Membership Content

I’ve been a student of midwifery for about eight years now. During this time, I have gone from two to four children, had the privilege of attending 26 births and taught many childbirth classes. I’ve seen a lot of different birth environments, and I’ve had some time to think about what makes a positive one. I’m sure the right answer is most anything does! Certainly, we can look at the factors that are embraced by the majority of birthing women and make some loose assumptions.

 Read more…. Anything Goes

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, courage is a noun meaning “ability to overcome fear or despair.” Notice fear has to be present in order for courage to exist. The English word “courage” is derived from the French word for the heart, coeur. Finding the heart to continue doing the right thing in the face of great fear inspires others to become nobler human beings. In midwifery, we see women and men facing their fears in birth; we ask them to have faith in the face of no evidence. We demand that they are bigger than the circumstances and, when they conquer, we get a renewed vision of how life can look when our fears don’t stop us. This is the source and inspiration for our own courage.

 Read more…. Courage

All my homebirth clients find me by word-of-mouth, but I was amazed when word had spread as far as Romania!

 Read more…. A Home Away From Home Birth

“I don’t think a 25 percent cesarean rate is too high.” The words jolted me to attention. The speaker is a woman I respect: my cousin, a family historian, who has farmed with her husband in the Midwest for decades. I forced myself to overcome my prejudices and listen to her seriously. “Not if it saves women from what my niece is going through,” she continued.

 Read more…. Marion’s Message: The Necessary Cesarean

In the Western world, Norway is the country where most babies are breastfed. More than 98 percent of babies born at term (37-43 weeks) are breastfed when leaving the maternity ward. At three months of age, 88 percent of the babies are breastfeeding; at six months, 80 percent still breastfeed; and even at one year, 40 percent of the babies still get breast milk (Spedkost 2003).

 Read more…. Norway: The Breastfeeding Top Of The World