Oxytocin: The Hormone of Love

Kerstin Unvas-Moberg This is Part Two of BWI President Cathy Daub’s report on the Mid-Pacific Womb Ecology Conference, held in Honolulu, HI in October of 2012. From a lecture by Kerstin Uvnas-Moberg MD, PhD Kerstin Uvnas-Moberg began her lecture by describing oxytocin as a highly charged protein that does not pass membranes easily. Thus, it …

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Birth Is Instinctive

  By Cathy Daub, BWI President When Roanna Rosewood contacted me and asked me to be part of her birth visionaries platform for the launching of her new book “Cut, Stapled, and Mended,” I immediately accepted. Her book is her story of having had two cesareans followed by a VBAC. It is conversational and enjoyable …

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Book Review: Optimal Care in Childbirth

–> by Jane Beal, PhD, CD(DONA), CCE(BWI), CLS Henci Goer and Amy Romano, Optimal Care in Childbirth: The Case for the Physiological Approach (Seattle: Classic Day Publishing, 2012). 583 pp. $46 Paperback / $39 Kindle. After a friend had a “pushed” birth followed by an unnecesarean a few years ago, I gave her a copy …

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The Importance of Prenatal Education

By Mali Schwartz There are many prenatal programs that have been developed over the years to help women cope with childbirth.  The first childbirth education programs in America were conceived by men such as Dr. Fernand Lamaze, a French Obstetrician who introduced The Lamaze Method in 1951 through observing birthing techniques in Russia.  Dr. Grantly …

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Book Review: New Mother by Allie Chee

Reviewed by Jane Beal, PhD, CD(DONA), CCE(BWI) & CLS Allie Chee, author of New Mother: Using a Doula, Midwife, Postpartum Doula, Maid, Cook or Nanny to Support Healing, Bonding and Growth (Hestia Books & Media, 2012), is clearly an extraordinary person. She gave birth to her first baby at the age of 42 at home …

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How Caregiver Inquiry Can Shape Prenatal Care and Birth Experiences

By Anna Holder, CCE(BWI) “What’s your cesarean section rate?” “What is your episiotomy rate?” “May I eat and drink during labor?” “May I have a doula/ lots of family/ a photographer at my birth?” Women and their partners are often encouraged to ask these and similar questions when selecting a care provider for their pregnancy …

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Supporting Women Without Epidurals

Presentation at the Virtua Voorhees Hospital by Cathy Daub,  PT I recently gave two presentations on “Supporting Women Without Epidurals” at Virtua Voorhees, the local hospital in Marlton, NJ. The hospital has approximately 5,500 births per year and a 43% cesarean rate.  New Jersey and Florida have the highest cesarean rates in the country.  My …

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Birth Panel

  by Anna Holder CCE(BWI) Truth, like surgery, may hurt, but it cures. – Han Suyin The fourth annual Hudson Valley Birth Options panel took an especially hard look at the truth this year. As in previous years a number of childbirth educators, doulas, midwives and mothers form a panel for local families to explore …

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Have a Question? Let’s Chat.

Please don’t hesitate to reach us, happy to be in touch.

Cristin Tighe
Executive Director & International Coordinator
info@birthworks.org
1-609-953-9380
1-202-276-3521 Mobile/WhatsApp