• Created on 9/30/09 by Mothering Editorial

By Shelley Campbell Web Exclusive I walked down the sloping aisle to the front of the auditorium and my eye caught the sign: The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project. Below, in italics, it read: Did you know that no improvement has been made since 1982 in reducing the maternal mortality rate in the United States? As I got closer, I made out the small print across the bottom, discovering that the Safe Motherhood Quilt had been inspired by the AIDS quilt. Each block represented a woman who had died in childbirth. I felt my heart grow heavy as I mounted the stairs to the stage... read more

• Created on 9/29/09 by Mothering Editorial

Sept 30, 2009Choices in Childbirth, a non-profit designed to help women make informed maternity care choices, is asking you to sign a petition is opposition to the unbalanced report on homebirth featured by the Today Show on Sept 11th. The report, first called "The Perils of Midwifery" and later titled "The Perils of Homebirth", has caused a stir for the story's portrayal of midwifery and homebirth as overall dangerous practices.Please take a moment to review the petition and sign here.Join the discussion on MotheringDotCommunity. read more

• Created on 9/21/09 by Mothering Editorial

Sept 21, 2009USA Today reported last week on the rising homebirth rate in the US.Read the full article at "Home births get a bump, over obstetricians' objections". (Rita Ruben, USA Today, Sept 13, 2009)   read more

• Created on 8/31/09 by Mothering Editorial

When: Saturday, October 3, 2009, 10am-2pm Where: Prospect Park, NYC Every year, New York City celebrates the dedication and skill of their midwives with Miles for Midwives, an annual charity run/walk. Sponsored this year by Choices in Childbirth and the American College of Nurse-Midwives, the event will raise money to ensure quality midwifery care in New York City. Quality care creates healthy families, and healthy families create healthy communities. The run/walk is five kilometers long - one loop of Brooklyn's Prospect Park - and it's a fun, relaxed event for community... read more

• Created on 8/26/09 by Mothering Editorial

 Northern Colorado is BOLD again!  Karen Brody’s critically acclaimed play, Birth, returns to Fort Collins on September 26th, and YOU are invited!  Crafted from over a hundred interviews over several years, Birth tells the story of eight modern, educated women and how they experience childbirth in America.  Entertaining and enlightening, this is a show you won’t want to miss!In addition to an incredible performance, The Family Journey and get born magazine are producing a BOLD evening that will include a vendor fair and an insightful post-show discussion featuring Peggy... read more

• Created on 8/11/09 by Mothering Editorial

You are, step by step, working your way up to labor, though you may not even realize it. You may feel quite different now. Perhaps it seems as though the baby’s head is pressing against your pelvic floor more than it did before. You might begin to have more frequent Braxton-Hicks contractions. Your midwife or doctor may tell you that your cervix is ripe, or even that it is slightly dilated.A woman is not considered to be in true labor, though, until she is dilated to around three centimeters and is having contractions that are regularly spaced apart. Labor itself is... read more

• Created on 6/30/09 by Mothering Editorial

After choosing the place for your baby’s birth, your next important decision will be choosing the person who will care for you during the next nine months and attend the birth. There are four main types of providers you can choose from: midwives, obstetricians, family physicians, and osteopaths.     Midwives: Throughout the history of the world, a midwife, whether formally or experientially educated, has been the most common type of birth attendant. In days past, a midwife was generally a member of the community who was considered to be a wise woman. Today, midwives... read more

• Created on 5/31/09 by Mothering Editorial

Common Signs of Pregnancy: Some women will have guessed they are pregnant even before taking any tests. Trust yourself, if you feel like you may be pregannt take your body seriously. Symptoms of pregnancy can appear quickly and may include any of the following, but many women will experince none of these. Common signs of early pregnancy: Missed Period Breast Tenderness (similar to menstruation) Dizziness or Feeling of Being LightHeaded Fatigue Frequent Need to Urinate Runny Nose or Watery Eyes Constant Thoughts About Pregnancy or Baby, or the "Feeling" of... read more

• Created on 5/30/09 by Mothering Editorial

It has been shown that fear can profoundly affect childbirth. Fear causes the body to release the fight-or-flight hormones, catecholamines. These hormones are in direct conflict with those that cause labor to progress smoothly, including endorphins (the body’s natural pain-reducing hormones), and oxytocin, which causes the uterus to contract in a smooth, powerful, and coordinated way, urging the baby into the world.    But don’t panic. Before you add “fear of having fear slow down my upcoming labor” to the list of things you are already worried about, know that it is... read more

• Created on 5/30/09 by Mothering Editorial

“Now you are eating for two,” goes the old cliché. This is true, but for many women that could mean getting even more obsessed about eating and having more guilt when they don’t do it “properly.” If you eat a hot fudge sundae, are you harming your growing baby?Like many other health-related questions, this one has few clear answers. Other than a few specifics, studies have not been able to pinpoint precisely how the mother’s diet affects a baby’s growth while it is still in the womb, although many suggest that long-term health issues may stem from pre-birth... read more