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• Your Birth Story in 6 Words

  You know that book Not What I Was Planning, the collection of memoirs that are six words long? Well, blogger/doula Doulicia is riffing on that idea and asking people to write their birth stories in just six words. (I believe "ouch" counts as a word.) Can you do it? Here are a few so far: Front seat, 60mph, early morning, WOW!   Read More... Posted Apr 04 2008, 01:56 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 67 comment(s) Filed under: bloggers, doulas, birth stories, not what I was planning, six-word memoirs

• Doctors and Doulas Diss Ladies

  Over at the Huffington Post there's a critique of the way medical professionals and caretakers dismiss the concerns of women. Joyce McFadden contends that while men's problems with docs tend to do more with men avoiding medical help, women are actually ignored or find their valid concerns are minimized. Women complain of pain and are told they aren't really experiencing it. She gives examples of this in childbirth, and here's where I was a little surprised: She calls out doulas as well.  I guess I didn't expect to see doulas included in the hot seat because... Read More... Posted Dec 08 2007, 11:26 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: huffington post, childbirth, women's health, labor and delivery, doctors, doulas

• Hospital Rooming-In or Baby Nursery? (They Both Suck)

  By the time my third and fourth children were born, I was firmly in the camp of having the babies room in with me in the hospital. It seemed, at the time, to be the most natural thing to do, as close as I would ever come to the still somewhat alien energies of a home birth. After all, people have been giving birth for centuries in all sorts of circumstances, and certainly in most of them, babies have remained with mothers in those precious hours and days right after birth. And research seems to agree with that premise, though I have to tell you that having done it both ways, there are problems, as I see it, with both. Read More... Posted Oct 22 2007, 07:28 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 18 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, birth, hospitals, hospital birth, doulas, rooming-in

• Pregcellent: John Tesh Was My Doula

  When I was pregnant, I decided I wanted a doula to rub my shoulders and keep my family at bay, so I went to this birth supply store (don't ask) and looked through this book on doulas. Unfortunately, choosing a doula personals-ad-style was pretty random, so I just selected a couple folks, called 'em, and went with the one I liked best. That's why I was initially excited when I saw this article on choosing a doula or midwife--was there a better way than the route I went? Cuz lemme tell you what happened: The first sign there might be trouble was when she gave me this book of natural birth photos that had pictures of babies delivered in the backs of VW vans and crap. The next bad sign was when she said she "strongly discouraged" the use of epidurals (I had a natural labor birth plan, but wanted an open-minded person.) But I had chosen my doula, and so I forged ahead. Read More... Posted Aug 22 2007, 08:02 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: labor and delivery, midwife, pregcellent, john tesh, doulas