Birth
The Cycle of Intervention
Hospital birth is the path of choice for a large portion of pregnant women and families. Hospitals can be pleasant places, with kind and caring staff, and OBGYNs can be respectful, wise, gentle, and comforting. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Often, doctors and hospital staff pressure pregnant women into making choices that are not what is best for them or their babies. Why do they do this? Certainly not because they are uncaring, uneducated, or unqualified. They do this because they have seen it all, and they have to concern themselves with what could go wrong and who might sue them. They are doing their best within the…
Newborn Care Choices
Although parenting begins as soon as you discover you are pregnant, your parenting choices begin most dramatically at birth. In those first few hours and days, and the days and weeks leading up to them, you must make many decisions about your baby’s care. In hospital births, there are procedures that are often done routinely, which you may want to consider refusing. Even in home births, you must make decisions about how you want your baby treated immediately after birth. As you prepare for your baby’s birth, you may want to consider writing a Baby Care Plan to give to your care providers, which will help ensure that your wishes are known…
Pressure Waves and the End of Pregnancy
Near the end of pregnancy, it can be hard to tell the difference between Braxton Hicks contractions (which I will refer to from now on as warm-up pressure waves), and true labor contractions (birthing waves). Pregnancy books, and pretty much anywhere you can look it up on the internet, often make it seem like the onset of early birthing time is a clear-cut stage of the process. But the reality is that for many women, the beginning of birthing time can be hard to pinpoint. The transition between warm-up waves and true birthing waves is a slow progression. It can actually be a very frustrating, discouraging, and emotionally draining time…
Childbirth Myths
As a birth educator, I feel like I know a lot about birth. But the reality is that there’s an infinite amount to be learned on the subject! And, when it comes to birthing, there really are no rules. Often times, childbirth is portrayed as a fairly straightforward process with a general set order to it. Obviously, there are some consistencies between all births (or at least, all vaginal births); at the very least, the cervix needs to dilate, and the baby needs to come out through the birth canal. But other than that, the process of birth is so incredibly variable! And even those two basic rules don’t apply…
Can Birth Be Easy?
Ever since my first pregnancy, I’ve been passionate about natural childbirth. But before my childbearing years began, I was afraid of birth. Discovering natural birth, homebirth, and midwifery was the turning point for me, where I found that birth was something I could see myself doing without fear. Then, I discovered Hypnobabies, and birth became something I was actually excited about. The reason I am passionate about childbirth hypnosis is that it is a completely natural tool which allows women to birth in comfort. A simple way to avoid pain during birth, without the use of any drugs or interventions? Yes, please! (I have to be clear here, that not…
What is Hypnosis?
For many people, when they hear the word “hypnosis,” they might imagine someone similar to a magician inducing a strange and mysterious trance on a subject, who they can then make perform embarrassing and comical behaviors. In reality, that image is an exaggerated description of stage hypnosis—which is an entirely different subject, really, than therapeutic hypnosis. Although stage hypnosis is based in the same concepts as hypnotherapy, it is used differently and for different purposes. Hypnosis used for therapeutic reasons doesn’t look or feel like a mystical phenomenon for most people—and that’s because hypnosis is really just a deep level of relaxation which allows for access to the subconscious mind.…
Why Natural Birth?
Natural birth means different things in different contexts. Sometimes, natural birth refers to vaginal birth, as opposed to surgical birth via cesarean section. Other times, it refers to a vaginal birth without the use of medications for augmentation or anesthetic purposes (for speeding up the birth process or numbing pain). And of course, when some people hear the words “natural birth,” they picture a woman squatting in a field to give birth. In the context of this post, natural birth means vaginal birth without the use of medications, regardless of the other details; a natural birth can happen at home, in a hospital, in a birthing center, and with the…
Five Things {Most} Pregnant Women Don’t Need a Doctor For
In our culture, pregnancy and birth are sometimes approached like an illness that needs to be treated. Contrary to that point of view, these are normal, natural, and healthy parts of the life cycle for many women. We don’t need to be rescued from our own reproduction! In keeping with this way of thinking, I’d like to discuss five things that the majority of pregnant women don’t need a doctor to help them with. 1. Pregnancy Tests This one is quite simple. Women do not need a doctor to tell them they are pregnant. Despite the frequent appearance of “false positive” pregnancy tests on TV and in movies, it is…