All tagged Informed Choice
I can’t count the number of times I’ve worked with clients who have a clear vision for their birth that would 100% be better supported by birthing at home (and conversely, has a high chance of being derailed by birthing in hospital) and yet they’re dead set on birthing in hospital anyway.
Have you ever thought about what qualities you want in your medical care providers? What makes a care provider/patient relationship work for you?
If not, and you’re currently pregnant, now’s the time to ask yourself the following questions. In my experience, answering yes to these questions increases the likelihood that you’ll get respectful, nurturing care whether you’re with a midwife, OB, or family doctor for your birth.
Welcome to Birth Geekery, the blog series designed to put interesting, fun, USEFUL, and usually nerdy resources at your disposal.
Each post features two to three resources that I either love and frequently share with our clients OR something I’ve come across recently that’s got my brain all 🤯.
“Stepping out your front door is the first intervention in birth.” ~ Unknown
I imagine that folks may have strong reactions to that statement. Perhaps it feels confronting, or perhaps it feels obvious.
How it feels to you will depend a lot on the stories you’ve heard about birth your whole life.
The stories your parents told, your grandparents told, the stories you saw on tv or in movies, the stories your friends have told, what you’ve read on the internet or heard in podcasts, and the stories your maternity care provider has taken in and in return shares with you. All of these stories combine to create the story you personally believe about birth – about what makes it safe, or not safe, about what makes a birth “good” or “bad”.
Welcome to Birth Geekery, the blog series designed to put interesting, fun, USEFUL, and occasionally nerdy resources at your disposal.
Each post features two to three resources that I love and frequently share with our clients so that you can check them out too!
Birth Geekery is a new blog series designed to put interesting, fun, USEFUL, and occasionally nerdy resources at your disposal.
Each post will feature two to three resources that I love and frequently share with our clients so that you can check them out too!
A few months ago, I read the book Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What Is Right for You by Jerome Groopman, MD and Pamela Hartzband, MD. The book covers both internal and external factors that influence our medical decision making while also diving into some of the cognitive shortcuts humans use to make those decisions (SPOILER ALERT: while cognitive shortcuts often help us make quick decisions, they don’t always help us make good decisions).
If you spend any time at all in "natural" birthing communities someone will inevitably tell you that you can "trust birth".
Usually, what they're saying is that you can trust the process, the physiology of birth; you can trust that all of human evolution has brought us to a place where birth actually works quite well.
So you don't need to be afraid. You can just trust birth.
If you are interested in writing a birth plan you may be wondering how to go about it. What should you include? How detailed should it be? How do you make sure it’s effective? Here is what we suggest to our clients.
Congratulations! You're going to have a baby. That's awesome. And probably, on some level, completely terrifying. You're probably already thinking about the million things you need to get done in the next nine(ish) months.
Breathe. You've got this. I promise.
Our maternity care system can be convoluted. Do you see your family doctor, a midwife, an OB/GYN? And when? What tests and procedures are usually recommended? What choices are available to you?
We wanted to simplify the process for you and have created these two handouts for you to print and use as needed.
