Continual Presence at the other end of life

Sitting with my dying niece tonight, I didn’t want to leave her. But my son had to be picked up and I hadn’t seen my husband in daylight for a while. We’re nearing the final vigil time. It is hard to leave and hard to go back. Each time I approach her home my stomach […]

To try labor if baby is anterior

I’ve been contacted by a woman in southern Europe who is trying to decide if she should travel to a place where she can labor and give birth or to stay in her city and accept a cesarean without labor. What a position this mother finds herself in! What a dilemma! Should she put her […]

Doulas too?

One more post here in response to Joyce McFadden’s blog From Doulas to Doctors; Women are still dismissed.” Here is an extract : A woman says to her male doctor, “Since the surgery I have pain right here.” The doctor says, “That’s not possible.” Almost a year and at least $5,000 worth of medical expenses […]

If Men could have babies?

I’ve heard it again. “If men had babies….” Joyce McFadden’s blog entry “From Doulas to Doctors” explains well the emotional disruption of being ignored in your own birth process. She says, and the brackets are also hers, “[If men gave birth] I think there would be more transparency in the process, and that patients would […]

Might as well accept surgery?

A woman pregnant with breech twins emailed saying her physician recommended signing up for surgery. He predicted that they weren’t going to flip head down. Yet, she was less than 32 weeks pregnant! The direction a twin lies in is determined by the same things that determines a single baby’s direction. Plus one more thing, […]