Page 1B • The Leader • October 19, 2013 • www.theleadernews.com
Outstanding in its Field
HOME Bound
Friends get out good word about neighborhood school by Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com
Clockwise from center: Monique Bennett with her mother, Donna Pasquier. (Photo by Wendi Schoffstall) Soaking in a pool or tub helps laboring homebirth mothers like Rachel Petty. (Submitted photo) Miles being weighed after birth by midwife Cathy Rude. (Photo by Wendi Schoffstall)
Mothers giving births at home share experience by Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com
Center for Health Statistics study, U.S. homebirths increased by 29 percent from 2004-2009, from .56 percent in 2004 to .72 percent in 2009. They can cost less, too. According to the American Pregnancy Association, “an average, uncomplicated vaginal birth costs about 60 percent less in a home than in a hospital.”
When Garden Oaks’ Monique Bennett was pregnant with her first child she considered the option of a homebirth but was somewhat wary. “I only knew one family who had done it,” she said. “Society says you go to the hospital to have a baby.” After an unplanned hospital C-section, however, she changed her thinking. During her second pregnancy, she “We were fortunate sought out a midwife practice that would to have several friends accommodate her wishes to have a vaginal birth after caesarean, or a VBAC. She who had healthy, happy found a good fit with Katy Birth Center homebirths,” and had her next two children at home. Today, Bennett is a trained doula who Rachel Petty works with a pregnant woman before and during childbirth. Through her company, Joie de Vivre Birth Services, she also teaches the Bradley Method, or The CDC study noted that about onehusband-coached natural childbirth, to half of homebirths were third or highercouples. order births, compared with 28 percent Bennett likes to quote the legendary of hospital births. Oak Forest’s Kamie midwife Ina May Gaskin - “Your body is Thornton fits that profile. not a lemon.” “I was not satisfied with my previAccordingLeader to a 2012 CDC/National ous two hospital birth experiences,” said 11.625x10.5 Ad_Layout 1 7/15/13 9:26 AM Page 1
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Thornton. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to have a homebirth or a birth center birth.” She ultimately chose homebirth. “Having a baby naturally and in the comfort of my own home was an amazing experience and one that I feel so blessed to have had,” Thornton said. Angela Pennington is another Oak Forest mother whose first homebirth was for her fourth child. Like Bennett, she had a previous C-section and was looking for someone to do a VBAC but “no doctors would even hear me out.” Pennington said that “gathering supplies was not hard, it was making sure my husband and I were mentally prepared to do this.” Others opted for a homebirth from the start. “We were fortunate to have several friends who had healthy, happy homebirths,” said Oak Forest’s Rachel Petty. “After much research, we felt like it was the best option for our baby as well.” And Angela Richard in Candlelight Woods had all three of her children at home.
see Home Birth • Page 3B
Every school needs a champion, and in the case of The Heights’ Eugene Field Elementary, there are quite a few thanks to a Friends of Field group which is working to raise the school’s profile. Heights resident Patty McGrail didn’t have a child when she first moved into the area. Once her son was born, McGrail started thinking about schools and talking to moms in the park. “Everyone was talking about Harvard and Travis,” she said. She learned she was zoned to Field Field Elementary and wanted to learn School Neighbormore about the hood Night will school. She found at 6 p.m. Oct. 23. a Field group on Prospective famiNextdoor and relies and interested cently heard about community mem- a late summer PTO bers are welcome. meeting. McGrail couldn’t make the meeting, but her friend and neighbor Ashley Zuelke did. When Zuelke learned that the teachers’ number one concern was a lack of school supplies for students, she got to work and within two weeks had raised $1,000 and enough school supplies to fill the back of McGrail’s car. When McGrail went with Zuelke to deliver the supplies she says she was blown away. “The outside doesn’t have the most curb appeal but the inside was amazing, and the teachers were so nice.” After another PTO meeting, McGrail accepted Principal John Hendrickson’s invitation to a Shared Decision Making Committee meeting. “I saw how well the teachers liked the principal, and at the end of the day when they should be tired, they were laughing and having fun. I thought that they were the kind of teachers I’d want to teach my son. I just kept seeing all these really positive things.”
Field Elementary has been a fixture in the Heights since it opened in 1929. (Photo by Betsy Denson) McGrail joined other volunteers, such as Sharon Dearman and Zulemma O’Byrne, who hosted a very successful book drive for third-grade students and mobilized parents in her neighborhood with preschool children. Now Friends of Field is on Facebook and has enough members so that each committee has a head. The group is currently promoting Field Elementary’s Neighborhood Night at 6 p.m. Oct. 23. There will be a school tour and Q&A session. Teachers will also talk about the various enrichment programs. “We have a great group of parents and students,” said Hendrickson. “The faculty and staff work well together. We believe that if we can help each other, we can help the students.” He’s also very appreciative of Friends of Field. “They’ve rolled up their sleeves to get us to the next level,” he said. “We’re trying to raise awareness, and they came along at the right time in our evolution.” McGrail says that the ultimate goal is to get families zoned to Field to go to Field. And while many of the children at the school may not be from an economically privileged background, they are part of a “great little school with incredible test scores.” For more information, or to get involved, visit Friends of Field’s Facebook page or email friendsoffield@gmail.com
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