Birth's Best Practices

After my first post, I tried to imagine being in the shoes of a beginner to this birth world.  This is fairly easy considering this was exactly ME prior to having my son.  I knew nothing.  I didn't even know that there was something to know!

Where ever you find yourself, the following links will be a good quick resource to look up as a starting point.  Some things you will recognize as recent changes have been made in area hospitals! (Yea!!!)  Some things you may still have not known was a possibility (and a very real necessity in order to achieve the birth you aspire).

Lamaze International's Best Practices in Maternity Care

Link Here
The 6 linked above are listed individually with an explanation for each. 

CIMS - Coalition for Improving Maternity Services

Link to The Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative and The Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care
You can also go to their "free documents and downloads" tab on the left and read this and more in a brochure format.

Childbirth Connection

Link to their Evidence-Based Maternity Care Resource Directory

The books that are recommended are listed permanently on the right side bar.
The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer is a great book for a first start.  I have it in my lending library ready to read!

 And in my own short words....what does one need to achieve her best birth?
---education,  support, labor beginning on its own, movement & positions, avoiding unnecessary interventions, giving birth in the position of your choice (avoiding the back), following your urge to push rather than directed pushing,  and after birth...no separation of mother & baby.

Going with the flow...

I'm going with the flow of things right now...life's little waves of momentum.  Some are little, some are big, but we are always moving with the current.  Just like birth.  Like labor.  

In the past few years, I devoted my time to mothering my baby and raising my big boy.  He will officially be a Kindergartner in the Fall and my daughter is a talking toddler at two & a half.  At this turn, I feel much more room to give of myself to others and feed my passion!  I'm so blessed that I can do those two things at once!!!

Simply Birth encompasses sort of my philosophy of birth and its process.  In short, pregnancy and birth is a beautiful natural journey that can be made very simplistic.  Simple as in clear, understandable, pure, uncluttered.  Its at a fingertips' reach. 

Too many times today, pregnancy is presented as complicated, misguiding us through murky waters of misused data and statistics, scare tactics, setting us up for the worst before anything has yet to begin.  The key is education.

As you become an informed patient, you are empowered to make choices regarding your birth and your vision of your baby's entrance into the world.  In conjunction with a supportive birth team, you will be able to tackle all the twists and turns labor and delivery brings.   In the end, you will feel happy and confident recalling your birth experiences knowing you gave yourself and your baby the best possible outcome. 

What is the best possible outcome?  This truly is for each individual mother's perspective.  We can all share aloud our favorite birth adventures but what may be perfect for you, may look much different for another and yet...sublime just the same.  I often hear providers say...'healthy baby, healthy mom'.  While this is true, very true, the feeling of satisfaction and happiness stem from much much deeper grounds.

And that's where I am....here to encourage mothers on their birthing journey, to support fathers as they comfort their wives, and to hopefully bring an awareness to all that the miracle of life and its entire process is to be honored just as much as the blessing of the baby held in your arms.