Cesarean Scar Website

Barb from Navelgazing Midwife has launched a new website dedicated to the “story” your Cesarean scar tells. From the “About” page on the website: Something told me the cesarean scar needed a place to speak. As this site was being born, I asked three things: -1. Take a picture of your scar. -2. What does [...]

ISO: Home Birth and/or Midwifery pictures and videos

I’m making several promotional/educational videos about midwives, midwifery, and home birth for our Mississippi Friends of Midwives group, and would like to have more pictures and/or videos that I can use. Here are the two that I’ve gotten done so far. This second video is clips from my younger son’s newborn exam (we had no [...]

Video of the Webster Technique

This was pretty cool. I’ve heard about the Webster Technique, to help a malpositioned baby to turn into a good position — usually from transverse or breech into vertex, but this is the first time I’ve seen it done. Well, actually, I’ve seen the “pretzel” (as my mom calls it) numerous times, since that’s what [...]

Maternal Mortality in NYC

I can scarcely get my thoughts together after reading this article: In 2008, black women in New York City experienced 79 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births compared to 10 white maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, and a national rate of 13 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the latest data available. [...]

Diaper-free

I’ve mentioned “elimination communication” once or twice before on this blog, and the more I hear about it, the more interested I am in it. Here is a blog post from “Dr. Momma” on EC, including a video showing babies being pottied and interviews with their parents. There are many links to more information on [...]

CBC Radio Program on Breech Birth

Rixa transcribed the radio interview of a couple of Canadian doctors who are learning how to attend breech births. Well worth a read! My favorite part is when they talk about the “new” German way of handling breech birth: put mom on her hands and knees. Robin Guy: Well, you know what’s really exciting about [...]

World Maternal Mortality Declining!

Now this is wonderful news!! Full article here. From a study posted in the Lancet, a number of reasons were given for the improvement: lower pregnancy rates in some countries; higher income, which improves nutrition and access to health care; more education for women; and the increasing availability of “skilled attendants” — people with some [...]

Culture, shmulture

Recently, “Courtroom Mama” wrote a new post [The Most Important Thing] in response to a comment thread from a previous post [VBAC Doesn't Make it All Better, by Emjaybee], which are both at The Unnecesarean. If you haven’t read the posts you should, to at least give more context; however, briefly, the VBAC post discusses [...]

“Safety net” or trampoline?

What if there were no C-sections? What if that simply wasn’t an option? Do you think doctors would practice differently? I do. No one discounts that C-sections can be beneficial, saving the lives of mothers and/or babies. However, our country is currently experiencing its highest C-section rate, with maternal mortality increasing right alongside the C-section [...]

Breastfeeding and WIC

Today, I read this post, “Is WIC shooting the CDC in the foot when it comes to breastfeeding rates?” It was an interesting take on a couple of new studies that have been released: racial and ethnic disparities in breastfeeding, and how breastfeeding (yes, even in America,) could save over 900 babies’ lives per year, [...]