In which the Carolina Community Maternity Center gets its license!

I'm now a licensed midwife apprentice (yes, that's how it's written, not apprentice midwife; midwife apprentice) at a South Carolina-licensed free-standing birth center run by licensed South Carolina midwives! The Carolina Community Maternity Center!



Happy dance!

To celebrate, the midwives and I had dinner at City Tavern and they toasted each other on getting a birth center up and running in less than 7 months. What an accomplishment! I have to give so much credit to Leigh, Christine, Damaris, and Lisa for going out and getting it done. Helping them has been a learning process for me, and what I've learned is that starting a birth center is a huge totally thankless undertaking that involves lots of people and lots of money.

My contribution? I'm trying to get a small aquarium donated to the birth center. I think it would provide a nice sense of ambiance! I would like to have two fish, named Amnion and Chorion. And maybe they could have babies.


Today I went to a community car seat check. I checked three seats: two convertibles (rear-facing) and one combination forward-facing seat using a seat belt. Unfortunately, none of these seats officially count for me because there was no instructor on site to check off that I did them (although there were two senior checkers, both of whom are licensed to seat-check for special-needs children). But it was experience, and I was reminded -- again -- that I do enjoy being a car seat tech and checking seats. I'm teaching a basic car seat safety class at the birth center on November 12. I plan to focus on what new parents need to know about seats: NEVER put a rear-facing seat in front of an airbag; keep a baby rear-facing for as long as possible; the middle of the back seat is the safest place for a car seat; buy a new seat if possible -- and if impossible, there are programs that provide free seats, or make sure you know the person you're buying from and that the seat has always been used properly and never been in a crash.

I also had puppy school with Maizey today. I love puppy kindergarten. I've learned as much as Maizey has, I've met some great instructors and other dog people, and I've made some contacts in the world of Cardigans for when Maizey and I are ready to show. There are only two more weeks, sadly. After that I'm switching to Handling Class (30 minutes/week on how to show a dog), and then in January I'll start beginner obedience. Yes, dog training is my hobby. When I was a little girl, and someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up, my answer was always "a dog." Now I love being a confident, knowledgeable dog owner who is giving my animals a nice life.