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photo by Sheri Dixon

Monday, April 26, 2010

"Houston Doctor Exposes Gaping Hole Where Soul Should Be- Film at Eleven"

Here. I'll let you read it for yourself-

http://www.khou.com/home/Kingswood-mother-has-all-four-limbs-amputated-after-home-birth-91858109.html

Awful. Just awful. My heart completely breaks for that poor woman and her family, who will never ever fully recover from this.

About the only thing that could possibly make the whole thing even more heinous than it already is would be the arrogant, ignorant stupidity of Dr. Joseph Salinas- the pompous bastard who issued a blanket condemnation of home births in general and stopped just shy of saying that any woman who chooses home birth pretty much deserves to lose all her limbs.

Our son was born at home, with a midwife, without incident. I can pretty much guarantee to my readers that the mother in the story above keeps a cleaner house than I do. I can also guaranDAMNtee that any and every hospital in this town or any other is chock full of all sorts of nasty bacteria.

My first two children were born in a hospital- home birth being against the law in Wisconsin- but my Obstetrician insisted he was all for home birth- that the hospital was the worst possible place to be giving birth because they're all FULL OF GERMS.

Because here's the thing. Giving birth is NOT a disease process. It's actually something that (brace yourself) women were built to do. From our perky little breasts to our comely shapely hips, women were NOT designed exclusively to aspire to be the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues- we were designed to grow and deliver more humans.

And most of the time, most of the women can do that without the intervention of Dr. Joseph Salinas- something I'm sure will put a gigantic dent in his...ego.

The FACT is that this one woman contracted a nasty strep somewhere- possibly not even birth-related. The FACT is that many thousands of people contract, suffer, recover (some) and die (alot) the same type of germs IN THE HOSPITAL every year, something Dr. Salinas conveniently forgot to mention in his giddiness to make damn sure he frightened clients...er...women into flocking under his manly, protective wings to have their babies.

I don't know why Katy didn't go right to the doctor when she started hurting- and it really doesn't matter with this type of germ, it was gonna 'get' her regardless of the time frame, even in-hospital contracted Strep A isn't a "take this pill and that'll do ya", scenario- but her husband's blog shows some glimpses as to the Maybe Why's.

They are both self employed, and lacked adequate (if any) health insurance- possibly one reason to opt for home birth as well, although I'm of the school that believes that home is the best place to take care of this natural event. The FACT is that a home birth including excellent pre-natal and post-natal care costs less than 10% of a hospital birth, and you get to stay in your own bed.

That Houston's KHOU took a heartbreaking story and twisted it for Dr. Salinas' agenda is news reporting at its very shoddiest- and thank goodness the viewers are agreeing in overwhelming numbers.

It'd be lovely to see the news station step up and do some REAL reporting and community good and cover
-the ways this family can be helped through this horror via donations
-the actual facts regarding safety of home birth vs. hospital birth, both here in the US and elsewhere in the world (something that will not make our system look very good)
-education on what to look for re: signs of Strep A, since it's freakin' EVERYWHERE and you can get it from any cut or puncture
-how sorry it is that a mother even had to consider the expense of going in for 'traditional' medical care till she was really in pain, and really in jeopardy.

And that's the thing.

This is so NOT a home birth vs. hospital birth thing, this is a health care availability in America thing, and that point was cleverly not even brought up.

I'm not holding my breath for any of the above- the medical corporations and insurance companies and Defenders of the System are all too powerful- so much better to blame the experienced midwife, blame the loving mother, blame the victim.

Katy's husband started a blog, and there are links to help the family. I'd consider it a personal favor if ya'll could donate what you can.

Because what our family is going through right now is easy compared to what they will face forever.

http://katyupdate.wordpress.com/

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