all things birth

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I believe that ‘Narrative’ can and always has been instrumental in providing us with the opportunity to share information and explore new ways of thinking, which in turn changes the way we live our lives. In David Suzuki's 'Letters To My Grandchildren' (2009), I was struck by the significance of these words: "It's important to remember the world as it was in the time of the childhood of elders so that we have reference points against which to compare today's world... the phenomenon that over time, in the absence of input from elders, people forget what once was and readily accept the current or recent state of the world as if it's the way it always was."

It was then that I realised that I had to share some of the early stories of birthi...

I read a study recently that antenatal care for pregnant women is 92% assessment, monitoring and screening - and only 8% is actual antenatal 'care'. I've also heard recently, that all those screening tests, monitoring practices and assessment tools create fear in women. We all know what fear can do: it causes the body to respond with a flight or flight - or freeze response. And that can NOT be good for women as they go into labour. Nor can it be good for the bub - or her partner for that matter.

That's why I enrolled and became certified as a practitioner...

The 5 session course is for women and their birth companion who are looking for an alternative method or complimentary method of preparing for childbirth and parenting. It is provided by a qua...

When I was an undergraduate studying BioChem, I remember my lecturer spent a whole lesson giving us the run-down of why chicken soup is so good at boosting the immune system. From my vague recollections (and I wish I had taken better notes), it had something to do with chicken bones, celery and carrots - and T4 cells, important members of the immune system family that are stimulated into production when certain elements (results of ingesting chicken, celery and carrot broth) become available. There is a chemical reaction - a magical moment in the intercellular spaces - whereby the body wakes up, shakes up and becomes stronger and more resistant to infectious elements, the bacterial, microbial 'baddies'.

My first nourishing meal after my daughter...

Luang Prabang province is situated in the north of Laos where it is mountainous and populated with a great number of diverse ethnicities. Most villagers live at subsistence level.

Access to health care at the nearest village clinic or district hospital is often limited and sometimes impossible, due to weather conditions, lack of transport, fear of safety on the journey, or lack of money. Sometimes there are prohibitive cultural beliefs or the fear of being treated unkindly and without privacy. When traditional birth attendants, midwives or healthworkers from a particular village or clinic feel unsure about a situation in birth, they will transfer women on to the district or provincial hospital. Ambulance services are rare, and women are transport...

I've been told that today is International Midwives' day and as a midwife, it has given me an opportunity to reflect on my chosen career focus. There have been rocky roads this thing of being "with women" and moments that I wondered what the hell I was doing. And it wasn't the women, or the babies - or their special "others" that left me frustrated, unhappy and at loss of where to go next. It was the society that didn't understand that my role is to be with women: with her every breath, with every tear she shed, with every smile that crossed her face. Cuz she is Holy and carries the Life of the world within her Sacred body. So to all women - all of which are Midwives in their own right - I wish you a Holy day. Embrace and be embraced. Blessed be...

ONCE UPON A TIME… THE TRADITION OF STORY TELLING IN BIRTHING

Tere Garnons-Williams, BScN, MMid RM. 

The ancient art of story telling has been utilized by women throughout history; women have sat, scrubbed, cooked, cleaned while sharing stories - sometimes over a cuppa; sometimes over a shared task. More recently, we see story shared in books, journals and even more recently electronically, as ebooks or in blogs and social media.

I discovered the power of story in changing our perception of birth in the early 1970s through Ina Mae Gaskin’s “Spiritual Midwifery”, stories that changed how many of us from that era perceived birth. In fact, it started a birthing revolution in the western world – one that continues to this day. Jennifer Worth’s boo...

There are times that I feel this sense of urgency to go out and protect Creation - that I start to think that there is no hope for humankind, that all my efforts to save Mother Nature are in vain. That we have sided with the devil and our path is set: there is no turning back. When we began to fear the Mother; began to destroy her instead of honouring her - these attitudes, actions had consequences beyond our imaginings.

I can be likened to Eve in the garden who has chosen to abandon the bliss of Eden by taking a bite of the fruit of knowledge - the truth being that our reality as keepers/carers/companions of this fair Earth are finite. And I feel shamed and want to cover myself - and hide from God, from A...

Today is valentine's day. Be sure to give yourself at least as much love as you give to others. And hug a tree... definitely hug a tree. And stop picking flowers - rather, take your valentine out for a walk and smell the flowers, leaving them where they are so they can go on living and so others can come along and do the same.