Happy Birthday to me!

February 2, 2014Jenny Marie Hatch Leave a comment

See that i phone camera case?

It’s mine.

Earlier this year Allison asked for a new phone plan. She was traveling quite a bit with her athletic training work at the school and her old phone was a piece of junk. We crunched the numbers and realized that it would not cost much more and that I could get a free phone and be bundled into the plan.

I have resisted getting a cell phone for my whole adult life.

I rarely go anywhere and any time I needed to make a call when I was out shopping I would simply step into a crowd of people and say, “Does anyone have a phone I can make a call with?” And ten people would offer me a cell phone.

So the most darling new phone was shipped out to me last spring and I went on Amazon and searched for an I phone case with roses and pearls.

The excessive bling has resulted in a years worth of commentary and hilarity at my over the top decked out phone.

But I love it.

See these bifocal glasses?

They are my birthday present.

According to Ally, who knows about these things, I have some serious high class tastes when it comes to eyeware. All year as my eyes have increasingly blurred while reading, I used the cheapo reading glasses from the drug store to do my six to eight hours of study every day.

I really felt the need to go to an eye doctor to get my eyes checked, so Paul and I went on a date to the opthamologist. (It’s what middle aged people do for fun!) The doc was an old buddy of his from high school and was about as pleasant a fellow as you would expect a small town Cedar City Eye Doc to be.

These sorts of moments in life are great reminders of how amazingly wonderful most health care professionals are. I spend so much energy ripping Allopathy here on my blog that it is ALWAYS good to have interactions with those necessary portions of medical care.

I have not had my eyes checked professionally since I was in College.

And I was curious to hear how they were doing. Because I spend so much time reading every day, I was certain they were a mess, but the Doc assured me that my eyes are quite healthy and fitted me for bifocals.

As I wandered around his office looking for some sturdy and beautiful frames, I spotted a pair that had roses on them and knew immediately those glasses were mine!

See this basket of goodies from the health food store?

It is my birthday present.

We have a tradition of celebrating the actual birthday of our family members with a special breakfast (Paul made me cracked Kamut Cereal) and a special birthday dinner and cake.

We also purchase a basket of favorite store bought snacks. We do so much cookin’ from scratch around here that it is fun to get some treats that are packaged professionally!

While we lived in Colorado we would purchase this amazing carrot cake from the Huckleberry in Louisville every year for my birthday. It was so yummy. Paul obtained a carrot cake recipe from our neighbor down the street. She had brought that cake to us the first week we moved here.

He made it with half fresh ground Kamut Flour and half King Arthur unbleached white organic pastry flour. Shelly grated two cups of fresh carrots and they created pure magic with a can of crushed pineapple, raisins, cocoanut and cream cheese frosting. As we chowed it down last night, I had to bless them both for all of the effort! That cake was BETTER than my Huckleberry cake!

I feel so overwhelmed to have so many blessings poured down on my head this 46th year of mortality.

Thanks to my family for celebrating with me a day early. Today is fast sunday and we Mormons skip two meals and give the money we would have spent on food to the poor as a fast offering.

Paul cooking and doing dishes all day was such a gift! I love him with all of my heart!

Here is that carrot cake recipe:

Sharons amazing Carrot Cake (with a slight change by Paul Hatch)

1 cup Olive Oil
2 cups Sugar
3 eggs
1 cup crushed pineapple (1/2 can – don’t drain)
2 cups flour (As I said above Paul used one cup of fresh ground Kamut Wheat and one cup of King Arthurs White Unbleached Organic pastry flour

1 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Cinnamon
2 cups Grated Carrots
1 cup Cocoanut
1 cup Raisins
Nuts – He left the nuts out cause I am deadly allergic…

Mix all ingredients and bake in cake pans for 30 minutes at 350′

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8 oz package of Cream Cheese
1/2 cube Melted Butter (4 Tablespoons)
1 tsp Vanilla
3/4 cups Powdered Sugar

I boxed up all the leftover cake and put it in the freezer and plan to enjoy a piece now and then all month long!

I love my family…

Jenny Hatch

Three Branches of Government according to the President

February 1, 2014Jenny Marie Hatch Leave a comment

A few of the Presidents Chicago pals have a message for him in this video.

And for some reason he forgot to profile these folks in his State of the Union:

These low information posers profiled on Jimmy Kimmel will give you a good laugh…

The state of our Union could not be more questionable than it is right at this moment in time. But I continue to hope for a miracle…

Jenny Hatch

Unassisted Birth Story: The Freebirth of Ever Wild

January 31, 2014Jenny Marie Hatch Leave a comment

UPDATE: I had Maryn on my radio show and we talked about her recent birth. Click HERE to read!

I read this amazing birth story just now and had to share it.

The Mom details a multi-generational healing that took place during her labor. There is a little nudity on the blog post, but mostly the photos are very tastefully shared.

Here are a few quotes:

“I write, speak, think and dream of birth regularly; this pregnancy was no exception to the documentation that I kept about myself, my journey and this wild one. Re-reading my pregnancy journal, I looked forward to her birth, reminding myself how “raw” I knew it would be. I also wrote what’s below at 37 weeks, which is pretty amazing. I do believe we know the lessons that are coming; somewhere in us, we are just the people we need to be for the experience we somewhere know we will have.”

This story was a real reminder of so many of the emotions Paul and I had while we birthed Ben together. My water broke exactly three days and six hours before he was born and during those three days we had to do some serious soul searching and healing. This was the part of Maryns story that touched me the most:

“It hit me like a ton of bricks, and the contractions stopped for a short time while I cried. And wrote, and cried. My first birth, my beautiful now 11 year old daughter’s story started much the same and I do believe my cells remember. Only I was 37 weeks, and didn’t know enough to know my waters were leaking and that I probably shouldn’t head to the hospital (our choice for birth at the time) like that. Needless to say, leaking waters led to induction with Pitocin, an early and sort of unhappy baby and a very disillusioned woman that thought her body didn’t work. And perhaps the worst part was the separation of mama from baby; I don’t know that (consciously or not) my daughter or I have ever recovered from this breach in our relationship during those first hours. There are some things, that I have found as a mother, that I just have never gotten over. This taking of my baby is one of them; and probably one of the strongest influences in leading me down the path of birth and bonding and attachment that I believe so strongly in.

And so there it was. I was being given the chance by the Universe and Ever to re-write this story. To not give in to the fear, or the uncertainty that I COULD wind up in that same spot again. I had half-joked about going to get an epidural at the hospital when the contractions were feeling so intense but at this moment…I knew in my heart I could never do such a thing. But, I was scared to death of that “needing” to happen. I needed to recognize my power in this situation, something I had not done the first time. I had to believe that this sweet girl that would soon grace our presence; I had to keep on, for her. Things were coming full circle, and I was being given a chance to heal this DNA (from as far back as my own hospital birth, after my mom’s water had broken at 34 weeks, leaving me to spend over a month in the NICU) for generations. Profound. And in perfect healing capacity, my daughter entered my room and witnessed my cry. With all the confidence of a wise elder, she looked at me and said “You can do it, mom. You can have this baby here.” (And then wrote on my wall in (washable) marker, right where I could see it, “YOU CAN DO IT!”)”

Take the time to read the whole story, it is a powerful witness to the healing power of Family Birth!

Jenny Hatch

Dr. Amy, paging Dr. Amy!

January 31, 2014Jenny Marie Hatch Leave a comment

So MANA published its homebirth study yesterday and a certain blogging Doc went about as nuts as anyone in our community would ever expect her to go.

I left a love note and an invitation for her to be on my radio show HERE on this mornings blog post:

“Hey Dr. Amy!

You have never mentioned to your readers that you may or may NOT have made the cover of my magazine!

http://bloggingmothersmagazine.com

The eight year love fest between you and I as Birthy Bloggers really should be celebrated on such a significant day in the history of online Childbirth Activism.

I would like to once again invite you to be the most beloved and welcomed guest on my radio show to discuss the MANA study and statistics!

NOT holding my breath! Might turn as blue as a baby who was just born after being deprived of oxygen cause Mama used WAY too many labor drugs!

Hugs and Kisses!

XOXO

Jenny Hatch
WWW.JennyHatch.com”

Here is a link to the MANA web site.

“In today’s peer-reviewed Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health (JMWH), a landmark study** confirms that among low-risk women, planned home births result in low rates of interventions without an increase in adverse outcomes for mothers and babies.”

And a few links to media coverage from around the web:

Study Finds Home Births Comparatively Safe – For Low-Risk Women, Infants

“The largest study ever conducted in the United States of planned home births found that 93.6 percent of the 16,924 women in the study had spontaneous vaginal births, and only 5.2 percent required a cesarean section for delivery.”

OSU study shows home births are a safe option for low-risk pregnancies

“Home births are on the rise in the U.S. They’re also comparatively safe for low-risk cases, Oregon State University researchers found.”

Home Birth Study Finds No Increased Risk For Mom Or Baby, Experts Still Divided

In the comment section of this Huffington Post article my comment was pulled after I wrote this:

“In the deep dark caverns of a forgotten corner of the internet Dr. Amy just wet her pants.

So glad for the researchers who took the time and resource to conduct this study! Unassisted Childbirth has been in the news this week too!

http://jennyhatch.com/2014/01/30/unassisted-childbirth-in-the-news/“

Outcomes of Care for 16,924 Planned Home Births in the United States: The Midwives Alliance of North America Statistics Project, 2004 to 2009

Melissa Cheyney PhD, CPM, LDM^*,
Marit Bovbjerg PhD, MS,
Courtney Everson MA,
Wendy Gordon MPH, CPM, LM,
Darcy Hannibal PhD,
Saraswathi Vedam CNM, MSN, RM

Article first published online: 30 JAN 2014

My long term readers know that this blog is DEDICATED to the promotion of homebirth, particularly Husband/Wife Family Birth.

Dr. Amy and I have gone round and round and round for the past eight years, and frankly, I love her. She has provided consistent counterpoint to every argument I have ever made for holistic birth and I am grateful that she(and the fifteen guys who play her on the web) exists.

What everyone needs to understand is that for me, as well as countless other Moms in our day to day outreach in the homebirth community, the fact that five babies died because the families did not have a 21st century NICU (Newborn Intensive Care Unit) set up in the kitchen does not, nor would it EVER sway my decision to take personal responsibility for the health of my family.

Perhaps there are some who would read the study and say to themselves, “not worth it, I am not going to take the risk that my child will be one of those five babies out of 17,000 mothers who gave birth at home who would have made it with high tech interventions”. And that is cool. No worries, we are all Americans and having the choice to decide where and with whom our children are born is our God Given inherent right as Free Born citizens of the United States of America!

For me? I will continue to push for families to have the freedom to give birth where they feel most comfortable.

Jenny Hatch

Unassisted Childbirth in the NEWS!

January 30, 2014Jenny Marie Hatch Leave a comment

We have had several really great new articles written about Unassisted Childbirth in the past few days!

Maine Mom gives birth in the driveway!

A lovely LDS family was featured in this article from California.

Extreme home-birthing, alone and unassisted

“Krissy Rich had been in active labor for five hours on the floor of her Fremont bathroom when she daughter Jasrael descend. To ease the pressure, Rich reached her fingernail inside and popped her amniotic sac to break her water.

Jasrael — pink-cheeked and perfectly healthy — immediately slipped out.

“That was probably the most empowering thing I’ve ever done,” says Rich, a 34-year-old mother of five. “I had to have faith in myself and surrender that control at the end.”

…Krissy’s fourth child, Jasrael, was her first unassisted birth. She studied more. She borrowed emergency equipment, including an oxygen mask, from a friend, a licensed midwife. She prayed. She spoke to the baby, encouraging her that it was safe to come out.

“I was creating a spiritual connection between us,” Krissy recalls.

For the fifth baby, Lillian, the couple hired a midwife, because Krissy realized she missed “having that feminine energy and someone to handle the post-birth logistics.”

In the end, the midwife was running late, and Krissy did it on her own in a blowup tub in her bedroom, with Elijah’s coaching.

“I was grateful she wasn’t there,” she says. “I was able to make the sounds I needed to make and be vulnerable and open.”

When women tell Krissy they could never give birth this way, she tells them that they can.

“We don’t prepare our bodies at all in this culture,” she says. “From day one, I’m doing yoga and hip-opening and using antibacterial essential oils for pregnancy and getting my vitamins. I think in our culture, we want to have this sterile experience and remove ourselves from the intenseness of birth. There’s a sense of trying to suppress the feelings.””

Laura Shanley was featured in a radio interview last month. Here is the link for the PODCAST!

Our online support groups have had several media requests from around the world, so stay tuned for some great profiles on television, radio, print, and social media!

I had a wonderful radio interview with unassisted birthing Mom Sofia last month. She gave birth to her daughter alone after doing her own prenatal care!

As always, if you are interested in being interviewed on my radio show, or have a great story to share CONTACT ME to be featured here on the Natural Family BLOG!

Jenny Hatch

If you are need of a good chuckle, go read this navel gazing boobs take on full time Mothering!

No question she was trolling for clicks with her rhetoric, but after scrolling around her blog, the theme was consistent with the rest of her content. I really appreciated Matt Walsh’s smackdown and the full scale heckling that was happening on Facebook, it was delicious to read!

“Many of your critics just haven’t done it. They haven’t been in the trenches all day, every day, shaping children into respectable adults, and doing it themselves, by hand, with sweat and tears and heartache. They haven’t sacrificed everything for another person. They don’t know what that is — what it feels like. They don’t know what it’s like to be in charge of another human being’s entire life. All day. Every day. They don’t know what goes into running a house. They’ve never been there. They live in a civilization built by people who put in the sort of work and made the sort of sacrifices that they themselves would never be willing to make. And, in their comfort, in their arrogance, in their brokenness, they mock.

They mock you.”

Matts blog is so popular, I am certain that most of you have read his stuff, but for the few who have not discovered him yet…go check it out. He is the best friend full time Mothers have ever had on the internet!

…Women naturally desire to love others and sacrifice themselves. They care about relationships. They aren’t as concerned with getting ahead as they are with elevating those around them.

None of those characteristics will serve you well in many jobs. They won’t help your “career advancement.” They will only make you vulnerable, and put you at the mercy of your less scrupulous competitors. This is why it is dangerous to see “the professional world” as an end in and of itself.

But you know all of this. The people who don’t know probably won’t be convinced by anything I have to say.

Pay no attention to them. They don’t deserve to be taken seriously.

Besides, you’ve got better things to do with your time.”