Birthing Better Pink Kit Reviews:
NOTE: The Pink Kit was the first resource available. It was a boxed set that included a VHS, cassette and book and focused ONLY on #1 skill-set (the Body Skills). Skill-set #2 and #3 are included in all the present online BirthingBetter online courses.
Positive News (UK) NO. 29 AUTUMN 2001
‘At this summer’s Breath of Life conference, pioneer of natural birth, Michel Odent posed the question, “Can humanity survive obstetrics?” The answer to this question is an unequivocal ‘yes’ with the help of tools such as the Common Knowledge Trust’s new Pink Kit. Knowledge is power and nowhere more so than in the experience of childbirth. Knowledge of our body is perhaps one of the most valuable tools we can take into our experience of childbirth.
The Pink Kit is comprised of an interactive video, book and cassette. Gently and accessibly it takes each woman through a journey of discovery. It encourages the participant and her partner to understand, work with, and enhance the natural processes involved in the safe delivery of a healthy baby, helping her to overcome fear, reduce pain, and the need for medical intervention. The presents offer effective exercises and carefully explain and demonstrate the journey the baby takes through the pelvis and techniques for relieving the four types of tension that hinder birth. Many of the positions, techniques and movements involve the partner leading to a mutually rewarding experience for both parents and baby.
The Common Knowledge Trust aims to encourage the diversity of health knowledge found in cultures around the world. The Trust is committed to the belief that the loss of our cultural knowledge is as significant as a loss of species or seed diversity. In 1998, Dr. Barbara Sibanda of the Trust’s Zimbabwe branch and the Director of the Traditional and Medical Clinic in Bulaweyo, held a gathering in a rural village in the south of the country. Barbara brought together traditional midwives,Government officials and modern medically trained Zimbabwean midwives. One hundred and twenty people came together to learn, share and rejoice in the consolidation of their collective knowledge and birth culture. An account of the gathering is available on the Common Knowledge Trust’s website.
The Pink Kit which has now been produced by the Trust is a gentle, warm, intimate and essentially brilliant, practical, and empowering course. The information in it is the common knowledge heritage of women and men of all cultures and it succeeds where some birth preparation course do not. It is a valuable resource for parents, midwives, childbirth educators, local libraries, bookshops or Natural Childbirth Trust groups.’
MIDIRS Midwifery Digest September 2002 volume 12, number 3 page 427
‘This is what your mother never told you about birth (more’s the pity). The producers of this ‘multi media birth preparation kit’ want to make the information it contains ‘common knowledge’ and to give pregnant women, their partners and support people familiarity with their bodies and the birth process and a ‘toolkit’ of practical exercises to turn ‘textbook knowledge’ into ‘self-knowledge’. The aim is for pregnant women to feel confident with their bodies, to know what they are feeling and where, and so to be able to express their feelings and needs.
Those supporting them are encouraged to develop a similar degree of body awareness so that they can assist more effectively in labor. The pack covers the topics of breathing in labor; the pelvis and soft tissues; positions for labor and birth; pain, tension and relaxation; massage (including directions for doing perineal massage); and the stages of labor. Moving between the booklet, video, and audio tape, those using it are taken through a succession of exercises such as breathing into tense muscles to relax them, strengthening the pelvic floor, and creating more room in the pelvic outlet. Like all such guides, the pack only works if you actually do the exercises. But for those who have sufficient motivation, the result will be an embodied sense of the anatomy of labor and a deep relaxation and trust in the birthing process.
On the whole, I liked this kit. One of its charms is that, while perfectly competent, it is not a lavish production with slick graphics and smooth presenters. The women shown learning the exercises had never done them before appearing on the video. The explanations are at times a little halting. However, for me, its homespun charms receded somewhat with repeated references to the ‘Minnie Mouse muscles’ (I think they are talking about the ischiococcygeus muscles) and the rather self-congratulatory renaming of the pouch of Douglas as the ‘pouch of Ms Douglas’. I would have liked the illustrations in the booklet to have been larger so that I could see what I was looking at, and I think the booklet could be improved by a clearer acknowledgement of the fact that not all birthing women are able-bodied and a fuller discussion of how the exercises and labor and birth positions might be adapted by women with physical disabilities.
While there is a good section of the video showing the use of furniture for support in labor, some reference to the way in which laboring in water can facilitate changes of position would also have been helpful. But, having said all that, I would use the exercises myself and I would recommend the pack to motivated women, couples, doulas and other people who are planning to support someone through labor and birth. It is not cheap, but it would be a useful resource for midwives and NCT (National Childbirth Trust) groups, for example, to have to lend or hire out to pregnant women. The information and exercises could be taught in classes or workshops, but only after the necessary physical ‘self-knowledge’ has been acquired through doing the exercises. The kit itself is more appropriately used at home at an individual pace’. Reviewed by Seren Wildwood, midwife, editor.