If you are pregnant in 2017, chances are someone you know has hired a doula. And you may be wondering if you need a doula as you prepare to give birth. First, let’s talk about what a doula is – and what a doula does. So what is a doula? …
Written by: Jennifer Swarthout Delayed Umbilical Cord Clamping One of the most momentous occurrences in a woman’s journey into motherhood is cutting the cord. In western culture, the physical connection between mother and child is severed just moments after birth. Waiting a couple of extra minutes before clamping and cutting …
Midwives and doctors have known that vitamin D supplementation is important for some people for some time, but research has regularly shown that supplementing babies doesn’t seem to make too much of a difference. As it turns out though, the study designs probably had everything to do with the uncertain …
Birthing stools are a very important tool in helping with the delivery of a new baby. According to an article in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, when squatting such as with a birthing stool, both transverse and antero-posterior diameters of the outlet are bigger. The squatting position has …
Fund for Rural Armenian Midwifery Education -FRAME Once again Midwives Martha Boudakian and Brenda Surabian will be traveling to Armenia to work with Midwives and Moms in March. They will be teaching skills labs to the midwives, prenatal yoga to the moms and providing health care to the women of …
NSAIDs, like the OTC drugs that some women regularly take for menstrual cramps or cramping associated with ovulation, have been found to cause a drop in progesterone … A significant drop in progesterone. According to a very recent study’s lead investigator, Professor Sami Salman of the Department of Rheumatology at the University of Baghdad, …
Pediatricians in Canada say that the antibiotic ointment that is applied to infants’ eyes as standard care in order to prevent contracting a “sexually transmitted” bacterial infection from the mother is ineffective. The protocol has been used to ensure that infants do not end up with what is called “neonatal …
A Virginia Tech biologist says that in 2012, her laboratory mice began having infertility troubles. Miscarriages became common, mice fetuses died in utero and the females were dying in labor. The mice that were born often had various birth defects. A geneticist at Washington State University was seeing a similar …
The New York Times editorial board issued a surprising opinion statement in support of midwife-assisted births and legislation that supported midwife-assisted births. The Times referenced strong research from the UK that reversed a decades-old stance on the critical importance of birthing in a hospital. The fact that Britain’s National Institute for Health and …
In a review of data from 13 research trials involving 16,242 women, researchers have found that when a pregnant woman’s care provider is a midwife instead of the US standard multidisciplinary care, she is more likely to have a better outcome. Midwife care showed a lower likelihood of preterm birth …
