2 weeks, 5 days to go

Found this article on Midwifery Today this morning:
http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/SavingLives.asp

It discusses the use of Yunnan Paiyao (a Chinese herb) to treat third-stage postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), maternal sepsis, and shock. Of course, there is more to midwifery than knowledge of herbs, but this remedy seems to be incredibly powerful and useful in otherwise frightening circumstances (like PPH, which is universally dreaded by midwives and obstetricians, although studies show that a midwife's handling of birth is less likely to lead to PPH than an obstetricians' management -- the later being, usually, non-physiological).

But the reason why I'm posting about this article on Yunnan Paiyao is not because of the herb itself (though I'd also like to have it here on my blog as a reminder to myself to investigate this herb further, perhaps as a research project in my third year). What I liked especially is the following neat synopsis of what differentiates postpartum care under a midwife, from - implicitly - postpartum care under a physician. The author writes: "Long-lasting maternal health is dependent on more than urgent life-saving measures, techniques or single remedies. It has so much to do with full postpartum support through nutrition, adequate rest, 24-hour home care, childcare for older siblings, holistic supplements and remedies, well-established breastfeeding, mother-baby bonding, psychological ease, spiritual integration of the birth experience and a will to live."