On Blogging

This is a little off-topic, but worth the keystrokes. In the past week or so, I have been amazed at the wealth of perspectives out there via blogs and sites dedicated to birth and women's reproductive rights! (If you hadn't noticed, I've lagged a bit on this whole networking thing - it's about time that I caught up, eh?!) The whole blog-roll thing, where you can "add" your favorite blogs and see when they add a new post, right on your own page? Genius! And - even better - the blog rolls on those blogs, which lets you peek (and piggyback onto) at other awesome, relevant blogs, since oftentimes you have similar interests.

Yesterday, I was fascinated reading about anterior lips (really, they aren't so bad at all!) on Midwife Thinking's blog (read it here... please! http://midwifethinking.com/ I'm so glad I did, especially since we had a persistent, stubborn one last night - long story, I couldn't "help" with it, but... I so wanted to after reading this blog!)

I also was sucked into Stand and Deliver's blog. (It started off innocently enough with a journey into some relief measures for sinus troubles - hello, Neti pot!) but then I clicked on an older post - "Birth Around the World, My Alien Baby" is a title that kind of grabs your eye, I guess" (http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2011/01/birth-around-world-my-alien-baby.html) and was hooked. A great birth story shared by one of Stand and Deliver's blog readers, it was the reader's own birth (her mother birthed her in Azerbaijan) and then the story of her own daughter (which, of course, didn't go exactly as planned). Beautiful writing, and a poignant message. Today's posting (http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2011/01/birth-around-world-vbac-in-tajikistan.html) was similarly heart-hitting - another in her "Birth Around the World" series... I'm loving them, and the perspective they provide those of us just starting out and feeling like we are sheltered in the "same old, same old."

And, of course, there are the "thank god for you!" bloggers -- the ones that I know are right there with me. The student-midwives (or students in general), or new nurse-midwives, who are starting to feel their way through the paths of being "with woman". When so much rests in your hands, it's so comforting to know that there are others out there feeling the same things (a little anxiety, a bit of fear, much joy, love, excitement, trepidation, confusion, and all of the other feelings in the spectrum from here to there) on a daily - and hourly - basis. Life of a Student-Nurse Midwife, With Woman The First Year, Rainbows and Pony Rides, At Your Cervix, and all of the others that I hope to find as time goes on... this ones for us!