supportjoanne.net

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Joanne Daviau's Support Effort

So, Derek and I have been working our butts off trying to get a website up that will automatically send letters of support to St Josephs and the Hospital Review Board. We should have the site up by the weekend. This cause is gaining momentum... There is a letter writing party set up by some other supporters of Joanne coming up, as well as lots of people leaving comments on Carol Sill's site and letters to the editor of the Echo. We will let everyone know when our site goes live.

Support Joanne!

Boy am I livid! The local hospital is trying to revoke my midwife's hospital privileges. They don't seem to have solid reasons for doing so and it seems to be more of a witch hunt than anything else. I'm sending the following letter to the appeal board and the hospital. For links on what is going on:

Very one way bias

From someone who was at the hearing

My Letter:

Regarding Joanne Daviau’s Appeal

We are greatly saddened to have learned that St Joseph’s hospital is attempting to revoke midwife Joanne Daviau's hospital privileges. The reasons stated are that: she “is unavailable” and “has a lack of collegiality”. We found the opposite to be true.

Joanne was constantly available during my time under her care and often went above and beyond the call of duty. There were several times where we phoned her outside of “office hours” and our call was always returned within 15 minutes. In my last month of pregnancy, many times, when it looked like I might go into early labour, Joanne always contacted me to see if I was having any labour symptoms before leaving to go out. She always provided several numbers where we could reach her, and indicated she would forgo her personal plans if it looked like I might go into labour. Our prenatal appointments with Joanne were always in excess of an hour, with Joanne making sure all our questions and concerns were answered before we left. When I had problems with breastfeeding following the birth, Joanne spent hours at my house helping my daughter and I achieve successful breastfeeding. I probably would have given up had it not been for her patience and perseverance.

I would also like to take issue with the alleged lack of collegiality. While under her care I witnessed Joanne collaborating with many other health professionals: midwives, midwifery students, doulas, obstetricians and a neonatologist. On several occasions, when my problems fell outside her scope of practice, Joanne collaborated with two different obstetricians. There never seemed to be a problem with collaboration. We found Joanne to be consistently professional, competent, knowledgeable and available during my time as her client.

In addition, we are fairly new to the area and are not able to find a family doctor, by limiting the number of midwives with hospital privileges in the area, you will be greatly reducing a woman’s ability to access quality prenatal care.

The action of the hospital appears more of a personal vendetta against someone they may not particularly like, rather than an evidence based decision. The College of Midwives has stated that Joanne's level of care is up to standard and not in question. What kind of medical system do we have where women are going to be losing access to a very skilled professional due to hospital politics. This cannot be allowed to happen as we risk putting in jeopardy all the gains midwives have made in this province.

If you've had Joanne for a midwife and want to show your support please write a letter of support to the following:

Hospital Appeal Board
PO Box 9425
Stn Provincial Government
Victoria, BC
V8W 9V1
hab@gov.bc.ca



St. Joseph's Hospital
2137 Comox
Comox, BC
V9M 1P2
Att. CEO Michael Pontus

Babywearing Addiction

I love wearing my little one! We have several different carriers and they all seem to serve a different purpose. I remember being pregnant and thinking I would just be able to strap her to me and do what I used to do... ie hike, snowshoe etc. Well I was a bit naive to think I could do this right off the bat, but with the right carrier and an older baby, I'm starting to feel like I can tackle much more! We started with the Baby Buddha which says only to use the cradle hold up to 4 months. Well Zakiah *hates* the cradle hold, so I felt frustrated as this was our only carrier.

One half of baby buddha in cradle hold

It led to me feeling like I couldn't go anywhere with her for the first month. Then my mom bought me a used Safety 1st (bjorn type carrier) I felt like I had a new lease on life! I could take her out and grocery shop! W00t! This carrier quickly became painful as Zakiah got larger.

Safety 1st with Buddha support band.

So Invested in an Ergo carrier. It is now one of my two favorite carriers to use. It has fantastic support and is great for when you want to go for a hike or need something to quickly pop her in and out of for around town. Yesterday I tried her in it with her on my back and did the dishes. She loved it and I felt like I had achieved a new level of freedom as previously I could only do the dishes if someone else were watching her.

I love my Ergo

My other favourite carrier is my Moby Wrap. We use it for snuggling and nap time. She actually gets really excited and waves her hands around when I bring it out. It is what she is sleeping in right now as I type. This wrap is pretty stretchy, so it isn't that great for walking around with a heavier baby. I love the wrapping though, so for my next carrier I'm looking at a German Woven Wrap. Probably go with a storchenwiege.

Moby Wrap

Block Play

Zakiah is really into block play as of late! We set her in the Bumbo with a tray full of blocks and she goes nuts. She is figuring out the pincer grasp. We also gave her some coloured poker chips to play with as well. They are a bit more work to pick and she seems to enjoy the challenge.

Moving and Shaking

Zakiah is becoming a mobile baby! On Friday she started rolling from back to side and arching her back to move around the floor. If you lay her on the floor she eventually moves herself 360 degrees. She also started laughing in the last couple weeks... real giggles and squeals. The laughing is pretty contagious, usually everyone present also starts in on it.

She currently has casts on both legs up to her hips, but this doesn't seems to stop her from trying to stand and move about. With the current heat, I imagine the casts are quite hot, and our usually placid girl has been getting downright cranky. only one more week to go and she is cast free.

Zakiah and I are heading to Vancouver for a week on Wednesday. It will be a grand adventure I'm sure!

Metatarsus Varus

We took Zakiah to the specialist last Wednesday and found out she has mild Metatarsus Varus, which is in turning of the foot. It is hereditary, and my brother had it as a child. The treatment is serial casting. So on Wed the doctor placed a cast on Zakiah's left leg to the hip. She will receive several sets of casts over the next month or so. They still haven't decided on whether to cast her right foot or not, we will find out in two days when we go back to Victoria to see the specialist again.

We were not prepared for the hositility we were to encounter while out and about with her. Usually people come up to us to comment on her cuteness and to say hi to her. We noticed that people would come towards us and then see her foot and give us a look of disgust before veering away. I was close to tears by the time we got in the car after shopping in Naniamo. I was tempted to put a sign on her saying "I didn't drop my child down the stairs, she is being treated for a congenital defect". Anyways, we are finding the reaction at home in our small town much nicer... Most people ask what happened and are pretty nice. So the world isn't all bad.

Sidecar Crib

The Bed is getting a wee bit crowded, but we would like to continue to co-sleep as it makes nighttime feedings easier and Zakiah sleeps better. So we decided to make use of the un-used crib and create a "sidecar" for our bed. Here's how we did it.

1. We took the front side off the crib and attached the daybed bar for stabilization.
2. The height of both mattresses are the same when we place the crib mattress frame at the top level upside-down. This will work until she sits up and then we will have to raise the crib itself so that we can have the mattress lower in relation to the crib bars.
3.We then attached the big mattress to the crib frame with a tension strap in order to prevent bed separation.

4. We took three pool noodle boards and filled in the gap between the crib frame and mattress created when the two mattresses are pushed together. We taped the boards with duct tape and wrapped them in a bed sheet.

5. There is a gap between the pillowtop of our mattress and the crib mattress, so we placed a pool noodle in the gap. We then tried to cover the whole thing with a rug, but it bunches when sleeping, so we are looking for some other alternative. Right now we are just using a blanket covering the gap area.

First Camping Trip

So this past weekend we took Zakiah on her first camping trip. We left Friday afternoon for Ruckle Park on Saltspring Island where we were married a year ago. Upon arriving we found an awesome park improvement... raised wooden tent platforms! This made our weekend less wet and the tent more even. The first night was rather cold. Zakiah was nice and warm sleeping on my chest, but I froze and declared to Derek at 3am "I'm not staying another night!" After putting on a fleece jacket and going back to sleep warm, I changed my mind.
We spent Saturday morning at the farmers market in Ganges. Having a baby is great for your social interaction. We talked to many people curious about our baby and the carrier she was snuggled in. Zakiah slept in her wrap most of the morning, but was wide eyed and bushy-tailed in time for lunch meaning we had to trade off baby duty while the other person ate. In the afternoon, we headed up Mt Maxwell where Zakiah proceeded to scream in pain due to her early teething (Teething babies aren't fun). After nursing and some homeopathic teething meds, she fell asleep and we took in the views. Saturday night was a little warmer than Friday night and we all had a fairly ok sleep.

Sunday morning we packed up and went for a walk to the point we got married on. Zakiah slept through our family pictures. We then headed back to Vancouver Island and home.

Several things learned this camping trip:
We need a bigger tent
Put on warm clothes before the baby goes to sleep
Soothers are awesome for getting an extra hour of sleep in the morning
Teething babies and restaurants don't mix.

We are going camping again this weekend with lyndsay, Scott and baby Emma to Miracle beach. The weather is supposed to be warmer, so we are looking forward to it.

Bowling With Babies

So last night we got out for the first time on an adult adventure. We met up with Lyndsay, Scott, Alexandra, Daniel and baby Emma and Quentin. We played a couple games of five pin with Lyndsay and I wearing our babes. I think it made my game better! All of us thought taking the babies out bowling might be asking for it, but it went great! We all went out for ice cream afterwards as well. (though I couldn't partake as Zakiah can't tolerate Cow's dairy in my milk).

Blogging for Baby

Since it's really hard to keep up with e-mail with the day to day busyness of a new baby, I thought I'd start blogging Zakiah, Derek and my adventures. That way friends and family can keep up with what we are doing and follow our adventures as we embark on this exciting new life as parents.