AlternativeBirth.org
Art by
  Mara Berendt Friedman

These articles are offered as a resource to investigate alternative views to mainstream pregnancy and childbirth issues. We offer them not as medical advice but as an opportunity to be informed when making health and parenting decisions. The articles linked below do not necessarily represent an opinion of or an endorsement by the Alternative Birth Collective. The articles below marked with asteriks (*) are PDF files that require Adobe Acrobat Reader.waterbirth with midwife

Sections

  1. Critiques of Mainstream Maternity Care (14)
  2. Promoting Normal Birth (6)
  3. Midwifery (7)
  4. Doulas (3)
  5. Childbirth Education (6)
  6. Cesarean Section/VBAC (6)
  7. Homebirth (4)
  8. Waterbirth (1)
  9. Alternative Health Modalities for Pregnancy and Birth (5)
  10. Activism (3)

Critiques of Mainstream Maternity Care

  1. Has the medicalization of childbirth gone too far? Richard Johanson, Mary Newburn, Alison Macfarlane (2002).*
  2. How childbirth went industrial: A deconstruction (2006). Henci Goer
  3. Humanizing birth: A global grassroots effort (2004). Henci Goer.*
  4. The technocratic, humanistic, and holistic paradigms of childbirth (2001). Robbie Davis-Floyd*
  5. Fish can’t see water: The need to humanize childbirth (2001). Marsden Wagner
  6. The active management of labor (2002). Marsden Wagner
  7. The assault on normal birth: The ob disinformation campaign (2002). Henci Goer.
  8. Shifting the medical gaze: Towards a feminist ethic of childbirth (2001). Amy Schriefer
  9. Once a cesarean, always a cesarean: The sorry state of birth choices in America (2004). Nicette Juvelics
  10. “Spin-doctoring” the research (2003). Henci Goer.*
  11. Forced labor (2001). David Goodman
  12. Saying ‘‘No’’ to induction (2006). Judith A. Lothian.*
  13. Childbearing women’s fears: At the heart of ‘‘choice’’ (2003). Judith A. Lothian.*
  14. Why keep on keeping on? (2005). Penny Simkin.*waterbirth with midwife

Promoting Normal Birth

  1. Normal birth: Two stories (2002). Roberta M. Scaer.*
  2. Birth stories, birth advocates, and evidence for promoting normal birth (2005). Sharron S. Humenick.*
  3. Childbirth educators, doulas, nurses, and women respond to the six care practices for normal birth (2004). Marilyn Curl, Rae Davies, Sheila Lothian, Debra Pascali-Bonaro, Roberta Scaer and Allison Walsh.*
  4. Advanced preparation and positive labor support create an optimal experience for normal birth (2006). Mary Ann Stark and Marissa Jones.*
  5. Promoting, protecting, and supporting normal birth (2003). Lamaze International Education Council and Judith Lothian.*
  6. Pain in Labor: your hormones are your helpers (2005). Sarah J. Buckley
  7. ‘‘Reality’’ birth: Marketing fear to childbearing women (2003). Judith A. Lothian and Ann Grauer.*

Midwifery

  1. Midwifery's renaissance (2007). Marsden Wagner, MD.
  2. Drugs, knives and midwives (2007). Elizabeth Larsen.
  3. The best birth for you (2007). Alyssa Ford.
  4. Envisioning outcomes from choosing the midwifery model of perinatal care (2005). Casey Goldberg.*
  5. “Midwifery as a reproductive right.” Deborah Cordero Fiedler and Robbie Davis-Floyd.*
  6. Daughter of time: The postmodern midwife (2003). Robbie Davis-Floyd.*
  7. Mutual accommodation or biomedical hegemony? Anthropological perspectives on global issues in midwifery (2000). Robbie Davis-Floyd.homebirth with midwife

Doulas

  1. Doula support and attitudes of intrapartum nurses: A qualitative study from the patient’s perspective (2006). Karla Papagni, BS and Ellen Buckner.*
  2. Doulas as Community Health Workers: Lessons Learned from a Volunteer Program (2006). Lisa Kane Low, Amy Moffat, Patty Brennan.*
  3. Childbirth Education and Doula Care During Times of Stress, Trauma, and Grieving (2003). Debra Pascali-Bonaro.*

Childbirth Education

  1. Teaching normal birth interactively (2005). Barbara A. Hotelling.*
  2. Advancing normal birth: Organizations, goals, and research (2005). Barbara A. Hotelling and Sharron S. Humenick.*
  3. Toward more evidence-based practice (2005). Barbara A. Hotelling.*
  4. A childbirth educator speaks out for increased advocacy for normal birth (2006). Anne Boyd.*
  5. Helping Hospitals Change: Part 1: What Childbirth Educators Can Do (2005). Debra Bingham.*
  6. Helping Hospitals Change Part 2: Childbirth Education Techniques to Empower Women (2005). Debra Bingham.*

Cesarean/VBACcesarean birth

  1. Increasing cesarean birth rates: A clash of cultures? (2005). Mary Lou Moore.*
  2. Previous Traumatic Birth: An Impetus for Requested Cesarean Birth (2003). Patti Spiegelberg Gardner.*
  3. The Cesarean Catastrophe (2006). Judith A. Lothian.*
  4. Addressing the increased cesarean birth rate in the United States (2006). Sharron S. Humenick.*
  5. Patient-Choice Vaginal Delivery? ( 2006). Lawrence M. Leeman and Lauren A. Plante.*
  6. Does epidural analgesia increase rate of cesarean section? (2006).Michael C. Klein.*

Home Birth

  1. Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America. (2005). Kenneth C. Johnson and Betty-Anne Daviss. British Medical Journal
  2. Home Birth—Why It's Necessary (2007). Ina May Gaskin.
  3. Home birth: safely protecting and supporting normal birth (2002). Judith A. Lothian.homebirth with midwife
  4. Home Birth: The Wave of the Future? (2006). Judith A. Lothian.*
  5. Birth, Simply (2006). Mary Gibbons.*

Waterbirth

  1. Randomised controlled trial of labouring in water compared with standard of augmentation for management of dystocia in first stage of labour (2004). Elizabeth R Cluett, Ruth M Pickering, Kathryn Getliffe, Nigel James St George Saunders.*

Alternative Health Modalities for Pregnancy and Birth

  1. Electro-Acupuncture in Relieving Labor Pain (2007). Fan Qu and Jue Zhou.*
  2. The use of CAM by women suffering from nausea and vomiting during pregnancy (2002). Taras Hollyer, Heather Boon, Alexia Georgousis, Michael Smith and Adrienne Einarson.*
  3. Hypnosis Antenatal Training for Childbirth (HATCH): a randomised controlled trial (2006). Allan M Cyna, Marion I Andrew, Jeffrey S Robinson, Caroline A Crowther, Peter Baghurst, Deborah Turnbull, Graham Wicks and Celia Whittle.*
  4. Complementary and Alternative Therapies (2002). Mary Lou Moore.*
  5. Women’s evaluation of intrapartum nonpharmacological pain relief methods used during labor (2002). Sylvia T. Brown, Carol Douglas, LeeAnn Plaster Flood.*

Activism

  1. Activist for Change: An Interview with Suzanne Arms (2002). Elaine Zwelling.*
  2. Anthropology and Birth Activism: What Do We Know? Robbie Davis-Floyd.*
  3. How the safe motherhood quilt began: It’s purpose (2006). Ina May Gaskin.
  4. 50 ways to protest a VBAC denial. (2006) Barbara Stratton