• Last updated 11/2/12 by Cynthia Mosher

Thank you to JoAnna Woods for this guest post. Find out more about placenta encapsulation on her website Twice Blessed Encapsulation.  Throughout the last decade placenta inferences have been popping up in the Hollywood buzz. GQ quoted soon to be parent Tom Cruise in 2006 (supposedly joking), “I’m gonna eat the placenta. I thought that would be good. Very nutritious.” In keeping with Australian Aborigine tradition MatthewMcConaughey buried his son’s placenta in their yard and planted a tree over it in 2008. January Jones (Mad Men) learned from her doula that... read more

• Last updated 11/2/12 by Cynthia Mosher

Thank you to Jennifer Margulis for sharing this excerpt from her most recent blog post with us. You can read the full article on her blog. Doctors and other care providers want you to do things their way. But often their way is based on habit, fear of liability, or expediency. Unlike homebirth midwives, obstetricians almost never request their patients keep a food and exercise log. They almost never take 45-minutes to review the foods you’ve eaten in the past week, counsel you on good nutrition, and strategize on how best to exercise during your... read more

• Last updated 11/2/12 by Melanie Mayo

  Why a postscript is necessary Writing and sharing Ewan’s birth story has been cathartic; helping me come to terms with the experience and accept the loss I suffered of not being able to birth Ewan naturally. The response from my family, friends and now the blog community has been amazing, which is why I have decided to add a postscript, as final points to this series of writings. So many people have shared with me, in person, on Facebook and on my blog, their own experiences of giving birth. All these contributions are to be celebrated,... read more

• Last updated 11/2/12 by Melanie Mayo

This is a guest blog by Marinah Farrell, Certified Professional Midwife and Licensed Midwife, and one of the women featured in Midwives Address Health Disparities—the latest video from the new online series I am a Midwife all about midwives and what they do.  From the Midwives Alliance of North America. Marinah Farrell (far left) and other community activists Currently, in this country, the statistics are abysmal when it comes to maternal health care for communities of color and, correlated, educating maternal health care experts from those... read more

• Last updated 5/25/12 by Mothering Editorial

By Mai Ling Slaughter 05/15/2011 It was the activist in Suzy Myers that first attracted her to the field of midwifery, and as she's helped bring nearly 2,000 babies into this world, that activist has remained vigilant. "When I first got involved in the health care movement, I hadn't even really considered becoming a practitioner," says Myers, who is now the chair of the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Wash.  "I was more interested in being an activist." But when Myers moved to Seattle in 1971, the energy surrounding the women's movement and... read more

• Last updated 11/2/12 by Melanie Mayo

Returning home Like all new mums I was desperate to show my baby his new home. Six days after Ewan was born, we returned home. The landscape shined with brightness from the sun, viewing it as if seen for the first time. The past seven days felt like a year. The house appeared somehow different. I wept in the car. What was the meaning to all this? I stood holding my tiny son in the garden, bewildered and sleep deprived, yet the proudest mum on the planet. Our son was home. Our new life as a family of three could begin. Reflection Back... read more

• Last updated 5/25/12 by Mothering Editorial

By Barbara ThomasIssue 143 - July/August 2007 There are planned homebirths and, occasionally, unplanned homebirths. Mine was somewhere in between. My daughter, Ingrid, was born at home in Lyon, France, in the company of two men: my French husband and our French midwife. I'd originally intended to give birth in a clinic with the same midwife, but somewhere along the way, I changed my mind.Already six months pregnant when I arrived in Lyon from Paris, I found my way to Cyrille Philippe, an independent midwife. Cyrille offered what's called "global accompaniment"—a... read more

• Last updated 11/3/12 by Cynthia Mosher

From “Mommy Wars: The Prequel, Ina May Gaskin and the Battle for at-Home Births,” Samantha M. Shapiro, New York Times Magazine, May 23rd, 2012 One Monday morning last spring, Ina May Gaskin got into her golf cart and drove it down the dirt road away from her home on the Farm, a community of 175 residents on a former commune in rural Tennessee that her husband started in the 1970s. She pulled up to the community center, where she would be teaching a class on delivering breech babies. The class was part of a weeklong seminar Gaskin and her fellow midwives... read more

• Last updated 11/3/12 by Cynthia Mosher

  As I approach my twenty fourth week of pregnancy I find my thoughts drifting toward birthing day. We’re planning our second home birth with a midwife we love, but our first birth experience, as just-right as it was, doesn’t prevent the butterflies from visiting from time to time. It’s nothing that can’t be settled by a few deep breaths, but still, birthing day is Big (capital B!) no matter where it takes place. I’ve known since I was twenty years old that I wanted to home birth. That was the year that I came across a copy of Ina May... read more

• Last updated 11/3/12 by Cynthia Mosher

  “It’s not acceptable that African-American women and babies, regardless of their economic and educational backgrounds still have a 3-4 times greater chance of dying in childbirth (and postpartum) than their white counterparts.” “It’s not acceptable that women of every race and every ethnicity who are marginalized and vulnerable and poor do not have access to good care, affordable care and satisfying care.” –Geradine Simkins, CNM, MSN, DEM and President and Interim Executive Director of the Midwives Alliance of North America Why do more... read more