I have a degree in Speech and Language Pathology and have always been interested in how we speak/communicate, the words we choose and how we use them. My ears hurt. Day in and day out, I hear words and phrases that upset them: the doctor who delivered my baby; the midwife who did my birth;…
Oh oh oh I attended a lovely VBAC with a beautiful nine pound baby girl two weeks ago here in the Boston area. The couple interviewed me during their sixth month of pregnancy and decided to move to Boston for a month and birth here with me. They rented an apartment about twenty minutes from…
It’s wonderfully delightful when something like this – a story of someone I’ve helped – comes along. Mamas, let this encourage you also. It can be done. Warmly, Nancy I had my VBA2C 18 months ago. My first c/s was for my triplets who were 3 months early, and that incision was vertical–giving me…
Why is it exactly that hospitals give Vitamin K injections to all newborns? I was asked this question again recently, and I wish more people were asking. I was taught that Vitamin K does nothing for bruising, believe it or not. Hospital staffs will tell you it is a very high risk to decline Vitamin K, that it…
I am waiting for Hurricane Irene as it makes its way up the eastern seaboard. It isn’t even close by yet, but it is already raining so hard that I can’t imagine where all the water will go. And will my birds, the ones who feed at my feeders every day, will they all be…
I received an email today from Gloria Lemay, midwife extraordinaire from Canada. She wrote, “I saw this on a nurses list today and laughed out loud.” Gloria was referring to a comment on the Perinatal Nursing Discussion List. The subject on the September 3rd list was “VBAC – refusal of monitoring.” The post went like this:…
I have had the privilege of working with a number of wonderful midwives in the last years during my midwifery training. Among the many things that I have learned, I hear one of Valerie El Halta’s sentences running through my head at births. Val teaches the difference between an intervention and an intercession (which I…
In answer to a question about VBAC: (when the doctor says it was a good thing they did another cesarean, because the scar looked thin) If the scar has held up until and during labor it has most probably proven its integrity. This was discussed in my first book Silent Knife in some detail. Also,…
The woman who called me today told me that when she mentioned to her OB that she was leaving her practice and going to have a home birth, the doctor looked as if she was going to blow a gasket. “Those aren’t safe!” she almost screamed to this woman, who set up an interview with…
I was at the hair salon today reading the magazine on the top of the pile on coffee table in front of me while I was waiting to have my hair cut. I was so glad to read that Sandra Bullock is doing well and quite relieved to learn that Justin Bieber doesn’t have to…