Midwifery Today Articles

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Author Vivienne Miranda, center, holds her new baby, Anuk, as midwife Ruth “Ruli” Delgado (second from right) and friends and family look on.

The New Generation of Rincoeño

by Vivienne Miranda June 1, 2010

A new mother recounts her homebirth, attended by Puerto Rico’s last traditional midwife, Ruth “Ruli” Delgado, who recently retired after more than 30 years and 400 babies.

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Alicia Kaye and new baby girl, Delilah Alexandra Pearl Kaye, relax with dad, Benjamin Kaye, and big brother, Calvin LaVere Kaye

The “Miracle” of Induction

by Alicia Kaye June 1, 2010

After watching her mother grapple through a Pitocin/Cytotec induced birth, the author starts her quest to find a better, more natural, way of birthing.

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Read more…. The “Miracle” of Induction

Confounded by a client who has already birthed several handicapped children, midwife Marlene Waechter utilizes the wisdom of Dr. Tom Brewer and finds that diet really does make a drastic difference to pregnant mamas and their babies.

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If I Were the Baby: Questioning the Widespread Use of Synthetic Oxytocin

by Michel Odent June 1, 2010

Birth expert Michel Odent explores the scientific data collected on the most common intervention in childbirth—the use of synthetic oxytocin to start labor—and concludes that doctors “would be wise to make labor induction an exceptionally rare practice.”

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Breaking the Law: Midwives and Civil Disobedience

by Sarah Jean Carter June 1, 2010

A brief history of midwives who have resisted unjust laws and continued to practice their craft, despite the threat of persecution.

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Facing Fears, Embracing Birth

by Teresa Field June 1, 2010

A labor and delivery nurse who has delivered four children at the hospital, finds herself with a whole new perspective on birth after facing her fears and birthing her fifth child at home.

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Shedding Light on Maternal Mortality

by Courtney Stange-Tregear June 1, 2010

The notion that, until we see through the oppressive forces that obscure the issue of safe birth for all women and babies, we won’t be able to think of birth as a human rights issue is at the heart of this essay.

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Photo by Caroline E. Brown

Learning to Listen

by Sandra K. Stine Tallbear June 1, 2010

Women are being undermined in subtle, yet important ways inside the typical American labor and delivery ward, concludes certified nurse-midwife Sandra Stine Tallbear in this succinct essay about learning to truly listen to a mother’s needs.

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Full Moon Birthing

by April Bailey Weaver June 1, 2010

Mama and Papa were residents of another state until they came here, to Hawaii, to birth, contacting me by phone five months into their pregnancy. Their desire was an ocean birth. Baby had communicated with her parents that this was the birth she needed. Read more…. Full Moon Birthing

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From Hospital to Home

by Lisa Landen Thompson June 1, 2010

Having learned from her “traditional American hospital birth,” a mother plans an at-home waterbirth and finds a midwife who makes her feel “important, respected and cared for.”

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Diary of a Midwife: Uganda

by Marva Zohar June 1, 2010

After five years working in the birth field, a new midwife encounters her first brush with death. This vividly told story highlights the stark reality for midwives working in the developing world. Read more…. Diary of a Midwife: Uganda