Category Archives: Homebirth

Ina May in the Sun

By The Midwife | Published: January 6, 2012

The Sun Magazine has a fantastic article in their current issue (Jan. 2012) interviewing Ina May, who’s recently come out with a new book Birth Matters: A Midwife’s Manifesta, about the medicalization of birth.   While the online version of the article is truncated, it’s still a fascinating read, complete with the history of how and [...]

Also posted in Labor and Birth, Midwifery, Vaginal Birth | Leave a comment

Wax Study Revisited

By The Midwife | Published: October 9, 2011

Imagine the following scenario:  a meta-analysis comparing planned homebirths to planned hospital births is published, but it has so many statistical flaws in it that the journal which originally published it goes on to print several letters to the Editor critiquing the flawed research, in order to give the authors a second chance to explain [...]

Also posted in Choice, Complications, Hospitals, Issues, Labor and Birth, Midwifery, Politics, Research | 1 Comment

One World Birth about to launch!

By The Midwife | Published: August 30, 2011

Just stumbled upon this via a friend on Facebook, and watching the welcome video just sent chills down my spine.  Two passionate filmmakers are creating an interactive, continuously-updated online TV channel focusing on nothing but birth, and the state of birth in our world right now, by interviewing the world’s leading experts in birth and [...]

Also posted in Birth Stories, Cesarean Birth, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Labor Support, Midwifery, News, Vaginal Birth, VBAC | Leave a comment

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 [...]

Also posted in Birth Centers, Education, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Midwifery, News, Politics | Leave a comment

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 [...]

Also posted in Birth Stories, Labor and Birth, Vaginal Birth | Leave a comment

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 [...]

Also posted in Labor and Birth, News | Leave a comment

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 [...]

Also posted in Birth Stories, Good Enough to Share, Labor and Birth, Vaginal Birth | 1 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 [...]

Also posted in 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 [...]

Also posted in 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 [...]

Also posted in Issues, Midwifery, News, Politics | Leave a comment