Category: General Pregnancy

I have chosen to birth in the mezzanine of our house. The mezzanine is the cozy carpeted 1/2-story floor above the kitchen. It has its own staircase, boasts 100+ year old exposed timber, features a balcony-type opening looking into the kitchen’s vaulted ceiling, and (best of all for this purpose) has plumbing. When we bought the […]

One of our neighbours stopped by the other day to ask if there was anything that we were needing in advance of Eliza’s arrival. My reply was as it has been to the many other people who have asked: We don’t really need anything – We’ve been really fortunate in that people have given us […]

I’m hesitant to write about this, because I’m rather stressed about the whole thing, and feel kinda stupid … but there’s next to nothing out there on the internet providing case studies of pregnant women who have experienced electric shocks while pregnant, and the outcomes of the same. The case studies from the 80’s/90’s talk […]

Since last week (week 29) I’ve been regularly noticing Braxton Hicks contractions. I think I felt the first one back in week 27, but they’re fairly regular and very noticeable now. They’re painless, and for me can best be described as the tight abdominal feeling you’d get if you were to push your stomach out […]

I was honoured to attend Maria’s homebirthing bright and early on Sunday morning 8th November. It was everything I thought it would be. It was everything I would want mine to be.

Ok – I’m over exaggerating things, but even so… what have I noticed?

One of the first arguments I found AGAINST the practice of waiting before the umbilical cord is cut, or even leaving the cord attached to the placenta until it dries up and falls off of its own accord (as is the practise in the ‘lotus’ birthing method), is that prolonged attachment can lead to increased […]

It’s almost always the same. I say that I’m planning on having an unassisted (no doctors) birth at home, and the eyebrows shoot up, the jaw drops, and the exclamation, “you’re WHAT?” inevitably escapes the lips. It made me smile the other day to receive the following from a long-time friend: “It’s wonderful to hear […]

I found an angel!! Well – actually, she found me. I had blog comment from a lady in Canfield who found me when searching for other Youngstown-area homebirthers. (You can read her comment under my post ‘Rock-a-bye Baby’ Maria is on her 5th non-hospital birth (due in 2 weeks or so), is a certified doula […]

Eliza has started moving more and more. Well – maybe she was always moving, but I couldn’t feel her until now. Unless she’s asleep, she moves a noticable amount more when I play music to her via headphones directed towards her head. They say that the mother should try to keep talking to the baby […]