Enjoy Your Birth

Go Mama!
https://www.kidspot.com.au/news/i-dont-leave-the-house-without-this-sign-after-a-stranger-really-upset-me/news-story/9894d390d0420c7e5e8ddf953ca185c0?utm_campaign=AU%20%7C%20Kidspot%20%7C%20LPV%20(general)%20v2%20%7C%20Smartly&utm_source=facebook%20instagram%20audience_network&utm_medium=social&utm_content=%7B%7B%20macros.campaign_ad_name_rule%20%7D%7D&utm_id=626a78dbe96f7e77d243567f&fbclid=IwAR1ef1ZDyegcKsoiXjWa3BVhhUtu2YxiUTpR05fWjctwBpDF3Rg41iA0ibA

'I don't leave the house without this sign after a stranger really upset me' Going to the supermarket with her five-month-old son Victor was a very big deal for Monique.

For all the overdue mamas out there

This is stunning😍😍
Photographer, Natalie O'Donnell snapped this beautiful image of Adina at 38 weeks pregnant. Adina wanted both water and bush represented in the maternity shoot. "Water will represent my father's tribes and the bush will represent my mother's tribes."
"The cultural connection was beautiful"
We are in absolute awe of this!
📸 Natalie O'Donnell Photography

Truth

A re-shared post from Rhea Dempsey
27/12/21
The 2020 ‘Call the Midwife Christmas Special’ ABC Australia
(screened on ABC last night here in Australia) as ever heart-warming yet heart-wrenching in equal measure. It explored two ‘birth truths’ still needing to be acknowledged and supported in contemporary birth culture and which I explore in my book ‘Beyond the Birth Plan’.
First truth: the story line so simply conveyed the healing potential of ‘emotional safety’ offered with a ‘known midwife’ – the core of midwifery continuity of care.
Second truth: the story arch deepened to include a mother birthing her first live baby after suffering many stillborn babies. The unfolding story beautifully portrayed the truth of what has come to be called humanism in childbirth. As I explain in my book … 'Women need to allow for the effect their emotional story will have on the birth. Robbie Davis-Floyd calls this ‘humanism’. ‘Humanism in childbirth allows for the possibility that the labouring woman’s emotions can affect the progress of her labour, and that problems in labour may be more effectively dealt with through emotional support than through technological intervention,’ she writes'.
Don’t miss it!
Rhea xx

What "Birth Time" and other books on birth fail to mention...

Birth Time was a great documentary made by a team of great birth workers.

It gathered everything I knew as a Doula...everything that I have learned about birthing in the 'system'...and put it in a neat little bundle for those desperately wanting to know how we pass the birth baton back to birthing mothers. Well done guys ☺️

It meticulously mentions all the barriers we face that limit our true potential and ideal self in the birthing arena; namely the broken maternity system and our lack of freedom/awareness of choice.

The documentors however are unaware of another barrier that is still limiting womens' abilty to achieve great outcomes for their births. This is a barrier that I've noticed after working for more than 12 years as a Doula and it's...LONG LABOURS.

It has taken me many years to finally figure this out, but I have seen time and time again that no matter how PREPARED and how CHOOSY and how PROTECTED a womans' birth journey is...if her labour is long she WILL end up with intervention.

Mama's with bulletproof birth plans; Doula by their side, candles glowing in their bathroom can still end up with intervention from a long labour.

It is only natural for this progression to occur since lack of sleep and depletion of energy stores means that SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE TO GIVE THAT MAMA A BREAK!

This would usually involve an epidural or a caesarean...almost always something that a well educated birthing mother never wanted.

I used to feel terrible attending these types of births. Everyone involved would end up exhausted and in the weeks that followed I always felt like I let that mama down. Sometimes I would verbalise this to them, sometimes I would keep it hidden fearing that they were angry at me for not supporting them "enough".

I would go back and forth in my mind blaming myself for their horrible birth outcome but then sometimes I would deflect blame onto them.

Turns out that no one was really to blame at all and that there were simply barriers in thier way that neither of us knew about or knew how to fix.

❓❓So, now we come to the question of "Why long labours?" "What are these barriers you speak of?"

I have thought about this a lot and have concluded (after much witnessing) that long labours are the result of a mixture of complex factors but mainly these factors can be broken down into the following categories.

Now be aware that only the 1st category is at the mercy of the maternity system and the rest all come down to the mama and the controllable or uncontrollable dynamics within herself. The long labour mamas that I have personally worked with possessed one or more of the following barriers...

1. Lack of Privacy/Interruptions.
2. One's own Expectation to "Perform" in front of other support persons watching or helping; that is a premature use of vocalisation and movement that does not match the contraction intensity.
3. Unresolved trauma and relationship breakdown that weary the mind and hold back it's ability to revert to the "primitive" brain.
4. Inhibitions surrounding the normal sights and sounds of labour. Attempts to suppress involuntary bodily functions because they are looked upon as "gross", "unladylike", "out of control" or "not calm enough".
5. A heightened fear of a particular risk or particular outcome due to conditioning or past experience eg. extremely worried about cord prolapse
6.. Loss of confidence in self, essentially a case of the "yips", a state of nervous tension that affects the ability to perform due to self doubt and the pressure to achieve a certain outcome. Perhaps caused by pressure within themselves or the pressure that comes from others expectation on the birthing mother to achieve a certain outcome. Sometimes seen in mothers pursuing VBAC's and the overhwelming feeling of "what if I can't do it".

I won't go into detail about the ins and outs of how these barriers played out with my clients to protect their privacy but I will mention that in now way am I either saying that birth trauma or an undesired outcome is the product of the forementioned "barriers". Birth trauma indefintely stems from unhealhty interactions within the maternity system.

The hospital setting is not the only area that needs a shake up in order to achieve birth reform. The way in which we prepare women mentally, emotionally and soulfully leading up to birth, with the above factors in mind, will always reinforce their ability to achieve their well intentioned goals and heart's desires.

You can't handle the pain they say?

It's not about "handling" the pain.

It's about releasing the inner cavewoman that will do what she needs to match that pain with rythmic movements and vocalisation.

It's sad theres so much pressure.
Surround yourself with lots of support when it comes to breastfeeding.

"With misty eyes I share this: I tried.

With everything in my soul, body and mind I tried. I tried to feed my baby from my breast. For 12 weeks I pumped, tried to manually express, I worked with 3 Lactation consultants, used 2 different breast pumps, fed at my breast with a supplemental feeder, tried every herb and medication available to help with Lactation, and fed you donor milk but in the end, breast was not the way for my child.

I literally never produced a drop. He now tops the charts for height and weight and it's all due to lovingly fed formula. I tried. With everything in my soul I tried."

📷:

Read more: http://m.mother.ly/5BzKado

A MESSAGE FOR PARENTS

Be gentle on yourselves. Your baby thinks you are awesome. You are doing a wonderful job

What I learned from spending 40 days at home after birth Kate chose to take part in the traditional practice of confinement, spending the time after her child's birth at home and delaying the pressure to 'get back to the world'.