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Photo by Marilyn Nolt
When I first became interested in midwifery, I was pregnant with my fourth child. I came from a hospital background not only in my birthing style, but also in my chosen field of work.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya
During the twentieth century, it had been commonplace to raise the main questions regarding childbirth in a negative way. How to give birth without pain? How to give birth without fear? How to be born without violence? As long as the questions are raised in this way, they will usually lead to sophisticated and sterile solutions.
Read more…. The Questions Are More Important Than The Answers
The head had come out, mostly. The chin pressed deep into the mother; it didn’t emerge in the way expected. The baby grimaced but stayed tight. His chin didn’t arch and swing to the side so that he could face his mother’s thigh. My mentor said softly but firmly, “check for the cord.” Slipping my finger out of sight, I felt an odd crease around the baby’s neck but couldn’t get under it; so, no cord, I thought. I placed the same finger on his shoulder and pressed gently to corkscrew the baby. I worried that pressure could cause him discomfort. My finger pressed tentatively. No movement resulted at all.
Photo by Caroline Brown
A friend reminded me in a recent e-mail of the world of risk we are now part of in the West. It was one of those circulating e-mails, and it took a look at the differences in the world we grew up in compared to the one our children are a part of now. According to the risk measures we apply to the life of our children it is clear many of us should not have survived! Children now have become more protected and cocooned than we ever were.
Photo by Melanie Wasser
“Tokophobia” is an intense anxiety or fear of death that leads to some women dreading and avoiding childbirth despite desperately wanting a baby. So, can we call this yet another piece of iatrogenic morbidity? How many women had this a hundred years ago? What has the Western childbirth model done to women?
Photo by cheng feng
Lotus birth is the practice of leaving the umbilical cord uncut, so that the baby remains attached to his or her placenta until the cord naturally separates at the umbilicus—exactly as a cut cord does—at 3 to 10 days after birth. This prolonged contact can be seen as a time of transition, allowing the baby to slowly and gently let go of his or her attachment to the mother’s body.
Photo by Jennifer Rosenberg
In the past 27 years of practice, I have evolved from the new-nurse-technowizard in the birth environment to a well-seasoned holistic practitioner. During the past decade as the creator and coordinator of a hospital-based doula program and a perinatal education specialist, I have become aware of the impact that the birthing environment has on the laboring mother, her social support and the birth experience itself.
Photo by Ken Ackerman
Drumming has a rich and long history rooted in ancient cultures. Drums were used for communication and primeval expression in virtually every area of the globe. Drummers were healers. Drummers were women. Women and their clans drummed for many occasions including both spiritual and physical rites of passage. The drum was an empty shell to be filled with expression, the birthplace of healing sounds, a womb.
Read more…. Creating A Sound Environment: Drumming For The Childbearing Year
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today, Issue 66, Summer 2003.Join Midwifery Today Online Membership Selena and Mac are country people.* I attended their births early in my career and learned a lot from them, especially when they had Sophia, their third baby and first daughter. Mac didn’t believe in hospitals or doctors. He and I had lengthy debates and I had pointed out to him that he went right to the emergency room when his leg was broken. However, he saw that as somehow different from childbirth. I made sure he knew what my protocols were and what kinds of situations I believed were safer in the hospital. Sophia turned to a breech position when she was 32 weeks along and Selena started doing the tilt board and some acupressure points to encourage her to return to head first. My phone rang a little after six one morning. It was Selena and her voice was a tearful wail. “I’m in labor!” she said. “I’ve been having cramps all night and I’ve been telling myself I ate something bad, ’cause I’ve had a little diarrhea too. But it’s not that! I can feel the pressure! Can you come and see if I’m in labor?” “I’ll be right there!” I replied. I pulled her chart from my files. Just as I thought, she was not yet quite 36 weeks. And possibly still breech! Hurriedly, I dressed and drove to their home. Selena was lying on the thick rug in their living room, her legs propped up on a big pillow. A quick exam revealed the irregular presenting part of a complete breech, covered by the taut, smooth surface of the waterbag. No cervix could be felt. “You’re complete,” I said. “And the baby’s still breech. And premature, Selena.” “What… Read more…. Marion’s Message: Making the Best of the Birth Environment
Read more…. Marion’s Message: Making the Best of the Birth Environment
Photo by Cornelia Enning
A number of authors have called attention to the language we commonly use in discussing birth and how particular words shape our understanding of birth.
Photo by Michal B.
Classical homeopathy embraces the whole person. We look beyond the individual symptoms a client presents to see the constitution as a whole in order to find the appropriate remedy. The characteristics of a substance help us to understand some of the healing properties of the homeopathic remedy.
The National Library of Medicine
Working in hospitals that serve as the place of birth for thousands of women a year provides many nurses with opportunities for mother-friendly nurse intervention. Mother-friendly nurses all over the world provide supportive measures that normalize birth.
