Oxytocin is the hormone of love. We share it when we have a good conversation, we share it when we make love, and when we hug, and BIRTH is the biggest brightest time of rich oxytocin-sharing.

My first experience of having a baby was about as natural as birth can be, and though I didn't know it at the time, it set my feet on a path that eventually led me to become a childbirth author and a midwife.

After disasters, reproductive healthcare falls by the wayside. Yet babies continue to be born. When all infrastructure falls apart, when the hospitals and all their technological equipment are destroyed, midwives come in handy. They can help women give birth with or without electricity, running water, equipment - even shelter is optional. When babies are ready, they come.

I sing, I clean house, I write poetry. I cry. And I tell everyone I can, "I Believe in YOU."

I became a fierce advocate for gentle birth as a solution for the most pressing problems of our times - a solution that begins at the source.

I became a passionate seeker of childbirth knowledge.

I cry when I work in the garden, because the Sun, the rain, the wind and the Earth all work together to make us food and flowers. It just blows me away.