Dear friends, I am excited to let you know that I am slowly re-entering my midwifery practice this spring! I will also be teaching birth ‘prep’ classes specifically for home and birth center birthers, plus a few other fun classes. I am also upgrading my blog and website and unfortunately I will not be able … Continue reading
On the lookout for lip and tongue-ties in the newborn
A new mother is five days postpartum. Her milk has come in, but the baby just cannot get the hang of nursing. She is hungry and wants to nurse but is fussy at the breast. Mom is tired and feeling frustrated. After a few more days everyone is overwhelmed by trying to help the baby … Continue reading
Seasonal periods, brought to you by Big Pharma
Following the trend toward inventing diseases and conditions that can be treated by new drugs on the market, the pharmaceutical world has presented women with a new condition that it can conveniently cure: too many periods. I discovered the condition on the back of the May/June issue of “Nurse Practitioner World News” sticking out of … Continue reading
Response to Amy Tuteur
A recent blog post of mine titled “’If I were at home, I would have died’ – The trouble with extrapolating hospital birth events to homebirth” received a lot of attention. One blogger, Amy Tuteur, published a scathing response to my piece on her personal blog. I am stunned and saddened by Ms.Tuteur’s hate-filled critique. … Continue reading
OMG, you did not just cut off a third of my baby’s blood supply?!
Your baby has just been born. Would you let someone draw their blood and remove 30% of their blood volume? It would be senseless and highly dangerous and to remove a third of the baby’s blood from their body before they were born, but doing this immediately after birth has become the norm. Continue reading
So Long, “Nurse” Midwives? Hilary Schlinger CNM, CPM puts ACNM’s proposed name change in 20 years of context
The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) has a motion on the table to change its name to the American College of Midwives (ACM). There has been talk about this change happening for years, but there may finally be enough support to approve the motion at the upcoming annual meeting in San Antonio. There has been … Continue reading
“If I were at home, I would have died” — The trouble with extrapolating hospital birth events to homebirth
A midwife in North Carolina was recently charged with practicing midwifery without a license because her state does not offer licensure for Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) and other direct entry midwives. There was some local news coverage of the arrest and the ongoing efforts of North Carolina families to legalize CPMs. One of the local news stories included a mother’s birth … Continue reading
Curious about infant toilet learning, or EC? Here are some tips to get started…
Since I’m neck-deep in the mother-baby cocoon these days I thought I’d share my EC’ing experiences in hopes of helping any curious mamas or papas to give it a try! The process of being attuned to your child’s elimination rhythms is something mothers do everywhere although it is less common in western cultures where disposable … Continue reading
You CAN say no to the fetal monitor, but you’ll need to bring your own doppler — and nurse
Imagine a woman in labor at the hospital. How she is moving? Where is she in the room? What is she doing? Probably you see a woman lying down in the bed, wearing a hospital gown, hooked up to various monitors, straps and tubes. In some high-risk situations these things may truly be helpful for … Continue reading
Moving beyond the ACOG PR faucet
My first response to ACOG’s press release for their newest “Committee Opinion” on homebirth was, like many of you, what’s new? Remember the last opinion statement in 2008, the one that accused women of caring more about their birth experience than the safe arrival of their child, and attacked homebirth as a trendy cause celebre? … Continue reading
