Birth Science Archives - Page 2 of 3

Failure to Progress: The Simple Solution Nobody Knows

August 24, 2016 By Lauren McClain

Cesareans are a dime a dozen these days. Some are necessary, life-saving, even just sanity-saving, the best choice in a clinically murky situation. Many are unnecessary, the result of hurried doctors, unkind staff, tired mothers, and an avalanche of interventions 'strongly recommended.' There are also cesareans that happen because of clinical ineptitude. Today I'd like [...]

Stress and Everything Else: What You Pass on to your Children

July 6, 2016 By Lauren McClain

Epigenetics: Baby Learns about Life from Womb Babies learn about the world they will live in from their time in utero. That means that they expect the world to be similar to their experience gestating. A new study shows that women who were stressed during pregnancy have babies with oxytocin receptor genes that are more easily turned […]

Four L-Words that Make Birth Hard

June 16, 2016 By Lauren McClain

photo credit: Petal and Vine Photography Birth is a physiological, instinctual act. We muss it up considerably with our meddling and medicine and science. That's not to say that science doesn't sometimes help and for that we are very grateful. It would be nice if science could just wait until it was called on [...]

How to Align Baby for Easier Birth

April 25, 2016 By Lauren McClain

Get Baby in the Best Position! Your baby has an active role in her birth. She must rotate and tuck, hold and kick her body in certain ways to be born. She needs your help to do this. Babies who are lined up optimally for birth come out faster and easier than those who […]

Better Birth Guide to Inducing Labor

June 10, 2015 By Lauren McClain

YOUR DUE DATE First, Is your due date accurate? I’ve written before about the reliability of assigning due dates based on last menstrual period (LMP). The long and the short of it is that no one knows when your baby is actually ready to be born or when is too long to wait for it [...]