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Bee Chalmers—beechalmers.com
Natural birth advocate and French obstetrician Michel Odent once again shares his wisdom with us in this article.
Tammy Bradshaw—tammybradshawphoto.com
The emotional side of any birth is always important to consider, and Melissa Ellis makes this article especially relevant for this issue’s theme.
istockphoto/Shaferaphoto
Midwife Aubre Tompkins shares her experience with waterbirth at her birth center in Colorado.
Synthenia Rosa — synethiarosa.com
How to explain that group B streptococcal (GBS) infection, today the most significant cause of neonatal bacterial sepsis, suddenly emerged in the 1960s?
Read more…. Group B Streptococcal Infection: Beyond the Mysteries
©istockphoto.com/photos/erik-trampe
A very informative article on nutrition in pregnancy, highlighting the importance of fish oils.
Leilani Rogers—photosbylei.com
Group B streptococci colonize the vaginal and gastrointestinal tracts of healthy women, being present 15–45% of the time when recto-vaginal swabs are collected and cultured (Woods 2014). Women screened around the 37th week of pregnancy test positive 10–33% of the time (CDC 2010). These women should, according to the CDC Guidelines, re-ceive IV penicillin, ampicillin or an alternative antibiotic, when in active labor.
Lynsey Stone—dfwbirthphotographer.com
It was my daughter’s third birthday and this was her question that started our day. Then, as we walked to nursery school, she asked, “When Halloween goes, where does it go?” I’m still working on an explanation for the spiraling movement of time, and the effort is helping me understand why my daughter talks so often about what she will do when she is a baby again. If Halloween will return next year, why not her babyhood, too?
There has been a huge increase in postpartum nipple thrush since the onset of the standard of antibiotic treatment in both GBS+ mothers and cesarean section births. Nipple thrush is frequently overlooked since the symptoms do not show up until anywhere from one to six weeks postpartum. Even then, the symptoms are very often poorly diagnosed as just poor latch, normal initial tenderness or let-down. There are clear differences between these symptoms and symptoms of thrush, but many times the mother is told to “tough it out” instead of getting the treatment that she and the baby need. Clearly, vast education would aid in being able to recognize the differences. With let-down, the sensation is as if there are threads (sometimes with little knots in them) that are behind the chest wall being pulled through the nipple and out.
Photographs—Randy Verlie
Mothers, father, grandparents, midwives, nurses, doulas, doctors and concerned citizens are calling out for human rights in childbirth. Yet, this worldwide push is relatively small when we consider how many women, newborn babies and families are affected by human rights infractions in childbirth. The bullying of mothers and their families, just when they should be enjoying the miracle of birth, is all too often, all over this world, accepted as the norm, as though women should suffer in childbirth. I cannot imagine that our divine Creator meant for women to suffer.
Synthenia Rosa — synethiarosa.com
“The nature and the expression of pregnancy diseases vary among different species of mammals. It is notable that these differences are related to the nutritional priorities during the prenatal phase of development.”
Lynsey Stone—dfwbirthphotographer.com
After seven years of being a doula, midwife and childbirth educator in a huge urban Indian city, I have started to see a difference. Times are changing. Women and their partners are standing for what they believe in.
Lynsey Stone—dfwbirthphotographer.com
Back to the question asked of me by that newborn girl in 1969 in a delivery room on the seventeenth floor of CPMC. Yes! I do know who you are! You are an ordained life with a potential and message unlike any other baby sent into this world. You are the continuing revelation of goodness to humankind and you come with a profound message of love.
Read more…. Newborns: Their Biological and Theological Uniqueness
