Category Archives: Midwifery

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

Experience and Personal Practice

By The Midwife | Published: December 6, 2011

Personal experience always changes the way you practice in some way.  Anyone who denies this is probably not being 100% honest with themselves.  It’s the nature of us being human, and it’s inevitable because humans (as opposed to future robots?) provide health care, and by and large it’s a very good thing.  This can be [...]

Also posted in Complications, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Labor Support, 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, Homebirth, Hospitals, Issues, Labor and Birth, Politics, Research | 1 Comment

How have midwives touched your life? Share your story for National Midwifery Week 2011!

By The Midwife | Published: October 3, 2011

Happy National Midwifery Week, everyone!  Here in NYC we kicked off National Midwifery Week with a very successful Miles for Midwives 5K run around Prospect Park.  But there’s a lot more going on nationally this week.  First of all, check out Team Midwife.  A $15 donation to Team Midwife will help the ACNM continue to [...]

Also posted in News | 2 Comments

Miles For Midwives just around the corner!

By The Midwife | Published: September 25, 2011

Heads up all New York City midwives, friends of midwives, doulas, midwifery clients, runners, walkers, parents, kids and babies!  Miles for Midwives is next weekend (Saturday, Oct. 1st) and this is always a wonderful (traditionally *gorgeous* autumn) day where participants can run/ walk/ stroll a loop of Prospect Park and then enjoy a Birth and [...]

Also posted in News, Women's Health | Leave a comment

Mother of Many

By The Midwife | Published: September 23, 2011

I *love* this video (“Mother of Many” by Emma Lazenby, which also won the BAFTA for Best Short Animation last year).  It so perfectly portrays what the average day can be like for a hospital midwife, from the overwhelming chaos of helping so many women at the same time to the joy at every birth [...]

Also posted in Birth Art, Good Enough to Share, Labor and Birth | Leave a 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, Homebirth, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Labor Support, News, Vaginal Birth, VBAC | Leave a comment

Midwifery Care Associated with Better Outcomes

By The Midwife | Published: August 29, 2011

Via MidwifeInfo, a systematic review spanning 18 years and encompassing 21 studies has found that midwives provide comparable or better care to women than care managed exclusively by physicians.   This finding was part of a larger review focusing on advanced practice nurses (nurse-midwives, nurse-anesthetists, nurse-practitioners etc.), and will be published in the upcoming September/ [...]

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

Why midwives “talk shop”

By The Midwife | Published: August 26, 2011

My husband has been known to complain about this from time to time: get two or more midwives in a room together during any social occasion, and inevitably the conversation becomes nothing but “shop talk”—pregnancy, birth, babies, birth, rotten clinic hours, birth, national politics as pertaining to midwifery, birth, local midwifery jobs, birth, attendings we [...]

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