doula Archives - Birth Connection

Equal Dignity

by Pernille
1
| doula, parenting
24/10/2012

This month I have been thinking a lot about ‘equal dignity’ that we talked a about in the parenting workshops. I think it has become my favourite phrase. ‘Equal dignity’ does not mean that your children and you are equal, it just means that you deserve equal respect, and to be taken serious. ‘Equal dignity’ is actually needed in so many other areas of life; health, birth, education. Pretty much anytime the good old institutional hierarchy is at play. Again it doesn’t mean we are all the same, but we still all need to be treated equally respectful and with...
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When Mum is the word

by Pernille
Comment
| doula, parenting
30/07/2012

This is an article from Family Lab ANZ “Frank, you have to take over and send Judy out for a walk!” says family therapist, Jesper Juul. THE LETTER: Dear FamilyLab, During the past couple of months we have been very busy. My husband, Frank has been working hard while I have looked after the girls. I feel run-down and it is taking its tool. The problem is that the girls only want to be with me. When Frank tries to get involved the girls give him the cold shoulder. It always ends in tears. The conflicts are endless and neither of us know what to do. It...
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Birth Journeys

by Pernille
Comment
| doula
09/07/2012

This is a beautiful book about birth. It has a broad variety of different kinds of birth and all personal stories written by the mothers themselves interspersed with expert fact, figures and opinion about different issues all important to birth and parenting. This book was donated to our recent BaBs raffle and we also got 4 books to sell. All proceeds are going to BaBs. Give me a call or an email if you are interested. ——————————————————————————————————————————————– “Stop listening to horror stories. Be reassured, excited and inspired. Find out how beautiful and powerful birth can be. Discover the keys to...
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The trials and tribulations of the Birth Plan

by Pernille
1
| birth, Birth Preferences, choosing your care giver, doula, homebirth, preparing for birth
20/03/2012

How to write a meaningful birth plan. The birth plan has become an integral part of our modern birth culture. Most women, particular women wishing for a natural birth, will document what they want and what they don’t want for their labour and birth. But is it beneficial to do this exercise (or might we even call it ritual?) and do medical caregivers read them and take them seriously? Or are women just setting themselves up for failure by thinking they can control their birth in this manner? The practice of encouraging parents to write birth plans began with the...
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The key to meaningful birth preparation

by Pernille
3
| birth, Birth Preferences, celebrating mothers, choosing your care giver, doula, homebirth, interventions, preparing for birth
12/02/2012

The key to meaningful birth preparation: Prepare for pain, intensity and the unexpected There seem to be a common belief in our culture today; that as long as a woman thinks positively about birth & is determined to birth without drugs, then that will give her a good birth. And if a woman worries about cesareans or pain, that will somehow manifest itself for her birth. I remember it well myself, giving birth to my first child about 10 years ago. I was determined to prove that birth was natural and that I would show them all where to put...
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Birth Activism or Mother celebrations?

by Pernille
Comment
| BaBs, birth, Birth Preferences, celebrating mothers, choosing your care giver, doula, homebirth, interventions, parenting, preparing for birth
28/08/2011

It is needless to say that birth in our culture, is very different to what it used to be and also to what it was meant to be. We save more mothers and babies than we used to in poorer times, but we are now at a place where the medicalisation of birth, is continuing without additional benefits for mothers and babies and often, in my opinion, at great expense to the birthing process in general and mothers emotional health. As a doula I see women paying for our cultural choices of safety. I meet women who was treated with...
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Is Birth Getting Harder?

by Pernille
6
| birth, Birth Preferences, choosing your care giver, doula, homebirth, interventions
15/06/2011

Based on a presentation by midwife and lecturer Rachel Reed. Check out her very informative website: MidwifeThinking Birth is rarely described as easy, and in today’s culture birth is surrounded by lots of fear and feelings of danger and risk. However, for most women the safest and healthiest way to birth is a normal, vaginal birth with no unnecessary interventions. In today’s Australia though, only a minority of women birth in this safest and healthiest way. According to Neonatal Perinatal Statistics, only 37% of women in Queensland, go into labour themselves and birth their baby without medical or surgical assistance....
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Empowering birth

by Pernille
3
| doula, miscarriage
19/04/2011

A lot of you know that I recently went through a miscarriage at 13 weeks. I wanted to share with you some amazing things I have learned on my journey through the three months of being pregnant and going through the miscarriage. Being a Doula and then getting pregnant makes you realise that it is vastly different supporting birth from the outside, to being in birth. Despite having birthed twice before, it was a good thing to be reminded of, when I found myself unexpectedly pregnant after Christmas. I know a lot about birth, about hospitals and obstetrics, but I...
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Saying the Great YES, a challenge of birth

by Pernille
Comment
| doula
12/11/2010

Written by Georgina Kelly, first published in Australia on The Natural Parenting website In order to give birth and in order to passionately say “Yes”, we need to open ourselves up wide. Our womb, the repository of life, needs the door unfastened to give birth. Our heart, the core of our being, needs to be unlocked to say a heart-felt “Yes”. Recently I read the phrase “saying the Great Yes” in a poetry book called “Women in Praise of the Sacred” and I experienced deep feelings of resonance. Jane Hirshfield1 writes that the poets included in her book all shared...
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