My mom is in town and watching the girls so I feel like I have a small space to breathe. Plus I am travelling this week to Louisiana for my birthday and anniversary. I have 2 days of total travel time to and from Baton Rouge so I should be getting much needed reading in and I am. Not wanting to pay the fee to check my bag (I am such a cheap-o), I forgot that some items I was carrying might be questioned by security and they were. My husband had left his Allen wrench set (small pieces of seemingly useless metal to the untrained eye), so that was in my bag along with my Doppler and bottle of jelly. Luckily the screeners were compassionate or had had home births, because they saw my Myles along with these suspicious items and just asked when I would be practicing! What an awesome start to my vacation, I thought! Respectful security screeners! Yeah! Likewise while waiting for my flight, a fellow passenger asked if we say mid-whiff-ery or mid-wife-ery because she had watched a show on TV that always messed up the word. I guess I gotta get out more often or watch TV, because I didn’t realize that ‘normal’ people had such thoughts.
After arriving in Baton Rouge, my husband had a conference in New Orleans. So, we trekked south and parted ways as I went to visit my friends in the area and he went to sit in seminars. Upon arriving back to reconvene with him at the hotel, I was perusing the topics for the poster presentation and lo and behold — a few researchers were presenting information on IUGR. Well, I high-tailed my happy-self down to his conference and started mingling with the nerds. Okay, I didn’t have a very hard time doing that part. After finding my gold mine, I had a great conversation with an undergraduate working on figuring out how hypertension in pregnancy works. In perfect timing, the researchers data pointed to oxidative stress as a factor in the high blood pressure for the mother, but also showed how this effected the baby during the nephrogenic period!! Hello!! We are studying embryogenesis right now J It was fascinating research, right up my alley or yoni, however you prefer to look at it. Part of the research is quoted below: “Changes in nephron complement follow the blood pressure response in these studies suggesting that an insult during nephrogenesis leads to ‘programming’ of the kidneys resulting in disregulation of the normal regulatory systems involved in blood pressure regulation. Many regulatory mechanisms such as the SNS control sodium balance and an alteration in sympathetic activity can have sustained effects that result in long-term changes in arterial pressure. In humans sympathetic activation is observed in low birth weight individuals and is increased in response to hypoxia in animals.”
My Journey as a Licensed Midwife in Louisiana 