‘I bought one of your pink kits a few weeks back. I got about 3/4 of the way through the resource before lending it out to one of my clients. Then I passed it to another one immediately after it was returned. so I haven’t gone through all of it yet. But already it has been miraculous! A third woman (lower on my list of priorities for lending the kit to, as she was having her fourth baby) went into labour with her baby in LOL position at station -2. To cut a long story shorter, she made good progress then went backwards from 9cm to 5-6c and didn’t seem to be progressing from there. I wasn’t sure I could remember any of the skills on the pink kit but she and her husband took charge. He told her to lie down and together they did a hip lift between contractions. Immediately she had another one and jumped up and started pushing. I couldn’t believe it. I checked her and the baby had completed rotated to ROA and she was almost fully dilated. Her baby was born 15 minutes later. After the birth the husband told me that he hadn’t wanted to interfere with my professional skills so he had waited and waited for several hours before suggesting the hip lift. Gosh, that must have been hard for him! You know what I realized? That when families are skilled we need to encourage them to use their skills rather than appear so professional that they rely on us’.
IS YOUR BIRTH PROFESSIONAL A MIDWIFE?
How can you decode this Birth Story for your benefit?
- This midwife actually was going to cherry pick who SHE thought needed birth skills? That’s nuts. Every birth is different. Just because a woman has given birth a number of times (and had great births for all of them), she and her husband/other can still enrich their next birth by deepening their skills. The Pink Kit skills evolved 40+ years ago from families and many had had a number of births. Families wanted more skills.
- Going backward in labor is NOT uncommon. Interesting that people who don’t want vaginal exams done, this midwife like many, many ‘checked’. By doing a vaginal exam, this family had more information with which to work. The Pink Kit shares skills for the mother/father to check themselves. Women check themselves when they feel ‘where am I?’ Fathers check when the mother wants him to.
- It’s only been in the past 20+ years that Posterior Position has been considered ‘abnormal’ even though the vast majority of posterior babies turn either before labor, in labor or during 2nd stage. A stalled labor is very common. Using skills to resolve a stalled labor comes from having skills that focus on opening and creating space inside the woman’s pelvis.
- It’s obvious from a skills-based awareness that this baby was trying to rotate and the labor didn’t stall so much as backed off as the baby turned. Birth skills give you the ability to work with the baby’s messages that come through how the labor progresses. The Pink Kit is unique because you learn skills to prepare your pregnant body to become a birthing body … how to get a large 3 dimensional object out of your 3 dimensional container.
IS YOUR BIRTH PROFESSIONAL AN OBSTETRICIAN?
- There is NO birth provider who will stop you from using birth and coaching skills. They will NOT know what you’re doing but be fascinated. Don’t bother to explain to them, just use your skills.
- Obstetricians and staff midwives/obstetrical nurses LOVE to see mothers and fathers/others who work together during the birth of their baby. Do it!
- Using skills work well with all forms of medical assessments, monitoring and procedures. The Pink Kit gives you lots of diverse skills that fit into every single birth situation.
- Imagine what an obstetrician or staff would think if this birth had occurred in hospital with the father doing The Hip Lift? They might not connect the Hip Lift with the success but if they did they might think it was an accident! Many skilled families have been told ‘you had a lucky, easy, good birth’ and the mother/father saying: ‘You don’t know how hard I worked for that birth’. Skills give you the ability to ‘work’ through your baby’s birth journey.
ARE YOU A MIDWIFE?
- It’s SO tempting for you to want to save women. Unfortunately too many midwives have taken on too much of the responsibility and really given families very little role. Fathers now ‘support’ but don’t help. Women are meant to ‘trust their instinct’ rather than know-how-to birth. Give your families something to ‘do’. Require them to learn, practice and use birth and coaching skills.
- Supply every client with access to diverse Skills-based resources and have them learn the skills then create a Skills-based Birth Plan (what they will ‘do’ or what skills they will use) alongside the Birth Plan that guides your ‘delivery of service’ to them. Finally you’ll be in true partnership with families.
Here’s a link. This link will be put on all the posts. Kristen has 6 kids, the last 3 are PK babies. She KNOWS about birth and is one of our affiliates. That means if you purchase The Pink Kit through her she gets a commission. Her husband Scott’s first baby was her first Pink Kit experience. He’ll explain how The Pink Kit made certain he was able to become a skilled birth coach to a woman who had previously had three great births! You can find their interviews on our YouTube channel.
Kristen’s written a time-line calendar for use of The Pink Kit. You just need to sign up to her mail list (we don’t keep a mail list) and she’ll send you the Time Line. She’s worked through both Edition #2 and #3 of The PInk Kit so she knows all it’s imperfections and la-dee-dahs past them to the skills she wants to improve for each birth. Can women and men have better births each time? Sure can! The more skilled, the more we master the experience.
http://blog.naturalbirthandbabycare.com/pink-kit-timeline-from-natural-birth-and-baby-care-com/
Please join the Movement to grow a Skills-based childbirth trend. Don’t’ let another birth go by without that family being skilled
NEXT POST: I’M PLANNING A NATURAL BIRTH. WHY DO I NEED SKILLS?