5/18/2021 0 Comments Do I need a Birth Plan?This can be a dividing question! The options presented usually are: No- birth doesn't go to plan. or Yes! The power of the plan is knowing what your options are. But there is also a 3rd option... Don't plan, don't preference... Birth MAP! Birth Mapping is a technique created by Australian Birth Worker Catherine Bell. After a year or more of having all my Doula families read her amazing book, The Birth Map, I have now completed training with Catherine herself to further help you to create your own. A Birth Map allows you to look at many possible birth paths and what questions you should be asking. We look at 'the fast birth', the expected and the contingency options. No checklists or templates because this is your own individual experience. Want to know more? All of my Doula families can loan The Birth Map and use one of their sessions for helping create their map. Not a Doula client? Hit the 'Contact Me' tab and book in a once off Birth Mapping Session or download your own copy of the book over at www.bellabirth.org/ to get started! Image by Catherine Bell
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5/3/2021 1 Comment Dear Mr. Premier...The policies around Birth Support during lockdown has had a massive impact on families over the past year. Something the Doulas of Perth are getting more and more frustrated and heartbroken in fighting against. On 1st of May I decided I needed to do more and started a petition to urge the government to take action. Today I have sent the current 4,596 signatures to Premier Mark McGowan along with Roger Cook, Minister for Health, Opposition Leader Mia Davies and my Local MP Jessica Stojkovski. My letter can be found below. You are welcome to copy and use to send your own email otherwise a simplified version is being prepared by Jessie from The Bright Birth Co who has also being an inspiration for her great work standing up to these policies- doing TV interviews and launching the social media campaign #givingbirthinperth. If you haven't already, sign and add your story to my petition here as I will continue to email updates to politicians - http://chng.it/TH4Ykhp2Bk Premier Mark McGowan - [email protected] Minister for Health Roger Cook - [email protected] Opposition Leader Mia Davies - [email protected] Thank you for lending your voice. 3rd May 2021 Dear Premier Mark McGowan, Over the past 15 months birthing families and birth workers have been patient and understanding of support person policy. But we have reached our limit and are demanding change to the current policy which relates to pregnancy, birth and postpartum care during lockdowns, current and future, in WA. I am writing to you both as a Doula who has provided birth support to families during this pandemic and as a mother who was pregnant and gave birth during this time. The current policy that is brought into effect during lockdowns is that One immediate family member may be present during and immediately following birth as a support person. This policy, down from the usual 2 persons, has remained in place after other restrictions on the wider community have been lifted and the idea that policies can change at any point in pregnancy has become very distressing to pregnant women who are left unable to change their situation. This policy is unclear and is being implemented in different ways by different hospitals or birthing centres, due to their differing interpretation. This does not allow for the continuous support which is a standard of care and evidence based. Hospitals are referring to government recommendations and government is advising it is at the discretion of the hospitals. The general interpretation is that support persons may only enter the hospital grounds during active labour and leave within 1 hour of the birth. Women having an induction of labour, longer early labour stages or monitoring are being left alone, without a familiar support person. This has occurred in a variety of situations, not least of which included while hearing the news of birth defects or stillbirth. The beginning of an induction process can take days. Some husbands and partners have been waiting in cars outside. They are then asked to leave during critical bonding time with their newborn. One father being asked to leave 15min after an emergency caesarean. One biological mother was repeatedly denied the opportunity to attend the birth of her baby, born via surrogate. Finally this lady was granted permission to attend the birth during lockdown on 25/4/2021. The pair arrived at the King Edward Family Birth Centre minutes before the birth in order to stay together. After the birth women are then in distress when they can’t see older children and have limited time with their partners until after hospital discharge. Some have shared their stories of discharging against medical advice, within 24hrs of emergency caesareans, in order to be reunited. Others have accepted medical interventions just to meet the ‘active birth’ criteria for their partner to come onto the ward. These are all stories being shared over the past few days while support person restrictions were still in place. This occurring at the same time as a 45,000 football crowd, small home parties, weddings and funerals of 30 people were permitted. While birthing restrictions are now not as limited, they could come back at any time. With hospitals understaffed and WA now holding a 37.8% caesarean rate (World Health Organisation recommends a 15% rate and we are the highest rate in Australia), not having visitors can further add to the strain and delayed or difficulty in healing as these women are unable to do any lifting and fully care for their newborn after major abdominal surgery. As much as our midwives are wanting to provide continuous support, the reality is that they are not able to do so. Public hospitals and shifts also mean that these health professionals come and go during the hospital stay. Independent birth support allows for this and also allows support to be provided for dads and partners. In my experience, these partners are often not eating during labour, confused about what is going on, and sometimes left with trauma from seeing their partner in distress. I have found my support to them as critical as to the mothers. Choosing their one support person is also causing great distress. Many women choose to have their partner plus their own mother, sibling, friend or professionally hired doula or independent midwife present, to then be left in limbo of choosing who this 1 support person will be. While Independent midwifes should not be included in these restrictions, some have been, or women have been made to feel as if they still would be required to choose. Again, because policy is not clear. The above policy also mentions that this person be immediate family. Not all women birthing have an immediate family member as their support and could be interpreted as a single mother hiring a doula to be that support person not being allowed to have them attend. This insufficient, unclear policy is causing much uncertainty and distress. 1 in 3 women describe their birth as traumatic. A contributing factor in postpartum depression and PTSD. Conditions that according to the 2019 report linked below costs Australia $227million in health costs, $643 million in economic costs and 21% of maternal suicides being linked to severe depression. Evidence shows that birthing women who have continuous support are shown to have:
These reasons are why we are seeking:
There is a great magnitude of evidence-based recommendations when it comes to birth with many areas that can be improved. Too many to mention in one letter how they all contribute to the health and safety of families birthing our next generation. It is a topic that I strongly encourage you to seek expert advice and opinions on and make long term plans to further improve. As a Doula I know I do not hold all the answers but, as stated above, the simple change of allowing partners on the ward for longer can however be implemented immediately and have lasting impacts. As at 11.52pm of 3/5/2021 our community has shown support for this issue with 259 posts on Instagram under #givingbirthinperth petition started by Perth Doula Jessie from The Bright Birth Co. 4,596 signatures on my petition ‘Allow Support for Birth’ started 1/5/2021 12,746 signatures on petition ‘Prevent hospitals banning dads/ partners from the birth of their baby during COVID-19’ started 1 year ago My own child was born before the January 31st lockdown but was due during the lockdown itself. The idea of not having my full team, which we had invested time money and energy in, and that it could all change any minute, was very distressing. The lockdown isolation with a newborn was very difficult and my mental health was negatively impacted during this time. You only need to read some of the stories shared on the petition and social media to see how much this is affecting and will continue to affect the families of this state. As a doula my enquiries over the past year of women wanting to turn to ‘freebirthing’ last minute has greatly increased. Freebirth is choosing to birth without any medical person present. While some women choose to do this from an empowering place and plan to do so all pregnancy, it does cause great concern when the decision is made from fear, lack of options and made last minute. Through understanding of the hormones in birth and how they play their roles, this fear can lead to negative physical and emotional impacts for these women, their babies and their families. They are then brushed off in sharing their stories further impacting their mental health. We are in a great position in regards to covid restrictions. If we are still able to go to sport, pubs and protect other important life events such as weddings and funerals, why are we unable to protect the mental health of people during an impactful time in their lives that cannot be rescheduled. It seams we are focusing most of the efforts on economical boost over the mental health affects of covid. All throughout the pandemic. Even today in your live update- we are told to use our common sense. Common sense tells me we need to act and we need to act now. I look forward to your response on this important issue. Regards, Amber Kevill Gidget Foundation report on postpartum depression https://gidgetfoundation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Cost-of-PNDA-in-Australia_-Final-Report.pdf Evidence on Doulas/ Birth Support https://evidencebasedbirth.com/the-evidence-for-doulas/ Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) Statement https://ranzcog.edu.au/news/statement-on-covid-19-and-support-persons Australian College of Midwives AMA Statement https://www.midwives.org.au/news/women-should-have-access-known-birth-partner-labour?fbclid=IwAR3vFK2V2qS8T0dHEftkBbt71tviMoKaCxYRW5T4VQauwb75U97GmkOefps 7 news Story from 2/5/2021 https://www.facebook.com/7NEWSPerth/videos/745057452850806/ Petition links http://chng.it/XGhpkWXb https://www.change.org/p/roger-cook-prevent-hospitals-banning-dads-partners-from-the-birth-of-their-baby-during-covid-19?recruiter=884933041&recruited_by_id=4eb50b20-7602-11e8-a807-e101f871023f&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard Image by Raw and Wild Photography
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