This is a question that is massively poignant to me, and isn't one that I ask lightly. Seasoned medical professionals and women who have experienced painful births are no doubt baring their teeth. Whilst I don't wish to trample on their experience, I am due to give birth in six weeks and I'm hoping that the title to this piece may be truer than we are currently able to anticipate.
Since becoming pregnant I have explored my options. In doing so I discovered 'Hypnobirthing - The Marie Mongan Method' and my education in natural, empowering birthing began. Whilst I've not yet put the theory to the test, I am already a superfan of the possibilities hypnobirthing holds.
Hypnobirthing starts from the premise that the pain commonly felt in childbirth is not a natural side effect of birth but rather it stems from fear. Women in our highly medicalised society are ingrained to believe that birth is frightening and as they go into labour the feeling is often one of terror. This terror may have been welling in them since childhood when stories of their own birth were recounted, or from the horror tales put to them throughout their life. A pregnant woman is often not reassured by her friends gleeful recitations of tearing, cutting, blood loss, vomiting, labors that last a week and the howling screams coming from a woman in the next room.
This understandable, but culturally driven fear naturally provokes the body's fight, flight or freeze response. All physical energy is directed away from the birthing process and a lifetime of anticipating great pain becomes true, surgery occurs, episitiotomies are dosed out, drugs are taken and birth becomes a medical traumatic situation.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Showing posts with label natural childbirth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural childbirth. Show all posts
Help For Heartburn By Eating the Right Foods
Alkaline-forming foods prevent acid reflux, heartburn, GERD and Barrett's Esophagus
Monday, February 13, 2012 by: JB Bardot
(NaturalNews) Acid reflux is the condition where food and stomach acids regurgitate back into the esophagus, causing burning pain in the lower chest accompanied by a host of other symptoms such as bloating, belching, sore throats, snoring, difficulty breathing and ulcers.
The early stages of digestion occur with the release of hydrochloric acid in the stomach to break down foods. Later during the digestive process, bicarbonate is released by the pancreas to help neutralize those acids. In some instances, this process doesn't happen, contributing to painful reflux or GERD symptoms. Eating certain alkaline-forming foods can help reduce over-acidity and calm the stomach, relieving pain and other unwanted symptoms. In addition, foods that contribute to an alkaline-forming state in the system help prevent acidosis, a serious bodily condition that sets the stage for all disease.
High-potassium foods
Foods with high levels of potassium may help prevent or resolve acid reflux. The list is considerable and many are foods you may already include in a daily dietary plan. Bananas, honey, lemons, apple cider vinegar, cantaloupe and sweet potatoes - to name a few - are excellent sources of potassium.
Apple cider vinegar (ACV) in particular is touted by many people as an effective cure for acid reflux. If using ACV, it is best to mix one to two tablespoons with an eight-ounce glass of water and drink it all at once. If that's too much vinegar, reduce the amount and work back up to the full quantity. Always use organic vinegar with "the mother" visible in the jar; it looks like a swirling cloud and indicates the vinegar is organic.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Monday, February 13, 2012 by: JB Bardot
(NaturalNews) Acid reflux is the condition where food and stomach acids regurgitate back into the esophagus, causing burning pain in the lower chest accompanied by a host of other symptoms such as bloating, belching, sore throats, snoring, difficulty breathing and ulcers.
The early stages of digestion occur with the release of hydrochloric acid in the stomach to break down foods. Later during the digestive process, bicarbonate is released by the pancreas to help neutralize those acids. In some instances, this process doesn't happen, contributing to painful reflux or GERD symptoms. Eating certain alkaline-forming foods can help reduce over-acidity and calm the stomach, relieving pain and other unwanted symptoms. In addition, foods that contribute to an alkaline-forming state in the system help prevent acidosis, a serious bodily condition that sets the stage for all disease.
High-potassium foods
Foods with high levels of potassium may help prevent or resolve acid reflux. The list is considerable and many are foods you may already include in a daily dietary plan. Bananas, honey, lemons, apple cider vinegar, cantaloupe and sweet potatoes - to name a few - are excellent sources of potassium.
Apple cider vinegar (ACV) in particular is touted by many people as an effective cure for acid reflux. If using ACV, it is best to mix one to two tablespoons with an eight-ounce glass of water and drink it all at once. If that's too much vinegar, reduce the amount and work back up to the full quantity. Always use organic vinegar with "the mother" visible in the jar; it looks like a swirling cloud and indicates the vinegar is organic.
To read the rest of this article click here.
10 Steps to Natural Childbirth
By Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE, About.com Guide
Choose a supportive practitioner. No matter whether you use a doctor or midwife, be sure that your practitioner has a lot of experience in caring for women who want to have an unmedicated birth. Midwives usually specialize in this type of birth. How to choose your practitioner.
Select a place of birth that will help you. While home births and birth centers provide you with the best locations for a natural birth because they specialize in natural birth, you can have a natural birth in a hospital setting. Good planning, proper preparation and good support are essential, no matter where you give birth. Birth centers or home birth can be a great option for you.
Have a birth plan. A birth plan is a way for you to effectively communicate your preferences for your birth with your practitioner, the staff who is caring for you during labor and your birth team. How to write a birth plan.
Hire a doula. The use of a professional doula has been shown not only to reduce the requests for epidural anesthesia, but it also cuts the cesarean rates in half and shortens the length of labor according to medical studies. Find out about doulas.
To read the rest of this wonderful article click here.
Home births are making a comeback
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog
January 26, 2012, 10:05 a.m.
Home birth is making a marked resurgence in the United States, according to data released Thursday by the federal government.
A century ago, most births took place at home. But the rate fell steadily and slipped to less than 1% of all births by 1969 and just over 0.5% in 2004.
Though still not common, home births have risen 29% from 2004 to 2009, according to the statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2009, the most recent year for which data are available, 0.72% of all births took place at home. The trend is particularly noteworthy among white women. Home births among that group rose 36% since 2004 and accounted for more than 1% of all births in 2009.
The northwestern part of the country has the strongest trend in home births -- 2% in Oregon and 2.6% in Montana. The sheer lack of transportation in rural areas may play a significant role in home births in some areas, the authors of the report stated. Cost might be a factor too, because home births are about one-third the cost of hospital births.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Mom Delivers Nearly 14 Pound Baby Without Epidural
Mom Delivers Nearly 14 Pound Baby - Des Moines News Story - KCCI Des Moines
DES MOINES, Iowa -- A woman gave birth to a 13 Lb, 12 oz. baby boy without medication at Mercy Medical Center on Thursday.
When asked about the birth experience Kendall Stewardson, 24, of St. Charles, said she couldn't talk about it. "It wouldn't be TV appropriate," Stewardson joked.
Baby Asher was born healthy and 9 days late. He was 23.5 inches long. His family has a history of big babies. Asher's big brother Judah weighed 12 lbs., 1 oz. when he was born. Both Stweardson and her husband Joshua were born weighing more than 10 Lbs.
To read the rest of this story click here.
DES MOINES, Iowa -- A woman gave birth to a 13 Lb, 12 oz. baby boy without medication at Mercy Medical Center on Thursday.
When asked about the birth experience Kendall Stewardson, 24, of St. Charles, said she couldn't talk about it. "It wouldn't be TV appropriate," Stewardson joked.
Baby Asher was born healthy and 9 days late. He was 23.5 inches long. His family has a history of big babies. Asher's big brother Judah weighed 12 lbs., 1 oz. when he was born. Both Stweardson and her husband Joshua were born weighing more than 10 Lbs.
To read the rest of this story click here.
As You Desire: Orgasmic Childbirth ~ Can it be?
By Nancy Sutton Pierce December 6, 2011
After watching this video there were so many things running through my head. The first of which was, "If I had known that I would have had many more children". The next was, "I'm pissed off because I didn't know that was a possibility when I was living through 24 hours of natural labor and delivery"!
I went into my own childbirth experience very well educated and prepared. Now I realize I was not nearly as prepared as I would have liked to have been. Can labor and delivery actually be a sensual, orgasmic experience? According to the experts approximately 20% of birthing mothers experience an orgasm during the delivery. Dr. Christiane Northrup explains that the very same anatomy which is stimulated during sexual intercourse is also stimulated by the descending baby. Makes sense. Then why don't more women know about this? Do we have puritanical attitudes which prevent us from seeing sexuality as a normal physiological process... kind of like breathing?
I was a labor and delivery nurse for part of my nursing career. I have to admit I never saw that side of childbirth. My experience and research explains why. When we put a laboring woman in bed, attach her to wires and machines, she is unable to move about and labor naturally. There are very few cultures who do this to their women. Birth is the most natural act (besides sex) and yet we treat it as though it was a "diagnosis" to be dealt with. I've heard all the reasons for this... the medical culture in the USA has very stanch beliefs to back up their defensive practice actions. Morbidity, Mortality, & Legality are the top three. But what they don't realize is that the way we currently treat childbirth is creating a whole new basket of problems (we call them unforeseen consequences) they have yet to connect the dots to.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Why are we scared to give birth naturally?
My belief is that as more medical intervention occurs in childbirth, it leads to a cascade of labour complications and traumatic birth experiences. This has led to a most understandable increase in the amount of fear and aversion felt by women and prevent them even considering giving birth vaginally.
If more money was spent on offering women counselling, fear release and relaxation techniques for those women, who quite understandably felt afraid to undertake childbirth, then not only would women experience the joy of giving birth, but also have less complications recovering from major surgery.
* Opting for caesarean
* HypnoBirthing
* Effects of caesarean
* Explore natural options
Opting for caesarean
A controversial move by NICE to introduce guidelines for caesarean section to be available as a choice for women has stirred up emotions both for and against the move. I am a great believer in giving women informed choice, but one of my concerns is that women are fully informed about the pros and cons of a caesarean section. What worries me even more is that we have such a negative view of childbirth that we are too scared to give birth naturally!
Don’t get me wrong, a caesarean section is a life saving operation in specific circumstances and should be used in those situations. The problem is when it becomes normal practice and we forget that it is major surgery with a higher risk of complications for both mother and baby.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Mothers Wanting Natural Childbirth Have Options
By DyAnna Gordon
The experience of giving birth profoundly impacts a woman forever. In the past, many women had little choice in their birth experiences. Either they gave birth before the advent of modern anesthesia techniques or gave birth during the time of “twilight sleep birth,” when women were given pain medication that rendered them unconscious or into such a trance that they would not remember what they went through.
In the modern world, women have more options. They can choose a natural birth, without any type of medication, or an epidural — anesthesia placed in the woman’s spinal column causing a cessation of pain below her waist. Epidurals can be a lifesaver for women who need cesarean sections and a useful tool for those with drawn out labors.
However, natural childbirth offers tremendous benefits for the laboring woman and her baby such as:
• Reduced chance of cesarean section.
• Easier time breastfeeding.
• Increased bonding between mother and infant and less separation.
• Increased participation by the mother’s partner in the birth experience.
• Increased maternal sense of accomplishment.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Ricki Lake: Why I'm So Passionate About Childbirth
In her first blog for the iVillage blog series CelebVillage, actress/ filmmaker and mom of two Ricki Lake shares why she's so passionate about her childbirth documentary film, The Business of Being Born, and its follow-up series and why she feels they've "revolutionized" her purpose in the world.
About eight years ago my dear friend, director Abby Epstein, was visiting me in Los Angeles and I approached her with an idea for a film project about midwives and natural birth. I showed her home video footage of my younger son Owen’s birth in our New York City bathtub and gave her a copy of my childbirth bible, Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery. I am sure Abby thought I was nuts and was probably thinking this would not be a commercially viable project (to say the least!) but she took the material and politely agreed to look it over.
A few weeks later, Abby called me and said she was blown away by her own ignorance on the subject and thought it would make an amazingly compelling documentary. We spent the next three years filming birth in hospitals, homes and birth centers and ultimately created The Business of Being Born (which Entertainment Weekly has said was the "rare documentary that is actually changing lives. It deserves to be called revolutionary.")
To read the rest the rest of this article click here.
Things I Would Say to the Hospital Staff If I Saw Them Today…
I can’t help it, I hold grudges. It’s just my personality to seethe over things when I feel like I’ve been dumped on, and it just stews inside my bones, boiling under the surface for months, weeks, years, decades… until I find a way to resolve my anger.
I have a lot of unresolved rage over things that happened in my first two birth experiences. My first was an induction-turned-unnecessary cesarean, and my second was a hard, hard, hard-fought VBAC that nearly resulted in a second unnecessary cesarean about a dozen times before my labor finally finished.
Having my VBAC, and my then my Home VBAC, ultimately healed the way I felt about my body after those traumatic births. It was empowering and liberating. But it didn’t shake the anger over the way I was treated in the hospital because I know so many other women are experiencing the same mistreatment every day, and in some weird ways it makes it feel like it’s still happening to me.
In both of my first two births, there were some things that the hospital staff did that I may never forget, and certainly have not yet forgiven. And I’m not alone here, either. Jessie Peters of Roanoke Birth Services, a doula and midwife in training says,
“I believe that we as women never forget how we felt, and were made to feel during the births of our children, and that the way we are treated during this vulnerable time impacts our future.”
Many highly trained birth and psychology professionals agree that birth imprints memories on us in a way that can’t be shaken, which can be especially hard to process if they are negative feelings. But I’m going to try to process them how, in hopes that it will relieve some of the internalized anger that nags at me. I also hope that if labor & delivery professionals stumble upon this, it will make them rethink the little things they’re doing that will forever impact how a woman remembers her birth experience.
To read the rest of this article click here.
I have a lot of unresolved rage over things that happened in my first two birth experiences. My first was an induction-turned-unnecessary cesarean, and my second was a hard, hard, hard-fought VBAC that nearly resulted in a second unnecessary cesarean about a dozen times before my labor finally finished.
Having my VBAC, and my then my Home VBAC, ultimately healed the way I felt about my body after those traumatic births. It was empowering and liberating. But it didn’t shake the anger over the way I was treated in the hospital because I know so many other women are experiencing the same mistreatment every day, and in some weird ways it makes it feel like it’s still happening to me.
In both of my first two births, there were some things that the hospital staff did that I may never forget, and certainly have not yet forgiven. And I’m not alone here, either. Jessie Peters of Roanoke Birth Services, a doula and midwife in training says,
“I believe that we as women never forget how we felt, and were made to feel during the births of our children, and that the way we are treated during this vulnerable time impacts our future.”
Many highly trained birth and psychology professionals agree that birth imprints memories on us in a way that can’t be shaken, which can be especially hard to process if they are negative feelings. But I’m going to try to process them how, in hopes that it will relieve some of the internalized anger that nags at me. I also hope that if labor & delivery professionals stumble upon this, it will make them rethink the little things they’re doing that will forever impact how a woman remembers her birth experience.
To read the rest of this article click here.
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