Transitions Birth Doulas :: Labor Birth Related Information

Labor/Birth Related Information

Epidural anesthesia
The Medical Risks of Epidural Anesthesia - A very comprehensive paper on the risks of the epidural

Epidurals for Labor Pain - Article by Henci Goer

Epidural Misadventures - an in-depth article on the use of epidurals

Natural Coping Techniques
The Use of Acupressure for Pain Relief

Comfort Measures for Labor - Extensive Information on non-medical pain relief

Postdates/Induction
"Overdue" Information - A lot of information on being "overdue"

Gentlebirth.org Postdates Information- More postdates information

A CIMS Fact Sheet - The Problems and Hazards of Induction of Labor

Let the Baby Decide: The Case Against Inducing Labor - Article by Nancy Griffin

The Induction Seduction

Induction Dangers

Management of Suspected Fetal Macrosomia - Article by the American Academy of Family Physicians

Critique of Crowley study used to support routine induction for postdates

Critique of the Hannah study used to support 41 week inductions

Examination of induction research versus outcomes

"A Timely Birth" by Gail Hart

Induction information

Electronic fetal monitoring
Information on the Use of Electronic Fetal Monitoring

Group B Strep
Gentlebirth.org GBS - Information

Centers for Disease Control Information on GBS

Group B Strep Association

Holistic Pediatric Association's Treating Group B Strep

Group B Strep Support

Treating Group B Strep: Are Antibiotics Necessary?

Vaginal exams
The Myth of the Vaginal Exam

Vaginal Exams in Late Pregnancy

Is There Value to Vaginal Exams?

Pushing
Less Pelvice Floor Damage with Uncoached Pushing - Medscape Article

Episiotomy
Saying no to Episiotomy: Getting Through Childbirth In One Piece

The Tragedy of the Routine Episiotomy

Only with trust, faith, and support can the woman allow the birth experience to enlighten and empower her.

- Claudia Lowe

The power and intensity of your contractions cannot be stronger than you, because it is you.

- Unknown

There is power that comes to women when they give birth. They don't ask for it, it simply invades them. Accumulates like clouds on the horizon and passes through, carrying the child with it.

- Sheryl Feldman

We have a secret in our culture...it's not that birth is painful, it's that women are strong.

- Laura Stavoe Harm

If you don't know your options, you don't have any.

- Diane Korte and Roberta Scaer

As you live, so you will birth.

- Unknown

Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers - strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.

- Barbara Katz-Rothman

Childbirth is an experience in a woman's life that holds the power to transform her forever passing through these powerful gates remembering all the generations of women who walk with her. She is never alone.

- Suzanne Arms

Just as a womanÕs heart knows how and when to pump, her lungs to inhale, and her hand to pull back from fire, so she knows when and how to give birth.

- Virginia diOrio

Being pregnant and giving birth are like crossing a narrow bridge. People can accompany you to the bridge. They can greet you on the other side. But you walk that bridge alone.

-African Proverb

Birth is like the sea: One can swim in it, be swept away by it, float, but Heaven help the fool who thinks she can control it.

- Tia, an Israeli Midwife

Treating normal labors as though they were complicated can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

- Rooks

If a doula were a drug, it would be unethical not to use it.

- John H. Kennell, MD

Normal birth is indeed possible.

- Bruce Flamm, MD

I think one of the best things we could do would be to help women/parents/families discover their own birth power, from within themselves. And to let them know it's always been there, they just needed to tap into it.

- Karl Menninger

The whole point of woman-centered birth is the knowledge that a woman is the birth power source. She may need, and deserve, help, but in essence, she always had, currently has, and will have the power.

-Heather McCue

Life only demands from you the strength you possess.

-David Hammarskjold

The knowledge of how to give birth without outside intervention lies deep within each woman. Successful childbirth depends on an acceptance of the process.

- Suzanne Arms

Perhaps we share stories in much the same spirit that explorers share maps, hoping to speed each others journey, but knowing the journey we make will be our own.

- Gloria Steinem

Women today not only possess genetic memory of birth from a thousand generations of women, but they are also assailed from every direction by information and misinformation about birth.

-Valerie El Halta

Birth is an experience that demonstrates that life is not merely function and utility, but form and beauty.

- Christopher Largen

Today, it seems that a tradition of womanhood that properly belonged to women themselves has been replaced by a tradition of technology.

- Nicole Lundrigan Aqua Baby: Birth at Home in a Tub, Mothering Magazine 2000

Natural childbirth has evolved to suit the species, and if mankind chooses to ignore her advice and interfere with her workings we must not complain about the consequences. We have only ourselves to blame.

- Margaret Jowitt

Birthing is the most profound initiation to spirituality a woman can have.

- Robin Lim

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Women's bodies have their own wisdom, and a system of birth refined over 100,000 generations is not so easily overpowered.

- Sarah Buckley

300,000 women will be giving birth with you today. Relax and breathe and do nothing else. Labor is hard work, it hurts and you can do it.

- Unknown

A healthy woman who delivers spontaneously performs a job that cannot be improved upon.

- Aidan MacFarlane author of The Psychology of Childbirth (1977)