Birth Videos
#1) This very moving ICAN video had me in tears the first time I watched it. I wish all women hoping to have a VBAC could see this!
#2) This one starts right off with the father catching the baby. The midwife sits aside the tub and easily slips a loop of cord off the baby’s shoulder.
#3) Check out the positioning here as the mother pushes. This was her first baby, born in a hospital in Brasil. Notice she has an IV lock in place. Her OB, seen here catching, is not a natural birth advocate and did not want this birth to be a waterbirth, but mama stood her ground. Toward the end you can see the OB check the baby’s heart rate by feeling the cord. Even though this OB is most comfortable in the medical model, you can see that there is virtually no unnecessary interfering with the mom or baby in the moments after the birth.
#4) This one is a great example of ‘spontaneous pushing,’ or allowing the pushing time to come on its own, when mother and baby are ready. The mother’s body begins pushing the baby out automatically, unstoppably, with contractions. She is not being coached/cheered/yelled at to “PUSH!” because her body is already doing it. I also love here how the intensity of the mother’s vocalizations quickly change to whoops of joy immediately as the baby is born.
