It’s become common to tell all women who are birthing in medical facilities that they need an IV placed in their hand or arm “just in case.” However, when this routine medical intervention is examined more closely, it becomes clear that it’s massively overused, and unnecessarily complicating labor and postpartum for far too many mothers.

It’s time we educate the newly pregnant woman that the midwife or obstetrician that ‘delivers' their baby is actually HELPING THEM to deliver their baby, and even more importantly, helping them along the journey of becoming a mother/parent. What this health care provider will do, could do, should do is quite a bit more than to just make sure everyone survives the whole thing. Many assume that whatever their OB does is automatically the best care to be had. However, it can be problematic to ‘just go along’, without asking questions and without actively choosing the sort of care you want. Here’s why….

This question gets asked a lot around the holidays. Here’s my midwife perspective from helping mothers birth, and navigate family holidays, for over 40 years.

Good books on pregnancy and birth will introduce you to new information, expand your understanding of both details and broader picture, and help you more effectively navigate your childbearing year with clarity and peace. As a midwife, I’ve found that the “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” series does just the opposite! Whether you are a stories person, or relax into lots of good data and studies, find the book(s) that help find your ballast and grow your confidence. Here are some tried and true volumes that generally have reliable info, respectful tones, and empower their readers to more capably navigate their birth journeys and health care experiences.

Midwives, apprentices and doulas are uniquely positioned to have an extraordinary affect on the postpartum period of families, and therefore on the family’s entire parenting experience. When we educate mothers and their families about the exquisite importance of a healthy and protected postpartum and how to have realistic expectations, our impact will echo deeply in women’s lives forever beyond the actual birth.

Herbal baths have traditionally been used by midwives to help mothers and babies soothe and heal after birth. Sometimes however, birth does not go as hoped and planned. There may be grief about small details, or tremendous pain from difficult circumstances. It was in response to these challenging times that mothers and I came up with “The Do-Over Bath.” In this case, the herbal bath is also used as a ceremonial time to honor the closing of a chapter, and to make room for an emotional reset.

Most importantly, it’s the mama who ‘delivers’ her baby! She grows her baby, and she births it; I do mean vaginally or surgically. The process of birth, all births, encompasses our body, mind and spirit. And, mother-babies may be assisted in their births by a range primary care professionals such as OB’s and Midwives, as well as their partners/spouses, friends, and professional doulas. Women have choice in their birth attendants and birth locations, even towards the end of their pregnancies, or within insurance boundaries, hospital proximity, or tight budgets.

The ‘Hands and Knees’ position is instinctively assumed by women in labor all the time. And sometimes it’s suggested that women go farther, into yoga’s ‘Child’s Pose.’ I’ve coined the term ‘Reset Position’ for the posture in the picture above, it’s NOT your old ‘Knee-Chest’ position. It opens the pelvis wide, and provides an opportunity for the baby to back OUT of the pelvis and REPOSITION itself. And it works MIRACLES!

Doulas are professional, sensitive, labor-support persons; they are privately hired by families to be with them during the labor and birth of their babies in a supportive way. Overall, well-trained doulas will be capable medical advocates, knowledgeable on the normal process of labor and birth, and full of ideas to ease and facilitate the mother/baby’s birth process. The exact nature of what skills and ideas doulas might bring to the birth depend on many factors…..

This is a frank discussion to teach homebirth midwives and other birth professionals about effective naturopathic responses to excessive blood loss in childbirth. In addition to the obvious physical improvement in mom’s immediate recovery, unusually rapid long-term postpartum improvements have been confirmed with labwork. Here I discuss which remedies and why - homeopathics, essential oils, flower remedies, liquid iron supplementation, food as medicine, and the power of including visualization as an emergency technique. “Her hemoglobin five hours later was 7 g/dl, something quizzically deemed “impossible” by the medical staff.“ Early nutritional and remedy-based intervention does make a significant difference in recovery!