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Humid heat, as in a hot compress or hot-pack, has the fantastic property to ease pain. It’s simple, easy, cheap and works for most women.

All you need is a big bowl of very hot water and thick pieces of linen. Dunk one of them into the water , wring it and lay it where it hurts: either the belly bottom, the lower back or even the vulva on later labor stages.

It requires some coordination, as when a contraction starts, the old compress is removed and replaced by a new one, hot, soothing and calming. Pain won’t disappear, but will ease down, and eventually become more tolerable.

After some time, hot-packs will lose their effect. It’s time to stop then and maybe use them later again.

I haven’t updated this blog in a while due to personal issues. I’m actually thinking about relocating to New Zealand. This country, besides being most probably the closest thing to paradise on earth, has a very interesting approach to medical welfare and a wide acceptance to natural therapies. If like me you don’t care about lower wages but appreciate an enhanced quality of life, it does look like the perfect choice.

Because of my own background (I am now based in Ireland, born in Spain and lived a significant part of my life in France), moving to New Zealand will also mean re-starting my education from scratch, which I don’t mind at all, if it weren’t for the funding difficulties… Anyone there willing to advance 150, 000 euro or have a great idea on how to get that sum? :-) 

At this rate, I won’t be able to relocate before a year and a half; I intend to continue updating this website as best and as often as I can. For those writing and not getting responses, please understand I’m short, very short of time, but that I do get all messages.

WARNING: this article contains pictures and graphical photos of a birth, labor and delivery. You may be chocked by their explicit nature.

This new set of homebirth photos shows us that breech babies can be homebirthed too if the necessary precautions are taken.

I believe no further commentary is needed as the pictures talk for themselves.

Haptonomy is the science of touching and feeling, defining how we deal with ourselves, the others, and the world that surrounds us. Haptonomy was founded by Dutch researcher F. Veldman, these days residing and working in France, where resides the only school for the different Haptonomy therapies: Haptopsychotherapy, Pre-and Postnatal accompaniment, Haptosynesis.Haptonomy is all about awaking the baby to the world that surrounds it and helping it to assume itself with confidence and trust. It can and should be started from conception and up to the seventh month after birth; after that date it is considered to be too late to start an haptonomy accompaniment.  

While in utero, the fetus is able to feel throught out its own skin and the tension and softness of the mother’s womb the world surrounding both of them. Even before he grows ears, it can feel the father’s voice though tissue vibration: if the father comes in the room where the mother is and all is well between them, the inner tissue in the womb (from the uterus to the perineal diaphragm) will relax and become softer and warmer. The baby will instantly become aware of this and thus of the father’s presence.

If the father talks to the baby and places himself near the mum’s belly, the fetus will move forward to him. With this knowledge, Haptonomy will help the parents communicate and build a strong, intimate and trustful relationship between the them and the baby-to-be, up to the point to invite the fetus to become pro-active and play by teaching it up to 3 different bouncing “games”. And it is very important that the father plays along, has Haptonomy is based on this trinity.

Haptonomy allows the fetus to grow strong and confident and actually easies labor work, but it does create a trauma to the baby: he comes to feel cold, hungry, tired and sour - several times a day. Postnatal haptonomy will help the parents and the baby build - or re build- a relationship between the three of them and the world based on trust and confidence.

 This is achieved thanks to the same tools as in prenatal care: touching. Parents will learn how to stimulate the baby and how to let him hold his own head (actually the total opposite parents are usually told). You get then to see these babies holding their own head themselves and absolutely aware of everything around them, their open hands showing how relaxed and confident they feel, smiling and calm when not laughing.

These babies will grow up with a strong and solid character that will need to be calibrated, as self confident and taking all responsibilities, balanced individuals.

Haptonomy is the science of affection and communication though touching, allowing awareness and conscious of self being and the world surrounding, and how the baby interacts with it, with confidence, affection and trust. The communication that is built up between the parents and the baby from the very first time they approach it, since conception, is priceless intimacy.

I’ve recently purchased a Nokia e65 for a number of reasons, mainly to help me keep organized and synched with my professional calendar, and have a GPS / satellite navigation and a phone in an all-in-one tool. It really does the job and is small enough to let himself be forgotten until its next duty comes.

However I wasn’t happy with the look and feel of the device as per its default theme, so I put one together, as I wasn’t able to find one that fitted my taste on the Internet. I suppose pregnancy themes for Nokia phones are not the most demanded over there…

  By no means is it perfect, but for me, it’s good enough to keep the inspiration coming. I’m aware of some annoying details and I might get the time to correct them in the future, but for now, here it is a free to use release.  I’ve tested it only on my e65, but I suppose it should work on any s60 3^rd edition symbian based devise.

Right-click on the image and select “save as” in order to download.

Enjoy!

Birth stools are probably one of the essentials of home birth specialized midwife. You may have seen some kind of urinal like low chairs in old pictures of traditional births, or commonly used in Africa still nowadays. These birthing chairs are called birth stools or birthing stools.   

Birth stools help the mum-to-be have rest between contractions when on a squat position. They are not aimed at being a permanent sit during the whole delivery. Whilst in a contraction, the patient should kneel to a squat position or grip the handles to heave her hips, rising into a semi-arch position. That will ensure the best physiological position for the baby when delivering with the help of one of these birthing stools.

They’re becoming harder and harder to find for those of us who don’t leave in the US, but on the other hand, they last a life time. Those I like most are oak made, and I’ve seen some wooden models that can be un-mounted for easier transportation (that’s a good idea!).

Like for the squat position, I feel that the use of birth tools needs to be approached during the whole pregnancy to ensure its best usage. Preparation is needed as it is for all physically demanding challenges.

Enemas are currently vastly used in hospital care to avoid fecal detritus from interfering with delivery. They are done mainly for hospital staff comfort more than for the mother and the baby, and use chemicals with the nasty effect of mother dehydration.  And what the mother needs most once at this stage is liquid. Same old story…

Never the less, taking enemas during pregnancy and childbirth is indeed a very good idea, and an excellent way to relieve pain. A simple enema bulb is more than effective and only plain, gently warm water may be used; no soap, no chemicals, some people like to add salt if blood pressure is ok - I don’t.

The enema will actually relief pain and discomfort during pregnancy and can be done as often as wanted (I advise not to take more than one a day though), it won’t deteriorate the colon. Its action goes from lowering blood pressure to providing back pain and headache relief. It does give a fast feeling of general wellness and liberation and helps with common pregnancy constipation.

During birth, it not only provides the same comfort and pain relief for the mother, but it helps strengthen contractions and speed them up too.

And of course, the hygienic reason used in medicalised environment still stands out, but is very much dependant on the mother’s position: it is indeed an issue when the mother is lying on her back (gynecological position I can never stress enough not to adopt), it isn’t in a squat position where detritus is directed backwards and the baby is naturally being pushed forward.

  You can imagine that being involved in natural birth and midwifery I can only be a fervent defender of breastfeeding. There are many good websites and books out there relating all the benefits of breastfeeding, so I won’t go through them extensively.Let’s just not forget that colostrum -the very first milk, often of a yellowy color - fires up the newborn immune system and that as long as the baby is breastfeeding, the mother’s milk will contain whatever antibodies and nutriments the baby needs at that particular stage. This specific absorption of the mother’s immune defenses can happen while the baby’s intestinal wall is permeable, ie. until the baby can digest. After that stage the mother’s milk will need not be the only and essential and irreplaceable nutriment for the toddler. That is probably the better time to start introducing solid food, and as nature does things well, you know that time has come when the first set of teeth have pierced; that is, around age two or two and a half.

Often, when breastfeeding is evoked, one of the common ideas that are expressed is the concern of having to wake up at night to attend the baby. A baby can feed from 6 to 14 times a day, in the most usual scenarios. But in every case, the mothers metabolism rhythms to the baby’s. That means that if the baby is hungry by night, the mother will naturally wake up with little effort to breastfeed, and by doing so, will actually enjoy a better and more restful sleep that if she had ignored the baby’s call and refrained from breastfeeding as many times as the baby asked during the night.

Finally, let’s keep in mind that when the baby stops breastfeeding, his body will cease production of the enzyme lactase and will become lactose intolerant. Food intolerances are allergies of the third degree (that can be measured through IgG concentration for a particular aliment). Severe allergies are referred to as first degree allergies. Food intolerances will have no huge symptoms most times, but will actually render the intestinal wall permeable as per continuous irritation, preventing nutriments from being absorbed by the body and leaving the door opened to chronicle illness (you may now understand why in some regions of Africa when a person was seriously sick the traditional remedy was to get that person to breastfeed from a woman whose baby was weaning, as her milk would still be highly more assimilable by the human organism, even once gone lactose intolerant).

And you will of course feel the emotional and bonding benefits of breastfeeding I feel I need not mention.

 When and if you’re having your baby at home, I believe you should be doing it your way. That means that what works for you is, or should be, the best for you.This said, we also need to take in account physiological matters. Something that obviously doesn’t happen in hospitals for example, where a mum is normally constrained to the gynecological position. Let’s do a very fast but explicit comparison: try and poo in a standing position; now, bend your knees and go to a squat position. Same happens in birth when squating: the pelvic bones open wide, your gravity center lows down and gives your tights and perineum muscles greater strength and pressure on the anus/vagina is deviated front and back ways.

When lying on your back, the uterus and vagina are pointing slightly over the horizon. When pushing stray, you are actually forcing the baby’s head against a muscle wall formed by the tissue joining your anus and vagina: that is the perineum. If pressure becomes excessive then a severe tear might occur. In order to control the tearing direction -and not to avoid it-, medicine invented episiotomy, which basically is cutting the tissue so that it’ll continue to tear sideways and not towards the anus. In this position you’re also forcing the baby’s head to go upwards, and thus fighting gravity which again is putting pressure on your perineum.

If you’re facing a natural home birth, you should fellow what your body inspires you during labor. This of course will change from a woman to another, but there are common grounds. When labor starts you will probably be inclined to some walking: excellent as it helps gravity do its job and the uterus collar to dilate. Same goes for the “slow dancing” position, bending and resting on your partners arms while standing and waiting; this is perfect for first stage and second stage contractions.

Once in deep labor, I feel that what was once called “African position” as African women would usually hang from a robust tree branch with one hand while almost kneeling for birth, and now more widely known as “squat position”, is your best, more natural, intuitive and physiological choice. The squat position will allow for fast and efficient labor, reducing stress and pain on your body and your baby’s, allowing you to actively intervene in your birth as you’re able to catch your baby yourself and your chest is just nearby to welcome your newcomer. From this position it’s easy to kneel forward and rest after the effort without losing any of the positive aspects of this position. Usually as well, the birth tends to end with the mum on one knee while the other leg still in squat position.

Depending on the situation, I find that ideally the partner is supporting the mum; the squat position allows intimacy and direct communication, as often eye contact in these cases can be more of a difficulty. Accordingly, the midwife can stay discreet out of eye range but still make sure that everything is going fine, and come back to concrete presence when needed. The fact that the midwife is also in this case below the horizon and the parent’s eye line gives back to the mother her pro-activeness and the midwife her original role: assistant. Physiologically speaking, the squat position relieves all barriers for the baby, levering down the efforts of the mother and easing the way out, as nothing obstructs directly anymore.

Now, what about water births? As I stated above, what works for you is best for you, so if you’re facing a physiological birth and you want it to be in water, please go for it with the assistance of your carer. If I have to be honest, I’m not personally very fond of them. Water pressure reduces the gravity force and the mum is back to a closer gynecological position type; I don’t find this ideal and in a natural environment, you wouldn’t probably give birth in water as it would be too cool. There have been some incidents in water births, as birth baths need to be very specific in order to drain bacteria, blood and organic rejections, need to keep water temperature stable, etc… Anyway of water birth still seems to me safer and more respectful than a hospital one.

In any case my advice would be to do what feels right for you.

WARNING: this article contains pictures and graphical photos of a birth, labor and delivery. You may be chocked by their explicit nature.

I’m proposing today a set of pictures taken during a homebirth. In order to protect the mother and family’s privacy, I’ve made sure that there was no way to identify neither of them, and as a result it may not be that easy to guess that this is happening in a home environment .

I want to draw your attention on to one particular fact: although the mum is giving birth laying on her back, a position that in my opinion is unnatural and unadapted to labor, you’ll see that there is barely any blood. That is because in a physiological birth there is no need for episiotomy -a horror close to torture and hardly ever needed (only when pathology is involved and at that stage, yes I believe you should be delivering in hospital. If a mum to be has  been followed properly during her pregnancy, it’s usually easy to tell if she’s facing a  physiological or risky birth)-; most of the blood you can see in a birth comes from the mother after the episiotomy has been done. Of course, there is some blood coming from the placenta and other parts anyway, but nothing comparable.

The laying down on back position puts a huge amount of stress on the perineum, and it’s important in these cases for the midwife to help support the pressure with one hand to avoid heavy tears. This is done by applying gentle pressure with the palm and fingers between the vagina and the perineum area, allowing for extra resistance and support (as you can see in picture 2).

Other positions let gravity do its job reducing pain and tear risk. 

But the reality is that even in this position, homebirths actually have a much smaller tear ratio than hospital births, and this is one of these testimonies: