Table of Contents 

• News
• Come to a Midwifery Today Conference
• "The Epic Journey of Midwifery and Birth"
• Attend a Midwifery Today Conference and you will
• 5 Reasons to Subscribe to Midwifery Today Magazine
• Highlights of the Midwifery Today Site
• Featured Articles from Midwifery Today
• Birth Wisdom
• Tear Prevention Handbook
• Other Information about Midwifery and Birth
• Home Birth: The Spirit, The Science and The Mother DVD
• Paths to Becoming a Midwife - Getting an Education
• Check Out Our Other Lenses
• Midwifery Today Products

Come to a Midwifery Today Conference 

Be informed! Be inspired! Be invigorated!

Midwifery Today Conference Information

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Nurturing a Better Future through Birth 

Plan now to attend the Midwifery Today Conference in Eugene, Oregon, March 11-15, 2009. You'll be able to choose from how-to classes, as well as classes on skills development, massage and sexual abuse issues.

Attend a Midwifery Today Conference and you will 

• Learn new ideas for helping your clients have better births.
• Gain an inspiring, empowering education from teachers such as Michel Odent, Elizabeth Davis, Ina May Gaskin and Marsden Wagner.
• Earn CEUs (US conferences only).
• Engage your mind and enrich your heart with new insights into the world of midwifery and birth.
• Make new friends as you meet midwives and other birth professionals from around the world.

5 Reasons to Subscribe to Midwifery Today Magazine 

• Great Writers: You'll be able to read material by some of the best birth writers in the world; passionate, informed women and men with a wealth of knowledge and experience to share
• Vital Topics: You'll get an in-depth look at an important topic in each quarterly issue, with several articles devoted to the issue theme.
• Birth Wisdom: You'll appreciate the quiet wisdom of Marion's Message, a regular column written by a nurse midwife with extensive experience in home, hospital and birth center births.
• Professional Insight: You'll glean valuable advice on making your practice more efficient, professional and profitable from Linda Lieberman's column, The Business of Midwifery.
• International Midwifery: You'll learn about birth and midwifery around the world with the International Midwife section.

Highlights of the Midwifery Today Site 

Midwifery Today Articles

Learn more about midwifery and birth with these articles.

Midwifery Today Conferences

The conference classes are just what you've needed: they're informative, presenting the latest facts and techniques; they're inspiring, interactive and engaging; and best of all, they empower you as a birth practitioner.

Blog Post about Philly Conference

This is a great blog post about the Midwifery Today conference in Philadelphia March 2006.

Midwifery Today Magazine

Are you curious about the latest information that will support your intuition and help you serve your women better? Subscribe to Midwifery Today Magazine!

Find a Midwife

Use our Birth Directory to find a midwife. You can also search for doulas and other practitioners as well as for a variety of birth-related products.

International Midwifery

Learn about International Midwifery and join the International Alliance of Midwives!

How to Become a Midwife, Doula or Childbirth Educator

Would you like to work in the childbirth field? You will find information and direction about how to become a midwife, doula or childbirth educator. Learn about childbirth and midwifery and what these professions are about.

E-News Subscription Form

Subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter, the Midwifery Today E-News, and receive birth-related information every other week.

Midwifery Today Forums

A place to discuss pregnancy, birth and midwifery.

Featured Articles from Midwifery Today 

A Declaration of the Rights of Childbearing Women - by Leilah McCracken

Birth is easy. Obfuscating medical factoids make it hard. Modern obstetrical knowledge is based on false hospital outcomes; more is known about how bedridden patients give birth than how real, panting, sensual women give birth.

Birth Stories: The Instinct of Birth - by Candace Whitridge

When a woman is in labor, a little fight goes on in the woman's brain. One part of here brain, the intellect, will tell her that she should do certain things.

Cytotec Induction and Off-Label Use - by Marsden Wagner, MD, MS

Without adequate testing of Cytotec (misoprostol) for labor induction, obstetricians simply began to use it on their birthing women. They were taking advantage of a huge loophole in our drug regulatory system.

Drugs in Labour - by Beverley Lawrence Beech

Childbirth is a normal physiological event. However, since the advent of universal hospitalisation, for the majority of women childbirth has been transformed into a medical event where labour is processed, monitored and controlled by the medical profession from beginning to end.

Some Thoughts on Bridging the Gap Between Nurse and Direct-Entry Midwives - by Robbie Davis-Floyd

For the past few years I have listened with dismay to direct-entry midwives criticizing nurse-midwives as "medwives"... and to nurse-midwives talking about professional direct-entry midwives as if they don't know very much, and working in some states to pass exclusionary laws.

Six Keys to Preventing Complications and Giving Birth to a Healthy Baby - by Marci O'Daffer, CCE, Doula

What can you do to prevent complications and give birth to a healthy baby? Based on Dr. Brewer's proven Brewer Medical Diet, here are six simple steps that you can start today

Suspect Diagnoses Come with Biophysical Profiling - by Gloria Lemay

Many North American women are being told at the very end of their pregnancies to go to an ultrasound clinic and have a biophysical profile done. They will probably not be told that there is no scientific basis for having faith in the test results...

The Business of Birthing: The Write Way to More Clients - by Sheri Menelli and Adriane Smith

The majority of these journalists - the people who write for the major pregnancy and baby-related magazines - are nice, single women who have never had children. ... They're hungry for something to sensationalize, and lately, that means writing about the fabulous elective c-section.

Gracious Births - by Judy Edmunds

Midwives try to convey these simple truths: Birth is not a clinical exercise. It is not a medical procedure. In nearly every instance, it should not be major surgery. Nor should it even routinely include minor surgery.

Healing Through Homebirth - by Cynthia Luxford

I met Jill in January. She knew she was pregnant, but not how far along she was. She had experienced a recent episode of bleeding that lasted for weeks. Without giving her any diagnosis of what was causing her bleeding, the physician had treated her with birth control pills and pain medication.

HypnoBirthing: Instinctive Birthing through Relaxation - by Tracy Donegan

Birthkeepers of the world are divided on whether pain does or does not have to exist in birth; each of us is firm in our stance that our belief is right. For many the notion of comfortable or even joyful birthing still remains just outside of our grasp.

Trusting Birth Even More - by Carla Hartley

Today a friend e-mailed a very tragic story of loss and despair. A mom going in for her second cesarean suffered a massive rupture and lost her baby and her ability to have another.

Anthropological Perspectives on Global Issues in Midwifery - by Robbie Davis-Floyd, PhD

According to the international definition, a midwife is one who graduates from a program duly recognized in its jurisdiction. In the developing world, this generally means a two-year government training program.

Birth Wisdom 

Tricks of the Trade, Volume Three

Birth Wisdom is filled with tricks and tips from practicing midwives, childbirth educators, naturopaths, doulas and parents. Compiled from past issues of Midwifery Today magazine.

Order your copy today.

Tear Prevention Handbook 

Part of Midwifery Today's Holistic Clinical Series.

While tears cannot always be prevented, this book will provide you with a variety of suggestions for keeping the perineum intact. Experienced midwives offer their suggestions for healing, when tears do occur, ranging from Super Glue to seaweed. You will find this handy book essential to your midwifery practice.

Other Information about Midwifery and Birth 

Michel Odent's Primal Health Network

Not only do midwives have great outcomes that are immediately measurable but the resulting long-term positive health effects will last every mother and child a lifetime. To learn more about the long-term positive effects of a good birth check out Michel Odent's primal health network.

MANA Homebirth Study

We can improve the physical and emotional health of our entire nation and save billions of health care dollars each year by taking one simple health step: That is turning over the handling of birth care to midwives.

Home Birth: The Spirit, The Science and The Mother DVD 

By Diana Paul

This new DVD from Sage Femme is designed to help dispel the misconceptions about homebirth and midwives. It features interviews with three doctors: Marsden Wagner, MD, Jeanine Tgettis, DC, and Fred R. Duhart, DO.

When you watch this DVD you will also witness the joy of homebirth as two families share their exquisite birth experiences.

Order your copy here.

Midwifery Today Swicki 

Paths to Becoming a Midwife - Getting an Education 

A Midwifery Today book

Are you thinking about becoming a midwife, but you're not sure what kind of midwife you should be, or what training options would be best for you? Paths to Becoming a Midwife was designed to help you answer these questions and to help you make sense of the various options available.

Order your copy today and get started on the road to midwifery.

Check Out Our Other Lenses 

The Use of Drugs During Labor and Childbirth

Is the routine use of drugs during childbirth good or bad? Check out this information and decide for yourself.

Sexual Abuse and Pregnancy

Research is beginning to show that traumatic experiences in general—from abuse, to disasters, to terrorism—may take a toll on pregnant women and affect their children, too. In addition, birth professionals and counselors have become aware...

Just Say No to C-sections

I'm deeply concerned about the rise in C-section rates and also about the growing tendency of women to choose Cesarean birth when there is no medical need for it.

How to Become a Midwife

"The decision to become a midwife is one of the most important you will ever make, right up there with getting married or having a baby. Be careful how and what you learn. You must learn to guard your heart and mind. Birth is about women and the...

Prenatal Ultrasound

Is routine prenatal ultrasound a good idea? Or a bad one?

Midwifery Today Products 

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