The CDC released new data today on home births in the U.S., finding that “the percentage of U.S. births that occurred at home increased by 29%, from 0.56% of births in 2004 to 0.72% in 2009.” This increase mostly represents non-Hispanic white women. The report says “Women may prefer a home birth over a hospital [...]
midwife
Birth Guardians: Jane Hardwicke Collings
This is the first in a new series, inspired by Radical Doula Profiles, profiling people who work with pregnancy, birth, or the postpartum period (prenatal massage therapists, childbirth educators, OB/GYNs, doulas, midwives, lactation consultants, labor & delivery nurses, pediatricians, etc.) and are Pagan or work with a Pagan community. If you would like to be [...]
The Pagan Health Survey on Pagan pregnancies
Did you take The Pagan Health Survey last year? The results of this survey were interesting for many reasons, including the little bit they tell us about how Pagans approach pregnancy and birth. Cultural anthropologist Kimberly Hedrick conducted the research using participant-observation, interviews, and an internet survey with 1,598 respondents. She presented her results at [...]
Responding to Ina May: Not a universal experience
Editor’s note: I asked some of our regular contributors to each respond to a quote from midwife and natural birth advocate Ina May Gaskin. In her new book Birth Matters Gaskin wrote: Birth… matters because the journey through pregnancy and birth offers an irreplaceable way for women to explore their deepest selves – their minds, [...]