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Hello and welcome to Midwifery Today's newest blog. My name is Donna Dolezal Zelzer and I've been the Marketing Director at Midwifery Today since 1993. I love my job - marketing is fun and it's great to be able to promote something I really...
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A therapist once asked me, “Why don’t you feel any anger or resentment toward your parents?” I didn’t have an answer for her except to say, “I remember so little.” What I do remember is shrouded in dreams and impressions. I do recall the self-destructive...
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I am a survivor of multiple traumas. I was sexually assaulted multiple times as a teenager starting at age 12. I told no one for 20 years…the healing has been slow. In college, I lived in the highlands of Guatemala and was there when an earthquake measuring...
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Marion Toepke McLean , who has written Marion’s Message from Issue #1 in Midwifery Today is serving in Uganda for 2 months. She has retired from her job at Planned Parenthood but not from Midwifery Today! She is my mentor and my friend. Love, Jan...
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My husband and I chose to have a homebirth with a midwife and a doula. The labor was progressing quickly and my midwife explained that I was almost at 10 cm. I was excited that I would begin to push soon but then the contractions changed. The contractions...
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I have thought a lot about “Birth is a Human Rights Issue,” possibly because of hearing so many brutal birth stories. We have been publishing Midwifery Today for 24 years, since 1986. In those years of publishing birth and midwifery information...
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Out of Clouded Waters Water pools where long have hidden my truths. Dusty fragments of past gather there and settle. I keep the pond still, ringless until calm is lost under storm of day to day. She rises from the water, thread-bare and stained dusty...
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For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. (John 3:16) “You were so ugly the nurses in the hospital called you Monkey. I called you Peanut. I felt so sorry for you when you were born, you didn’t even weigh five pounds. I always felt...
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When I was two, my first abuser came into my life. He was soon to become my stepfather, and by all accounts, it was to be the worst thing that could have happened to us. He was physically abusive to my mother, beating her nearly every day. He beat us...
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My parents were ahead of their time. Though I am technically a Baby Boomer, I have always felt a greater kinship with those that are a few years younger than me. When the characteristics of Generation X are compared with the Boomers, I identify more with...
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I am a survivor of both childhood sexual abuse and Rape as a young adult, but I am so much more than that. I am a woman, a mother, a wife, and a daughter. I am a soul. I have had many experiences in my life, some of which have been incredibly painful...
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I don’t remember how old I was when my dad started fondling me. I know I was always a very shy and withdrawn child. My dad was a heavy drinker and also read and looked at pornographic magazines. My mom tried to instill her values in her children. I have...
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Midwives are called upon to help each of their clients have the best birth possible. As many as one in three or four women have suffered sexual abuse or rape. The effects of such abuse often play out in the childbearing year, as well as in other aspects...
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There is no question that my past abuse history had a major impact on my ability to handle even the thought of having children, my pregnancy, birth and adjustment to parenting. From the moment I fell pregnant I went into a total depression – even before...
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When you remember, you remember...Sounds a bit like Yogi Berra in a TV commercial. But for me, the words ring a profound truth. In the autumn of 1998, right after I began therapy for incest, I attended a conference for survivors. I felt so jealous of...