of having "an agenda" (Human Lactation Information)
Applebee’s Nurse-In, Nurse-Out (The International Breastfeeding Symbol)
Breastfeeding nurse-out Saturday (Journal of a North American Celtic Bobtail)
August is World Breast-feeding Awareness Month (Kentucky Women)
Applebee's Ticks off Nursing Moms or "I Won't Be Eating Good at THAT Neighboorhood" (The Lactivist)
Applebee's Nurse In (Mama Knows Breast)
Eating not-so-good in the neighborhood (The Mother Tounge)
Nationwide nurse-ins at Applebee's (Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog)
Eatin’ Good In The Neighborhood? (My Little Tribe)
Applebee's Nurse-in (Nursing Your Kids)
Wear Your Burka if You Want to Nurse at Applebees (The Twinkies)
Eatin’ Stupid in the Neighborhood (Women's Health News)

If I missed anything good, leave me a comment.

Law School Moms

Hello, faithful readers. I've been out of town and then busy getting my 1st grader back-to-school. I'm working on a legal update of things that happened while I was gone.

I see that there is now a carnival of Moms In Law School. MILS #8 is posted at PT-LawMom. I'm a fan! Personally, law school was difficult enough. I can't imagine doing it and being pregnant or a mom to young children. But I see I have some more bloggers to add to my "Lawyer Moms" list.

Speaking of Carnivals, yours truly is hosting Blawg Review on International Midwives' Day which is, oh, sometime next spring. Last time I hosted, I used a reality-tv theme. If anyone has a great idea for a theme, let me know. Obviously I'm going to talk about the legal status of midwives in the US, but I'll also have quite a few legal posts (ok, most of them) that don't have anything to do with midwifery or childbirth. I just need an organizing scheme to tie everything together...

Pregnant Inmates Need Doulas, Too

In honor of Nicole Richie's newly-announced pregnancy - and the fact that she may soon be spending time behind bars for a DUI conviction - I give you this wonderful article by Amie Newman, Pregnant Behind Bars: The Prison Doula Project. Amie interviews Christy Hall, the co-founder and Development Coordinator for The Birth Attendants, which started the project:

"A lot of the issues that are the general issues for pregnant women are magnified in prison. For instance, which provider will you choose for pregnancy and childbirth? In prison, you don't get to choose your provider - not being able to choose who attends your birth is a big deal. Up until recently, in the prison we work in, there was only a male doctor available for labor and delivery. But for many women in prison - a huge number of whom have experienced sexual and domestic violence - having a male provider between your legs is not exactly ideal. Another issue is lack of informed consent - the lack of information and resources around having a healthy pregnancy for these women is huge. They just aren't given any information on pregnancy, their health, their bodies. The lack of access to proper nutrition during pregnancy is a big problem - the pregnant women in the prison we work with get "extra canteen" which means they get like an extra pack of Fritos. Also, the lack of access to health care in prison means that, in general, a health issue is not dealt with until it turns into a huge problem. It's a high-risk population anyway because, for the most part, these women lacked proper health care before coming to prison and being pregnant in prison doesn't change that. Also, there is a much higher rate of cesarean sections for women in prison as compared to women on the outside - mostly for the convenience of medical and prison staff."

The article mentions another organization, The Rebecca Project, which aims to end the practice of shackling pregnant inmates, particularly during labor and delivery, through the enactment of federal legislation.

Also check out this 1997 article by Sheila Kitzinger on the state of pregnant women and mothers in Great Britain.

Unassisted Childbirth

The Washington Post has an article today on Do-It-Yourself Delivery. Though I am not a supporter of unassisted childbirth, I do have an interest in the positive - or at least fair and unbiased - portrayal of normal birth in the media. The article contained this gem:

To [Mairi Breen] Rothman, [a nurse-midwife and spokeswoman for the American College of Nurse-Midwives, which does not support unassisted childbirth], Shanley's beliefs underscore a more fundamental problem with maternity care. "To me the really interesting question is, Why would someone go outside the system?" Rothman said. "What is so broken that they don't want to use it?"

[Heather] Jones, the Navy wife, has an answer. Her first delivery in a hospital four years ago was marred by "interventions and interferences based on someone's outside judgment" of how well her labor was progressing, she said. She said she felt pressured to have epidural anesthesia, was not allowed to move around as she wished and was denied access to her baby until he was two hours old because he was being observed by the hospital staff.

Jones said she decided to give birth to her third child unattended after her second was born five minutes after the midwife arrived at her home."

She was like, 'See, you didn't need me,' and I thought, 'You know, maybe I don't,' " she said, as baby Gideon, now 5 months old, cooed in the background.

This Week's Legal News

Breasts, placentas, midwives, and the TSA -

Woman wins settlement in breastfeeding case:

Watch-maker and clothier Fossil Inc. agreed to pay $3,600 to a woman who was barred from breast-feeding her infant while visiting a company showroom, the New York Civil Liberties Union said on Tuesday.

Lass King, 37, a buyer for a Maine clothing store and a mother of two, said she received a letter of apology and the payment from Fossil after threatening the company with a lawsuit.

In its letter to King, Fossil also said it had issued a policy affirming that breast-feeding was permitted in all Fossil stores and showrooms, said Galen Sherwin, director of the NYCLU's Reproductive Rights Project.

Representatives of Fossil could not immediately confirm details of the settlement.

New York law states that women are permitted to breast-feed "in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be."

Hospital told to return placenta to mom:

A woman has won a court fight to keep the placenta after her daughter's birth. She had planned to grind it up and ingest it as a way to fight postpartum depression, but now plans to bury it.

Clark County District Court Judge Susan Johnson granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday, ordering Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in southern Nevada to return the placenta to Anne Swanson. Hospital officials said they will comply.

What is interesting was that the plaintiff was expecting a ruling on a temporary injunction, not a ruling on the merits (see Swanson vs. Sunrise Hospital for the blow-by-blow). Doesn't sound as if the hospital will fight this decision, but they are not changing their policy either:

Amy Stevens, system vice president for Sunrise Health, which operates Sunrise Hospital, described the ruling as specific to Swanson. She said the hospital must comply with strict regulations in handling human biohazardous waste.

There is no Nevada law prohibiting hospitals from returning placentas to mothers. But several Las Vegas area hospitals told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the organ is usually destroyed unless a physician designates it for medical tests or a patient seeks it for specific religious or cultural reasons.

USA Today ran a piece this week on placentophagia (Ingesting the placenta: Is it healthy for new moms?) which mentions the Swanson case.

After numerous complaints, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) has changed its policy regarding breastmilk:

TSA is also modifying the rules associated with carrying breast milk through security checkpoints. Mothers flying with, and now without, their child will be permitted to bring breast milk in quantities greater than three ounces as long as it is declared for inspection at the security checkpoint.

Breast milk is in the same category as liquid medications. Now, a mother flying without her child will be able to bring breast milk through the checkpoint, provided it is declared prior to screening.

Birth Without Boundaries lawyer Jake Marcus comments:

Under the old TSA rule, pumped breastmilk had to be packaged in 3 oz containers all of which had to fit into one 12 oz ziplock bag. Birth Without Boundaries has assisted many women whose pumped milk was confiscated and dumped by TSA security officers, either because it was not packaged according to regulation or because the TSA officer did not know what the regulation was. All of our complaints to the TSA have gone unanswered, until now.

Marcus also recommends that women traveling with expressed milk carry a copy of the modified policy, just in case they encounter an employee who has not yet gotten the memo.

Judge dismisses Mendon midwife lawsuit:

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed earlier this year by a former Mendon midwife in a bid to have her license to practice in Vermont reinstated.

Roberta Devers-Scott claimed in the lawsuit that the state violated her due process rights, leading to the revocation of her midwife license. Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz, whose office oversees professional licensing of midwives in Vermont, was among the defendants named in the lawsuit.

Judge J. Garvan Murtha issued a six-page ruling in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro granting a motion filed on the defendants' behalf dismissing the lawsuit, ruling, in part, Markowitz had immunity from the lawsuit.

Michael Sussman, Devers-Scott's attorney, said Friday he planned to appeal the judge's ruling to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.

And that's what is making news this week.

Huntington Beach Bans Nudity

Aren't there state regulations on this?

The [Huntington Beach] City Council unanimously voted to ban public nudity during its Monday meeting after a brief debate that resulted in striking portions of the proposed ordinance.

The council decided to limit the law to being nude where it is visible from a public area. They deleted regulations on a women breastfeeding an infant older than age 2, and restrictions on wearing a costume or device that simulated nudity.

The article goes on to say:

This type of ordinance is not new to cities in Orange County. More than half of the cities in the county have approved similar bans on public nudity, said [Police Chief Kenneth] Small.

Wonder what those ordinances say about breastfeeding?

Is it legal for Florida midwives to do VBACs?

Occasionally one will hear that it is illegal for licensed midwives in Florida to attend VBACs (vaginal birth after Cesarian). Not so, as Sarasota midwife Heidi Dahlborg, LM, explains:

It is legal for a Florida LM to do a primary VBAC, but it does carry a risk score of 3, which requires a consult from a VBAC friendly doctor. Some midwives who can not get consults have mistakenly told people "its illegal to do VBACs at home" when they mean "it is illegal for me to do VBACs at home because I can not get the proper consult to comply with the law".

So you can legally have a VBAC with a homebirth Licensed Midwife, as long as she obtains a consult from a physician with OB privileges. There is a state risk assessment score for LMs that assigns points for various risk factors, and when your points reach 3 for any reason, you must have a consult with a physician that does obstetrics. A prior c-section scores 3 points for "prior uterine surgery". Prior uterine surgery with a subsequent successful vaginal birth (a secondary VBAC) is only 2 points. So if the mother has no other point scoring risk factors, she will only have a 2, and thus can have a VBAC with out consult. If she smokes, is over/underweight, or has other factors, she will need a consult based on her overall points. The risk assessment is in the rules, which can be viewed online at http://www.doh.state.fl.us/mqa/midwifery/mw_statutes.html under Rules: Chapter 64B24, its a large document and you must scroll down to Chapter 64B24-7, Midwifery until you see the Midwifery Practice Act, which includes the risk assessment. You can also get a risk screening tool from any practicing midwife.

If the midwife also has a birth center, that complicates things further. The birth centers are governed by a separate law, and it says the birth centers can only do VBACS in the birth center if they are participating in the National VBAC study, which has been closed for 7 years. So there has been no way to comply with birth center law, so there is no way to legally do a VBAC in the birth center. But midwives who own birth center will often do VBACs at home, even though they can not do them in the center.

I know an attorney that was drawing up a consent to allow midwives and moms to choose to go outside of the law or rules, as part of the alternative medicine law, but I do not know if anyone actually does that yet.

The American Association of Birthing Centers, the birth center association, is going to open the National VBAC study up again soon, thanks to Charlynn Daughtery a Tampa midwife that own Labor of Love Birth Centers. She has really been a strong VBAC advocate in political circles, working hard to keep VBAC options open at home and birth centers. Once that study open, hopefully in Fall, Florida women will be able to have VBACs in birth centers if the consults are obtained. You can contact them, AABC, to urge them to get the VBAC study opened again.

So, as it stands- in Florida you CAN have a VBAC at home, but not in a birth center, as long as the proper consults are obtained. Many women travel 3 hours or so to get the consult, at around 28 weeks, but you can usually get the consult anytime including preconception. It is generally just a review of your surgical record, and a conversation on risks and benefits.

Thanks, Heidi, for the great explanation!