Issue 66

A Doula’s Perspective

Women who choose to include a doula in their birth plans are generally planning a hospital birth. In my doula practice, I frequently hear clients say that they want their birth “to feel like a homebirth” as much as possible in a hospital setting. As I work with these women prenatally I try to learn more specifically what this means to them.

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Promoting A Positive Hospital Experience

Kathleen Johnson is a registered nurse, childbirth, lactation and infant massage educator. She has attended home, birth center and hospital births and currently works part-time in a hospital birth center and part-time in her private holistic nursing/healing touch practice. Kathleen is completing her master’s thesis on “The Experience of Spirituality in Pregnancy” and welcomes stories from mothers and their attendants about their own spiritual experiences during pregnancy and birth. Visit her Web site at www.spiritbirth.org.

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Balancing Chi And Integrating Feng Shui

In the past 27 years of practice, I have evolved from the new-nurse-technowizard in the birth environment to a well-seasoned holistic practitioner.    During the past decade as the creator and coordinator of a hospital-based doula program and a perinatal education specialist, I have become aware of the impact that the birthing environment has on the laboring mother, her social support and the birth experience itself.

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Creating A Sound Environment: Drumming For The Childbearing Year

Drumming has a rich and long history rooted in ancient cultures. Drums were used for communication and primeval expression in virtually every area of the globe. Drummers were healers. Drummers were women. Women and their clans drummed for many occasions including both spiritual and physical rites of passage. The drum was an empty shell to be filled with expression, the birthplace of healing sounds, a womb.

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Marion’s Message: Making the Best of the Birth Environment

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today, Issue 66, Summer 2003.Join Midwifery Today Online Membership Selena and Mac are country people.* I attended their births early in my career and learned a lot from them, especially when they had Sophia, their third baby and first daughter. Mac didn’t believe in hospitals or doctors. He and I had lengthy debates and I had pointed out to him that he went right to the emergency room when his leg was broken. However, he saw that as somehow different from childbirth. I made sure he knew what my protocols were and what kinds of situations I believed were safer in the hospital. Sophia turned to a breech position when she was 32 weeks along and Selena started doing the tilt board and some acupressure points to encourage her to return to head first. My phone rang a little after six one morning. It was Selena and her voice was a tearful wail. “I’m in labor!” she said. “I’ve been having cramps all night and I’ve been telling myself I ate something bad, ’cause I’ve had a little diarrhea too. But it’s not that! I can feel the pressure! Can you come and see if I’m in labor?” “I’ll be right there!” I replied. I pulled her chart from my files. Just as I thought, she was not yet quite 36 weeks. And possibly still breech! Hurriedly, I dressed and drove to their home. Selena was lying on the thick rug in their living room, her legs propped up on a big pillow. A quick exam revealed the irregular presenting part of a complete breech, covered by the taut, smooth surface of the waterbag. No cervix could be felt. “You’re complete,” I said. “And the baby’s still breech. And premature, Selena.” “What… Read more…. Marion’s Message: Making the Best of the Birth Environment

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Mother-Friendly Nurse Intervention

Working in hospitals that serve as the place of birth for thousands of women a year provides many nurses with opportunities for mother-friendly nurse intervention. Mother-friendly nurses all over the world provide supportive measures that normalize birth.

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The Sacred Place Of Birth

Since the 1960s, there has been a lot written about the place to have a baby. The “safety” lobby has pushed more and more for all hospital births, while, with a strength of its own, the “normality” lobby has pulled birth back into the home. The debate about whether home is best has continued in and out of the newspapers and professional journals, with women supporting the desire for choice to birth in either area.

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The Atmosphere Of Homebirth

The prenatal care and education has been given. The relaxation exercises have been repeated over and over again. Instructions for the timing of a contraction are neatly typed on a paper taped to the refrigerator. A list of “who to call” is taped beside it. All the preparations are in place and labor begins.

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From Birth Hut To The Garden Of Eden

The environment is the surroundings in which we live and act. We also use this term to refer to the natural world that is affected by human activity. We can think about how the environment affects birth. For example, how does bright light or a crowded or empty room affect the birth process? But, we can also think about how birth affects the environment. What does a birth do to the space and the people that take part in this activity? Whose space is it? Is it sacred?

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Protecting The Birth Environment

There are many ways to help protect the birth environment. One is by educating women about what to expect and what to try to avoid. It is all about informed choice. I am a nurse, homebirth midwife and the childbirth coordinator at a small, rural health center in Maine.

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Anything Goes

I’ve been a student of midwifery for about eight years now. During this time, I have gone from two to four children, had the privilege of attending 26 births and taught many childbirth classes. I’ve seen a lot of different birth environments, and I’ve had some time to think about what makes a positive one. I’m sure the right answer is most anything does! Certainly, we can look at the factors that are embraced by the majority of birthing women and make some loose assumptions.

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Take Birth Back

The colonizing countries dominated birth with destructive medicalization at a time when Western powers were decimating cultures. Medicalization rode on the wave of imperialism. This force is still going today and is an effective tool used against normal, instinctive birth. Read more…. Take Birth Back

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