HOT WOMEN- REVISITED

In reality, there was much larger movement among white men than among white women. As we found in our battleground research for Democracy Corps , after the Democratic convention, 48 percent of white men supported McCain, a number that increased to 58 percent after the Republican convention.

In contrast, the movement among white women was more muted. Just after the Democratic convention, white women supported Obama by 3 points, 48 to 45 percent. Those numbers flipped to 46 to 50 percent in McCain's favor after the Republican convention. Moreover, there is convincing evidence that Democratic voters who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries moved to a place of even greater support to Barack Obama.

The CBS News poll showed 63 percent of Hillary supporters would vote for Obama prior to the Republican convention; afterwards this number was 74 percent. In our Democracy Corps research, 83 percent of Clinton primary supporters now cast their vote for Obama. No doubt, Obama needs to perform more strongly with women voters to win this election.

In the battleground, he currently wins women voters by 5 points; Kerry only won women by 3 points, while Clinton won women by 7 points in As an international midwife, Barbara Harper travels globally educating care providers about waterbirth. Because of this, she has the opportunity to observe different labor and delivery practices in hospitals around the world. At one point in our conversation, she brought up India.

Despite having access to water birth, most hospital births there are not gentle. Many women in India receive episiotomies, even those giving birth in water. Their care providers often say that Indian women are just smaller, and therefore inadequate to stay intact while giving birth.

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• How to Prevent Tearing During Birth, Revisited?

Ironically, there is a large Indian population in the UK giving birth and not needing episiotomies. When using the suggestions in this article to prevent tearing, and not just moving what happens in some hospital beds to a birthing tub, women will experience more gentle births and intact perineums. Living a healthy lifestyle and eating nourishing foods during pregnancy is the foundation to a healthy pregnancy, natural birth, and happy postpartum. For an amazing resource on eating well during pregnancy, check out Lily Nichols Real Food for Pregnancy.

Backed by well documented research, Nichols helps parents choose the best foods for a healthy pregnancy, natural birth, and happy postpartum. According to the research, the best thing a care provider can do to help prevent tearing is to keep their hands off, but hands poised instead. This means perineal massage , a standard practice in many communities, needs to go. Perineal massage is when a care provider pre-stretches the perineum, labia and vulva all the things during the pushing stage, right before crowning. With lubricating jelly, a nurse, doctor or midwife places two fingers in the vagina, and pushes down and side to side, over and over again.

This practice actually swells the skin and tissues, making a woman more likely to tear. Perineal massage, when done during pregnancy, has been shown to reduce the risk of an episiotomy with first time moms. However, in my experience, this risk is drastically reduced by choosing the right care provider. Have a talk with your care provider and ask them about their episiotomy rates. I bet the conversation will be very interesting!

A consequence of this is that nurses are managing most of the labors, including the pushing stage. This also means that nurses provide perineal massage, solely because this is the expectation. Nurses, you have the ability to change the birthing culture in your hospital , simply by following evidence based practices, instead of doing what everyone else is doing. Sure, maybe a more hands-on approach makes more sense with a woman that has an epidural — she likely needs more feedback from you to make progress. However, encourage unmedicated mothers to follow their instincts with your fingers out of their vaginas.

She too, is walking in the unknown. A wonderful compromise to being completely hands off are to use warm compresses, which are gentle, so simple, and easily accessible. The warmth of the compress, coupled with firm support to the perineum, has been shown to decrease tearing. Minimizing tearing during birth can be facilitated by care providers when they give the opportunity for baby to be born during two contractions — one for the head and the second for the body — and not just one.

After the head is born, by allowing the baby to instinctively rotate on its own and waiting for the mother to experience another involuntary push, the body will be given the space it needs to birth in a gentle way.

Having said that, I realize this is a tall ask of most care providers. My midwife, however, impressed it upon me that I should continue to push and get him out NOW. Based on how my midwife was acting, it seemed like an emergency.

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However, years later I looked at my records and there was no huge lapse in time after his head was born. My body was just waiting for the next contraction. It was affirming to see this happen with no adverse affects. During this challenging time, grab a cup of tea or sit on your hands.

Every 30 seconds after that, try a new position until baby is born. At your next prenatal appointment, ask your care provider a few key questions to gauge their character and how they operate. Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts about reducing tearing during birth. Your email address will not be published.