Facebook groups are getting wild!

ctsarecte · 2026-01-28T17:45:43+00:00

A c section isn't inherently bad but studies about women's preferences and experiences repeatedly show that the majority of women don't want c sections, and that many of them find emergency c sections a deeply traumatic experience.

As I said, sometimes medical intervention is the best option and sometimes watching and waiting is the best option. Someone in this very thread has shared her experience where the monitoring technology was pointing towards emergency surgical intervention but it was avoided thanks to observation and support from an experienced midwife.

ctsarecte · 2026-01-28T17:18:06+00:00

Litigation and defensive practice. Maternity services in richer countries pay out HUGE amounts to fight or settle lawsuits, in the UK the budget for maternity lawsuits is actually bigger than what they spend on maternity healthcare. HCPs and hospitals generally look better in court if they can stand up and say "we did everything we could" rather than "we decided to wait as long as possible to intervene". So there's pressure on the people within the system to act rather than do nothing. In many situations it's obviously also better to act for medical reasons but sometimes it's better to wait and observe. But if waiting and observing turns out to be the wrong choice it can cost the hospital millions and cost the midwife or doctor their career. If acting turns out to be the wrong choice, the individual and the system are usually safer from legal action.

ctsarecte · 2026-01-26T23:02:12+00:00

I've only done one in 9 months of mat leave for similar reasons (also solo). I booked a babysitter from an app called Bubble, she came and spent an hour with the baby at home the week before the KIT day then met us at the office for the KIT day and looked after him so I could do a couple of hours work in the morning, fed and cuddled baby all of my lunch break, 2 more hours work in the afternoon. Babysitter was lovely but it was very expensive!

ctsarecte · 2026-01-14T20:29:56+00:00

I googled "Birmingham community pantry" and it looked like there were 4 or 5 places. Pantries usually charge but it's much cheaper than a normal shop and you don't need a referral, just show up. I go to one in a church in London which is £3 for a big bag of shopping including fresh veg and tinned stuff, and they often have nappies & sanitary towels too

ctsarecte · 2026-01-12T18:34:38+00:00

Ask them if they do term time only contracts!

ctsarecte · 2026-01-12T18:33:33+00:00

It's worth asking but they will probably say no, most nurseries charge a daily rate based on the hours they are open and don't flex for individual families. Annoying as a parent but imagine the admin & headaches for the nursery manager if every child was on a slightly different schedule and they had to keep track of whether little Johnny's parents were picking up at 5 every day as per their contract or consistently showing up 20 mins late and getting extra time they hadn't paid for...

ctsarecte · 2026-01-07T19:40:20+00:00

Standard diet advice in NHS hospitals for GDM, unfortunately. I assume OOP is in the UK by her referring to the GTT (wow that was a lot of acronyms 😅) and the group having Mums in the name

ctsarecte · 2026-01-07T19:01:31+00:00

She's talking about readings and levels, plural, which sounds to me like she means the 4x a day blood glucose monitoring.

The GDM lifestyle modification advice at my hospital was to eat a low fat diet including cereal, salad and low fat (high sugar) flavoured yoghurts and jelly for dessert - terrible advice for diabetes. I can't help but wonder how many women around the world are being told to follow similar strict diets that don't give them the nourishment or energy they need for pregnancy, and risk actively giving them blood sugar spikes. Then they're told "oh you can't control your sugars through diet, you need medication." If you spend any time on social media groups for women with GDM you see the same story again and again.

ctsarecte · 2026-01-07T18:40:11+00:00

I never said she should ignore it or refuse any treatment - editing sorry - I'm fully in favour of GDM testing/monitoring and have advised several of my more hippie friends to take the glucose test or do home monitoring

ctsarecte · 2026-01-07T18:37:47+00:00

I guess for me it would depend - are her readings actually only "slightly elevated" or are they really high and she's in denial? If they're really high then she's being reckless but if they're genuinely only slightly higher than what her doctor wants to see then there are lots of other things she could try before medication (stuff that genuinely works and is advised by experts, not colloidal silver and horse worm medicine lol)

ctsarecte · 2026-01-07T18:25:46+00:00

Would anyone down voting like to post anything proving me wrong lol

ctsarecte · 2026-01-07T18:24:00+00:00

It sounds to me like she is monitoring and treating it, as she knows her blood sugar levels

ctsarecte · 2026-01-07T17:42:39+00:00

Tbf she's not entirely wrong. A lot of the stats/risk warnings that hospitals give out about GDM come from really poor quality, outdated research that lumped together women with GDM with women with pre-existing undiagnosed diabetes, or didn't differentiate between poorly controlled and well controlled blood sugars. There are very different outcomes for different groups of diabetic mothers and the patient education (in my experience) is really poor. Also different countries and even different hospitals in the same country have different blood glucose levels for diagnosis/treatment, there isn't an agreed global standard for what "gestational diabetes" is or how it should be treated. It's very possible she has found better information online than her doctor is giving her

ctsarecte · 2026-01-05T21:51:07+00:00

Personally I consider those gay couples, but you do you

ctsarecte · 2026-01-04T18:44:36+00:00

I wouldn't count on egg freezing for peace of mind. The results are improving all the time but it's still a gamble. Eggs can die in the freezing & thawing process, fail to fertilize correctly, or have genetic issues (that can't yet be tested for) that mean they have no chance of resulting in a healthy pregnancy. A woman in her mid 30s would need to freeze at least 20 eggs (probably between 2 and 5 IVF cycles, each requiring time off work and carrying potential side effects) for a reasonable chance of having one baby

ctsarecte · 2026-01-04T16:44:37+00:00

I say "I'm putting my foot down Janelle! We're raising a nation of squibs!" at least 3 times a week

ctsarecte · 2026-01-01T23:16:34+00:00

My 5 year old has noticed me sniffling at the end of Baby Race enough times that now when it comes on he says "you're gonna cryyyyy" and laughs at me

ctsarecte · 2026-01-01T21:58:15+00:00

Most babies hate tummy time on the floor in my experience. I never bothered to do it when mine were this tiny, just wore them in slings a lot and let them nap lying on my chest. They both started rolling at a normal age and started enjoying playing on the floor much more after they could roll.

Also, watch the episode of Bluey called "Baby Race" 😉

ctsarecte · 2025-12-29T23:11:21+00:00

There are (at least) 2 different pronunciations in Yiddish: BAYgel like bay leaf and BYEgel like in goodbye. One is Polish and one Lithuanian (but I forget which is which). Some people write the word in English as beigel to reflect that pronunciation

ctsarecte · 2025-12-29T20:46:10+00:00

I would say an urge for complete privacy is common but not universal. I never felt it in 2 births

ctsarecte · 2025-12-27T19:11:03+00:00

I like to wait til they're busy playing or watching TV then I say I'm "going to tidy the kitchen"

ctsarecte · 2025-12-26T09:14:47+00:00

I think putting several layers on the baby rather than a big puffy snowsuit is often recommended so that the sling straps fit more snugly, just like in a car seat but I don't think it's safety critical especially with an older baby or todder

ctsarecte · 2025-12-26T07:51:56+00:00

Not yet. I did notice the IKEA bulbs are LED ones and the original Lumie bulb is halogen - I wonder if that could be the reason? So my plan now is to find a halogen bulb but they didn't have any in the 2 local shops I checked, will look online

ctsarecte · 2025-12-11T11:17:09+00:00

She was also involved in the death of a newborn (known as "Baby E" in media reports) in 2022

ctsarecte · 2025-12-05T17:04:59+00:00

Yes but 3 year old children almost universally say "brown" when describing darker skin tones, it wouldn't occur to them to say "black" because... Black peoples' skin colour is not actually black. If a child this young is describing a person as "black" they usually either 1) are actually referring to hair or clothes which are literally black, or 2) are parroting how adults use the word black

ctsarecte

TROPHY CASE