Some vocal Pomegranate midwifery clients from the Sea-to-Sky Corridor are demanding that midwives become integrated into the maternity care services there. They have put together a website for their cause: www.midwivesnow.com. On the site there is a letter they have written to send to their MLA as well as some prominent members of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority to expedite the integration of midwives. Please sign this letter in their support.
Pomegranate has been accepting patients from communities such as Squamish and Pemberton since they opened their doors two years ago, and many of these woman have to drive long hours and traverse natural obstacles to get the care that they rightfully deserve to have close to home. There are midwives who are eager to set up their life in the Sea-to-Sky Corridor and offer comprehensive maternity care to women and families.
Please forward the weblink to others who agree that solving the maternity care crisis in BC includes integrating midwives across the province.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
We'll See You at BirthFest!
We are exhibiting at BirthFest again this year. The second annual celebration of bellies, birth and babies is co-sponsored by Birth Lounge, Britannia Community Centre and Eastside Family Place. This free event is for the whole family – live music, local maternity care services, local vendors and more.
Last year we had so much fun. The gym was packed despite the downpour outside. Kids were dancing, parents were chatting, prizes were won and there were great vendors showcasing their wares. We are really looking forward to being a part of it again this year.
Britannia Community Centre
Gym D
March 8th from 10am – 3pm.
For more information visit www.birthlounge.com
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Voices: What Story is Your Birth Story Really Telling?
I recently had the opportunity to share the story of my son’s birth with a university class on Child Development during Infancy (conception-3 years). The students are in their early twenties and many had never seen a birth before nor had any prior exposure to the basics of childbirth.
As I wrote out my story, I became increasingly aware that I couldn’t just tell it the way I remembered it. I had to bear in mind that the students would be forming impressions about childbirth from my words. I had an opportunity to cut through the noise of birth as pain and talk about what else it can be, beyond just a physical experience. I realized that to be taken seriously I would need to acknowledge that birth IS painful but I also decided to focus on the experience itself: preparations, perceptions, emotions. I spoke about why I chose to have a homebirth in a rational way so that my words would not be brushed aside as those of someone “brave” or “radical.”
I had to make very calculated decisions about what to say and what not to say and I got to thinking about the stories our birth stories really tell. Is it a story of fear, pain, control, joy, courage, triumph, peace, dignity, sorrow? Do the details we give and the words we use convey what we intend? Are we aware of our audience when we casually explain about the day we gave birth? Do we pay attention to the fact that there might be a young pre-teen girl there who is soaking it up? What do we want listeners to take away from our tales?
In a culture where birth is a medical event, we owe it to future families to tell a positive empowering story if we can. Young women today are bombarded with stories on tv and in the media of childbirth as being so painful and dangerous that the only way they will get through it is by putting their trust in the authorities, giving up the power in their bodies and taking the multitude of drugs offered to manage their birth safely. We can help shape future mothers’ perceptions of birth by carefully choosing our words when we talk about ours. Regardless of the circumstances—whether it was a blissed out waterbirth or a cesarean for breech presentation—we are the ones who tell our stories. We can choose to be positive and inspiring or to instill fear and dread. It’s your story.
If you are interested, you can read my story here.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
As I wrote out my story, I became increasingly aware that I couldn’t just tell it the way I remembered it. I had to bear in mind that the students would be forming impressions about childbirth from my words. I had an opportunity to cut through the noise of birth as pain and talk about what else it can be, beyond just a physical experience. I realized that to be taken seriously I would need to acknowledge that birth IS painful but I also decided to focus on the experience itself: preparations, perceptions, emotions. I spoke about why I chose to have a homebirth in a rational way so that my words would not be brushed aside as those of someone “brave” or “radical.”
I had to make very calculated decisions about what to say and what not to say and I got to thinking about the stories our birth stories really tell. Is it a story of fear, pain, control, joy, courage, triumph, peace, dignity, sorrow? Do the details we give and the words we use convey what we intend? Are we aware of our audience when we casually explain about the day we gave birth? Do we pay attention to the fact that there might be a young pre-teen girl there who is soaking it up? What do we want listeners to take away from our tales?
In a culture where birth is a medical event, we owe it to future families to tell a positive empowering story if we can. Young women today are bombarded with stories on tv and in the media of childbirth as being so painful and dangerous that the only way they will get through it is by putting their trust in the authorities, giving up the power in their bodies and taking the multitude of drugs offered to manage their birth safely. We can help shape future mothers’ perceptions of birth by carefully choosing our words when we talk about ours. Regardless of the circumstances—whether it was a blissed out waterbirth or a cesarean for breech presentation—we are the ones who tell our stories. We can choose to be positive and inspiring or to instill fear and dread. It’s your story.
If you are interested, you can read my story here.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Reflection
- What story does your birth story tell?
- Is your birth story always the same?
- Do you adjust the details of your story depending on who you are talking to?
- Does your story focus on positive emotions?
- Could you make your story more inspiring?
- Does answering these questions bring up any unresolved feelings that you might need to work through?
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
On The Shelf
Birth Stories
by Katrina O'Brien
From natural birth at home to unexpected birth in the outdoors to planned Caesareans, these touchingly personal and funny tales illustrate how the method of arrival is less important than the love the child finds when it finally arrives.
The Colors of Birth: Shared Stories
by Ellyn Stanek Hutton
After childbirth, a woman joins the largest sorority on our planet: women who are mothers. Each mother makes her choices: hospital birthing room or water birth at home, obstetrician or midwife, epidural or natural childbirth-often forsaking all plans when unforeseen variables threaten her or her child. But enduring such a trial to bring a new life into the world provides a life-changing experience for the new mother, as exemplified by the women who share their stories in Ellyn Stanek Hutton's new compilation. The Colors of Birth contains stories that represent a rainbow of experience through color imagery chosen by each contributor. Each woman was asked to tap her instinctual perception and choose a color that best represented her childbirth experience. The Colors of Birth creates community by reinforcing and refreshing the emotional bond that is motherhood. It will stimulate conversations with friends, family members, mothers, doctors, and midwives. A loving and thoughtful shower gift, it will help the pregnant woman sort through a full spectrum of birth stories as she identifies her own approach-and offer reassurance should her plans go awry.
Descriptions from the Publishers.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Birth 101
My son was born at home in Sept 2005 with my husband and two midwives in attendance. I chose to have a midwife because I had heard great things about the continuity of care offered by midwives and we are lucky enough in BC to have midwives covered by MSP. At the time I knew nothing about birth other than what I heard from my mom and my sister and what I saw on tv.
Midwifery & Home Birth
I didn’t know much about midwives either. I ended up being so glad that I chose midwifery care because I soon learned that midwives are specialists in birth and the newborn and that most have university degrees and have attended hundreds of births. Choosing a midwife meant that I would be able to choose my birth place as registered midwives in BC can attend births in hospital or at home. One of the best things about midwifery was that the Midwifery Model of Care views birth as a normal physiological process, not a medical event, and midwives believe that in most cases, birth is best managed by letting it unfold naturally. This mindset allowed me to place a lot of trust in my body, in the process of birth itself and in my caregivers. And that is why I chose to have a homebirth.
Another reason I chose homebirth was that I knew that labour and birth were going to be a lot work and that I would need to really focus – I felt that I would be able to do that best in an environment that I found safe and familiar.
Preparation
In preparation for birth I read almost every book I could get my hands on, I did prenatal yoga and I went to prenatal classes. You hear a lot about Lamaze style breathing or distraction methods for pain coping and we practiced a lot in my prenatal class by holding ice in our hands until it .Once labour got really intense, I didn’t remember any of that. The one thing that I felt helped the most was the psychological work I did ahead of time to face my fears about birth. This helped to keep me from panicking when the little breathing and relaxation tricks stopped working and I’m so grateful for that.
Labour
I was lucky to have an 8 hour labour – not so long as to be totally exhausting and not so short as to be totally intense and overwhelming. I laboured through the night and as the contractions got closer together and more painful I definitely felt like giving up. It’s pretty common to say things like “I can’t do this” or “I changed my mind.” I was tired and wanted to go to sleep. I was so tempted to say “let’s go to the hospital for that epidural!” but I found the shower really helped to dull the pain of contractions and I would stay in until we ran out of hot water and had to wait for it to replenish.
Relax!
It also helped to remember to relax and not tense up the rest of my body. Between contractions you feel completely normal, no pain whatsoever, so it’s very important to rest then even if it’s only for a minute or two. The more you relax the more you allow your body to release its own pain medication: endorphins. The more tense, stressed or frightened you become the more your body produces adrenaline which can slow labour and block endorphins. I really wanted to let my body work naturally with labour but it took a great amount of determination and encouragement from my husband and midwives.
Transition
As I approached transition, I went into what some people call Labourland, a sort of out of body experience. At this point you have to focus completely on the physical task at hand and you kind of leave your rational thinking brain behind. It’s difficult to talk or communicate with others in the room as you just disconnect and pay attention to your body. You really don’t even notice what’s going on around you.
When my niece was born, she came so quickly that my sister barely made it to the hospital. I was 16 at the time and when my sister told me about laying down in the middle of the hospital lobby, I couldn’t believe she would do something so embarrassing. I understand now that you really don’t care where you are or what people might think!
Pushing
I found the second stage of labour to be the most painful. Thankfully this stage only lasted about 40 minutes (which I thought was about 35 minutes too long!!). The amazing thing about the pushing stage is how invigorated and alert I became. Only half an hour before I had been totally exhausted and out of it but now, knowing that baby and the end of this ordeal were close at hand, renewed my energy. I remember talking to the midwives between pushes about how much I liked the song that was playing. And there is absolutely nothing that can compare with the feeling of the last push when baby slipped out and the midwife placed him, with cord still attached, in my arms! It is pure relief and joy and strength and love.
Rewards
Giving birth can be an amazingly empowering experience. It’s really hard work and it’s painful and tiring and when you realize that you did it, you really feel like you can do anything. For a lot of women it shows them that they are a lot stronger and more capable than they thought they were! 300,000 women do it every day and they definitely have something to feel proud of.
For about 2 or 3 days after my son’s birth, I thought I never wanted to do it again. But I am going to do it again in July and to be honest, I’m actually looking forward to it. Birth is so much more than the pain and swearing they show on tv
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Midwifery & Home Birth
I didn’t know much about midwives either. I ended up being so glad that I chose midwifery care because I soon learned that midwives are specialists in birth and the newborn and that most have university degrees and have attended hundreds of births. Choosing a midwife meant that I would be able to choose my birth place as registered midwives in BC can attend births in hospital or at home. One of the best things about midwifery was that the Midwifery Model of Care views birth as a normal physiological process, not a medical event, and midwives believe that in most cases, birth is best managed by letting it unfold naturally. This mindset allowed me to place a lot of trust in my body, in the process of birth itself and in my caregivers. And that is why I chose to have a homebirth.
Another reason I chose homebirth was that I knew that labour and birth were going to be a lot work and that I would need to really focus – I felt that I would be able to do that best in an environment that I found safe and familiar.
Preparation
In preparation for birth I read almost every book I could get my hands on, I did prenatal yoga and I went to prenatal classes. You hear a lot about Lamaze style breathing or distraction methods for pain coping and we practiced a lot in my prenatal class by holding ice in our hands until it .Once labour got really intense, I didn’t remember any of that. The one thing that I felt helped the most was the psychological work I did ahead of time to face my fears about birth. This helped to keep me from panicking when the little breathing and relaxation tricks stopped working and I’m so grateful for that.
Labour
I was lucky to have an 8 hour labour – not so long as to be totally exhausting and not so short as to be totally intense and overwhelming. I laboured through the night and as the contractions got closer together and more painful I definitely felt like giving up. It’s pretty common to say things like “I can’t do this” or “I changed my mind.” I was tired and wanted to go to sleep. I was so tempted to say “let’s go to the hospital for that epidural!” but I found the shower really helped to dull the pain of contractions and I would stay in until we ran out of hot water and had to wait for it to replenish.
Relax!
It also helped to remember to relax and not tense up the rest of my body. Between contractions you feel completely normal, no pain whatsoever, so it’s very important to rest then even if it’s only for a minute or two. The more you relax the more you allow your body to release its own pain medication: endorphins. The more tense, stressed or frightened you become the more your body produces adrenaline which can slow labour and block endorphins. I really wanted to let my body work naturally with labour but it took a great amount of determination and encouragement from my husband and midwives.
Transition
As I approached transition, I went into what some people call Labourland, a sort of out of body experience. At this point you have to focus completely on the physical task at hand and you kind of leave your rational thinking brain behind. It’s difficult to talk or communicate with others in the room as you just disconnect and pay attention to your body. You really don’t even notice what’s going on around you.
When my niece was born, she came so quickly that my sister barely made it to the hospital. I was 16 at the time and when my sister told me about laying down in the middle of the hospital lobby, I couldn’t believe she would do something so embarrassing. I understand now that you really don’t care where you are or what people might think!
Pushing
I found the second stage of labour to be the most painful. Thankfully this stage only lasted about 40 minutes (which I thought was about 35 minutes too long!!). The amazing thing about the pushing stage is how invigorated and alert I became. Only half an hour before I had been totally exhausted and out of it but now, knowing that baby and the end of this ordeal were close at hand, renewed my energy. I remember talking to the midwives between pushes about how much I liked the song that was playing. And there is absolutely nothing that can compare with the feeling of the last push when baby slipped out and the midwife placed him, with cord still attached, in my arms! It is pure relief and joy and strength and love.
Rewards
Giving birth can be an amazingly empowering experience. It’s really hard work and it’s painful and tiring and when you realize that you did it, you really feel like you can do anything. For a lot of women it shows them that they are a lot stronger and more capable than they thought they were! 300,000 women do it every day and they definitely have something to feel proud of.
For about 2 or 3 days after my son’s birth, I thought I never wanted to do it again. But I am going to do it again in July and to be honest, I’m actually looking forward to it. Birth is so much more than the pain and swearing they show on tv
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Sweet Home Featured in Shared Vision
We are excited to share with you that Sweet Home has been featured in Vancouver's February issue of Shared Vision under the ENVISION section. Check it out!
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
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