Natural Childbirth In An Unnatural World

A thoughtful, and thought-provoking blog from Stephanie Morrow of BlogHer.com makes the plea to modern women everywhere to make an informed decision about their birth in an "unnatural world." We are constantly surrounded by the images of mothers in horrible pain when labor begins and dramatic moments of the water breaking.  While all that makes for good drama on television- it's not reality for most births!  She certainly lays the groundwork for good research points, and closes it up with something that we definitely believe in here at Embrace Birth Midwifery Care & Birth Center: "YOUR body, YOUR baby, YOUR decision."

Photo Credit: stephanie2morrow

Why You Won't Have a Natural Birth

By: Stephanie Morrow

I rarely rant. I almost never rave. If I seem taller than usual, it's more likely from my new sparkly summer wedges than from standing on a soapbox. But ... well ... I want to say something that's going to make some of you furious and others of you feel justified:

Natural childbirth is not possible in an unnatural world.

And we do live in an unnatural world -- X-Men, Photoshop, reality tv, fast food, Donald Trump's hair -- and we believe what we see. (Except maybe for the hair.)

Our culture encourages those same "unreal" perceptions regarding childbirth. Movies and tv shows tell us labor will begin with intense pain and agony. We are shown images of women screaming and begging to be medicated. We told to freak out when water breaks and rush to the hospital. We listen to the horror stories of our "friends." We ignorantly put ourselves in the hands of people who are exceptionally well-trained to handle abnormalities and emergencies, hence all our births have become such abnormalities and emergencies.

And that's just not reality.

We are NOT educating ourselves. We have lost our communal knowledge of the art of birthing and have chosen instead to simply trust the medical profession to decide what is best for us.

You can SAY all day long, "I want a natural birth," but if you aren't educating yourself, your chances of actually HAVING one are practically nonexistent. I mean, if you want to be a safe driver, but you don't read the Driver's Manual, or learn to operate a vehicle from someone who knows how, or even take a driver's ed class, you MIGHT get in the car and know WHERE you want to go, but what are the chances of actually making it there safely? Probably about the same as having an uneducated natural birth.

Now, by "educating yourself," I do NOT mean taking the hospital class that tours you through Labor & Delivery, makes you watch the epidural video and discusses all the things that "could go wrong" and how the hospital will deal with them. NO. NO. An emphatic NO.

Read for yourself: Literature from both ends of the spectrum, from Twinkle Ding-Dong Yoga Birthing to Shut Up and Put Your Feet in the Stirrups. Go ahead and take the Labor & Delivery tour at the hospital, then go to an independent childbirth class. Drink in A Baby Story on TLC, then chase it with The Business of Being Born on Netflix.

Read up on epidurals and episiotomies; C-sections and vitamin K shots; vaccinations and circumcisions; fetal monitoring and forceps; meconium and mucous plugs; contractions and colostrum; dilation and doulas; VBAC and PRoM; breech babies and birth positions; posterior presentation, placentas, pitocin & postpartum depression, and for heaven's sake, PARENTING.

What determines the outcome of your labor hinges sharply on choosing to educate yourself and surround yourself with the support you need.  And, as a doula, while I heavily advocate drug-free birthing, my job is to help you have the experience you want. Schedule a C-section, squat in a cornfield, whatever. It is, after all, YOUR body, YOUR baby, YOUR decision.

Just please, please, please make it an INFORMED one.

To view the original blog post, click here.

Our First Baby....! ❤❤❤

Drum Roll Please! Embrace Midwifery Care & Birth Center would like to announce our First Baby! 
Miss Willow was born after an amazing journey of strength, bravery, commitment, and love... 
I am so thankful to have a team that loves this work and is excellent at what they do!

Orgasm During Childbirth?

It may be a rainy Monday, but we come bearing good news- at least for the lucky 6% of you! Multiple sources have credited this phenomenon of orgasm during childbirth and this doula, Bailey Gaddis has witnessed it herself! Below are tips on how to facilitate such an experience, so read on and may you be blessed!

I'm A Doula, and Let Me Tell You: Orgasms During Childbirth are a Real Thing!
By: Bailey Gaddis

The terms “orgasm” and “childbirth” sound like antonyms to most people. But, women have an orgasm when they conceive a baby (hopefully!), so maybe it’s not outside the realm of reason that they could have an orgasm while birthing the baby.

According to The Independent, a survey by the Positive Birth Movement and Channel Mum has reported that 6 percent of women say they have had an orgasm during childbirth. My initial reaction when I first heard about women who reported orgasms during birth was that they were lying braggarts — mainly because I was jealous I had never experienced this phenomenon.

But since I’ve become a birth doula, my “lying braggart” theory has been crushed; I’ve witnessed many women experience multiple orgasms during birth. I’ve heard them describe these births as “ecstatic overflows,” “spiritual awakenings,” “waves of bliss,” and “the longest, strongest, orgasm ever!”

I wonder if these will be the ladies that end up having six children?

This miracle outcome is not based in fantasy, but in science. Studies have shown that two of the regions in the brain (the anterior cingulate cortex and insula) that are active during orgasm are also active during painful sensations — and childbirth is often labeled the pinnacle of painful experiences.

Beyond similar activities in the brain, orgasm and childbirth both produce strong surges of blood and stimulation of the birth passage, cervix, clitoris, and vagina. And sometimes, they both involve the partner whispering sweet somethings in the mother’s ear — or, teetering on the edge of sleep.

A professor of psychology at Rutgers University, Barry Komisaruk says, “Anatomically, orgasmic birth is no surprise. In fact, the intense stimulation of the vaginal canal in childbirth may work to block pain, whether that stimulation is felt as sexual or not.”

Are you hoping for an orgasm during childbirth? Why not, right? Try out these suggestions to up your chances:

• Substitute the term “contractions” (it sounds so constrictive!) with the term “surges” — which sends a more fluid and pleasurable message from the mind to the body.
• Take deep-in-the-belly breaths during each surge, allowing the belly to fully rise. Breathe past the wall of pain, and you might just find a special treat on the other side.
• Envision a spiral of energy moving from above your head, down through your body, and concentrating its power as it moves out your cervix and washes over your vagina and clitoris. Imagine that energy waking up your body’s endorphins as it moves down, and dispersing them through the pelvic region.
• Submerge yourself in warm water as much as possible. The relief warm water provides to your hard-working birthing muscles creates space for them to focus on more pleasurable pursuits.
• When you feel yourself at the tipping point of pain and pleasure, let out long and low groans to allow any painful energy to be released.
• Have your partner stimulate your nipples during surges. This act pumps up your release of oxytocin, which can strengthen your surges — increasing the potential of a quicker birth, and awakened arousal.
• Ask your partner (or self!) to stimulate your clitoris. In 1988, Barry Komisaruk and co-researchers published a study in the Journal of Sex Research, which noted that vaginal or clitoral stimulation made women less sensitive to painful stimulation.

I imagine women have been experiencing orgasmic births since the beginning of humankind, but have likely been sticking to the motto “mum’s the word.” Now that sexuality is losing a bit of its taboo status, more women are coming forward about their ecstatic birth experiences.

Hopefully, the sharing of this possibility can spark renewed hope (maybe even excitement!) in women who are terrified of the prospect of birth, and removes the belief that there is shame in a woman feeling bursts of pleasure in an experience where pain is the standard.

Maybe, childbirth can hurt so good.

A Woman's Right to Birth

We love this Letter to the Editor from a brave mother sent to The Washington Post.  It is our goal to inform and empower women with choice.  Articles like these feed on all of the unfounded fears of having a natural birth, frowning on "natural" as an inferior method, once again undermining a woman's right to choose.  We believe that birth is intuitive to all women and with the proper guidance from a knowledgable and well-trained midwife, mothers can be informed to make the best decision for their bodies.  We are one of the only birth centers anywhere that has a direct collaboration with a Registered Nurse, Jessica Jordan, who is able to provide medications on a consultation basis.  We have had less than a 1 percent transfer rate, a 6 percent C-section rate, and a 15 percent transfer rate for reasons such as pain management, or the baby being in a less than ideal position.  We are proud of those numbers and are thankful for modern medicine to bring healthy babies into this world under such circumstances.  There is no shame about it!

(Paul Giamou/iStock)

Women Should Be Listened to About the Childbirth Process

As a mother who has birthed two children, I found Amy Tuteur wrong on many fronts in her May 8 Outlook essay, “The natural-birth industrial complex.” Perhaps her most egregious — and tired — assertion about childbirth is the “healthy baby and mother” argument.

Implying that women should be satisfied simply with a healthy baby-healthy mom outcome is dismissive of women and their birth experiences, especially when they are grieving events that are sad, disappointing or traumatic. Of course every mother wants a healthy baby, but when women are ignored, disrespected or violated during labor and birth, then birth may not be a beautiful experience for them.

We can set the bar higher. Birth teaches us that we are not in control, but that doesn’t mean women don’t have choices. Women are absolutely right to ask for more in terms of prenatal and postnatal care and labor and birth options. This applies to home, birth center and hospital births — because women should be respected and listened to no matter what the birth setting.

Sarah Farr, Silver Spring

To read the full article, click here.

Grand Opening Success! Take a Peek Inside

We had such a lovely time at our Grand Opening yesterday!  It was a successful event and we were so thrilled to be hosting amazing moms, expecting mothers, their partners, and their children!  It was all around joyful to be sharing something that we have been working so hard towards these past few months and seeing it all come to fruition.  Embrace Birth Center is up and running along with our Wellness Collective!  If you didn't get a chance to visit us yesterday, here's a peek at what's inside!

 Welcome to our Birth Center!  Our very own Kathryn Haines is speaking to expecting parents in the Midwives meeting room!

Here we have everyone gathered in one of our birthing suites, along with our examination room and our sitting area at the front entrance.  The photography you see around the office are all works of local photographers you can work with for your very own pregnancy and infancy portraiture!  The collection shown here is of actual births we've performed in Richmond.

This is one of our amazing birth suites, built with maximum comfort in mind.  A space for your family - a retreat - with extra deep soaking tubs, plush linens, and private bathrooms!

We are very excited about this little tree!  We will be hanging snaps of all the beautiful babies we deliver on its branches!  Blue for water babies, green for earth babies!

Our Wellness collective features Green Baby Planet, who focuses on safe, natural and eco-friendly products for your little ones!  We also offer prenatal yoga classes!  There is still room available in our collective, so if you'd love to contribute to this wonderful community of support, please contact us.

Just Some of the Benefits of Water Birth

“Do you perform water births?” is one of the most frequently asked questions we get and what the majority of mothers that come to us are looking for.  We recommend that all our mothers at least consider laboring in water, but are happy to deliver earth babies as well! When you think about the environment your baby has spent the last 9 months in, that warm, amniotic fluid— giving birth in water seems natural.  It makes your baby’s transition from that environment into the loud and bright outside environment that much easier.  The decreased sensation of gravity also makes positioning for the mother less strenuous in water and promotes.  Some of the well-known benefits of water birth include:

— Decreasing pain 

— Decreasing length of labor

— Conservation of energy

— Reduces perineal trauma

— Relaxes and soothes mother to get in tune with her natural rhythm

Our new Birth Center will be opening this Tuesday, May 10th, with our Grand Opening Event and Open House on Sunday, May 15th!  It will feature 2 beautiful water birth suites that meet all of the American Association of Birth Center guidelines, extra deep soaking tubs, private bathrooms, showers and queen-size beds.  All of the comforts of home.

Catch Your Baby! One of the Benefits of Using a Midwife

Have you ever seen a mom catch her own baby? It is a sacred event. If you are pregnant, consider catching your own baby. Midwives LOVE to catch babies but consider this, it is your baby, and your birth, do you want to give up the extraordinary opportunity to let you or your partner's hands be the first to enfold your baby? If you need help, your midwife is at your side.

Photo Credit: Monet Nicole- Birthing Stories