Happy Midwifery week!

It is the International Week of  the Midwife!  I could not let this week go by without a shout out!  My midwife for my last 2 babies is Noreen Walker.  She is so fantastic, and the care I have received from her has been incredible.  My little one is 8 weeks old (already!) and I miss Noreen every day.  It is kind of like breaking up with your highschool boyfriend - I have these weird thoughts about maybe going grocery shopping in the town that she lives just so that I might bump into her.. So weird, I know...

I have had 3 very different births.  The first was in a hospital, and I was very naieve. I thought it would be just like you see on TV.  Get the epidural, count to 10 and push out the baby, easy peasy.   It was a disaster.  I often feel so sad for Abby that she was born so traumatically.  My second was a water birth with Noreen at a birth center.  It was incredible.  The latest was a home birth that was so fast and easy that Noreen could not make it here on time.  Also incredible.  I thought that my second experience could not be improved uopn, but being at home made things even better.  My 2 midwife babies were born so peacefully.   Having a skilled, caring and generally awesome all around midwife, is essential!   Thank you Noreen.

 Here are some books I have loved reading:

• Get Me Out: a History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank by Randi Hutter Epstein - very interesting and written with a great sense of humour
• Birth Matters and Spiritual Midwifery by Ina Mae Gaskins  - well, everything by Ina Mae (I feel I can call her that because my midwife drank wine in a hot tub with Ina Mae once.)  Be prepared for a lot of hippy dippy birth stories, which are funny to read, and very beautiful and inspiring.
• The Business of Being Born (DVD) : This really opens your eyes about the medicalization of childbirth.  It is so sad that most North American women today will never know what normal childbirth is.  

Birth is powerful.  Birth is beautiful.  Birth is normal and healthy.  

Happy Midwifery week Noreen.