Herbal Allies for Pregnancy Problems
By Susun Weed
Wise women believe that most of the problems of pregnancy can be prevented by attention to nutrition. Morning sickness and mood swings are connected to low blood sugar; backaches and severe labor pains often result from insufficient calcium; varicose veins, hemorrhoids, constipation, skin discoloration and anemia are evidence of lack of specific nutrients; preeclampsia, the most severe problem of pregnancy, is a form of acute malnutrition. Excellent nutrition includes pure water, controlled breath, abundant light, loving and respectful relationships, beauty and harmony in daily life, joyous thoughts and vital foodstuffs.
During pregnancy nutrients are required to create the cells needed to form two extra pounds of uterine muscle, the nerves, bones, organs, muscles, glands and skin of the fetus, several pounds of amniotic fluid, a placenta and a 50 percent increase in blood volume. In addition, extra kidney and liver cells are needed to process the waste of’ two beings instead of one.
Wild foods and organically grown produce, grains and herbs are the best source of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients needed during pregnancy. All the better if the expectant mother can get out and gather her own herbs: stretching, bending, breathing, moving, touching the earth, taking time to talk with the plants and to open herself to their spiritual world.
Filed under: birth, birthstories | Tags: birth blog, birth stories, birth story, labour, natural childbirth, natural childbirth blog, pregnancy, pregnancy blog
Calder
A new member of the tribe arrived last night at 9:14pm but not without a fight.
Apparently, Calder liked his mommy’s womb so much, he was hesitant to leave it. Can’t say as I blame him. Karin labored for nearly 40 hours. She did not take any drugs for the pain, which was, at times excruciating. Karin took control at 9pm and taught Calder his first lesson - about who was in charge. She simply insisted he come out and meet his parents. Despite repeated attempts to scurry back up into the safety of the womb, Calder came out with his mouth open, screaming his presence to the world. He does not yet have the power of words, but I’m pretty sure he was saying HERE I AM.
Karin was simply amazing. She is the strongest person I have ever known. You have never in your life seen anyone so calm, so brave, so focused, so dedicated to her child. Karin was a hero last night, to me, to our baby, and truly to anyone who saw her struggle. It was the hardest thing she has ever done, and she stepped into it with power, with grace and with unfathomable courage.
In the last 30 or so years, Motherhood has taken a hit in some quarters, by some feminists, as something less than befitting a strong modern woman. While surely that attitude has resulted from the years of patriarchial oppression of women in modern western society, nothing - nothing- could be further from the truth.
Any woman who ever doubts the nobility, the beauty or the honor of motherhood, should have been in that room with us to witness what I saw - a woman in complete control of her body and her life, fully conscious and capable of ferocious, irrepressible love. And any man who ever doubts a woman’s ability to accomplish anything, anything, in this life has certainly never seen one in her finest moment. I was fortunate enough to bear witness to one such woman, in one such moment, and it was something to see. I plan on telling my son this as soon as he is able to understand the words. And he will understand.
<!–[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]–><!–[if !vml]–><!–[endif]–>He will understand that his mother is a warrior of peace. A warrior of love. Karin suffered pain and mental exhaustion to ensure that her son, my son, our son, would be born into his life fully conscious without any drugs coursing through his veins, and subsequently fully aware of his entry into the world. She fought for his health. She fought for his spirit. She fought for his life. And he appreciated it. Calder took to his mothers breast immediately. He hugged her tight in his first minute of life while the umbilical cord, still attached to his mother, pulsed gently between his skin and hers.
So Calder is born unto this world with a crushing, all encompassing love and respect for the woman in his life. Many men forget this. I will make sure this young man never does.
I have never had more faith in the human race than I do right now. I am joyful and hopeful for this world because of this baby, the woman I married, and the lesson I learned last night about how truly powerful human beings can be.
by Nick Raio
Filed under: pregnancy | Tags: bonding, fetus emotions, mothering, newborn, parenting, pregnancy, prenatal influences, unborn child, womb
from “The Secret Life of the Unborn Child”
by Thomas Verny, M.D. with John Kelly
… at one time or another nearly every expectant mother senses that she and her unborn child are reacting to one another’s feelings. …
- The fetus can see, hear, experience, taste, and, on a primitive level, even learn in utero (that is, in the uterus — before birth). Most profoundly, he can feel — not with an adult’s sophistication, but feel nonetheless.
- A corollary to this discovery is that what a child feels and perceives begins shaping his attitudes and expectations about himself. Whether he ultimately sees himself and, hence, acts as a happy or sad, aggressive or meek, secure or anxiety-ridden person depends, in part, on the messages he gets about himself in the womb.
- The chief source of those shaping messages is the child’s mother. This does not mean every fleeting worry, doubt or anxiety a woman has rebounds on her child. What matters are deep persistent patterns of feeling. Chronic anxiety or a wrenching ambivalence about motherhood can leave a deep scar on an unborn child’s personality. On the other hand, such life-enhancing emotions as joy, elation and anticipation can contribute significantly to the emotional development of a healthy child.
- New research is also beginning to focus much more on the father’s feelings. Until recently his emotions were disregarded. Our latest studies indicate that this view is dangerously wrong. They show that how a man feels about his wife and unborn child is one of the single most important factors in determining the success of a pregnancy. …
Filed under: birth, gallery, homebirth | Tags: homebirth photo gallery, homebirth pictures, photos of a waterbirth, water birth gallery, waterbirth gallery, Waterbirth photo gallery, waterbirth photps, waterbirth picture gallery, waterbirth pictures
PHOTOS BY B. BALTIMORE BROWN
Filed under: birth, homebirth, labour, video, waterbirth | Tags: birth in water, birth video, free waterbirth information, free waterbirth video, laboring in water, labour in water, labouring in water, water birth, water birth blog, water labour, waterbirth, waterbirth at home, waterbirth blog, waterbirth video, woman gives birth in water
Lyle:
Our second son’s welcome into this world.
This is the mommy in this birth video. I’m giving background info for viewers understanding. My husband posted this but I’m glad to share this wonderful exp. This was our 2nd birth (1st was Taylor now 5 born at home in tub too after 12 hours of labor). If mom and baby are healthy and you have all the necessary pre-natal care and are fully educated on labor/birth and what to expect and really want a homebirth exp. (no fear) than this is the way to go man! It was the most empowering exp. of my life.
The reason midwife is not here is my husband told her it would be 1 hr. when she called to check on us at 4am. what does he know—he’s just a man and I couldn’t really verbalize that is would be sooner. The call you see in the video (where my husband has the head in his hands)at 5am is midwife again, @ 30 min. away still. Well, she’s gonna be late,huh? My sister, best friend & my mom who is tending to our 22 month (Taylor—now 5) were there. He was crying because its 4:45am, he just woke up & wanted Mommy like all kids do at 5am-he also wanted to get in the pool. He was not traumatized by seeing me give birth. I was having a baby–one of the most nautural things in the world.
Filed under: birth, birthstories, empowered childbirth, labour | Tags: birthstories, joy of childbirth, labour, natural childbirth, painfree birth, painfree labour, painless childbirth
by Alice B. Stockham, M.D.
“I know of no country, no tribe, no class, where childbirth is attended with so much pain and trouble as in this country.”
Thus replied a traveler who had been many years in foreign lands, upon being interrogated as to the comparative sufferings of savage and civilized women. His occupation and sympathies had brought him into close relationship with all classes of people, and therefore fitted him for an intelligent and discriminating judgment in this matter.
Neither in India, Hindostan, China, Japan, the South Sea Islands, South America, nor indeed in any country do women suffer in both pregnancy and parturition as they do in this. Possibly among the higher classes in Europe there may be equal suffering; but the peasantry everywhere is comparatively exempt.
The usual testimony of missionaries and travelers is that the squaws of our own Indian tribes experience almost no suffering in childbirth, and the function scarcely interferes with the habits, pleasures or duties of life.
Mrs. Armstrong, one of the early missionaries in the Sandwich Islands, says: “With native women the labor was not long nor severe; the mother, instead of remaining in bed, arose, bathed in cold water, walked and ate as usual.”
Dr. Storer says: “There is probably no suffering ever experienced which will compare, in proportion to its extent in time, with the throes of parturition.” Dr. Meigs says: “Men can not suffer the same pain as women. What do you call the pains of parturition? There is no name for them but agony!”
It is too true that women go down to death in giving birth to children. Thousands of women believe that this pain is natural and that for it there can be no alleviation. “In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children” is thought to be a curse that applies to all women of all time.
If this pain and travail is a natural accompaniment of physiological functions - if it is a curse upon women, then why are the rich, the enlightened and more favored daughters of earth greater sufferers than the peasantry, the savage, the barbarian, and those who we call heathen? Is it not possible, by research and comparison, to learn the natural and true mode of life, so that motherhood may, among enlightened people, be relieved from this burden of suffering? May it not prove that our traditions and teachings upon this subject have been altogether erroneous?
American women in education and enlightenment, in freedom and progress, are the peers of the best and noblest of their sex. From individual, social and national interests, they ought to be conversant with all that pertains to this subject, so closely allied to the interests of the race.
We find in women of superior education and marked intelligence an exaggerated development of the emotional nature, and a corresponding deterioration of physical powers. Weakness, debility, and suffering is the common lot of most of them. Not one in a hundred has health and strength to pursue any chosen study, or to follow any lucrative occupation, and what is vastly worse, most are unfitted for the duties and perils of maternity.
Dr. Gaillard Thomas says: “Neither appreciation of, nor desire for, physical excellence sufficiently exists among refined women of our day. Our young women are too willing to be delicate, fragile and incapable of endurance. They dread above all things the glow and hue of health, the rotundity and beauty of muscularity, the comely shapes which the great masters gave to the Venus de Medici and Venus de Milo. All these attributes are viewed as coarse and unladylike, and she is regarded as most to be envied whose complexion wears the livery of disease, whose muscular development is beyond the suspicion of embonpoint, and whose waist can almost be spanned by her own hands.
“As a result, how often do we see our matrons dreading the process of child-bearing, as if it were an abnormal and destructive one; fatigued and exhausted by a short, walk, or ordinary household cares; choosing houses with special reference to freedom from one extra flight of stairs, and commonly debarred the one great maternal privilege of nourishing their own offspring. These are they who furnish employment for the gynecologist, and who fill our homes with invalids and sufferers.”
Understanding and following physiological laws, pregnancy ought to be as free from pathological symptoms, and parturition as void of suffering with American women as with any on earth, or even with the lower animals.
Dr. Dewees says: “Pain in childbirth is a morbid symptom; it is a perversion of nature caused by modes of living not consistent with the most healthy condition of the system, and a regimen which would insure a completely healthy condition might be counted on with certainty to do away with such pain.”
The great English scientist, Professor Huxley, says: “We are indeed, fully prepared to believe that the bearing of children may and ought to become as free from danger and long debility to the civilized woman as it is to the savage.”
The following paragraphs from one of the essays in Dr. Montgomery’s classical work on Pregnancy, give practical details of cases in illustration of the belief in painless parturition.
“In a letter to me Dr. Douglas states that he was called about 6 A. M., Sept. 26, 1828, to attend a Mrs. D., residing on Eccles St.
“On his arrival he found the house in the utmost confusion, and was told that the child had been born before the messenger was dispatched for the doctor. From the lady herself he learned that, about half an hour previously, she had been awakened from a natural sleep by the alarm of a daughter about five years old, who slept with her.
“This alarm was occasioned by the little girl feeling the movements, and hearing the cries of an infant in bed. To the mother’s great surprise she had brought forth her child without any consciousness of the fact. “A lady of great respectability, the wife of a peer of the realm, was actually delivered once in her sleep; she immediately awakened her husband, being alarmed to find one more in bed than there was before.
“I have elsewhere mentioned the case of a patient of mine who bore eight children without ever having labor pains. Her deliveries were so sudden and void of sensible effect that in more than one instance they took place under most awkward circumstances, but without any suffering.”
Dr. J. King, in his work on Obstetrics, speaks of attending cases where there was no sensation of pain.
He found that by placing the hand upon the abdomen, the muscular contractions were distinctly felt, and examination proved the progress of labor, while, excepting a suppressed breath, the patient experienced no change from the ordinary condition.
With Dr. Holmes, I believe it will take many years to eradicate diseased conditions which are the heritage of this generation, and thus to produce men and women of physical perfection. Science has proven, however, that any woman possessing sufficient vitality to make procreation possible, can do much, even during pregnancy, to alleviate the sufferings of that period, as well as the final throes of travail. Pain and suffering have so long been the customary attendant upon the maternal functions, that many are slow to believe they can ever be alleviated. Painless childbirth is thought to be an impossibility. The reader is begged to lay aside all previous prejudices, and it is believed that when this volume has been thoroughly studied he will be convinced that women in bearing offspring should furnish no exception to the laws of nature, and that pregnancy and parturition may and ought to be devoid of suffering.
Tokology: A Book for Every Woman
1911 by Alice B. Stockham, M.D
Filed under: aqua midwife, birth, empowered childbirth, waterbirth | Tags: aqua midwife, birth in water, free waterbirth information, labour in water, labouring in water, water birth, water birth blog, water birth resources, water labour, waterbirth, waterbirth at home, waterbirth blog, waterbirth in the birthing center, waterbirth in the hospital, waterbirth information, waterbirth resource list, waterbirth resources
Apart from medical factors, psychological factors also influence the birth process. The more familiar the environment is for the birthing woman, the more complication-free and easy a birth is. Beyond that the water offers a shelter into which the birthing woman can dive into, if she wants to concentrate on the process of labour.
A water birth can take place in the hospital, in the birth center or at home.
Water birth in the hospital
Some hospitals [in Germany] have special bearing tubs in the in the maternity ward, which are equipped with all comfort. A birthing tub is accessible from each side, has handles and footrests build in and is fillable up to the chest with water. The parents do not have to worry about the filling of the tub or the disposal of the waste water. In some gynaecological clinics the cardio activity of the baby and the activity of the labour of the mother can be supervised with waterproof telemetry. Many midwives and physicians trained themselves further for water birth. If you are interested in water birth in a hospital, get information from the hospitals of your region whether this possibility of birthing is offered there.
See also Waterbirth International
Water birth in the birth center
Some birth centers have a birthing tub available. Sometimes parents can bring a birthing tub of their choice. Water basin rental companies offer different, transportable birthing tubs. Many midwives of the birthing centers trained themselves further for water delivery and how to connect it with the midwife assistance for a active birth.
See also water babies (Germany)
waterbirthinfo (USA)
Waterbirth at home
With the waterbirth in the own home parents can create their individual birth surroundings. Parents themselves decide which persons are to help with the birth, in which rooms they want to experience it the “celebration of the birth” (Leboyer), which music they want to hear and they determine want they want to eat. They can use the bathing tub or rent a birthing tub with a lot of space. Many parents buy a inflatable children’s pool, which permits a depth of water of 50 cm at least. The liberty to “create your own birth” (see also video: “Kinder kriegen “, Birth center Vienna), requires good planning and birth preparation. Freelance midwives support parents, accompany the house/water birth and lead the following water training in the childbed. From midwives led water baby meetings in the first year of life of the child helps with the transition from the water life in utero to the future land life
See also hebinfo (German), the website of aqua midwife Cornelia Enning from where this translations come
For rental pools or purchasing birthing pools:
aquadoula
yourwaterbirth
gentlewater (UK)
My lens on waterbirth:
waterbirth101
Filed under: birth, midwifery, video | Tags: birth video, free birth video, natural birth video, natural childbirth, natural childbirth blog, unmedicated birth, watch woman giving birth
Filed under: baby care, breastfeeding | Tags: baby care, breastfeeding, breastfeeding blog, family, mothering, motherly love, successful mothering
Many psychatrists have stated form time to time not only that man relives the moment of his birth, but also that his mental development will arise from the earliest association with life. If this is true, the happiness radiated by the nursing mother breast-feeding her child must envelop the infant in an aura of blissful associations with its earliest beginnings.
No hot blanket, guardian nurse or weaning bottle can replace the physiological character formation of the breast-fed baby. There is no substitute for mother love. The relationship between those who love and those who are loved is not a sentimental association but reality. There is a mutual transference of a force which elevates both the mind and the body to a higher plane of human development than the implementation of impersonal scientific procedures and synthetic devices
Man cannot feed the baby within the uterus. What justifies his presumption that he is able to improve upon the physiological provision because the child has recently left the uterus? We can fortify and reinforce with certain substances the adequacy of both the placental and the breast nutrition, but the basic natural nourishment supplies something which no concoction can contain.
Although a skilled physician can write prescriptions for mixtures upon which children will thrive, they cannot include the personality factor of successful mothering. They can build bonnie and beautiful babies whose bodies are the pride of their nurses and a profit to the advertisers of patent foos. Without mothering, a nation of gladiators can arise, but if the seeds of mother love had been implanted in early infancy and fostered in youth, should we have seen the tragedies and the indescribable horrors of the last fifteen or twenty years? Breast-feeding has a sociological value far greater than is generally recognised.
From “Childbirth Without Fear” by Grantly Dick-Read
Photo by Brunna Perett
Click to see my hubpage on GMOs in infant formula
Filed under: aqua midwife, birth, labour, midwifery, waterbirth | Tags: newborn, waterbirth, birth in water, midwifery, birth, natural childbirth blog, Cornelia Enning, birth blog, baby, labour hormones
A healthy baby is able to overcome the distance between uterus and motherly chest by its own strength if the conditions of its birth give it the opportunity. The baby itself gives the impulse to the mother to release labour hormones. In the water her body reacts faster and more easily.
In the stage of expulsion the baby repels itself with his little legs at the wall of the uterus while rotating through the birth channel. In the water the pelvic bones of the mother give way better. Born into the water, the newborn child paddles with its little arms in order to arrive at the chest of the mother.
The baby can already take up the first eye contact in the water with its mother. Water babies are born with open eyes. The transition of the fruit water to the bath water is like a restorative stopover on the birth way. The birth under water is one of the gentlest forms for a baby to see the light of the world.
Translated with permission from aqua-midwife Cornelia Enning’s website hebinfo.de
Filed under: aqua midwife, birth, waterbirth | Tags: active birth, avoid tearing, birth in water, non-interventionist birth, painfree birth, unmedicated birth, water birth, waterbirth
During labour the movements of the woman support the birth procedure. The water permits movements which were to be implemented ashore only with difficulty. In which position the birth of the child is to take place, a woman can decide best herself in the weightlessness of water.
The water lets the birth canals become so eased and flexible that the birthing woman will get along without pain medication. She also does not need artificial hormones because the water will energize the body-own hormones. At the end of the birth she will be able to control how quickly the head of the child is to be born and can thereby avoid tearing.
Interferences by birth attendants are difficult in the water and during a normal birth process unnecessary. Particularly women after a cesaeren section have a opportunity with the waterbirth to bring this child normally in the world.
Translated from aqua-midwife Cornelia Enning’s website hebinfo.de
Filed under: birth, empowered childbirth, video, waterbirth | Tags: birth in water, free water birth movies, water birth, water birth video, water birth videos, water births, waterbirth, waterbirth at home, waterbirth video sharing, woman giving water birth
Filed under: herbal remedies, labour, pregnancy | Tags: blkach cohosh, castor oil, cesarean rates, delayed labour, due date, how to induce labor, how to induce labour, inducing labor, inducing labour, induction, Michel Odent, natural childbirth, pregnancy, pregnancy blog
In Peace
Filed under: aqua midwife, labour, midwifery, waterbirth | Tags: waterbirth, midwifery, waterbirth at home, woman giving water birth, aqua midwife, waterbirth in europe
Already since the beginnings of midwifery, bathing has been used as birth assistance during labour.. Similarly long, women report that they do not want to leave the warm water to give birth to their child on the bed.
Progressive midwives already began before approximately 15-20 years, to search for “alternative” birth methods and birthing positions, moved by the needs of the pregnant women. In due course of time water birth turned out to be the most gentle and popular. Water birth is one of the gentlest birth methods for mother and child: Pain reduction for the mother and stress reduction for the child.
Experience of many years and scientific investigations on the procedures of water birth prove today free of doubts that the water birth is absolutely harmless for mother and child . Everyone can easily understand, which special and intimate relationship the unborn child has to (fruit) the water, which is his home for the first nine month.
In water, births works with the so-called dipping reflex which closes the bronchial tube of the newborn waterproof. A newborn child inhales for the first time only if its (face) skin has no more contact with the water.
Women who gave birth to their child in the water, say in the most cases that they had a beautiful and gentle birth experience. Beyond that the water birth has also “medical” advantages: frequently the birth precedes somewhat faster, fewer pain medication is needed, and the number of episiotomies (dam cuts) and dam injuries (tearing) is smaller. This can be traced back to the relaxation and pain reduction which is experienced in a warm tub bath.
The modern birth assistance permits women to decide how long they want to enjoy their birth bath. Each woman can get the advantages of the water before, during and after birth. A water birth designates the baby’s birth of the under water.
From Aqua-Midwife Cornelia enning’s website hebinfo.de
Photo by B. Baltimore
Filed under: aqua midwife, baby care, birth, empowered childbirth, homebirth, midwifery | Tags: waterbirth, midwife, waterbirth at home, waterbirth midwife, waterbirth Europe, waterbirth Germany, Cornelia Enning, waterbirth contact, aqua midwife
It is a great pleasure and honor for me to announce my new series of translations from the website of aqua-midwife Cornelia Enning from Germany. Her work is admirable. If you have any questions or are interested in her services, feel free to contact me:
For direct contact with aqua-midwife Cornelia Enning:
Keplerstr. 16, D-75417 Mühlacker
Telefon: 011-49 (07042) 15536 FAX : 011-49 (07042) 950945
Cornelia Enning has been a licensed midwife in Muehlacker, Germany since 1972. She has been doing homebirths/waterbirths since 1975. She received a B.E. in psychology and pedagogy in 1972 from the University of Berlin. She has been doing homebirths and waterbirths since 1975 and is the founder of the German parents association “Wasserbabies.”
Cornelia is editor of the quarterly Wasserbaby-Post and author of several books about waterbirth at home and in hospitals. She directs the German Federation of Aquapaedagogik and instructs parents in water training for newborns. In addition, she has taught waterbirth midwifery to more than 4000 midwives and obstetricians. Cornelia has two adult children and one granddaughter.
Filed under: homebirth, video | Tags: homebirth video, videos, homebirth videos, natural birth video, natural childbirth video, natural birth video sharing, free homebirth video, see woman giving birth at home, twin homebirth
Filed under: birth, birthstories, empowered childbirth, labour, waterbirth | Tags: birth in water, birth stories, birthstories, water birth, water birth story, water births, waterbirth, waterbirth at home, waterbirth story, woman giving water birth
“My husband and I had done many test runs with the hot tub to see how long it took to fill and heat back up again, and it was a good 5 hours. Well my labor was going fast and it had maybe been 4 hours since we put the fresh water in. So the temperature was then about 83 degrees. Luckily it was a warm night. But once I got into the water the contractions slowed down a little. So my wonderful husband connected a garden hose to the hot water inside the house and started pumping it in. The water circled around my body like a warm blanket.
The transition stage came on fast. I remember looking up at the stars and letting out a scream that felt animalistic. I moaned and moaned while feeling the head making its way down. My husband was gently rubbing my back. The midwives only took the fetal heart rate a couple of times. When I was ready to push, they asked me to get out of the tub. They said they felt it wasn’t hot enough for the baby. Well I thought it was damn close enough. Nothing was getting me out. It wasn’t 98 yet, maybe only 92, but I wasn’t moving. I said, “Babies have been born in the Baltic sea in Russia, I’m not getting out.” They looked at each other and said “OK.” I knew my baby would be just fine, something deep inside told me. I trusted my instincts.
The pushing went fast. When the head started coming down I gave some really strong pushes. I remembered reading that many women enjoyed reaching up and feeling the head. So I did. Then I grabbed my husband’s hand and had him feel. The baby’s head was covered in hair. That gave me a lot of encouragement to push the head out. At this time we had the hot tub light on low so we could see. When he came out he had his eyes wide open. I looked down and there he was. Staring back at me. I rested then pushed the rest of his beautiful little body out. My husband put his hands underneath him and gently brought him up to the surface.
The cord was kind of short, so I couldn’t nurse him right away, so my husband and I just held him for a few minutes in the water. It was amazing to see this new person emerge into the world. We had in seconds gone from a family of two to a family of three.
We got out of the tub and walked inside. Our family room was quiet and warm, with soft music in the background. Just like a dream. We sat on the couch and got acquainted for a while. After several minutes with the lights very low, my husband said “so what is the sex of our baby???” We hadn’t had any ultrasound tests so we didn’t know ahead of time. I had been so caught up with everything until this point. I felt like I had just run a marathon. My adrenaline was pumping. But with it being so dark outside and dark inside we didn’t see. I said “I feel little balls, I�m pretty sure it�s a boy.” And it was. Logan James had been born. My husband cut the cord. About 25 minutes later, I got on my hands and knees and gave a huge push and out popped the placenta onto my floor. It was big and beautiful and totally intact.
The birth was more wonderful than I could have ever have imagined. It happened so fast. From the time I got into the hot tub to the time he was born was about an hour. With the total labor being about 4 - 5 hours. I know it was because of the water. The birth was wonderful, without interruptions and distractions. Just like I wanted it to be.
I didn’t want a circus of people around me. I love my family very much, but I felt that it was important to have very few people there. I believe we birth naturally like animals when we are left alone. Our bodies naturally take over. I think water is a miracle. It makes birth wonderful and enjoyable. I’d do it again right now and again tomorrow. I look back on the experience and I get excited to do it again real soon.
With this wonderful website out there and with the help of many books, I have come full circle. From years earlier thinking I would have a hospital birth with drugs and maybe not nurse, to a home birth (naturally), and being a proud member of La Leche League. Thank the heavens for the Internet, which brought me to this site. It literally changed my life.
I hope this story inspires someone somewhere like the other ones that inspired me. Having a waterbirth is a beautiful experience. Not to mention the benefits it has on the baby. Logan is stronger and healthier than many of his friends the same age. (The doctor even said so.) Logan also loves the water. He enjoys his baths and likes to be in the hot tub.
I am so thankful for the waterbirth. It has been a dream, not to mention an empowering experience as a woman. It has made me realize that I am strong and capable of anything. Well, almost anything.”
Sincerely,
Gayla
Filed under: baby care, birth, breastfeeding, postpartum care | Tags: colostrum, benefits of colostrum, what is colostrum, colostrum and breastfeeding, brestfeeding, nursing after birth, meconium, premature babies, infant mortality rate
The sooner after delivery that breastfeeding is begun, the more colostrum your baby will receive. The sooner you nurse your baby after delivery, the better. Colostrum comes in small quantities and prepares your baby’ digestive tract for receiving the milk that comes later by stimulating the baby’s first bowel movement. Meconium, the black, tarry stuff that passes in the first stool, contains bilubrin, the substance that causes jaundice in newborns.
Colostrum contains white blood cells which are there to prevent infection in the newborn by attacking harmful bacteria. Colostrum is easy to digest with its high protein, low sugar and fat content, so it is an ideal first food.Dr. Robert Jackson, a member of the Professional Advisory Board for La Leche League International, has also pointed out these interesting facts about colostrum:The proportions of the constituents in human milk gradually change; the colostrum of the first day is not the same as the colostrum of the second; with the transitional milk there is a gradual consistent change intimately related to the needs of the baby.
Therefore no matter how much artificial formulas are improved, it’s never going to be possible to manufacture formulas for the first day, the second, the third, and so o, that are as suited to baby’s needs as his mother’s own milk. Don’t worry if your baby looses a little weight before your milk comes in. Nearly every newborn will loose some weight after birth.Your baby is born with enough extra fluid to tide him over until your milk is in. A slight weight loss is normal and usually quickly recovered once your milk supply is well established.
Colostrum is specially important to premature babies because it contains high amounts of amino acid cystine, an important component of protein, which premature babies lack. What to speak of the intimate connection between the nursing mother and the child which the infant needs for a healthy development. Studies show that the mortality rate from one to six month is less for breastfed babies than for artificially fed premature infants.
Filed under: birth, birthstories, empowered childbirth, homebirth | Tags: birth stories, birth story, birthstories, birthstory, empowered birth, free birth, homebirth, labour, natural childbirth blog, safe birthnatural birth vs medical birth, unassisted birth
Article from ‘Marie Claire’ magazine:
I gave birth completely alone
If you thought a homebirth was radical, prepare yourself for freebirthing - where there’s not even a midwife on hand. Allison Tait investigates the growing trend of pregnant women going solo.
Rixa Freeze, 29, a doula from Iowa in the US, endured a 10-hour labour with no medical assistance. She gave birth to daughter Zari on October 31, 2006.
“I was sitting on the edge of the toilet, supporting my baby’s crowning head with one hand, when it occurred to me that my husband, Eric, might like to witness the birth of our first child. Having spent the entire 10 hours of labour almost completely alone, I now wanted to share her arrival.
“Eric came in from our bedroom as I half-squatted on the floor, a pile of towels underneath me. Zari arrived with a swoosh and I gently lowered her onto the nest of towels. Her initial crying subsided as soon as I scooped her up to my chest.
“A few moments later, Eric took a photograph of Zari and me - and when I look at it today I realise what a raw and beautiful moment this was. It was just us - no strangers and no unnecessary noise.
“Two and a half hours later, when the placenta came out, Eric cut me off a small piece to eat; the mild taste was surprising. Later that afternoon, as the three of us relaxed together in our bed, a family for the first time, Eric told me I was right to give birth this way. Initially, he had expressed doubts, out of concern for the baby and me, but now he too realised it was the right choice.
“For me, it was the only decision. When I first heard about freebirthing, or unassisted birth as it’s also known, it was as an academic, in 2003. I was in the first year of a postgraduate degree in American Studies, researching birth-related issues, and a midwife I met mentioned it to me.
At first, I reacted like most people. The idea of giving birth without any medical assistance on hand sounded scary and a bit radical, especially for someone like me who didn’t exactly grow up in a particularly alternative family.
“My curiosity piqued, I read as much as I could on the subject and grew to really respect the women who had chosen this path. I discovered that we have such a culture of fear when it comes to birth. Look at how films portray it - a woman on her back screaming as a doctor comes to save her and deliver the baby. That makes it hard for people to imagine any other way than a medical birth.”
Photo by Chris and Jenni
Filed under: baby care, birth, pregnancy | Tags: awareness of embryo, bonding, child in the womb, emotional development, emotional life, father, fathering, feelings of embryo, in utero, love, mothering, parenthood, pregnancy depression, prenatal parenting, smoking during pregnancy, smoking mother, thinking about abortion, unborn child
from “The Secret Life of the Unborn Child”
by Thomas Verny, M.D. with John Kelly
Selected Quotes
… at one time or another nearly every expectant mother senses that she and her unborn child are reacting to one another’s feelings. …
* A corollary to this discovery is that what a child feels and perceives begins shaping his attitudes and expectations about himself. Whether he ultimately sees himself and, hence, acts as a happy or sad, aggressive or meek, secure or anxiety-ridden person depends, in part, on the messages he gets about himself in the womb.
* The chief source of those shaping messages is the child’s mother. This does not mean every fleeting worry, doubt or anxiety a woman has rebounds on her child. What matters are deep persistent patterns of feeling. Chronic anxiety or a wrenching ambivalence about motherhood can leave a deep scar on an unborn child’s personality. On the other hand, such life-enhancing emotions as joy, elation and anticipation can contribute significantly to the emotional development of a healthy child.
* New research is also beginning to focus much more on the father’s feelings. Until recently his emotions were disregarded. Our latest studies indicate that this view is dangerously wrong. They show that how a man feels about his wife and unborn child is one of the single most important factors in determining the success of a pregnancy. …
With this new knowledge at their disposal, mothers and fathers have an unparalleled opportunity to help shape the personality of their unborn child. They can actively contribute to his happiness and well-being, and not just in utero, nor in the years immediately following birth, but for the rest of his life. …
Providing the newborn with a warm, reassuring, humane environment does make a difference because the child is very aware of how he is born. He senses gentleness, softness and a caring touch, and he responds in a quite different way to the bright lights, electrical beeps, and cold impersonal atmosphere that are so often associated with a medical birth. …
… he is conscious or aware though his consciousness is not as deep or complex as an adult’s. He is incapable of understanding the shades of meaning an adult can put into a simple word or gesture; but, … he is sensitive to remarkably subtle emotional nuances. He can sense and react not only to large, undifferentiated emotions such as love and hate, but also to more shaded complex feeling states like ambivalence and ambiguity. … something like consciousness exists from the very first moments of conception ….
… the child from the sixth month in utero onward … can already remember, hear, even learn. The unborn child is, in fact, a very quick study, as a group of investigators demonstrated in what has come to be regarded as a classic report.
… Our likes and dislikes, fears and phobias … are in part, also the product of conditioned learning. … the sensation of anxiety … his mother’s smoking … an unborn child grows emotionally agitated (as measured by the quickening of his heartbeat) each time his mother thinks of having a cigarette. She doesn’t even have to put it to her lips or light a match; just her idea of having a cigarette is enough to upset him. … drop in oxygen supply (in the maternal blood passing the placenta) … psychological effects … thrusts him into a chronic state of uncertainty and fear.
In one case, a newborn girl refused to bond with or nurse from her own mother, though she did not refuse other women. The mother, it turned out, had wanted to have an abortion and bore the child grudgingly at the father’s insistence. With such mothers, the “child lacks a feeling person to whom he can attach himself. His mother becomes absorbed in herself and has no resources left for the baby”; nor can he bond with a woman overburdened with anxiety or frustration.
If loving, nurturing mothers bear more self-confident, secure children, it is because the self-aware “I” of each infant is carved out of warmth and love. Similarly, if unhappy, depressed or ambivalent mothers bear a higher rate of neurotic children, it is because their offsprings’ egos were molded in moments of dread and anguish. Not surprisingly, without redirection, such children often grow into suspicious, anxious and emotionally fragile adults.
Widespread recognition of the delicate and intimate connections between parent and child prenatally and in infancy will lead naturally to a more realistic idea of the far-reaching responsibility of parenthood, and new respect for the impact of our inner life on those around us.
Photo by Gabriel
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Josie’s Birth in the back yard hot tub surounded by family and friends filmed by her parents.
Filed under: birth, empowered childbirth, homebirth, labour, pregnancy | Tags: advantages homebith, cesarean section, convincing relatives about homebirth, dutch birth statistic, health, homebirth, Michel Odent, midwife, midwifery, mothering, natural childbirth, natural childbirth vs hospital birth, oxycotin, painfree labor, painfree labour, parenting, pregnancy, safe birth choice, social life, uterine contractions
Question: My sister and I were discussing childbirth. She is very influenced by her friend, a nurse, to have an intrusive, medicalized birth. What kind of resources can I share with her to show her that a natural childbirth is a wonderful and safe birth choice?
Dr. Michel Odent: You might first explain to your sister and her friend that a natural childbirth is not a choice. This term can only be used in retrospect, when a woman has given birth without any drug and without any intervention. The environment where you give birth is the real choice. You must explain that your main objective is safety and that according to common sense an easy birth is safer than a difficult birth. So your priority is to make the birth as easy as possible thanks to an environment that can satisfy your basic needs when you are in labor.
Your basic needs are easy to explain in the current scientific context. Physiologists, scientists who study the body functions, tell us that adrenaline (the emergency hormone we release in particular when we are scared or when we are cold) makes difficult the release of oxytocin, the hormone necessary for effective uterine contractions. You can explain that you release a lot of adrenaline when you are in an unfamiliar and clinical environment. You can add that, in contrast, you can imagine yourself giving birth in a familiar environment, with - for example - nobody else around than an experienced, motherly, low profile and silent midwife knitting in a corner. It is probable that in such an environment your body will work well.
The second aspect of the safety preoccupation is: what to do if there is something wrong? In the age of the safe c-section and widespread cell-phones, there is usually an easy answer to this question, which should always be the second one.
Many health professionals need to learn to think in terms of ‘ratio of benefits to risks’. Where out of hospital births are concerned, they immediately ask: ‘what will you do if…’ instead of asking first: ‘how to make the birth as easy as possible’.
You are asking what kind of resources you can share. You might share data about the Dutch birth statistics. In Holland, where 82% of the midwives are independent primary care givers, about 31% of the births occur at home, and an autonomous midwife attends many of the hospital births. The rates of c-sections are around 10% for the whole country and more than 90% of the laboring women do not need an epidural anesthesia. The birth outcomes are much better than in the USA (number of babies alive and healthy at birth).
Do not recommend books about ‘natural childbirth’ because they are usually written for the converted. Instead you might suggest updated books focusing on one of the main aspects of industrialized childbirth, such as ‘The Caesarean. Free Association Books 2004′. In order to help your sister and friend to learn to think long term, you might indicate the ‘Primal Health Research Data Base‘ that is specialized in studies exploring the long term consequences of what happened at the beginning of our life. It appears that the way we are born has life long consequences and that, today, in spite of the safe caesarean, we have good reasons to try to rediscover the basic needs of women in labor and of newborn babies.
Michel Odent, M.D.
For several decades Michel Odent has been instrumental in influencing the history of childbirth and health research. As a practitioner he developed the maternity unit at Pithiviers Hospital in France in the 1960s and ’70s. He is familiarly known as the obstetrician who introduced the concept of birthing pools and home-like birthing rooms. His approach has been featured in eminent medical journals such as Lancet, and in TV documentaries such as the BBC film Birth Reborn. With six midwives he was in charge of about one thousand births a year and could achieve ideal statistics with low rates of intervention. After his hospital career he practiced home birth.
As a researcher he founded the Primal Health Research Center in London (UK), which focuses upon the long term consequences of early experiences. An overview of the Primal Health Research Data Bank clearly indicates that health is shaped during the primal period (from conception until the first birthday). It also suggests that the way we are born has long term consequences in terms of sociability, aggressiveness or, otherwise speaking, capacity to love.
Photo by Pierre-Olivier Mazoyer