by muneera1978 | Nov 14, 2014 | Uncategorized
So here I am, pregnant with my third child. All of my children are almost exactly 8 years apart..NOT PLANNED! I would have liked to have them closer but it just didn’t happen for me. My first son was a C-section without a trial of labor (more on that in another blog post), my daughter was a 3-day, marathon, prodromal VBAC in a birth center (yet another post). My second son and third child was a water birth at home and here is his story… This was my most intentional birth. I had been a doula for six years at this point. I had been in most every local hospital and birth center and realized that I really did not want to be bothered with anyone’s protocol and I just wanted to be able to completely trust my own instincts and birth the way I wanted. If I could have had my choice, I would have birthed without labor support-but I didn’t want to do that to my husband. So I carefully chose who I wanted in my space during my birthing process. They were all people that I knew and trusted to honor my birth wishes. I was officially a week and a day past my “due date”, I was impatient to see my son, but my other children all went past the 41 week mark so I was not surprised. I had done a self-check (all women should know how to check themselves!) the day before and was pretty sure that I was a few cm dilated as I could fit a few fingers in my cervix....
by muneera1978 | Nov 7, 2014 | Uncategorized
I have decided to start a blog about all things birth and female health related. So I guess you should know a little bit about me! I have worked as a doula, child birth educator, and peer lactation consultant for over six years. I am a mother of three, 1 c-section, 1 VBAC @ a birth center, and 1 HBAC where I caught my own baby as he came out! (more on those stories later) I also work as a special educator and am very interested in the correlation between birth practices and the rising incidences of disabilities. I am a practicing Muslim and there is a really is not much written from an Islamic perspective as a birth worker and I really wanted to change that. I am also an African-American and I’m not seeing enough written about the large health disparities with black babies in this country! Even correcting for education and socio-economic status, black babies die 2-3X more than their white counterparts. The United States is ranked 60th (further down from 50th!) in maternal mortality. We are just one of eight countries to see a RISE in maternal mortality. We are triple the rate of the U.K. (who use a midwifery based system). See this great summative article on the topic. All these issues, plus the fact there is always so much more that I want to share with my clients that I can fit in our monthly visits! 🙂 This blog is going to be a little bit of everything… I hope you come along for the ride and...
