The more you know, the less you don't know

4 Aug 2007

I met a thirty something man on the train two months ago and we got talking about life, business, family ... the usual things. He told me he was going to have his first baby in November. His parent already has two children.

He said they were planning a natural birth with a midwife at a birth center. His partner had two previous difficult births. He thought she has had two cesareans. He didn't know much about what had happened but really wanted to be there for her.

We had had a few hours to talk and he asked me to explain what The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better® was. Before I went over some of the skills with him, I explained that Common Knowledge Trust wants to grow a skilled birthing population.

The concept was actually alien to him. He ask me ... 'Doesn't our midwife tell us what to do?' Then he said ... 'Our midwife spends lots of time with us and explains everything to us.'

At that point, people either stop wanting to know anything about The Pink Kit or cautious permit me a few moments of their time to try to show or convince them that this is different.

This is always a difficult time. What can I say? Whether a obstetrician or midwife, all expectant parents truly believe they are being given the best and necessary information. Yes, sometimes women who go to obstetricians don't feel they are given very much time.

One young woman told me that her obstetrician always asked her whether she had any questions. She actually didn't know what questions she might have so she didn't have any. She assumed her doctor would give her the necessary information and even answer questions she didn't even know she had.

Families who have midwifery care are often delighted that the midwife spends more time with them and explains the process of birth so clearly.

Either way, most people think they are learning everything there is to know. Besides there are some terrific books about birth. So, I'm always in a bit of a confusion when I have to talk to people about The Pink Kit.

Over 35 years, I've learned to do my best to show them some of the skills as soon as possible, however, in order to get to the skills people actually need to spend a bit of time thinking. Skills can either make sense and become part of us or they can be seen of as 'techniques' which we believe we can choose to use or not to.

The Pink Kit skills are so very much based on how we behave as human beings that we have to capture the mind and then the body.

So, I asked him what we always ask expectant parents ... 'What are the four ways humans breath?'

You can almost hear the other person, and this was certainly true of this man, think ... 'Who cares' ... 'What does that have to do with anything?' ... 'I'm sure my care provider will tell us how to breath if that's necessary' ... 'I already know how to breath.' And there are other comments.

However, if we do not know the four and only four ways we breath as humans then we'll never really understand how to use our breath in labour.

By the time I had gone over each of these four ways and the common sense skills that evolve from this self-knowledge this man was absolutely transformed.

When he got off the train he said: 'I'm a different person.' That's good.

What he learned is ... the more you know the less you don't know.

If you don't know the four ways we breath and you're pregnant then you need The Pink Kit Package. Why go into labour without the skillls you can use?

A week later, they ordered The Pink Kit Package.

Change is so hard to actualize

3 August 2007

I had a conversation with a woman today who is the head of a childbirth organization in a country which has a well educated population along side of cultural groups who are illiterate.

She had been trained in one type of childbirth preparation while overseas. Then she had returned to her country of origin hoping to bring this childbirth preparation to the families in her country. There was a countrywide birth class available for the educated women already set up in her country which informed women about the types of pain relief available and went over some basic information about the birth process and what to expect.

Although she had been trained abroad and seen families use the birth skills she passed on, she was profoundly surprised that women in her country were not interested. Rather they attended the classes put together by the well established birth preparation program delivered in local hospitals.

We discussed how difficult it is for people to realize there is so much more they can do for themselves without bucking the system.

Certainly the childbirth system she was trained in actually promoted more natural births and the women in her country were seeking lots of pain relief and elective cesareans if possible. Doctors were more than comfortable with approving an elective cesarean and in some hospitals the rate was 70% cesarean.

She has some interest in The Pink Kit resources but felt that if she couldn't move people to want more natural births then they won't be interested in The Pink Kit.

Probably that is where she doesn't quite 'get' what The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better® is about. There is absolutely no need for a woman to want to have a natural birth. She can still be skilled and want whatever type of birth suits her.

There's been too much pulling apart of childbirth. Sure, the idea of having 'choice' in childbirth is great but if women have choice then we have to expect they will choose more medical care as well as those women who are choosing more natural birth. We can't use 'choice' to imply being anti-medical or pro-natural.

Either way, having a great set of birth and birth coaching skills is vital and should absolutely go hand-in-hand with being pregnant.

Now, I'm taking a vacation for the month of Sept and may not be doing too many blogs. I'm biking from Vienna to Holland up the Danube and then up the Rhine.

Wish me a good trip and talk soon.

www.birthingbetter.com

Cochrane report

30 July 2007

I was sent a review from the Cochrane group (I don't have a clue who they are!). This is the link http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab003766.html

Don't even know why I was sent the article but I read it. Of course, the review of several studies is accurate. Women who are supported in labour seem to do better. The study looked at previous research and published in 2003.

Common Knowledge Trust certainly doesn't want to go against all the profound studies that have been done and which are the basis for birth change. Studies like these certainly motivated New Zealand midwives to influence the Government to set up a Midwifery Maternity model (since 1990).

Yet, with their continuity of care (and being present at births whenever a woman wants them) the cesarean rate has more than doubled from 12.9% in 1990 to close to 30% in 2006.

Does this mean all the studies are wrong or midwifery care is failing? Of course not. And certainly Common Knowledge Trust and The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better® couldn't possibly have another approach that might work as well or better but then no one's really doing any research about another - 'outside the box' - idea about birth ... learning how to birth and birth coach.

What's the difference between learning to birth from relying on a support person to help you? First, they aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, when a woman knows she has skills and her husband, partner, friend or relative shares mutual birth skills (but from their role as a birth coach) really makes sense.

The biggest difference is primal. With our own birth skills that we share with our partner means that we rely on ourselves and become empowered by our own work. When we rely on others then we place a lot of expectation on someone outside ourselves. As a parent, we certainly don't have 'another' person to get us through a challenging parenting day.

We grow our skills.

So, although having support can help us, doesn't it make sense that we first have our own set of birth skills? Pregnancy and learning to birth/birth coach just needs to go hand-in-hand.

http://www.birthingbetter.com

What did your mother teach you about how to birth?

29 July 2007

I attended a meeting yesterday ... about 30 people. We were discussing all sorts of issues facing societies, global warming, politics and generally many of the concerns facing people today.

There were two older women who recently had relatives who gave birth. They were surprised at the whole birth process and the two stories they had heard. Both of these women had given birth without pain relief, although both of them had found labour very challenging and one had had some health issues that required more medical attention.

One woman had given birth to 4 children (3 girls and a boy). Each birth had been different. Two had been relatively manageable and the other two had been very difficult (one a brow presentation and the other had a hand up by it's head). She had 5 grandchildren and all had been delivered by cesarean! She did wonder why but didn't think anything of it until she talked with this other woman.

The other woman had given birth to 6 children (3 girls and 3 boys). She said that her first birth and fifth birth had been the most difficult. She had broken her pelvis as a young girl and had a congenital heart problem but had delivered all her children without pain relief as well. She had 12 grandchildren and all of them had been delivered by either forceps or cesarean with every birth full of medical complications and a sense of emergency.

Even for me, as I talk to tons of families about birth, this seemed unusual. But then I realized that in this State, the cesarean rate in some hospitals is close to 50% and the epidural rate is close to 70%.

I don't know what's happening. Common Knowledge Trust has never been involved in the politics of childbirth.

In some funny way, I can really understand Al Gore's frustration with Global Warming. Here is a man who is not only very well known, but also financially well endowed. He has spent as many years as we have in trying to get a concept publically accepted. And, he is just, just, just beginning to get a response.

Sure, Common Knowledge Trust and The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better® can barely be compared with the issues of global warming. However, in some small, tiny way perhaps building a concept that when we are pregnant we need to learn how to birth could make a positive change in birth.

Although every birth story is unique, do we really believe that even a 30% c/s rate is due to a health issue we have no ability to change? And doesn't the c/s rate seem to be rising still?

I was totally shocked by going to a public meeting, accidently having a conversation with two women my age who had experienced 'medical' (full of assessments, monitoring and procedures ... like vaginal exams, episiotomy, having to stay in bed, having staff come and go, being alone in a room without help, being shaved, given an enema etc) .... yet .... had laboured and given birth (with pain for sure) and felt good about their experiences. The conversation left me thinking for sure.

During the conversation I was able to share with them some of the Pink Kit skills. They were totally impressed by the little they experienced. They both felt they would have had better births had they known. They also felt guilty they didn't know because they realized they had perpetuated a generational lack of skills. Their mothers had taught them 'nothing' about birth.

They also felt that their children would have benefited from the skills as well and had some concerns that the next generation would just assume that birth and cesarean were the same thing.

Birth is actually up to you if you are pregnant. The reason CKT is not political is because we know you might be choosing a c/s or may need an emergency one and we want you to enjoy preparing for birth with The Pink Kit and use your skills in your birth no matter what.

If you are planning a natural birth then it's even more important that you prepare your body for birth, have your partner learn how to coach you and handling birth pain and then use your skills at every moment ... particularly when the contractions get naturally painful.

We can change birth, one birth at a time and we can have the skills to pass on to our children.

To balance this rather depressing conversation, we've received 4 emails this weekend from families who have absolutely LOVED their Pink Kit skills!