If you think you've had your fill of weeds, think again...

photo by Barbara Damrosch

In today's Washington Post article, "Foraging for dandelions, that edible weed," writer Barbara Damrosch tells us about "dandelions, that edible weed." She writes that dandelion weeds are full of vitamins and minerals and delicious tossed with a light vinaigrette, coarse salt, cracked pepper, and herbs - and topped with a fresh soft-boiled egg.

Free online cooking series on natural sweeteners

Join WISDOM mom, Cameron Laurent, for Naturally Sweet, a free, online cooking series on how to use natural sweeteners to help with sugar cravings. This program is perfect for pregnant moms -- and anyone else --  looking to reduce sugar in their diets.

Naturally Sweet
When: March 26-April 8, 2012
Where: Your computer (it's a virtual program)
Cost: Free

Practicing with The Pearls: Primary Cesarean Prevention at The George Washington University

Whitney Pinger was selected to present Practicing with The Pearls: Primary Cesarean Prevention at The George Washington University at the 2012 conference of the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

WISDOM Midwifery at The George Washington University is demonstrating that, when applied to clinical practice, and faithfully followed, The Pearls optimize a woman’s chances of having a normal vaginal delivery.

The Pearls have led to what Pinger calls Primary Cesarean Prevention. When The Pearls are our clinical guides – and we are supported by practice laws that make midwives independent providers and OB Departments that consider midwives Attending Providers and Clinical Professors – a Cesarean Section Rate of less then 5% can be achieved.

Video: What babies learn before they're born

Watch this fascinating video of a talk by science writer Annie Murphy Paul about her work on what a fetus learns before birth: What babies learn before they're born

Murphy Paul is author of Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives and writes a weekly column at Time.com called Brilliant: The Science of Smart.

Soulfull Wellness: WISDOM Mom Writes About Nourishing Your Life

One of our WISDOM women writes Soulfull Wellness, a blog about nourishing your life from inside and out. Find recipes for healthy eating, ideas for healthy being, and thoughts on motherhood.

We recommend an especially touching and poignant post on breastfeeding: When Breast Isn't Best.

Whitney Pinger and WISDOM profiled in the Washington City Paper

Whitney Pinger and the WISDOM Midwifery practice at the GW MFA is profiled in a new piece in the Washington City Paper.

Read the story: "Real Midwives of D.C"

Here's an excerpt:

Pinger says she was first exposed to the idea of natural birth in a high-school biology class and apprenticed with local midwives. At the University of California-Berkeley, she wavered between medical school and midwifery school until visiting the Frontier Nursing Service in rural Kentucky, one of the country’s first midwifery practices. “I really didn’t like the operating room,” Pinger says. “My tribe was the midwives.”....

Nowadays, Pinger says, her vision for maternity care is bigger than GW: She wants to see what has happened there go national. “The model is definitely replicable,” she says. “Doctors, nurses, midwives—we can do it all, high-risk and low-risk women, all together.”

This may be the moment to go forth. Concern of a workforce crisis in obstetrics, combined with a new swell of activism around birth issues, spurred by The Business of Being Born and the book Pushed, present a political climate ripe for collaboration. Those involved in promoting this kind of maternity care say they see an awakening among consumers about what kind of birth they want to have.

Pregnant mom dances herself into labor at 40+ weeks [video]

What a great video! A woman who is 40+ weeks pregnant with twins dances herself into labor to "Let's Get it Started."

The mom writes: “Trying to induce our twins at 40+ weeks after trying everything else. I went into labor two days later and had a natural, un-medicated hospital birth (with the support of my awesome husband and our amazing midwives).” Here's the video.

Primary Cesarean Prevention: New Initiative Headed by Whitney Pinger, CNM

Whitney Pinger, CNM, Director of WISDOM Midwifery at The George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates, puts her Pearls for Normal Birth into clinical practice, and she and her staff of talented midwives follow them faithfully. As a result, she is demonstrating that following “The Pearls” optimizes a woman’s chances of having a normal vaginal delivery.

As Whitney explains it, "With the Pearls as our clinical guides -- and with policies that respect the independent practice of midwives -- we can achieve a cesarean rate of less than 5%." Practicing with "The Pearls" is the essence of the new initiative, Primary Cesarean Prevention.

The story of WISDOM at GW Hospital

Read about WISDOM
Midwifery at GW Hospital

Here's the story of how WISDOM and Whitney Pinger's team of midwives came to be at GW Hospital -- and their model of care:

"Choosing Natural Childbirth: Options Offer Women the Best of Both Worlds" (pages 4-5) in the Fall 2011 issue of the GWU Hospital Health News.

The bottom line: Overall, the midwives at GW Hospital have a vaginal delivery rate of nearly 95% and a C-section rate of less than 5%. Meanwhile, the national cesarean section rate is 32% (as of 2007).

The story of two births: one with midwives, the other on a 24-hour clock

by Ami Thakkar
I gave birth to my baby daughter at the GW Midwife Center with Whitney Pinger in early 2011 in a starkly different experience than I had two years back at Sibley when I gave birth to my son.

I live overseas in Lao, PDR, and came back to Washington D.C. (which is my permanent home) to give birth after Whitney and I stayed in touch over email and phone while I was living abroad. 

I was able to have a natural vaginal birth (in fact, it was a VBAC) because of Whitney's care and support. She knew all the right things to say and do, beginning at the moment I started having contractions. At every stage, she was able to give me the right advice to help my contractions develop and to make my breathing and laboring and pushing as effective as possible. I trust her 100%. I also want to commend the nursing staff at GW Hospital whom I found extremely attentive and caring, with their priority always being the mother and baby.

In contrast, when I had my baby boy at Sibley, the doctors were extremely aggressive and put me on a 24-hour time clock to have my baby. They immediately started me on pitocin, even though they knew my strong desire was to have a natural birth. They poked and prodded me on the hour and after 26 hours, I had to end up getting a c-section. I felt the hospital was more interested in selling me things than taking care of me and my baby. Within 24 hours of giving birth, I was visited by professional photo company and asked if I wanted to buy nursing bras. In addition to this, the nurses pushed for my newborn to have formula, when I wanted to exclusively breastfeed. I am 100% convinced that if I had been with Whitney for my first birth, it would have also been a natural vaginal delivery. I know this because she would have given me very different advice than what the doctors at Sibley had given me. 

I can only hope that the medical field will fully back and support Whitney and the midwifery field.