In an email a while back, Kristen Oganowski was (very kindly) commiserating with me about a situation and wrote: Sure, birthing with a care provider with a high cesarean/induction/etc. rate at a hospital with a 95% epidural rate might make it more likely that a woman will end up with x, y, or z intervention. [...]
from Amanda Steen at NPR’s The Baby Project, “Birth: In the Comfort of Home” (a 20-year-old journalist’s account of witnessing a homebirth) What I can say, is that I definitely felt encouraged by one of Shannon’s midwives, Erin Fullam, who said to Linda and me, “People talk about how painful contractions are because they’re so [...]
Welcome to First the Egg, a collection of practical information, links, and cultural criticism. This site is a feminist intervention in our rigidly-gendered culture of childbirth and parenting. It aims to provide a nonsexist space for people who want to learn, reflect, commiserate, or laugh about being pregnant, giving birth, and helping children grow up whole and happy.
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things not to say to me during labor
I don’t identify as part of the natural birth movement, largely because I insist there’s no such thing as ‘natural childbirth’, but I do sort of travel in those circles … and I have/plan the kinds of births for which those folks advocate. So it has come to my attention that, in ‘natural birth’ circles, [...]