Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Summa TIME!

So summer time is finally here, the weather is warm-ish, not quite hot yet, definitely not swimming, lay around and get sunburnt weather but here none-the-less. The kids are keeping me occupied for sure. I am working very hard at time blocking so I can get my school work done, get the projects around the house done, figure out time to get to the birth centers, go to social events, and spend quality time with the family and the garden.




I went to a midwifery meet up last week at Lennon's house and it was really nice visiting with other midwives and learning some different opinions and ideas and how these Ladies have grown into them. There was Patricia (I think was her name) who is from Mc Minnville, Laura and Angie from Salem and Lennon from Salem there. I enjoyed discussing things from how much medical training do we need, vs how much we use or choose to use to differing ideas about why to be licensed or not. It was quite enlightening.

Last night I went to a fundraiser for Debbie's birth center. There wasn't much of a turn out but it was fun to hang out with her and her daughter and a friend. She asked if I wanted to be on call for a client due in a few weeks and I got to meet her this afternoon. She is a lovely mother with 3 boys already and due with another boy. She had hospital births with the others and is really looking forward to no interventions and respectful attendees. Her stories about the last experience she had at the Lebanon Hospital were very painful to hear. I am happy for her that she chose Debbie to assist her this time. I feel really good about her.



Tonight I went to a presentation at a hospital in Stayton, the Santiam Memorial Hospital, where Elise and Mabel talked about their waterbirth options there. They seem like really great ladies. I talked with them about apprenticeship opportunities and they seemed like they might be interested in having me come to observe occasionally. It will be interesting seeing water birth in a hospital setting. I think that is about all I can handle in that setting as I really prefer to stay out of there all together. It would be cool to build a relationship with other types of providers though so I can have referrals for all kinds of people that I can honestly be comfortable sending them too. While I was there I also met a childbirth educator and lactation consultant who was really nice named Emily. She invited me to sit in on any of her classes so I will probably take her up on that in the near future!

I haven't been able to do much with SWBC because I have not been able to leave the kids for the day. Between them and college courses, it has been hard leaving the house at all since last week. But I am itching to attend births and really want to be making progress towards being able to practice. At this rate it is going to take me 4 years minimum before I can start having my own clients.




The organizing of books and files for my phase 2 assignments is making progress though and I am feeling really good about the possibility of completing phase 2 earlier than needed. I wish I had no issues with money so I could just focus on this and buy books and hire some help around the house. Even if I could have 2 days a week to be out it would make a huge difference. With Tim working so hard in school, it is going to be really hard the next few years. I am considering looking into some other work so I can just get done at LBCC and then work part time for an income. if I could get some Doula clients, that would help considerably. I need to weighout some options. start a business and pay the overhead on that, or pay for some memberships and do more marketing for Doula work.... hmmmmm....