I don't usually embed these things, I've done it once or twice before, but I feel like this one is important.

These two words should NOT go together. However, these days whenever one of my children wakes me in the night, I have a tough time getting back to sleep. So here I am for the third night in a week, awake at 2 AM. The last two times, it actually served me well, I got a lot of work done on my final paper for philosophy. However, tonight I really should be sleeping, as my Stats final is in the AM. Gah!

However, I thought I'd go ahead and link my paper in here. It is about the current anti-VBAC climate, which is based solely on "expert opinion" and not on evidence. I liken it to the ethics surrounding court-ordered cesarean deliveries, and take a feminist perspective on it.

It's long, it may be tedious. I like it, but I hesitate to say that - other papers I've liked have turned out to be bombs.

There is currently nothing in the literature about this situation, however. So if it IS worth working further on (and I've asked my professors to consider whether or not it is when reading it) I will likely work it up for publication.

Then again, I said that about my paper from first quarter about neonatal sepsis evaluations and epidural use. I still think I'll get that one out, but it just doesn't feel as pressing as this one.

I read more closely the article linked in to Matt Peterson's name in my entry below, and I wanted to quote a piece of it... it's not specific to the cyclists, it's specific to the motor vehicle versus cyclist attitude that has seemed to come out of this incident:

In fact, studies show that bicycling is far safer than many think. According to a British report, the casualty rate for bicyclists is relatively small, about one death per 33 million kilometers of cycling. A Dutch study found that, setting aside highway travel, there are nearly twice as many motorists killed as bicyclists per mile traveled. According to a British Medical Association report, the health benefits of bicycling outweigh the risk of bicycling fatalities by 20-to-1. And people who bicycle to work have a 39% lower rate of mortality than those who do not, even after adjusting for other risk factors.

Is bicycling as safe as it should be? Not yet. As groups like ours work to improve bicycling conditions, the number of bicyclists in the Bay Area is growing steadily. That's good news for all of us because, in truth, not bicycling is far more dangerous than bicycling.

On Sunday the 9th, the morning after daylight savings time changed over, Phil and I were riding out to Steven's Canyon Road for a change from Portola Valley. What we came upon was a road block. I asked the police officer if it was a cyclist or a car. "Both" was her reply. There were cyclists across the road trying to get a look at what was going on, but we turned around and headed home, fearing that the worst had happened, and a cyclist had been killed.

We were wrong.

It was worse than that.

Two cyclists had been killed, and by a deputy sheriff who had, it appears, fallen asleep at the wheel and crossed the road without stopping until he hit the embankment on the other side.

Kristy Gough was a pre-Olympic hopeful, and Matt Peterson was an avid athlete, of the adrenaline seeking sort. I didn't know them personally, but the cycling community feels these losses acutely.

An article by the San Jose Mercury actually appears to paint this as a cyclist at fault issue with such statements as:

Local cyclists noted that riders in large groups will sometimes ride two-abreast. The practice is not illegal but can be extremely dangerous on narrow, winding roads with a large amount of traffic.

Nevermind that THESE riders were riding single file, according to some witness account I've heard through the grapevine, and that there was in NO way these riders were at fault. I much more appreciate the Sports Illustrated writer who states:

Witnesses said the moment of impact was preceded by no screeching of brakes. When it came to rest, the squad car was entirely in the wrong lane. A cyclist who came upon the carnage quoted the disoriented deputy as saying things like, "I must have fallen asleep," and "My life is over."

This author also puts out a plea for drivers to simply SEE cyclists. I will add my voice to that plea. We've all had our near misses at the hands of drivers, and somehow we are being told by most popular media that we are at fault for riding with cars on the road.

So instead, we should add our carbon emissions, use up precious resources, not to mention spend tons of money on gas, and car upkeep? I don't think this is the answer for anyone.

In working on my final paper for Philosophy of Science, I came across an interesting exerpt:

... encouraging women to complete birth plans simply reinforces the assumption of incompetence. The implicit message is that, while women may be deemed competent at the time they complete the plan, at the onset of labour and delivery they will no longer be so. This is an essentially questionable assumption that lacks foundation, but one that is clearly shared by many midwives.

"The ideal time to discuss birth options is the antenatal period when there is adequate time, rather than in labour when pain and anxiety are likely to detract from the woman's ability to make in formed choices (p.54)**"

Birth plans are a relatively recent preoccupation, undoubtedly intended to help to meet women's needs, but those clinician and midwives who congratulate themselves on encouraging women to make birth plans have rather missed the point. It is indeed difficult to think of another area of health care in which patients have to note down all those procedures and interventions they do not wish to have, prior to coming into hospital.

I'd never thought about it that way before, but that is, in no small part, what I love about homebirthing, you don't have to deal with making the "plan".

Source: Cahill, H. 1999. Court ordered caesarean section and women's autonomy. Nursing Ethics, 6(6). 494-505.

**Source: Judge, E. 1997. Choice in intrapartum care. Nursing Times, 93(10), 54-55.