In the last three decades, women in New Zealand, as in the rest of the Western world, have experienced escalating levels of intervention during childbirth and a declining ‘normal’ birth rate – the latter being recorded as 65.0% of all … Continue reading
Tag Archives: birth
Birthspirit’s Waterbirth Workshop provides the opportunity to establish and/or enhance evidence-informed practice around the safe and effective use of water during labour and/or birth). It is designed for health professionals but it is anticipated that women exploring the waterbirth option … Continue reading
Active birth is taken as a given during birth at home. Women rarely choose to birth on a bed; rather they walk, crouch, rest on hands and knees, and sway and rock their babies out. This need to move in … Continue reading
In this review of newborn and maternal physiology following birth, Dr Sarah J Buckley focuses on the importance of supporting the newborn’s transition by delayed, or no, umbilical cord clamping. The third stage of labour is a powerful and mysterious … Continue reading
This post written by Heather Wallace was originally published in Birthspirit Midwifery Journal 2010; 5: 33-36. Last year I returned to clinical practice after an extended maternity leave of almost five years. I was concerned that I would be completely … Continue reading
A multi-disciplinary hospital meeting to air issues raised by women’s feelings of dissatisfaction with obstetric consultations for breech-presenting babies is discussed by self-employed midwives Margaret Gardener and Jenny Crawshaw. Originally published in Birthspirit Midwifery Journal 2010; 5: 63-67. References updated … Continue reading
This post was originally published in Birthspirit Midwifery Journal 2009; 1: 13-19. Updated and revised 3 March 2014 Using deep warm baths in labour is a common strategy that many home birth midwives have used for at least three decades … Continue reading
In this post, originally published in Birthspirit Midwifery Journal 2010; 5: 19-22, Avon Lookmire, now a registered midwife, discusses how the current ‘stages of labour’ do not reflect women’s experiences of labour, and she shares her ideas of how the … Continue reading
Originally published in Essentially MIDIRS 2011; 2(9): 47-49. Revised As I compiled the statistics of my home birth practice covering a 22 year period many of the individual instances of how my knowing developed became definable – the watershed moments … Continue reading
This post was originally published in Birthspirit Midwifery Journal 2009; 1: 64-65. Updated. As steeped in medically and midwifery managed birthing as this 60-plus year old breech story Randall (1949, pp. 81-84) is, it has (at least) three central themes … Continue reading