Facebook is SO interesting. Only a few people read our post on
- A COUNTRY WITH MIDWIVES, CHOICE, INFORMED CONSENT AND HOME BIRTH https://www.facebook.com/BirthingBetterPinkKitMethod/posts/10153040608895573
- YOU WANT A MIDWIFERY MODEL OF CARE? https://www.facebook.com/BirthingBetterPinkKitMethod/posts/10153045228020573
How curious. There is so much chatter and political energy put into getting midwives into the maternity system for the past 45 years in the US. You’d think people would want to know exactly how a maternity system run by midwives actually works. But no, no interest. How interesting.
In reality, any Midwifery Model of Care fails expectant parents when the concept for a skilled birthing population is not grown alongside a shift in maternity care from a ‘medical model’ to a ‘natural birth model’.
Let’s think about this. The political discussion around birth is that the medical model has imposed heaps of unnecessary interventions on birthing women and this has led to increased C/S.
If that is accurate and midwives take over maternity care as they have in NZ then what happens? Midwives identify themselves as ‘non-medical’ and often see their role as being historic and their job to ‘promote and protect physiological birth’. They want fewer medical interventions. How do they envision this happening? Just stop doing inductions, augmentations, forceps, C/S, fetal monitoring, vaginal exams?
Let’s face it, if any society wants birth to be ‘natural’ then the goal must be to reduce and prevent as many problems as possible that would be identified and managed through medical interventions. You just can’t stop using assessments, monitoring and procedures.
The best way to prevent and reduce all forms of medical interventions is to grow a skilled birthing population for the general population. While there is some evidence that those who use the skills in the Bradley Method do have fewer interventions those families are self-selecting to the philosophy behind the Bradley Method which is oriented toward natural birth. But what about the general population that is served by the NZ Midwifery of Care?
NZ midwives failed to recognize the importance of growing a skilled birthing population as part of their Partnership Model. They have given expectant families no expectation to 1) Have the skills to prepare their pregnant body to become a birthing body 2) Have birth and coaching skills to work through their baby’s birth journey NO MATTER how the birth unfolds and how much medical care is part of that birth.
We must grow a skilled birthing population whether there is an obstetrical or midwifery model. Skills give families the ability to be fully engaged in the birth of their baby. Remember this. A family gets pregnant to have a baby not a ‘type’ of birth! Skills matter.
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: SKILLS-BASED BIRTH STORY #6