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The author considers how diverse family dynamics and cultural practices inform her work as a childbirth educator.
Illustration by Robyn Sheldon
Author Robyn Sheldon shares a technique that utilizes a unique blend of writing, visualization and intuition to help parents connect with their babies in the womb.
Read more…. The Soul’s Knowing: Connecting with Our Babies in the Womb
Photo provided by the author
Learn about the unique cultural customs of birthing Orthodox Jewish women from a midwife who regularly attends this tight-knit community.
What happens when the dominate medical culture collides with local and immigrant cultures? Find out as Jenna Humphreys explores cross-cultural birth in the Dominican Republic and in California.
A rural midwife tenderly recounts the stories of two women she served.
Photos from istockphoto.com
Cultural traditions can dictate special protocols for the postnatal woman and determine how much blood is “normal.” Author Michele Klein examines cultural ideas about postnatal blood in Asia, the Middle East and on the Internet.
Friedman’s Curve can be helpful in assessing the progress of labor, but few women perfectly follow any curve. Sometimes the “pure heart formula” is the midwife’s best tool in supporting a woman during labor.
Read more…. Friedman’s Curve vs. the Pure Heart Approach to Labor
Photos provided by the author
After eating disorders and depression left her for dead, Elise Brion embarked on a transformative healing journey that lead to her to parenthood, a community of inspiring women and work as a doula.
Read more…. Release, Rejuvenation and Rejoicing: The Blossoming of a Woman
A midwife and mother channels courage and strength to “let go” of the son she miscarries at home.
Read more…. Lavender and Letting Go: A Miscarriage Birth Story
“There is more to the transport of a woman with her heart set on a natural out-of-hospital birth experience than communicating facts.” What is the midwife’s role in transport? How can she best support her client and help to facilitate communication with a hospital culture that is not always receptive to her efforts? Find out in this illuminating article from a CNM who has walked both sides.
This past year, two labors I attended benefited (meaning we avoided a cesarean each time) from a technique shared over a hundred years ago by Dr. Walcher. The first of these mothers labored for her third homebirth after four previous cesareans. She’d had a hard time getting her first baby into her pelvis (lying in bed) and was given a c-section at 3 cm and then she had three more cesareans in following years. Umm hmm. So, I was honored to help at her first homebirth, her fifth child. He also took a long time to engage. Beginning posterior, a variety of positions eventually got him through. Her second homebirth occurred after a long latent phase but before her midwife arrived.
The author sits down at a diner in Cairo, Georgia with local legend and beloved midwife Pinkie Norwood, who delivered 600 babies over the course of 30 years.
