The exceptional patient is the person who, despite their diagnosis, takes charge of their health and decides to be responsible to their illness or their condition and not necessarily feel responsible for it. One stance is drenched in blame and the other is full of power.

Shame cannot exist in conditions of light, sunshine, and humor. So the very moment that you share your most shameful moments - and can learn to laugh about them - then the spell is lifted. And you, too, are free.

natural birth is full of magnificent, life-changing wisdom.

I keep my center by [surrounding] myself with like-minded people who I can call and visit with and simply be with.

Those who think of themselves as healthy are indeed healthy - no matter what is really going on with their bodies.

Imagine what might happen if women emerged from their labor beds with a renewed sense of the strength and power of their bodies, and of their capacity for ecstasy through giving birth

If we lived in a culture that valued women's autonomy and in which men and women practiced cooperative birth control, the abortion issue would be moot.