Jack Thomas,Our Third Baby,Enters the World!

Without the confidence and support of the medical team, this mother’s first birth was difficult and unsatisfying. She was able to give birth naturally, in the care of a midwife, with her second baby. With confidence in her ability to give birth and the wisdom that comes with experience, she is able to give birth naturally with her third baby in spite of being induced.     

Do birthing options really exist?

In this column, the author answers the question, "Is choosing to give birth naturally a realistic option in today's birth environment?" Women's choices of health care provider and place of birth are limited by the general belief that birth is safe only in the hospital and when managed by obstetric medicine. In the typical hospital environment, women rarely have access to the wide variety of comfort measures and the continuous emotional and physical support required to give birth naturally. Routine care practices further limit women's birthing options. The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services' document, the "Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative," offers direction for creating birth environments that ensure options for women who choose to give birth naturally.     

Louisa's Birth

In this column, Rachel Mann shares the story of the birth of her third daughter, Louisa. After a previous pregnancy loss, Mann chose to give birth to her third baby in a hospital with attending care from an obstetrician. In spite of the high-risk medical environment, she was able to have an unmedicated, powerful birth. Mann's careful planning, the support of her husband and doula, and her confidence in her ability to give birth helped make Louisa's birth all that Mann hoped it would be.     

From Psychoprophylactic to Orgasmic Birth

The assumptions on which educators based childbirth education principles were valid when psychoprophylactic birth became available. Yet, educators and health-care providers have changed their assumptions about birth as they have learned more from the midwifery model of care, how women want to give birth, and how capable the body is to give birth. Educators'' teaching must now emphasize the synchrony of hormones that facilitates birth, the Sphincter Law, and the sharing of woman-to-woman stories throughout the generations if birth is to be set in its rightful place—in the hands of the mothers.     

Appendix: birth can safely take place at home and in birthing centers: the coalition for improving maternity services:

Although most women in the United States give birth in hospitals, a substantial body of research suggests that planned home birth or birth in freestanding birth centers have equally good or better outcomes for low-risk women. Out-of-hospital birth often facilitates mother-friendly care. Rationales and systematic reviews of both home birth and freestanding birth center birth are presented.     

Dayton William Dix's Birth Story

In this birth story, a young mother relates her experience of moving beyond fear of labor and birth and developing confidence in her ability to give birth without an epidural. Knowledge and support, including the support of a doula, during the last months of pregnancy helped this mother change her plans for the labor and birth. This story highlights the importance of continuous emotional and physical support and how knowledge and confidence set the stage for a satisfying, safe, and healthy birth.     

Teaching in a patient-centered medical home

Teaching Lamaze International classes in a patient-centered medical home allows the childbirth educator the best environment for giving evidence-based information and empowering parents to give birth their way. Patient-centered medical home facilities and providers practice evidence-based care and adhere to the principles of family-centered maternity care. In patient-centered medical homes, women can expect to give birth using the Lamaze Healthy Birth Practices and to fully participate in their care with appropriate interventions and the right to informed consent and informed refusal.     

Why natural childbirth?

A reader asks for help in answering the question "Why natural childbirth?" Understanding the simple story of normal, natural birth, what helps and what sabotages nature's plan for birth, and the appropriate use of interventions are discussed and form the foundation for coming to the conclusion that nature's plan makes sense. Women are inherently capable of giving birth, have a deep, intuitive instinct about birth, and, when supported and free to find comfort, are able to give birth without interventions and without suffering.     

Dylan's Birth: From His Mother's and Grandmother's Perspectives

In this column, an adolescent mother demonstrates how preparation, Lamaze education, supportive caregivers, and an inner wisdom about the normalcy of birth enabled her to have a safe and satisfying birth. The grandmother, an experienced Lamaze educator and doula, also tells of her transformational experience as she watched her daughter give birth with strength and wisdom.     

Continuing Education Module: Persuasion: The Key to Changing Women's Ideas About Birth

Although standard maternity care is not evidence-based and, in many cases, increases risks for mothers and babies, few women make birth decisions that reflect this knowledge. This column discusses persuasion as a way to change women''s ideas about safe, healthy birth. The relationship between persuasion and choice is discussed, and the differences between presenting information and persuading women that natural birth is the safest and healthiest way to give birth are explored.     

出生性别比偏高的原因、后果及治理对策研究——以南京市为例

20世纪80年代初以来,南京市人口的出生性别比持续攀升,导致的原因既与传统观念相关,又与经济、政治、社会与文化环境密切相关。出生性别比失调可能引发一系列严重的社会问题,从而对社会经济发展带来某些不利的影响。综合治理出生性别比偏高成为必然。     

The Birth of Joseph Gabriel

In this column, a mother shares the story of the birth of her first child. With confidence in the process of birth and in her ability to give birth, and with the support, confidence, and encouragement of her mother and sisters, Anne manages to cope with strong contractions through a busy day. Finally, her husband realizes how fast labor is progressing. Baby Joseph was born less than 2 hours after arrival at the hospital.     

Continuing Education Module The Courage to Birth

Childbirth educator Kathryn McGrath reflects on fear and courage and comes to see some levels of fear as a normal part of the process of pregnancy and birth and not something to be brushed aside. In this article, originally presented as a keynote address in 2005 at the Lamaze International Annual Conference, McGrath discusses fear during pregnancy and birth and presents ways in which the childbirth educator can acknowledge and accept women’s fears, and help find the courage they need to give birth.     

How Do Women Who Plan Home Birth Prepare for Childbirth?

In this column, the findings of a secondary analysis of data from a larger qualitative study of the experience of home birth are discussed. The aim was to describe the ways in which women who plan home birth prepare for their births. The findings provide support for the idea of birth preparation and education occurring throughout pregnancy and describe the ways in which women planning to give birth at home develop confidence, plan for support, and make decisions related to the particulars of the labor and birth. Implications of these findings for childbirth education are explored.     

豫南生育习俗文化述论

豫南民间，人们在本地域的文化生态环境中，形成了独特的生育习俗，这些习俗是豫南人生育信仰和经验的总结。千百年来，在不断生育的过程中，积淀了丰厚的生育文化，成为民俗文化中最具代表性的一个类型。     

Jonah’s Birth

Rachel Goldstein shares her experience of exploring options related to care provider and place of birth early in her pregnancy. Goldstein and her husband, Marc, after reading and research, chose midwifery care and a home birth. She shares the story of a long labor at home supported by her husband, her doula, and her midwife. Her positive attitude, her ability to use various comfort strategies, and the support she received throughout labor contributed to being able to give birth naturally and ecstatically to her son Jonah.     

Evolution of the birth plan

Many birth professionals are discarding the birth plan as an outdated and ineffectual document. This column discusses the past limitations and present uses of the birth plan in an effort to enhance current teaching on how expectant parents can write and use this important document. Encouraging expectant parents to prepare two separate, but corresponding, birth plans-the "Discussion Birth Plan" and the "Hospital Birth Plan"-is proposed. Teaching suggestions and possible implications are explored in order to give childbirth educators practical information to share with their class members.     

Where to Give Birth

In this column, the editor of The Journal of Perinatal Education discusses choices mothers make when deciding on where to give birth. The editor also describes the contents of this issue, which offer a broad range of resources, research, and inspiration for childbirth educators in their efforts to promote, support, and protect natural, safe, and healthy birth.     

Birth in an ordinary instant

Our daily lives are a series of ordinary moments and unnoticed thresholds-times that define us in ways we often do not give much attention. While we consider childbirth to be one of life's extra-ordinary events, the hours of labor and birth need not be dramatic (or traumatic) ones. I describe a quiet, well-supported birth in the Netherlands that is cause for celebration of the beauty of an ordinary instant that can define and enrich the human experience.     

#6: no separation of mother and baby with unlimited opportunity for breastfeeding

In this position paper-one of six care practice papers published by Lamaze International and reprinted here with permission-the value of keeping mothers and their babies together from the moment of birth is discussed and presented as an evidenced-based practice that helps promote, protect, and support normal birth. The paper is written for childbearing women and their families. Babies held skin-to-skin with their mothers cry less often, breathe easier, and stay warmer than babies who are separated from their mothers. They also instinctively attach to the breast and begin breastfeeding, usually within one hour of birth. The advantages of rooming-in for mother and baby are also discussed. The accompanying commentary-written by two leading professionals in the field of maternity care and pediatrics-provides further evidence to support the practice of keeping mothers and their babies together after birth. Lamaze International encourages women to give birth in settings that do not separate mothers and babies after birth.