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9/30/2024 0 Comments When Birth Didn't Go to PlanOur Online Meet-Up for January 2023 focused on the topic 'When Birth Doesn't Go to Plan.' This follow up blog post provides a glimpse into topics we might coverin our online sessions & some information signposting on birth trauma and birth resolution and support available. Plans can go differently on the day if you stilll feel good that's okay. But if something happens in your pregnancy, labour, birth or postnatal experience that leaves you feeling sad, angry, shaken, anxious or any number of other feelings you're not alone. When we plan for birth there are lots of things we can control and be prepared for but there are also things that are out of our control, that we must deal with the best we can at the time. It might be something dramatic like a crash caesarean or a baby who needs medical support when they are born. Perhaps, it might be something that seems very small from other people's point of view but actually has a huge impact on us; such as the way someone speaks to you or how they make you feel about yourself at a vulnerable point in your life. Often when we talk about these things we will find people dismiss our feelings, generally with the well-intentioned specific but really unhelpful observations that your baby is here, or that a certain outcome was meant to be and there's always a next time.... and that you're fine now you should get over it. What would be a better response? We can't go back and change anything that happened in the past but we can listen and validate how you felt then, and how you feel now. We can provide some information and support for moving on from this point. We can offer respect and support for the fact that getting over it is not that simple and sometimes further action and support are needed before you can even think about feeling differently in the future. 
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8/17/2024 0 Comments Confident Birthing ChoicesWhen we first wrote this blog post it was the start of the corona virus pandemic. That was a time when lots of things changed very fast and we often didn't know from week to week what would be on offer in terms of healthcare for labour and birth. Since then we've been told that everything has returned to normal. But in our experience, we've not returned to the way things used to be, there's still a lot more uncertainty and last-minute changes than used to be usual. From what we can work out this is mainly due to staff availability in maternity and ambulance services. It's generally not an issue for anyone planning to birth in the labour ward. However, those planning a home birth or to birth in the stand-alone birthing centres are still being warned there is always the possibility they will be asked to come into the labour ward (or sometimes to the alongside birthing centre) on the day. For anyone having an induction of labour, this can also affect how long they will need to wait between being advised to have their labour induced and when they are invited into the hospital to start that process as well as how long that process may take.
So thinking about what is inside and outside your control when you're making a birth plan remains a good way of planning. 6/4/2024 0 Comments Owning your birth environment In some senses, we're all birthing within the same environment. We're all living in the same culture and most of us are being cared for by the same medical system. Some things are outside of our control like how well-funded our local maternity services are or what the priorities of the management teams are. We see headlines in newspapers and form an expectation of what's "normal" from the births we see in television dramas. Pregnancy is a time were we can really start to reflect on how our cultural and family environment has affected us and our expectations and about what is in our control to change within ourselves. If you didn't even know you had choices about your birth we hope this information will get you started thinking about the things inside your control and what choices you really want to make.
6/4/2024 0 Comments Help your body birthInformed Birth Planning Knowing how your body works can help you work with it and your baby to feel positive and confident in your birthing decisions and experiences. There's no one type of positive birth. Neither is a positive birth only possible if all your hopes and plans come true exactly as you wish. A birth you can look back on and feel positive about means one where you knew you were supported by those around you and when you were given the chance to make the best fully informed decision for you whatever the circumstances on the day. You can have a positive home water birth, a positive planned c-section birth, a positive hospital labour ward active birth, a positive birth with an epidural, any kind of birth that feels like the right choice for you.
We're called Informed Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond because we want everyone to have access to the information they need to make their own decisions. We're there to support you to make your own decisions we're not interested in telling you what those decisions should be. We often talk about shifting your focus from what is out of your control to what is in your control and how this may help you plan for a positive birth regardless of what's in the news or how hospital policies may change. Now it's time to get practical we've been collecting ideas about what practical activities and ideas can help to raise our positive birthing hormones and help us switch off our worried brains and let our bodies get on with the work of labour and birth. What can we do that is within our control. 6/3/2024 0 Comments Making a birth plan"Your birth plan will only end in disappointment." We hear it said so often birth is unpredictable, you can’t plan a birth, making a birth plan is just setting yourself up for disappointment and feeling guilty. But in our experience of working with families, it is precisely because birth is unpredictable that having a birth plan is so important and can often be the thing that prevents feelings of guilt and disappointment. Maybe people don’t like the idea of birth planning because they think making a birth plan means writing down your ideal birth and thinking positively and then all your wishes will come true. If you can plan a holiday you can plan a birth.
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AuthorPosts by team members who are doulas, antenatal teachers, placenta specialists and birth nerds among other things. Archives
March 2025
CategoriesAll Birth Birth Plan Mental Health Peer Support Postnatal Postnatal Plan |
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