Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

I guess I should specify that by "in a specific way" I mean judgement against laboring with pain relief. I don't often hear judgement against those who choose not to use pain relief in labor (and that's good! I don't want judgement on either side!) but I do hear judgement (direct or implie...

I also want to chip in that I really hope I don't sound like I'm judging the way others labor/give birth - I'm not. Whatever works for each woman is what works for them, and that's great and that's what they should do. I guess I'm pushing back against what I feel is judgement for not laboring/birthi...

By reading that article you posted, Portia, and a couple others, I just found out today that Lamaze originated from post-WWII Russia, where they couldn't afford medicinal anesthesia for Russian women, and so the Russian government set out to convince women that non-medicinal methods of pain relief w...

To both Whistler and Dragon Lady: congratulations! That's so exciting for both of you. :D And Dragon Lady, I totally agree with everything you said. I think women should have choices, and it should be made clear to them that they have choices. They should be able to decide how they labor, where they...

And Whistler, are you pregnant right now? (I'm guessing from the "I'm planning to give birth in Provo" line that you probably are. )

Also, sorry all my posts are super long. I guess I don't know how to write concisely.

To me it makes sense that CNMs are limited in what they can do. My logic goes like this: OBs: Most education, most training, most experience > regulated and overseen by whole systems of people > can do everything related to pregnancy/childbirth Certified Nurse Midwives: Good (but less) education, go...

Dragon Lady, your story sounds like it was an awful experience. I can completely see why you would want to avoid what you had the first time. I can't believe they induced you just because it was a Friday; that's just ridiculous and way out of line. I don't know how long ago DB was born, but most hos...

So, my thoughts on c-sections/"failure to progress"/adjusting the Friedman curve: most doctors have already adjusted their timelines/expectations about the length of labor, especially when it comes to epidurals. Most also don't worry about the speed of the labor until after 4cm, as early l...

Okay, so I want to write out my thoughts on c-sections/"failure to progress," but before I do I just wanted to write a quick side note about the website "Evidence Based Birth." When I first started learning about all of this stuff (about a year ago) Evidence Based Birth was one o...

I think IV fluids are another thing that fall under this category - as Whistler pointed out, those are also mostly to prevent vomiting. Another of the uses of being hooked up to an IV is that medical staff can immediately administer various medicines if necessary. I have heard of women who did not w...

Yes, I think that it does make sense for the mother, for the very reason you said - if something happened and she happened to need anesthesia, the risk would be lower to her. And the "if something happened" is unpredictable - you almost never know you're going to have an emergency before y...

What do you think hospitals could change?

Going along with the other thread about labor positions/pain management during labor, I want to talk about this recent board question where someone asked about the documentary "The Business of Being Born." I think Ozymandias gave a great little reply when they said: Though I haven't seen t...

I'm actually really passionate about this subject as well, though I'm on quite the other side of the spectrum. I don't like how the natural childbirth movement so often attaches a morality to exactly how a woman gives birth, and can be (and very often is) critical, judgmental, and/or condescending t...

Regarding the commenter's original questions, gravity does not help labor as much as coached pushing with the legs pulled back does. In this blog post (http://goo.gl/zTTC6L), an ob explains about the real contributions of gravity in labor: We can go beyond the fact that the Lamaze recommendations ar...

I took soil science! I LOVED it. I didn't take the lab, though, so I can't answer most of your questions. But it was awesome! Who's your professor?

I'm curious to hear your opinions on this - my husband and I are planning on naming our next baby (a girl, due in November) Zelda. We know everyone's going to associate it with the video game, but that's not why we're naming her that. We just like the name. We know it's definitely in the category of...

I've dealt with generalized anxiety disorder in the past (and still do, to a degree). I find that cognitive therapy works best for me. I'd highly recommend the book "Feeling Good" by David D. Burns. There's a lot of good stuff in there to help you identify the patterns in your thoughts tha...