ir 27,1985 Wednesday, Movember 27, 1985/The Battalion/Page 7 Warped by Scott McCullar 7 p.in.ini i, ciet'lionsvi on abortion 11 tine at 7 p.tn.iE IbaR and mcer (1 (...ross Blood 6 p.fii. at Oai it:ilion,SWM Waldo sired by Kevin Thomas LOOK/ARNOLD THE APATHETIC AGGIE 15 CHANGING EOPM.' ( IT'S A BIRO/ it's a plane 1 ok, SO FAir OH THE CORNr STUFF.' 6UR#* 0 /o ourrA i:.uJ SHOE by Jeff MacNelly ( Wll NEVER BE 1 LATE TO WORK ASAIM. I BOUGHT YOU TWIG COMBINATION ALARM ~T< WELUTWANK5, GWO£ i WWAT A fWOUGHTFUL PREB^NT!'. ANO IT HAS THIS SNOOZE FEATURE.... IMA6INE 1 WAKING UP TO A NICE ROT OF COFFEE'.! RIGHT....IF VOU ROZE OFF, IT ^PRAVG VOU WITH WOT COFFEE. ick Bryant s lie likes Aggies. ■ better mannered £ .ilong with," hew ns and his emploffl.; added theywereta and talk to. | id he is not sureili 1 ho are betterniiW neral. a hoy, 20, andagidi i.m I was when Ifl aH Some local women skip hospital, seek midwives for baby delivery v ie both in makes me sad," he ; I his lull beard, id he is not sure if he nightclub businesi aughter may co« . il so, he will SB ast until she is thi vant says he does he plans lodo lefmitely like somtl m e than an 8 am e said. a your blood and il et and better. By LEN BRILEY Reporter considering her options. After Leone Hines, 24, rejected the clini- al, impersonal atmosphere of a hos pital delivery room and decided to rave her first child delivered by a [midwife at home, where she could .have champagne after the birth or yecord the event on videotape. At home, Hines, a Texas A&M raduate student, was steadied by he presence of her husband, who hose to cut his newborn son’s um bilical cord. Hines says that for a combination of reasons, among them comfort, se- urity and affordability, her decision fjWAt M' eni l ) l°y a midwife was an easy f ^ Tuivf j ’ ,ne ’ She is just one of an increasing _ I ■ number of Bryan-College Station area women who are finding the *^^■1 IVj services ol a midwife more attractive than a hospital delivery. i led the exchange* In fact, the number of home de- ig for 59 minutes. liveries by midwives in Bryan and ihares resumed trade fcollege Station rose from 19 in 1983 n lost some morep to 49 in 1984, according to the Col lege Station city secretary, who keeps birth records for both cities. There have been 61 home deliveries so far |his year. ay While home deliveries have risen since 1983, the deliveries at St. Jo seph Hospital have declined. In 1982, 2,340 births were recorded. In 1983, that number fell to 2,201 and in 1984 that number again fell to 2,183, says Janet Deininger, director of medical records. She did not offer a reason for the decline. A When midwife Donna Ruscher ar rived in the Bryan-College Station area there were three to five midwife deliveries a month, she said. Now there are almost eight a month, two qi three of which are by A&M stu dents, she says. Leslie Paulson, Ruscher’s partner, says business lias more than doubled during the three and a half years she has delivered in the area. “And within the Mexican-Ameri- can community, it (the number of home births by midwives) has in creased rpore than that,” she says. Because many Mexican-Ameri- cans are accustomed to a woman’s presence in the delivery room, she Tracey Wilkinson, 18, who recently gave birth with the help of a mid wife, says, “The hospital sometimes leaves you dur ing labor. My midwife was always there (during la bor). When my back hurt, she was there to rub it. ” e day at $32, dowife lay. e was in Dallas total*• ia people about lasl'f. v .1 Houston jury thij >perly gained com®' Co. by breaking J greement betWeenl 'oil. The jury saidM| Peimzoil $10.53bii punitive damages. iw requires defence id equal to an aw# fees and interestto)!| ut. The bond i# icr in cash or lion# ' for both sides a# e state DistrictJudfl •I) )t in Houstononfl ivhether he should i mlict and award. says, they are more likely to choose delivery by a midwife because they say it makes them feel more com fortable. Outside the Mexican-American community, the personalized assis tance offered by a midwife also in fluences a woman’s choice. Tracey Wilkinson, 18, who re cently gave birth with the help of Ruscher, says, “The hospital some times leaves you during labor. My midwife was always there (during la bor). When my back hurt, she was there to rub it.” Hines says, “During labor and de livery, Donna (Ruscher) stayed with me from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.” She also says that midwives realize the importance of a birth to the woman. “In the hospital, they do what is convenient to them, not to you,” Hines says. Besides the personal touch of fered by a midwife, midwife patients say they enjoy the quality treatment -of-hospita! Hines says, “They don’t do a slop job. It’s very professional.” Before accepting a patient, Paul son, who is a licensed vocational nurse, says she compiles a prenatal profile on the expectant mother. Her initial laboratory tests check for diabetes, anemia, venereal disease and determine weight and blood type, she says. If the mother is anemic, over weight, diabetic, has high blood pressure or a venereal disease, or if the fetus is positioned in an abnor mal way, Paulson says she will not perform the delivery and recom mends hospital delivery. After the initial check, Paulson monitors the mother’s blood pres sure and the baby’s heart rate and performs other tests once a month until the eighth month, when they are performed twice a month. In the ninth month, she says she runs the tests three times. Paulson says she has three and a half years of experience as a mid wife. Ruscher says she has been a midwife for seven years, after she apprenticed under a doctor and an other midwife. Many women also choose delivery by a midw'ife because of affordabil ity, although middle-income patients constitute almost one-half of Paul son’s patients, she says. Based on a three-day visit, a pa tient at St. Joseph will spend an aver age of $1,500 for delivery, varying for the type of treatment received. Those prices do not include prenatal checkups before checking into the hospital. Paulson says she charges $295 plus $ 15 for each prenatal visit. Hines says she spent $320, includ ing prenatal visits and delivery, for Ruscher’s services. of an out-of-hospital delivery. Both Wilkinson and Hines say they were referred to the services of their midwives by friends who used one. Alpha Kappa Psi Says Congratulations to its new members: The 1985 Fall Pledge Class Stseve Abercia Chris Adams Kathi Amer Dianne Blackwell Jennifer Bridges Laura Brown Keith Cox Anna Desai John Fries Sharon Hmcir Cammy Jacob Kirby Johnson Mary Kirchner Shirley Kleiber Jim Kole Kim Maddox Marcy Younts Robert Penshorn Jason Sessom Debbie Stafford Brett Thames Lisa Thelander Ed Weinheimer III John West Joe Westrich Great Job! For The Holidays, A Gift Of Gold Gold Coin Jewelry mountings for all popular U. S. gold coins, Pandas, maple leaf and krugerrands. T j rgi 1 404 University Dr. East College Station«846-8905 Next to Cenare’s Cm* EXCHANGE 3202 A. Texas Bryan*779-7662 Across from Wal-Mart Before the a lobster Kick off the big day with a Red Lobster®Seafood Party Platter tailgate or dorm party Simply call the Red Lobster restaurant nearest you and pick up your Party Platters (for three ... thirty ... three hundred!) an hour later. If you haven't got a tailgate, bring your team to Red Lobster for a delicious pre-game rally or post-game celebration. You can even tackle your lobster the night before. Whatever your option, you 'll have a ball at Red Lobster. And with seafood this good, you're bound to come running back for more. Red Lobster® Open Thanksgiving Day til Kick off. 764-9310 Most Major Credit Cards Accepted "O 1985 Red Lobster Inns of America.