A great article (written in 2005) encouraging mothers to use breast-feeding as a means of comfort – not just nutrition.

A NEW STUDY finds that upwards of 10% of new dads experience post-natal depression.

Also, check out this article featured in a previous blog post regarding the same issue.

In honor of International Doula Month, Nicole D over at the Bellies and Babies blog is hosting a huge giveaway. We’re offering up Issue 13 as well as 3 birth pins for a prize. The giveaway is open to “doulas, women who have had/have a doula whom they want to show appreciation by winning a gift for them, and professionals who work with doulas whom they would like to show appreciation by winning a gift for them.” Nice! Check it out and read the interview I conducted with Nicole.

Melissa Bartick gives you “a tale of two births” concluding that, “if you compare what should happen when a woman gives birth, versus what actually happens, you can appreciate how tough it can be for US women to breastfeed, but how much easier it could be if only things were a little different around here.”

(from the Huffington Post)

Click HERE to read about one woman’s battle with facebook for the right to post a picture of her breastfeeding. Note that facebook seemingly has no problem with people posting pictures of boobs in sexualized situations…

Our editor, Kate, is shaving her head on March 17th 2010 in solidarity with children who have cancer and typically lose their hair during treatment, while raising critical funds for childhood cancer research!

Please donate to the cause HERE and read her Bald Blog HERE.

On February Gisele Bundchen (famous super-model) and her husband Tom Brady (professional football player and University of Michigan alum – woot woot) had a baby! They had a water birth in *her home* and was attended by a midwife.

She has since spoken of her birth as an incredibly positive experience: “The whole time, my head was so focused — every contraction, the baby is closer, the baby is closer. So, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, what pain.’ It was, ‘With every contraction, he is getting closer to me.”

Our obsessed celebrity culture being what it is, her birth has been given a lot of attention. On one hand, I am so delighted to see another positive, empowered natural birth story get highlighted. I hope that her comments and her story intrigue pregnant women and encourage them to pursue natural birth options. At least I hope Mommy’s to be will read this story and feel like they, too, are capable of a positive birth experience because they, like Gisele, are women.

On the other hand, it’s frustrating seeing how reporters cannot resist shaping this story as a taboo. “She chose to give birth in a bathtub?! Crazy!” “She birthed without any drugs? She must be not just a super-model, but a super-hero!”. And worse of all, bloggers and other commentators are simply calling her a liar, as if a painless, joyous birth were impossible.

So when we read about Gisele’s wonderful birth, let’s take a moment to remind ourselves that women who are experiencing low-risk pregnancies share the same opportunity to enjoy a peaceful birth at home, without the necessity of drugs. You do not have to be rich and privileged to birth at home. You do not have to be a Brazilian goddess to get a midwife. You do not have to have a professional athlete dream-boat husband to get to birth in the comfort of water. You do not need any supernatural powers to give birth naturally! You are a woman and therefore you are inherently super-strong and special.

I (Jenna) was one of those kids who spent a lot of time in front of the TV. My mom would drag me outside, but I always found my way back in sitting in front of the tube. As I got older, my interests extended to reading and film. Then I went to college and became extremely interested with the news industry. What can I say? I’ve always been fascinated with media and how it shapes our culture’s conscious.

It’s undeniable that the media shapes our views. Even if you don’t agree with what you see, read, or hear – if you let the media into your brain it will forever shape how you debate or discuss that topic. Even if you actively avoid the media, chances are at some point you are going to communicate with someone who is plugged in to the noise, and they are going to dispense the media’s message into your conversation.

Once I became a birth-junkie, I started seeing depictions of pregnancy and birth everywhere. On every channel, in every book, and in every news headline. A lot of the depictions were scary (1001 ways to kill your baby! Look at all the ways birth can go wrong!), and most were laughable (my water just broke – woop! and there’s the baby!). The representations we see of pregnancy and birth in fiction (in literature, film, or TV shows) and the news stories that get aired on 24-hour news channels, on the radio, or discussed on chat-shows shape how our culture envisions the childbearing year. And if we aren’t actively analyzing what we absorb through the media, we may just start to have our views shaped in ways we wouldn’t appreciate if we were conscious to the changes.

So in an effort to raise our awareness and keep our minds sharp, let me introduce a running category to our blog: “Birth in the Ether: an open discussion on media’s representation of the childbearing year.”

And please feel free to contribute! What depictions of birth have you seen recently? Did they make you angry? Were they realistic? Did they put birth and pregnancy in a positive light?

Leave a comment (click on the headline of this post if you don’t see the comment form below), or email submissions@birthproject.com

Check out this beautiful blog post featuring a handful of religious artwork showcasing a breastfeeding baby Jesus.

Volunteers from Our Bodies Ourselves and Massachusetts Friends of Midwives put together this film about midwifery advocacy: “Why Choose a Midwife?”