Friday, July 25, 2008

Leaving Las Vegas

I haven't written about Las Vegas yet- so here it is. I spoke to a small but enthusiastic audience about maternal-infant care after a disaster. The audience were institutional, municipal, state, and federal emergency management planners. I talked to them about the special needs of pregnant, laboring, and lactating women, before, during, and after a disaster. I knew this was information that probably didn't even come onto the radar screen for most of these folks. I spent a large portion of my time on the importance of lactation during a disaster. They seemed particularly enthralled with the concept of 'giving birth in place'- not a planned homebirth exactly, but giving birth wherever a woman happens to be by necessity (think Katrina- hospital not functioning or can't get to it). The ACNM website has lots of info on it: http://www.midwife.org/. The folks I spoke to have to plan for every possibility as well as contingency plans. They have to designate possible shelters and were intrigued by the idea that women might be giving birth or breastfeeding in their shelters- oops didn't think to plan for such a thing. It was very satisfying to give this presentation. There were emergency planners there from as far away as Delaware. I'm glad I could give them new information, and I learned a lot from them as well. Las Vegas was- interesting. My mother and visited the strip twice. We walked through several of the hotel/casinos. We didn't gamble- all those slot machines with the lights blinking and and pinging sounds were kind of headache inducing. Each hotel has it's own personality- some were cheesy/quasi-sleezy, others were more elegant than I ever would have imagined. We ate meals in lush surroundings, and enjoyed a lovely afternoon respite on the most elegant hotel veranda in the presence of a waterfall and lush wooded area (all transplanted to make you forget you were in a desert- it worked). Nice trip, but I was glad to get back home- to my family, and my students. I didn't like leaving them in the hands of another instructor. My kids on the other hand, were in the hands of my DH and MIL so I knew they were fine-- I just missed seeing them.

4 comments:

Marijke Vroomen-Durning said...

Hi, I just discovered your blog. You have definitely led and are leading an interesting professional life!

Would you be interested in checking out my pregnancy and health blog, www.wombwithin.com? I would love it if you would consider writing a guest post - you have so much to offer my readers.

Keep up the great work and don't forget to take some time for yourself!

Marijke

Anonymous said...

hi there!

so glad to hear that all went well in vegas. while you were gone, i gave birth to our daughter, lola shua tseng jonjevic - all natural, and all wonderful. your suggestion that we work with nadah was a fantastic one!

perhaps our paths will cross again sometime... it's nice to pop by your blog and hear about what you're working on.

cheers,
pakou

LaborPayne said...

Pakou,
Congratulations dear. (Somehow I knew you'd have that baby while I was away) Nadah is wonderful, isn't she? Best wishes for you and your new little one.

Marijke,
I'll check it out. Thanks for the invite.

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