Author Archives: The Midwife

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

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

By The Midwife | Published: May 13, 2011

I feel like I need to be singing the Tom Petty tune right now… 39 weeks pregnant now, everything is ready.  Our fridge is full of food and drinks (gatorade, coconut water) for the birth. The birth tub has been inflated and set up close to the bathroom, ready to be filled. I’ve prepped postpartum […]

Posted in Homebirth, Pregnancy | Leave a comment

What happens when midwives get pregnant?

By The Midwife | Published: April 7, 2011

<insert Monty Python voice> And now for something completely different… I’ve been keeping this news to myself for quite some time here.  I guess I’m finally ready to blog about it (not that anyone is currently reading this anyway, so it’s more or less like writing in my journal), but guess what??  I’m pregnant!  And […]

Posted in Homebirth, Labor and Birth, Vaginal Birth | Leave a comment

CPM bill introduced in Congress

By The Midwife | Published: March 24, 2011

I have already written extensively on the differences between CNMs/ CMs and CPMs, about how there is a national divide between these qualifications which may prove very hard to bridge, and about how the lack of a unified standard of midwifery in the US continues to divide and destabilize our profession.  Part of the problem […]

Posted in Homebirth, Issues, Midwifery, News, Politics | Leave a comment

NIH Consensus updates on VBACs

By The Midwife | Published: March 3, 2011

One of the advantages to being a midwife is being on all kinds of funky mailing lists, which means that all softs of health information, conference invitations, and sometimes even free samples often show up on my doorstep.  A few days ago, I got just such a mailing– the NIH Consensus Development Conference Statement on […]

Posted in Cesarean Birth, Complications, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Research, Vaginal Birth, VBAC | Leave a comment

Vaginal twins at 25 weeks

By The Midwife | Published: February 24, 2011

So one of the advantages of working as a midwife in a hospital is that I get to participate in many births that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience in private practice.  If I were working as a private practice midwife, and as a homebirth midwife in particular, there is no way I would […]

Posted in Birth Stories, Complications, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Vaginal Birth | Leave a comment

The Fight for Planned Parenthood

By The Midwife | Published: February 23, 2011

And now, on to the national scene.  As I’m sure everyone knows by now, the House voted last Friday 240 – 185 to defund Planned Parenthood, which has 800 clinics across the nation and provides thousands of women with family planning, birth control, STD treatment, pap smears, and primary gynecological health care annually (and yes, […]

Posted in Choice, Contraception, Feminism, Fertility and Conception, Politics, Primary Care, Women's Health | Leave a comment

Oh, South Dakota!

By The Midwife | Published: February 22, 2011

The good people of South Dakota had the sense to vote down referendums trying to outlaw abortion in 2006 and 2008.  However, there is a current bill still on the table (unfortunately not yet off the table) called H1171 which is taking the entire fight against abortion to a whole new level.  If abortion itself […]

Posted in Choice, Feminism, Politics, Women's Health | Leave a comment