Why I Became a Real Birth Practitioner
As many of you know, my name is Sarah and I am a Registered Midwife and Real Birth Practitioner. 2019 marks 10 years as a qualified Midwife which feels like a very tangible milestone. Midwifery as a profession is ever evolving, and so as a Midwife there are always new opportunities to learn, and always potentially new ways of offering the best possible care for women and their families. My life in the birth world has taught me a lot. I often compare being a Midwife to being a bit like driving a car. Once you’ve learnt, you never forget! However, qualifying as a Midwife is like passing your driving test. You’ve learnt the basics, and you’re out of the starting blocks, but the years that follow are what allow you to put miles on the clock. This is where the real learning begins. There are certain things that cannot be learnt from textbooks alone. Some things can only be learnt through lived experience in the field and repetition, and this is how confidence in your practice begins to blossom. We all do the same job, but each Midwife will develop their own path and ways of doing things, and no matter what stage of our career we are in, we are all still learning. We learn things from others we work alongside or mentor, or families and women that we have supported. I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to work within a number of different NHS trusts, and to have also worked and have gained my Midwifery license in California, USA.
As a side note — I am a firm believer that you can learn Midwifery skills anywhere you go, and I would encourage anyone either during their student years, or even once qualified, to go and experience Midwifery elsewhere. Spend some time in a different area, hospital, country or continent even-it doesn’t matter! Whether you are practicing, volunteering or merely observing — do it! It may seem daunting to start with, but do it anyway. Whether you love it or hate it, you are still learning. The greatest learning comes from outside our comfort zone, so fly the nest and stretch your wings, as the experience you will gain will be invaluable. Learning will always be limited if you stand still.
Having practiced Midwifery in both the private and public sector, I am certain there are lessons to be learnt from each. I am not advocating a private system, nor am I slating the public system or the NHS, however, one of the biggest differences between public and private maternity care, is the amount of time you can spend with each woman during each encounter. As a very basic comparison, in the private system I used to work within I would easily spend 40–60 minutes with a woman for each antenatal appointment, compared to the 10–20 minutes which is standard within the NHS. You don’t need to be an expert to understand that the greater the amount of time you spend during each appointment, the deeper the discussion can become regarding any issues that surface. You may think, “why on earth would I need to spend that long at each appointment?”, and to be honest, the clinical aspect of the appointment doesn’t take very long, but what was wonderful about having that extra time with women and their partners or family, was that not only were you able to build a really good rapport and trusting relationship with them, you also had the time to provide comprehensive antenatal education. This meant that by the time they arrived at full term, or whenever their baby decided to make an appearance, the mother (and partner) were going in to the experience feeling confident and empowered with a far greater understanding of what was happening within mum’s body, and for the baby throughout the process. They knew what to expect and what was normal for birth.
10 years of Midwifery has taught me that quality antenatal education is vital in helping families feel prepared and confident for their upcoming birth, and in helping them achieve a positive birth experience regardless of how or where their birth unfolds. Antenatal education should be for everyone. Every woman has choices and preferences, regardless of how many births she’s had before, what medical conditions she may or may not have, what type of birth she wants to experience, or where she wants to give birth. Everyone’s experience will look different. What makes a positive birth for one person, will be different for the next. In order to make informed decisions in birth, you need to be aware of your options before you start. Trying to make important decisions in the throes of labour is not the ideal time for absorbing lots of new information.
It’s well documented that over-thinking in labour can be detrimental to the process, as it allows the neocortex to override the instinctive part of our mammalian brain (the limbic system) which is required for birthing. Arming yourself with quality antenatal education puts you ahead of the game, meaning that the ‘thinking’ brain (the neocortex) doesn’t have to work so hard while you are in labour.
I believe passionately that preparing your mind for birth, is just as important as preparing your body. I used to believe that things in birth ‘just happened’, and while I still believe that to be true to some extent as there will always be elements of birth that we cannot predict or control no matter how much we plan, I now also believe that many situations can be avoided (or we have the ability to reduce the chances of them happening), by having a greater understanding of how our bodies work in labour and birth (the biomechanics), and the normal hormonal pathways that aid or hinder the process. It is impossible to prepare for all eventualities, but what is important is that whatever comes up, women are able to make informed decisions that are right for themselves and their baby. If we can set women up with realistic expectations and a positive and confident mindset going in to labour, my guess would be their overall experience would be more positive.
I decided to become a Real Birth Practitioner because I believe that every woman deserves high quality information to put her in the best possible position for her birth. Unfortunately at times I feel frustrated within the NHS as there never seems to be enough time to provide this valuable information in the depth that is required, and I feel that women are missing out. I believe the way to reduce unnecessary intervention rates in labour and birth, and ultimately improve outcomes for women and babies, is by laying the foundations antenatally. What excites me about the Real Birth Workshop, and what drew me to it in the first place, is that it covers many topics which aren’t usually covered in birth chats with your Midwife and traditional antenatal or parent education classes. Topics such as the hormones of labour, how mums and babies work harmoniously with each other throughout the process, understanding the pelvis, ways to reduce stress and anxiety and how dads can advocate for their partners in labour. These keys areas (to name a few) are all included in the Real Birth’s modern approach to antenatal education. The workshop marries the options available to women and the science behind them to support. Providing antenatal education in the form of Real Birth Workshops, allows me to impart this essential knowledge to more women than I can access within my ‘day job’, which ultimately means that more women will have the positive birth experience that they desire.