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  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.