Yes, nepotism is alive and well here on Offbeat Mama! I'm not sure how many of you know this, but my mom Therese is a retired midwife, midwifery advocate, and educator.

Offbeat Mama supports each family choosing a birth plan that's right for them, but it seems like we would be remiss if we didn't take advantage of the fact that my mom's got a massive wealth of knowledge about midwifery … and so I've asked her to write a column for us called Ask the Midwife.

We'll start with a basic Q&A — and then take your questions! -Ariel

What does a midwife do? Why don’t we hear much about them in the U.S?
Midwives attend the majority of normal births in nearly every country in the world except the United States and Canada.

The reason for this is a result of a campaign against midwives in the early 1900’s conducted by the newly forming Medical Profession who hoped to boost their medical practices by attracting women. Another factor was the industrial revolution which resulted in young couples moving away from their extended families, so they no longer knew the local midwives.

Continue reading "Introducing Therese, our resident midwifery advisor (and Ariel's mom)" →

August 16, 2009 is my son Aiden’s one month birthday. It’s crazy to think about all the things that have happened in the last month. Some scary, some absolutely cute. I've been meaning to put the story of his birth down on paper, but been scared to think about it.

I want something I can show to my son once he’s old enough to start asking questions. I hope this will help others in my situation to not feel ashamed (which I still do) or embarrassed.

Continue reading "Yes, it IS possible to not know you were pregnant" →

I've completely fallen in a sweet kind of love with My Parents Were Awesome, one of those single-serving websites that does one thing and one thing only: share vintage shots of awesome parents, all submitted by their kids.

There's a full range of "awesome" represented here — from mellow hippie dads to groovy surfer parents to custom van fans to fabulous geeks.

My new goal: to show up on a site like this 30 years from now, maybe with a ridiculous shot like this? What photo would your kids submit?

Not to brag here, but kids love me. Babies reach out their arms for me, toddlers wipe their sticky little hands on my pants, the older kids wanted me to play and read.

Me? Not so much. I always likened this to the way cats behave. Cats seem to know who doesn’t like them and then they rub and weave around that person’s legs. Kids and me the same thing.

I love my parents, but I just never thought that I would want to be one myself. Then I met a guy who already had a girl in his life. A seven year old girl to be exact, who called him daddy and required a story at bedtime every night.

Continue reading "My step-daughter changed me. And I liked it." →

As we all know, I'm a little obsessed with Pushba, the Russian mama who is clearly not afraid to let her personality shine so bright that it's blinded me here in Seattle, some 5000 miles away.

After stalking all her photos online (I love that the title of her gallery is dont fuck with me – i'm mother), I asked Pushba if I could do a quick interview with her about being an offbeat mama. She agreed (thankfully she speaks English better than I do Russian) and her answers and a few photos and videos are below…

Continue reading "An interview with Pushba, the Russian goth mama" →

Alice Ann was birthed into the world by cesarean at 9:21 in the morning on July 7. She weighed in at 6 pounds 7 ounces, measuring 18 and 3/4 inches long.

Let's backtrack to the 37th week, two weeks before Alice was born. Henry and I went to my weekly check-up together, to have "The Talk" with our doctor. "The Talk" was rendered moot when Alice's breech presentation was discovered on the ultrasound. That one word, BREECH, completely changed the tone of everything.

Continue reading "Birth warrior! Breech babies and birthing plans" →