Birthyourway

Welcome to Birthyourway's Blog. This space is intended to serve as an interactive site for Doula related stuff based in Ottawa and around the globe. The archive links on the right hand margin will help you identify topics of interest to you. Your pictures of real pregnant bodies- stretch marks and all- would be most appreciated as contributions. Share your birth stories, concerns and comments by submitting to birthyourway@gmail.com

Friday, October 27, 2006

Midwifery Info Session - Ottawa

Date: Monday November 13th

Currently Pregnant, or thinking of having a baby someday?
Fully covered under our healthcare system, midwives attend births at hospitals or in your home.

Details:Learn more about the midwifery option, have your questions answered, meet local midwives and talk to families who have had midwife-assisted births, in a relaxed setting.

Children Welcome!

Light refreshments served.

Where: Canadian Mothercraft, Ottawa

When: 7-8 pm

More info: midwiferyconsumers

Thank you!

Monday, October 16, 2006

Trust Birth

Friday, October 06, 2006

The beauty of it all!

Despite the challenges, there have been moments of great inspiration ;) These are pictures of Georgian Bay. My very supportive partner and my sweet puppydog and I enjoyed a 3 hour hike out to the waters. The further away we got from the car, the more layers of doubt I shed. The beauty of these lakes and the forest...it's huge! To all the prospective midwifery students out there: Sudbury is so much more than an industrial town! If you enjoy the outdoors, this is the place to be.




Thursday, October 05, 2006

Signs along the way


Fall is officially here! I rang in the occasion with an overnight hospital shift as an observing student. I'll spare the details but I did get to assist in a premature twin c-section among other things. I had a good laugh since when I arrived at the hospital the obgyn asked what my backround was so I mentionend I'd been to births as a doula but had never seen anything like twins or a c-section. No one could have predicted that a woman would have walked in 5 hours later needing to deliver twins via c/s. The obgyn smiled and said: sometimes you get what you ask for. It gave me goosebumps...

It might sound like I appropriated the woman's birth as my own experience. There wasn't much room for anything else. That is part of what caused all the moral dilemas I have with the MEP. How strange it is to be in a position of fully taking advantage of a woman's rite of passage into motherhood. Especially for someone who anticipates being 'with-woman'. I do have to note however, that this particular woman had planned an elective c/s and wanted nothing to do with vaginal birth, she fully saw her pregnancy and delivery as a clinical process (means to an end in becoming a mother since she had IVF and did not want to risk the effects of labour on her kids/precious investments. These are her words not mine and I know that her situation is not fully representative of all women having elective c/s and or using artificial means of reproduction) All in all, this was a rich learning experience. Despite all of the controvertial stirrings it raised.

More on what I experienced as an observing midwifery student to come.