Author Archives: The Midwife

More Business of Being Born

By The Midwife | Published: August 24, 2011

Back in 2007, I was lucky enough to attend an advance screening of The Business of Being Born in New York City, and I wrote this review of it at the time.  Since then, it’s become widely popular and widely viewed, loudly praised and criticized by opposing sides of the birth debate, and has served as [...]

Posted in Birth Centers, Education, Homebirth, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Midwifery, News, Politics | Leave a comment

More mother than midwife, these days

By The Midwife | Published: August 7, 2011

Well into my second month of maternity leave, now, it is finally dawning on me that I am a mother.  You might laugh at this.  Didn’t I know I was going to be a mother, from pretty much the moment the pee stick turned positive?  Didn’t I fully understand that this was the logical outcome [...]

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Well done, NPR!

By The Midwife | Published: August 4, 2011

NPR has a great series up on their website right now called Beginnings: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Beyond, which explores myriad aspects of pregnancy and childbirth, from cultural, economic, global and scientific perspectives.  Overall, an incredibly balanced and informative series, well worth checking out (I’m especially enjoying the Baby Project, which is a blog following the [...]

Posted in Good Enough to Share, Labor and Birth, Mothering, Myth, Folklore and Ritual, Postpartum, Pregnancy | Leave a comment

An Oversupply Issue

By The Midwife | Published: June 17, 2011

When you hear about breastfeeding in the world and the blogosphere, usually it’s either to educate women on the merits of breastfeeding, or to discuss women’s right to breastfeed in public, or to promote breastfeeding in general, or lament the low breastfeeding stats in our country.  We all know that breast is best, but you [...]

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Sebastian’s Birth Story

By The Midwife | Published: June 7, 2011

Awhile ago, during the pregnancy, I joined an online forum with other women who were also pregnant and due in May, and this group of women became my “due date club.”  About halfway through our pregnancies, we decided to do a bead swap, where most of the women of the group decided to send each [...]

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Homebirth in the Washington Post

By The Midwife | Published: June 6, 2011

Just a quick link to a recent article in the Washington Post about why a journalist there chose to have a planned homebirth.  I think she does a good job of articulating the many benefits associated with homebirth for low-risk women, but she also emphasized that this choice is not right for everyone (obviously).  Nice [...]

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The first growth spurt–truly no joke!!

By The Midwife | Published: June 5, 2011

I knew, going into all of this, that all babies hit their first growth spurt around 3 weeks or so, and that during this time they want to nurse constantly and are more fussy than usual.  I actually, logically KNEW about this before it happened; I had advised mothers about this, told women that this [...]

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My Birth Story

By The Midwife | Published: May 27, 2011

It’s funny to be writing this.  I have heard and listened to so many women share their birth stories with me, posted birth stories here on my blog, attended births and helped women write their birth stories, but now I come to a first for me: the writing of my own birth story.  I think [...]

Posted in Birth Stories, Good Enough to Share, Homebirth, Labor and Birth, Vaginal Birth | 1 Comment

The Obstetrician’s Lament

By The Midwife | Published: May 19, 2011

There is an astounding collection of writing going up on The Unnecesarean regarding the growing rift between obstetricians and the out-of-hospital birth community.  All of this is in response to the The Obstetrician’s Lament, written by OB-GYN Anette Fineberg, MD, which came out in the May edition of ACOG’s Green Journal (Obstetrics and Gynecology).  I [...]

Posted in Cesarean Birth, Complications, Hospitals, Journal Articles, Labor and Birth, Politics, VBAC | Leave a comment

Blessingway Poetry

By The Midwife | Published: May 13, 2011

I also wanted to share the two poems which were read at my Blessingway, because they are so beautiful, and even now, just reading them will bring tears to my eyes. Mother Wisdom Speaks by Christine Lore Webber Some of you I will hollow out. I will make you a cave. I will carve you [...]

Posted in Birth Art, Labor and Birth, Myth, Folklore and Ritual | Leave a comment