Theme: Primal Health
Pregnancy is a time to get rooted—rooted in love, rooted in patience, rooted to the Mother. This image was taken with that concept in mind. The ripened mother stands strong with the tree—bearing the fruit of precious, sacred life.
Learn what a Midwifery Today Online Membership can do for you. = Membership Article.
Photo provided by author
The journey of one woman from an over-medicalized and unfulfilling birth to becoming a “radical birth activist.”
With maternity mortality in childbirth so high around the world, Millenium Development Goal 5, maternal health, is something that we all can work toward.
Photo by Tim Marshall
I was fortunate to be part of a conversation on networks at a Midwifery Today conference and wanted to elaborate on some of the discussion. When we initially began discussing networks, people were very excited and enthused; several people in the group had started successful birth networks for women in their communities.
Read more…. Midwifery Model of Care—Phase II: Networks in the Birth Community
Photo by Robina Weermeijer
Dystocia has not only physical causes, but emotional and psychological ones. This article identifies those causes and suggests some strategies that women and their carers can use to avoid or minimize this problem.
Photo by Aung Soe Min
Imagine, as a midwife, being called to the home of a client who has been in labor for two days. The mother’s contraction pattern is erratic and the pain she is experiencing is severe and primarily in her back. She is exhausted from lack of sleep, and her labor pain is more intense than the intensity of her contractions would indicate. This woman is 5 cm dilated and not sure she can “do this anymore.”
Read more…. Manual Rotation Maneuvers for Persistent OP Position
Photo by Shawna Wentz [email protected]
A discussion of primal health would be incomplete without the inclusion of epidurals in labor, since they are used in approximately two-thirds of US births and are common in most developed countries. Frequent contributor Sarah J. Buckley, MD, explains the effects of this intervention, providing a good argument against using it for uncomplicated births.
Read more…. Epidurals: Risks and Concerns for Mother and Baby
Photo by The Matter of Food
A midwife and herbalist discusses the practice of (and in some cases, requirement for) the use of antibiotics in labor for women with group B strep and the potentially lifelong negative outcome for babies. She also offers some age-old alternatives to this regimen.
Read more…. Group B Strep Prophylaxis: What Are We Creating?
Photo by Paola Chaaya
Reprinted from Volume 13, Number 4, of Primal Health Research, this article discusses a variety of studies that link events during the primal period to a variety of behaviors/conditions under the heading of “antisocial,” including schizophrenia, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other categories.
Read more…. Antisocial Behaviours from a Primal Health Research Perspective
