Before I start writing this, I have to get a confession out on the table. I have only watched Jersey Shore once or twice at the most. Literally.

I came across Snooki & Jwwow’s show last week when people told me Snooki would be giving birth (when in fact she didn’t actually have her little nugget until this Tuesday night) so I tuned in.

Holy hell how do people like this get a show?  Hey MTV!  If you are reading this, my friends & I could give you way better TV! (more…)

By now the entire world is anxiously expecting the birth plans of Princess Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. While the royal family may not be up for sharing the deets… many of us in the birth community have a request of her.

Follow history and give birth at the palace like many royal mama’s before. In fact, the first royal to break the tradition of birthing in the palace was Princess Diana when she stepped of the beaten path and gave birth to Prince William and Prince Harry at St. Mary’s hospital.

So… I mean, why shouldn’t the princess try and bring tradition back? (more…)

Childbirth hasn’t always been nice to me. At all. I had big ideas and lovely plans for the births of all my children, which were interrupted by impatient OB/GYN’s, misshaped pelvises, and rational thoughts.

I haven’t touched on birth in a while, and when I first started blogging five years ago, my blog was 95% about childbirth. I really wanted to share my three experiences with everyone, how I got here and what has changed since the birth of my oldest son.

As I looked back last night over my early and extremist posts on my blog, I was reminded of a dark place which had engulfed my life in such a negative manner for years. In my quest to have the birth I wanted, I had become a complete asshole. (more…)

(Before I get started, I must warn readers this post may contain triggers. Please read with discretion, and if you choose to partake in a discussion, be mindful of the feelings and opinions of other readers.)

The term birth rape is rare, and it may sound extreme or inappropriate to some. Especially those who have not experienced an extreme violation during their childbirth experience.

By definition, birth rape is (a very accurate description from Amy at The F Word) :

A woman who is raped while giving birth does not experience the assault in a way that fits neatly within the typical definitions we hold true in civilized society. A penis is usually nowhere to be found in the story and the perpetrator may not even possess one. But fingers, hands, suction cups, forceps, needles and scissors… these are the tools of birth rape and they are wielded with as much force and as little consent as if a stranger grabbed a passer-by off the street and tied her up before having his way with her. Women are slapped, told to shut up, stop making noise and a nuisance of themselves, that they deserve this, that they shouldn’t have opened their legs nine months ago if they didn’t want to open them now. They are threatened, intimidated and bullied into submitting to procedures they do not need and interventions they do not want. Some are physically restrained from moving, their legs held open or their stomachs pushed on. (more…)

Before I had children I worked in a Chiropractors office for years. I met a lot of interesting people, including a couple women who were doula‘s for a living. That was the first time I ever heard the worddoula.

Once I started researching and learning, the more I wanted to become a doula myself, and by the time I was 19 I was working with an agency in my local area. While I didn’t really care for agency work it didn’t deter my passion that started at a young age for natural childbirth.

It seemed right. It seemed like the normal thing to be doing. It just made sense. Women had been giving birth for hundreds of years without issue, why start complicating things now. (more…)

If you have been following me as a writer for years, you will know that when I first started to blog many of my posts were about childbirth. Natural childbirth, the rising number of c-sections, and really anything that went along with birth.

In the past I worked as a doula, coached friends and family members through childbirth, and of course dove into any book on the topic I could find.

When I thought I was done having children I made the choice to become a Lamaze Teacher. I took the course, completed it and got my certificate and have been putting off sitting for the official exam. It was an unexpected pregnancy, a birth, work, life… everything that has put it on the back burner.

But the truth is… thinking about, blogging about, talking about natural childbirth or pregnancy and childbirth as a whole actually hurts. Like really emotionally hurts. (more…)

I feel like I haven’t done a really good birth post in a while and while I was bitching the other day about Mom wars and birth wars… this still pisses me off big time.

When I was pregnant with my third child, after having two prior c-sections, horrible experiences and in the end knowing there was no medical way I could birth any of my kids… I did so much research it wasn’t even funny.

I am sure a lot of my readers were sick of reading about VBA2C by the time I went into labor with my daughter.

A new study released this week shows that women with at least one prior c-section delivery typically choose the preferred delivery method of the provider they have chosen. (more…)

How cute are they?

When it comes to celebrities and babies, Kourtney Kardashian and her son Mason have to be two of my favorite. Not because they are part of the E! Keeping Up With The Kardashian empire, but because out of all of Hollywood, Kourtney seems to be one of the most down to earth, hands on, loving mothers there is.

One whose parenting style seems to jive with my own as well.

Now of course I know only what TV, magazines, and the press shows me but after watching the season premiere of Kourtney and Kim Take New York, and seeing how awesome of a mother Kourtney is… I am beyond excited she is going for baby number two. With or without on-again-off-again boyfriend Scott. (more…)

The other day I was clicking through my feed on Facebook and I saw an article on a celebrity gossip blog which broke down celebrities that had opted for beautiful natural home births and their comments on home birth. But when I got towards the end of the article there was a section on the celebrities who had c-sections, or scheduled c-sections.

Reading through the blog commentary there really was nothing positive at all about the celebrities that had c-sections. Most of it was judge-y, negative and clearly not as positive as the previous section about the celebrity home births.

Take the celebrity factor out of the equation, and you have the current birth wars we see virtually — EVERYWHERE. (more…)