Belly Tales

We had a quick consultation yesterday with the professor who will be teaching us the pelvic part of our physical assessment class, which will begin in October. She had a three ring binder with her that was 4″ thick, filled to the brim with paper, and all of this was our pelvic unit. It was massive. You could kill someone with it if you accidentally dropped it on their heads. We were all a bit hushed and flabbergasted.

However, as she quickly (and correctly) pointed out, the pelvis is the foundation of our practice. We’re learning how to examine the heart and lungs, but truth be told, if we run into something seriously abnormal, we’re probably going to refer it out to another practitioner. Hearts and lungs will not be our specialty. The pelvis, on the other hand…we’ve got to know it inside out, all of its muscles, structures, ligaments, bones, how it works, how it feels, how it stretches, what a normal finding is, what an abnormal finding is, how to do a pap, wet mount and liquid slide, how to diagnose all the different variations of vaginal itch, and all sorts of amazing stuff that I don’t even know about yet.

To say that I’m excited is a bit of an understatement. I can’t wait! We’re finally getting to the good stuff. Although, looking out that 4″ binder…the good stuff is going to be a ton of work. But good work. Work I’ve been looking forward to for years and years.

In other news:

The Senate Judiciary committee has endorsed John G. Roberts as future Chief Justice, and the vote will go to the entire Senate next week. I’m still of a mixed opinion about this. On the one hand, he does seem like a very intelligent and judicious man, which is more than can be said about a lot of people, and he has repeated, on several occassions, that he doesn’t want to tamper with precedent, which you could possibly read as his way of saying that he doesn’t want to open the Roe v. Wade powder-keg without having to say it directly and piss off all of his right wing conservative supporters. Or maybe that’s just his way of skirting the issue and not answering directly, so that he can unload a bazooka gun at privacy rights just as soon as he’s nominated. He has been so ambiguous throughout this entire process, and infuriatingly indirect, and the uncoorperativeness of the White House has just been staggering. Honestly, you really don’t know what to think, because the entire thing has been so abstract and obfuscated. I can’t take the measure of the man. No one can. That’s been the problem. I have a sneaky suspicion we’re all going to have to find out the hard way on this.

A quick reminder: Miles for Midwives, the 5K run/walk that will jointly benefit the NYC Chapter of the ACNM and Friends of the Birth Center is next weekend. I’ve already signed my beloved boy and I up to run, and I know several of my fellow midwifery students and friends will also be going. If you live in the NYC area and are interested in attending, the registration form is here.

Finally, some adoreable shirts have been designed with the logo “Midwives Deliver” on them. Proceeds from the sales will also go to benefit Friends of the Birth Center, so if you’re at all interested in owning one, check them out here.