𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚏𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛 𝚖𝚒𝚍𝚠𝚒𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚢

12/12/2024

Planned Home Births Are Just as Safe as Birth Center Births!

📚 New research from Oregon State University analyzed over 110,000 births across the U.S. and found:
✅ Fewer Transfers: Lower hospital transfer rates for planned home births.
🍼 Better Neonatal Health: Fewer NICU admissions compared to birth centers.
💪🏾Maternal Safety: Comparable rates of postpartum hemorrhage and hospitalizations.

Led by Dr. Marit Bovbjerg & Dr. Melissa Cheyney, this study confirms that home and birth center births are equally safe for low-risk pregnancies. Informed choices = safe, empowered care. 🌟

At NACPM we’re committed to promoting equitable access to safe, community-based birth options and addressing barriers to midwifery care.

📖 Read the full study : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39514513/

11/07/2023

STOP IT.

07/16/2023

I haven't read a truer description of what it means to be a midwife...

What does it mean to walk as a Midwife?
Well first my love, you better grow thick skin. The purposeful propaganda that started centuries ago is still strong today. Walk in a room and say you are a home birth midwife and watch what happens. Projections, reflections, traumas, and ignorance. You will become a mirror. Remember to reflect back love and grace for you represent the thin veil between life and death. You will grow to know it well.
Being a midwife means gentle hands and whispered tones even when your heart is beating loudly in your ears and you haven't turned off your vigilance for hours/days. It's a full bladder, dehydrated mouth, and growling stomach that gets pushed aside because your presence means something.
Midwifery is stopping a hemorrhage that people don't even know is happening because youre smiling and cooing at the baby to keep up the oxytocin.It is sitting on a living room floor helping a baby cry while telling everyone, "Oh my goodness look how cute she is! Her color is getting so pink! Her heart is so strong." It is sometimes being the voice in the room that says, "I think you would benefit from an epidural." Then at the next birth you are nodding along as a woman cries she can't do it as you guide her to the tub because you know her baby is arriving soon. It is jumping for joy at that first latch and each ounce of baby weight gained.
It is knowing that these truths will be seen as sacrilegious to some and not "true" Midwifery. Then on the other side, you will have people shocked that you know how to take a blood pressure and amazed that you understand how to manage emergencies. You will not win over them all. You have to accept this.
It is knowing you are not God and you humbly submit to the understanding that you will never predict or control it all.
It is missing date nights and apologizing that you have to keep getting up to answer the phone. Saying no to activities you so desperately want to do but there is no cell service and a baby is arriving soon.
But mostly, its hearing the voice in your head saying after each moment with a mother, "If that is all I ever did, it is more than enough. This is what it means to work for the Divine"

05/27/2023

It's normal. It's all normal. And it's all very very good. Your baby is so stinking smart and communicating their needs to you from day one. We just have to listen.

05/05/2023

Happy International Day of the Midwife! It is the most sacred privilege to witness your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. On the sidelines, or all up in your bits, every moment is a celebration of your strength.

Midwifery wouldn't be what it is without the love and support of a fellow midwife to call when you need to have a big cry, or gush about the bestest birth you just went to. Big thanks to the midwives in my life ❤️

Pictured here is my newest, favorite midwife friend. On the other side of this picture is my other favorite midwife friend, Megan.

05/02/2023

WHEN ALLYSON FELIX BECAME PREGNANT, Nike was prepared to cut the terms of Felix's endorsement by as much as 70% due to the pregnancy, and told her to “know your place and just run.” 🤯

Amid all of this, she was forced to have an emergency c-section seven months into her pregnancy because of a potentially life-threatening condition and her baby had to live for more than a month in the NICU. But two years later she’s qualified for her fifth Olympics with her daughter watching.

Felix dropped Nike and created her own brand of running shoes, the Saysh One. She is currently running in the Olympics in Japan wearing them under the banner “I Know My Place”. 😏 With 11 medals now, she passed Carl Lewis this summer for the most track and field medals by an American in history!

"I used my voice and built this company for you. So that you never have to train at 4:30am while you're 5 months pregnant to hide your pregnancy from your sponsor.”
🔥

04/18/2023

If you're not lifting up the breastfeeding mothers in your life, then you're the problem 💁🏼‍♀️

Le pédiatre recommande le sevrage de l'allaitement parce que le lait maternel a perdu son efficacité. Le dentiste pour éviter que le bébé ait des caries. La belle-mère pour qu'il ne soit pas trop attaché. L'éducatrice recommande que le bébé s'adapte au plus vite à l'école. La collègue de travail pour que la fin du congé de maternité soit plus facile pour la maman. La nutritionniste recommande le sevrage pour que le bébé mange mieux. Le professionnel de n'importe quelle spécialité médicale pour pouvoir prescrire un traitement pour la mère. Le mari pour que sa femme ne se plaigne plus de fatigue. La consultante en sommeil recommande le sevrage pour que le bébé dorme toute la nuit. L'orthophoniste pour que l'enfant commence à parler plus rapidement. La voisine parce qu'elle trouve ça moche et pas normal.

Savez-vous ce que ces recommandations ont en commun ? Toutes ont besoin d'une preuve scientifique solide qui les justifie. Elles ne sont qu'une opinion personnelle ou professionnelle soutenue sur des arguments douteux. Elles ne sont qu'un échantillon de l'ignorance et des préjugés autour de l'allaitement. Ce sont quelques-uns des obstacles que nous devons affronter pour que l'allaitement soit possible.

Pour la société en général, il est beaucoup plus confortable de jeter la faute de la fatigue maternelle sur la demande du bébé que de fournir le soutien nécessaire pour que cette mère puisse accomplir la tâche difficile de créer un être humain sain à tous les niveaux.

Tant que notre culture continuera à considérer l'allaitement comme la racine de tous les maux de la mère et le sevrage comme la solution idéale de tous leurs problèmes, nous continuerons de nous écarter de notre essence et de transformer notre espèce.

La décision du sevrage appartient exclusivement à la mère et au bébé, et non au médecin ou la société. Arrêtons de vendre de l'illusion aux mères fatiguées, car l'allaitement est rarement le vrai problème et le sevrage ne garantit rien. Les mères ont avant tout besoin d'un soutien efficace.

- Gabrielle Gimenez traduit par Naissance mère'veilleuse -

📸 Latasha Toussaint Haynes

04/10/2023