The beginning.

So, it's pretty much official now that I'm not going to be able to afford my certification class this year since our friendly local natural gas company has decided after four generous months of $15/month budget that we can afford to pay $172/month (I'll make it happen, but I'm not sure what we'll be giving up just yet). I wasn't expecting that. I'm more than a little upset about it. Such is life, I'm not going to whine about the financial woes because I do stupid things from time to time that I end up paying for for months and years. I put myself in this hole and I'll find a way to dig out of it! I am however sad that I'm not going to meet my goal for this year... my goal was to be at least working on the certification process by June, which is only a few days away.

Despite all of this I am still thinking constantly about teaching. I want to teach women and their partners about birth. I'm not just talking about that weak hospital kind of teaching either. I dream about it at night. I daydream about it when things are quiet in the cubefarm. Sometimes I daydream about it when it's not so quiet in the cubefarm. I think about it constantly when I see pregnant women on the street. I think about it when I hear women tell horror stories about how their labor was soooooo awful and traumatic. I think about it when I hear about a homebirth that went peacefully as planned. I think about it when I hear that the national rate of C-sections is growing. I think about it when I hear that the rate of homebirths and VBACs-at-home is growing (but not fast enough). I am fortunate though to have a friend who is just as rabid about birth education as I am.

So. We're working with a mutual friend and outstanding birth-worker to develop our own Out-of-Hospital CBE program... and maybe even our own certification process.

I'm ready to teach for folks who want an out-of-hospital experience. I also want to teach teen moms-to-be. I want to talk to hospital birthers. I want to make sure people know that birth is safe, that doctors and other attendants do not in fact lessen one's chances of 'something bad happening'.

I have ideas for what I'd like to teach... but my brain's in a blender right now and I need to think some more, so that's in a future post.