The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS,
a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA
The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS,
a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA
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I just had my mind expanded this morning by Laureen Hudson's hour long online session on how to use the internet to get a message out. Laureen's session “Creating an Online Presence," gave me a wealth of information in a short time and impressed me with how many people are out there who completely rely on the internet for their information. I needed that, and maybe you do, too. - Ina May Gaskin I just hung up the phone from doing the hour long session with
Laureen Hudson on “Creating an Online Presence”. Laureen’s know-how
and expertise were enough to wake up even the birth oldtimers like me and
Ina May to the many unused opportunities of the internet. Laureen’s
engaging and easygoing teaching style made even those scary (to me) terms
like “hypertext, streaming, wordpress, technorati, feedreader and trackback”
start to make sense. Her passion is to reach the generation of young
women who have not yet given birth BEFORE they fall into the black hole
of aggressive obstetrics. I came away from the class today with lots
of ways to improve my website and make it more modern, usable and interesting
for readers. This class will run again this coming Friday (August
22) and I heartily recommend it.
Cost: $35 per session Each session will be 60 minutes in length Creating An Online Presence
Search!
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From: C-upi@clari.net (UPI / ED SUSMAN) Subject: New test can prevent preterm delivery Organization: Copyright 1997 by United Press International Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 0:33:46 PDTUPI Science News
LAS VEGAS, May 1 (UPI) -- Orlando researchers say a simple test can help doctors decide if they have to induce labor because a pregnant woman's bag of waters has ruptured.
In a report to the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Las Vegas, scientists say fluid remaining in the vagina can be used for tests which tell if the baby is ready avoiding delivery of a child with underdeveloped lungs.
In the United States each year, an estimated 400,000 pregnant women have their water break prior to labor. In as many as 8,000 of these cases, the infant does not have lungs developed enough for the child to survive on his own.
Dr. Stephen Carlan, director of maternal-fetal medicine at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in Orlando, says the situation puts doctors in a dilemma: Should they induce delivery or try to give the fetus a few more -- sometimes critical -- days or weeks in the womb?
In order to determine if the baby is ready doctors can test the amniotic fluid from the placenta to determine levels of lung surfactant. Higher levels of surfactant means the baby's lungs have developed well enough and delivery is safe.
``Up to now,'' Carlan says, ``doctors have been unwilling to test fluid still pooled in the vagina because they believe that fluid is contaminated and the results of a test would be meaningless. Our study of 42 women shows that if there is still fluid in the vagina, it is fresh and can give acceptable results which can be used by the doctors to manage patients and the babies.''
Carlan says that if the tests shows sufficient levels of surfactant, he induces labor and delivers the baby. If the surfactant levels are low, the patient is monitored carefully, but the baby stays inside the mother as long as possible.
Carlan notes that if the women begins labor after her water breaks, the doctors has little choice but to deliver the child whether it is nearly full term or still a preterm baby with serious problems.
But, he said, by using the available amniotic fluid to perform the tests
on women who haven't yet gone into labor, doctors can give those 8,000
preterm babies a better chance of survival.
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