19 January 2008
I'm about to rage against the machine. More accurately against Paypal. By far Paypal is the best paying option but what happens when they make a decision and any resolution is obstructed?
We received an email from the Compliance Department requesting proof that Common Knowledge Trust is a registered charity and also our tax exempt status. Fair enough.
We were told to do this within 7 days ... due diligence. Fair enough.
We gathered the information and sent it to the Fax given us ... it isn't a valid one! Paypal turned off our account!
Since then we've waited online for hours, been sent from one Paypal group to another with no one able to tell us where our documents went to or how to resolve this issue.
We've contacted Compliance over and over and just receive another email from another 'call center person' giving us Fax numbers .... none of which are active!
At first we thought we were dealing with Spam but they did turn off our account so we know it's Paypal contacting us.
How do we feel? Terrible. We are Paypal customers and you are our customers.
If Paypal requires information ... fair enough ... but they should give us one person to contact so this could be resolved quickly and our shopping cart turned back on for YOU.
So far, we have not been successful in getting any of our documents to them except the one time and they have not verified they've been received.
Later today I will spend another few hours on the phone trying yet once again.
So be patient, god only knows I need some.
Sponsors
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Birth Plans ... What Are They?
16 January 2008
A birth provider sent us at Common Knowledge Trust and email about a couple with whom they worked, their Birth Plan and their actual birth experience. The care provider has been encouraging their clients to learn The Pink Kit skills and provides a Pink Kit Package to every client.
So, what exactly are Birth Plans, how did they come into being, how are they working and what do you as expectant parents really need to say on your Birth Plan.
Birth Plans arrived in the childbirth scene sometime in the mid1970s. Prior to that time, women were given little choice. Childbirth was full of the assessments, monitoring and procedures hospitals and birth providers determined.
Birth Plans are a good idea when used well. Unfortunately expectant parents don't really understand the difference between a Wish List and Birth Plan or Menu Items and Birth Plans.
Some aspects of Birth Plans have that quality and most often they are about what 'I don't want' (mostly being anti-medical) and what 'I want' (as though it's the responsibility of hospital, doctor, staff, midwife or doula to provide).
Certainly there are some logistical aspects of Birth Plans such as what family members are present, whether an enema is given or the room is dark. As you read lots of Birth Plans you will learn to pick these 'choices' out. Keep in mind that you actually might have very different feelings when you're in labour so going heavily on such choices and then changing your mind causes others to not know what you want.
Birth Plans can be phrased to say things like: 'On the day, we'll decide ....' This leaves all options open and doesn't cause others to try to help you fulfill a Birth Plan you no longer want. Beside it becomes much harder to know what you really need support with if you have a long list of things that you don't actually want on the day.
There is nothing more frustrating than a woman who wants to move around, have specific music, aromas, dim lighting, few people, being upright, partner making decisions at the time, not wanting pain relief who then finds herself on the day:
In all the years CKT has been told about Birth Plans one thing is very clear, few people see a Birth Plan as a goal toward which they must take small, measurable steps to succeed. Although some women talk about the books they have read and how much 'information' they have gathered, less then 1% of expectant parents talk about the skills each of them will bring to the birth.
If you don't want pain relief then learn birth skills that permit you to cope or manage labour pain. No one ... not your partner, doctor, staff or midwife wants to see you suffer. And you don't want to find yourself asking for pain relief when you didn't want it and find yourself months after the birth feeling like a whimp.
If you don't want pain relief fine. What skills are you going to use so every sees you 'behaving' or 'acting' as though you are coping? Name the skills. And these skills have to be usable when labour gets really intense!
If you want to be upright, how do you know whether that position is the one your baby likes? What skills are you going to use so that your labour contractions continue to follow the Bell Shaped curve that indicates your baby likes the position you are in. Don't assume the positions being recommended are the best for your baby. Too many women realize after the birth that their muscles were tighter in some upright positions and if they had only known how to recognize and relax those muscles their birth won't have gone on so long.
If you don't want an episiotomy then what have you done during pregnancy to make certain your birth canal will open easily to such a big object. Perineal massage isn't sufficient for many women. How do we know? We get hundreds of emails telling us (with frustration) that 'I still tore'. That's why The Internal Work got developed. It's not just a small part of your birth canal that has to stretch, it's every bit of tissue inside you and some of that are strong muscles that women tighten when they feel the pressure on their rectum.
So if you don't want to tear or be cut, tell people exactly what you have done so they can connect the dots. Birth skills work toward the accomplishment of Birth Plans. You have to inform people what you are doing to actualize your 'Plan'. That's your responsibility.
And don't forget to mention what your partner's skills are. When you have a skilled birth coach (your husband, partner, friend or relative) their job is to help you cope with the natural occurring pain of contractions by seeing and hearing your response to internalized sensations and guiding you immediately if you begin to feel out of control.
Birth partners are not meant to be hung on for hours or just to rub a back or wipe a brow when you're moaning away. Labour is a team effort and both of you need to explain your skills in your Birth Plan very specifically and then use your skills to show your doctor, midwife and doula that skilled couples work well with every birth situation that happens on the day to you.
Pink Kit Birth Plans sound different.
'These are the skills my husband and I bring to our birth: Directed Breathing, The Pelvic Clock, Internal Work, knowing how to stay open and what positions make labour contractions effective. We have developed team work around a shared set of birth skills and have prepared my pregnant body to stay open and relaxed to assist our baby's descent.
Together we will work with our baby's efforts to be born and will happily work within whatever situation we find ourselves. We know that our role is to use self-learned skills to cope with the natural occurring pain during contractions and to work along side whatever assessments, monitoring and procedures make sense that day.
As a birth provider you will see a woman who uses her birth skills to cope well with labour and a father who really knows how to see and hear when he should help and knows what skills are needed at the time.'
With a planned cesarean delivery the Birth Plans tend to sound like this:
'We are preparing for the birth of our child in the same way we would prepare for a vaginal delivery. We are learning birth skills that we'll use during surgery and recovery and to work with our baby's assisted efforts to be born.'
You see The Pink Kit has always been used by families having every imaginable birth! Birth is more about what we do than what others can do for us.
Create a Birth Plan based on skills not imagination, wishful thinking, anger or ideology. You'll get much more out of what you create than what you feel you lost.
A birth provider sent us at Common Knowledge Trust and email about a couple with whom they worked, their Birth Plan and their actual birth experience. The care provider has been encouraging their clients to learn The Pink Kit skills and provides a Pink Kit Package to every client.
So, what exactly are Birth Plans, how did they come into being, how are they working and what do you as expectant parents really need to say on your Birth Plan.
Birth Plans arrived in the childbirth scene sometime in the mid1970s. Prior to that time, women were given little choice. Childbirth was full of the assessments, monitoring and procedures hospitals and birth providers determined.
Birth Plans are a good idea when used well. Unfortunately expectant parents don't really understand the difference between a Wish List and Birth Plan or Menu Items and Birth Plans.
Some aspects of Birth Plans have that quality and most often they are about what 'I don't want' (mostly being anti-medical) and what 'I want' (as though it's the responsibility of hospital, doctor, staff, midwife or doula to provide).
Certainly there are some logistical aspects of Birth Plans such as what family members are present, whether an enema is given or the room is dark. As you read lots of Birth Plans you will learn to pick these 'choices' out. Keep in mind that you actually might have very different feelings when you're in labour so going heavily on such choices and then changing your mind causes others to not know what you want.
Birth Plans can be phrased to say things like: 'On the day, we'll decide ....' This leaves all options open and doesn't cause others to try to help you fulfill a Birth Plan you no longer want. Beside it becomes much harder to know what you really need support with if you have a long list of things that you don't actually want on the day.
There is nothing more frustrating than a woman who wants to move around, have specific music, aromas, dim lighting, few people, being upright, partner making decisions at the time, not wanting pain relief who then finds herself on the day:
- Having the music ('SSHHH!')
- Can't stand the smell ('irritates my nose')
- Loves bright lights rather than dim ('I can't see!')
- Wants only partner ('Long labour, should have had more people to help')
- 'Too tired to get up and they kept trying to get me up'.
- 'I begged my partner for pain relief and he followed our Birth Plan not to have it' (that takes care of who is making decisions and not wanting pain relief)
In all the years CKT has been told about Birth Plans one thing is very clear, few people see a Birth Plan as a goal toward which they must take small, measurable steps to succeed. Although some women talk about the books they have read and how much 'information' they have gathered, less then 1% of expectant parents talk about the skills each of them will bring to the birth.
If you don't want pain relief then learn birth skills that permit you to cope or manage labour pain. No one ... not your partner, doctor, staff or midwife wants to see you suffer. And you don't want to find yourself asking for pain relief when you didn't want it and find yourself months after the birth feeling like a whimp.
If you don't want pain relief fine. What skills are you going to use so every sees you 'behaving' or 'acting' as though you are coping? Name the skills. And these skills have to be usable when labour gets really intense!
If you want to be upright, how do you know whether that position is the one your baby likes? What skills are you going to use so that your labour contractions continue to follow the Bell Shaped curve that indicates your baby likes the position you are in. Don't assume the positions being recommended are the best for your baby. Too many women realize after the birth that their muscles were tighter in some upright positions and if they had only known how to recognize and relax those muscles their birth won't have gone on so long.
If you don't want an episiotomy then what have you done during pregnancy to make certain your birth canal will open easily to such a big object. Perineal massage isn't sufficient for many women. How do we know? We get hundreds of emails telling us (with frustration) that 'I still tore'. That's why The Internal Work got developed. It's not just a small part of your birth canal that has to stretch, it's every bit of tissue inside you and some of that are strong muscles that women tighten when they feel the pressure on their rectum.
So if you don't want to tear or be cut, tell people exactly what you have done so they can connect the dots. Birth skills work toward the accomplishment of Birth Plans. You have to inform people what you are doing to actualize your 'Plan'. That's your responsibility.
And don't forget to mention what your partner's skills are. When you have a skilled birth coach (your husband, partner, friend or relative) their job is to help you cope with the natural occurring pain of contractions by seeing and hearing your response to internalized sensations and guiding you immediately if you begin to feel out of control.
Birth partners are not meant to be hung on for hours or just to rub a back or wipe a brow when you're moaning away. Labour is a team effort and both of you need to explain your skills in your Birth Plan very specifically and then use your skills to show your doctor, midwife and doula that skilled couples work well with every birth situation that happens on the day to you.
Pink Kit Birth Plans sound different.
'These are the skills my husband and I bring to our birth: Directed Breathing, The Pelvic Clock, Internal Work, knowing how to stay open and what positions make labour contractions effective. We have developed team work around a shared set of birth skills and have prepared my pregnant body to stay open and relaxed to assist our baby's descent.
Together we will work with our baby's efforts to be born and will happily work within whatever situation we find ourselves. We know that our role is to use self-learned skills to cope with the natural occurring pain during contractions and to work along side whatever assessments, monitoring and procedures make sense that day.
As a birth provider you will see a woman who uses her birth skills to cope well with labour and a father who really knows how to see and hear when he should help and knows what skills are needed at the time.'
With a planned cesarean delivery the Birth Plans tend to sound like this:
'We are preparing for the birth of our child in the same way we would prepare for a vaginal delivery. We are learning birth skills that we'll use during surgery and recovery and to work with our baby's assisted efforts to be born.'
You see The Pink Kit has always been used by families having every imaginable birth! Birth is more about what we do than what others can do for us.
Create a Birth Plan based on skills not imagination, wishful thinking, anger or ideology. You'll get much more out of what you create than what you feel you lost.
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