Babble.com’s Blog

She has been called the "midwife of modern midwifery" and lectures around the world on safe motherhood and "sphincter law." The midwifery center she founded on The Farm, a commune in Tennessee, has become world famous for hosting thousands of births, including vaginal twins, breech and VBAC, and for its unparalleled statistics — in thirty years, just 1.4% of women who gave birth on The Farm needed a cesarean. Ina May Gaskin even has an obstetric maneuver named after her. Now, her best-selling Ina May's Guide to Childbirth has a new follow-on, Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding (Bantam), out this month. Babble asked how she makes it looks so easy. Read More »

Like a lot of babies, when my daughter Roxie was still in her first year she had a certain reticence around strangers. At the time, we chalked it up to separation anxiety otherwise known as "please don't pass me to Granny or Grandpa or I'll scream my head off." Read More »

Two years ago, passport and frequent flier number tucked in her diaper bag, our four-month-old daughter, Eloise, wound through the cobbled streets of Fez, Morocco strapped to my husband's chest. Slabs of raw meat hung from butchers' stalls and the smell of freshly dyed leather and Moroccan spices filled the ancient walled city. Our little "worm," as my husband, Brian, calls her, craned her neck to absorb the scenes. Women and children kissed her cheeks and hands in the market. And like the mysterious Islamic call to prayer sounding overhead, we experienced something spiritual — sharing our passion for travel with our infant daughter. By the end of her first year, we had hit Morocco, England (twice), and Cameroon. Despite our excitement over our baby's adventures, we caught grief from friends and family about dragging our infant around the world. Read More »

What are the 3 most common mistakes parents make when visiting the optometrist? Expert: Dr. Leanne Liddicoat, a VSP Vision Care network optometrist. 1. Confusing those school screenings with eye exams. "Too often, these quick screenings give parents a false sense of security. Parents think because their child's eyes have been checked in school, they don't need to see an optometrist, which isn't the case. In fact, sometimes screenings actually do more harm than good because it leaves many vision problems undetected. It's crucial that parents know the difference between eye exams and screenings. Only optometrists can see the health and development of your child's retinas and eye muscles." Read More »

When my son was born, it was a packed house. No less than ten people were on hand when, after almost fifty hours of labor in the hospital, he was vacuum-suctioned out of his mother. Nurses, the midwife, the on-call vacuum-specialist (a woman who seemed to swoop in out of nowhere, making the last-minute birthing hail Mary) and a few doctors were all on hand. Outside in the waiting room were all the members of my wife's side of the family (mine live far away, but were sitting by the phone, waiting to hear the outcome). Read More »

What are the 3 most common mistakes parents make when visiting the optometrist? Read More »

My husband and I are atheists. My husband's parents are devout Christians. My three year-old daughter loves spending time at her grandparents' house reading their countless old books. Recently she discovered the old Sunday school books filled with childish versions of Biblical stories. She loves sitting on her grandmother's lap and listening to these stories — as any story she gets to hear in her grandmother's lap. She has not yet asked any questions about what she reads, but I am anxiously trying to decide how to answer the inevitable question, "What is god?" My husband and I hope our children will one day discover their own truths about god, based on all sorts of different exposures — when they are old enough to weigh information and make educated decisions; not through indoctrination. How do we explain to our young child this concept we adamantly don't believe in, without potentially offending her grandparents? -Are You There God? Its Me, Mommy Read More »