The Labor Day holiday presents a fitting day to discuss labor — the birthing kind! Here are my answers to the Labor Day meme. You can play along with Rocks In My Dryer too, but be sure to leave a comment here with your link (or just your answers if you don’t have a blog) so I know to go read your answers!
How long were your labors?
Kid #1, 22 hours.
Kid #2, 5 hours.
Kid #3, 11 hours.
See a pattern there? Nope, me neither.
How did you know you were in labor?
Kid #1, contractions that woke me up at …read more

Please do not take this list of advantages of a home birth to mean that I think every woman ought to give birth at home. Each woman should choose as she pleases and as is appropriate for her situation, and I know there are advantages to a birth center birth or a hospital birth (room service comes to mind!) These are just some advantages of a home birth that I appreciated.
1. Never having to get in the car during labor or soon after the birth.
2. Getting to (being encouraged to!) eat and drink during labor.
3. Being able to open the …read more

In these last few weeks of pregnancy I am busy thinking through the details of the impending birth (those for which I can plan, anyway!) As I have mentioned, I am planning on a home birth with a midwife. Should the midwife already be attending another birth, I will go to the birth center. Should I need emergency transport, I will go to the hospital within 10 minutes of my home. One detail I am still working out is where I would go in the case of non-emergency transport, in the unlikely event that I change my mind about having …read more

Hard to believe I reach 30 weeks of pregnancy tomorrow! As part of planning for the birth, I have been reading Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth (my one-sentence rave review: this is the one birth book I wish I could press into the hands of every pregnant woman I encounter). It’s got me thinking a lot about the type of birth I hope to have (at home, with as few interventions as possible), and it makes the most recent poll results all that much more interesting. Of the 150 voters, 73% said they last gave birth in a hospital setting. …read more

I am not even 20 weeks along in this pregnancy and already I am focused on the birth. After two unsatisfying hospital births, this time I am working with a midwife toward a home birth. I am curious about your thoughts on birth choices and whether or not they affect breastfeeding success rates. Do you think birth center and home births are more conducive to breastfeeding success? Do breastfeeding women tend to choose birth center or home births even if they gave birth at a hospital the first time? How successful do you think hospital lactation support is? Do the …read more

I look back at the moments when each of my newborn babies were laid on my chest as some of the most powerful and satisfying moments in my life. My first baby knew instinctively where “the good stuff” was and she wiggled and rooted around until she settled contentedly on the breast (with a little help latching on!) I could hardly wait to experience the same moments of bonding with my second child.
During that short window after the birth where the baby is alert and awake, it is so wonderful for mother and baby to have the time together to …read more