My service is dedicated to offering quality prenatal care, birth and postnatal follow-up care to women and families in the greater Des Moines, Iowa community. I specialize in very personalized relationship building-- and optimal , not adequate care--during this special time of life. The Zaffos Family - 24 hours post welcoming new baby boy, Corbin Michael, into their circle of love!
A lovely home birth on a beautiful mid-September morning - couldn't get much better than this! Fast forward to Saturday night, around 9pm I get a message that she's been having contractions and this could be it. So I tried to do the smart thing and lay down and rest. Around pm I sleep through the text telling me to come Here begins the journey of what the next 12 hours would hold.
I do hope these photos help to capture even a glimpse at how incredible the miracle of birth is, how good our God is, and help us to embrace every moment! Please enjoy a recent photo journal of 'Sylvie's Birth" at home! Photographed by Stephanie Doll Click here to view the photos. Booby Traps Series: Obstetrical practices are making late milk-coming-in the new normal. A compelling article about homebirth can be found on Babble. Birth Wars: Who's really winning the homebirth debate?
If you look at scientific literature, you find over and over again that many interventions increase risk to mother and child instead of decreasing it. When I ask my medical students to describe their image of a woman who elects to birth with a midwife rather than with an obstetrician, they generally describe a woman who wears long cotton skirts, braids her hair, eats only organic vegan food, does yoga, and maybe drives a VW microbus.
What they don't envision is the omnivorous, pants-wearing science geek standing before them. Indeed, they become downright confused when I go on to explain that there was really only one reason why my mate -- an academic internist -- and I decided to ditch our obstetrician and move to a midwife: Our midwife could be trusted to be scientific, whereas our obstetrician could not. Many medical students, like most American patients, confuse science and technology.
