http://www.midwiferytoday.com/ The latest news for midwives, doulas, and other birth practitioners. en-us Copyright (c) 2013, Midwifery Today, Inc. All rights reserved. Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 PST webdesign@midwiferytoday.com http://www.midwiferytoday.com/rss/rsslogo.gif http://www.midwiferytoday.com/ 88 31 Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 PST Conference: Plan now to attend the Midwifery Today/Domashniy Rebenok joint conference in Moscow, Russia, 25-29 June 2013. The theme is Natural Birth: Skills, Science and Traditions and planned classes include Mexican Traditions and Techniques, Waterbirth, Birth Trauma and Baby Health, Ultrasound: Weighing the Propaganda Against the Facts, and Spinning Babies. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/conferences/Russia2013 Wed, 8 May 2013 00:00:00 PST Special prices for full-time students on Midwifery Today magazine! Act fast! This offer expires May 31 (postmark or fax by the expiration date). http://www.midwiferytoday.com/specials/student_sub.asp Tue, 7 May 2013 00:00:00 PST E-News Issue 15:9 is now online. “‘You have the best job in the world!’ I hear this quite often when I tell people what I do. I agree, of course. I do have the best job in the world. I know, however, that the vision in the mind’s eye of the speaker is the blissful moment when the baby slowly crowns and then slips its way into the waiting hands of a calm, not-at-all-blood-splattered midwife. The reality, of course, is that by the time the slippery-baby-entry thing happens, the calm midwife has been through many hours of back-rubbing, poop-wiping, cervix-checking, amniotic fluid-splashing labor.” —Diana Janopaul. Read about laboring at home in Stories. “Being a Midwife” is the theme of this issue of Midwifery Today E-News. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/enews/enews1509.asp Tue, 7 May 2013 00:00:00 PST Review by Michele Klein: “Call the Midwife reveals a district midwife’s training by Anglican nuns, her spiritual journey and a gripping eye-opener on the challenges of midwifery among the urban poor, without running water or electricity.” http://www.midwiferytoday.com/reviews/CallMidwife.asp Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 PST Article by Allie Chee: “Whether a mother is left to care for herself and her new baby during the postpartum time or is working to recover from her loss, she is in almost all cases expected to “bounce back on her feet” in a few days. Is our approach to postpartum falling short?” This is an article excerpt from Midwifery Today magazine, Spring 2013. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/PostpartumDoula.asp Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 PST Conference: Plan now to attend our Midwifery Today conference in Blankenberge, Belgium, 30 October – 3 November 2013. The theme is Autonomous Midwifery and planned classes include Waterbirth, Placenta Medicine, Breech Birth, Shoulder Dystocia and Spinning Babies. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/conferences/Belgium2013 Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 PST Editorial by Jan Tritten from the Spring 2013 issue of Midwifery Today magazine: ‘The most important thing I can say about hemorrhage is, ‘Don’t cause one.’ If the body is well fed and mom is low on stress and feels loved, motherbaby and their process of labor and birth work well. Our first and most important job is to facilitate what is already a beautiful process. God designed this process to work, but birth workers can come along and do interventions that may cause hemorrhage.’” http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/ed_FirstDoNoHarm.asp Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 PST The table of contents for the spring issue of Midwifery Today, the print magazine, is available. The theme for this Issue (105) is “Doulas.” Though hemorrhage is commonly thought of as a deadly situation of third world countries, it is increasingly present within the US. The management of the third stage of labor has had an impact on the occurrence of this potentially life-threatening problem. The pages of this issue are filled with wisdom from some of the most knowledgeable minds on the subject, such as Robin Lim of Indonesia, French obstetrician Michel Odent and midwife Marlene Waechter. You will also enjoy reading midwife Sister MorningStar’s thoughts on midwifery education and an emotionally charged piece written by a midwife’s story of her arrest. As always, we want to thank you for your support of the magazine. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/magazine/Issue105.asp Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:00:00 PST Review by Sunday Tortelli: “Composed of a compilation of articles, this book empowers the prospective midwife to find her own best educational path. This is not a ‘how t’ book, which may be frustrating for those who only want to learn the most direct approach to reaching their goals. Birth is about self-reflection and personal discovery. Whether a woman is birthing her baby or birthing a new phase of her life, the best way is always going to be her way.” http://www.midwiferytoday.com/reviews/Paths_4thEd.asp Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:00:00 PST Review by Toni Rakestraw: “Another special aspect of this book is that many of the women who share their stories, including the author, had birth researcher and male midwife, Dr. Michel Odent, as an attendant at their births. How many readers have wished to have an experience like that?” http://www.midwiferytoday.com/reviews/HealthyBirth.asp Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 PST Editorial by Jan Tritten from the Winter 2012 issue of Midwifery Today magazine: Jan shares her thoughts on making the rights of the baby a part of the ‘Birth Is a Human Right’ initiative.” http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/ed_BabiesHaveRights.asp Fri, 7 Dec 2012 00:00:00 PST Review by Min Yi Su: “This workbook addresses such questions as, Where’s your baby’s head? Is it engaged? Is your baby facing backwards or forwards? Is your baby’s chin tucked? There is so much more to our baby’s position than ‘head down.’” http://www.midwiferytoday.com/reviews/BellyMappingWkbk.asp Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:00:00 PST Review by Cheryl K. Smith: “While painful to read in parts, the book provides a comprehensive look at a practice that has affected between 110 and 140 million women around the world.” http://www.midwiferytoday.com/reviews/FGM.asp Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 PST Conference: The archived programs of the Midwifery Today conferences are available online. You’ll also find photos, testimonials, poetry and letters on our following scrapbook pages. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/conferences/photos/ Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PST Article by Beth Barbeau: “She’s been in this box stall (when not out to pasture) for weeks, because she must be in a familiar environment to birth smoothly. There is her usual water and hay in the stall—never restrict their food in labor!” http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/SaferBirthInABarn.asp Mon, 13 Dec 2004 00:00:00 PST Article by Marsden Wagner: Cesarean section can save the life of the mother or her baby. Cesarean section can also kill a mother or her baby. How can this be? http://www.midwiferytoday.com/redirect.asp?id=1017 Mon, 13 Dec 2004 00:00:00 PST Meet some of Midwifery Today’s writers and conference teachers on our biography pages. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/redirect.asp?id=1018 Mon, 16 Feb 2004 00:00:00 PST Article by Candace Whitridge: When a woman is in labor, a little fight goes on in the woman’s brain. One part of here brain, the intellect, will tell her that she should do certain things. Perhaps those are things that we learned in childbirth classes; perhaps those are things that other people have told her that she should do to cope with birth. But from the other part of the brain will come an urge so deep within her that it will compel her to move her body and to use her voice in a completely different day. Those are her deep instincts about childbirth, but we have buried these for so long that most of us have forgotten that knowledge. Occasionally, though, I see women who remember.… http://www.midwiferytoday.com/redirect.asp?id=1019 Mon, 16 Feb 2004 00:00:00 PST Article by Janine DeBaise: Here is the plan for the birth of my child. I’ve taken words from the dreams of 200 women. I’m translating them for the hospital staff. 1. No blue hospital gown. No sterile drapes. When I give birth, I want to be naked. I want my body to choose the colour of its growing. 2. No enema. No antiseptic wash. No shaving of pubic hair. If I wanted to shave something, I’d shave my head. Like Jean-Luc Picard. I’ve always wanted to be captain of a star ship. When I give birth, I explore uncharted territory, I move and writhe into new worlds. I want to go where no man has gone before. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/redirect.asp?id=1020 Mon, 16 Feb 2004 00:00:00 PST Article by Robbie Davis-Floyd, PhD: A distressing cross-cultural trend is showing up in the growing body of anthropological literature about midwifery and birth in the developing world. From Tanzania to Papua New Guinea, anthropologists who observe professional midwives giving prenatal care and attending births increasingly note that, far from the midwifery ideal, professional midwives often treat women very badly during birth, ignoring their needs and requests, talking to them disrespectfully, ordering them around, and sometimes even yelling at them and slapping them. At the same time, and in direct correlation, the professional midwives are themselves often treated badly by the healthcare systems in which they work. They are almost always underpaid, are frequently mistreated by physicians who rank above them in the medical hierarchy, and generally work long hours under stressful conditions that often include inadequate facilities and equipment and too many women with too few midwives to care for them well. In short, professional midwives are often trapped in the biomedical healthcare system, a system that is failing to meet the needs of birthing women in developing countries. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/redirect.asp?id=1021 Mon, 16 Feb 2004 00:00:00 PST Article by Gail Hart: The timing of birth has major consequences for a baby. Too early or too late can mean the difference between life and death. Or so we have come to believe; and it’s undoubtedly true at the extreme ends of preterm and postterm birth dates. Although few babies are born at these extremes of the normal length of pregnancy, much of our prenatal care is based on bringing babies to birth “in a timely fashion”—neither too early nor too late. But our understanding of “timely” is clouded, and some of our methods are self-defeating. By intervening in the natural timing of birth, we sometimes exacerbate the problems or create entirely new ones. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/redirect.asp?id=1022 Mon, 16 Feb 2004 00:00:00 PST Article by Lois Wilson: What is the role of the father who is present at the birth of his child? Is he a labor coach, advocate or partner? Is he a fifth wheel? A nuisance? A liability? In the twelve years that I have served birthing families in my community, I have heard many passionate opinions about the presence of fathers at birth. Over the years my own understanding of the role that fathers play in pregnancy and birth has developed to become much deeper and more complex as I have served different families, each with their own unique relationship, culture, expectations and beliefs. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/redirect.asp?id=1023