One of the greatest challenges before US midwives is teaching the value of hands-on care. Our culture’s love affair with machines, contraptions and gadgets has blinded literally hundreds of millions of people to the importance of human contact, feeling, experience and judgment in maternity care. Read more…. Teaching Respect for Hands-On Care
Women believe that birth is a dangerous medical event. The fact is that normal birth is safer than many things we do each day without a thought. Read more…. The Ties that Bind – How Belief Creates Birth Realities
Considering the fast-paced nature of modern American culture, perhaps it’s not unexpected that the issue of time is having a never-before-seen and increasingly disastrous effect on pregnancy, birth and postpartum recovery Read more…. Time in a Bottle
Read midwife Jill Cohen’s account of a true labor dystocia. Read more…. True Cephalopelvic Disproportion
Homebirth stories from Midwifery Today issue 50. Read more…. Question of the Quarter – What is your favorite homebirth story?
Off-label use of misoprostol (Cytotec) for labor induction has been steadily increasing for 10 years, even though this use is approved neither by the U.S. [FDA], other national drug regulatory agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, the Cochrane Library nor a number of national obstetric organizations Read more…. Adverse Events Following Misoprostol Induction of Labor
Photo—Caroline Brown
The timing of birth has major consequences for a baby. Too early or too late can mean the difference between life and death. Or so we have come to believe; and it’s undoubtedly true at the extreme ends of preterm and postterm birth dates. Read more…. A Timely Birth
Our clinic day begins at 9 a.m. with ‘Welcome, how are you?’ Smiles may greet us, with excited tales of the baby’s first kicks. Or a stone face may turn away, and our patient questioning of the pregnant mom elicit a story of trouble at home. Read more…. Prenatal Care CNM Style
What if there were no pelvis? What if it were as insignificant to how a child is born as how big the nose is on the mother’s face? After twenty years of watching birth, this is what I have come to. Read more…. Pelvises I Have Known and Loved
What would a baby choose for her birth? Editor-in-Chief Jan Tritten encourages us to think about what a baby might choose for birth and respect the baby, as well as the mother. Read more…. Baby’s Choice
According to the Listening to Mothers II survey conducted in 2005, four in 10 women had their labors induced and 47% were augmented with Pitocin. Women are given epidurals, they are catheterized, they are forced to birth on their backs and nearly 30% have their babies cut out of them. Read more…. Who Are the Statistics?
Technology can make take away the beauty of birth, when used unnecessarily. Editor Jan Tritten argues that midwives are in a position to change the tide of unnecessary technology, using the evidence that is accruing. Read more…. Technology: Stemming the Tide
