Author: mentorchar

This article was originally written in 2013 in response to a Jezebel post, and has been updated for 2016: The headline was, to say the least, shocking- “PREGNANT WOMEN EVERYWHERE ARE BEING BULLIED INTO HAVING A C-SECTION”, followed by a short article detailing all of two incidents, where intimidation and legal action were used to effect a…

Birth is a physically and emotionally vulnerable time for many, which makes having a birth team that shares your beliefs and values about birth an important task of birth preparation. Take some time to do the following exercise: List everyone who will be present at your birth, in the birth room with you. Consider the…

B.R.A.I.N. is an acronym that can help parents to gather information from a care provider or birth attendant when a procedure or intervention has been proposed. B: BENEFITS First, ask the What & Why questions: What is it you are offering? Why is this being offered now? What is the expected effect/impact on my labor?…

Many of you have seen the NYT article about the new home birth study. And, if you were a brave soul, you read through the comments, wherein a large number of people did the predictable anti-home birth flailing, this time carrying a red flag reading “This shows babies are 250% more likely to die! Make it illegal! Selfish…

Did you know that Childbirth Education is covered under most Health Spending Account or Flexible Spending Account plans? This means you can take a class, and have it paid for! The easiest way to do this is to ask your teacher for a detailed receipt for your registration fees that you can then submit to your…

Dear clueless people responding to breastfeeding articles with “Pooping is natural too, but we don’t do it in public!” or “I don’t whip my d**k out in a restaurant, why should you get to whip out your boobs?”, You people are kinda scary. I can’t quite wrap my brain around how you think these are…

Increasingly, we are hearing more and more women speak out about abuse and violence that have happened to them at the hands of their childbirth care provider. The video of a woman having a forced episiotomy reached far beyond the usual ‘birth junkie’ circles. Another woman’s experience of being physically wrestled onto her back causing…

There’s a lovely article out right now: “Denying the Pain of Labour Is Like Denying the Pain of Life”. In it she talks about how “pain-free birth” has become a holy grail, even among people going for a ‘natural’ birth. If you just do XYZ, your birth will be painless, or orgasmic, or some other…

Controversy skittered through my world recently, when some birth work organizations started using statements and advertising that implied theirs was the One Right And True Way to do placenta encapsulation- and everyone else was dangerous and unsafe. A quick lesson- placenta encapsulation is the act of taking the human placenta, and preparing it so that it…

Title of this post shamelessly stolen from a comment by another local birth professional. You hear this quite often in the childbirth world. “I want a ‘natural childbirth’”, “She’s trying for a ‘natural childbirth’. In general, they mean that a woman wants to give birth without pain medication, especially an epidural. They are laying a…