(This triple layer banana cake with cream cheese frosting was completely gone by the time labor started.) Contractions started at 4am on Sunday, May 13th. They caught me off guard, even though I was five days late at that point. I’d been waiting for other signs that had preceded contractions with my last labor, but […]
Filed under: The Natural Childbirth on May 17th, 2012 | 25 Comments »
I was told today that my group B strep culture came back positive. And here’s what I learned about that: Group B strep is considered normal flora. Group B strep is not a concern to anyone but pregnant women, or rather, their babies. Group B strep comes and goes, which is why they don’t test […]
Filed under: The Natural Childbirth on May 10th, 2012 | 31 Comments »
I received this email today: I am in Terre Haute, and if you haven’t heard on the news, Union Hospital has decided not to renew the contract for our midwives. There are only these two midwives in our local area, and without them, our local women are losing a valuable childbirth option. We have started a grassroots […]
Filed under: The Natural Childbirth on September 1st, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Warning: This is a birth story. It contains details about birth. Some people of the squeamish variety may prefer not to know the details of birth. Personally, I find them fascinating and wanted to share them with the world. Enjoy! Or not… June 14 had come and gone. It wasn’t until the 17th that my […]
Filed under: The Levi, The Natural Childbirth on June 25th, 2009 | 22 Comments »
I do believe last I talked with you all about birthing choices, we were set on driving over an hour to get to a hospital so natural-birth-friendly that they had birthing tubs and doulas on staff. And it was a great hospital. They answered all the questions right. Had everything I’d ever want in a […]
Filed under: Pregnancy, The Mommy, The Natural Childbirth, The News on March 31st, 2009 | 21 Comments »
I had pretty much decided how this birth would go. Josh was against homebirth since we’re about half an hour from the hospital. I didn’t really want to drive over an hour to a birthing center or hospital that would allow me to use a midwife. So I was going to have the New Baby […]
Filed under: Pregnancy, The Mommy, The Natural Childbirth on February 24th, 2009 | 23 Comments »
I received this email from Sarah today and thought that maybe, just maybe, there might be more than one of you out there with the same questions so I’m going to share my limited expertise in this area with all of you. My husband is also a “perpetual grad student,” and we learned this week […]
Filed under: The Frugal, The Natural Childbirth on November 18th, 2008 | 48 Comments »
In my last post, I wrote about the increase in maternal deaths in the United States. In that post, I voiced (typed?) my opinion on the topic of preventing C-sections. Among other things, I had listed laboring at home as long as possible and avoiding induction as good preventative measures for avoiding C-sections. And thanks […]
Filed under: The Natural Childbirth on August 27th, 2007 | 6 Comments »
Bonnie sent me a link to this article because she thought I would find it interesting. And I did. In 1977, the maternal death rate was 10 deaths for every 100,000 live births in America. In 2003, it rose to 12. In 2004, it rose to 13. The article does not mention any years beyond […]
Filed under: The Natural Childbirth on August 25th, 2007 | 7 Comments »
I believe that natural childbirth is best. I believe that the female body was created to give birth. We were not created to be cut open so that our babies could be through a man-made hole in our abdomen. We were not created to need the assistance of synthetic hormones to push labor along. And […]
Filed under: The Natural Childbirth, What I Believe on August 20th, 2007 | 47 Comments »