Archive for Father’s Perspective
Why Consider A Natural Birth?
I often think back to my first prenatal yoga classes when the teacher, who was also a doula (something I’d never heard of at the time), introduced the idea of natural birth. I guess I had always assumed that I would have my baby in the hospital, most likely under the spell of an epidural or other drugs that would make the experience entirely bearable. In fact, I don’t think anyone I personally knew had had a baby any other way, unless by accident. The only pregnancy book on my shelf at the time was “The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy” which, as funny as it is, would have me believe that one might die if she actually felt a single contraction or was made to “room-in” with her baby during the remainder of her hospital stay. Thank heavens for my prenatal yoga instructors! [...]
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The Bradley Method: Up Close & Personal
Even though I’ve had two children myself, until this past week I had never attended a Bradley Method class. I title this post “Up Close & Personal” because I don’t think there’s another pregnancy or birth preparation class out there that provides such complete information on the physical and mental aspects of natural birth…and it doesn’t leave out one juicy detail. The idea is that with such intense preparation, couples will be prepared to achieve a natural birth and/or make knowledgeable decisions about medical interventions should they become necessary. [...]
Do Men Hinder Birth?
One of my Facebook friends sent me a link to an article titled, “Having an all-female environment is the best birth plan.” In it, the revered (in some circles, mostly female) obstetrician Michel Odent has declared that “women are better off giving birth in an all-female environment because the presence of a male partner—or even a male doctor—may make her feel pressurised and/or distracted.” Yeah, I can see how that would be true. [...]
The Controversy Over Home Birth
I have recently twitted about two news articles concerning the safety of home birth. For those of you who don’t follow me on twitter, I’ll catch you up on the news. Here’s the scoop: The Huffington Post article, “ACOG Up to Dirty Tricks,” reported on the organizations efforts to collect stories solely about unsuccessful out-of-hospital births from its members to use as “data” in it’s lobbying efforts against independent midwives. And on the brighter side, USA Today published the article “Study: Home Birth With Midwife as Safe as Hospital Birth” which finds that planned home births may in fact have a lower mortality rate and fewer complications that physician-attended hospital births. [...]
HypnoBirthing in Spokane
I met up with our local HypnoBirthing educators this morning to talk about the work they do and find out what inspired them to teach expectant couples. Wendy Connolly of Spokane HypnoBirthing located on the South Hill and Mary Long of Inland HypnoBirthing located in Green Acres, just east of Spokane Valley, are both delightful women and we had a great time sharing our own personal birth stories with eachother.
Mary and Wendy acknowledged that HypnoBirthing is initially perceived by some as a hippie-weirdo practice that brings to mind swinging pendulums and comatose patients. In actuality, HypnoBirthing is a method of self hypnosis that enables a woman to block her body’s pain perception and ease anxiety during natural childbirth. This is achieved by maintaining a state of deep relaxation during labor and birth, made possible by practicing breathing and visualization techniques during pregnancy in preparation for the big day. The word “self” is key here, as no one besides the laboring mom can make this happen—it’s not magic. [...]
Hiring a Doula: A Husband’s Perspective
I was struck by Cara’s Wright’s comments in last Friday’s blog post about the reservations fathers-to-be have about hiring a doula. As a husband that had doubts about it myself, I thought I’d share my experience and hope you find it helpful. In my opinion, men’s resistance to hiring a doula comes from three factors.
Money, Privacy, and Control
We don’t like paying extra. We also know childbirth is very expensive. To many fathers-to-be, a doula just isn’t needed. It’s the equivalent of buying the warranty—and we never get the warranty. You want someone to come with us to the hospital on this special day? Someone crashing our private family moment? Someone telling us what to do? Cara is right, many husbands don’t want to pay for that lack of privacy and control. [...]
