I enjoy giving birth. I find it exhilarating and exciting, sexual and spiritual, magical and miraculous! It is POWER in its purest form, and for me, it is the ultimate creative act.
The scene is a familiar one. A women in labour is lying in a hospital bed surrounded by masked men and women. Her forehead is sweating, machines are beeping, and she’s screaming at the top of her lungs, “I can’t do it! I can’t do it! It hurts! It hurts!” This is the way women give birth. Or do they?
It is a little known fact that aside from a slight push or two in the last seconds of labour, forced pushing (pushing when a women has no impulse to do so) is not necessary or even desirable for the laboring woman.
Eating during pregnancy: Indulge yourself
Pets as labor companions
One Birth Affects Another
Laughter in Labor
“Come on, Mom,” I heard my daughter, Joy, say as I swam past her in the pool one summer, “swim UNDER the water.” Joy is a fish and cannot conceive of anyone actually enjoying anything short of complete submersion. Once again, however, I gave my standard reply: …
From Here to Maternity: Pregnancy & Birth in the Media
OB/Gyn’s say the Darndest things
Beauty & the Breast
At thirteen they were “too small,” at fifteen “too far apart,” and at eighteen “not perky enough.” Still, I was glad to have them. No doubt they turned a few heads, satisfied a few lovers, and probably got me a few jobs. But it wasn’t until I had babies in my twenties that I discovered just how marvelous breasts really are. Breastfeeding is a joy beyond measure!
I first became interested in male lactation in 1978 after reading Dana Raphael’s book, The Tender Gift: Breastfeeding. Although Raphael only dealt with the subject briefly, she did say that men can and have produced milk after stimulating their nipples.
