The Pink Kit And The Conference

When I have taken the concept of growing a skilled birthing population to targeted conferences such as Childbirth Educators or Midwifery etc, the message has been largely ignored. I've always wondered why.

Kelly's conference permitted me to understand my need as a Trustee to explain where The Pink Kit skills fit into all the great endeavors of groups and individuals. So I'm about to practice my new language in this blog.

Before I use this new language let me reiterate what messages are being given. There is no order of importance to this list.

1. Midwives need to be legalized so that women have choice.
2. Midwives are the very best care providers for healthy women and normal births.
3. Who the care provider and where a woman births is the main reason for the woman having a successful birth.
4. Women don't need to be taught how to birth, instead they should be left alone to discover their own best way.
5. Women who are healthy, eat well and exercise have better births.
6. It's the ante-natal care and education that determines the birth outcome.
7. Rural maternity hospitals that don't offer epidurals have the best outcomes.
8. It's important to have Free Standing Birth Centers and not ones attached to hospita.
9. If midwives accept women 'choosing' epidurals then they aren't practicing correctly.
10. Above all women must choose to have a non-medical birth unless necessary.
    

You might add other concepts to this list.

What I realized in an 'AHHA' moment is that by in large birth providers have misunderstood the Pink Kit message .... grow a skilled birthing population ... that Common Knowledge Trust has given.

What they have inaccurately assumed is that somehow the message implies they are not doing a good job. That's not even close to what we want to convey. And there's also another missing piece which is ... what happens to all the expectant parents who fall outside of the concepts listed above.

So here's CKT's relanguaged message:

Common Knowledge Trust and The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better® must always remain neutral in the discussion about childbirth. The skills have been used in all types of births in all situations for 35 years.

• If CKT were to align with the Midwifery movement then those families who have no access to midwifery care, need more medical care or choose a doctor would say 'It's not for me.'
  
• If CKT were to align with concepts of being healthy then those families who aren't healthy would say ' The Pink Kit is not for me.'
  
• If CKT were to align with the reduction of medical maternity care then those families who require or choose medical care would say 'The Pink Kit is not for me.'

CKT and The Pink Kit is for everyone ... absolutely everyone. In the statistics gathered by Andrea and Suzie ... two New Zealand midwives ... their clients birthed in hospital as well as in home. Many had medical needs and were referred to specialists. A number elected to have c/s delivery. Other had unexpected experiences ... the need for more medical care OR unintended home births. Those families who taught themselves the Pink Kit skills ALL report that the number one reason for their positive birth was because of their Pink Kit skills! That has to say something about how fundamental and essential these skills are. Certainly many of these families attended other types of childbirth education class which they liked very much. Many used natural therapies along with other childbirth methods such as hypnobirth. Yet, they all report that the primary skills they used were The Pink Kit.

Here's the other part of our relanguaged message:

The Pink Kit Package is not about 'choice' between these skills and other systems. In other words families don't need to choose between The Pink Kit and other approaches to birth. The Pink Kit skills are the fundamental and universal birth and birth coaching skills based on our human body and human behaviors connected to childbirth. This means any expectant family does need to learn how-to birth and birth coach when they are pregnant just like every learns to drive a car. The choice of what type of car is left to the individual choice. The PK Package is by far the best resource for families to use in the privacy of their own home. Use it along with every thing else you want to do or use! It's not an either/or ... it's not about choice ... it's about building a skilled birthing population broadly for all families and all births.

The true 'choice' comes down to having a set of skills and choosing whether and how to use them or not. We can't 'choose' the birth we want because there are too many variables although we can hope for one and plan for what we want. However, we can always choose how we behave and respond to the intense sensations often experienced during labour.

Then there's this part of our new relanguaged message:

Every birth provider is an expert in their field and offering their clients wonderful care. CKT wants to support each individual birth provider as well as remaining neutral and accessible to all other expectant families. What Andrea and Suzie discovered is that The Pink Kit places greater responsibility on their clients. They realize the need to grow a skilled adult population rather than increasing dependency on them as care providers.

The need to stress the difference between 'outcome' and 'process'

Presently the focus is on 'outcomes' while Common Knowledge Trust and The Pink Kit focuses exclusively on the process. Every moment of each birth is part of the process. Families have used their Pink Kit skills throughout each moment regardless of the outcome. The fact that skilled families can self-reduce the use of medical procedures is a happy side-effect but not the goal of growing a skilled birthing population.

People asked me:

A number of people at the conference told me that focusing exclusively on birth skills was very narrow. They reminded me that pregnancy and birth was holistic. This is true. From a Pink Kit perspective the 'whole' is primarily about any individual's life style, beliefs, choices etc. These are the variables. The Pink Kit does only focus on learning how to birth so that people can take these skills into this dynamic, incredibly infrequent yet very important event. Common Knowledge Trust intentionally kept the focus narrow so that the skills could be and have been accepted by the broadest range of families.

Hopefully this conversation clears up some of the issues brought up at the conference.