Today and Saturday, donations to help mothers and babies will be accepted at A Woman’s Work:

Organizing this donation drive is a group of psychologist moms who want to help the many families seeking refuge in our city following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. These families are in need of so much. The focus of this donation drive is to help these families provide for their children.

In addition to making cash donations to the Red Cross and other organizations, this donation drive encourages families to donate new or gently used baby and childcare items, including:

- Diapers of all sizes
- Baby Wipes
- Formula (expiration dates MUST be on the container)
- Baby Bottles
- Clothes
- Jars of baby food of all types
- Baby gear

Donations will be accpted at “A Woman’s Work” at 2401 Rice at Morningside in the Rice Village on Friday Sep 2 and Sat Sep 3 between 11am-4pm. They will be working with the Houston Food Bank to distribute these goods to needy families.

Also, Palmer Memorial in the med center (across from Rice University) is feeding dinner to Katrina victims starting today. Many injured or sick people were transferred to the hospitals in the medical center. Palmer Memorial is trying to make sure their families are fed and taken care of in their time of need. They plan to offer dinner every night to as many as 1000 people for as long as they need to keep cooking.

Palmer Memorial will also be helping to provide personal hygiene items, books, toys, stuffed animals, socks, underwear, etc….

If you have free time and would like to offer to help in any other way or if your church, scout troop, or friends would like to, please email icanhelp@palmerchurch.org.

However, I had a chuckle while looking at their recent catalogue. One person offeres a course on “Solo-prenuering ™,” which she asserts will help you discover how to “earn a living without a job.” In other words, the course teaches you how to string together a living wage from doing random piecemeal work. Such as, perhaps, teaching classes at LLU? It seems so, since the same instructor is also offering courses in becoming a mystery shopper and “Million Dollar Publicity–For Free!” At $29.95 a pop plus $25 for a “required text” for the mystery shopping course and $19.95 for “optional material” for the others, I’m sure her “Solo-prenuer”-ship ™ is paying off quite handily!

I also enjoy reading descriptions of the many other LLU courses people are conducting based on what they do in their everyday lives. I don’t wish to discount the expertise of personal experience, of course, but some of the more “I’m out to make a quick buck by showing you around my house–er, my home-based business” type course descriptions prompted my husband and me to talk about creating our own course, entitled “Whatever the Hell We’re Doing at Our House Today.” In this course, you’ll learn all about infant care, blogging, ignoring inessential housework, advanced powernapping, hot sweaty monkey sex, cooking family meals on a shoestring budget in 30 minutes or less, watering houseplants, watching Queer as Folk DVDs, the miracle of human lactation, being a smartass, and letting the dogs in and out repeatedly. All for a $29.95 enrollment fee, plus $19.95 for optional materials, of course.

Luckily, one of the best breastfeeding resources is right here in Houston. In Rice Village, you can find A Woman’s Work, a shop dedicated to nursing products and resources, and its associated A Woman’s Workshop, which offers breastfeeding and parenting classes with lactation consultants.

AWW is the only place I know of in Houston where one can purchase the Glamourmom nursing camisole–a godsend for those of us who want to nurse in style. I just wish that they carried it in more of the available colors–currently, AWW carries only red, black, and white. Every nursing mother I know is a fan of these versatile camisoles.

AWW staff is friendly and helpful, and able to assist with questions about breastfeeding and pumping as well as custom-fitting you with the perfect nursing bra. The shop also provides multiple changing tables (a decent public changing area is a great rarity in Houston, I’ve found), as well as scales for weighing your infant (a great way to assure yourself that yes, your baby is getting enough milk–since breasts don’t come with handy tic marks to show how many ounces have been sucked up by your little one).

The best aspect of this shop by far, however, would be the two nursing areas with comfy armchairs, support pillows, and a water cooler for shoppers whose babies need a lunch break. This is unfortunately a rarity among shops for nursing and expectant mothers, and such a smart marketing move, to boot. On a recent visit, I enjoyed being able to stop and feed my little guy in the company of other nursing mamas–a form of socialization that reminds me of the Friday afternoon coffee klatsches I once shared with my baby-less friends. An AWW associate stopped by to join the chat, offer her expertise (and of course, to suss whether we were ripe for any more purchases–all in a day’s work).

Now, if they’d just add an espresso bar….

This year, circumstances have prevented me from engineering a similar event–so I’m putting the call for donations here on the Internet in the hopes that you generous guys and gals out there can organize similar donation drives on your own.

The Houston Area Women’s Center assists battered women and children in the Houston area by providing shelter, counseling, and job training. Every holiday season, they need donations of NEW, UNWRAPPED gift items for their Holiday Store. (Used items can be donated to the Second to None Thrift Store at 1435 Westheimer; all proceeds support the Houston Area Women’s Center.) The Holiday Store allows women and children at the shelter to choose gifts for each other, helping clients who are in dire financial straits and away from their homes during the holidays to celebrate the season. Donations to the holiday store make a big difference in helping women and children during what is a very difficult time in their lives.

What to donate? Almost anything that you, your kids, and/or your loved ones would appreciate will be appreciated here, too. Here’s a condensed version of the Holiday Store Wish List:

INFANTS
-clothing & blankets
-toys, especially educational/developmental ones
-picture books

CHILDREN
-clothing, especially winter items & coats
-non-violent toys of all kinds and for all ages
-dolls of all different ethnicities
-board games
-scooters, skates, bikes
-play sets and dress-up clothes

TEENS
-CD players/boom boxes/radios
-costume jewelry, funky accessories
-pajamas and gowns (Joe Boxer style)
-makeup, boys’ & girls’ cologne, bath sets
-clothing, especially trendy, goth, and punk styles
-posters, journals, fancy pens, photo frames
-funky room decor, lava lamps, neon lamps, etc.

WOMEN
-fine & costume jewelry
-underwear (esp. bra sizes 38C+, panty size 7+)
-makeup, perfume, bath sets
-pajamas & gowns
-curling irons for all types of hair
-manicure/pedicure sets
-clothing (esp. larger sizes)

The Houston Area Women’s Center Holiday Store can also use gift certificates to: Target, Wal-Mart, Sam Goody, Kroger, Toys R Us, any area mall, Claire’s, 5-7-9, Spencer’s, and Hot Topic.

Holiday store donations must be brought to the Houston Area Women’s Center at 1010 Waugh before December 12th. Again, ALL DONATIONS MUST BE NEW AND UNWRAPPED.

Want to volunteer for the Holiday Store? Volunteers are needed in three-hour shifts for set-up on December 12th, to assist with the holiday store on December 15th-21st, and for clean-up on December 22nd, 28th, and 29th. Contact Christina Rodriguez at 713-528-6798, ext. 2298, or by email at crodriguez@hawc.org to volunteer.

The Women’s Center also accepts donations of items from their Wish List year-round.

Before you picture any granola-crunching, Birkenstock-wearing, herb tincture-wielding stereotypes of midwives here, let me first say shame on you for harboring sterotypes, and then say that all of these women hold not only a Masters degree in nursing, but also additional training and certification in women’s reproductive issues and midwifery. Not only are they highly qualified, they are also compassionate and will spend more time during your appointments talking with you and listening to you than the average OB/GYN. And they’re not just for babymaking–they’re qualified and equipped to handle the well-woman care that OB/GYNs do, from your yearly paps to birth control to breast exams.

Most importantly, the CNMs view pregnancy and childbirth as natural occurrences that usually do not need heaps of medical intervention. It’s up to you how much technology and intervention you want in your pregnancy and birth, and they’ll guide you through whatever path works best for you. You don’t have to have an unmedicated birth if you don’t want to–they support you being in control of your birth experience and will offer guidance in helping you decipher the myriad options that face you. They are an especially wonderful option for people like me, who want the security of a hospital birth along with the constant attention and support that only a midwife can provide.

What more can I say? These women rock!

Another popular hospital (which shall remain nameless here), where an acquaintance is planning to give birth, is rumored to have two “hidden” labor & delivery rooms with hot tubs (a proven way to soothe labor pains without medication)–but you have to know some kind of secret handshake or have your doula raise a ruckus in order to get one. According to this acquaintance, the very existence of these rooms was denied while she was on her maternity tour–it was her doula who tipped her off about them.

I was incredibly happy, then, to find that the St. Luke’s maternity tour proudly revealed that half of its labor and delivery rooms have hot tubs–and that they try to keep these rooms open for women (like me) who plan to have a drug-free labor and birth. Odds are, I’ll be able to soak away some of the pain!

The one drawback of the tour was the (to my ear) excessive focus on epidurals. The tour guide mentioned epidurals at every opportunity, and only occasionally tossed out a reference to natural childbirth as an afterthought. Of course, I’m sure that any hospital makes more money from an epidural than a natural birth, so there may be a connection there. Still, it would seem to be in the best interest of potential clients to give equal coverage to all the options available, without making the assumption that an epidural is the best choice for everyone. The brochure about pain management in labor that was provided during the tour was much more equitable in its approach.

One feature of St. Luke’s that took me by surprise is the Terrace Suites, a special floor of hotel-like suites available to recovering patients. These rooms, which feature cable modem docking stations, brass fixtures, massaging recliners, guest rooms, real wood furniture with decorative inlays, brocade bedspreads, a special menu from which you can order steak and lobster, and daily “high tea” with cheesecake, are available for about $1000 per night. That’s $1000 per night over and above all other hospital costs, mind you. This is the first time I’d heard of such high-falutin’ hospital service! I’m trying to imagine the sort of fancy folk who might be able to afford to stay in these suites–society matrons recovering from facelifts, or pro sports athletes nursing torn ligaments, perhaps? As for me, I’ll have to settle for bleeding all over the (certainly not 200+ thread count Egyptian cotton) sheets of the regular old $70 per night private room in the maternity ward.

As a stark contrast to such service, I thought of the old Jefferson Davis Hospital, rumored to be the most haunted place in Houston. Having lived for a few years in a very haunted house in Lindale (just outside the Heights), my research into other hauntings in H-town invariably led to stories of this now-abandoned building, which is built over the site of the oldest cemeteries in the area (one dating back to the 1600s).

Supposedly, over a year ago the property was bought by a company who intends to turn it into “affordable” loft-style apartments–yet there seems to be no indication yet of actual renovation or construction taking place.

An interesting note: the maternity ward and the psychiatric ward (complete with padded rooms) were on the same floor of the old Jeff Davis hospital. Coincidence? You new mothers out there can be the judge…

Today, this building is of course strictly private property and legally off-limits to would-be ghostbusters, though that doesn’t deter the squatters, junkies, and thrill-seeking teens who continue to hang out there. As far as I know, the only legal way to get a closer look at the place is through the High Spirits tours of haunted places in Houston.

Back on the topic of birth, the newer Jeff Davis Hospital, built in 1937 (the older one no longer functioned as a hospital after 1938) and demolished in 1999, was a community hospital serving Harris County residents, many of lesser financial means. Interestingly enough, it was also the site of some controversy around the hotly debated issue of routine infant circumcision, as it actually stopped performing circumcisions on newborn boys in its care in 1983. What happened next? A clinic entirely dedicated to providing circumcisions opened nearby. No word on whether the clinic survived the destruction of the hospital providing its business, however…

This Thursday kicks off the Voting Machine, “a multimedia collaboration of Houston-based arts organizations seeking to ignite healthy debate and mobilize the city towards participation in democracy and voting. This series of art programs explores issues of globalization, alternate economies, immigration, marginalized communities, and voting trends.”

Whether you’re politically liberal, conservative, or somewhere in-between, these events are for you. The point isn’t to slam you with rhetoric or convince you to vote for a certain party or candidate–it’s to get you to THINK, to DISCUSS, and to VOTE. Houston’s most cutting-edge arts organizations have come together for this, and it promises to be impressive and entertaining as well as political and educational.

Thursday’s (9/16) events include openings at DiverseWorks for activist artists Margaret Crane, Jon Winet, Carrie Moyer, and Karen Giusti. Get in on the action from 6:00-9:00 p.m.. It’s free and open to the public.

On Friday (9/17), “We the Video” juror Doug Ashford will give a lecture and screen several political PSAs made by Texans, as well as opening a discussion of activist art. The event begins at 8:00 p.m. at the Eleanor and Frank Freed Auditorium at the Glassell School of Art (that’s the building with the sculpture garden across the street from the MFAH, y’all). This event is being co-sponsored by the Glassell Core Program, Lawndale Art Center, and the Aurora Picture Show. Again, this event is free and open to the public.

Events continue through the end of October, and include an appearance by the illustrious performance artist Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping!

For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit The Voting Machine - www.votingmachine.org