Homebirth – why it’s a necessary choice

Posted on May 27, 2011June 22, 2011 by BrisbaneBirthing

By Ina May Gaskin, CPM Originally published by Ina May Gaskin Productions, 2007-01-14 Simply put, when there is no home birth in a society, or when home birth is driven completely underground, essential knowledge of women’s capacities in birth is lost to the people of that society—to professional caregivers, as well as to the women of childbearing age themselves. The disappearance of knowledge once commonly held paves the way for over-medicalization of birth and the risks whic...

A Vision of Birth

Posted on May 27, 2011June 22, 2011 by BrisbaneBirthing

extract of an article by Sarah J. Buckley I can imagine myself in a dialogue with my friend Wintergreen, body worker and developer of The Pink Kit, who has another valuable perspective. Wintergreen would tell me that birth may be an instinct, like sex, but we can learn to give birth, just as we can learn to be good lovers. She would agree that it is important to look at the external circumstances of birth, but she would say that we can influence our internal circumstances by learning to work ...

Are we Having Babies All Wrong?

Posted on May 27, 2011June 19, 2015 by BrisbaneBirthing

Ina May | HypnoBirthing Mongan Method in Brisbane

Q&A With Legendary Midwife Ina May Gaskin Ina May Gaskin started delivering babies in 1970 while on a hippie cross-country trip known as "The Caravan." She had no medical training, just a masters degree in English a gut feeling that women deserved kinder, gentler births. When the hundreds of Caravaners settled in Tennessee on "The Farm," Gaskin and several other women began delivering the community's babies at home and also opened one of the first, non-hospital birthing centers in the cou...

Can a Woman actually have an Orgasm during Labour?

Posted on May 25, 2011June 22, 2011 by BrisbaneBirthing

In short, the answer is yes. Physiologically, orgasm is a reflex generated from effective stimulation. What initiates orgasm for women is the pubococcygeal muscle, a cluster of striated muscles that holds the genitals together. If you think about childbirth, the baby passes through this muscle band on its way through the birth canal. In addition, labor releases prolactin, oxytocin and other beta-endorphins— the same hormones released upon sexual pleasure and orgasm. ...

Breech Baby turns with Hypnosis

Posted on May 25, 2011June 22, 2011 by BrisbaneBirthing

Hypnotherapy may help pregnant women turn their breech baby around to the normal head-first, or vertex, position research has found. A researcher at the University of Vermont, Burlington, used hypnosis with one hundred pregnant women whose baby’s were in the breech (feet-first) position between the thirty-seventh and fortieth week of gestation. The intervention group received hypnosis with suggestions for general relaxation and release of fear and anxiety. While under hypnosis, the women...

Baby Brain – the real cause

Posted on May 25, 2011June 22, 2011 by BrisbaneBirthing

Baby Brain or Pregnancy Brain: A temporary condition whereby short-term memory loss or forgetfulness occurs that may happen in the first trimester but more common in the third trimester of pregnancy and may continue into the postpartum and breast feeding period. Studies have shown that a pregnant woman’s brain by the third trimester of pregnancy could shrink up to as much as 3% and not expand to normal size until six months postpartum. The shrinkage is caused by the Omega 3-fatty...

“Failure to Progress” an interesting Obstetric Label

Posted on May 25, 2011June 22, 2011 by BrisbaneBirthing

Failure to progress is often named as a reason for cesarean. But many in the natural birth community often rename it to Failure to be Patient or just, Doc must leave to make his golf game. Whatever it means to you, the term failure to progress is both powerful, disturbing, and strongly indicates not just lack of ability but complete and utter physical failure on the part of the moth The Vaginal Exam You can not actually talk about the term "failure to progress" without fi...

The Birth of Rosalie

Posted on May 22, 2011June 1, 2012 by BrisbaneBirthing

I did the all the HypnoBirthing tracks religiously leading up to the birthing day, practised my breathing, practised light touch massage, experimented with different birth postures, did the releases, did the visualisations and read the book twice. On the actual birthing day, I re-read the relevant portions of the book in between surges and used my breath and visualisations to get me through them. All was going very well at home and I even had the clary sage oil burning in the background. I don't...

The Birth of Ruby

Posted on May 21, 2011September 7, 2011 by BrisbaneBirthing

Two weeks before I birthed Ruby, there was upheaval in my business and I felt that I lost my focus and all the mental preparation that I had been doing in getting ready for her arrival. I feel this had an impact of my readiness for her birth… 5.30am in the morning I felt a sudden urge to go to the toilet. When walking back to bed my waters broke! I was so excited finally it was happening! I had been getting contractions for about 3 days before and I knew my body was opening and getting ready ...

The Arrival of Colton Oliver

Posted on May 21, 2011June 30, 2015 by BrisbaneBirthing

Our beautiful boy Colton was born at 38 weeks and 2 days. Unfortunately we didn't have any success with turning him (from breech) with hypnosis, but my OB was happy to do a natural delivery conditional on the results of a pelvic scan. I had the scan and was supposed to go back to see the OB and discuss the results the following week but Colton had other ideas. My membranes released about midday and soon after that I started having regular surges 3-5 mins apart and 20-30 seconds long, so thing...