Birth Professionals
‘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/rns 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 it’s 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 …