September 8 Meeting Recap

This month's meeting was incredibly informative and I personally walked away feeling more confident in my approach to natural family planning. Our guest speaker was Karen Baker who is a local licensed midwife and has "caught" many of the babies in our group.

Karen opened the meeting with Natural Family Planning and emphasized, "You need to want to study yourself and take the time to study yourself." She reviewed several home fertility testers that uses your saliva to determine if you are nearing ovulation. You place a sample of your saliva on the microscopic lens each day and look for patterns that indicate you are ovulating. One of the sample kits she brought is called the Ovulens. You can find this product at http://www.ovulens.com/ and is available for purchase for around $40.00. It seems very easy to use. I'm ordering mine today and I will report back with results.

Karen also discussed the cervical cap, diaphragm and other "natural methods" to use for birth control. She also suggested that you see your midwife or health care provider for your individual needs as each person is anatomically different and what works well for one person may not work for the next. The following books were recommended by Karen for further information on natural family planning: The Art of Natural Family Planning, Luncapetion, Breastfeeding and Natural Childspacing, Conscious Conception and A Cooperative Method of Natural Birth Control. We are hoping to order a few of these books for our Lending Library so look for them in the upcoming meetings.

Karen discussed natural childbirth and the differences between hospital birth and home birth and midwifery model of care versus medical model of care. We discussed the rate of Caesarean birth being 1 in 3 in the hospital and reviewed some of the reasons that doctors may perform a Ceasearean.

It was wonderful to hear all of the questions that our members had. Karen was wonderful at taking time to provide explanations and information on this wonderful subject. If you are considering a "home birth," Karen will be happy to speak with you. You can visit her website at www.birthsenseandbeyond.com. Thank you Karen!!!