The pregnancy books midwives hand their clients. Real information on natural birth and empowered choices, far beyond 'What to Expect When You're Expecting.'

The question of flying while pregnant comes up quite a lot around the holidays. It’s a common season for moms to be overwhelmed by family expectations and traditions, while simultaneously trying to act like their usual energetic selves even though their reserves are already low. The most important question to ask yourself is, How do you really feel about this trip?

Social media promotes and popularize a quick ‘bouncing back’ into life after having a baby. However, as a midwife I’ve seen the wonderful and far-reaching benefits of slowing down after your birth for a few weeks of physical and emotion restoration. The postpartum window is a precious and critical time for mother and baby to recover and settle in. And it helps the entire family to adapt to your new little family member too. Here are eight starting points that help protect you during your postpartum period…..

The ‘Hands and Knees’ position is instinctively assumed by women in labor all the time. And sometimes it’s suggested that women go farther, into yoga’s ‘Child’s Pose.’ But the Reset Position is quite different, and it could save your next labor a great many hours.  It opens the pelvis wide, and provides an opportunity for the baby to back OUT of the pelvis and REPOSITION itself. It works MIRACLES!

Because of their shared, women-centered maternity health perspectives, midwives and doulas often appreciate each other’s work and may be at births together.  Doulas assist mothers in positioning, provide emotional support and encouragement and act as an advocate for their individual birth plans, regardless of who is their health care provider. Midwives may also do these things, but are actually delivering (or "catching") the babies, and are responsible for the health care and safety of the mother/baby dyad in labor and birth. 

One of the primary keys to having an efficient and effective labor is having the unborn baby well-positioned in mama's pelvis. And if this seems to not be the case, based on how labor is moving along (or not), remember that to move the baby, move the mama! By understanding this general concept, anyone can effectively help their baby along in a way that fits their personality, their birth setting, and their labor circumstances.

Midwives are highly skilled professionals in the realm of normal birth. Although it’s common for current generations to think that all babies are born in a hospital with obstetricians (OB’s), the preferred attendant around the world for normal birth is still the midwife. So how does one go about finding a homebirth midwife, if you're the first in your circle to consider such a thing? Depending on the health care politics of your area, it could be super easy, or a big challenge!

There lots of lists of the “Special Gifts for the Women in Your Life”. But these lists are AWFUL! Full of fancy perfume we’ve never heard of, lotion sets full of garbage, jewelry that looks like the entrance of every department store? Who WRITES this stuff?

So, here are some REAL gift-giving ideas moms will appreciate, use and remember!

Midwives, apprentices and doulas are uniquely positioned to have an extraordinary affect on the postpartum period of families, and therefore on the family’s entire parenting experience. When we educate mothers and their families about the exquisite importance of a healthy and protected postpartum and how to have realistic expectations, our impact will echo deeply in women’s lives forever beyond the actual birth.

Most importantly, it’s the mama who ‘delivers’ her baby! She grows her baby, and she births it; I do mean vaginally or surgically. The process of birth, all births, encompasses our body, mind and spirit. And, mother-babies may be assisted in their births by a range primary care professionals such as OB’s and Midwives, as well as their partners/spouses, friends, and professional doulas. Women have choice in their birth attendants and birth locations, even towards the end of their pregnancies, or within insurance boundaries, hospital proximity, or tight budgets.