5 Ways Mothers Give Away Their Power
Dear Mama, You have more power than you might think. You are the master of your domain, and the domain is you and your children. Your mastery should not be confused with dominance and control. I do not mean that you are here to control your...
Birth Principles Workbook: A Soulful Alternative to a Birth Plan
You’re pregnant, and now that the initial shock, excitement, and/or morning sickness has worn off, you’re starting to think about your birth. Maybe you’ve read every book on pregnancy and birth on your library shelves; maybe you’ve heard more of your...
If Making Love Were Treated Like Birth: A Sadly Hilarious Video
Oxytocin is the hormone responsible for birth, sex, and love. It’s often referred to as the “love hormone” and plays an important role in these pivotal social interactions. During birth, oxytocin causes the uterine muscles to contract and it also acts...
Home Birth: Our Journey to Sanity
On September 8, 2010, at 7:21 p.m., my son, Andrew Steven Paul Glanville, was born. He weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces, and was 22 inches long. It was 12 hours from the time the water broke until he was born, with six hours of hard labor. Even though it...
A Message from our Editor, Issue #53 - Something to Cluck About
The Rooster Makes All the Noise, But the Hen Rules the Roost! We got our first chickens when we were in college. Tom and I were paying our own way and chickens seemed to be an easy, economical source of food. We bought 18 young chickens...
Changing the World, One Birth at a Time
It was not so long ago that psychologists thought babies were born as “blank slates.” Babies were born into the world without memories, we were told—without emotion, without consciousness. They came in with just a physical body that would someday...
Why Is the Fear of Birth Rising?
If you’re pregnant, you may have typed these words into your favorite search engine: “scared of giving birth.” Most women at some stage will admit to having some (or many) fears about giving birth, especially if it’s their first time. Some women are...
Why Did So Many Women Die During Childbirth?
It’s not uncommon to hear people scoff at homebirths, saying things like, “In the olden days, that’s why so many women died!” But they don’t know all the details. Here are four major reasons why so many women died during and soon after childbirth....
The DeLee Protocols: The Pathologization of Childbirth
In 1900, 95 percent of all U.S. women gave birth at home. By 1955, 95 percent of all births occurred in hospitals. This staggering transition was powerfully driven by the systemic reframing, or “pathologization,” of pregnancy and birth by a man nam...
Eyes Wide Open: How to Tell if Your Care Provider Truly Supports Your Plan
Your doula and prenatal instructor might have suggested you prepare a list of priorities and preferences to discuss with your birth-care provider so the two of you can see if you have similar ideas about the care you can expect during your birth....
Five Reasons Your Birth Can Affect Your Baby and Your Parenting
When I meet a new mom, dad, and baby for the first time at a consultation for colic and sleep, I always start by asking them to tell me about the birth. Mostly I’m met with confusion, wrinkled eyebrows, and curious looks. Very often they ask me w...
Teaching Babies in the Womb
How Fetal Experiences Can Impact Your BabyAfter more than 35 years of research, it is now well documented that fetal intelligence exists in the womb. There is even a bumper sticker stating, “The Womb Is a School and All Babies Attend.”...
Creative Fertility: An Interview With Jeannine Parvati Baker
There are many wisdom traditions that understand the importance of privacy, and of treating a baby, mother, and father like a holy trinity, allowing the parents to celebrate together by focusing on the needs of their baby as they continually honor...
Bliss Before Birth
The Effects of a Mother’s Thoughts and Emotions on her Unborn ChildHow can you best support your baby’s growth and development during your pregnancy? Do your thoughts and feelings affect him?
Understanding the Power of Chiropractic
Why do so many women become pregnant under chiropractic care, when they were never able to become pregnant before? Why are so many women seeking out chiropractic care in pregnancy in preparation for safer, easier births? Why are so many birth care...
My Journey to a Homebirth
Growing up, the only person I knew who had a homebirth was an aunt who, in my family’s opinion, was a bit of a hippie. It was not something “normal” people did. I never considered it as an option for myself. My homebirth came about because of...
Optimal Positioning: Balancing the Pelvis for a Safer, Easier Birth
In preparing for a natural birth, we recognize two things: the mother’s autonomy in childbirth and the supremacy of normal physiology. A mother-tobe has many resources to draw from in preparation for birth, the greatest being her own innate...
Belly Mapping
In the last months of your pregnancy, your baby’s kicks and wiggles become more certain, and more perceivable. When you lie on your back with your knees bent, your abdomen is often soft enough to feel through your skin and uterine wall to contact y...
Can Chiropractors Turn Breech Babies?
Can chiropractors turn breech babies? If you had any idea how many times chiropractors get asked this question—as if chiropractors were obstetricians—you’d be shocked. The external cephalic version (ECV), a procedure done by obstetricians and some...
The Blessed State: A Conversation with Mila Furstova
Mothering brings us into another level of consciousness in which we share our inner life. How does having children affect our artistic expression when we are dedicated to a talent, a vocation, or a career? For some, it can mean putting aside that...