Membership Content

If you are a breastfeeding mother, an ample supply of nutritious breast milk is a top priority. I wouldn’t be surprised if you already have boxes of herbal lactation teas stockpiled in your kitchen pantry, queued for your ritual teatime. While boxed lactation teas are a great start, you can build up a higher quality supply with this delicious dairy-free milk tonic recipe.

 Read more…. Increase Your Breast Milk Supply with This Dairy-free Milk Tonic

I recently gave birth to my second son. During my maternity care I came to realise that a particular set of needs had been invisible to me and were even more invisible to the people supporting me.

 Read more…. A Surprising Invisibility

On February 4, 2020, I had the privilege of helping Vincent and Colleen with the birth of their second-born child. Their firstborn, a son, was born by c-section, due to his breech position and her bicornuate uterus.

 Read more…. Heart of a Lion, Warrior Woman Gives Birth

I found out I was pregnant for the fifth time in May of 2019. I would have been considered high risk under traditional obstetrical care due to three prior miscarriages and a heart-shaped uterus with a cesarean scar. Due to my firstborn son Oren being breech in my womb, I was coerced into scheduling a cesarean at 39 weeks as a first-time mother. This is an option for those in my position, but it was presented to me as the only way to birth my son. I have since come to believe that risk is subjective. I had grown a healthy, full-term baby all on my own before and knew I could do it again, if this baby were to stay.

 Read more…. The Choice to Birth My Baby

Sarita (name changed) is a sweet 29-year-old first-time mother in Kathmandu, Nepal, loved by her husband and family, generally healthy, and of a happy disposition. We first met at church when she was five months pregnant although because it was winter and she was wrapped completely in a wool shawl, I didn’t notice. Somehow my being a nurse and midwife came up in our conversation, and she disclosed that she was expecting. When I asked her how she’d been feeling, she said she’d been very tired lately, had headaches, and wasn’t feeling very well.

 Read more…. Case Study of Loss of Prenatal Care during Covid-19 Lockdown in Kathmandu, Nepal

The winter moon was rising. No babies tonight, so I volunteered to go home. I called security to walk me to my car. Just beyond the parking lot, food stamps were being traded for something to make the pain of living recede. Gunshots often echoed outside the walls of the labor wing. I was an OB nurse, in the midst of a system that often created birth violence, working with bold midwives to protect birth.

 Read more…. My Path to Midwifery

Regular everyday events are rarely newsworthy. The media typically induces emotional reactions through constant reports of deaths related to emerging diseases, accidents, murders, human conflicts, and natural disasters. There is a widespread tendency to ignore the amplitude of chronic problems. Few people realize that bleeding is the single most common cause of maternal deaths worldwide.

 Read more…. Putting an End to the Global Slaughter of Women Bleeding to Death

“But it didn’t hurt,” Beth told me straightforwardly as she cradled her sweet baby nuzzling in for a snack before nap at six weeks. I like to review births with mothers at various points during their postpartum, lying-in time. The 6-week or 40-day visit inevitably offers new perspectives. Beth had a herstory of excessive blood loss during childbirth.

 Read more…. Silent Hemorrhage