Welcome to MidwifeInsight – with much of the same great content as MidwifeInfo, a new focus on information moms need to make informed decisions, new interactive features, and a lot more content on the way!  Why the change from MidwifeInfo to MidwifeInsight?

The original MidwifeInfo logo.
The original MidwifeInfo logo.

Wikipedia defines insight as the understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context. The term insight can have several related meanings:

  • a piece of information
  • the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively; in Greek called noesis
  • an introspection
  • the power of acute observation and deduction, penetration, discernment, perception called intellection or noesis
  • an understanding of cause and effect based on identification of relationships and behaviors within a model, context, or scenario.”

In my vision of the website, the new name allows the viewer multiple ways to experience herself (or himself) in relation to midwifery, to think about if and how she/he relates to midwifery and to midwives.

The past year has seen a huge jump in viewers using MidwifeInfo on smartphones and tablets. My technical adviser and son Patrick Sullivan has moved the site to a new platform where it is designed to look just as good on these devices as it does on your desktop or laptop browser.  Also, the site is now interactive, allowing viewers (and the author) to make comments on each content page.  Hopefully, this process will ultimately improve the quality and the relevance of the content to your experiences as childbearing women and the health professionals who work with you.MidwifeInfo has a new look, some new features, and, in the months to come, some new content, but we remain committed to our original goals.  For the past ten years, because of other interests and obligations  related to midwifery, I have been only marginally committed to maintaining the website.

Amazingly, MidwifeInfo continues doggedly on without much attention from me; clearly there is an interest in midwifery and in natural childbirth that brings viewers to the site.  Despite the fact that I have paid little attention to the basic content for some time, it is this content that consistently attracts the most readers – women want to know about midwives and doulas, about pain relief in labor, about variations in birth such as persistent breech presentations and posterior positions.

Midwifery and natural childbirth are currently threatened, not for the first time, by bad science, flashy technology, and eager “male midwives,” as the obstetricians wielding the “secret instrument” were called during the 17th Century.  This was another period of time that boded ill for natural birth and those who attended it, as well as for women who were increasingly subjected to the “management” of their “medical” condition.  It is our challenge as midwives to convince you as childbearing women once more that you have the power to birth your babies naturally, where and with whom you choose.  Hopefully MidwifeInsight can play a role in meeting that challenge.

I look forward to seeing your comments, your feedback, your insights!