• Last updated 2/1/13 by Cynthia Mosher

The Shape of a Mother a guest blog post by Asha Baisden, of the Meta Mom blog. A year after childbirth, my best friend pulled her dress over her head. She cupped a few inches of extra skin that hovered across her belly. It was skin stretched by the pregnancy of her second child at age 36, her son, born a year before. Fifteen years her minor, none of my pregnancies carried to term, I stood, flat bellied, underweight from a stressful college semester, and muted by our physical differences. I felt like any comment I could make would be... read more

• Last updated 2/4/13 by Melanie Mayo

  "Natural Family Planning" or NFP, is, in a nutshell, a rejection of artificial contraception in favor of utilizing the natural times of fertility and infertility in a woman’s cycle to plan to achieve or avoid pregnancy.  Many of the methods are supported and taught by Catholic organizations because the Catholic Church as an organization opposes artificial contraception.  (However the science is the same regardless of your religion!)  Different methods are more useful for trying to conceive or trying to avoid pregnancy.  Not all methods are reliable enough for... read more

• Last updated 2/20/13 by Cynthia Mosher

by Sarah Juliusson of www.MamaRenew.ca – Find Mama Renew on Facebook. Several years ago a group of us came together to form The Birth Lounge, seeking to share the strong community of care that is available to support new families in our region. As we talked, we found a shared frustration with the corporate trade-shows that have become commonplace. First comes love (the sex show), then comes marriage (the bridal show), then comes baby (the baby show), and over and over again the masses fill the convention centre. High vendor prices are out of reach for... read more

• Last updated 2/13/13 by Cynthia Mosher

Pregnancy and motherhood can complicate a woman’s fitness practices. It can also be a time that women connect with their bodies most meaningfully. I “got” yoga when I was pregnant with my daughter. Prenatal yoga classes dramatically minimized my aches and pains and restless leg sensations, and gave me a new avenue to inner peace. In today’s blog post, NBA athlete Marie Ferdinand-Harris, of the Los Angeles Sparks, shares her experience of being both an athlete and a mother. Candace: Many mothers feel like they want to nourish themselves after birth, but don’t... read more

• Last updated 10/18/12 by Cynthia Mosher

Please register for this course on the My Body Rocks website. About the course: You have the power to have a happy birth experience. Join this seven week group class conducted online and via tele-conference to learn not only how to connect with your body and give birth with confidence, but to learn how to free yourself from the fear mentality of labor and delivery. This pregnancy class is not about the baby… it is about you! Childbirth is an opportunity in a woman’s life to seize your power and that’s exactly what this class offers. Each week we will cover a different... read more

• Last updated 2/23/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Kathryn Valdal FourieWeb Exclusive - June 12, 2006 While this might be a little known subject in most birthing circles, birth art has been used for centuries: to honor the mother and her transformation, to help women confront their fears with creative energy, and to help enrich the birth process by tapping deep inner resources. Today, you can create and explore your own birth art to do the same. Whether through drawing, painting, sculpting, writing, dancing or singing, your birth art can help you understand how you envision birth at the deepest level. Like dreams,... read more

• Last updated 2/23/11 by Mothering Editorial

Once you are having regular contractions, you are considered to be in true (or active) labor. The duration and distance between contractions will differ from labor to labor, but they may be around 5 minutes apart or less. You cervix will, at this point, probably be dilated to about 3 or 4 centimeters. You are entering the first stage of labor. The first stage of labor continues until it is time to push the baby out, which is the second stage of labor.Throughout history, women have given birth in upright postures: sitting, standing, and mostly squatting. We know this is... read more

• Last updated 2/25/13 by AdinaL

“Do you drink alcohol?” the nurse practitioner, who’s checking off boxes on a list of questions that goes on for four pages, looks sternly up at me. I am pregnant. Pregnant women in America are not supposed to drink. “Never,” I tell her. I’m lying. The gimlet my husband and I shared in a fancy Italian restaurant to try Philip Marlowe’s favorite drink was before I knew I was pregnant. But I did not mention the sip or two of red wine I have at dinner almost every night. Every pregnant woman in America knows she’s not supposed to drink.... read more

• Last updated 2/23/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Erika-Marie S. Geiss According to the December 2007 report "Births, Preliminary Data for 2006" issued by the National Vital Statistics System at the Centers for Disease Control: "The cesarean delivery rate in the United States increased in 2006 to over 31 percent, a new record high and further evidence pointing towards a nationwide change in obstetric practices. The cesarean rate has increased more than 50 percent over the past decade." Among the mitigating factors for planned or scheduled caesarean deliveries are multiple births, obesity, and other health... read more

• Last updated 2/25/13 by AdinaL

I am a breastfeeding, co-sleeping, babywearing, cloth diapering, organic-food-only-serving, lactivist, intactivist, attachment parenting, natural-living mother & I didn’t give birth at home, with a midwife, at a free-standing birthing center, or even without the use of medication. I am very grateful for my birth experience & challenged by it as well.  My son was born healthy, vaginally.  I have dear friends who had traumatic birth experiences & I’ve read about birth rape, but I still stall over my memories of my birth experience.  Of course I have never... read more