I just finished reading Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth and it was amazing. I think I liked it better than Spiritual Midwifery. The stories are vibrant and real. There are great tips for labour and the best part is the evidence based midwifery practices that I wish everyone knew about. It makes me think how nice it would be have the Farm here in NB. We may be losing our one practising midwife next year and with c-section rates the highest in Canada and episiotomy rates at the Saint John hospital in the 70% range, it makes me cringe about our options for childbirth.

Ina May talks about how we don’t portray normal healthy birth in the media enough and she is right about that. The stories women tell are horror stories based on a traumatic birth. She encourages talking about birth in a positive light and not focus on the pain. I agree with her but I also think we need to say that for a lot of women birth *is* painful but in a good way, empowering, life changing, life affirming, not run away and hide, never ending pain. I find a lot of midwifery, natural birth books talk about the esctasy of birth and the painless birth which is good but I think it hurts too for a lot of women. I labored with an 11lb 2 oz baby trying to work it’s way down my birth canal, transition lasted hours because of his size. I pushed him out powerfully without tearing or drugs at home but by god it hurt. I’d do it again in a second and welcome the pain.

Now I’m reading Woman, An intimate Geography by Natalie Angier. Anyone read it yet?