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When women give birth, they expect a baby and then the placenta to come out, but not many moms are expecting their bladder or uterus to come out! When this event happens, it is called pelvic organ prolapse. Women are unfortunately uninformed about many aspects of how pregnancy and birth can affect their bodies. Midwives play a key role in empowering women with knowledge and awareness so their clients have an opportunity to make choices in their pregnancy and birth that can help prevent pelvic organ prolapse.

 Read more…. Pelvic Organ Prolapse: A Proactive Approach to Prevention

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today, Issue 112, Winter 2014. Subscribe to Midwifery Today Magazine There is a notable change in birth outcome statistics in the United States. After decades of steady improvement in reducing the rates of preterm birth and low birth weight, we are now seeing an increase in the rate of premature births and small-for-dates babies. In fact, the average weight of full-term babies declined from 1990 to 2005 (Donahue et al. 2010). The increase in preterm rates could be partly due to obstetrical intervention to induce earlier births in high-risk pregnancies. However, the decline in full-term birth weight was sharpest in low-risk women with uncomplicated pregnancies (Donahue et al. 2010). These are the very women who would be expected to have access to early prenatal care and nutritious food choices. But they are also likely to be restricting weight gain either by choice or in compliance with birth attendant’s instructions to restrict weight gain, and this may be contributing to the trend of small-for-dates babies. All women—even those who are overweight—must gain weight in order to nourish a healthy baby and maintain the pregnancy to term. Unfortunately, many women in the US still believe that weight gain is irrelevant to their baby’s health. According to a recent survey, one-third of US newly pregnant women planned to lose weight or hoped to maintain their current weight throughout their pregnancy. Many of them were dieting either to “save their figures” or reduce the baby’s birth weight, and others mistakenly believed they were following the recently changed advisories on acceptable weight gain which sharply lowered the recommended amount (Bish 2009). A normal weight gain is important during pregnancy. Women who begin pregnancy underweight have a higher risk of preterm birth, and women who have a poor… Read more…. Assuring Healthy Babies: Weight Gain in Pregnancy

 Read more…. Assuring Healthy Babies: Weight Gain in Pregnancy

I have been a midwife for over 36 years and many of my clients come from Amish communities. What follows are two very different stories of preeclampsia in pregnancy.

 Read more…. Stories to Learn From: Toxemia in Pregnancy

Learn some tricks on how to flip a breech baby from Mexican midwife Naolí Vinaver.

 Read more…. How to Turn a Breech Baby to Head-down

Even amidst disaster, life still happens and babies are still born. Veteran midwife Vicki Penwell teaches on how to handle premature births in disaster zones.

 Read more…. Prematurity and Kangaroo Care during a Disaster

From her many years of experience, midwife Marlene Waechter shares her wisdom of premature birth and what she feels are its main causes.

 Read more…. Malnutrition, Unhealthy Lifestyles and Scheduled Deliveries: The Causes of Prematurity

Midwife Diane Goslin has helped thousands of babies into the world and so she shares her knowledge with MT readers concerning premature birth.

 Read more…. What I Have Learned about Premature Birth

Author Cassaundra Jah discusses how the vast majority of birth research focuses on out-of-home births, which sets up a unique challenge for homebirth midwives when dealing with GBS.

 Read more…. GBS Updates from a Homebirth Perspective