Labor of Love Midwifery

03/20/2026

Pregnancy brings many incredible changes to the body, and sometimes those changes come with unexpected sensations. One common experience many expecting mothers notice is sharp or aching pain in the lower abdomen or groin area. This discomfort is often linked to something called round ligament pain, a completely normal part of pregnancy for many women. 🤰

The round ligaments are strong, rope-like structures that support the uterus. As the baby grows and the uterus expands, these ligaments stretch to accommodate the increasing size and weight. Because they run from the uterus down toward the groin and p***c bone, the stretching can sometimes cause sudden, sharp pain or a dull ache that radiates through the lower belly and pelvic area.

Many women describe this sensation as a quick stabbing pain when they stand up suddenly, roll over in bed, cough, sneeze, or change positions quickly. The image illustrates how the ligament extends from the uterus toward the groin, which explains why the pain often appears in a V-shaped pattern across the lower abdomen and pelvic region. While the sensation can feel alarming at first, it is usually a natural result of the body adapting to pregnancy.

There are a few simple ways expecting mothers can reduce the discomfort. Moving slowly when changing positions, gently supporting the belly with your hands, maintaining good posture, and practicing light prenatal stretching can help ease strain on the ligaments. Some women also find relief by using a maternity support belt or resting briefly when the pain appears.

It’s important to remember that every pregnancy is unique. While round ligament pain is very common—especially during the second trimester when the uterus grows rapidly—persistent or severe pain should always be discussed with a healthcare provider to ensure everything is progressing normally.

Pregnancy is a remarkable journey where the body continually adapts to nurture new life. Understanding the reasons behind these changes can help expecting mothers feel more confident, prepared, and reassured along the way. 💛



Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and should not replace professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider regarding pregnancy-related symptoms or concerns.

03/20/2026

03/12/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CKP53v6PK/

🚨 Let’s Talk About Circumcision: The Truth Most American Parents Don’t Know 🚨

Most of the parents in my natural birth and parenting communities choose not to circumcise—and there’s a reason. There’s no clear, routine medical benefit, and there is real harm. I’ve been teaching on this topic for years.

In the U.S., it’s more common than in most other nations, but the rates are falling. Less than half of baby boys born in hospitals today leave circumcised, and that number has been dropping for years.

But here’s the part too many parents don’t hear about:

📸 Last year, a newborn boy in NYC named Cole nearly bled to death after a routine hospital circumcision, according to his parents. This is real and happens every year. Many baby boys die as a result of infant circumcision, though the media hasn't been keen on reporting on it until more recently, perhaps because the tide is turning on American parents' opinion and they're finally ready to receive the truth. They say that within hours of the procedure, Cole lost so much blood he suffered damage to major organs and was left fighting for his life. His family described it as living a “nightmare” no parent should ever face.

💔 I’ve had mothers in my natural birth and parenting communities who have lost their baby boys to circumcision — not “rare complications,” but tragedies. Others have had sons with botched circumcisions that required revision surgeries, and in some cases amputations. These aren’t stories to dismiss — they are warnings.

Most men don’t even know what was done to them, and many are unaware that lifelong health issues can be linked to it. It’s a travesty.

⚠️ Hard truths most parents aren’t told:

Circumcision was originally promoted not for health but to deter pleasure.

No major medical organization in the world recommends routine infant circumcision.

A male neonate can lose up to 25% of potential pe**le growth from circumcision.

The fo****in has immunological and protective functions that benefit health and sensation.

👶 Trauma isn’t just physical:
Some think babies are “fine” because they don’t scream loudly—but research shows that those babies experience significant neurological stress and shock from the trauma of circumcision. They simply can’t verbally communicate the pain the way older children or adults can. The next time you hear someone say, "it's so much easier when they're babies because they won't remember the pain," you may want to give that person a primer in how trauma works. Recollection of the trauma isn't necessary for it to have lasting effects.

🚫 Anesthesia isn’t a solution:
Proper anesthesia isn’t possible in newborns due to nerve development and safety risks. That doesn’t mean they don’t feel pain — it means they can’t communicate it. They feel it deeply. The data shows their brains are permanently rewired from this trauma.

⚖️ Just as the medical industry has misled and harmed women in childbirth, it has done the same to men with circumcision — normalizing the unnecessary violation of a child’s body in the name of “medicine.”

💙 For parents reading this:
Before you agree to anything permanent happening to your child’s body, inform yourself about the procedures, the risks, the outcomes — and understand that bodily autonomy matters, no matter how common a practice seems.

We’re here to protect women and our future men. Please take this seriously.

02/20/2026

🍼🫶🏽 This is a lactating breast. Not cysts. Not inflammation. Not “toxic buildup.

Those little bubble-looking spaces?

They’re called alveoli and they’re where milk is made. ✨

Breasts are made up of thousands of tiny milk-producing sacs, clustered into lobules, all connected by a branching highway of ducts 🛣️🧬 that carry milk toward the ni**le.

When milk is present, those alveoli can look:
💧rounded
💧pale or white
💧full and distended

That white you’re seeing?
🥛 That’s milk.

Not stored in one big “reservoir.”

Not sitting in pockets.

Milk is made continuously in these tiny sacs and released when your body gets the signal, like baby suckling, hand expression, pumping, touch, even thinking about your baby 💞

🌸 A few important things most people were never taught:

🩸 Breasts are highly vascular, especially in pregnancy and lactation. All that blood flow supports milk production.
🧠 Milk ejection is hormonal, not mechanical. Oxytocin matters. Safety matters.
📚 This anatomy is normal. Functional. Brilliant.

So if you’ve ever seen images like this labeled as “disease,” “abnormal,” or “concerning”… that’s not your body being wrong, that’s education being missing.

✨ Your body doesn’t fail at feeding.
✨ Your breasts aren’t broken.
✨ This system has sustained human life for thousands of years.

Milk-making isn’t simple.

It’s alive, responsive, and powerful.

And it deserves to be understood, not feared. 🫶🏽🍼

♥️This is a conceptual illustration, not a literal or to-scale image of breast anatomy. It’s meant to show how milk-producing structures relate to ducts and blood supply, not what you would see in a real dissection. The physiology is real but the proportions are illustrative like what we would see in medical education all the time because real anatomy is too small, complex, and layered to photograph clearly sometimes. We often use illustrations in anatomy textbooks, lactation education, and physiology lectures.♥️

-Love,
Badassmotherbirther

𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞, & 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭!
Salud Articular

02/14/2026

Midwifery regulation has gone so wrong everywhere else. They are not allowed to attend breach, twins, mothers over 35, VBACs...
Keep your birth options and decisions in your own hands.

Please continue to reach out to your representatives and tell them midwives do not belong under the Board of Health!

Call the Switch Board @ 601-359-3770 and tell your representative to vote “NO!!!!!!” to HB1389.

Hands and Hearts Birth & Wellness says this so well 👏👇

If you’ve had a home birth…more so if you’ve had more than one… you know there is no standard in how your care flows each time. Everyone is different. Every pregnancy is different. Every birth experience is different.

Midwives should be the governing voice for midwives.

The “advisory” aspects should not be on the midwifery side, but directed towards those not in a position of understanding community-based midwifery practices.

Governing voices for doctors come from doctors. Governing voices for nurses come from nurses. Each profession has a large say in their own governance.

Except in this bill. This bill places authority on other shoulders. This bill creates a position where midwives are subordinate to the Department of Health.

Unfortunately, in the state of Mississippi, the Department of Health has an unpleasant history when it comes to midwives.

That’s a hard thing to shake free of when over many decades that disconnect between the DOH and the medical system at large has been so prominent for us as midwives.

The bigger picture does not bear out this Bill as being protective.

01/23/2026

It's that time of year again...
The new bill proposed to regulate Midwifery under the board of health in Mississippi
HB1389
Vote NO
Call your representatives

12/08/2025

11/23/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17Y1d63LVw/

11/23/2025

Research tells us that babies who co-sleep in infancy, especially in those early years get around 13,000 extra hours of touch.

Thirteen thousand.

Because when you keep your baby close, day and night, they’re getting 10 to 12 extra hours a day of your skin, your warmth, your presence.

That’s not spoiling.
That’s wiring.

Touch is brain food.
It releases oxytocin, serotonin…
It lowers cortisol.

It teaches your baby’s body how to feel safe.
How to come back to calm.

We actually have studies showing
co -sleeping babies have lower stress reactivity meaning their little bodies bounce back from stress faster.

That’s not dependence.
That’s coregulation.
That’s safety being built from the inside out.

So the next time you’re contact napping,
bed sharing, doing whatever gets you both some rest and someone tells you you’re creating bad habits, remember this ~

You’re not creating a clingy baby.
You’re creating a resilient one 🖤

The Breastmilk Queen - Amy McGlade 🥰