Archives for Nancy’s Blog - Page 2
Ending Female Genital Mutilation – A Difficult Topic But One That Must Be Addressed
Fahma Mohamed, the face of the FGM campaign in the Guardian The Guardian has been running a campaign to end female genital mutilation. Why do we as midwives and as…
Why Are Some Innovative Ideas in Maternity Care Embraced While Others Are Ignored?
In a New Yorker article (July 2013) titled Slow Ideas, the surgeon and journalist Atul Gawande asks why some innovative ideas in medicine are adopted so quickly, while others are…
Should India Reconsider the Role of Traditional Midwives?
Men carrying woman in obstructed labor to hospital Does India need to train traditional midwives in modern childbirth practices and equip them to handle complications? A 2013 Unicef-funded study in…
Grab a Handful of Nuts and Treat Your Baby!
Worried about the increase in severe peanut and tree nut allergies in children, many prospective moms have avoided eating nuts during pregnancy. However, contrary to what might seem to be…
French Midwives: “The Medical Value of our Profession Has Never Been Recognized”
A front-page story by Phillippe Euzen in LeMonde on December 16 follows the saga of French midwives as they demand a change in the way their profession is defined in…
What is the Definition of a “Term Pregnancy?”
For years, obstetric opinion (shared by nurse-midwives) has been that "term" pregnancy refers to one at from 37 to 42 weeks completed gestation, starting with the date of the last…
Should You Be Using Plastic Baby Bottles? It’s Up to You….
All things considered, it would probably be wise for parents to use glass bottles for formula and for storage of breast milk. There are glass bottles now on the market,…
He’s Your Doula?
Doula David, Bellingham, Washington "Doula," like "midwife" is a word that connotes a female person. "Doula" is from the Greek for "a woman who serves" and "midwife" is middle English…
Bad Eating Habits? Don’t Pass Them On to Your Baby!
Fresh foods In an article in the online edition of the New York Times, December 1, 2013, Kristin Wartman tells us that, "with some 70 percent of the United States…
Midwifeinfo is now MidwifeInsight!
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…