The Family Way Publications

12/01/2022

It has been bittersweet as we work towards officially closing The Family Way Publications at the end of this month. Jeanne and I would like to thank all the eductors and doulas who have used our books and attended our trainings and presentations over the last 40 years. It has been a terrific ride!

11/02/2022

Just in case anyone missed our big October announcement. Please share to help us spreasd the word!

10/21/2022

Important information from a new U.S. government report for childbirth educators and doulas to share with their clients: www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105871

10/21/2022

I enjoyed presenting "Research Update: Healthy Birth Practice #1 - Let Labor Begin On Its Own" at the Lamaze 2022 Virtual One-Day Conference yesterday and I appreciate all the positive comments.

10/03/2022

Childbirth educators, doulas, and birth professionals, please SHARE. We want to spread the word!

07/21/2022

How does the cesarean rate in your state compare to the national average of 32.2%? Despite the increase in inductions which some health professionals believe may decrease the cesarean rate, the national cesarean rate for the USA has increased for the second year in a row. Download this handy map at www.thefamilyway.com. Feel free to share this post.

03/22/2022

Need a review/update about the perinatal factors that influence the initial colonization, development, and function of the neonatal gut microbiome? This new review covers important information for your childbirth classes and doula clients. Thanks to Sarah Buckley for posting this link and the summary illustration from the open access review:

https://oaepublish.com/mrr/article/view/4644

Please feel free to share post.

03/21/2022

New highly recommended, thought-provoking nationwide longitudinal retrospective study from the Netherlands looking at the association of maternal ethnicity, age, parity, and socioeconomic status with fetal and neonatal mortality, stratified by gestational age. The authors concluded:

“The results showed that ethnicity, age, parity, socioeconomic status, AND GESTATIONAL AGE [my emphasis],did not act as single determinant of fetal and neonatal mortality….Decision-making about induction of labor to prevent fetal and neonatal mortality based on a single determinant may lead to overuse or underuse of induction of labor.”

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/birt.12628

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Background Maternal characteristics, such as parity and age, are increasingly considered indications for routine induction of labor of otherwise healthy women to prevent fetal and neonatal mortality...

01/06/2022

Nice to begin the new year reviewing this interesting November 2021 study from Spain which assessed the efficacy of non-pharmacologic interventions to reduce anxiety during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum. Authors' conclustion:

"The interventions where the effect was significant were the following: during pregnancy, yoga, music therapy, the massage performed by the partner, and CBT [cognitive behavioral therapy]; during labour, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy; during the postpartum period, kangaroo care along with music therapy, massage; and during pregnancy and postpartum, antenatal training, and self-guided book reading with telephone assistance." (page 6)

Free pdf: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0266613821002060

The anxiety mothers experience during pregnancy is well known and may have negative consequences for the emotional, psychological, and social developm…

12/02/2021

Concerned about the induction rate? Our 2021 Educator's Guide available at www.thefamilyway.com summarizes current evidence. Scroll down for our brief review of the excellent new book, In Your Own Time, by Sara Wickham.

11/11/2021

"No study or review of studies on induction of labour has come anywhere near showing that offering induction on a routine basis would come even close to exceeding the many short-, medium-, and long-term benefits to healthy women and babies of awaiting spontaneous labor." (page 28)

I highly recommend this brand new book by British researcher and midwife Sara Wickham to childbirth educators and anyone in the birth field. It is easy (and interesting!) to read and only 165 pages, not counting the references in the back. She provides up-to-date (many with 2021 dates) studies to make her case against routine induction before 41-42 weeks. She also has a thought-provoking discussion on the concept of “risk” and examines the “evidence” for routine induction for women considered “high-risk.” She stresses the value of induction in individual situations where medical intervention is warranted, but sounds the alarm for increasing induction rates around the world for healthy pregnant women.

11/05/2021

ACOG now recommends that all pregnant and recently pregnant people receive any available COVID-19 booster as soon as they are eligible. Most important, ACOG recommends that everyone . https://bit.ly/2ZR9jvm