A letter to my son on his ninth birthday
30th May, 2018 To my darling boy, Nine years ago today, you were born. And I became a newborn mother. We all waited so impatiently for your arrival. After a full 42 weeks of pregnancy, you were served your...
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Stop! I want to get off the conveyor belt of birth!
You know when a series of seemingly unrelated events coincide, and then you start to realise that in fact they aren’t unrelated at all? Yeah, well that happened to me this past weekend. I was scrolling through Facebook late...
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In honour of Aksel Jude
TRIGGER WARNING: This blog deals with stillbirth and features photographs that some people may find upsetting. My first meeting with Sarah began like any other doula meet and greet. A nice café, a cup of coffee, and a chance...
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Aromatherapy for Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond
In this blog, I am excited to welcome our special guest writer, Sonya Edmonds. Sonya is a Clinical Aromatherapist and a Registered Nurse and Midwife who is an absolute wealth of knowledge when it comes to aromatherapy; particularly when...
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We need to talk about Birth Trauma. Now.
August 14 – 21, 2017 is Birth Trauma Awareness Week. First of all, it profoundly saddens me that we need to set aside even one day of the year, let alone an entire week to raising awareness of birth...
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Inspiring VBAC Stories: Maggie’s Birth
I met Kate and her husband Simon when they did my VBAC Your Way course earlier this year. Kate had two little boys, both born via Caesarean section in the UK and she was extremely keen to avoid a...
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Why Midwives Love a Good Birth Plan
This week I am thrilled to feature a guest post from midwife, Kate Visser. Birthwell Birthright (BWBR): Many people are very cynical of the whole concept of a “birth plan”. Pregnant women hear all too often from their friends...
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Teens and childbirth – why birth education needs to start in school.
“Miss, Miss! Is it true that you need to get your vagina sewn up after you give birth?” “So what hurts more? Getting kicked in the nuts or giving birth?” So, apart from wincing just a little bit at...
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The Top Ten most useless pregnancy and parenting gadgets of all time
From a marketing perspective, there are few target population groups more vulnerable than pregnant women and new parents, and that makes marketing people very, very happy. If you’ve ever been along to one of those humungous pregnancy and baby...
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The ethical responsibility of childbirth educators
I’ve just returned from Sydney where I taught a Lamaze Childbirth Educator training program. Part of the course is to explore the Code of Ethics for Lamaze Childbirth Educators. Quite ironically, I received the following email while I was...
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