All About Birth

This week is Empowered Birth Awareness Week, you might already have noticed from my posts the past few days. Find out more about the event on Birthpower. You can participate by blogging and writing etc, anything that creates awareness about empowered birth.

Image: Dreamstime

Throughout my writing about birth and birth choices, I have found that these are often the topics that stir the pot. Women all around seem to have this idea that birth is a fixed given and we are to keep within the norm. We are not to step on anyone's toes, we are to offer the birth experience to our partner, we have to make learning possible for midwives and OB's in training, we have to undergo whatever is thrown at us and bare it with a smile...
It is sad that we have come to this, so this week of raising awareness comes at the right time. Birth is OUR experience as women and we are not to just undergo it. Birth is a life changing event, no matter how it occurs. We can cease our births, regain control and reclaim our power. Because we are powerful.

Here are the post I have written about Childbirth in the past. Pull out a comfy chair and pour yourself a cup of tea, because this is quite some reading. Hope you enjoy!

Birth as a Feminist Issue
"Feminism, Medicine, Consumerism and Vampires" - Why childbirth is definitely a feminist issue
"Secret Oppression: Epidurals"

Birth Options
"Who Will Be Your Birth Partner"-  advocates a woman's right to choose who attends the birth
"Are Alternative Birth Practices Just Decoys" - questions the idea of pain as a marketing point
"Everything You Wanted to Know About Placenta Encapsulation"
"Much Ado About Placenta" - a big load of information about the uses of the placenta
"Why Homebirth?"
"Keeping Your Baby Close After Birth" - 2 scenario's depicting different birth settings from the baby's point of view
"The Secret To A Successful Birth Plan"
"Birth Options" - guest post by Brooklyn
"Choosing the Right Care Provider for Your Pregnancy"
"Red Raspberry Leaf - Natural Pregnancy Relief" - guest post by Tracy Sitchen
"Chance or Choice" - guest post by Cindy Crosby from Birth Smart

Technocratic Birth

Image: Dreamstime

"Intimacy and the Lack Thereof in Hospital Birth"
"Medical Diagnosis in Pregnancy"
"Medical Necessity?"
"Avoid Giving Birth on Your Back and Follow Your Body's Urges To Push" - how the medical establishment works against every natural urge
"New Guidelines for Fetal Monitoring"
"Internal Fetal Monitoring: Not the Way to Go!"
"Get Out" - cute little AniBoom animation
"Authentic Parent, Inauthentic Birth?"
"The Influence of Birth Experience"

Birth Stories
"A Father's Perspective on Homebirth" - guest post by Jeff Sabo
"The Birth of the Little Monster" - My daughter's birth story
"The Birth of Anna Yael" - guest post by Dohiyi Mama

Reviews:
Shiva Rea's Prenatal Yoga
Grantly Dick Read - Childbirth Without Fear
Elena Skoko - Memoirs of a Singing Birth

Aside from all these post, there are also lots and lots of childbirth quotes to be found by clicking the Pregnancy and Birth tag

All About Birth