Archive for the ‘Birth’ Category
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Seven (weird) things you can do with a placenta
A baby’s placenta starts to form early on in pregnancy. Although hardly anyone gives this unique organ much thought, a properly functioning placenta is of extreme importance throughout most of pregnancy. Do you simply discard this fascinating organ after your baby is born… or are you going to do something (weird) with it? Here are seven things people have done with placentae. Care to join them?
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Does the way we give birth determine how we parent?
When my babies were babies, it was clear to me that the way they entered the world laid the foundation for our relationship. My son was born at a time of many changes in my life. When he was born into my own two hands, with nobody present but his older sister, it was symbolic of a promise I made to my family: I am responsible for you, and I am here to do what it takes, no matter what the circumstances, to ensure your safety and happiness.
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Childbirth and feminism
Childbirth has a bad reputation. Many people, including women, and including women who have given birth, see labor and birth as a painful ordeal that may just be the most painful experience in a woman’s life. Women in labor are portrayed as hysterical, in pain, and afraid. Actors often hurl insults at their “husbands” during labor scenes, and are shown as nearly having lost their ability to think rationally.
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Tips for labor coaches
Are you going to be coaching your partner, friend or relative through labor and birth? You may be excited, a bit scared, and wondering what it takes to be a good labor support person. Being a great labor coach means treating the laboring woman the same as you normally would; with respect. Apart from that, these are some tips for labor coaches.
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Hypnobirthing mothers are so calm during labor and birth!
Hypnobirthing is, I have to admit, something that I have always been skeptical of. Hypnobirthing and hypnobabies are techniques that are designed to help laboring women cope with the pain of labor through a type of self-hypnosis and positive affirmations during their births. Feeling dubious towards these techniques is probably natural for… well, skeptics like myself, but after watching numerous videos of women using hypnobirth techniques on YouTube, I have to say that I am definitely sold!
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Birth: How time changes perspectives and desires
Today we have a guest post from Momma Jorje, a “slightly crunchy momma” with a great blog about parenting. She gave birth three times at very different ages, and is pregnant again with Number Four. Enjoy reading this mother’s take on giving birth!
I first became pregnant at sixteen years old in 1989. I didn’t know much and I didn’t research much. I was an average student in school. I did attend the birthing classes provided through my hospital, which were Lamaze. Those classes consisted of three sessions. My stepmother was to be my birthing coach. I somehow knew, instinctually, that I would not want her to do the back massage.
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Autonomy during childbirth
Dr Amy Tuteur, the skeptical OB, recently ran a post about patient autonomy. This post was, presumably, a reaction to Rixa Freeze’s recent blog post on the same topic, in which she correctly stated that autonomy equals informed consent plus the right to refuse. Tuteur concluded her post by saying:
The bottom line is that the principle of autonomy means that a woman does not have to go to the hospital to have a baby, but it means nothing beyond that.
She is both right and wrong.
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Obstetric horrors – symphysiotomy
There is no shortage of cruel, dangerous and unnecessary medical interventions in obstetrics, currently and in the past. One intervention that deserves a special place on the scale of cruelty is symphysiotomy. Fortunately, it’s now used rarely. But up until relatively recently, this procedure during which the cartilage that holds the pubic bones together was popular in some countries. What? They cut into your cartilage? Yep, and it widens the birth canal by up to two centimeters. It’s probably not really necessary to mention that symphysiotomy can leave a woman with life-long adverse affects.
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Homebirth and shoulder dystocia
Shoulder dystocia is a childbirth complication during which the head of the baby is born without problems, but then the shoulders get stuck behind the pelvic bones. This means that the rest of the baby’s body is not able to come out. In a hospital setting, shoulder dystocia is commonly dealt with by performing invasive maneuvers and sometimes breaking the baby’s collarbone. What does shoulder dystocia look like in a homebirth setting, and is there anything you can do to prevent it from happening?
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Immediate vs delayed cord clamping – a visual comparison
Delayed cord clamping, more accurately term physiological cord clamping, is something I’ve written about before. One of the major benefits of leaving a baby attached to the placenta until the cord has stopped pulsating is that he or she will then have access to all of its blood. Waiting for only two minutes to cut the umbilical cord has been shown to result in higher iron levels in the baby, and therewith a lower risk of anemia. Enough said – I’d like to share some very interesting pictures comparing what a placenta looks like following immediate cord clamping, and later cord clamping.
Can you guess which picture is which? :)
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