Shoulder Dystocia Demystified

I just gave birth a few weeks ago, at home, by myself, no midwife or birth attendant present. 

I can tell you, as someone who was “free birthing,” shoulder dystocia was one of my biggest fears (that and hemorrhaging, but with my witchy stash of herbs that I have seen firsthand work for stopping hemorrhage, I felt substantially less fearful that hemorrhage would be my downfall), even though as a midwife I’ve learned how rare true shoulder dystocia actually is. 

What is shoulder dystocia, you may be asking? 

It’s a complex scenario in birth when the head of a baby is born, but the shoulders get stuck inside or above the pelvis. The baby becomes stuck inside the mother’s body. 

As you can imagine, that could be a very scary scenario, especially when giving birth by yourself without an experienced attendant there to help intervene! 

I just recently made a video for school about shoulder dystocia and ways to resolve it. I thought I would share it with you, in case you are interested! 

Plus, I love the idea of women midwifing themselves.. 

Not necessarily by being their own midwives in birth, but even if they have hired an outside midwife, being able to understand what the midwife knows.. and feeling that there is a more level playing field, even just energetically. 

Here is the video. 

If you have thoughts, questions, or concerns after watching the video, please let me know! You can just comment on this post and I’ll see your message asap :)