Katherine Jensen works in the Pacific Northwest. She and eight other women put together an independent nurse-midwifery practice and a freestanding birth center, which they operated for six years before medical politics closed them down. Katherine remains absolutely committed to the radical notion that pregnancy and birth are normal and that a woman has a fundamental right to choose where she will birth and who will attend her.
Photo by Janko Ferlič
We have now come full circle on the usefulness of episiotomies: they are harmful. Katherine Jensen describes in this article how she arrived at that conclusion through intuition and experience.
We need to rethink risk assessment and how it is used in childbirth. Read more…. Reconsidering Risk
Photos by Caroline Brown
Early in my rural practice, I worked with a physician who insisted, “Mother Nature knows what she’s doing.” I watched one woman go four weeks past her very certain due date. Another went six weeks past the day we were certain she was due. I was a wreck. But my mentor was right. Mother Nature does know what she’s doing.
Training involves the process of learning to DO things. A much greater challenge is learning to DO NOTHING. The old adage,“If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it,” is a vitally important concept to internalize. Read more…. The Challenge of Doing Nothing
Photo by Daniel Thomas
“Evidence Supports Vaginal Birth.” I read the headline over and over. Do we need “evidenced-based” research to prove that vaginal birth is how we were designed to reproduce? What is wrong with this picture? What can we do to reverse this nightmare?
Being adored is one of the delights of the profession and simultaneously, one of its hazards, for adoration must be dealt with. We are with a woman during the most significant rite of passage in her life; it is natural for her to love us and to invest us with power far beyond what we deserve. Read more…. Pedestals
