No one tells you that when you have a baby that your body becomes public property. Read here for a few hints on keeping that personal space.

What if there were no pelvis? What if it were as insignificant to how a child is born as how big the nose is on the mother's face? After twenty years of watching birth, this is what I have come to.

The expulsion of a first baby from a woman's body is a space in time for much mischief and mishap to occur. It is also a space in time where her obstetrical future often gets decided and where she can be well served by a patient, rested midwife.

Many North American women are being told at the very end of their pregnancies to go to an ultrasound clinic and have a biophysical profile done. Most are impressed by the thoroughness of their practitioner and have no idea what this test involves or what sort of harm could follow from consenting to this diagnostic procedure.

I was genitally mutilated when cut by a scalpel while giving birth at 17 years of age. It was called an episiotomy and it was "routine" for women 40 years ago. That painful surgery led me to the homebirths of my next two children because I knew that cutting genitals was wrong. Back then, women didn't have scientific studies or evidence, we simply knew it couldn't be right and we didn't have to prove it. Years later, a large randomized controlled study at BC Women's Hospital proved what I and thousands of other women always knew: Episiotomies do harm.

Before I had miscarried myself, I could certainly empathize with women. I imagined that it would be heartbreaking to lose a baby. However, I couldn’t know all of what a woman goes through, having never personally experienced.

When women find out that their baby is breech, it often causes stress and sometimes even panic. However, this doesn’t need to be a panic-inducing situation. There are options for either getting a breech baby to turn, or to plan a breech vaginal birth. Many women believe that their only option is to have an External Cephalic Version ( ECV ), and if unsuccessful, a Cesarean Section. A breech baby does NOT need to automatically mean a cesarean section. The good news is, there are many options in between.

Yes! Sometimes writing the insurance companies does work!  Filing an appeal or taking the time to write them about your birth can make changes in reimbursement or coverage.

In 2007, a mom in Florida was tired of getting the runaround about her insurance company and the requirements for homebirth coverage in her state. After a cesarean left her feeling abused by the medical system, she chose a homebirth and had a successful VBAC with a midwife. In spite of a law regarding coverage of births and maternity care, a lack of care providers who were willing to help her have a healthy birth but were more than willing to give her a much more expensive surgery and the fact that a VBAC was safer for her and a cheaper option for the insurance company, her insurance claim was denied. This left her family holding a $3100 bill for the birth. Her husband decided to write the following letter to her insurance company:

We were all taught as young ladies, don’t complain. Don’t whine. What’s the point? Are you just complaining to hear yourself talk? Are you a Drama Queen? Ask yourself, is it really just whining or are you really and truly touching on a situation that needs dealing with? Does your care or problem deserve attention that would help yourself and others? If it does, then complaining is not only valuable, it’s VITAL .