Juan Alberto Segura - Birth Art

For custom birth artwork quotes, please contact: art (at) indiebirth.com

What the Medical World Hopes You Won’t Read About Premature Birth

In response to a reader that has accused me of “perpetuating the myth that premature birth is somehow the mother’s fault”, I feel I must address all of my readers. This email comes as a response to my last article, You Have the Power to Experience a Full-Term Pregnancy.

I am outraged, frankly, that the editor of Preemie magazine would rather quote a statistic (namely, that “60% of premature births have NO KNOWN cause”) than Read more

Be Your OWN Midwife

How often do you stop and think that YOU are the one in control of your pregnancy?

Of course, “control” doesn’t mean that you decide your own destiny. Sometimes freaky, unexpected things happen in life and in death, and we, as humans don’t have ultimate control with any of that.
But freak situations aside, there is so much in your pregnancy that you have control over.
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Home Birth

Deliver unto me a full work-up, though know
I’m fully capable of getting worked up.
Together, let’s work it through: I was delivered,
delivered you, was not delivered but worked,
labored at the crosshairs of that fat red hatch,
worked outside of the white H on blue.
This was my labor. There was never any work-up
but I worked my way into your way out,
did not give over, worked like a bolt, or was I the screw? Read more

Be Who You Are, Ask For What You Need

In the world of pregnant women, needs can be many. But the choices are many too-one of the most important being how to choose your caregiver. To generalize, choosing an OB is a lot less fraught with choices than perhaps picking a midwife is. But the ideal midwife-client relationship should be the choosing of not only the client, but the midwife too. That means that a midwife should make clear her philosophy so she hopefully attracts the “right” clients for her. And the client should really think about what she wants in a midwife and what is important to her in her prenatal care.
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Birth the Indie Way or “Don’t Tell Me Where or How to Give Birth”

If Indie Mamas are free-thinking and independent (and so they are), there are many ways to have a baby. Unassisted, or “free birth” is one way and I have absolutely no problem with that. In fact, my next baby may very well happen that way. But because homebirth is my thing, both personally and professionally, here goes….

Honestly, I think the act of having your baby at home just really isn’t that genius. I mean, come on, women have been having babies for millions of years and the whole hospital routine is relatively new. So, there really isn’t anything out of the ordinary in that context.
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