Issue 68

When I began my family back in 1969, I was studying psychology at the university. I had my ear to the ground, listening to what the Earth wanted of mothers at a pivotal time in our history. Feminism had sounded the drum and this mother’s heart was pounding. At last, women had the freedom to be all we could be and, oh, how we danced!

 Read more…. Instinctive Birth: Finding The Pulse

At the end of her first pregnancy, Liliana was living in a hostel. One day she decided that the bathrooms and the corridors were dirty. She felt an urgent need to clean them. Then she left the building. She had to sweep the sidewalk. The next day her labor started.

 Read more…. Preparing The Nest

It is unheard of in the medical management of “normal” labor. It is outside of all the medical parameters of acceptable patterns. Even within some midwifery practices, it stretches the patience of attendants past their tolerance point. But is it really bad? Is there anything truly abnormal about Failure to Progress? Probably not!

 Read more…. To Progress Or Not To Progress

Breech presentation can be frustrating for midwives who don’t attend breech births, either because of the political situation in their area or because they haven’t had the training. Fortunately, studies show chiropractic, acupuncture and hypnotherapy can safely turn many breech babies. These alternative treatments can be tried at 28 to 34 weeks gestation before a medical version is an option and without the risks of version.

 Read more…. Effective Alternative Treatments for Breech Presentation

This is a compilation of women’s responses from the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) e-mail list (names appear as requested by contributors). One woman asked a simple question to help persuade her friend: What’s so bad about cesarean sections? Almost 75 women responded. These are just some of their poignant accounts, which illustrate the reason that instinctive birth is so important. The further we stray from it, the more women lose, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

 Read more…. Voices Of Distress: Women Speak About Cesarean Sections

When I began my life as a midwife, I started in the traditional model of apprenticeship. An older, very experienced midwife whom I revered took me under her wing. I would do anything to help at a birth and was often given the task of cleaning up. I was young. I wasn’t tainted by financial gain. I spent a lot of money in gas, driving the midwife to births (this was in Israel where gas is $4.00 a gallon), and it wouldn’t have occurred to me in a thousand years to ask for compensation. When I heard, years later, the midwife had gotten divorced, I mourned the loss of my innocence. I had thought she was perfect.

 Read more…. Midwifery Etiquette

The work of birth is ancient, passing from generation to generation of women throughout human history. The knowledge and wisdom of birth is woman’s heritage.

 Read more…. Women In Birth

In any new practice, there seems to be a run of transports, which allows the new person on the team to see how they are done. Transports are certainly not a favorite activity in midwifery, but they are a very real part of the work. Since returning to birth in October 2001, after a five-year hiatus, I have had nine transports in 23 births (two babies and one postpartum mom, all the rest in first or second stage of labor); these are not the best statistics, to say the least. One would assume that all this karmic transport stuff was for my education, but I have long been familiar and very comfortable with the emergency and nonemergency transport of mother and/or baby. Besides giving and receiving training sessions with EMS around the country, I also have discussed the anatomy of a transport on several occasions with my partner, Sarah, who is a deputy sheriff.

 Read more…. Transports: Making a Seamless Transition

I think instinctive birth is the knowledge of birth that all women have encoded in their DNA. We don’t need a class to understand it. The eons of birthing women who came before have brought us to this place today. But in this generation, we wonder where it is, how to reach it and how to use it. To connect to our instincts, we need to be quiet. Instincts do not shout; they whisper. How do we help the new “Eve” hear this voice? When the mom tries to hear the baby’s heart with a fetascope, we tell her to “feel” the beat against her ear.

 Read more…. Listening To Eve