Call for Submissions and Writer's Guidelines

Birthing Magazine is looking for your articles and stories!  If you feel passionately about pregnancy, birth and parenting you may be interested in writing on one of the following topics. Our goal is to create a publication that empowers women and their families to make informed decisions out of a place of knowledge and power. New writers are welcome.

Birthing Magazine is published as a public service by Birth Unlimited, a non-profit society. Birth Unlimited has limited financial resources and occasionally offers a modest honorarium to contributors.

Please copy-edit and fact-check your work prior to submission and refer to the submission guidelines below.  For further information please write to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

2013/2014 Submission Deadlines:

Summer/Fall issue: May 15, 2013

Winter issue: September 15, 2013

Spring issue: January 15, 2014

What we are working on now:

Write for us!  Here’s what we are working on now.

Do you have something to say?

Theme for Summer/Fall 2013: Pregnancy

Preparing for and Enjoying Pregnancy:  How have you prepared for pregnancy? Do you have a story about intentional pregnancy, surprise pregnancies, struggling with fertility, fertility awareness? What testing is available during pregnancy? What testing did you choose, or reject and why?  How did you take care of yourself during pregnancy? What kind of exercise, bodywork, emotional work or other self-care practices did you explore during pregnancy?  How did you cope with morning sickness, physical changes, emotional changes, relationship adjustments during pregnancy?

Birth Preparation: How has pregnancy changed you? How did your pregnancy prepare you for birth? How did you help your children prepare for a new sibling? How did you prepare for a home birth or hospital birth? How did you decide who your birth team would be?

Fetal positioning: What position was your baby in? How do different positions impact pregnancy, labour and birth? How can we encourage optimal positioning? How can we prepare for a breech or posterior birth?

Stories in words and pictures: Do you have a story to tell? Do you have knowledge or experiences to share about any of these topics? Do you have high quality photographs or illustrations that speak to the pregnancy journey?

Pregnancy and Birth

Fetal positioning (Posterior, Breech, Compound): What are different positions babies might present in?  Why?  What are the issues that the positions present for pregnancy, labour and birth?  How can we encourage optimal positioning?  How can we have a great posterior, or breech birth?

Prenatal Testing: So many tests!  What do they mean?  What do they tell us?  How do you make an informed choice?

Induction: What do due dates really mean?  Why are women (and their babies) induced?  When is it necessary?  What are the risks and benefits of induction, or not?

Cord Clamping: Precipitous cord-clamping is the current norm, but we were not biologically designed to have our cords cut so quickly.  We will bring you the latest research on cord-clamping.

The Third Stage: What are the many gifts of the third stage of labour?  What are some of the many ways we can honour our births and our placentas?

Breastfeeding

Baby-Led or Laid-Back Breastfeeding: The latest on getting breastfeeding off to a good start.

Mothering your Nursing Toddler: The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding for a minimum of two years and for as long as is mutual agreeable after that.  But it’s still not culturally normal to nurse this long.  What is it like to nurse a toddler?  How does it change in the second year?  What are the challenges, and how can you overcome them?

Baby-Led Weaning: The introduction of complementary foods doesn’t need to be complicated.  How do we know if babies are ready?  What should we feed them and when?

Milk Sharing: Informal milk sharing and formal milk banking are both experiencing a resurgence.  Are you sharing your milk?  Is your baby receiving milk from others?  What motivates families to seek human milk for their babies? Why is it important? What are the considerations?

Breastfeeding in Special Circumstances: Breastfeeding is the normal way to feed human babies but our cultural context can sometimes make it challenging.  Special circumstances can add additional challenges along the way.

Have you breastfed an adopted child?  Multiples? A Premature baby? A hospitalized baby?

Have you breastfed while you were sick and/or hospitalized? Through a separation or divorce? After breast surgery? Tandem nursed?

What are the challenges?  How can you overcome them? What strategies worked best?  How can others provide effective support?

Relationships/Parenting:

Partners in Birth: We have so many partners on our pregnancy, birth and parenting journey. What roles have family members, professional caregivers and friends played in our births? How do they prepare, support, learn, grow from the experience? What challenges do they face, how do they overcome them? Fathers, mothers, adoptive parents, birth parents, grandparents, siblings, extended family, children, midwives, doulas, doctors, nurses, lactation consultants, childbirth educators, friends all play a role. How do parents and siblings bond with their babies? Stories, articles and more from the partners in our births.

Single Parenting: They say it takes a village, but more and more parents are on their own with their kids.  How do you cope and even thrive when you are the only parent available to your kids?

Whether you are single by choice, separated or divorced, widowed, how do you make the most of being the only parent in the house?

Different circumstances lead to different strategies. We want to hear from parents who are living it.  How do you juggle the demands of your household, the emotional needs of your children, and your need for reflection and rejuvenation? If you are a parent who is separated from your children, how do you stay connected?

And Baby Makes Three (or Four, or Five etc): How does adding a child (through birth, adoption or fostering) change the relationship dynamics in your family?  What works for strengthening your relationship while welcoming and meeting the needs of a baby (or older child).  How can you help siblings adjust to a new addition?  How about pets?  Extended family?

Parenting:

Ready or Not: How do you know if your child is ready?  For preschool, kindergarten, learning to read, sleep-overs?  Our children are constantly changing.  How do we meet their needs during different developmental stages? How do we determine if they are ready for more independence?

Gentle Discipline: How do we guide our children and help them navigate our complex world while also honouring their spirits and nurturing our relationship with them?

Birth Stories:

Our birth experiences shape our parenting experience.  Birth stories are always a central part of Birthing Magazine.  Have you had a powerful and transformative birth experience you want to share?  A spring birth?  A birth outside?  Something surprising?  Or a challenge you overcame to achieve the birth you wanted?   Send us your stories, with photographs!

Submission Guidelines

Birthing Magazine is the recognized source for pregnancy, birth and early parenting alternatives. Those who contribute to the magazine are usually committed to similar goals and all submissions should focus on these topics. It is recommended that writers review back issues of the magazine before submitting. We abide by the World Health Organization's International Code of Marketing Breastmilk Substitutes and the Canadian Magazine Industry's Advertising-Editorial Guidelines.

Any submission used in the print edition may also be used on Birthing Magazine’s website.  Submissions or posts of articles, letters, birth stories, comments or photographs will be deemed to constitute confirmation and consent to publish without further advice and/or notice. Submissions are accepted year round.  Submissions will be accepted electronically in a word document attachment only. Do not send the article as the body of an email.

Length of articles can range from 500 words to 1500 words for feature pieces.  Occasionally, longer submissions will be considered. We request all contributors check the sources in their own material and inform people they quote of the upcoming publication. Please submit any digital photos (300dpi resolution or higher) you have to accompany your article. Images should include names of the people in the photo as well as photographer credit.  Send your inquiries or submissions to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We do not accept any articles or stories designed to promote a specific business or service. Please contact our advertising sales department to take advantage of our very reasonable advertising rates ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

The editor and /or the editorial board of Birthing Magazine retain the right to edit submissions for grammar, length and clarity.

Birthing Magazine is published as a public service by Birth Unlimited. Birth Unlimited has limited financial resources and occasionally offers a modest honorarium to contributors.

CONTACTS

Publisher: Birth Unlimited, 1616 – 20A Street, NW  Calgary, AB T2N 2L5 PH: 403-237-8839

Website: www.birthingmagazine.ca

Editor-in-Chief: Kirsten Goa email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Advertising: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it