Archive for Midwives
How to Turn a Breech Baby: You Have Options!
DECEMBER 29, 2010
I recently met a local woman who is 30-weeks pregnant with her first child. As we talked about her upcoming birth she mentioned that her baby was breech (buttocks or feet down). During her last prenatal visit her obstetrician told her, “If your baby doesn’t turn before your due date, we’ll have to do a c-section.” I asked if her doctor had given her any information on some of the different things she could try to help her baby turn head down—the optimal position for a vaginal birth. He hadn’t. She was surprised that there was anything she could do and expressed an interest in avoiding a cesarean if at all possible. [...]
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Review Your Maternity Care Provider Online
OCTOBER 29, 2010
Bloom Spokane believes that women of childbearing age must have access to information that will help them choose maternity care providers and institutions that are most compatible with their own philosophies and needs. This includes being able to access patient feedback on doctors, midwives, hospitals and birth centers.
If you’ve given birth in the United States in the past three years, you are eligible to participate in The Birth Survey. Thanks to The Birth Survey: Transparency in Maternity Care, “women can now give consumer reviews of doctors, midwives, hospitals, and birth centers, learn about the choices and birth experiences of others, and view data on hospital and birth center standard practices and intervention rates.” If enough women take this survey, it could have a serious impact on maternity care in the U.S. [...]
Bloom Spokane Announces New Childbirth Class
It’s Your Birth. Know All Your Options.
Bloom Spokane is launching a new public education program to encourage, inform and support local childbearing families during their journey on the road to parenthood. The goal of the class called “It’s Your Birth. Know All Your Options” is to help parents identify the type of birth that’s best for them and make a plan for achieving that birth. [...]
New Study on Home Birth is Skewed
All of my birth-obsessed friends on Facebook have been buzzing about a recent home birth study published by the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG). Everyone, including the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS), is outraged that the publishers of the study “accepted a poorly designed and methodologically unsound study in which authors concluded there is a 3-fold increase in neonatal mortality in planned home births compared with planned hospital birth.” You can read CIMS’s full response to the study on their website. [...]
Deaconess Women’s Clinic: Part 2
In my recent interview with Catherine Shields, one of the certified nurse midwives at the Deaconess Women’s Clinic in Spokane, we talked about the things that make the clinic’s practice unique in our area—especially for women who wish to have a natural birth in the hospital. This article contains her answers to many of the questions that pregnant women should ask of their prenatal care providers. It also bears witness to the loving heart of a self-proclaimed “Old Midwife” who has seen it all and lives for the opportunity to guide mothers through the most important experience of their lives. [...]
Deaconess Women’s Clinic: Part 1
In my ongoing effort to bring Bloom readers insights and expertise from our local natural birth professionals, I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to speak with Catherine Shields, one of the certified nurse midwives at the Deaconess Women’s Clinic in Spokane. It’s no secret that I had my second baby under the care of the Clinic’s midwives and so I know how passionately devoted Catherine is to the care of pregnant women and babies. To hear her speak about birth is a transformative experience—just as birth itself should be! [...]
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. [...]
Protect Midwifery in Washington
I received the following email from the Midwives Association of Washington today and thought Bloom readers would also like to support the organization’s efforts to protect midwifery care in our state. Please read the following letter and follow the instructions to write your state legislators. They need to hear from those of us who have benefited from the care of midwives first hand! [...]
Oprah.com Reports on Alternative Birth Options
I am always beyond excited to see a non-sensationalist article about natural birth appearing on any mainstream website, television program or other media outlet. Though natural birth at home has been the norm throughout history, in recent times it has become a radical, outsider and even legally-banned practice in the U.S. That’s why I’m giving Oprah.com a gold star for raising awareness about the subject and letting American families know that they have other options besides hospital birth attended by obstetricians!
A recent article appearing on Oprah.com, by Fritz Lenneman, begins “With Caesarean section surgeries occurring in nearly one in three pregnancies and traditional hospital births by obstetricians costing an average of $8,000 to $10,000, some pregnant women are exploring other options. And the future of childbirth in America might start looking more like the past.” He then describes the roles of midwives and doulas in the birth process and talks about the legal challenges faced by some home-birth midwives. “Though about half of states allow at-home birth, it remains uncommon in the United States—just 1 percent of births occur in nonhospital settings including home births and birthing centers.” He also discusses alternative methods for inducing labor such as acupuncture, acupressure, walking, eating spicy foods and sex. Yes SEX! [...]
Taking Back Our Right to Birth
In a recent article on Huffington Post titled, “A Woman’s Nation: Reclaim Your Right To Birth Right,” Christiane Northrup, M.D. encourages women (who now make up half the work force!) to use that power to influence the future of health care in America, beginning with labor and birth. She argues that the media’s portrayal of birth as a medical emergency and the actual medicalization of birth has done us more harm than good. She makes great arguments, loaded with fascinating and unbelievable statistics that should be making headlines. [...]
