That Dame Doula

08/31/2023

The woman is the expert in her body, her baby, and her birth!!!!!!!!!!!!

"When we insist that pregnancy length is fixed and not fluid, when we force women to follow due dates defined by machines and not their own bodies, when we constantly prioritise medical definitions over women's own instincts, we undermine a vital source of information and a well of trust."

I wrote that to try to explain a huge problem that we have today.

Our knowledge about our bodies is being undermined by the very systems and advances that we have created to try and help ourselves.

Our technologies and machines are wonderful when they are really needed.

But they are overused.

And when we pay more attention to their output and stop looking at the bigger picture (including our own knowledge about our bodies), we can do more harm than good.

Over the years, I have talked to many women who have personal stories about this.

Some women have known the exact date they conceived because their partner was stationed abroad and they only saw him for one weekend in three months.

Others had IVF and also knew the exact date of conception.

Yet they were told that "the dating scan knows best" and they had to battle the system because the date calculated by a machine was given more credit than their own knowledge.

They weren't believed.

My website contains lots of information about normality, due dates and induction of labour.

I have also written two books about this: Inducing Labour: making informed decisions and In Your Own Time: how western medicine controls the start of labour and why this needs to stop.

Find out more at www.sarawickham.com/iol

07/31/2023

07/19/2023

Here is an awesome birth story to listen to from a mom who has 3 very different pregnancy and birth experiences (c section, home birth with midwife, free birth)

In this episode of Taking Back Birth, I talk to Paala about her journey from C-Section, to home birth, to free birth.Just press PLAY below to listen.Download this podcast transcriptYou can read Paala's birth story here.

07/12/2023

So fitting! Women are portals to other galaxies and worlds!

💫 Galaxy Babe💫 I have been asked if I photoshopped the pool around mom and baby. I am flattered that some think I can do this with photoshop but I have never used it before. This is a birth tub with a rope light that was white/blue/purple. The combination of blood and after birth made the pool like the galaxy. I remember pointing it out to everyone in the room as well. I thought it was so beautiful! I stood up on my handy dandy step stool that I take to all my births and took this photo. In Lightroom, I blacked out the background as well as the top of the blue pool to make it look like they were floating in space.✨

Mother Wolf with

06/29/2023

https://indiebirth.org/tapping-into-motherwit-amber-rainmas-powerful-sovereign-birth-story/

Amidst her Saturn return, Amber RainMa made the decision to end her job, sell her house, and gift most of her belongings in service to a higher calling - embarking on a soul journey throughout the world that led to the sacred conception and pregnancy of her son, Blessing. Amongst her 'A' team - ange...

06/26/2023

Patience isn’t cultivated in our culture.

The transformational spaces of limbo aren’t honoured.

Shed fat in a day,
Make a million this way,
Choose the babies birthday.

The patriarchy seeps into birth in the form of yoni exams not only during labour but in the weeks before.

Our society digs around in vaginas and stretches cervices.

It doesn’t wait for full completion of vaginal sphincter dilation because only the widening of the cervix seems to matter.

Forget placentas being left to vacate in the comfort of a dark space.

There’s no patience for pause.
For the Quietitude.

There’s emphasis on work.

Is it any wonder that we have a world of women who are subliminally devoted to the Saint archetype?

The grandmothers accounts of washing floors and making bread and tending to children, basically being as a means of bringing a baby down are overtaken by only the old wives tales that meet the rushed pace: eat this, stimulate that, even s*x is made into a chore rather than a pleasure, a way to get ‘er done rather than an organic intimate process that naturally facilities the oxytocin state.

Common ease that’s costs nothing is now relegated to fancy.

When women are left to their own devices and given space from expectations they are juicy and open. When they’re told what’s not working, they’re brittle and tight.

We open to birth like we open to love making. On demand hardly cuts it.

Those who tend birth, we have a responsibility to stop. this. s**t.

Not being cavalier, just shining a light on patience.

It’s our role to mirror back to mothers the capability of their body rather than providing her with insidious messages that she isn’t performing, which come through in the form of ‘to do’ lists and projections of what ‘we can do if baby isn’t here by this date’.

It’s uncomfortable waiting to be born but you can’t just push past that.

No more get up, get at it, get through it.

More delta brainwave.

More juice.

More yes.

We tend birth because we understand that being a gatekeeper is about preventing breaking and entering, not becoming a part of it.

Submitting to the latter means spiritual burn out. Gosh, I’ve been there.

We can be...so...gentle.

-Reposted from Siân Marie Pilkington

06/26/2023

Women are not machines, our bodies don't all work the same and definitely not on the same time-line or schedule !!!

We need to value the ‘other ways of knowing’ that reinforce the woman as the expert in her own birth experience.
https://midwifethinking.com/2017/02/03/understanding-and-assessing-labour-progress/

05/23/2023

When someone mentions Labor Land, this is what they're referring to!

If you want to hear more about this and if you have time to read this long but beautifully written piece by Whapio Diane Bartlett, it really dives into the stages of Labor but with the brain waves and altered state of consciousness being the focus.

This is what we're missing in this culture when we talk about or teach childbirth.

https://www.ericashanechildbirth.com/holistic-stages-of-labor.html

Mama Glow - THETA BRAIN WAVES ~ Altered states of consciousness arise when you are in a dream, state of bliss, daydream, trance state, meditation, arousal, or labor. Yes, when you are giving birth. Western medicine thankfully can measure these altered states by measuring our brain waves via EEG. The brain waves allow us to understand our states of consciousness—giving value to an experience that is otherwise hard to measure. If you’re driving a car with standard transmission you move between gears to alter your speed, right? Your brain-wave states function in a similar way.
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We progress from Beta, to Alpha, to Theta then Delta.
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Theta Waves: happen when there is no thinking—it’s all about feeling. You drop right into the primal space and your ancestral wisdom of birth kicks in. This is where many birthing people experience what’s called a “primal birth.” This is also the brain wave you’re riding when you cross the threshold of high-level arousal into climax (and multiple or**sm). When we get pulled into the vortex of our primal power, the labor takes over. The theta state coincides with mid-level to high-level arousal, or 6-10 centimeters dilation in moving from active labor into transition.
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This is where birthing people have potent visions, dreams and REM sleep between the powerful rhythmic waves of sensation moving through their bodies. This is a trance state. People have limited capacity for language in this state because the neocortex is essentially shut off. The birthing person intuits the movements, sounds, positions, necessary to most easily move through the process and birth their babies.
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There are major hormonal systems at work to facilitate labor and they are activated at their peak when we feel safe and have surrendered in an altered state of consciousness. Fear, anxiety and tension are the antagonists to the birth trance. And our modern obstetric model makes it challenging for us to birth in this state. Many of us never get the chance to feel this safety in birth.
Xo
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📷 🙏🏽

05/09/2023

"They told these stories and taught you to fear birth, to fear your power, to fear yourself."

They told you about the contractions, but did they tell you about the expansion? Did they tell you how your body would open to make way for the whole universe to pass through? Did they tell you how your heart would explode with a love bigger than anything you’ve ever known as you pulled your baby to your chest?

They told you about the ring of fire but did they tell you about the crown of stars?

Did they mention that there’s a moment when your baby enters the world and you leave your body and touch the heavens and become the light of a million galaxies? Did they tell you how the pain of stretching to receive your child would be more exsquisite than any sensation you’ve felt?

They told you would scream but did they tell you about how you would roar? Did they tell you about the power that would rise up from your belly as you called your baby forth with your mighty voice? Did they tell you how you would embody the wild woman within you and breathe fire with your song?

They told you would bleed, but did they tell you how that sacred blood wouldn’t scare you? How you would feel grateful for that magical liquid of life as it trickled down your leg- how you would honor its flow and how it would help you heal a lifetime of hating your body’s bleeding cycles.
They told these stories and taught you to fear birth, to fear your power, to fear yourself. But you’re stronger and wiser than that mama. You know that birth is your divine dance, your soul’s song, your moment with God, and you walk fearlessly into her open arms.
- Reposted from Spirit Y Sol

05/08/2023

Who else grew up hearing about almost every birth starting with an induction?!

If it's not providing better outcomes why is it happening so much?

Is it because it's easier to schedule people to come in at a certain time, easier for providers and hospitals to get all these people in and out in an 'organized' manner?

In 2021, another study confirmed that induction is associated with more interventions and adverse outcomes.

"Worryingly, although the induction rate had tripled in some groups in the 16 years spanned by the study, Dahlen et al (2021) found that there had been no reduction in stillbirth.

This is of huge concern, as possible reduction in the chance of stillbirth is the reason often given to support a recommendation of induction, especially when there are no medical indications for induction."

That's a quote from my book, In Your Own Time: how western medicine controls the start of labour and why this needs to stop.

I shared the finding of a group of researchers who, "compared intrapartum interventions and outcomes for mothers, neonates and children up to 16 years, for induction of labour (IOL) versus spontaneous labour onset in uncomplicated term pregnancies with live births." (Dahlen et al 2021).

I discussed this research in a blog post, which you can see at https://www.sarawickham.com/research-updates/induction-adverse-outcomes/ as well as in my book.

As always, it's important to remember that there are pros and cons to everything.

If there are genuine medical reasons for induction, then the benefits can outweigh the risks and possible downsides.

Induction of labour is absolutely the right decision for some women and families, regardless of these risks.

But many people think it is being offered too often at the moment, and that women and families aren't being given enough information about the downsides.

The key is in getting informed, and figuring out what's right for you.

Loads more info at www.sarawickham.com/time

04/25/2023

TL;DR: I’m tired of waiting for the system to change. I’m putting my energy where my mouth is and starting a research study.

For the last seven years, I have provided in-home Physical Therapy evaluations to new parents when they know to ask for it because this isn’t a standard postpartum referral. I have met with people who:

🫀Had “red flag” vital signs issues that needed to be reported back to their providers ASAP. Without PT this information would have gone unnoticed. Cardiovascular events are the #1 reason women die after childbirth in America.
🚽Had f***l incontinence from being over-prescribed stool softeners at the hospital, an issue that was already causing significant embarrassment and stress and was *very easily treated.* Without PT, well — you can imagine.
⁉️EVERYONE just needing guidance on how to safely move, lift, and deal with the early healing needs of their body. Pain and fear are directly correlated to depression, and new parents don’t need any more excuse to feel overwhelmed by their situation.

Since research is the starting point for policy change, I need to turn this experience into a formal study. My hypothesis is that there will be measurable differences in movement, mood, and participation in life between subjects who receive in-home PT within the first week postpartum and those who receive the current standard of postpartum care.

If you are currently pregnant and meet criteria (shown in graphic) — please, please consider signing up for this study.

If you know pregnant people who meet criteria, please share with them. The sooner we recruit participants, the sooner the research results can be analyzed and published.

More info at the website shown in this post. It’s the link in my IG profile bio and I will share in the FB comments.