BIRTH SUPPLY CHECKLIST
Get a clear, organized list of what to pack and prepare for a home birth, birth center birth, or hospital birth. This printable checklist includes all must-have items, optional comforts, and practical tips to help you feel ready for your birthing day.
Birthing Tub FAQ
This FAQ and setup guide provides clear, step-by-step instructions for using the a birthing tub safely and effectively. It addresses common concerns about weight, size, setup time, storage, and placement, emphasizing safety precautions such as proper use of the heater and electrical appliances. With these guidelines, parents can confidently prepare their space for labor or birth in the tub, ensuring privacy, accessibility, and comfort for a water birth experience.
A Butcher’s Dozen
Nancy Wainer, CPM
This long-form essay offers a deeply personal, experience-based perspective on VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) from a pioneering midwife who helped bring the concept into public awareness. Through birth stories, historical context, and critique of systemic maternity care practices, Wainer explores themes of bodily autonomy, trust in the birthing process, continuity of care, and the emotional impact of repeat cesareans.
This piece reflects one practitioner’s passionate advocacy and lived experience and is shared to broaden understanding of why some families seek alternatives to routine surgical birth after cesarean.
Ecstatic Birth: Nature’s Hormonal Blueprint for Labor
Dr. Sarah J. Buckley
This article explores birth through the lens of physiology, instinct, and hormonal design, describing how the body is biologically prepared for labor, bonding, and early mothering when birth is supported rather than disrupted.
Drawing on research from endocrinology, neuroscience, and mammalian birth, Dr. Buckley outlines how safety, privacy, and continuity of care influence the release of key hormones that shape the birth experience and the early relationship between parent and baby.
This resource is offered to deepen understanding of why environment, emotional security, and undisturbed care matter—not just for the moment of birth, but for long-term wellbeing.
They Saw It All
Dori Butler & Sheila Kitzinger
This article explores the experience of children witnessing birth—not as a prescription, but as a reflection on family, consent, preparation, and trust. Through personal stories and anthropological insight, it considers how birth can be woven into family life in a way that honors children as perceptive, capable participants when they are well supported. The piece invites families to think thoughtfully about whether, when, and how children are included in birth, emphasizing emotional readiness, honest communication, and respect for each child’s individuality.
Benefits of Waterbirth
Discover why waterbirth is considered a gentle, empowering option for labor and delivery. This document explores how immersion in water can affect comfort, mobility, pain, hormone regulation, labor progression, parental involvement, and even long-term parent-child relationships. Whether you’re curious about how water may support a more natural birth, reduce interventions, or enhance your birth experience, this guide offers detailed insights drawn from research and midwifery practice.