With mother, with child yxe birth services

11/16/2024

Let the oxytocin flow!

10/29/2024

There's an important nuance in making birth and health decisions which doesn't always get mentioned.

That is:

It's not always about a yes/no, accept/decline dichotomy.

Often, there is a middle ground.

This middle ground is about making decisions as and about an individual within their own context and according to need.

Just not routinely.

Or based on what the guideline says.

If you're making decisions about your health or birth, you might want to bear this in mind.

Declining an intervention doesn't always mean an absolute 'no.'

You can say, 'I want to wait and see.'

Or, 'I don't want routine intervention / induction / screening just because I have a risk factor, but I'll consider things that are right for me or my individual circumstances.'

Your body, your baby, your decisions.

I have a longer explanation of this in a blog post for those who would like to know more.

It's at https://www.sarawickham.com/riffing-ranting-and-raving/deciding-to-decline-or-deciding-to-wait-and-see/

I hope it makes the decisions that are right for you.

There's also a lot more on this in my book, "What's Right For Me? Making decisions in pregnancy and childbirth."

More info at www.sarawickham.com/me

05/20/2023

Tightening and releasing doesn’t quite explain it.

🌸

02/18/2023

Have you seen a breech birth? Have you had a breech birth?

02/18/2023

Have you seen a breech birth?

02/18/2023

Question everything

08/12/2022

Yes! It’s amazing!

Of course you can.
How silly that this isn’t already the standard.
It’s your body, your baby, your birth.

You decide who catches your baby.

08/11/2022

Remember, contractions can’t be bigger than you because they are you. 🌸

05/02/2022

There is probably nothing more nonsensical than our culture’s instance that birth should only be handled by surgeons (obstetricians) and government sanctioned midwives. Birth is how humans arrive. We’ve been doing this since the dawn of time. We are now at 7.5 billion people because how humans arrive is designed to work. (Historical high death rates are not related to lack of obstetrical services … you’ll need to exercise some scientific literacy to move past that part of your grooming.) Sometimes it needs help. Anyone can learn how to help. Rarely, it needs a surgeon and we know how to access one. Just show up at a hospital.

We’ve bought into this lie that only medically trained, pharmaceutically indoctrinated, regulated, and government sanctioned professionals can supervise pregnancy and birth. It’s an option but not necessarily a good option.

** Insert usual caveat here for those who go apoplectic at the idea of community-based birth ... Yes. Medically complicated pregnancies and births benefit from medical services in a medical facility … That’s why these services exist and why you can be encouraged to access them if warranted. … That said, it’s ok to breathe and be calm in thinking about this perspective and to recognise that I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT YOU. **

The medicalised birth industry has gained a monopoly over birth services through clever fear-based marketing, cult-like indoctrination, expensive government lobbying, and invoking punishment against apostates.

Ridiculously, we are groomed to not learn basic human life skills to support a healthier pregnancy, birth, and postpartum in order to avoid being persecuted and prosecuted for “practicing medicine/midwifery” without a license. You don’t need a license to be a useful human. You don’t need a license to sit with women in birth. You don’t need a license to help a baby breathe. You don’t need a license to offer herbs to a bleeding woman. You don’t need a license to know not to put a hat on a neonate. You don’t need a license to know how to mentor a mother through a breech birth. You don’t need a license to teach a mother appropriate pregnancy nutrition.

Enough already. *see comments*

12/11/2021

What a fun story! I hope this mama has a lot of postpartum support!

09/29/2021

A rare photo of me at a birth.
Five years of being at births. 🖐🏻