Natural Pregnancy Project

photo credit: ephotography

BIRTH: A one-hour documentary about the practices and perceptions of birth in America.

Starting with early perceptions, we move through the process of birth beginning before labor, continuing during labor, and following the actual event. With a multiplicity of voices woven with sound we examine the process of birth from an emotional, physical and philosophical perspective.

As we move back and forth through time and from person to person, we discover how stories from our lives, history, media, and the medical institution enter into the culmination of the actual birthing process.

Birth is a rite of passage through which all human beings pass. Is it the same as it ever was? Why do some women feel deeply empowered by their birth experiences and others feel stripped of their motherhood? Where do our expectations about how we give birth come from, and how do they play out when we approach the event? What is the baby’s experience? And what about the father’s role?

Turn on the television or watch a movie and you’re likely to see birth portrayed as an emergency medical procedure. Is this a true depiction of what happens? Perhaps, and yet there are many ways in which to approach the experience. Above all else, we are biologically predisposed to be interested in this topic. Quite simply, when it comes to birth everyone can relate.

Mothering.com has a 20 minute excerpt from Birth. It is an exceptional documentary.

[tags]birth documentary, birth in america, natural childbirth[/tags]

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These days the use of drugs to induce labor is commonplace. Although doctors may be quick to prescribe pitocin for induction realize you have many choices to naturally induce labor.

Personally, I dealt with this situation during my pregnancy. I was two weeks “overdue”. I was seeing a certified nurse midwife in a doctor’s office. At my second visit past my due date she told me she would be inducing with pitocin on Wednesday if I had not gone into labor before then. (yes, it wasn’t exactly the relationship I expected when I chose a midwife)

I started to freak out, I KNEW I did not want to be induced. I talked with my doula, who talked with her midwife mentor about [tag-tec]natural induction techniques.[/tag-tec] We discussed a number of different techniques to induce labor naturally. In fact I tried just about everything available. Blue and Black Cohosh, castor oil, homeopathics, acupressure, acupuncture ~ the whole bit. None of these things work.

I’m not a doctor or a midwife, but as a woman who has given birth here’s what I believe on the subject.

• Babies don’t come until they are ready.
• Stress/anxiety stops the process
• Find a midwife who believes in letting the baby come when she/he is ready

I truly believe my due date was miscalculated and Hanna just wasn’t ready to be born. Some things that substantiate my opinion on this are ~ her weight. She only weighed 6lbs 3 oz when born. Even though I had been eating well over 100 g of protein every day, as well as strictly staying on the Bradley Diet. Also, as soon as she was born my doula bent her ears over and they stuck, which is a sign of an early baby.

I think the pressure to have this baby and have it by the medical timetable caused me to force her out before she was ready to come. This led to me trying anything and everything to naturally induce labor. Some of which I believe ended up being counterproductive in the end.

I used castor oil as a last resort to try to naturally induce labor. I believe that because our labor was so long it was partially responsible for the meconium staining I had which led to the doctors freaking out and taking her to the NICU. (where she stayed for a week ~ due to forced intervention)

I do know all these natural induction techniques work for many women. I also think they work better when the baby is ready to come. I do know from my personal experience that nipple stimulation works amazingly well. In fact, I stimulated each and every contraction with nipple stimulation.

What I do want you to remember, especially if you are working with a doctor or someone who is not completely behind your natural birth plan. You have the right to say no. If you and your baby are not in any physical danger you have the right to say no ~ I’m not taking the pitocin right now. Give us an hour to try to get things moving in a natural way.

Believe me, I know this is not an easy thing to do! In fact, I caved on this point, and luckily I had a strong willed husband who stood up to the hospital staff and told them no ~ we’re going to do it this way first.

Then get to nipple stimulating! It really works. The hospital staff, including an OB and my midwife were quite astounded at what we were able to accomplish without any drugs to induce my labor. So be strong, if you have to ~ let your husband be strong. Know your rights and make sure you don’t let the hospital staff bully talk you into something you don’t want.

*** On a side note ~ I will be doing a post later about this but I want to mention it here ~ NEVER allow your doctor to use Cytotec to induce your labor. Put it in your birth plan, verbally tell everyone you DO NOT WANT CYTOTEC ***

If you are overdue and want to get your labor started, there are many [tag-ice]natural induction techniques[/tag-ice] you can use. I am not an expert on them, I just know what worked for me. So here’s a great page that will walk you through many of the possible natural induction techniques you can use.

The only way you can completely avoid the issue of induction whether medically or naturally induced is to have an Unassisted Homebirth  and that’s a whole other post.

[tags]natural induction techniques, naturally induce labor, natural induction, technique for natural childbirth, induce labor naturally[/tags]

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I was making a squidoo lens on Natural Pregnancy and Childbirth and found these great videos of Ina May Gaskin. If you aren’t familiar with Ina May she is an amazing midwife who has birthed babies on “The Farm” a Tennessee commune since the late 60s. She is an amazing woman and I was excited to find these videos and share them with you.

Ina May also wrote the amazing books Spritual Midwifery and Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth ~ which I recommend to every mother wanting to experience a natural childbirth.

Here’s the Ina May Gaskin videos talking about Natural Childbirth.

Enjoy~

[tags]Ina May Gaskin, natural childbirth, spiritual midwifery, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, Ina May Gaskin video, Ina Mae video, midwife, the farm [/tags]

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