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October 20, 2007
Contact Jenny Hatch
Please email me at Jenny@NaturalFamilyco.com
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:35 PM
October 13, 2007
Daughters - A Tribute to my Mom and Farewell
One True Media Version of this montage found on my share page.
Thanks for everything Mom, I love you, and am so grateful for the legacy of wellness that you gave to all of us. When I think about the 14 children my sisters and I have welcomed into the world, the young daughters who are being brought up and prepared for motherhood, and the daily nourishment that I know is going on in all of those homes, I just have to yell to anyone interested....I have the best Mother in the World!
Here is a link to my Share Page at One True Media (just in case you can't watch the movie on my blog!)
This video is the final portion (Ch 8) in my Video Book, Liver Cleansing during the Childbearing Season. Go Here to view the whole video.
In this video I reference a book by author Laura Davis Here is the link to her book, The Courage to Heal Workbook.
This video also contains an additional explanation for why I stopped Blogging and has a challenge for women.
Jenny Hatch
Hatch Family 1997
I have been doing some thinking and have decided to end this blogging adventure.
I have really enjoyed this project, and have thrilled to have a place where my voice is not edited out of my own writings.
I spent many years as a frustrated writer. I would spend hours writing articles, books, and letters to the editor to newspapers, magazines, and publishers....but they always managed to edit my voice, especially my political voice, out of my work. Or they refused to publish me.
Blogging has satisfied something deep in my soul.
I have a great passion for singing, and have decided to spend my blogging hours rehearsing my Music. I don't have alot of free time, and want to use these years that I still have a singing voice to develop my talents to a much higher level and audition for some of the many companies and theatrical groups that exist here in Boulder County. Musical Theatre is my passion and I would love to carve out some time to perform in a show. My whole family performed in The Music Man when I was twelve, and it was one of the most fun things we have ever done together.
My family in our Music Man costumes
Here is a picture of our Family 20 years later in 2000.
(My older brother Dave was not in either picture).
With Spouses and Grandchildren at that same reunion!
Since this reunion two of my siblings have married, and eleven more grandchildren have been born.
I thought I would use this final post to dedicate the montage below and these words to my own mother Carolyn.
If you have benefitted at all from my rants, recipes, or realities on this blog, most of the credit has to go to my own Mama, who taught me patterns of living during my childhood which made it easier to adopt certain habits of health and wellness. My mother understood the importance of the hours she spent in her kitchen. She didn't believe the Feminist lies of the 60's. And she made sure to teach all of her children patterns of happy living. With my parents focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ they taught all eight of us children to keep the commandments, repent when necessary, and find happiness in family life.
We spent so many happy hours singing together as a family. Often we turned on music and just danced around the living room. Singing rounds in the car taught us how to harmonize together, and many hours were spent practicing instruments. My favorite memories are of my Dad singing to us as we fell asleep. One of the pictures I put into the montage is of my three sisters and I singing Scarlett Ribbons for our Dad at a family reunion. I loved the way he sang that song to us.
Daily habits of joyful family life have felt somewhat out of my grasp as I fumbled to learn how to be well after mental illness. In some ways it has felt like I was on this long, drawn out quest to learn a couple of things. Why did I go nuts? What is the best way to treat myself when in the throes of depression and anxiety, and HOW can I prevent it happening in the future?
Taking my parents habits of happy living to a much higher level in terms of discipline with nutrition, sleep, focus on the basics, and carefully nourishing my brain with nutrients are what freed me from the tentacles of psychiatric enslavement, and then pushed me past the pain and sickness into wellness.
I figured my healing journey was an important story to share, and so I have used this blog and my books and web site to share the stories that maybe will help you to move past your own medical bugaboos into proactive healthy living.
If I have learned nothing else during my years of mothering, it is that the daily habits of life are what create health. And not just physical health, but also emotional and spiritual health.
In fact, once...many years ago, my mom and I talked about writing a musical called Daily Bread that would promote the idea that it is the things we do every day that are the most important. Maybe someday we'll get around to writing that show.
For now, I want to sing.
So, I bid you all a fond farewell. Please enjoy my archives. I plan to leave them up for a while.
And here are links to my three favorite posts:
Images from the Iraq Election - Purple Power!
One True Media Version of this montage found on my share page.
Thanks for everything Mom, I love you, and am so grateful for the legacy of wellness that you gave to all of us. When I think about the 14 children my sisters and I have welcomed into the world, the young daughters who are being brought up and prepared for motherhood, and the daily nourishment that I know is going on in all of those homes, I just have to yell to anyone interested....I have the best Mother in the World!
PS I don't mean to diss my four brothers and the awesome families that they are creating, nor would I wish to dismiss Pauls six siblings and the amazing legacy of his own mother. I could not have asked for a better mother in law. I just wanted this final post to be a tribute to my own mother, her four daughters, and my two daughters. This is a blog focused on natural family living, with motherhood as the primary topic. And so it feels right for the final post to be a tribute to the best Mother I know.
Here is our Christmas Greeting for family and friends for 2007!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 11:17 AM
October 12, 2007
More thoughts on Unassisted Childbirth by Jenny Hatch
This Catagory on my blog, "The Do It Yourself Homebirth Debate" is a collection of news stories, with much commentary from me on the subject of Husband/Wife Homebirth. Some of our medical and midwife opponents have used some very derogatory language to diss the Freebirth Movement in a variety of chat rooms, online news sites, and blogs. Recently I watched the new Movie, The Great Debaters and a play on a quote from the movie comes to mind when thinking of the critics of the Unassisted Childbirth movement.
"My opponent is a mere dissenting voice of the truth I speak, and to me, he does not exist!"
The actual quote from the movie: "Who is the judge? The judge is God... Why is He God? Because He decides who wins or loses, not my opponent ... Who is your opponent? He does not exist.... Why doesn’t he exist? Because he is a mere dissenting voice of the truth I speak."
What follows in this catagory are many blog entries documenting the current on line debate swirling around the Unassisted Childbirth movement on the internet. My prayer is that with Rikki Lakes New Documentary, The Business of Being Born, and increased televison coverage around UC Birth, the debate will jump from the internet to the public airwaves and our society will take the time to have a healthy discussion about what is best for mothers and the babes they are birthing.
Jenny Hatch
Jenny Hatch three weeks after giving birth to my fourth child Andrew in september of 1996. He was eleven pounds at birth and came into the world after I took on the challenge to do my own prenatal care and give birth alone at home.
This past month we reached a milestone in the US Unassisted Childbirth Movement. The very first mainstream television media coverage on the show To The Contrary played on PBS stations across the country.
Even though the broadcast left very much to be desired in terms of debate about birth and health care politics, I was very grateful the producers of that show took us on. Here is my blog post on the actual show, with several letters included that I wrote to Bonnie Erbe shortly after the broadcast.
I first heard about unassisted homebirth when I read Pearl Bucks book The Good Earth when I was a teen. I had the first desire to give birth alone enter my heart while I was in labor with my oldest daughter in 1988.
In 1989 I decided that one day I would join the League of LIBERATED women by giving birth alone.
In 1992 my first attempt at freebirth ended in a c-section at the hospital. I had not told my family what I was planning and hoped to just give birth quickly at home. I had sent my mother the book Emergency Childbirth by Greg White, and asked her to join me in this adventure and she bluntly told me that she was not qualified to help with a home birth. Paul knew I was very interested in giving birth at home, but he was so consumed with fear we could hardly discuss it. Paul was very, very angry at me when he heard about my dream to give birth alone at home when I told him about my plans after the birth. I labored at home for twenty hours, fear overtook my heart and we went to the hospital.
In 1994 my second attempt at freebirth ended after a three day putsy, putsy labor at home, followed by nine more hours of labor in the hospital, an overwhelming three hours of transition, and additional four hours of pushing. That birth was a triumph though because I was able to give birth without any drugs, no episiotomy, and it was a successful VBAC. We had gone back and forth about a homebirth during this birth, but at the time lay midwives were outlawed in Colorado and we felt really nervous to take on a VBAC at home. I stayed home as long as I felt comfortable and was grateful not to have another surgery. Homebirth felt so far out of my grasp at this point, I sometimes felt like giving up my dream to birth alone. After Jeffs birth in 1994 I read Laura Shanleys book Unassisted Childbirth and it refueled my desire for an Unassisted Birth.
In 1996 I gave birth to my fourth child happily at home, after doing my own prenatal care. During this pregnancy I told everyone I was going to have an unassisted home birth, especially my husband and parents. I did not want any confusion on the matter, and felt it was important to stand firm in the truth of my intentions no matter what sort of distress it brought into my life. The distress was overwhelming at times. Andy was a huge 11 pound 12 ounce boy, and just after the birth, my happiness turned to horror as we could not get him to breathe and I bled out 90% of my blood volume.
We both almost died and for many years Paul and I felt that we had been burned by childbirth too many times and did not have the faith to proceed with our goals for a large mormon family. I had two miscarriages during those six years between Andy and Bens pregnancies. I had not lost my faith in Unassisted Husband/Wife Homebirth, during those years I wrote two books on Freebirth, Organized the Second Conference, and happily cheered seven couples on here in Boulder who gave birth perfectly at home alone. Paul and I continued to teach Bradley childbirth classes for a couple more years after Andys birth but I was so busy with four young children we soon made the decision to stop teaching in our home and I moved all of my birth work onto the web to maximize outreach. I also participated in an online forum for mormon women and continued to watch and cheer for my friends as each child entered the world. Paul and I did not know if unassisted homebirth was something that worked in our marriage and for our family, but we were very happy for those couples who had such great success.
During those six years I got into Liver and Gall Bladder Cleansing. I am now convinced that Liver Cleansing is the key to a healthy pregnancy, a great birth with no extra bleeding, and a breastfeeding experience not befuddled by breast infections. To get my breastmilk to flow like thick cream, with easy assimilation of food for both me and my baby, I cleansed and cleansed my liver!
I want to testify that if someone like me who was plagued with mental illness, allergies, asthma, skin problems, and so many seeming birth disasters and problems can overcome those issues and go on to happily and safely birth a child alone after doing my own prenatal care....if I can do it....ANYONE can do it.
The whole point of my web site and blog is to help you along in your quest to overcome your health issues and create a healthy family. Genetics are NOT the only factor in how healthy your children will be. If genetics were the only thing that counted for our family, our children would be a bunch of mentally ill asthmatics with skin problems and chronic fatigue dogging them at every juncture. I am NOT claiming that our children are perfect or that we never get sick. But I can see that our children are so much healthier than any gene pool would ever allow given the various health issues that both Paul and I have struggled with.
Bens birth was such a triumph for us as a couple after so many years of hoping, reading, praying, and trying to make a go of family life. We had felt betrayed by our ideals almost from the first year of our marriage. Me being checked into a mental hospital for post partum psychosis just a few days after our first anniversary (and my 21st birthday) was not exactly our vision of how we had planned to spend our married life with children together.
I love my husband with all of my heart. Here is a video of me singing Eternity is You from the musical My Turn on Earth. This is one of our love songs.
I know that in the pages of my books, this blog, and my various writings on the web I may sound like an egotistical, naval gazing, narcicist. Because of the way free speech works in our country, a person like me can only share my TESTIMONY of how I have healed my body and mind. Were I to make any sort of generalizing claims about healing or regeneration of body, mind, and spirit for other women, I could be open to all sorts of censorship from the FDA and the various regulating medical groups in our society. And so, in my writings I have liberally shared my testimony of how I have healed and renewed my body, mind, and soul, as well as a few testimonials from other families who have done similar things. I believe it is pathetic that Americans have to leave the country in order to have free speech around healing issues. But the powers that be have all of us in a chokehold of control, with a complete lack of debate, and full scale propagandizing of young women in all things chemical when it comes to Mothering.
In this post I would like to share my own Unassisted Birth story of our fifth child. I am so happy for those couples who are able to give birth alone at home with a first baby. You have saved yourselves a boatload of trouble by just getting into this lifestyle at the beginning of your married life. Bens birth was a complete and total triumph over all that we had suffered while welcoming children into our marriage.
I hope that this story inspires you to also grasp your freedom, your sovereignty as a family, and your power as a woman to live the life that you feel will bless your children and your marriage.
I give birth alone because I believe it is best for the baby!
And if we have any more children, I will do my own prenatal care and give birth alone.
Here is my story, I laced it with various unassisted childbirth videos created to help share the good news of Husband Wife Homebirth!
My Unassisted Birth Story
This story is archived at Compleat Mother Magazine and Unassisted Childbirth.com
The full story of Benjamins pregnancy and Birth is found at my web site, The Natural Family Company, and is an E book titled, A Lotus Birth.
I had many contractions during my pregnancy but five days before Ben was born things changed and I had some contractions that came every five minutes that were really hard and opened my cervix enough that I started to pass some mucous plug with lots of bloody show. I was excited and felt happy that after so many years of hoping for another baby, my empty arms would soon be filled.
That afternoon my contractions picked up and I thought I was in true labor. Physically they took all of my energy. Emotionally I found that I had a battle on my hands. The battle can be summed up as a type of spiritual warfare. It was not just my battle. My husband Paul also experienced five days of his own fight. For him, the fears swirled around his issues with the powers that be. We had an unassisted birth six years before that resulted in a transfer to the hospital.
The most critical post birth complications are Baby not breathing and Mom bleeding. With this birth we had both problems crop up, and decided to call 911 for assistance. I am grateful for the help we had after our birth, and for the learning that resulted from not having things go well. Had everything gone perfectly, we would have missed a great opportunity these past six years, the opportunity to learn more. I did much research on bleeding issues and Paul took an infant CPR class. These efforts comforted us and helped us to feel more prepared this time around.
Even with these preparations and our deep religious faith, the five days before Benjamin’s birth was a time of trial. Our faith in natural childbirth and unassisted birth in particular was put to the test.
After the birth Paul said he thought those five days were for him, to battle it out in his mind. To determine the type of life we were going to live, and whether or not we would cave to the pressure – mostly internal pressure (but based upon a fearful reality) to conform to society and live a mainstream life. Or if we were going to overcome our fears of being labeled and/or prosecuted as “medical neglecters” by doctors and social workers and live the life we have felt guided to with home birth, home school and what I term “Family Sovereignty” as the ideal for our family.
Happily our battle resulted in a perfect outcome on all levels; emotionally, spiritually, and even though I had a difficult time physically – I was much more concerned about the long term affects of this birth on my psyche, my marriage, and my relationships than I was on the short term physical pain.
I hope my insights will be helpful to those of you who are preparing for an unassisted birth. We must understand that Laura Shanley is right, and it is our beliefs as mothers that largely affect our birth outcomes. Our husbands and families beliefs also deeply affect us, as well as anyone else we decide to invite into our home to assist us with the labor.
Because I can’t control how others feel about birth and only have control over my own mind, I was drawn to unassisted birth as a means of SAFELY welcoming my children without having to deal with other people’s fears. I felt this negativity during my three hospital births, especially from the medical people around me. I studied Quantum Mechanics in college and didn’t understand why these so called scientists hadn’t embraced these same truths in their physics classes. But perhaps their obstetrical educations had deprived them of the truth surrounding belief.
If I learned nothing else during my first solo birth, I learned that birth for me was easy, unhindered, and smooth when I was alone. (I called Paul up to help me during Andy’s birth in 1996 only after I had pushed out his head).
On Sunday night, October 20th 2002, my contractions completely stopped and we enjoyed a quiet spiritual evening with our older children. We talked to them about birth and told them stories from their own labors that illustrated the true nature of natural childbirth with its many stops and starts. We sang and prayed together and all went to bed excited, but willing to wait.
The next day, I again had a long period of pre-labor that lasted for hours. I passed more mucous plug and felt the contractions really getting strong. It had been a full moon that night and I enjoyed watching the moon go down out of my west facing bedroom window as I contracted in the birth pool during the early morning hours of Monday. I heard the children start to wake up and felt things slow down and then I fell asleep in the water. When I woke up everything had stopped.
That day I went about my normal routine but Paul decided to work from home. He ended up working from home all week. This was one of the happiest weeks we have ever had. We decided to let the children take the week off from schoolwork and spent hours playing at the park, walking, and cooking/eating together. On Monday night I walked to my exercise class and as soon as I sat down on my mat, my water broke. It was all over my pants and the mat, and I decided to go home. Once home, I again felt excitement/nervousness that my baby would mostly likely come soon. None of my previous labors had started with the water breaking and so this was new for us.
I was surprised how much fluid spilled out of me over the next 72 hours. It was a lightly tinged green color and smelled alive, like a fresh rain on autumn leaves. I noticed that each time I ate, drank, or walked the fluid came out in a gush. I used cloth diapers to catch it and was really surprised that my body could leak so much without going into labor. I mourned the loss of my water birth. With the membranes ruptured and water leaking all over the place I knew it would not be wise to get into the pool. I really focused on staying well hydrated, nourished, upbeat, and rested. I also asked my doula to come give me a few massages and bring me wheat grass juice. I used the juice to help keep my blood clean, hematocrit up, and to nourish the baby.
My daughters gave me a raindrop therapy each of those three days. (If you want to order the raindrop therapy kit go to http://www.youngliving.us and use my member number 29526 to get this fabulous aromatherapy kit!) This is an essential oil treatment that is an overall boost to the body. I did it to help prevent infection and to give me energy. We made the decision not to tell anyone that my water had broken. We told the kids, but asked them not to share the news, and they didn’t.
I had a few contractions but nothing regular for the three days my water was broken and that was a blessing as the uterine activity of Sunday had really tired me out. I took lots of naps and spent most of my emotional energy working on my thoughts, keeping them pure. It was very powerful for me to run the lyrics to some of my favorite songs through my mind. I will share the words from one of these songs. The music helped me to stay focused on my child and not get lost in fear, the greatest of which was the fear of a prolapsed cord.
Paper Dream - Reprise 2 (From the musical Saturday’s Warrior)
I take some paper in my hand, and with a pencil draw a man,
The dream of what I’d really, really like to be.
A man with courage in his brow, whose licked his doubts and fears somehow,
A Warrior of great nobility.
But who am I? Just a wandering kid, a cipher on the wall,
Not even brave at all.
And where’s my dream like his that I would fight for?
And where’s my cause like his that I would die for?
But still the paper’s in my hand and every day I sketch the man,
The dream of what I’d really like to be.
A man with courage in his brow, whose licked his doubts and fears somehow.
A Warrior of great nobility.
A brave and noble fiery youth, who’s not afraid to die for truth
Whose tall and straight but best of all he’s free,
He’s free.
I ran the words to this song through my mind a hundred times over those three days, and each time they gave me strength and courage. I also sang hymns, quoted myself scripture and belief suggestions and realized that during this time it was crucial that I stay mindful of my thoughts every waking moment. Each time the fear would come into my heart; fear of infection, fear that I would never go into labor, fear of prolapsed cord, and fear of someone learning that my water had broken and might try to convince me or force me to be induced, I would just switch the negative thoughts to positive and run the words through my mind, usually the words to the above quoted song. A few times I went down to my piano and played the music of this song, and each time I started to cry as I thought of my warrior son who was soon to be born. It was a comfort to me to cook and clean and stay focused on my housework as a way to distract myself from the reality of the situation. (Two full weeks overdue and water broken) The day before I went into labor I found myself cleaning under my stove and scrubbing it all over. I thought about deep cleaning my oven, but I decided to save that task for another day.
The day I went into labor was just a normal day. I went for a walk, had a massage, tended my nephew and cooked and cleaned. We took a few pictures and my visiting teachers stopped by. About 5PM I came downstairs to make a milk shake with calcium/magnesium and minerals and then I decided to check my emails. I was writing to my friend Veronika Robinson when contractions really picked up. As I typed out my email to her, I told her I thought I might be going into real labor, and once finished I headed upstairs to my bed. I laid down in a semi reclining position with lots of pillows supporting my back, my arms and legs. I contracted for two hours with little noise, but as things picked up in intensity, I started to vocalize loudly. As the contraction would start I would start a low moan that gradually became a loud AHHHHHHHHH! This very effectively moved all of the energy in my uterus up out of my body through my mouth and made it so I was able to handle the first five hours of this six hour labor very effectively on my own.
Paul and the children were in and out of the room a few times asking me if I thought this was really it, I was in my own space and was rather vague about my progression. Paul did bring me a couple of hot, wet cloth diapers to place on my bottom and I used my oils; Gentle baby, Valor, Panaway, and Myrrh to help my body stretch and prepare.
At one point I was all alone as Paul had fallen asleep in the children’s room on the floor while reading them stories, and one by one they also fell asleep. I used the toilet a few times to keep my bladder empty but always returned to my position on my back on the bed. At one point I sang the song When you Believe from the Prince of Egypt out loud. I had chosen this song to be the theme song of the Unassisted Childbirth movement back in 1998. The words are perfect, powerful and were a great strength to me as I approached transition. I was battling a fear that one of the reasons I bled so bad with my last birth was because I had squatted during pushing, and so I was determined to push the baby out on my bed in the semi reclining position. I continued to gush amniotic fluid during the labor and focused on staying well hydrated with a water bottle by my side.
During transition, which only lasted a few minutes, the contractions were one on top of the other and I was VERY loud with my vocalizing. Paul woke up during this time and came in and asked me how things were going. He wanted to know if he could do anything to help and I asked him to sing me hymns. So he sat down on my rocking chair and pulled out the hymnbook and started singing. He sang for the first hour of my pushing. I cannot emphasize enough how powerful an activity this was. It had the combined effect of inviting the spirit of the Lord into our home and calming my spirit. Paul sang When faith endures, which was the hymn that I had chosen to be the theme of our 2001 Unassisted Childbirth conference….
I will not doubt, I will not fear. God’s love and strength are always near.
His promised gift helps me to find, and inner strength and peace of mind.
I give the father willingly, my trust, my prayers, humility.
His spirit guides, his love assures that fear departs when faith endures.
I was starting to get tired after an hour of pushing on the bed and I prayed and asked God which position would be best for me to effectively push the baby out. I felt that I should stand and squat during my contractions. In prayer I expressed my fear of bleeding and I felt a calm assurance that I would not bleed too much. So I stood up. As the next contraction came on I squatted down deeply by my bed and pushed! I felt the baby inch slowly down with each push. In between contractions I sat on my birthing ball and rested. As his head moved down, I felt an increasing pain in my back, hips and pelvis. I have had three painless vaginal births and so this was new for me. I have determined that the difference was pushing with the water bag intact compared to not having much water gushing along with that fifteen inch head. It was like birthing a brick. As his head worked it’s way down I felt so much pain I wondered if I could do it. Never did I even consider going to the hospital or using drugs, but I did have a few moments of self doubt, wondering how big the baby was, and what if it was breech or posterior? I continued to have the fear of a prolapsed cord and as this fear worked in me, I just felt determined to get my child born.
I pushed with everything I had using the Bradley technique of breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out and then deep breath in…put chin on chest, hold breath and PUSH!! It was very effective combined with the full squat. During the last few contractions I felt this heat overtake my body and sweat was just pouring off me. I asked Paul to turn on the ceiling fan and then he poured water all over my head and back. I told him to put some panaway on my back and he tossed about 30 drops of it all over my back and hips. Then he rubbed my lower back during the contractions in a very effective counter pressure. It didn’t take the pain away but it did make it possible for me to do it. On the third to last contraction I felt Ben’s head all of a sudden move in a big way through the birth canal and I reached down and felt his head crowning. I was concerned about tearing, and thought about asking for a hot compress, but decided I wanted Paul behind me ready to catch rather than in the bathroom getting me a cloth. Paul pulled out the bulb syringe and prepared himself.
With the second to last contraction I pushed out his head, and then with the final out came his body. These contractions were closer together and he was born quickly from the time he crowned. Paul sucked out his nose and mouth before he was completely born and then caught him. As he passed Ben to me through my legs I turned to look at him and saw him leaping for joy. I have heard of many men fainting in the delivery room, or having a fear of fainting while their wives give birth, but I have never heard of a father jumping for JOY when the baby is safely born. Paul did and it is my favorite memory of the birth.
I passed the placenta within fifteen minutes with a large plop, and then bled a little. We used prayer and blessings during this time to help with my pain and various post birth symptoms. The children started to wake up, and one by one they came into our bedroom. We took many pictures and had a joyful three hours bonding with our 9 and ½ pound boy. Then the children all went back to bed and Paul and I fell asleep on our bed with Benjamin nestled on his chest.
After our wedding day, this day was the happiest, most fulfilling day of our life!
Jenny and Laura Shanley in 2007
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 5:26 AM
October 11, 2007
La Leche League: Modest Breastfeeding
"I decided, with not much surprise, that I would only be comfortable breastfeeding around my husband, mother, and sisters. That was where I would draw the line. I resigned myself to the fact that any visitors to our home during feeding time would not be entertained until breastfeeding had finished. I would have to excuse myself to the bedroom for mother and baby time.
Since my comfort zone for breastfeeding my child would be limited to my immediate family, this would mean I would be restricted to few public engagements after the baby arrived. I knew I would be comfortable breastfeeding in my home and my parents' home, but definitely not in public. I decided that family parties, long shopping trips, and vacations were out of the question.
Although I was certain about my pre-baby decisions, I discovered that I actually loosened up a little after Madeline arrived. I discovered I could be a little more flexible. I found I was comfortable breastfeeding in the new mothers' room at the local baby superstore. I nursed in a friend's bedroom during a huge housewarming party. I even nursed in front of my husband's best friend. I'll admit I never did reach a comfort level to breastfeed at the mall, in front of my in-laws, or during trips to the park. I didn't take many trips outside of my home and my social engagements were limited. I was still rather conservative but much braver and open about my inhibitions than I thought I could be. Having a child changed the way I thought about my breasts. Why? Maybe it was all the poking and prodding they did at the hospital, the hospital gowns that left little to the imagination, reading every written piece about breastfeeding I could find, or quizzing my friends about breastfeeding.
Maybe it was the realization that my breasts were not sex objects but rather a source of food and comfort for my baby. And certainly, it was becoming a mother and doing what I felt was best for my baby. I let go and let love happen and everything else fell into place."
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 9:03 PM
General Conference: Archive of talks in various languages
Go Here to see the General Conference Archive.
Links to my favorite speakers:
Julie Beck: Mothers who Know
I put Sister Becks talk (the mp3) into a montage of photos and video. Her words just melted my heart and made me resolve to do better. This morning I went to story time at the library with my friends and then we had a wonderful picnic at the park, and as we were talking, all of the moms who heard her speak agreed that she spoke to our hearts.
And my second favorite speaker:
Jeffrey Holland: The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent
UPDATE:
Here is the video I took of our park day. I also included some photos that I took during the early weeks of October 2007, and finished up the montage with a video of me singing The Greatest Love. Enjoy!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:45 PM
Whole Wheat, Flax, and Fennel Waffles
This morning I made a video demonstrating how to make Whole Wheat Waffles.
Here is the recipe:
2 Cups FG (Fresh Ground) Whole Red Wheat
2 tsp (FG) Brown Flax
1/2 tsp Whole (FG) Fennel
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
3 tsp brown sugar
1 cup milk
4 eggs (seperate the whites from the yolks)
1/4 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
After everyone ate, I asked for testimonials about this new recipe with ground fennel. Allison spoke up while we were eating and said, "Mom, did you put fennel in the waffles?" Then like dominos falling, the boys all started moaning about fennel in the waffles. Frankly, I could not even taste the fennel, and Paul gave his two cents at the end of the video. Shelly liked them, and so did Andy, but I felt basically, like it was not a good idea. I like to have everyone rave about my food when I put so much effort into it, and sometimes, even one naysayer is enough to make me pull back and not experiment with recipes. I know the tried and true meals that my family loves and everyone will eat, and they number at about five. Mac and Cheese, Pizza, cold cereal, potato chips, and bagels with cream cheese. Oh, and ice cream.
Anything else, and somebody is complaining. I guess this is just part of motherhood in 21st century, manna from heaven, never been hungry a day in their lives, Americana.
It would be nice to have a little more appreciation and a little less complaining.
Brats.
Here is a picture of the plates after everyone was finished. Wasted food just sickens me.
But I'll keep plugging along.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:26 PM
Current Birth Stats, The Business of Being Born, and CYTOTEC DANGER!!!
Preliminary Birth Data from the CDC for 2006.
Birth Report by States: Table D has all of the various section rates for 2005 and 2006
2005 Final Report Birth Stats from the CDC! C-Section rate at an all time high.
I was able to watch Rikki Lakes The Business of Being Born recently and strongly recomend every birthing mother watch it with her partner. Variety Review of the Movie.
More information about Cytotec. Read the comments attached to this post as well. Really good information.
PS Cytotec is in fact the standard of care in terms of inductions in the hospital.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:19 PM
True Face of Birth Breastfeeding Art
These pictures are simply beautiful.
I have several pictures of me nursing my babies on my blog and web site. I purposefully put those pictures into my montages because I believe these images are important in the public airwaves to normalize breastfeeding, and get our young people used to seeing breasts function as nature intended.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:16 PM
Weekly Standard: The Stab that failed
The Stab That Failed
The congressional Democrats' surge-against-the-surge -- a case study in political futility.
by Noemie Emery
"Eagerly anticipating the defeat in Iraq to which they are so much attached, some on the left have also been preparing for another contingency: the assault that they think they see coming, a drive to pin the whole wretched failure on them. Apparently, this will be "stab in the back" redux, a new iteration of the theme deployed so successfully in interwar Germany by a resourceful, ambitious Austrian corporal, who managed to propel his rise to power with the claim that World War I would have been won by his country, if not for sinister forces at home. Then, it was subversion by Jews and other disloyal elements. This time, in the left's imagining, the blame will fall on the press and the Democrats who, by pulling the plug at just the wrong moment, caused the loss of Iraq. "Nobody I know in a rational condition believes that the United States is going to have any kind of a military victory," Mark Shields said in August. "So the idea is going to be, 'We were on the cusp of victory and the rug was pulled out from under us by these willy-nilly, weak-kneed, nervous Nellies back home.
The problem with this is (1) that we may really win, and have no failure to blame upon anyone, and (2) that the nervous Nellies really did try to keep us from winning, indeed fought fang and claw to derail our best efforts. If they had had their way, Iraq would still be the quagmire they are so fond of invoking, and the United States--or George W. Bush, which may be the more relevant factor--would have incurred a definitive and, at least in his case, legacy-blasting defeat. It is unfair of course to call this a stab in the back, as the Democrats have been engagingly open about their intentions.
In the course of the past year, they have gone from attacking a plan that had not been effective to attacking one that hadn't been tried yet, to attacking one that exceeded all expectations, while in the process ignoring reality, slandering a commanding general, and denying American forces in battle due credit for what they had done. If not backstabbing as such (see above), it is diverting enough a spectacle to merit a replay. Let us look back at this last year of battle and see how the story played out.
When our tale opens, it is the last month of 2006, Democrats have just scored a blowout in Congress, Iraq is in shambles, and the country is calling for Bush to change course. He does. But he changes course in the other direction, radically revising his Iraq strategy, adopting aggressive new rules of engagement, and sending in 30,000 more troops. Even before the plan was announced to the public on January 10, 2007, Democrats launched their assault. Senator Christopher Dodd declared the plan useless: "A 'surge' of American troops will do nothing." Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrats in the new Congress, released an open letter to Bush on January 5, decrying his redoubled effort as futile: "Surging forces is a strategy that you have already tried, and that has already failed." The surge was "a sad, ominous echo of something we've lived through in this country," according to Illinois senator Richard Durbin. "I'm confident it will not work," said John Kerry at a Senate hearing, a sentiment echoed by Barack Obama. "Verdict first, trial afterwards," said the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, unaware of her future as a role model for America's congressional Democrats. And then it really got strange.
"....For the first time, even reporters were starting to -giggle. Doubtless this has to do with new polling data, which show views on the war ticking upward from the disastrous nadir of early this year. Though the successes have been underreported, a Pew Research Poll found that 44 percent of Americans think the war is going "very" or "fairly" well, while a CBS poll found the number of Democrats thinking the war was going "very badly" had fallen 12 points (to 45 percent) over three months. According to Charles Franklin, a nonpartisan pollster, "Republicans (including the president) have made real progress in swaying opinion to their side, while 10 months of Democratic efforts have failed to persuade citizens that the war continues to be a disaster. The war of partisan persuasion has tilted towards Republicans and away from the Democrats, at least in this particular aspect," he said on his blog.
Denying reality is seldom sound politics. President Bush is still suffering from the aftereffects of the reality gap of 2006, when he insisted, in the face of mounds of contrary evidence, that things were improving in Iraq when it was clear they were not. The Democrats are now doing the same thing in reverse, closing their minds to all news that is not catastrophic, or, on the rare occasions they admit to a small sign of progress, denying all credit to our strategy, to our leaders, or, worst of all, to our troops. Perhaps what the Democrats really want is for the surge to succeed, but to appear to be failing, at least until the 2008 elections are over. But this seems a fairly hard thing to explain to the public.
As they took control of Congress at the start of 2007, the Democrats vowed this would be a year of historic importance, and it seems they were prescient: Seldom before in the annals of governance have so many politicians fought so long and so hard to completely screw up a winning strategy being waged on their country's behalf. Some cruelly define this as treacherous conduct, but this is imprecise and unkind. They tried, it is true, to do serious damage, but were compromised in the event by their chronic incompetence, as well as by being too above-board and open to try to do things on the sly. A stab in the back as a concept was wholly beyond their capacities. This was not a stab in the back that works via guile and subterfuge. It was 41 different stabs in the front, that always fell far short of serious damage, unless you count the damage they did to their own reputations (the approval ratings for Congress are now in the twenties). It was the Stab in the Front, the Surge-against-the-Surge, the Pickett's Charge of the Great War on Terror. It was a year to remember, that will live in the annals of fecklessness. It was historical. It was hysterical. It was the Stab that Failed."
A nice overview of the whole big shootin match this past year.
But I still think my take on things is more fun to watch:
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:12 PM
October 10, 2007
Unassisted Homebirth Pioneer Lynn Griesemer on PBS
Childbirth author Lynn M. Griesemer will be featured on PBS's TO THE CONTRARY during the week of October 19th. TO THE CONTRARY, carried on 260 stations across the U.S. is viewed by over 1 million people. The topic will be childbirth / unassisted homebirth.
Lynn recently released the first motivational childbirth CD: YOUR BODY, YOUR BIRTH: SECRETS FOR A SATISFYING AND SUCCESSFUL BIRTH. Endorsed by many prominent people in the childbirth field, this CD may prove to be the most important CD for women in their childbearing years.
"I created this CD because women are not happy with their birth experiences and there is very little encouragement and inspiration for pregnant women. Instead, family and friends focus on two superficial questions: 'When is the due date and do you know what you're having?'"
Visit her website for testimonies, an important audio message and 2 secrets for a safe and successful childbirth experience.
Here is the link to the To The Contrary PBS Show.
Lynn has been a good friend of mine for the past ten years. Her writing style is clear and concise, and her CD is an exellent preparation for childbirth. She helps you think about and consider many facets of hospital birthing that you may have never thought were important.
I strongly endorse her materials.
UPDATE:
Here is Laura Shanleys blog response to the show on PBS
The Pod Cast of the Freebirth discussion
And Rixa at the True Face of Birth Blog has the transcript: Go Here
Rixas comments are all keepers: Here are my two favorites:
"Megan said...
I think part of the problem was that Lynn did take a "romanticized" tack when entering this "debate." Doctors don't want to hear about the spiritual and sexual nature of birth, they never have. Instead if she had focused on safety, rather than adding it as a footnote the debate might have gone differently. She certainly, could have (and should have imo), interjected when they were talking about moms and babies dying in droves about doctors not even washing their hands and being the cause of most of those deaths.
All of that said, I'd really suck in a debate. It is easier to sit back and criticize, so I really do appreciate Lynn having the ovaries to get out there and do it."
Laura Shanley said...
"As Rixa said, it was heavily edited. Lynn was interviewed by someone who never appeared on camera. Her nearly 30 minute interview was cut to under 3 minutes. She never met the panelists. Lynn was interviewed first and they commented on her interview (I believe) several weeks later. So it wasn't a debate by any means. She had no chance to respond to their comments. This doesn't seem fair to me at all, but I'm still pleased to see anyone on American TV dealing with UC."
Here are the three letters I wrote to Bonnie Erbe.
One was written before the show aired, the second was written after watching it five times, and the third was written three days later after I had more time to think about it.
Third Letter:
To Bonnie Erbe,
I have been thinking about a couple more things related to your unassisted childbirth segment and wanted to share these thoughts in one final email.
First, Dr. Healey made the claim that only experienced mothers who have given birth many times before are having UCs. Here is a thread on Mothering where several women share birth stories about first births that were planned freebirths.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=771592
One of my dear friends up in Canada, Mary Seiver, gave birth to all three of her children unassisted, even her first baby.
http://www.hotpepper.ca/family/mary/
Second, on the mothering UC discussion board http://www.mothering.com/discussions/forumdisplay.php?f=306
(one of the only public uc chat rooms on the web), the moms basically thought your panel stunk.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=774609
I don't participate on that board because as a neo-con politically, I was heckling the liberals too much and was permanently banned.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=175142
This midwife also thought your panel was clueless about birthing politics:
http://sagefemme.blogspot.com/2007/10/to-contrary.html
In July I wrote a blog post to doctors telling them to mind their own business. Four obstetrics societies had made public statements condemning Unassisted Birth.
http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/000944.html
These pompous elites sent out their edicts to the press, yet show no willingness to reform themselves or the practice of obstetrics.
I said in that post:
"And in a recent article in the Denver Westword Newspaper (I was interviewed for this story)
A Spokesperson for ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) claimed freebirth was "dangerous".
Baby's Day Out
Childbirth goes solo.
By Jared Jacang Maher
Published: May 10, 2007
"According to the guidelines of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the organization "strongly opposes" any birth not performed inside a hospital. A spokesman for the ACOG has a one-word assessment of freebirth: "dangerous."
I have just one message for these doctors, and it is this:
Physician, heal thyself
"The moral of the proverb is counsel to prove your trustworthiness with your own affairs before attempting to tell others what they should do."
When the various obstetrics societies PROVE that they have the will to reform themselves internally by setting up standards of care that are more about the mother and the baby than they are about the doctor and staff at the hospital, then I will feel more open about listening to any edicts they have about my lifestyle.
Hey Doctors: why don't you set some goals....
1. No inductions before 41 weeks
2. 10% C-section rate
3. No elective C-sections
4. Full acceptance of Lay and Nurse Midwifery both in the home and at the hospital
5. A Complete and total acceptance of VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean)
6. A willingness to embrace proper prenatal nutrition as the foundation for a healthy pregnancy as outlined by the Brewer Pregnancy Diet
When society stops locking up our midwives for bogus reasons, embrace and promote natural mothering as the IDEAL for a new baby (Natural Childbirth, Attachment Parenting, and Long Term Ecological Breastfeeding), then I will believe you have found your soul as doctors."
Now Bonnie, over the next ten years while you watch the infant mortality rate continue to climb, and the prematurity rate skyrocket, and the maternal morbidity rate read like a horror story http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/MaternalInfantHealth/ManageCare.htm
And everyone is standing around scratching their heads wondering what is going on with all these deaths, disfigurements, and sickness around birth, just remember these three emails and how I tried to share WHY we mothers have completely divorced ourselves from the birth machine.
Some investigations have shown that the c-section rate is grossly under reported:
http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/001194.html
And so is the maternal mortality rate:
http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/001109.html
If as a woman you are concerned about mothers and womans issues, this topic HAS to be covered in much more depth.
Several recent changes have made birth in American Hospitals MUCH more dangerous to the mother and the baby.
First is the banning of VBAC all over the country. http://www.vbac.com/pdfs/ICANrecordhughcesareanrates.pdf
Second, Cytotec has been made the standard of care for inductions:
http://womenshealthnews.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/ina-may-gaskin-speaks-out-on-cytotec-induction-of-birth/
Third, hospitals are opening up larger and larger NICUs in hospitals all over the world.
Instead of promoting proper prenatal nutrition as the ideal way to PREVENT preemie and low birth weight babies, all of the money and focus is going into these NICU's where dollar is king and the baby is tortured for weeks and months on end, while it would have done so much better in a properly hydrated and nourished womb.
http://www.blueribbonbaby.org/
I really don't have anything else to say. I pray though that you will take the time to do some in depth research and then allow us to make our case on your show.
As a society we could prevent many of the problems and financial difficulties that families face if holistic mothering was adopted and promoted as the ideal for family life. But dangit, nobody would make any money off of that!
Thanks again for doing the segment, overall we are very grateful to have any television coverage, even if your panel was clueless about us and our goals and intentions for family life.
Jenny Hatch
WWW.NaturalFamilyBLOG.com
First Letter:
To Bonnie Erbe:
I have been so grateful that To the Contrary is going to discuss the subject of Unassisted Homebirth.
As a mother interested in this type of birth since 1989, I worked for eight years as a Bradley Childbirth teacher, wrote three books on natural mothering, and organized our second homebirth conference held in Boulder Colorado in 2001. (Lynn Griesemer who was interviewed for your segment organized the first conference).
My question is, what sort of natural mothering credentials do your panelists this week have to intelligently discuss our movement?
I would be willing to appear on your show so that someone who is completely vested in this type of mothering is heard. Those of us actively promoting home birth on the internet have been somwhat frustrated that the media has largely ignored the great success of this type of birth. Recent print stories have tended to hype potential risks, but most women living this lifestyle are happily giving birth to baby after baby with no problems whatsoever.
My best friend Susan Baig is expecting her seventh child in a few months, and is planning an unassisted birth after doing her own prenatal care. http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/000781.html
She has also written extensively and this will be her fourth unassisted birth.
It is easy to dismiss us as a bunch of extremist nuts, but we have intelligently scrutinized what is happening in American Hospitals and thoughtfully said to the medical machine, "No Thanks!".
My fifth child was born perfectly at home after I did my own prenatal care. Here is a link to my birth story, http://www.compleatmother.com/homebirth/jennyhatch.htm
Again, why not have one or two of us on to discuss this with your panel. Do any of them know a woman who has given birth this way? Do any of them understand the many dimensions of this movement and what is fueling it? I have known dozens and dozens of families who have given birth at home alone.
And I have been carefully keeping track of all of the online debates on my blog:
http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/cat_diy_homebirth_debate.html
Please, take the time to do the story justice. Mothers and babies are needlessly dying in the hospital because of current medical dogma. The maternal mortality rate went up for the first time in decades. I was NOT surprised.
Freebirth is the answer for so many of the families who are completely frustrated by a lack of choice for birth.
Jenny Hatch Mother of five and Birth Activist
Second letter:
To Bonnie Erbe,
I watched the Unassisted Homebirth segment early this morning (It's on in Denver at 3:30 am every monday morning????), and rewound it four times just to make sure I heard all of the discussion clearly.
Your panel had absolutely no idea what they were talking about in responding to us and our movement, and I was highly distressed that we were summed up as wanting to move backwards to the 1800's, were selfish, and not good mothers because we obviously were not thinking about the well being of our children.
Each point deserves a full rebuttal and if you really want to go in depth with this topic, and understand WHY our movement is growing by leaps and bounds all over the world, PLEASE do another segment and give it some real depth by having one of us on as a panelist so we can answer the charges as stated.
Husband/Wife homebirth is a quantum leap forward in terms of understanding the facts of childbirth.
Fact is, childbirth is orgasmic, and is greatly enhanced by the same situations that allow women to experience orgasm while having sex. Privacy and being alone with a lover enable the child to be easily born.
http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/sensual/orgasmic.html
Fact is that hospital birth disrupts proper hormonal connectedness between mother and baby at every juncture.
I wrote this post in a debate held at the tilted forum project. It covers all of the hormonal realities as documented by science:
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showpost.php?p=2274831&postcount=206
Fact is that when the hormonal realities are honored and even encouraged, babies are born easily in ecstatic orgasmic joy, are able to latch on to the breast, which helps to expel the placenta in the most efficient way, and the sucking action of the baby nursing clamps down the uterus (far superior to any drug), and the possibility of post partum hemorhage is greatly reduced by these hormonal realities being supported.
After I gave birth to my third child in the hospital, I vowed "never again".
I had to fight for the right to give birth holistically, even going so far as to fire my female doctor who was threatening me and bullying me to let her break my water and speed my son out. Shortly after nursing him for a few minutes they took him away from me for that first crucial hour, and I had to beg to be allowed to hold him and nurse him for the 24 hours we stayed in the hospital after the birth. The emotional draining that took place during that whole experience taught me that certain hospital protocols are damaging to the mother/child bond, and it has only gotten worse in the thirteen years since he was born.
With certain OB's calling for a 100% c-section rate, I think we can safely say the profession has collectively lost its mind.
And for your panelists who would call freebirthers selfish, does anything believe that a mother who uses as many drugs as the docs will allow is thinking about what is best for her child, or is she selfishly thinking only of her own discomfort?
And for those few women who choose to have an elective c-section, for whatever reason, (most common reason is the ease of scheduling a surgery as opposed to patiently waiting for the child to finish properly gestating), again, is the mother making that decision based on what is best for the child, or what is best for her? The selfishness claims can be fully flung back at those mothers tisk tisking about freebirth.
I give birth alone because my education has taught me that it is BEST FOR THE BABY!!!
Please take the time to do another show and let our voices be heard!
We have been so thrilled that you took on the topic. But give us equal time to defend our positions. As far as I know, you are the first television show to do a segment on us and I have to praise and thank you for that. But again, please let us properly defend ourselves to these charges.
The maternal mortality rate is going UP, and there is a logical, even predictable reason for why that is the case. Please, for the sake of women and babies who would be just fine at home, take the time to do this story right.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=47116
More surgery means more dead mothers and babys. We are the backlash to all of that cutting and drugging, and if we don't take the time to educate our young mothers with the facts of birth, the profession of obstetrics will take away all of our rights of self determination, and no one will be able to stop them. They have way too much power, money, and public support.
I gave birth to my fifth child standing up in the Yoga Goddess position, and it was the most empowering moment of my life. When I think about the women who are being cut up and then stapled back together and never get to even see the babe until it is hours or days old, and juxtipose that with the potential of an orgasmic couples birth taking place in the sanctity of their little home, I just feel nauseated by the reality of where we are as a society.
There is a reason why we call that abomination birth rape.
We are on a trajectory as a society, and until we pull back and really analyze what is happening to mothers and children, until we fix the birth machine and make it more holistic, the trauma and shock that happens during birth is going to ripple out into our society like a tidal wave of dysfunction and fragmentation.
I have spent the past 18 years talking to women. The trauma just continues to increase. I believe we have some real answers for horrible realities around birth.
Jenny Hatch
WWW.NaturalFamilyco.com
And a nice response from To the Contrary:
October 23, 2007
Dear Jenny,
Thank you for you response to our show. I have forwarded your email to Bonnie Erbe and to the producer of our show.
Michelle Anderson
To The Contrary
And FYI: Here is a synopsis of Rikki Lake on the View sharing the details of her homebirth and the documentary she made about it.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 3:32 PM
Provident Living: Strengthening the Family, A resource guide for parents
Go here to read about this new course for families.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 3:08 PM
WaPo: Smile, though your head is aching....Nancy Pelosi is sick of Code Pink
Code Pink is organized by a bunch of revolutionary communist warmongers:
"I had, for five months, people sitting outside my home, going into my garden in San Francisco, angering neighbors, hanging their clothes from trees, building all kinds of things -- Buddhas? I don't know what they were -- couches, sofas, chairs, permanent living facilities on my front sidewalk."
Unsmilingly, she continued: "If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering, but because they have 'Impeach Bush' across their chest, it's the First Amendment."
...It seemed that only the antiwar advocates had the power to wipe the smile off Pelosi's face. Speaking about ethics legislation, she boasted that "we have drained the swamp" in Congress and pleased government watchdog groups. "At last," she added, "some advocates from the outside who are satisfied."
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 2:57 PM
Performance Class: Lauren
My friend Lauren sang three pieces for our class. Here are all three of them.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 2:21 PM
A Window to his Love
Here is my final performance from our Classical Mothers of Boulder County Performance Class.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 2:08 PM
Don Feder: 10 impossible things liberals believe before breakfast
Here are 10 impossible things liberals believe before breakfast - and for the rest of the day.
1. Conflicts are due to misunderstandings. This principle is starkly illustrated by celebrity-cum-political thinker Rosie O'Donnell's comment on The View: "Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers." (Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels -- a man to be feared -- was the father of six. Ma Barker - well, you get the idea.)
In the liberal weltanschauung, folks are folks. Conflict is due to our failure to understand the terrorists, who want the same things we want. (Haven't we all had the urge to blow up a 747 in mid-flight?) We should take all of the money in the defense budget and the Department of Homeland Security and put it into a massive PR campaign to help Jihad International understand us, and to educate ourselves about the hopes and dreams of those who cut off the heads of hostages and engage in "honor killing."
This impossible idea is rooted in the unshakable belief that there is no evil in the world -- that rape, serial killing, genocide and Hillary are due to psychological abnormalities or a failure to socialize the young.
Whenever some monster does something atrocious to Americans, the first question liberals ask is: What did we do that caused them to misunderstand us so?
The liberal attitude toward looming annihilation may be seen in the character of President Whitmore in the 1996 movie, "Independence Day." Encountering a captured alien in Area 51, Whitmore first pleads for a truce (can't we all just learn to get along). The alien, whose race has just blown up half the Earth, chillingly replies "No truce." In desperation, Whitmore asks, "What do you want us to do?" The alien responds, "Die." After the visitor from another planet tries to kill him telepathically, Whitmore orders the brass, "Nuke the bastards!" - making the fastest transition on record from liberal to conservative.
The terrorists understand us all too well. They know we choose freedom over slavery. They know that we won't convert to their dark-ages religion. Hence, they want us to die."
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 1:56 PM
Wall Street Journal and Free Republic: Capitalist Hero Ayn Rand
Here is a link to the chat at Free Republic about Ayn Rands fiftieth anniversary of Atlas Shrugged.
And the original article at the Wall Street Journal: (Members only to read the whole thing)
QUOTE:
Businessmen are favorite villains in popular media, routinely featured as polluters, crooks and murderers in network TV dramas and first-run movies, not to mention novels. Oil company CEOs are hauled before congressional committees whenever fuel prices rise, to be harangued and publicly shamed for the sin of high profits. Genuine cases of wrongdoing like Enron set off witch hunts that drag in prominent achievers like Frank Quattrone and Martha Stewart.
By contrast, the heroes in "Atlas Shrugged" are businessmen -- and women. Rand imbues them with heroic, larger-than-life stature in the Romantic mold, for their courage, integrity and ability to create wealth. They are not the exploiters but the exploited: victims of parasites and predators who want to wrap the producers in regulatory chains and expropriate their wealth.
Rand's perspective is a welcome relief to people who more often see themselves portrayed as the bad guys, and so it is no wonder it has such enthusiastic fans in the upper echelons of business as Ed Snider (Comcast Spectacor, Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers), Fred Smith (Federal Express), John Mackey (Whole Foods), John A. Allison (BB&T), and Kevin O'Connor (DoubleClick) -- not to mention thousands of others who pursue careers at every level in the private sector.
Yet the deeper reasons why the novel has proved so enduringly popular have to do with Rand's moral defense of business and capitalism. Rejecting the centuries-old, and still conventional, piety that production and trade are just "materialistic," she eloquently portrayed the spiritual heart of wealth creation through the lives of the characters now well known to many millions of readers.
Jenny Hatch
More at Michelle Malkin:
Here is Michelle Malkins overview of Atlas Shrugged, one of my favorite novels.
"Capitalism unleashed an extraordinary burst of scientific and technological innovation and of human creativity–yet this had largely gone unrecognized as a phenomenon with any moral or intellectual significance. Ayn Rand was the first to celebrate the accomplishments of the James Watts and Andrew Carnegies and Thomas Edisons and to recognize in their productive energies an example of moral heroism."
I loved this book, because reading it on the heels of being brainwashed in Socialism during my public school incarceration in the Michigan public schools during the hey day of the 70's and 80's and surrounded by classmates whose parents were constantly being spoon fed the cult of victimization by the various Unions tied to the car companies, it was like fresh spring rain on a parched earth to read her words of moral clarity and feel the passion for individuality and the power of one that objectivism encapsulates.
Reading The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged the spring of my senior year in high school was a spring board to adult life and a great balancing power in my mind as I tried to sort out the various ideologies I was being fed by the adults in my life up to that point.
I have large versions of each waiting on bookshelves in my home for my children to discover. Michelle tried reading The Fountainhead last year, but she was not ready for it yet.
I look forward to having many long conversations with my children in future years about the philosophy behind these books.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 12:57 PM
Forbes: Worst Jobs for the 21st Century
QUOTE:
"Health care, education and financial services--if you're looking for work in the coming decades, these are the fields to get into."
"What to avoid? The usual suspects. According to the projections by the U.S. government, manufacturing jobs are expected to decline by more than 5% by 2014 as production moves overseas. Same goes for textile workers, such as sewing machine operators, who will see a 36% drop in employment. Technology will kill off more office positions, such as file clerks. They'll see a 36% drop in their ranks by 2014. Digital cameras will zap the manual photo processing industry by about 30%. And that guy who comes around to read your electric meter? Expect to see a lot less of him, too.
But these are the obvious victims as the U.S. moves from a goods-producing economy to a services-producing economy. More interesting are the jobs that are likely to experience slower than average growth (average being about 13%). This is where the surprises are."
"...Another endangered species: journalists. Despite the proliferation of media outlets, newspapers, where the bulk of U.S. reporters work, will cut costs and jobs as the Internet replaces print. While current events will always need to be covered (we hope), the number of reporting positions is expected to grow by just 5% in the coming decade, the Labor Department says. Most jobs will be in small (read: low-paying) markets."
Watching old media die is still my favorite blood sport.....
hee hee heh
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 12:47 PM
O Divine Redeemer
We only taped half of this song because it was so pathetically bad. But it does illustrate the nature of our group, peer review and support. Lauren encouraged me to sing it to the bitter end, even though my voice gave up half way through. I'm preparing this Gounod Piece to perform in sacrament meeting during the Christmas Holidays. I know it needs a ton of work, but hopefully I'll have a much more polished version to share in a couple of weeks.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 11:33 AM
Huff Po: James Boyce - Burma has to stay in the news
Just over one week ago, I launched the Burma NewsLadder in pretty quick order to help folks aggregate stories, photos, blog posts and more about the situation in Burma; a country I know relatively well because of my father's experiences there in the State Department.
The response to the Burma NewsLadder has been encouraging to say the least with people posting amazing stories from all around the world; linking to everything from the official newspaper site of the Burmese government to shocking photographs.
One story that was posted from Europe stunned me considerably. It's about the ongoing cremations the Burmese government continued long after the first wave of riots stopped, literally, as they burned the evidence of dead monks."
.....Our domestic press here, slowly, but surely, has dropped the story. It is just a trickle now.
Thanks James, for your dedication to this story!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 11:26 AM
It's Here! Ann Coulters New Book
I've got it on hold at the Boulder Library. Ironically the only copy available is a large print edition. I can just see the librarians ordering the book...."have to get that nasty Coulter book for all the old conservatives in town".
When I told Paul that we would be getting the Big Print Version he said, "good, I won't have to wear my reading glasses when I read it."
I guess the old conservatives are us, or at least, him..... heh hee ha...ha
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 11:14 AM
Marvin Payne at Meridian: Humans in Conference
This essay was funny and sweet.
Marvin Payne stars in Horse Crazy which is one of my four years olds FAVORITE movies!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 11:08 AM
Come Sail Away
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 10:58 AM
Amazing Home Birth VBAC! Go Mama Go!!!
Read this amazing birth story posted on the Mothering discussion boards just yesterday:
QUOTE:
"After doing this I feel like I can do anything I put my heart in to, it is amazing to feel like that again, after my Cesarean Section with Gabriel, I did not feel like myself, a lot was taken away from me that day, not just the chance to push out a baby, but a lot of my 'self' was taken, a lot of my fire and spirit along with most of my confidence. I had been banking it all up since August 2006 when I had resolved to take control of my birthing, putting it all in layaway a little at a time, and I finally got it all back the night I had Violet, with interest! Ross says I even look different. I definitely feel different, I feel redeemed and proud of myself for accomplishing so much in such a short time, I also feel like I absolutely must help to spread this feeling to as many women as I can.
I know that unassisted birth is not ideal for everyone, but for me, it is the only way I feel I could safely and securely give birth; for me, any interference at all, 'good' or 'bad', would have ruined my Violet's birth.
I respect the need for well trained obstetricians in hospitals or operating rooms, in the cases when medical care is prudent; so it isn't like I have something against doctors or hospitals, it is just, I personally do not need all that to give birth. I love and respect the work that midwives do, their wisdom and their dedication to a profession that is really unappreciated by our society at large; I have every intention on training as a midwife in the future when my children are a little older, not requiring my undivided attention and are no longer breastfeeding, so it is not as if I have something 'against' midwives, I simply would never have been comfortable being myself in front of a midwife, even if she was a friend, I would never have really been able to let go and just birth. I know that for sure.
The simple truth is this: Ross is the only person who really knows what I am all about, he really knows what I need and want and he can do it without disturbing me or even without thinking, and in the moment of birthing, that is the most important thing, I think. We were the best midwives I could ask for. A great number of couples do not have the sort of relationship conductive to unassisted birth, and some do; a great number of women do not have a personality conductive to birthing alone, and again, some do. I had no real desire to be all alone, I wanted Ross to be with me, idle but present, and that is what he was; it was perfect. For us.
I think we in the birthing 'community' need to realize everyone has individual needs and desires, some need and desire to be completely alone, some want a midwife, some want their mothers, some want an obstetrician and an epidural and we all need to respect and support those needs and wants.
All women need to have choices, many varied choices that they can choose from freely without worry of people thinking they are 'crazy' or 'weak' or 'radical'. I felt the need to keep our plans for an unassisted birth a secret among many of our family members and friends until after the fact because I could not deal with the fearful, rude and even downright snarky comments and 'looks' during my pregnancy if I were to be peaceful and happy, which has since made me resolve as long as a woman has educated herself with accurate truthful information about all of her choices I have no place thinking (or saying) anything but supportive things, even if she has decided to have an elective Cesarean Section operation after being fully informed of risks and benefits.
I think we could all resolve to make sure women are well educated about their options for birth.
It is in our hands, we have the ability to change things for the better, if only we would act to do so. We must let the well educated woman choose what is best for her and her family in birth, and then just let her choice be, whether or not we think it is the 'right' choice; it will make for happier, easier pregnancies and a much more simple kind of birth."
Jasmines Email Address: shegothipslikecinderella@gmail.com
Pictures used with permission. Please feel free to contact Jasmine to talk to her about her empowering birth!
I completely endorse and applaud this mother for her courage, focus, and intentions.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:23 AM
Washington Quarterly: The Day After, Action following a nuclear blast in a US city
This sobering report from Carter, May, and Perry is a timely reminder that Prep for Nuclear War is and will be a factor in American Life for many years to come.
I have written extensively about Family Prep for a Nuclear Event. It is one of the main reasons we decided to become self sufficient with our health care and take personal responsibility for our births. We have been talking quite a bit about having our sixth child, and it comforts me so much to know that if anything like an American Hiroshima took place, we could safely survive in our home for a matter of months because of the preparations that we have made. Just click around my catagories for more information about Family Preparations.
Here is an article I wrote for newsmax titled, A Mother thinks about Nuclear Survival.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:23 AM
Mitt Romneys Web Site
I completely endorse Mitt Romney for president in 2008. Here is a link to his web site:
Romney: Faith in America
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:13 AM
Hugh Hewitt: About Basra
"Thanks to an assist from Michael Yon, I was able to interview Lt. Colonel Patrick Sanders, commanding officer of Fourth Battalion the Rifles, stationed near Basra."
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:09 AM
October 9, 2007
Classical Mothers of Boulder County October 9th performance class
This morning we had our performance class. Three moms and three children attended. I had to show up a half hour early because Paul had to take Allison to the orthopedist to get her shoulder checked. She tore her rotator cuff playing basketball last spring and the season starts in a few weeks. She has been going to physical therapy, and had to give up the fall gymnastics season while she healed. Doc gave her a big thumbs up for playing BB and she does not need surgery...relief!
Anyway, Ben and I went early and I messed around on the piano for a half hour before the other gals showed up. I filmed a couple of my songs. Please note these are rehearsal quality, as is most of the stuff I share on this site. It is nearly impossible for me to get actual performances filmed, so the rehearsals are all I have to share at this point.
Here is one of them titled, Eternity is You!
I'll upload the rest of the clips over the next few days. We had a very productive class, even though my cords were a little under par and I have the sniffles.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 1:38 PM
Front Page: Campus Invitations and Double Standards
Really funny interview at Front Page by Jamie Glazov....with Dr. Mike S. Adams, an Associate Professor of Criminology at UNC-Wilmington.
I love a conservative with a sense of humor.
QUOTE:
(More evidence that they still smell)
"FP: Give us some examples of how certain Conservative speakers have been treated on the American campus.
Adams: Just go to You Tube and search for the names of some conservative speakers. In my case, you will see an incident at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst that typifies the Left’s commitment to free speech. A physical altercation actually broke out over the microphone, which was seized by a local communist party member who simply would not give it back – this after he stood on top of a chair and shouted to the audience about matters unrelated to the speech. Shortly after the physical altercation broke out, someone started rolling the video camera. It ends with students – some dressed in drag, others wearing masks -shouting “racist, sexist, anti-gay, right-wing bigots go away.”
Sadly, these kids actually think that by shouting people down they are promoting tolerance. Watch the video and tell me whether there is any difference between this scene and the “Two Minutes Hate” in 1984. My only regret is that the video does not capture just how badly those kids smelled as a result of swearing off soap due to its supposedly bad effects on the environment. Their B.O. was certainly wreaking havoc on my environment."
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 1:29 PM
NRO: John O'Sullivan - In the Land of Walesa
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 1:15 PM
Trust Birth Conference
Here is a link to the Trust Birth Conference Web Site.
Jenny Hatch
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 12:45 PM
The True Face of Birth Blog: Are Cesareans grossly under reported???
Rixa at the true face of birth blog makes the case that C-sections are grossly under reported.
I was at a conference last weekend, where Henci Goer mentioned the underreporting of hospital cesarean rates. Some hospitals are starting to report their cesarean rates only among "low-risk" women; in their calculations, they exclude cesarean sections for breech, multiples, preterm births, fetal deaths, and abnormal presentations. In other words, the C-section rate that your hospital advertises may not be correct--it is likely much higher. This is the case, it seems, in all California hospitals. Remember my recent post about CA C-section rates? I looked at the fine print on the document and it turns out the rates are only for full-term, head-down, singleton births with no abnormal presentations!
Want to see for yourself? If you go to the original document, there's a small hyperlink about rate explanations. The link brings you to a page that, at the bottom in very very small print, has the following text:
Rate Explanations:
Cesarean Delivery Rate Number of Cesarean Section Deliveries per 100 Deliveries (excludes abnormal presentation, preterm birth, fetal death, multiple gestations, and breech procedure). Cesarean delivery may be overused in some facilities, so lower rates may represent better care.
Cesarean Delivery Rate – Primary Number of Cesarean Deliveries per 100 deliveries among women who have not previously had a Cesarean section (excludes abnormal presentation, preterm, fetal death, multiple gestation, and breech procedures). Cesarean delivery may be overused in some facilities, so lower rates may represent better care.
Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) Rate Number of vaginal births per 100 women with a previous Cesarean delivery. VBAC may be underused in some facilities, so higher rates may represent better care, though this rate includes some women who were probably not good candidates for vaginal birth.
Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) Rate, Uncomplicated Number of vaginal births per 100 women with a previous Cesarean delivery (excludes abnormal presentation, preterm birth, fetal death, multiple gestation, and breech procedures). VBAC may be underused in some facilities, so higher rates may represent better care. Cal me paranoid, but I doubt the extremely small font is accidental."
Thanks for doing the homework Rixa, this is really scary information.
Here is a video montage I put together titled The Wall. Obstetric Practice creates a wall between ultimate Divine Feminine Fullfillment and Birth.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 12:25 PM
October 8, 2007
WSJ Online: Can Ailes Outfox CNBC?
Here are a couple of keepers, (Which had me laughing out loud) and reading them to Paul, who is working from home today.
WSJ: The Fox New Channel reported a 41% rise in operating income in the fourth quarter from higher affiliate fees and advertising growth. How did you accomplish that at a time when viewership is off and ratings are waning for cable news?
Mr. Ailes: Well, the ratings aren't off much....You'd be surprised. I get hundreds of emails a day from American people saying, "God, you're the only thing we watch." So, we feel a real responsibility to get the story straight and balance the story in some ways....
When I see something [in the news] particularly horrible about America that I think is a little out of proportion to what is actually going on, I call up the desk and say, "Do you have any pictures of people lined up at the border trying to get out?" They say, "What do you mean?" I say, "I just watched that, and hell, we've got to get out of here, America's a terrible place. We need to get out fast. There must be guys stacked up at the airport trying to get out of here." No. It turns out everybody's trying to get in, and nobody's trying to get out. We've got to keep that perspective in mind when you cover the news. It doesn't mean you don't cover the bad news about America. You do. It means you don't get up in the morning hating your country.
WSJ: How does that philosophy translate to business news?
Mr. Ailes: Well, capitalism works....And so you have to keep it in perspective. When you find nine companies where the CEO should be in jail, you should report it and make sure the guy goes to jail. But you have to recognize that there are . . .a lower percentage
...WSJ: Are you a hands-on manager?
Mr. Ailes: I have a working knowledge of all the areas. I have probably 14 vice presidents who report to me. I have to know enough about each of their areas to know how to ask the proper questions....I think what I bring to it is life experience. People say, "How can you? You didn't go to Columbia Journalism School, how can you run a news organization?" I say, "I have two qualifications: One, I didn't go to Columbia Journalism School, so there's a chance I'll be fair, and, two, I never want to go to a party in this town, so there's nobody's a- I have to kiss."
I think my management style is direct....I want very fast decisions. I think the worst decision is usually no decision.
WSJ: You've said there's a long slog ahead of you, maybe up to four years. Is that something you look forward to or dread?
Mr. Ailes: ...There are no options. The problem with most people who don't succeed is that they see options....It's the way I was brought up. I dug ditches, I put in sewer pipe, I put in guardrail. When I was 18, my dad looked at me and said,"Where are you going?... You can't live here....You going to go in the service? You want me to put your name in up at the shop?...Try to go to college?"...So, I went to a cheap state school so I could work three jobs. When you don't see options, you don't give up easy. The real problem with our society is we've taken the word responsibility and turned it into entitlement, and we sit around thinking that's an option.
WSJ: How's your relationship with Mr. Murdoch?