Posted in Birth Thoughts, birth, birth education, fathers, giving birth, tagged birth, birth partner, birth support, fathers, giving birth, helping a woman in labor, providing support during labor on March 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Giving birth is an intensely physical process for the woman giving birth and sometimes we forget what an intensely physical process it is to assist a woman giving birth! Here are a few ideas of ways to take care of yourself while you are helping your wife or partner labor and give birth:
Bring healthy snacks [...]
Posted in Resources, birth, maternity care on March 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A friend of mine from Independent Childbirth put together some creative and interesting videos on YouTube. One is called 50 Ways to Scare a Mother and another is called 50 Ways to Birth More Safely. Enjoy!
Posted in Resources, birth classes, birth education, tagged birth, birth classes, birth shows, childbirth education on March 19, 2008 | 1 Comment »
During my classes, we talk about how media portrayals of birth impact our perceptions and expectations as well as contribute to our fears about birth. Often media portrayals of birth have a tense, “emergency” atmosphere, with lots of rushing around and communicate that birth is a dangerous, medical event requiring rescuing by medical teams. Usually, [...]
Posted in birth, birth classes, birth education, mothers, natural birth, tagged birth, birth classes, birth education, childbirth education on March 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Occasionally I read that someone is planning to take a hospital sponsored birth class because they feel they will get more “balanced” information. This usually seems to be said with regard to medications “versus” natural birth. There is an excellent discussion about this issue in the book Mother’s Intention: How Belief Shapes Birth.
“Let us look [...]
Posted in Birth Thoughts, birth, birth classes, definitions, tagged birth, birth classes, childbirth education on March 14, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Recently I finished reading (and reviewing) the new book Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy & Birth. In the opening chapter, they identify a concept that I have *felt* for some time, but hadn’t really put a finger on. The authors refer to it as a “climate of confidence” and a “climate of doubt.” I love this [...]
Posted in Birth Thoughts, birth, tagged birth on March 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Continuing with my musings about pain and birth, I came across a following acronym in the fall 2007 issue of the International Journal of Childbirth Education (the publication of ICEA):
P (purposeful)
A (anticipated)
I (intermittent)
N (normal)
——-
I was previously unfamiliar with the acronym, but I kind of like it. There are so many fears surrounding pain in birth–often [...]
Posted in Birth Thoughts, birth, birth classes, natural birth, tagged birth, birth classes, natural birth on March 8, 2008 | 5 Comments »
I recently purchased a new educational DVD about natural birth called It’s My Body, My Baby, My Birth. A childbirth educator interviewed during the film briefly discusses pain and says that we need more words for pain, because it is ridiculous that we have only one word that is used to describe a hangnail, a [...]
