johncsnider

The Wold Health Organization (WHO) recommends that 15% of births should be by cesarean. They have done endless research globally. I respect the WHO.  My sister-in-law told me her birth story in Germany five years ago. Her doctor assigned a midwife as soon as she was pregnant. The midwife did everything from prenatal visits to the delivery. A doctor was at the hospital overseeing that the birth went okay but was there just in case of emergencies and not to deliver the baby. The midwife then made several home visits after the birth to ensure that breastfeeding was successful and that mommy and baby were healthy. Her region has a 17% cesarean rate. I love birth stories .

Moms are evenly divided on this fence! So many of us have been touched by a illness or fear the worst for our babies. The idea of banking the blood inside the umbilical cord after delivery to one day heal someone in your family in enticing. The cord blood is so amazing that there are benefits to letting your own child immediately receive the blood. What to do? Use it now or later or not at all? Use it now Some moms keep the umbilical cord attached until it drains of blood and stops pulsing to know that the baby has received the final nourishment. The NYTimes reported that " a new analysis has found that delaying clamping for at least a minute after birth, which allows more time for blood to move from the placenta, significantly improves iron stores and hemoglobin levels in newborns and does not increase the risks to mothers". Other moms enjoy a "lotus birth" where they keep the cord attached to the baby for around 10 days until it naturally falls off. Even  ABC New...

Not a Pre-Planned Birth During this blogging experiment, I have been planning and awaiting the arrival of Baby #3. She was due 8/24/12. Like my other babies, that due date came and past. My other two births were pushed along before my body went into labor. For this birth, I was worried that my husband would not be able to make it from work in time. My last labor was only 3 hours and I was thankful that we lived near my husband's work. Now we are in the suburbs and my hospital was even further away (a two hour trip from his office to the hospital). I could use a closer hospital but there is nothing closer that has midwives. So I tried to "plan" the birth! The day before my due date, my husband took the day off and went to my midwife appointment with me. We hoped that she would strip my membranes and send me into labor. Unfortunately the baby was not low enough yet and she worried that the cord could get in the way. So instead we had a "date" and went out to lunc...

The placenta of baby #2 I had heard of people eating their placenta after birth. Supposedly it is extremely common around the world and has been done for eons BUT it seemed weird and extreme! So the thought did not cross my mind (although my doula had suggested it) for baby #1. By the time I was pregnant with baby #2 I had learned about all of the positive benefits of consuming your placenta post-partum. It is really a miracle substance that prevents postpartum depression, stabilizes hormones and keeps your vitamins and minerals in balance. My midwife highly recommended it since I had been anemic and since my life was going to be extremely busy. Not only was I about to take a newborn home to a household with a 2 year old BUT, I was moving 2.5 weeks after the baby was born and leaving the country with the family the day after the move. It was a busy time in life. I heard about having my placenta encapsulated and that felt like a method that I could deal with. Popping a pill is easy. I...

Your caregiver will probably want you to pack a hospital bag at least a month before you are due in case that you go into early labor. Yes this is helpful but I always feel that the extra time is for me to keep adding things that I "forgot" to add in the original packing.  These are my essentials for a hospital/birthing center birth: Your birth gear - aromatherapy, music player, birthing ball, etc. I didn't use any of this stuff. During my first birth, my doula brought it all but my future births were too short and I enjoyed chatting with my husband and mom in between contractions. Plastic flip-flops - these are great during labor and during the showers post-partum. Slippers or slipper socks - some facilities give these out. If you are a cold foot person, these will be convenient for you. Lanolin - your facilities may give this out so ask during your hospital tour. You put a very small amount on like lip balm after each of your nursings to prevent your nipples from being ...

I am excited that G.W. has shared her two birth stories with us.  Her first birth was with an inattentive OB and her second was with a caring and respectful midwife. It is amazing to read these two births that both occur in a hospital setting but with such different caregivers and how the lifelong memories are so different. Thank you G.W.! **** G.W.'s Second Birth: The Midwife **** This is the story of my second birth. Feeling the way I felt about the [first] birth - that it was great DESPITE the OB and not because of her, I decided to go with a midwife. I asked for some recommendations and decided to go with a two-midwife practice in Park Slope/ Williamsburg [New York City]. Their names are Joanne and Janet. While it was Joanne that eventually delivered my baby girl, Janet was just as awesome throughout and as the due date was approaching I had no real preference because both of them were so very great.  I felt the difference between a ...

J.B. is an American ex-patriot living in Kenya. She is the only person that I know who came into this world via home birth (one of five kids her mother homebirthed!) so she is very aware of birthing world.  I always post my favorite birth first so her second birth is first below. Her first birth was medically induced and ended in a caesarian also below and is the second story below. I love J.B.'s use of the bath to recharge herself during early and late labor. I had no idea about laughing gas during labor. Supposedly it is incredibly safe and effective during contractions but too much exposure by medical staff can be dangerous so it is not used in the U.S. Let me know if you have more info on it. **** J.B.'s Second Birth: A Laughing Gas VBAC  **** It was a beautiful, sunny morning.  I was getting ready to go to my acupuncture appointment, when I started to feel a strange feeling in my lower abdomen (aka. the part of my tummy that I could no longer see).  It...

H.H. in her birth story below shares how hard it was for her during the rough transition phase of birth not to choose the opiate that the medical staff was pushing on her. Thanks to her inner strength and the support of her doula and spouse, she was able to stick with her plan for a natural birth that resulted in a fast and easy delivery. **** H.H's Natural Birth **** So I woke up on my birthday August 22 with what I thought were contractions. I thought this is my birthday gift, the birthday of my first daughter.  I remember making a wish the year before blowing out my candles wishing for a new life and new chapters, well I got my wish, a new chapter was unfolding. My birthday was the day that I was to have my first prenatal massage, what a luxury that was. My husband picked me up from my massage and we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner where I had some of the most amazing pesto ravioli that I have ever had. It was a warm night and it was about an hour walk home. I felt good...

Below J.S. has shared her birth story with us. I applaud her for realizing that there was too much medical intervention that caused her to have a caesarian for her first birth so this is the story of her second birth. She followed her inner feeling that her body could do it and she did. Sadly she lives in a State that does not allow the type of birth that she wanted even though home births are proven SAFER than hospital births! **** J.S.'s Illegal Home Birth **** It was a Thursday. I had my 38 week appointment that morning.  Everything looked good. It seemed that we still had another  couple of weeks, which was nice, considering that was only the  second time I had met my midwife. Little did we know, I would  see her again in less than a day’s time. Our son would be born  before sunrise. His birth was the easiest part of this story. The pregnancy of my older son, about three years earlier, ended  with an unwanted and unwarranted c-section. Althoug...

When I was pregnant for the first time, a new mom was talking to me and shared the story of her beautiful and happy birth. I had always thought that birthing was a negative experience that you had to go through one way or another (except for the exception of my mom who had me drugless 30 minutes after entering the hospital). This friend loaned me some books and I began asking other moms about their experiences. What I found was that, the women who went into birthing well prepared and educated with all of their options were the ones who can out HAPPY with their birth experiences even if it did match their birth plan because they were empowered. This posting is the first of several postings where actual moms share their birth stories with you.  I am the first to share, so here are the stories of my first two births: **** My Second: The Easy Midwife Birth **** My second birth was easy (a relative term of course) and I admit it! It was also fun and exciting! Yes I was lucky but I set ...