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Author Gloria Lemay holds a newborn.
Photo provided by the author
In this simple yet touching tale, midwife Gloria Lemay remembers a birth she attended by penning a letter to the baby, Rose, who is now a full-grown young woman.
Photos provided by the author
The Phillips family, including mom Amanda, dad Ryan (second from left), and boys Asher (right) and Shepherd, celebrates with friends in India.
A father retells the story of his family’s year in India leading up to the birth of his second son, Shepherd Ketan.
Moved by the thought that we should birth our children as we conceive them, a mother wonders what might happen if, 100 years from now, we conceive our children as we birth them—in a starkly lit hospital, monitors strapped on and specialists at the ready.
Native Brazilian author Ana Paula Markel attends a birth conference in Brazil and finds a group of “Brazilian love rebels” leading a social revolution that questions unnecessary medical interventions and embraces empowered birth.
Read more…. Brazilian Love Rebels: Bringing Awareness and Consciousness to a Birth-broken Nation
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Devastated by an unnecessary c-section, the author finds peace with her second birth: an unhurried home waterbirth attended by a midwife and doula.
Read more…. Pushing Through: A Tale of Homebirth After Cesarean
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Author Vivienne Miranda, center, holds her new baby, Anuk, as midwife Ruth “Ruli” Delgado (second from right) and friends and family look on.
A new mother recounts her homebirth, attended by Puerto Rico’s last traditional midwife, Ruth “Ruli” Delgado, who recently retired after more than 30 years and 400 babies.
Photo provided by the author
Alicia Kaye and new baby girl, Delilah Alexandra Pearl Kaye, relax with dad, Benjamin Kaye, and big brother, Calvin LaVere Kaye
After watching her mother grapple through a Pitocin/Cytotec induced birth, the author starts her quest to find a better, more natural, way of birthing.
Confounded by a client who has already birthed several handicapped children, midwife Marlene Waechter utilizes the wisdom of Dr. Tom Brewer and finds that diet really does make a drastic difference to pregnant mamas and their babies.
Birth expert Michel Odent explores the scientific data collected on the most common intervention in childbirth—the use of synthetic oxytocin to start labor—and concludes that doctors “would be wise to make labor induction an exceptionally rare practice.”
Read more…. If I Were the Baby: Questioning the Widespread Use of Synthetic Oxytocin
A brief history of midwives who have resisted unjust laws and continued to practice their craft, despite the threat of persecution.
Read more…. Breaking the Law: Midwives and Civil Disobedience
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A labor and delivery nurse who has delivered four children at the hospital, finds herself with a whole new perspective on birth after facing her fears and birthing her fifth child at home.
The notion that, until we see through the oppressive forces that obscure the issue of safe birth for all women and babies, we won’t be able to think of birth as a human rights issue is at the heart of this essay.
