My Mission for Childbirth Education
One of the reasons I am where I am as a birth worker is because of my personal experience during both of my pregnancies. We had a childbirth educator, doula, midwives, and an incredibly supportive birth teams throughout both of my pregnancies and births. This is not to say I did not encounter resistance or providers and people who doubted my desires and ultimate goals. The main thing I gained from my experiences is that I was my #1 advocate. No one else has my best interests except me so I made it my mission to surround myself with people who aligned with my desires and I fought hard for what I felt was best for my children, myself, and my family.
It is unfortunate that we have to “fight” so hard for what is natural, normal, and safe. And the fact that I have the privilege to fight for these rights and ultimately receive the care I know I deserve is not lost on me. For a vast majority of non-white women, this is tremendously harder and even impossible to attain. But the more I advocate for normal, safe, healthy pregnancies and births, then the more it will improve birth across the board.
As a childbirth educator, my goal is to promote normal birth, build women’s confidence in their ability to give birth, and ultimately provide the knowledge and skills women need to give birth normally in the current maternity care system. In order to meet these goals, we need to help birthing people learn more about the normal birth process and identify their options.
How are my goals achieved?
Providing evidence-based information about maternity care practices.
Simple facts about normal, safe, and healthy childbirth and the care practices that facilitate this.
Understanding of how medicalized routine care practices and how they can make giving birth normally more difficult.
“We need to help women untangle and make sense of the profusion of often conflicting and inaccurate information that is available everywhere and we need to stay with them every step of the way.” Judith Lothian
This is best done by sharing stories, being passionate in our trust of normal birth and women’s ability to grow, birth, and breastfeed their babies, and by being honest and direct.
This information is part of an article from PubMed Central (PMC) called Childbirth Education at the Crossroads by Judith Lothian, PhD, RN, LCCE, FACCE and can be found HERE.
What to do next:
To help guide you during this time, there are many benefits to hiring a birth doula and taking a childbirth education class. Doing this can help to ensure you have the tools and knowledge needed to navigate your unique, non-linear, and unpredictable path to giving birth with more ease and confidence. Take the next step to owning your birth…Learn more about our birth doula services, postpartum doula services, and childbirth education. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or to set-up your free consultation!