09/18/2021
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Good midwifery care can make a world of difference. In fact, even if birth goes nothing as you'd hoped, with fantastic midwifery support your birth can still be a very healing, positive and empowering experience.
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I have come to believe that there are 3 essential requirements in order to set yourself up for the birth experience you deserve...
1. good information - understanding birthing physiology and how the system and its power dynamics seek to undermine our innate capacity to safely give birth
2. tuning in, trusting our body wisdom and following our intuition - this often takes practice because we are conditioned to do the exact opposite from a very young age
3. good support - having a midwife (and/or birth support team) who wholeheartedly respects and honours the above two points, and who appreciates the importance of not interfering with a healthy birthing process
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Many of my pregnant clients - those who had a traumatic first birth and are seeking to have a healing next birth - end up changing their care provider after our session. I talk about what good support looks like and remind them that they are able to switch care providers if they decide their midwife is not the best fit for them. I've never heard someone say they regretted swapping, whereas I have certainly heard people say they regret they didn't 'listen to their gut' and switch.
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I love the story of my first ever paying client - she was 34 weeks pregnant when she contacted me. Her first birth was a traumatic forceps delivery with poor support from her midwife. This time she was paying for private obstetric care. After talking at length about her previous birth, different types of maternity care providers, different philosophies of care, and what her hopes and dreams were for this next birth, she ended up firing her OB team, finding a great midwife, and went on to have her dream birth - at home! (she has since gone on to have another home birth).