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Family Stories

Waiting for the angels, chopping the head off a chicken, building a house — twice

Every Man In The Crowd

Nestles Vs. The Newborn

Death, Malnutrition, And The Infant Formula Boom

To the poor, uneducated mother, an obvious solution is stretching the formula by diluting it with more water than is specified on the package, the label of which she probably cannot read. A study conducted in Barbados in 1969 showed that 82% of the mothers were “stretching” the formula. They were making a 4-day can last between 5 days and 3 weeks.

Opened Flesh, Naked Spirit

It was Mara who spoke to the child first, her eyes large and full of her own young comprehension, breaking the silence with one soft word out of her hundred word vocabulary: baby.

Sara Elizabeth Safransky

Born Nov. 3, 1977, 1:45 A.M.

In the depth of my own understanding, I meet you in timeless wonder. I have no conscious memories of our “other lifetimes” together. It doesn’t matter. Your mother, reaching for you, drawing you back to her, reaches across the aeons.

Natural Birth Control, Natural Birth

Book Reviews: A Cooperative Method Of Natural Birth Control And Spiritual Midwifery

I wish I had read this book before giving birth to our daughter, Mara, at home, not because of the many “amazing birthing tales” (I had previously read numerous accounts of homebirths), but because of the attitudes toward labor and delivery expressed in them.

In Utero

Home Vs. Hospital: Everyone Loses

Traditions are cornerstones in any society. They develop out of what are usually common-sense responses to common needs. Usually, the needs are basic and deeply felt, and the responses are simple, becoming more sophisticated and complex as time passes and the society evolves.

Taking Responsibility

You want to give birth to your child naturally. You want childbirth to be a positive experience. You have read about, talked about and surely thought about the labor and birth that lie ahead. Maybe you have taken childbirth classes to prepare yourself.

Blood, Sweat And Tears

Photographs of birth capture what an intense physical event it is: lots of grimacing, blood, nakedness and sweat. A film can transmit much of the emotion of the experience: pants, groans and cries, the anxiety and the joy.