Global Midwifery Council

Source: Midwifery Today

The birth of the Global Midwifery Council was in June of 2010 at the Home Child/Midwifery Today Conference in Moscow, Russia. It was born to change the paradigm of birth around the world. At international conferences, Midwifery Today has learned enough about midwifery and birth around the world to realize that birth itself is in deep trouble. The Global Midwifery Council (GMC) is an organization born to help make long term changes in how mothers and babies are treated and how midwifery is carried out. We have a mission to stop inappropriate over-medicalization in birth care!


Through international conferences and networking we have learned so many different ways to view and work with birth, such as using rebozo, which we learned from our Mexican sisters. It is necessary to turn from the over-medicalization of birth and return to a more organic, physiologic model. And the time is now.

We have a lot of work to do on many levels. Maternal death is not just a result of disease and malnutrition. I learned from my sister in Haiti recently that it is also caused by harmful cultural habits. Women there routinely douche after birth to “clean out their insides.” There is little clean water in Haiti. Women die from this. They also sit over boiling hot water after birth, often burning their labia. These habits are taught by their “aunties” as necessary, and cultural habits are hard to break.

 Many cultural habits are dangerous to mothers and babies and need to be stopped; some are likely harmless or even work on levels we do not understand yet and should not be changed; others are practices the world’s midwives can put into practice and begin sharing. Discernment is of utmost importance. In Western medical culture we have many dangerous practices, too, such as cutting women open to extract their babies for no reason at all!

Birth belongs to the mother and baby, but we want them both to live! Midwifery has always been God’s design to serve mother and baby, and we are always looking for better ways serve mother and baby in our work at Midwifery Today conferences.

UK 'has too many hospital births'

Source: BBC

Maternity services across the UK need a radical rethink, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says.

Dr Anthony Falconer: 'We all have a moral responsibility to create the best services we can'

It wants the number of hospital units cut to ensure 24-hour access to care from senior doctors and says more midwife-led units are needed for women with low-risk pregnancies.

The National Childbirth Trust welcomed the report but says the proposals do not go far enough.
NHS managers said maternity care desperately needed to be reorganised.

Top 50 Blogs About Homebirth

Source : Online-Masters-in Nursing
HINT: look for Midwifery in Kuwait, we`ve got listed too!


Bringing new life into the world can be a beautiful, scary, and above all, emotional experience. For those who wish to go through this life-changing event in the comfort of their own home, there is quite a bit of research to do first.  Look no further, because we have gathered together the best 50 blogs about homebirth. Or, if you are a midwife, doula, or have another profession in the childbirth field, check out these blogs to see what your peers have to say. All of these blogs are regularly updated, and many take a unique look at the pros and cons of homebirth. And, best of all, there are lots of cute baby pictures!

Top Five

1. Bring Birth Home: This blog was created as a way to share beautiful and inspirational homebirth stories. There is also a ton of information here for anyone planning a homebirth.
   • Why We Love It: The advice here is written for real mothers, in a real, imperfect, and often hectic world.
   • Favorite Post: Moms, Do You Take Your Own Good Advice?
2. Dear Baby G: This blog began as a way to document the blogger’s pregnancy and at homebirth. Now that the baby is born, readers can take a look at the successful birth story, and hear how older siblings are adjusting to a new baby in the house.
   • Why We Love It: The blogger takes the time to reflect on her hospital vs. at homebirth experiences.
   • Favorite Post: My Hospital Births vs. My Home Birth
3. On Being Blythe: This self-proclaimed shameless mommy blog highlights the wonder of having your child at home. Lovely photos and thoughtful posts about pregnancy and motherhood, combined with a question and answer series about homebirth, make it an invaluable resource.
   • Why We Love It: This blogger shares some gorgeous pictures of her new little bundle of joy.
   • Favorite Post: Week 40 - The bump moves up
4. Bedhead Birth Blog: Learn about the importance of umbilical cords, how formula compares with breast milk, and how beautiful a homebirth can be with this photographer’s blog. In addition to taking stunning pictures, this blogger is also a doula, so the posts are backed up by lots of birthing experience.
   • Why We Love It: This blogger reminds us that a birth can be a momentous occasion for an older sibling, as well as for the mother.
   • Favorite Post: A Family Affair
5. Midwife Thinking: As a homebirth midwife, this blogger seeks to encourage women to consider their different birthing options. Expect artwork, birth stories, and lots of detailed, knowledgeable advice.
   • Why We Love It: This blogger backs up her opinions on controversial topics with both personal experience, as well as journal articles and interviews with other professionals in the field.
   • Favorite Post: Cord Blood Collection: confessions of a vampire-midwife

The Rest of the Best

• A Midwife’s Muse: This blog takes a close look at many aspects of being a midwife, including assisting with births, and all the paperwork that goes with it. There is also a great post about postnatal care.
• Bay Area Birth Blog: Though this doula service also offers hospital birth options, there is some great information for those who wish to have a baby in their own home. One of the main themes of this blog is finding empowerment in your pregnancy and labor.
• Belly Tales: Read about touching birth stories, as well as facts about babies after they are out of the belly. There are also some great links to tons of helpful resources.
• Birth: realize your inner strength: Learn more about natural childbirth options at this homebirth midwife’s blog. There are also updates about local natural birth classes.
• Bloom Spokane: This organization hopes to educate parents so they can make informed decisions about their pregnancy and labor options. Among other topics, there are posts about natural childbirth and homebirth, as well as information about upcoming classes and events.
• Carolyn's blog: Read about birth stories in developing countries, as well as more general facts about being a midwife. This blogger also discusses midwifery education.
• Charleston Birth Place: This birthing organization expects women to listen to their own bodies and communicate their needs about childbirth. They strive to provide information about the different childbirth options, including homebirth, and they even post some stirring birth videos.
• Circus Queen: This British blogger recently had a new addition to her family, with a birth that was a combination of at home and in the hospital. Browse the archives for plenty of pregnancy tales, and why she decided to have her baby at home.
• Citizens for Midwifery: Read about homebirth facts and statistics on this midwife organization’s blog. There are also some fabulous book reviews.
• Dar a Luz Women’s Care: This midwife helps families keep their homebirths as stress-free as possible. She also informs readers about pregnancy facts, such as whether or not reducing salt intake is necessary.
• Dirty Diaper Laundry: This blog is not only about what your baby wears. Read about this blogger’s experience with homebirth, as well as some posts on induction and epidurals.
• Erin Ellis Homebirth Midwife: This midwife and mother writes about the Birth Change movement in the United States. Learn how politics might be involved in determining the risks of homebirth.
• Feed the Soil: Many topics, not just pregnancy and birth, are covered in this new mother’s blog. Read about her son’s homebirth, complete with lots of adorable baby pictures.
• Graceful Approach: This blog offers advice about having a well-balanced life. Read a wonderful article on the homebirth of the blogger’s child, as well as some great time-saving recipes for a new mother.
• Happy and Healthy Mom: This blog offers lots of information about all stages of mothering, not just those who are pregnant. One post gives a very detailed account of a woman who had a first-time homebirth.
• Hobo mama: An aspiring writer and mother blogs about natural parenting. Read about her recent homebirth, as well as some tips on breastfeeding and how to comfort an older sibling when the new baby arrives.
• Home Birth in Israel: Based in Israel, this midwife and doula assists with homebirths. Though this is a fairly new blog, there are already some inspiring birth stories and lovely articles about the power of new life.
• Homebirth: A Midwife Mutiny: Out of Australia, this blogger strives to bring pregnancy and birth out of a hospital setting. In addition to some very informative articles, there are quite a few videos of a variety of different kinds of births.
• Ilithyia Inspired: After having a successful, unassisted homebirth herself, this blogger has a lot of experience to draw from for her posts. She is also a doula and self-proclaimed birth servant, and offers tons of advice on all aspects of pregnancy, labor, and breastfeeding.
• Mama Eve: This natural parenting blog gives advice for dealing with all ages of children. Read about homebirth, c-sections, and early childhood education.
• Midwifery in Kuwait: This blog brings readers all the latest information about midwife services in Kuwait. Read about induced labor, and celebrity homebirths.

Risks of Formula Feeding Your Baby

Source: Breastfeed.com

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The Case of the Virgin Gut

By Ann Calandro, RNC, IBCLC

I have been a mother for 26 years. When my first daughter was born, I knew little about breastfeeding except that I wanted to “try” to be successful. I knew it was best. I planned on nursing for six weeks to give her a good start.

She was born in Riverview Hospital in New Jersey in 1976. I waited impatiently to be allowed to see her every four hours for nursing. She arrived in my room with a little bottle of glucose water on board in her crib. The nurses encouraged me to fill her up with sugar water after each nursing, because my milk was not enough. Between nursings, she received formula in the nursery, because she was hungry and the hospital would only bring her out at certain times. During visiting hours, no babies came out.

Midwifery: The Proven Tradition of Birthing

Source: Saudi Life

By Aisha Al Hajjar, AMANI | Saudi Life

Sunday, 21 August 2011 00:00

0digg 52Share THERE was a time when birth belonged to women. This was a time where they labored at home and chose only their dearest, most trusted companions to accompany them during their journey. Modesty and privacy were respected, masha’Allah. In days of old, midwifery was the common model of care and doctors were only invited in for major complications or difficulties. Midwifery, as a profession, evolved and was passed down from generation to generation. These were women who were skilled in handling most complications. But they also possessed a certain art in the gentle and patient way that they approached a woman in labor. The women who served as midwives did so out of sisterly love and a true passion to ease the hardships of birth. Our beloved Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said, “Whoever relieves his brother [or sister] of a hardship from the hardships of this world, Allah shall relieve him of a hardship from the hardships of the Day of Judgment. And whoever makes things easy for a person in difficulty; Allah will ease for him in this world and the Next. And whoever conceals (the faults of) a Muslim, Allah will conceal him in this world and the Next. Allah is forever aiding a slave so long as he is in the aid of his brother.” [Sahih Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah and others] Birthing Modesty The field of obstetrics was formally introduced over four centuries ago. With it came an abundance of men. These were not male companions or maharm (close male relatives); they were strangers with medical training. But they didn’t take over birth right away. In Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth[1], renowned American midwife, Ina May Gaskin, explores textbook entries about childbirth in American obstetrics prior to the current hospital birthing era. She looked at texts of old and found that obstetricians were taught to wait outside the laboring women’s bedroom door until summoned in by the nurse or midwife in attendance. According to her research, there is evidence in these writings that teach about the importance of modesty in the labor and birth process. Doctors of that time respected the woman’s need to labor and birth in private and only entered if there was a true need to do so. In fact, they keenly understood how the unwelcomed or rushed presence of a male observer could actually stall or shut down even an active labor. Over the years, the obstetric model of care took over birth in the United States and many other regions of the world, including Saudi Arabia. Birth moved out of the home and into the hospital and the sisterly model of midwifery care was greatly diminished, and in some areas, completely lost. Sadly, the importance of birthing modesty is often times overlooked in a hospital setting. This can be particularly troubling in Saudi Arabia, where modesty is ingrained in the culture and deen (religion).

A bond as strong as blood

Source: The National

On a warm spring evening earlier this year, a group of excited young Bedouin men in their best clothes waited anxiously as a meal of traditional Emirati dishes was set out on the ground in front of their desert compound. With the sound of an approaching 4x4, all pretence of decorum vanished as they ran towards the vehicle, yelling greetings: "Mamma Ino! Mamma Ino! Salaam. Welcome, welcome." As one of them held open the car door, a tiny figure, dressed in traditional Bedouin clothing, stepped from the car. "Mamma Ino", or Inocenta Ewart as she is known to the rest of the world, was surrounded at once by 10 towering brothers from one of the most prominent desert families in Ras al Khaimah.

Born in Spain more than half a century ago, Mrs Ewart is a mother to 16 children, but gave birth to only two of them. The others are bound to her by something that in Bedouin culture is as powerful as blood: a mother's milk. The extraordinary story began in the early 1980s when Mrs Ewart, married to a cultural attaché with the British Council, was living in Dubai. An anthropologist who graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science, she decided to study the impact of the oil industry on Emirati society.

Proposal To Build 3 Hospitals For Expats Residing In Kuwait Govt To Present New Health Insurance Draft

Source: Arab Times

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 10: The government will soon present a new health insurance draft bill to improve medical services in the country, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily quoting informed sources.

Sources disclosed the government will submit the bill to the National Assembly in the next legislative round for review and approval. Sources explained the proposal is aimed at regulating treatment procedures in private hospitals abroad or in Kuwait. Sources said the government will pay installments of the proposed health insurance through the establishment of joint stock companies, in which 50 percent of the shares will be offered to the citizens and the remaining portion to specialized local and foreign corporations. Sources added the joint stock companies will construct hospitals, hire medical experts and purchase the necessary equipment to better serve the citizens.

Sources confirmed the proposal includes a social insurance scheme for expatriates, in addition to the construction of three hospitals exclusive for foreigners residing in Kuwait. Sources said these hospitals will be established in Jahra, Farwaniya and Ahmadi. Sources clarified the bill also states that the existing public hospitals will serve only the Kuwaitis and citizens of other Gulf countries upon completion of the hospitals for expatriates.