Please attribute to a British midwife, whose name I no longer recall. She was writing her PhD dissertation on this topic at the time of the lecture. It was Aristotle who first said that pregnancy was 10 lunar months, which was taken to mean 280 days. From Aristotle’s observation, Franz Karl Naegele created a rule […]
Orit Wernor has a degree in Early Childhood Education, has worked with children for 15 years, been a career Nanny for 8, worked with many different parents, and cared for many babies. Parenting/caregiving is the hardest most important job in the world. A new baby comes into the world with their own blueprint, but how
BEING WITH YOUR BABY Read Post »
by Jessica Jennings Ma Yoga As a brand new prenatal yoga teacher, I knew nothing about pregnancy (except of course the basics), and all I can think of is how beautiful these women are, how full of Shakti – radiant, powerful, wise feminine goddess energy. I tell them in my introduction: you have everything you need
PREGNANCY AS OPPORTUNITY Read Post »
In Midwifery Today Winter Volume 2021, Midwife Lois Wilson writes: “When I entered the world of birth and midwifery in 1985, pregnant with my first child and determined to have a natural birth, there was no internet, no social media, and no famous overnight “influencers.” For information, I devoured Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery and
Telling Your Truth Read Post »
It’s so exciting to me to come across new and fresh ideas after decades of teaching and working in the birth world. A recent presentation from Midwife Whapio Diane Bartlett (The Matrona) has added another facet to my childbirth classes in L.A. For many years, I have observed the relief and understanding that comes when
DADS HAVE INSTINCTS TOO Read Post »
Nearly 4 million babies are born each year in the United States, with statistics showing a slight decline in births in 2021 to 3.7 million. Currently, the majority of births (98.4%) happen in hospital settings (1). Before the pandemic, one-quarter to one-third of birthing parents reported their births as traumatic (2). The US has the
I attended my first birth as a doula almost 27 years ago – a 16 year-old African American girl living at St. Anne’s Maternity Home. She was tough as nails, and would jump up and pace back and forth during each contraction, then rush to the bed to lay down in between. She didn’t need
PREPARING FOR BIRTH Read Post »
Two clarifications: First, I have always been at an advantage in that my labor doula clients were my Supported Birth or Lamaze students. They had taken my class, I had provided their knowledge and preparation, and I knew them as a couple. Most doulas meet a wide range of people, get interviewed, and are hired
REFLECTIONS ON 27 YEARS OF DOULA-ING Read Post »
Nancy Wainer, author of Silent Knife, and Open Season, writes about her years as a birth advocate and midwife and the thousands of women she has helped to process their birth experiences, either in the wake of postpartum depression (PPD) or not. She also draws from her own 3 birth and postpartum experiences – an
Postpartum Depression and the Birth Experience Read Post »
In the United States, failure to progress is the top reason for unplanned primary cesarean (first c-s delivery). Failure to progress is a subjective diagnosis, pronounced when a healthcare provider thinks labor is taking longer than it should. It really depends on what the care provider views as normal and abnormal. The couple may or
UNPLANNED CESAREAN FOR FAILURE TO PROGRESS Read Post »
