Membership Content

As access to modern maternity care increases around the world, women and their birth practitioners face the challenge of balancing modern birthing practices with traditional childbirth customs.

 Read more…. Is There A Balance? Traditional Customs and Modern Birthing in Somaliland

Socialized medicine provides free and easily accessible prenatal and intrapartum care in Israel. The emphasis on the value of life in Israel is reflected in its birth practices, such as free, easily accessible prenatal care, low infant mortality rates and excellent infertility treatment.

 Read more…. Midwifery in Israel

I know that c-sections are over-prescribed and poorly handled throughout, and I do not want to invalidate the horrible experiences of women who have suffered from them. But I do want to share my own story to demonstrate that the experience, while far from ideal, does not have to be a nightmare.

 Read more…. Compassionate C-section

Midwives, our sisters are in danger. The medical industry has co-opted them, commodified them and is now not-so-gradually eliminating them. Our allies in women’s health and the healing of birth are disappearing so quickly as to pose the terrible possibility that our daughters won’t have access to the help they provide.

 Read more…. Saving Our Endangered Midwifery Allies

MT is an enormously spirited woman. Her spiritedness has gotten her into trouble—big trouble. And it has also fueled her determination to deal with her troubles head on. I met MT during her initial prenatal visit with her fifth child. She told me unabashedly that she was HIV-positive and had a history of crack cocaine abuse and supporting her habit by selling sex for drugs. But with pride she went on to tell how she had kicked the cocaine habit and gotten her life together after finding out she was HIV-infected. She had gone to support groups, even learning how to tell her kids about her HIV status and support them in their reactions. Now she leads support groups.

 Read more…. A Determined Life

Debra opened the session by presenting her work on a film project, the aim of which was to look at birth models around the world, not just traditional midwifery. She then described how, at the International Confederation of Midwives conference in 2002, many of the traditional midwives had felt the ICM was not addressing their interests. The ICM seemed to be primarily concerned with trained professionals, so traditional midwives and those interested in working with them (30-35 midwives and advocates) held two informal meetings. They created their own subcommittee, the Committee to Promote Inclusiveness, and wrote a letter to request formal recognition from the ICM. The ICM responded that they could not recognize the group but advised that it continue to meet informally.

 Read more…. Preserving Traditional Midwifery Around the World

The placenta is a mediator between the life flow of mother and baby. It is rich in nutrients, hormones and immune builders (stem cells too!); indeed, it helped build a body. This article presents a few small ways we affirm that our lives and the lives of other women matter. That birth matters.

 Read more…. Placental Rituals, Placental Medicine

Sue says the words I will never forget: “There is a foot!” Then, continuing: “It’s twins!” I look down at the little foot kicking out of Maiko’s body. I stare at Sue, Sue stares at me. Ten seconds of complete bewilderment, and then we act automatically. We clamp and cut the cord of the first baby and call an ambulance.

 Read more…. “There is a foot!”

I have observed babies being birthed with the placenta detached and following right behind them for over 20 years.Throughout that time I have kept mental notes, observing, recording, pondering. Then one day, finally, it all added up. The explanation is a short umbilical cord, a phenomenon that requires us to allow time for the baby, the cord and the placenta to descend slowly through the birth canal, in the wisdom of nature, for a healthy and natural birth.

 Read more…. The Cord and the Strength of Life: Something Extraordinary

Hands are a gift—their intricate workings, the sensitivity in the fingertips. Hands can convey so much, do so much. The activities that hands undertake daily are numberless, and to be without one or both can make life a great challenge. (Try using only one hand for a day, and you’ll see what I mean!)

 Read more…. Hands of Life

Water has flooded the new century, nosing her way forward with overwhelming power, washing away outmoded methods. It seems that destiny, rather than coincidence, led me to waterbirth. When I was a child, my home in Berlin faced the first university hospital (Benjamin-Franklin-Uni) offering “water cures,” an invention by Professor Schweninger of Berlin, who called himself a “naturopath.” His “Schweninger cures” were offered in Berlin as well as in Baden-Baden.

 Read more…. Waterbirth: Contemporary Application for Historic Concepts

One cause of placenta accreta and placenta percreta is the placenta’s embedding in the caesarean scar. But no one has published research showing a correlation between these conditions and single-layer repair. Before this repair is blamed for an increase in placenta problems, an association must be established.

 Read more…. The Many Ways to Sew Up a Uterus: “Single-layer” vs. “Double-layer” Cesarean Repair: What’s Best?