Grasshopper New Media Presents...

We have friends who had a lot of trouble conceiving. Months later, finally pregnant, they set about the usual new baby preparations: they set up a nursery, bought a layette, and started to read lots and lots of parenting books. – Too many parenting books, it turns out.
Dad-to-be came home after work one evening and […]

Yesterday we had the privilege of welcoming a new addition to our “big” family. (We use the terms big and little family to differentiate between the incredibly huge family that includes grandmothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and our smaller immediate family). We are blessed that huge is truly huge and there is a […]

When I was younger (around 10), I decided that I would have an unmedicated birth. Why my ten year-old self was so concerned with birthin’ babies, I’m not quite sure.
Looking back on it now, I wonder if some of that determination to have a “natural” birth stemmed from me being adopted and wanting a […]

Yesterday, at the tail end of my first trimester and just days before transitioning into that wonderfully blissful three month “honeymoon” period of pregnancy, where the nausea and fatigue subside and I can still see my toes, I had a terrible day. Had I been employed, I would have called in sick. But […]

When I was 17 years old, a gynecologist told me I would never have children. After making such a startling, dramatic claim, he tried to soften the blow by telling me that if I took birth control pills, I might have a chance. “But you’ll have to try to have one before you turn 30. […]

There’s a silent pressure in our house lately. While my husband and I are doing a decent job of managing that pressure and not letting it take over our lives, the pressure persists, silently pressing on us whenever we’re not dealing with any particular, immediate problem or situation.
It is the pressure to make a decision […]

Apparently 10-15% of women who give birth experience some form of postpartum depression. Does this surprise you? It surprised me. I expected that number to be higher. Seems to me the majority of the moms that I know have experienced PPD, ranging from the “baby blues” to debilitating depression.
For some women, this […]

I loved being pregnant. Oh sure, I had my share of anxiety, as well as all day sickness and sciatica and some fatigue; but I loved being pregnant. I loved feeling the early fluttering as well as the alien movements of the final weeks. I loved the guess the gender game and […]

Erica asks:

“Do you think women should be allowed an elective cesarean if there is no medical reason for one?”

[tags]quick question, cesarean, women’s rights, mothers’ rights, pregnancy, health[/tags]

Birth Day

I owe a great deal of credit to a friend I made shortly after our first daughter was born. She inspired me not only to become a birth doula and childbirth educator, but she led me to learn about midwifery and the decision we made to birth at home.
If you had told me […]