Category Archives: Homebirth

The AMA joins ACOG in homebirth-bashing

By The Midwife | Published: June 21, 2008

The AMA has recently issued a resolution supporting ACOG’s Statement on Homebirth which agrees that the safest place to have a baby is the hospital, of course, where obstetricians work and get paid.  What’s really awful is that they’re using Ricki Lake’s movie, The Business of Being Born, as a tool to try to pass […]

Also posted in Labor and Birth, Midwifery, News, Politics | 1 Comment

ACOG’s Statement on Homebirths

By The Midwife | Published: February 11, 2008

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recently issued a Statement on Homebirth which condemns homebirth and all those who are willing to attend homebirth (aka midwives), concluding that only “…the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate postpartum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex, that […]

Also posted in Birth Centers, Choice, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Politics | 2 Comments

Question CPD

By The Midwife | Published: December 17, 2007

I’ve been sick as a dog for the past three days, for the second time this season (I was so sick right before Thanksgiving that I actually lost my voice and had to call in sick to work…something which I NEVER do).  Luckily I’ve had the past 3 days off to recover, but I’m due […]

Also posted in Labor and Birth, VBAC | 3 Comments

Angelina the Midwife

By The Midwife | Published: December 10, 2007

I just discovered the most amazing videos over on You Tube about a traditional midwife working in Mexico. I’m sure many of you have probably seen them already, but I was just blown away!! It’s amazing to watch the way she uses her hands to massage, assess, palpate…turn a breech baby. A midwife’s greatest tool […]

Also posted in Birth Education, Labor and Birth, Midwifery, Myth, Folklore and Ritual | 7 Comments

Grassroots Birth Survey

By The Midwife | Published: December 5, 2007

The other day I discovered a postcard at my local yoga center urging women to participate in a birth survey, which instantly piqued my interest; apparently this survey has already been going on for some time, although I have only now heard about it. A little research has revealed that the Coalition for Improving Maternity […]

Also posted in Birth Centers, Choice, Hospitals, Midwifery, Politics, Pregnancy, Research | 1 Comment

Brooklyn homebirth practice growing

By The Midwife | Published: October 7, 2007

There was a recent article in the NY Daily News on the homebirth practice of Joan Bryson, a Brooklyn midwife who has been delivering babies at home for over seven years now.  Joan also served as president of the local NYC ANCM chapter last year. Last year, Bryson delivered nearly 50 babies throughout the city. […]

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The Business of Being Born

By The Midwife | Published: May 8, 2007

Last Friday I was a very lucky duck: I was able to attend a screening of The Business of Being Born at the Tribeca Film Festival, hosted by Friends of the Birth Center, along with a post-show talkbalk with the Abby Epstein, the director of the movie, and Ricki Lake, the producer, followed by a […]

Also posted in Birth Centers, Birth Education, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Midwifery, News, Politics, Reviews | 6 Comments

UK midwife responds

By The Midwife | Published: April 27, 2007

My post last week on the UK’s new birth agenda Maternity Matters prompted a UK midwife, Anna Skye, to write the following response on her blog Tales of Midwifery—the Truth. Rather a much-needed reality check, I suppose, to someone (yours truly) whose knowledge of the matter was based only on what she was reading in […]

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UK’s new birth agenda: “Maternity Matters”

By The Midwife | Published: April 17, 2007

So, I didn’t think I’d be doing much blogging over my holiday, but as luck would have it, there’s a big debate about birth occurring in England right now—so big it’s been splashed across the pages of many of the newspapers I’ve been reading, and absolutely impossible to ignore. UK Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, recently […]

Also posted in Choice, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Midwifery, Politics | 5 Comments

Pregnant in America

By The Midwife | Published: March 31, 2007

Via The Lactivist and Women’s Health News, there is a new documentary in the works entitled Pregnant in America which explores the medicalization of birth and the creation of the birth industry—the American birth machine—for profit and corporate gain, often at the expense of the health (and sometimes lives) of women and babies in this […]

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