Do birth professionals want birthing families to have good births? Of course they do! Do only midwives want birthing families to have positive births? Of course not! All birth professionals want you to have a wonderful birth experience even when your baby’s birth is surrounded with lots of medical assessments, monitoring and procedures. Can you have a positive birth when you’re hooked up, prodded and have things done to you? Yes, you can! Become a skilled birthing mother and skilled birth coaching father. Wow your birth professional and you will. They wish more families were skilled.
The Pink Kit is now known as Birthing Better online birthing classes
‘I first started seeing women use The Pink Kit (It didn’t have that name then.) in the late 1970s while working as an obstetrical nurse in a hospital in the States. At first, I thought that these women were just having good births and were quite lucky. Then I paid more attention. They knew what they were doing. Then I clicked….it was a system.’
Barbara M …
‘My first experience was with a woman who wanted a VBAC in the late 1970s. Our hospital really wasn’t in favor of that and frankly, I wasn’t either. I’d been an obstetrician for 15 years and had been educated with the belief of the day… ‘once a cesarean, always a cesarean’; however, there had also been a change to the low lying ones that are done today. This woman fought hard for this privilege. Although she did have another c/s for what turned out to be a brow presentation; I always admired how she and her husband handled their labor. She was the first one to draw my attention to the fact ‘things didn’t feel right’. In her last labor, she had never felt pain in her pubis, but this time she did. Her insistence that ‘something wasn’t right’ led us to check more closely. I was amazed at her inner awareness. She wasn’t disappointed by the outcome because she and her husband had been so involved. I’ve seen lots of couples work together, but this was very different.’
Melissa F …
‘My experience with women using these skills was in the late 1970s and was with women who were angry about their previous births. In the US at that time, women had little choice. They were often angry about what had been done to them. When they learned this bodywork, they changed their focus to how they could manage themselves even around this mine field of standardized procedures. They were great and their husbands were SO skilled. This meant that the women were just less reactive to procedures instead got on with labor. It was quite amazing really.’
Clarissa A …
‘At first our Birth Center in the early 1980s to work with women who had used this bodywork to prepare for their births. In Birth Centers often women have good births and are certainly accepted because they are low risk. However, these couples were definitely in a different category. It’s a bit hard to explain, but I guess after all these years I can say that when couples use these skills, there is more of a chance they will have a good birth.’
Joleene B …
‘As an obstetrician we see fads and trends come and go. Within our profession, the concept of ‘safe practice’ has changes dramatically ever so often. Often you feel that women believe we are out to harm them rather than protect them and their baby. I found over the years that couples who prepared with this information better managed their labor which meant the staff and myself were always more relaxed’.
David L …
‘As ob/rndwives we see everything, good births, horrible ones, women who scream and women who are great to be around. If a woman told the staff that she had used this information to prepared, you could hear a sigh of relief’.
Kevin H…
‘My first exposure to this information was in the early 1990s and another rostered midwife showed me the hip lift. My first experience doing it on a woman came the next week with a woman who had an anterior lip for several hours. I explained what I was going to do. She agreed then didn’t want me to stop. Her baby was born a half hour later. It was like magic!’
Fiona H …
‘This information was presented at a conference in 1990. The trend around birth has been to leave women alone to discover their own way of birthing, to focus on her emotional state if she has difficulty and as a midwife to sit back. My first reaction was to be quite offended by the concept; however, it’s come into my practice from the women and men themselves. They love it and I have to say, the women consistently birth better and the men are consistently knowledgeable coaches. I guess old midwives can learn new ideas.’
Doris H …
‘I’ve thought a great deal about this information, how it sits with the trend thinking of the day and where birth is going in society. I think we’ve gone from being angry that women were told what to do to leaving them entirely alone. But it’s more then that, we’ve somehow come up with a belief that the less a woman knows, the better she’ll birth. That’s not what I’ve seen for the past 20 years. Sure sometimes you get a great birth from a woman, but with The Pink Kit…when couples really use it to prepare….more women birth well. It’s because this is common knowledge’.
Jill R …
‘What I’ve liked about The Pink Kit is its simplicity. I work with couples from many different ethnic backgrounds and religions. The fact that they all understand the information because it’s just about our bodies makes it very easy for me to encourage them to use it to prepare. Often these fathers are going to be present at the birth of their children when in their own culture that won’t happen. They absolutely LOVE this information. All the women are more relaxed when they know their partners can really help them.’
Didi T …
‘I promised Wintergreen that I would pass along some of my feedback on using the Pink Kit to you for your chat tomorrow, as I am unable to attend in person, as it would probably be too difficult with my little one.
I chanced upon the PK on a favourite midwifery website of mine and it had been in the back of my mind for a while. Although I hadn’t known anyone who spoke of it or knew it, when I was pregnant I knew that I wanted to help myself prepare for labour and the birth as best possible. I was sure that knowing how to relax my body and go with the labour would be the key to coping. Also being a midwife and having seen many labours and births (especially first timers), this seemed to be true. I knew that I couldn’t rely on my midwife or anyone else during the labour, but that I needed to take responsibility for how I would cope with events.
The PK surpassed all my expectations in terms of what it offered and all the different issues and topics it addressed. I learned much more than just how to relax. In fact, I really got to know my body! Learning how to relax different parts of my body, all the internal pelvic structures, and being able to identify them and my unique shape, was such an asset to coping with labour. My partner was so involved with me during labour, especially when I was at home, and through practicing the different skills with me was able to keep me focused and in control of much of my labour. It was a special and bonding experience to practise the skills together during the pregnancy and made us feel more confident, knowing that we were preparing as best we could for such an exciting, life-changing time. We felt strong together as a team.
What is so special about the PK is how educational it is. You really learn about your own unique body and how to work with it, through positions and movements, to progress through labour and keep it flowing. I was fascinated by the many, varied skills we learned, for getting past problems like an anterior lip or slow progress in second stage. I only wished we had practised more so that these skills would have been more second-nature, as I started to struggle at 9cms. Thus the PK is more than just theoretical knowledge. It is hands-on, do-it-yourself, make it work for you, skills that you apply directly during labour and really work.
Through sharing past stories and anecdotes, and the clear, practical advice it gives, the PK helps dispel many of the fears and worries that many women have regarding labour and birth. It made me feel more confident that I would find the strength within me to cope by having numerous skills to take along into the birth and my husband also felt more sure of what his role would be and how best to support me. It’s also quite interesting as the PK motivates you to do it better next time, as it helps you realize what areas were difficult and how to surmount that issue for the next birth. Truly addicting! Wintergreen has also been an amazing person, so knowledgeable and supportive in my processing of my birth experience.
If every woman and partner out there learned the PK skills before their birth, childbirth would change forever. I feel that certainly more women would have a straightforward birth, but also, cope better with the experience and feel good about how they did, knowing they did their best to prepare for it and knowing what to expect. I certainly feel that my job as a midwife would be much easier with a calm, confident couple who just gets on with the job as best they can and adapt to any problems or changes along the way, regardless of the outcome!’
Andrea
Birthing Better with the Pink Kit Method® is now known as Birthing Better and housed within Common Knowledge Trust
Birthing Better online birth classes