sundries

[rm]

I am still dealing with this headache thing. It is getting better and seems to be both a sinus headache (since there's a spot if I press near my temple it hurts, but don't look that up on the Internet or it will tell you, you are dying) and a tension headache caused by my utterly destroyed shoulder muscles, which I think has to do with my desk set up. All of this said, it's impeding my ability to work and making me sort of aggravated.

Tonight Patty and I are going to Tango del Diablo. I could totally get away with wearing my tux to this, but the effort and physical restriction, especially in light of the state of my head and shoulders mentioned above, seems completely beyond me. Maybe a suit. Hell, maybe a dress because it takes me the least time. I don't know.

Right, so about the refrigerator thing? I am an idiot and not suited for the century. I was turning the knob the wrong way. It's cold again now.

In the realm of Doctor Who tie-in novels, I am currently reading The Stealers of Dreams about a world where lying and fiction is illegal. It's actually freaking me out a little.

We watched another episode of Buffy last night. James Marsters is a great actor because making that speech that ends with him on the cross any type of interesting and moving as opposed to just chaotic and weird took a LOT of effort. Of course, since he's known as the hot guy with the great abs from the trashy genre show, we're never going to get lots of chances to see him really act, and that's a damn shame.

I am getting really excited about Bristol, even though I still have to make my train reservations and my hotel reservations for Bristol itself. Of course, everything is fitting together perfectly... without Cardiff, a problem which is still, foolishly, running around in the back of my head. I should just email the Fabulous Welshcakes store and see if I can get them to post me an order to my hotel, which really would solve about 50% of my absurdity. Today's mantras: London has stories too and Even you don't like trains that much. It's helping.

writerinadrawer voting opens later today.

Also on the Buffy front I read this hilariously smart fic by stakebait in which Oz and Ethan Rayne hook-up... at Burning Man.

Tateishi Onojiro, New York City's heartthrob, 1860. Article also contains the wonderful phrase: "New York's preferred tense is the future," although I don't know if I agree with the sentiment.

Apparently, people have decided it's bad for children to have best friends now. I would have suffocated as a kid without mine. I don't like casual conversation now any more than I did then. I would have been miserable attempting to have a set of light connections about nothing in particular. The article suggests that it's about teaching kids not to be so possessive of their friends, but I remember how much my parents hated how close I was to my best friends, and to me I can't help but think this is another way for a certain stripe of today's super-clingy parents to keep their child theirs for longer.

Meanwhile, the doctors vs. midwives thing here is ongoing, and let's be clear, about misogyny and the medicalization of femaleness.

That gay-themed French McDonald's ad continues to stir things up as the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce drops its relationship with McDonald's due to the company's Chief of Operations' comments about how such an ad would never be shown in the US due to cultural differences.

A brief, odd geographic note about the clitoral surgery links from yesterday: While Cornell University is mostly located in Ithaca, these events are related to the affiliated Cornell University Medical Center, which is located on the Upper East Side in New York City.

Comments

[spicklething.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, the doctors vs. midwives thing here is ongoing, and let's be clear, about misogyny and the medicalization of femaleness.

Ooooh, allow me to comment on this one from both a patient and a female physician perspective (sorry to hijack your LJ, but this may take a while.)

My personal perspective as someone who sought care from a certified nurse midwife (CMN) during both of my two pregnancies. So a little compare and contrast from anecdotal experience as both a patient and medical provider. Going on the record to point out that these opinions are strictly mind and may or may not be endorsed by any medical academy (including the one I belong to.)

Let me preface that I am talking about CNM's here--master's trained nurses who practice out of medical clinics, birthing centers and hospitals. Not to be confused with Lay Midwives that may have little medical training. My midwife rocked.

Midwives view pregnancy as a normal process for a female.
Obstetricians are first and foremost surgeons and tend to view pregnancy as a disease process, assume crash positions and anticipate the worst.

Midwives have a lower c-section rate as well as a signficiantly (as in nearly ZERO) rate of episiotomies (taking a scissors and cutting the woman's perineum to widen the vaginal opening.)
A lot of obstetricians will jump to episotomy, not because there is trouble with the fetus or mother, but merely to speed up the delivery process.

Nurse midwifes are definitely more holistic when it comes to prenatal care and will frequent use diet as a way to control things such as constipation, for example recommending 3 prunes a day to help or suggestion something like lemon water or ginger for morning sickness.
With an obstetrician you are more likely to have pharmacotherapy for these normal conditions of pregnancy. That said, with an OB you are more likely to have an IV placed during labor and be given medications (oxytocin, etc) to speed up contractions.)

Midwives really provide a patient-centric delivery with open options for positioning during delivery such as hands/knees, squatting, laying on one's side, birthing chair, water delivery (which I did!)
While some obstetricians are open to some of these techniques, chances are you are going to be in the classic lithotomy position (feet in stirrups with the doc standing between your knees like a catcher) when the time comes to push.

Like I said, Obstetricians are surgeons by training. If your one diagnostic tool is a blade, there is a good chance you are going to be on the receiving end of it at some point. I know that is a bit of a jaded view. A good middle of the road for those who want the MD tacked behind the name is a Family Physician who has an OB practice. They tend to practice somewhere in between. How a medical provider treats the prenatal process really steered me toward a CMN for my care. As a student I had trained under obstetricians, CMNs and family physicians. I wanted someone who didn't view the process as pathology but rather a normal life process.

Yes, there are fabulous Obstetricians out there. And for every fabulous midwife, I am sure there are crappy ones as well.

I love the concept of Midwife (with woman) for not just obsterical care. I continue to see my midwife for routine care, and a lot of people don't realize they do well woman care as well such as yearly exams.