Learn what a Midwifery Today Online Membership can do for you. = Membership Article.
Photos provided by the author
Author Rose St. John describes the importance of breath practices during labor, and explains specific techniques for helping the birthing mother use her breath to maintain a relaxed state.
A midwife describes both her passion for and addiction to the calling of midwifery, along with her subsequent burnout, and makes the case for prioritizing self-care within the midwifery profession.
The author makes the case for a connection between natural, unmedicated birth and trouble-free breastfeeding, with a mother’s confidence in her innate abilities being the key to success in both areas.
Photos provided by the authors
Meredith Casella with postoperative fistula patients in Dubie, Democratic Republic of Congo (2007)
In compelling dispatches from the field, nurse-midwife Meredith Casella documents her experiences in Africa with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).
Photos provided by the author
Risked out of a homebirth for her first child, the author describes her disappointing experience with a hospital birth.
Image info: Illustration from Stillerman, E.: Prenatal Massage: A Textbook of Pregnancy, Labor, and Postpartum Bodywork, St. Louis, 2008, Mosby. Reprinted with permission.
This is the third of three articles by Elaine Stillerman in this issue. In this article, the author describes massage techniques for managing the development of the c-section scar and helping the surrounding tissues heal properly.
A midwifery student describes the amazing experience of watching her preceptor turn a breech baby.
In this second of three articles in this issue, Stillerman describes methods for relieving pregnancy-related sciatica.
Photo provided by the author
The author discovers HypnoBirthing during her sixth pregnancy, and describes how this led to her “easiest birth yet.”
One of three articles in this issue by Elaine Stillerman, this piece describes in detail different massage techniques and body positions to help a birthing mother make her way through the difficulties of back labor.
Photo provided by the author
Toni describes the benefits—to both the birth attendant and the birthing woman—of the use of Reiki during labor and birth.
In this excerpt from her book, Nurturing Massage for Pregnancy: A Practical Guide to Bodywork for the Perinatal Cycle, author Leslie Stager makes a solid case for the benefits of nurturing touch and massage during labor.
