Midwife - BLOG

Placenta Smoothie Recipes

6/6/2017

Do you want to ingest your placenta, but aren’t quite sure how to do it? Try putting it into a smoothie! The recipes all follow the same basic formula: fruit, maybe some veggies, a sweetener, milk or yogurt, ice cubes... and the placenta. (Note: It will help if you have a good, strong blender, like a Vitamix.)

Remember to consume the placenta within the first 2-3 days or put it in the freezer, where it will keep for up to 6 months.

Here are some pretty basic Placenta Smoothie Recipes to help you started:

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

2 cups of frozen strawberries
1 banana
5-6 ice cubes
2 cups almond milk or kefir
1 T of honey or maple syrup
1 cup of cubed placenta meat

Blend the frozen berries and the banana first, then add ice cubes, juice and honey. Blend in the placenta at the end.

Another One of My Unassisted Birth Stories

6/1/2017

I have four children. The first two were midwife-attended homebirths. The last two were unassisted homebirths (also called free births). The reason I was drawn to unassisted birth is because I do not like being watched, observed, or interfered with during labor. Physiologically, I believe that my body will labor and birth better if left unattended.

This is kind of ironic, that I should choose to birth unattended, when I have such a love affair with homebirth midwives. I even went so far as to film a documentary about them, after all. It’s one the occupations I admire most in the world, that of a homebirth midwife. Yet, unassisted birth is how I choose to birth. One thing that my documentary covers is how women should have choices about where and with whom they choose to birth. In 18 states, homebirth midwifery is still illegal, which is crazy.

My point is, women should be able to birth wherever it is they feel most comfortable. For most women, that is the hospital. For some women, it’s at home. And for some women, like me, it is at home and unattended. These are all valid choices and all should be honored and respected.

If you’re looking for more information about the philosophy behind unassisted birth, Laura Shanley writes about it nicely in her book, Unassisted Childbirth (with a nice foreword by Michel Odent, by the way).

As for me, I’m just going to tell you about my own experiences with unassisted birth, on a personal level.

20 Best Books on Birth

6/1/2017

As a lover of all things related to birth, and a maker of a birth documentary myself, I have immersed myself in reading everything I can get my hands on about birth.

Here is an extensive list of books about birth. I put them in the order of my personal favorites, so this list, of course, is subjective. (And, no, I’m not even going to mention What to Expect When You’re Expecting. I don’t think anybody should read that book.)

1. The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer
This is the go-to book that I like to recommend to every soon-to-be parent. It covers everything you need to know about the choices that you will face in giving birth clearly and concisely. As the saying goes, “If you don’t know your choices, you don’t have any.” This book will make you compare and contrast your various options on things such as inducing labor, electronic fetal monitoring, VBACs, pain medication, etc. It is unbiased and so very well done.

My Unassisted Birth Story

5/24/2017

I have four children. The first two were midwife-attended homebirths. The last two were unassisted homebirths (also called free births). The reason I was drawn to unassisted birth is because I do not like being watched, observed, or interfered with during labor. Physiologically, I believe that my body will labor and birth better if left unattended.

This is kind of ironic, that I should choose to birth unattended, when I have such a love affair with homebirth midwives. I even went so far as to film a documentary about them, after all. It’s one the occupations I admire most in the world, that of a homebirth midwife. Yet, unassisted birth is how I choose to birth. One thing that my documentary covers is how women should have choices about where and with whom they choose to birth. In 18 states, homebirth midwifery is still illegal, which is crazy.

My point is, women should be able to birth wherever it is they feel most comfortable. For most women, that is the hospital. For some women, it’s at home. And for some women, like me, it is at home and unattended. These are all valid choices and all should be honored and respected.

If you’re looking for more information about the philosophy behind unassisted birth, Laura Shanley writes about it nicely in her book, Unassisted Childbirth (with a nice foreword by Michel Odent, by the way).

As for me, I’m just going to tell you about my own experiences with unassisted birth, on a personal level.

This is the story of my first unassisted birth, with my daughter Peace. It is not so much an “Unassisted Birth Story” as it is a regular old Birth Story, because birth is just birth, you know?

How to Video a Birth Like a Pro!

5/24/2017

Has your friend or family member asked you to videotape their birth? (Do we still call it “videotape” when everything is being recorded digitally now?) Do you want to make it something a little more special than point the camera and record?

I’ve been photographing and videotaping births for over ten years now, and I even shot a professional documentary about birth. Making a birth video is not as hard as you might think.

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Hold the Shot
Okay, so you know how most people who hold a video camera will move the camera back and forth to follow the action (you know, people like my mother and probably yours)... you don’t want to do that. Leave that camera style to NYPD Blue. Since you don’t have the experience of a camera person on NYPD Blue or the know-how, please avoid that at all costs.

What you need to do instead is find your shot and hold it. Compose the frame like you’re going to take a photograph, and just let people move around within it. This shouldn’t be hard to do because people are not moving around a lot during a birth. When you want to shoot from a different perspective, stop the shot, move, and set up a new shot.

Trust me on this. And, don’t worry, we’ll piece together the shots later in post-production (see Step 4). It will look great.

How to Have a Lotus Birth

5/18/2017

I have had a lotus birth with all four of my children. This is something that is obviously not for everybody (nor do I know of very many other people who have actually done it) because it involves leaving the placenta and umbilical cord attached to the baby until it falls off on it’s own, which could take between 3-7 days.

I imagine this is why more people don’t have lotus births. After all, who wants to hang out with a gross looking organ for 3-7 days? That’s perfectly understandable.

But I actually like hanging out with a gross looking (but actually quite beautiful) organ for 3-7 days. And, other than that, having a lotus birth is really quite simple. All you have to do is NOT cut the cord. That's the single most important thing about having a lotus birth: JUST DON'T CUT THE CORD.

I guess I felt drawn to lotus birth because it seemed like a natural extension of how I was choosing to birth in the first place. I was birthing at home, with no interventions, and no outside influence or procedures. So, to bring a sharp pair of scissors into the space to cut the cord seemed a bit too harsh for me. (I know, I know, this all seems a little wacko when talking about it like this. I can see that. Please don’t hold that against me.)

Yet having a lotus birth felt like the most natural thing for me. To just let the umbilical cord fall off on its own accord, when it was ready. That felt right.

More "Midwife" in Higher Education

4/23/2016

MIDWIFE has made it to it's first university in Australia! That makes five universities in the United States, plus this one in Byron Bay, Australia! I'm so happy that these universities have added the documentary to their libraries, classes, or film series.

"Midwife" is College Bound... Again!

6/9/2015

"Midwife" has made it into another University! That makes four universities so far that have a copy of the film that they show to their students. How awesome is that?

Here is an excerpt from the email I got (used here with permission), and info about the extremely cool class that it's going to be a part of (seriously, how cool does that class sound?):

Hello! I am an Associate Professor of English, French, & Gender Studies, and Chair of the Gender Studies Program at Lindenwood University in St. Louis MO. I also just had a homebirth with a midwife with my 2nd son last June. My first was born naturally and drug free in a hospital in Manhattan. I would like to bring this film to campus for screening sometime during the Spring 2016 semester, if possible. I would also like my university to purchase the DVD because I want to show it in a class that I am teaching for my 3 week January term this next Jan (2016). The class is called Birth: A Cooperation of History, Tradition, and Myth. I will speak at length about the recent resurgence of home births with midwives. We are reading a lot of stuff (Gaskin, Kitzinger, etc... and I am having speakers come as well (my own midwife, doula, etc...). But I wanted to show them this film also, and thought that since my university has a really nice Film Series, that we might want to include this in that if possible!

If you work for a University or College and want to get this film in your school, please let me know!

Podcast with Matt Stone

6/10/2014

I did a podcast with Matt Stone from 180 Degree Health.

Here's where you can find it:

I was kind of nervous doing the podcast, and I kind of fumbled my way through some of the topics, but it went okay overall (because Matt Stone is a pretty awesome guy and he was genuinely interested in and passionate about the film). I'm not going to listen to the podcast, because I don't feel like listening to myself, but I hope that you will enjoy it.

Midwife is On-Demand... FINALLY!

6/3/2014

This has taken for ever. I am so sorry. I had no idea it was such a process.

But, without further ado, "Midwife" is finally available to be viewed On-Demand (through Amazon Instant Video).

You can go to the "ON-DEMAND" link above, or click here.

It's only $2.99. (Amazon.com sets the price on it, which is good for you, because if I was setting the price, I would have set it at a slightly higher price point.)

Again, sorry for the delay. And I hope you enjoy the movie!