"Nurse's Song" by William Blake

WHEN the voices of children are heard on the green,
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast,
And everything else is still.
‘Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,	5
And the dews of night arise;
Come, come, leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies.’
‘No, no, let us play, for it is yet day,
And we cannot go to sleep;	10
Besides, in the sky the little birds fly,
And the hills are all cover’d with sheep.’
‘Well, well, go and play till the light fades away,
And then go home to bed.’
The little ones leapèd and shoutèd and laugh’d	15
And all the hills echoèd. William Blake from Songs of Innocence

"The Christmas Baby" by Jane Beal

When Christmas came down

into the cold and dark of Time,

you came down, too, little spark, little chime –

to the midwife waiting with open hands,

to your mother’s arms and your father’s kiss

on your tiny head, little one, small and precious –

to your sister, singing songs of love,

to your grandmother and your grandfather,

to angels surrounding us in all weather –

to a dream bigger than we are,

to a future we cannot even guess,

to the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, little princess –

we welcome you to God’s world,
beautiful baby, beautiful girl.

Jane Beal
Transfiguration: 
A Midwife's Birth Poems

A Beautiful Baby's Story

Lucie is Light

MIT Designs New Pumps for Breastfeeding Moms

http://magazine.good.is/articles/breast-pump-hackathon

Seeding the Baby's Microbiome

A mother's good bacteria needs to transfer to her baby in the process of childbirth. This is best accomplished through vaginal birth, extended postpartum skin-to-skin time, and breastfeeding. There's a documentary being made about the importance of the mother's gift of seeding the baby's microbiome. For more information, check out:

Microbirth

Breastfeeding is Beautiful

Good News about VBAC

Read about how a Navajo hospital in Arizona is protecting mother-and-baby in childbirth by promoting VBAC:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/health/07birth.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0