Something that drives me completely batty though is when I hear families claim that they are having a birth center birth because they are "just not ready for a home birth." I want to take a moment to set the record straight for everyone. IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA- A BIRTH CENTER BIRTH IS ESSENTIALLY THE SAME AS A HOMEBIRTH. 

Choosing your birth team is one of the most critical decisions you will make in your entire pregnancy. These are the people who will (or should!) support YOUR choices throughout your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum periods. 

It is with great joy and excitement that we announce that Barefoot Birth is (FINALLY!!!) providing concierge home birth services and personalized prenatal care!  We are looking forward to preserving REAL home birth midwifery right here Tampa Bay!

"...I think it’s time that we transfer your care.”

If you are planning an out of hospital birth, these are words you hoped you’d never hear, or thought wouldn't ever apply to your birth. I mean come on--you've eaten right, done all your prenatal yoga, read the latest Ina May book, and attended that 12 week long childbirth education class! You’ve done everything possible to prevent having to leave your intended birthing location. However, birth is unpredictable. As you and your labor partner prepare to transfer into uncharted waters, you’re feeling uneasy and wish that you would have hired a doula.

​We are so honored when our families share their birth stories here in this blog space, and we are honored to share another very important Birth Story with you that is being told through film.

​Like most birth workers, we love us some Ina May. For those of you who aren't familiar, she's known as the "mother of modern midwifery," a self-taught, straight-talking, gentle soul who isn't afraid to take on the establishment for the good of maternal health and better outcomes for birth.

This story comes to us from a beautiful client who is the mama to 3 precious girls. This was her 2nd homebirth. I love how calm she was even while cursing like a sailor to bring her baby earthside. I just adore this family and love that they have shared their story with the world! Enjoy! 

"On Nov 8, 2012 I was 41 weeks pregnant with my 3rd daughter Serenity River. I had a real urge to get some shopping done that evening, so after dinner I ran to Wal-Mart while Chris was home with the big girls. On my way to the store I started having back pain for the first time. So when I got back home, I ended up doing a "Bitch post" for the first time, complaining about my back hurting and was just DONE. I was ready for Serenity to come out and meet the world!  It was after we got the girls to bed that I realized this back pain was coming and going, which meant I was in early labor!! I called Gina and Charlie, my midwife and student midwife, to let them know what was going on. This is when Gina told me she was still not feeling well from being in the hospital sick for 5 days and that she couldn't come to my birth, she would have to send her back up Jill with Charlie.  I was really upset that she wasn't going to make it, but felt very comfortable with Charlie; I knew she was going to take great care of us.

More and more we are hearing about women being "denied" a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) by their OBs, Midwives, or local hospitals. Here is some information that can help you get the birth you want and deserve

Unlike the Traditional Chinese Medicine preparation of the placenta (see previous blog about TCM encapsulation), we do not steam the placenta with herbs during this raw encapsulation process. We forgo the steaming to save the vital nutrients and hormones that may be depleted once the placenta has heated to above 118 degrees. This method follows the general “Raw Foods” rule that nothing should be headed beyond 118 degrees or vital enzymes are lost.  This is not to say one method is better than the other, just that you have several options for encapsulation and should choose the method that best suits your needs and preferences.

Women have called these capsules “happy pills” and report phenomenal energy levels while taking them. Raw placenta is extremely high in hormones such as progesterone and oxytocin. Midwives have traditionally used fresh placenta to stop bleeding immediately postpartum by slicing off a piece of the maternal side and having the mother put this between her cheek and gums. The high hormone levels cause the uterus to close down and bleeding is diminished.

This is a phrase I hear quite frequently from other birth professionals. Whether they are childbirth educators, doulas, or midwives. That statement seems to be an automatic reply in the birth community when a women chooses something that we know, on a professional level, is an unhealthy choice. Whether it be birthing in a hospital, allowing interventions, or choosing not to breastfeed. Are we, as a birth community, standing idly by while mother’s make uneducated choices because it is politically correct?      As a doula, I feel it is my duty to educate women on the options they have regarding their birth. With my daughter I desperately needed someone to educate me. I needed someone to say that the hospital is not the place for a healthy woman to give birth. Someone to explain that out of hospital births are just as safe, if not safer, as hospital births. I wish someone would have told me my choices were not the best. I wish someone would have been brutally honest with me. Sure, it was MY BIRTH…but doesn’t every mom want what is best for themselves and their babies? Don’t we all as mothers want to give our children the best start possible?

There's a saying that birth is as safe as life gets. Sometimes birth can become dangerous for the baby or, very rarely, for the mother. This is when hospital-based maternity care really shines, and we're able to save mothers and babies who might have died a hundred years ago. Thank goodness that there are skilled surgeons who can come to the rescue when truly necessary.

There's also a saying that when you've got a hammer in your hand, everything looks like a nail. So it is that for hospital-based birth attendants, it is easy to become accustomed to treating every birth as a disaster waiting to happen. Many obstetricians have lost touch with the possibility of normal birth, so much so that even a pitocin induction with an epidural, fetal scalp electrode and vacuum extraction is called a "natural birth". Some hospital staff seem offended by the idea of minimizing interventions, as if preferring not to have a needle the size of a house nail inserted near your spine is the same as declining to have a second piece of Aunt Sally's Fruit Cake. Sadly, some of today’s younger doctors may never even have seen a truly physiological labor and birth—a birth completely without medical intervention.

Birth is an internal process that is easily disturbed by unnecessary interventions. According to midwife Ina May Gaskin, “sphincters are shy”.

A woman’s dilated cervix can easily close in the presence of disruptive people or actions (cervical reversal). In a normal birth, vaginal exams and other handlings of the perineum during labor are interventions that can interfere with the natural birthing process.

At any other time in our lives, our vagina is considered "private". During birth a woman is told to lay back, open her legs and allow her body to be explored by strangers. A laboring woman loses her dignity, privacy and trust in herself in the hands of the people that she has hired to assist her in this sacred moment.