First they came for the birth photographers…
Following an announcement earlier this week by Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital that they were essentially banning professional birth photographers from attending and documenting births, there was – not unexpectedly – an explosive outcry on social media. Brisbane-based birth...
Details
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...
Details
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...
Details
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...
Details
Why it’s time for a (new) birth revolution.
The other day, a friend tagged me on a post that she saw in a popular parenting group on Facebook. The post read; Any mums out there that didn’t bother with any of the prenatal classes? How did you...
Details
You’re Not Allowed To Not Allow Me.
Birth and politics, like women and politics have been at the cornerstone of some of the tensest historical and social upheavals of all time. From the Suffragettes of the late 19th and early 20th Century who were literally willing...
Details
Why the witch hunt of midwives is alive and well in 2016
The latest attack on Australian midwives has come from Australian Medical Association Queensland president Chris Zappala who stated in a media release this week that research showed perinatal death rates doubled when women gave birth under midwife-led care compared...
Details
Childbirth: It’s time to stop the fear-mongering!
My initial reaction to Claire Harvey’s article; Childbirth: Why are we going back to the medical Middle Ages? (The Daily Telegraph, July 31st 2016) was one of anger and frustration. Here we go again, I thought. Yet ANOTHER article...
Details
Mama, you’re enough.
I think I must have some kind of invisible magnet in my body at the moment, because in the last week or so, I have found myself inextricably drawn to a number of women – some I know well,...
Details