There’s Good News In Childbirth Trends!
Helen, a Pink Kit Presenter {Now known as BirthingBetter}, who is ‘just’ a mom who used The Pink Kit resources for the births of her two children has become fascinated with the concept of ‘choice’ which is the foundation for the partnership between women, midwives and childbirth educators in New Zealand.
As an instructor in an Outdoor Education Center, she is well aware of the choices people make based on their confidence and abilities. When she first fell pregnant The Pink Kit skills fit right into her belief that she needed to have a good set of practical skills to meet the challenge (pain) of childbirth.
She was so thrilled by her experiences that she became a Pink Kit Presenter. As she advertised her first Pink Kit presentation recently, when couples called her, she was amazed that none of them had been told about the benefits of doing The Pink Kit. Often women told her that they would have to ask their midwife about The PK and some wanted permission from their midwives to use the resource.
This corresponded with the lack of interest Andrea (who collected the statistics) has notice with her colleagues over the years. She believes midwives don’t tell their clients about The Pink Kit, do not carry the resource and certainly don’t inform their clients of the benefits..
Hearing comments by pregnant women remembered Helen about something called the Challenge by Choice, one of the Outdoor Education exercises. In this challenge there is a very high pole with several platforms at different heights. There is also a trapeze hanging in front of the pole. Each participant can choose what height they go to in order to jump off and catch the trapeze. They can also choose how far from the platform the trapeze hangs.
What she learned is that people consistently and constantly choose to do the easiest task. They choose to climb to the lowest level and choose to have the trapeze as close as possible. The people who were confident with their own skills or were really encouraged by the instructors would challenge themselves. Without skills or without lots of encouragement people consistently opted for the easy choice.
This then stimulated her to think about how ‘choice’ is being used in childbirth today. Being a mom with two young kids she talks with many other mothers and fathers. She hears them say over and over again that they are ‘choosing’ the easy way. For example, many are just choosing epidurals and even elective caesareans. They are choosing to have their midwife be with them very early in their birth. They are choosing induction, augmentation and to get the birth over with if it lasts for more than 10-15 hours.
When she tries to get them to choose to learn The Pink Kit skills they often come up with many reasonable reasons why not. They don’t choose to learn their own childbirth skills because: they are too busy, they don’t believe they need to, their midwife didn’t tell them to and believe their birth plans are their choice for the type of birth they will have. Most important, they believe their midwife will take care of them so they just trust their midwife will know what they should do.
Andrea Vincent and Suzie Hume, two independent Nelson midwives, each made a personal decision to change their concept of ‘choice’ in their practice. They looked at how they were using the term and how their clients were using that word. By looking at the word ‘choice’ they have each evolved their practices and have inspired their clients to choose to learn skills rather than just a ‘yes/no/ term.
In 2000 Andrea purchased 20 of the original Pink Kits and threw them at all her clients. Andrea had been in practice for 18 years and the c/s rate was 26.4% in her practice. She was desperate.
She knew women were choosing more medical care.
In 2001, Suzie joined in the experiment. She had just decided to become independent and came from a childbirth education background. She purchased 15 Pink Kits. She worked with about 25 clients each year while Andrea worked with 60-80. Suzie didn’t want her practice to deteriorate like so many of her colleague’s practices.
In Oct 2006, Andrea and Suzie gave a PowerPoint presentation at their National Conference. They presented the statistics they collected since 2000 and 2001 and how The Pink Kit skills have impacted birth within their practice.
Andrea and Suzie are different women who both work as midwives. They have different styles but each followed the guidelines put forth by Common Knowledge Trust that produces The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®. CKT is committed to growing a skilled birthing population.
We’re committed to growing a socially accepted expectation that childbirth skills are essential to learn during pregnancy. All expectant parents deserve and are entitled to a positive birth. Their role is to become skilled. A good birth can’t be handed to them.
The birth of each baby is a BIG event and it’s also very challenging. Childbirth is called Labour because it’s hard work. We can make the work easier by having appropriate skills for the task. Society places more requirements on learning skills to drive a car than drive our birth.
We don’t give people ‘the choice’ whether or not they need to show they can drive safely by passing a driver’s test. The day of the birth is our exam, sport’s event, performance or driving test.
Presently we use Birth Plans and choices as though they are items on a menu or a wish list. We hear women say ‘I’ll choose to stay at home until it’s painful then I’ll choose to go to hospital for an epidural’. As Helen observed people choose what is easiest when they lack skills.
CKT can’t grow a skilled birthing population alone, in a vacuum or fight against entrenched beliefs. Andrea and Suzie’s Practice Based Evidence clearly shows that expectant parents who teach themselves The Pink Kit skills self reduce absolutely all medical procedures.
How did Andrea and Suzie accomplish growing a skilled personal birthing population in their individual practices? First and foremost they had to choose to grow a skilled birthing population. They had to realize that the childbirth skills in The Pink Kit were universal so their clients could choose many other types of care, information and knowledge along with choosing to become skilled.
They also had to choose to change a belief that supported women taking the easy choice to say ‘no’ to making the better choice to do the work. Without supplying each and every client the full Pink Kit Package from 24 weeks onward until birth they could never have achieved their results.
They also had to choose not to ‘teach’ The Pink Kit skills to their clients. Instead they had to explain why The Pink Kit resource is the BEST teacher for both birth and birth coaching skills. They also had to choose to not ‘do’ The Pink Kit on women in labour. A few of their colleagues were choosing that approach unsuccessfully.
Choosing to grow a skilled birthing population required changing the concept of their professional partnership with their clients.
This is what they discovered. At first thirty percent of couples were absolutely delighted to finally have skills they could learn in the privacy of their own home. That left seventy percent who ‘chose’ not to teach themselves. These couples expected the midwives to teach them how-to birth and be their primary birth coach.
This attitude had left Andrea totally exhausted and loaded with unrealistic expectation. Also her professional guidelines were to let women discover birth herself. By doing that she felt fewer and fewer women were coping with birth. Her statistics prior to 2000 certainly showed that more of her clients were choosing many medical procedures.
Suzie also found that about thirty percent were keen. Over the years they have discovered something amazing. Both of them stopped making ‘choosing’ to do The Pink Kit an easy yes/no option because seventy percent chose ‘no’. As they have become more insistent more of their clients step up to the plate and do the work.
Now 5% absolutely will not. Ten to fifteen percent say they do the work but in labour it’s obvious they didn’t. This means that Andrea and Suzie have inspired close to 85% of their clients to teach themselves these skills
While there continues to be a great deal of tension between concepts like medical and natural birth, this no longer needs to be true. The Pink Kit skills are used in all births. Andrea and Suzie say that even those couples who do require medical care still use their Pink Kit skills and report how positive they feel about their birth experience.
For example, a woman who is over weight with diabetes, has twins but is refusing an elective caesaren then goes over her due date and refuses an induction but is developing toxemia may seem absolutely crazy. However her birth unfolds she will still breathe, so she can learn Directed Breathing for each inhale and exhale. Her body will always be in some position or posture so she can always use The Pelvic Clock to relax inside at any moment. Childbirth skills are what we use as our birth unfolds … and it will.
We can take any example from any birth. Women planned elective cesareans no longer have to be passive. They can prepare their birthing body and get a rush from that and use many of their Pink Kit skills during the surgery and recovery. Why not.
Why should we focus on one type of birth? Birth is Birth. Once we’ve learned good birth and birth coaching skills, we can use them with every inhale and each exhale.
New Zealand could have the very best birth statistics. Andrea and Suzie have not found it easy to change the concept of ‘choice’ as used by midwives, childbirth educators and families in New Zealand. We live in a world of the individual and respect for diversity.
When Andrea and Suzie started on this journey they never really believed that there could be a set of universal skills for all births that suits such a large percent of the population. But over the years they have come to realize the truth … we are all one humanity. Women and men have the same bodies and every birth is one contraction after another with one inhale and one exhale following the next.
Imagine a father who supported his wife during their first birth and was hung on for hours and hours but in his heart knew he hadn’t really helped her. Then imagine that dad learning how to see and hear whether his wife is coping and know exactly how to keep her on top of each contraction? Then imagine how his wife would feel knowing he really could help her?
Birth has not only changed for Suzie and Andrea’s clients, it has changed for them as midwives. They see the majority of women coping with labour pain. They see fathers become absolutely wonderful birth coaches.
Look at their statistics! They speak for themselves. Is there anything else waiting in the wings of childbirth that can show this type of consistent change? Is there anything happening in childbirth that can finally bridge the gaps that choice has opened up so that all families can have positive birth experiences? There is a light at the end of a long, dreary tunnel and beginning to shine.
Even with the statistics showing a clear way forward The Pink Kit is hampered by not being available in bookstores because it’s a multimedia resource that doesn’t fit into product formats. Within Andrea and Suzie making the Pink Kit Package available to their clients, change would not have occurred.
Beyond that small issue, consider if just thirty percent of New Zealand childbirth educators and midwives inspired just 30% of their clients to teach themselves these valuable birth skills by using The Pink Kit Package, what change could happen. It takes a simple word like ‘choice’ to take on an entirely different meaning. Let’s choose to grow a skilled birthing population then we will have the skills to meet the challenge of our birth with our ability. How neat would that be?