This is a quote from Sunni Karll, excerpted from "Making A Difference:A Blueprint for Harmony" Midwifery Today Issue 58 "Think About It" "To the baby, birth is about being received. We unfold the world and know our value when received with love and acceptance, in our own perfect tim- ing. If someone yanks us out of a place intrusively, we naturally recoil and go within in order to maintain balance against this outside force. The difference of being "received"compared to being "forced" results in opening to this world or shielding ourselves from it. Out of this experience comes baby's first decision: either "the world is a friendly place" or "the world is a hostile place." "This decision is the initial filter that determines if baby opens to or shields herself from the world, from then on. The experience of birth determines the vibration of life that a soul will live and filters the way that person experiences the world. This vibration becomes their blueprint. Only by creating a birth of absolute safety, gentleness, warmth and acceptance, internal peace, love and a state of wonder can we have a baby who knows within, "I am all this. I am secure and loved."
Too Many C-Sections: Docs Rethink Induced Labor NY Times, Aug. 2, 2010 By Tiffany O'Callaghan   This very pertinent article points not only to the very high rate of C-Sections in the US, but the significant relationship between the high rate of inducing labor and the resulting C-Section.  The article also points out that because so many C-Sections are being done women have a very false sense of security about this major surgery. "While the procedure undoubtedly saves lives and leads to better health outcomes for mothers and infants who face problems during pregnancy and labor, many experts say the procedure is being performed too often, and in many cases for nonmedical reasons, putting healthy women and babies at undue risk of complications of major surgery."                                                                Put At Risk
Vitamin K-The Debate and The Evidence Essence : Midirs Resource "Both new and expectant parents find themselves presented with many choices and decisions...not simply a black or white matter..."Whether or not to allow the health care provider to give your baby Vitamin K, immediately after birth is one of those decisions. Vitamin K is a clotting factor needed for healing, it is naturally produced in the body. Newborns are said to have low levels of vitamin K at birth. .. but do they need to get more, or will they develop what they need on their own.                                Vitamin K	Informed Refusal The following is reprinted from the Childbirth Connection. "What are women's legal rights to "informed consent" and "informed refusal?" The article is self exclamatory, and describes what both these very critical concepts and processes are.                           Informed
Labor Induction Increases Risk of Rare Amniotic Fluid Embolism   Medscape, May 2010, by David Douglas   " Labor induction, a multiple pregnancy, and cesarean delivery each increases the risk of rare but deadly amniotic fluid emboli, UK researchers report." This study points to the fact that approximately one third of all cases of AFE ( amniotic fluid embolism) could be avoided, if inducing labor, and unnecessary Cesarean sections were  not done.  While some women have been known to survive the occurance of an AFE, many times  they do not.       AFE
InJoy Videos: Videos for a Better Birth Healthy Birth Your Way   The following link provides access to 6 videos for a natural health birth produced by Lamaze, a natural childbirth organization existing world wide for over four decades. The videos can be downloaded and the DVD purchased.                                                                                              Injoy	ACOG Affirms Vaginal Delivery After C-Section   Medscape:By Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: July 22, 2010 Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner   The following article begins with an encouraging statement by ACOG  which simply states: "Most women who have a cesarean section can safely attempt a vaginal delivery in a subsequent birth, according to updated guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)." For many years, midwives, doulas and many, many advocates of natural birth have been saying the same thing and encouraging women to have a vaginal birth after a C-Section.  This statement by ACOG is very important because ACOG is the organization which sets many "guidelines" for OB/GYN's to follow. ACOG sets the "standard of care".  The article ends by taking a few steps backward  but does point out that "80%" of the moms who have had previous sections, can ( and should) have natural births, since the morbidity rate for both the mom and the baby is significantly decreased with a natural birth.   Affirming Natural Birth