HOW IT GOT STARTED

When I was an undergraduate getting my degree in nuclear engineering, I started volunteering with the American Nuclear Society to provide education about nuclear science and nuclear power.  I would help teach workshops where we taught school teachers all about the atom, radiation, and nuclear power plants.  I loved helping people understand the risks and benefits of this amazing clean energy source.

What does this have to do with birth?  A lot, actually.  I learned in my nuclear education work that people, in general, are really terrible at assessing risk.  There is a large gap between perceived risk and actual risk.  None of us are ever taught about risk analysis in school.  We don’t know how to think about risk, calculate risk, or compare risk.  I’ve found this to be true whether we’re talking nuclear physics or birthing a baby.  Almost all people make decisions based on fear and perceived risk, and that usually leads to worse decision making.

“Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.  Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” ~Marie Curie

After I was done having my four babies, I decided to create this resource to help birthing people make better decisions.  I have no agenda to persuade people to make certain decisions over others.  I have personally had a wide range of birth experiences, and I greatly value all types of care providers and all types of birth settings.  Rather, I want to provide a framework to assist people in how to think about the many decisions we have to make during pregnancy and birth.  I also want to help people realize that we can’t truly understand risk without perspective.

I hope the content I have provided will help you make decisions that bring you peace and enable you to have the best birth possible!