Tori's Blog
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What Are “irregularly regular” Contractions?
Thursday, June 18th, 2009Yesterday, I attended a birth that had been pretty long for the mom. She had experienced a couple of days of mild, irregular and annoying (her words) contractions before labor really kicked in. What I was struck with was that she really had managed her labor by separating the “engine is warming up” portion of it (early labor) with the “engine is in full-gear” portion (active labor). She tried to be as normal about her day as she could even...
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Twins and Triplets
Friday, June 12th, 2009What an incredibly wonderful day I had today. This morning I had the pleasure of being a participant in the vaginal birth of breech twin girls. This is not at all common and needs to happen in the hands of a skilled provider and an excellent support team. The birth was lovely and everything went very smoothly. Later in the day, I shared in another wonderful birth of triplets.
The babies were spontaneous triplets which means that they were not conceived with...
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Waves, Surges, or Really Big Pain
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009Decades ago when Dr. Fernand Lamaze wrote the book “Painless Childbirth” the natural childbirth movement was born. Thousands upon thousands of women diligently learned their breathing techniques and prepared themselves for their births. Unfortunately, what many women found out was that labor and birth actually did hurt for them. A lot.
Contractions didn’t feel like “waves or surges”. They felt like pain. Big, huge pain. But…it wasn’t supposed to. And then, in choosing to use pain medication, many, many women felt as...
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Orgasmic Birth
Friday, June 5th, 2009
I recently viewed a film called Orgasmic Birth. In it several women discuss the “bliss and ecstasy” that they felt during their “natural” childbirth experiences. Other “experts” discuss how this occurs with references to blood flow, sexual hormones and anatomy. I found the dialogue and the described certainty with which we can achieve this to be quite fascinating. And I wondered where these women were (and why I hadn’t been one of them).
In having attended over 3000 births, in hospitals,...
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Better Birth
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Childbirth is on my mind. Not merely because pregnancy and birth are part of my very fabric but because I see a new trend in birth again becoming terribly “polarized”. Historically, it happens every couple of decades. Today, as the holes in our health-care system are glaringly apparent, birth has become a hot topic for dissection. You can see it in the multitude of childbirth books with titles such as “Better Birth”, “Your Best Birth”, “The Best Birth” . Every... -
Wednesday Notes
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
These are just a couple of things I have been reading today.This is a great story from the BBC about an obstetrician and staff who saved the life of an orangu-tan with birth complications.
What are the unique challenges of having a baby and being a small business owner?
I really like the site, Barefoot and Pregnant. I know the founders and enjoy participating in and sharing material with them. This week they posted this article about surviving your first trimester .
You...
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Memorial Day: Honoring Soldiers and The Women Who Stand Behind Them
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
On Memorial Day we honor those soldiers who have protected us and have given their lives for our country. Let’s also honor those young men currently serving our country in the military. Behind so many of those men are strong and courageous women with families at home.They provide incredible support to each another as well as to their partners. Popular musicians are writing songs about them. Many of them have suffered heartbreak and all of them juggle their responsibilities alone. In...
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Scheduled Birth – What’s It About
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Scheduled birth, labor induction, ever-increasing cesarean section rate, elective primary c/section…It’s enough to make your head spin. What does it mean? How do you make sense of it all? I’ve made a 1-minute video outlining the current trends around all of this. Take a minute to watch it and then let’s talk about it. Ask me your questions, let me know what you are hearing, what your friends are doing and what your feelings are about it. Let’s get the...
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I Think I May Be A Bad Mommy Too
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
It could just be my imagination but it seems as though more and more frequently I am reading articles and blog posts that vilify women who openly speak about their struggles and feelings about motherhood. The backlash against Ayelet Waldman and her recent book, Bad Mother is only one example of many. In the book she openly talks about how she feels about her husband and her kids. Her crime seems to be her honesty and her pointed observation that the... -
Happy Mother’s Day
Friday, May 8th, 2009
One of my favorite songs, by John Mayer, has a line that says, “Girls become lovers who turn into mothers, so, mothers, be good to your daughters, too.” This resonates with me because all the work I do concerns the parents that you will become, or already are. When I was pregnant, a close friend who has three children said to me, “Don’t wish away your pregnancy or those first sleep-deprived months. One day, you’ll wish for them back.” This...
