Is Your Pregnancy Missing Something?

by Dr. Lauryn Brunclik, D.C.
Many pregnant women already understand the importance of eating healthy, getting exercise, and constructing a safe and natural birth plan. Preparing for a healthy pregnancy can be difficult and often involves an entire team of specialists. This team may include an OB/GYN, midwife, doula, nutritionist, yoga instructor, massage therapist, or acupuncturist. [...]

Editor’s Correction: What is a Midwife?

We apologize to Erin Kaspar-Frett for our mistake of calling her a lay midwife in our last issue. Erin explains the difference between a CNM and a lay midwife below.
What is a Midwife?
by Erin Kaspar-Frett
Many might assume that a midwife is a midwife. While in some countries this may be true, in the US, there [...]

PCOS, Female Reproductive Health, and Ayurveda

by Patricia Wickman
It is a joy for practitioners like myself to see people make the leap of faith to add and subtract elements to and from their daily schedule based on ancient wisdom that seems vastly different from Western medicine. Ayurveda literally means the science of life. It is a complete medical system that has [...]

Battling PCOS Naturally: Mother Quest

Evidence that Ayurveda offers hope to individuals who have female reproductive imbalance
by Arwen Rasmussen
After six years of newlywed bliss, an apartment, two cats, and a home loan, my husband and I decided it was finally time to expand the family. We weren’t getting any younger and our friends all had kids, so we thought we [...]

Doula Dedication

by Rhonda Gearing
I have been asked over the course of the last several years, “What is a doula?” Really, the answer can be summed up into three basic words: nurture, empower, and love. To nurture means to supply with nourishment, educate, and to further the development of; empower is to promote the self-actualization or influence; [...]

Natural Birth: A Local Look

Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire
715-717-4121, www.sacredhearteauclaire.org
Traditional OB care as well as Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs). CNMs, like physicians, provide all prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care. CNMs are unique care providers because they are in the hospital well before the birth, offering labor support. Six Marshfield Clinic CNMs practice at Sacred Heart Hospital and women [...]

With Women for a Lifetime

by Martha Nieman, CNM

The term “midwife” means “with woman.” Traditionally, midwives cared for women only during childbirth. The modern certified nurse-midwife (CNM) works with teens and adult women, not only during pregnancy, birth, and lactation, but also with needs related to menstruation, sexuality, family planning, conception, vaginal health, health maintenance, and menopause.
A basic philosophy of [...]

The Advice Sorting Game

by Erin Kaspar-Frett, CPM, LM, MSM
As the mother of almost three children, I have been given my share of advice. Sometimes it is difficult to know what applies to you and what simply wouldn’t work, especially in the first pregnancy. A pregnant woman can easily find herself receiving opinions of everyone from her mother to [...]

The Sport of Mommy Hood

by Lori Heck
Attention all new mommies and mommies to be! You are an ATHLETE! That’s right! You are or are about to enter the arena of multi-movement. Whether it is lifting your child, pushing the stroller, carrying the car seat, bending over to change a diaper, or pulling your screaming toddler out of the [...]