Giving Birth With Confidence

I heard a piece on NPR’s All Things Considered last week about a new study that shows definitively that fetal pulse oximeters, which measure fetal blood oxygen levels in labor, do not improve newborn outcomes or decrease the cesarean surgery rate when continuous electronic fetal monitors are used.  Another broken promise of obstetric technology.  The reporter got [...]

Recently I attended what was perhaps the most beautiful birth I’ve ever witnessed. Keiko, pregnant with her first child, was raised in Japan and moved to the United States with her huband six years ago. Since English was not her native language, she chose her words thoughtfully, and in so doing, was eloquent beyond words.
All [...]

In the midst of turkey and family and giving thanks I can’t stop thinking of that ridiculously high cesarean rate! And here’s what I think. It doesn’t matter what is fueling the high rate. What matters is that we know how to get that rate down. We know the care practices that protect, promote and support normal [...]

My heart sank with the latest CDC data  that reported a cesarean rate of 30.2% in 2005. Why? Women known how to give birth and always have.  So, if the cesarean rate is this high something else is afoot.
The World Health Organization suggests that the cesarean rate should be less than 15%. In 1970, when I [...]

Did you read the one about the woman ready to fly home with her husband and baby but instead getting booted off the airplane for indecent exposure? Folks are belted in for takeoff, which is delayed, and a woman decides to breastfeed her baby, and you’d think a striptease show had started near the [...]