The cyle of life and normal birth

Last Friday, Sophie and I met with a group of midwives once again to spend a day teaching and talking about normal birth (which is midwife lingo for natural birth). What exactly counts as a natural birth varies a great deal.

Here at Mindful Mamma we like to consider it as a vaginal, drug free, no intervention birth, and most of our parents come to classes wanting exactly that. We asked the midwives how many of their clients have a natural birth, using our criteria. They said they had no idea – but less than 10%, if not closer to 3%.

They don’t often see that, even though they work on a normal birth unit, with very good outcome statistics. Sophie and I were surprised, because we hear about it all the time in the feedback we get from the couples who do our classes and I see it all the time in my work as a doula. However, the point is that we are all aiming for the same things, and it is lovely that the changes which Mindful Mamma would like to see in childbirth (less intervention, more empowered parents) are the same as those which midwives in the NHS want to see, and, of course, what you – the couples on our classes want to see too.

Most of you come to our classes needing to release your fears around birth, and to learn to trust the whole process. Some of you come to class needing to release your fears around birthing within the NHS, and learn to trust the procedures and trust the staff. It’s lovely that in our work, we can increasingly help you to release your fears about birthing within the NHS, because there are indeed, a lot of fabulous midwives out there, who are working within a system which increasingly enables and supports you in your choice of a normal, natural, birth.

While we mourn the losses and endings with our silences and poppies on Remembrance Sunday, it is nice to give thanks to our country for helping with the beginnings, focussing on helping babies to be born as nature intended, finally, after over 500 years.