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Blog

The importance of physiological birth

April 21, 2022

By Sophie Brigstocke

Photo of Sophie Brigstocke. Sophie is a white woman with long, light brown hair and she's wearing a blue top. In this article she talks about physiological birth.

My father, who became a farmer in his retirement, has a beautiful herd of Ruby Red Devon Cattle and there is something so special about being around them.
 
Several years ago, when the herd was managed by someone else, I witnessed one of the first-time heifers calving.  She was out in her field, surrounded by her cow friends and her labour started calmly and beautifully.  My daughter and I sat and watched as it unfolded, her contractions coming increasingly regularly.  Suddenly, the herdsman arrived on a quad bike, decided that she wasn’t birthing quickly enough and transferred her to a calving pen.  Once in there her labour slowed down and he decided that she needed further assistance.  The calf was pulled out and the farm workers congratulated themselves on having saved a calf.
 
The next day, when turning this new mother and her baby back out into the field, the cow turned on the three men and attacked them.  My Dad was one of those men. He was lucky to get away with only a broken neck.  This cow was utterly furious with what had happened to her and according to the farm workers she was never the same again.  Do we blame the cow for attacking the farm workers and my Dad – or do we look at what happened to her and learn?  
 
We have had a lot of conversations on the farm since that day.  I’ve shared a lot about physiological birth with my family and they know how passionate I am about supporting people (and other mammals!) to have the best possible birth experiences.  Now, on the farm, we have a watch and wait policy.  There is trust that these beautiful creatures instinctively know how to birth their babies.   Very occasionally intervention is required however, this is done as calmly as possible with minimum noise and fuss.  The cows are respected and I cannot tell you the difference in atmosphere.  It is a joy to be around.  
 
The amazing thing is how people on the farm have changed.  The men who grew up in farming communities where things were always done in a particular way have rethought their approach to supporting cows when calving.  Rather than rushing in to “fix” and “rescue” the cows, they are far more considerate of the environment and keeping things calm and peaceful. They are supporting physiological birth. The cows like and trust their care providers – they allow them to come close, to scratch their necks and bellies – they know their voices.  
 
How many of us know and trust our care providers?  How many of us feel truly listened to and respected in our choices?  And what happens to us if and when we aren’t supported in a respectful, compassionate way?  When I shared this story with the midwife Kemi Johnson, she said that as humans we would be far more likely to turn on ourselves rather than our so-called protectors.  Rather than getting angry, pushing and shouting, after an unnecessarily interventionalist birth we would be more likely to self-blame and tell ourselves that we had failed.  It is no great surprise that perinatal mental ill-health is as common as it is given the number of people whose births are interfered with when it’s not necessary.
 
We don’t fail.  We are failed by a system that doesn’t trust us, our instincts and our choices.  It is interesting that the World Health Organisation suggests that 10-15% of births might need some form of intervention and our caesarean rates are soaring well over double those numbers. Triple, in many cases.  It is also interesting that before birth became so medicalised the WHO stated that only 5-10% births needed medical support. Supporting physiological birth works.
 
This is not a blog to damn the medical profession.  This is a piece to highlight the importance of physiological birth – to bring our focus back to how our bodies naturally birth, to recognise just how we are hugely capable IF we are supported in the right environment.  So many people are losing their innate belief in the power of the birthing body.  We need to reclaim it.  People experiencing physiological birth often feel really empowered and positive.  It can have real impact on the way they bond and connect with their new babies, on feeding and on how they recover and experience the fourth trimester.  It goes so far beyond the “day” of birthing.  

This week on the Nurturing Birth podcast I talk to Nurturing Birth doula and mentor Simone Dyer about her journey into doulaing.  I was particularly taken with a phrase she used when talking about the need for validation as a birth supporter  

“We often rob people of their lessons.” 

What are we robbing people of when we rush in to fix and control?  What is possible when we are present and witness?   

If you are inspired to become a doula and support women and people to have the best possible birthing experience then check out the dates of our upcoming doula courses. We will be scheduling more dates soon so do come and let us know if you have any particular requests.  If you would like to chat about taking a doula course when don’t hesitate to reach out to me on the Nurturing Birth number – 07305 044482 or by email on [email protected]  I always love chatting to people who are on the cusp of starting their doula journey.  

Have a great week
Love
Sophie
x

Filed Under: About Doulaing, Doula Stories, Training to be a Doula Tagged With: Doula training, physiological birth, Training to be a doula

Nurturing Birth Book Review: Nurturing the family, a doula’s guide to supporting new parents

April 18, 2022

Book review by Lynsey Montgomery

Front cover to Nurturing the family, a doula's guide to supporting new parents

Nurturing the Family, a Doula’s Guide to Supporting New Parents by Jacqueline Kelleher is available from Praeclarus Press in the US, or local bookstores/Amazon in your own country.

When I first saw “Nurturing the family, a doula’s guide to supporting new parents” on offer for review I just knew this is exactly what I had been looking for in a book to hopefully help me gain a better understanding of how to support parents postnatally.

This book is like a mini mentor – I say ‘mini’ mentor because really there is no substitute for actual mentoring whether virtual or in person but it is so valuable to have for those in between sessions and really walks you through the different scenarios that a postnatal doula may come across. The book is split into chapters with different topics within each one. It covers everything from ‘Why we need doulas’ to delving into topics that I wouldn’t know a lot about in the ‘On the support needs of families: other voices’

Coming from a childcare based background, working directly with families in their homes as a nanny, I have a fair understanding of what support a family need in their parenting journey – how to nurture the family. However, being quite new to doula work I was a bit unsure of how exactly I transition from Nanny type support to Postnatal Doula support. This book really helped!

I found “Nurturing the Family, A Doula’s Guide to Supporting New Parents” to be very well written. It is in an easy to read and understand format. I was hooked from the very first page! It is absolutely a must read for any new doulas, especially those who come from a caring profession and are transitioning to doula work. It’s an invaluable tool to have in your bookcase. There are so many lightbulb moments throughout the book!

What I found was that it really highlights just how much doulas can benefit families. I loved the acronym N.E.A.R. (CH2 pg15) which stands for Nurture Educate Assess Refer with the titles explained in short paragraphs further down the page.  I haven’t come across this particular one before but it really stood out because it’s so easy to remember:

Nurture highlights how important it is to Nurture both our clients and others who are supporting our clients. ‘Nurturing’ means that we are providing a calm presence, giving our clients our full attention and acceptance but not taking over from them.

We Educate in a way that is not directive; more guiding doula clients to find their own way, and showing them what options there might be. For example, if we wear their baby in a carrier to carry out a task, this shows the parents that there are alternative ways of keeping baby calm, with that precious physical contact, while doing something else at the same time.

Assessing is something every person does all the time, for instance assessing where to cross a road safely, or assessing whether a person seems friendly and easy to talk to. Doulas become very aware of this. Being present in the moment when we are with a client, our focus is with them and the situation we are there to support them with. We assess whatever seems to be the most important thing for each client, at each point in time. In turn, this helps us to identify how we might be able to make a difference.

Referring for a doula is knowing when things fall outside of our scope of knowledge or practice. We can then signpost to particular specialists/professionals for that particular issue. Referrals can also include book recommendations, websites, resources for community and companionship and so on. 

I loved the section on ‘How to juggle doula work and life’. This resonated with me because I had only ever heard of postnatal doulas who do daytime support. I had often wondered if doing evening postnatal doula work was a thing. In this section that question that I had had running in the back of my mind was answered. I was very glad because I do know from supporting families through nanny work that the early evening until the parents’ bedtime can be a tricky time, especially in the newborn phase, so it made me very happy to see that option explained and how it’s not really common but it is doable.

I want to briefly talk about the chapter ‘On the support needs of families: other voices’ this was so enlightening for me as it talks about and explains how to help families who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. What I learned from this chapter is that while this acronym is not completely inclusive, it does recognise that there are different types of families.

This part of the book really eased a lot of my fears and worries about coming across a family who relate to this part of the community as I just didn’t know where to start to educate myself on how to support them. I was very worried that I might offend people due to lacking the knowledge of appropriate language and terms. This chapter was so educational and really broke down all the terms into paragraphs of explanations, how to chat to a family who are part of the LGBTQ+ community and what not to say/what’s not relevant to ask at an interview/meeting with a potential client.

For example, how an LGBTQ+ family chooses to feed their baby can sometimes be especially challenging compared to straight/cis families. The woman or person who is pregnant (if they are part of the family) may choose to breastfeed or chestfeed, but the non-birth parent or parents may also want to try induced lactation. This can be very positive, but there are times when this may not work out, no matter how well supported they are, and how long they have tried to induce lactation for. This could bring up some emotional issues for the non-lactating parent so it’s very important that we have the correct resources available to signpost a client to. I hadn’t really thought about this part of doula work before as I hadn’t even thought about how nurturing the family, whatever the family is, so this was definitely enlightening and educational.

I highly recommend “Nurturing the Family, a doula’s guide to supporting new parents” for the new doulas coming through. My copy is well loved already! It definitely helps with any kind of query that you might have regarding boundaries as a doula, or what services to provide within your time with the family, or how to transition doula work into your life if you are still working full time like me.


You can find doula Lynsey Montgomery on her Nurturing Birth Directory profile

Or on her social media:

Instagram : @thebabyguruni – https://www.instagram.com/thebabyguruni/
Facebook : The Baby Guru N.I. – https://www.facebook.com/thebabyguruni

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: A doula's guide to supporting new parents, Doula book reviews, Jacqueline Kelleher, Lynsey Montgomery, Nurturing the family

Danielle Fox: My Journey to Being a Doula

April 11, 2022

Photo of Danielle Fox. Danielle is a brown skinned woman with black hair. She is wearing a white top.

By Danielle Fox, Nurturing Birth’s Doula Mentor Coordinator

I am usually a very busy birth doula but enquiries for postnatal support have been at their highest since Covid started. I’m the doula mentor coordinator with Nurturing Birth.

I first heard about doulas about ten years ago when my mum said she’d found the job I was made for! I did spend time researching it, but my boys were then only 3 years and 6 months old so starting a new career seemed daunting.

At the time, I had been a librarian for 13 years and also taught parents babysign (BSL) at local libraries, groups and nurseries. I loved my job but with two babies to care for, it was becoming increasingly difficult to juggle parenthood with my career.

I was finding that all too often I would overhear stories from new parents attending my babysign classes that they wished they’d had more support on their parenting journey. Many shared that they’d been clueless about the change that a newborn was going to bring to their lives.  When I looked at my experience, I was surrounded by the women in my family (including mum, nan & aunties) who encouraged me to only rest and feed my baby for at least the first week after his arrival. In our culture it’s paramount that the birthing mama is cared for physically and emotionally. I knew I really wanted to take on that role for families that didn’t have the amazing support that I did, so I decided to train to be a doula!

Before starting my career as a doula I hadn’t supported anyone physically during birth but I was very forthcoming with any expectant friends, suggesting to them that they may want to spend time taking in knowledge before going into labour and set up support at home so they could focus on recovering and bonding with baby. Clearly, a career as a doula was always going to be my future!

I love everything about being a doula. It’s my dream job! As much as I love seeing a baby being born, and still six years later, I’m still in awe of what our bodies can achieve, I’d have to say what I love most is knowing the positive impact I can make on a family. To allow me to walk with them on their journey to parenthood and make a real difference is honestly the biggest privilege!

At the beginning it took me a while to realise how organised I needed to be when “on call” for a birth with very young children. It took some juggling but once I got into a routine with it I felt more in control.

Now the boys are older I would say I am constantly reminding myself that family still comes first. Being the caring souls we are as doulas, we may come across situations that can take up a lot of our time mentally. It is important to set healthy boundaries with my clients and make sure I still have the head space to be there for my family.

When I first certified as a doula my end goal was to be active in my local community and spread awareness about the much-needed practical and emotional support we offer families. I have since been recommended to expectant parents by local midwives and this makes my heart sing! The next step is to open my own maternity hub in the town and run all my courses from there.

One final thing about doulaing that I have to mention is the positive impact that regular mentoring has brought to my birth business. My Nurturing Birth mentor has supported me through my very first birth, building a successful business, juggling family life, personal circumstances and client baby loss. Having her by my side to talk through things that she truly understands has been priceless and one of the reasons why I’m now a mentor myself.

If you are sitting on the fence about joining a Nurturing Birth course, have a chat to the team – you won’t regret it. They are all super supportive, and once certified if you take advantage of mentoring and work hard to build a business that feels right for YOU, you will never look back!

You can contact Danielle through her website, social media or Nurturing Birth Directory link.

http://www.beautifullyblooming.co.uk

http://www.instagram.com/beautifullybloomingpregnancy

http://www.facebook.com/beautifullybloomingdoula

https://nurturingbirthdirectory.com/doulas/united-kingdom/vale-of-glamorgan/cardiff-1/danielle-fox-3/

Filed Under: About Doulaing, Doula Stories, Training to be a Doula Tagged With: birth doula, career as a doula, Danielle Fox, doula mentor, Doula mentoring, Doula training, postnatal doula

How should I price my doula services?

March 28, 2022

By Charlotte Bailey

Photo of Charlotte Bailey. Charlotte is a white woman with long dark hair and she's wearing a floral shirt.

When setting up your doula business, one of the most fundamental things you need to decide is how much to charge for your services. Setting your pricing correctly from the outset is an important part of your business success – although don’t worry, you can tweak it as you go along, too!

However, get it wrong and you risk either not earning enough money to cover your basic needs or you’ll be too expensive for your customers. So let’s take a closer look at how you might appropriately set (or re-set) your pricing…

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, confession time…It upsets me SO much to see incredible doulas – not exclusively, but most often women – charging much less than the value that they bring to their clients, struggling to make ends meet and concluding that being a doula is not a viable business option. Undercharging for your services doesn’t do anyone any favours. It actually pulls down the amount that other doulas can charge, making those whose fees are proportional to the difference they can bring to clients seem like they’re over charging. I’ve had potential clients ask me why I “charge so much when another local doula (not an NB doula!) charges half the amount?” Tricky one. I wonder where that doula is now; I haven’t heard her name since or seen her at on/offline doula events or any local networking groups. I hope she is still working, but my strong suspicion is probably not. And then there were the 3 times (yes 3!) I’ve been called to support a client at the very last minute because the 1st choice (cheaper) doula is either no longer able to deliver on their commitments or has suddenly ghosted the client.

The thing is that most (if not all) customers want the cheaper option. Don’t we all love a bargain?! I do! But if a client is choosing to work with you solely because you’re the cheapest option, is that really the kind of client you want to work with and have they truly understood the value of receiving support from a doula? We live in a world of dream-boat clients and extremely testing clients. Go find the dream-boat clients and stop undercharging! (I know there’s a grey area here concerning vulnerable pregnant women and birthing people in financial hardship but I’ll circle back to address this shortly… stay with me!).

Your time is precious. Your skills are valuable. We offer an exchange of our time and skills for money. So how much is your time worth to you? You need to start by figuring that out. This is of key importance, and it’s something that is discussed on the Nurturing Birth courses.

Most self-employed people running service-based businesses – plumbers, private tutors, beauty therapists etc – will charge by the hour and use a structured approach to calculating their rates. They decide an hourly rate they want and calculate out from there. For instance, a boiler replacement may take 6 hours to complete and the plumber charges £85 per hour, thus the fee for the job is 6 x £85 = £510. Or a massage therapist works for £30 per hour and thus charges £45 for a 90 minute treatment. This could work really well when pricing for antenatal and postnatal sessions. However, the problem with charging by the hour as a Birth Doula is that we cannot predict how long a birth will continue on for. It seems grossly unfair to put a birthing woman or person in a position where they’re calculating how much your support is costing them out of fear they’ll exceed their budget, rather than relaxing into their labour.

The answer therefore might be to choose a fixed price for a birth package. If the client is happy with a fixed price then it doesn’t matter how short/long their birth is. Obviously, you still need to know your hourly rate based on roughly how long an average labour takes, but the client doesn’t need to think about this.

I’ve been self-employed for about 15 years. I’ve learnt (the hard way) that if I charge any less than £30 per hour for my time, I struggle to make enough money to live on. But that’s LOADS more than minimum wage! I hear you cry. I wouldn’t feel comfortable charging that! Then please, please understand this:

An employee is paid when on holiday, when sick, when taking a coffee break, eating lunch, meeting new potential clients, travelling between client meetings. They’re provided with an office, the overheads are paid for as well as their business expenses, insurances and pension schemes.

As a self-employed person you don’t get paid when on holiday, off sick, on a break or having lunch. You do not get paid for doing your accounts, updating your website or attending networking meetings to find new clients. You do not get paid for the time spent being interviewed by new clients. You pay for your DBS, insurance, office resources and running costs. You do your own marketing, your own sales, you pay for your accounting and legal fees. You pay for your training and any additional CPD.

The hourly rate for an employee is approximated by dividing the annual salary by two and removing three zeros. So, if an employee earns a £30,000 salary, that’s roughly £15 per hour. But it DOES NOT work like that when you’re self-employed. If you want to make £30,000 per year from self-employment you will have to charge significantly more than £15 per hour.

So, how many hours can you actually charge for?

A great starting point is to decide how many hours you can feasibly spend face-to-face with your clients. If you’re offering birth support and working without a back-up you may feel that 1 or 2 births is the maximum you could support in a month. You may feel you want to limit the number of on-call weeks per year which will determine how many birth clients you can realistically support each year. Outside of supporting at the birth, you’ll likely be offering antenatal and postnatal doula support, so how will that time commitment work around any other obligations you may be balancing? Whatever limits the number of clients you can work with in a year, you’ll need to adjust your fees to off-set the ‘down time’.

The main things to consider:

  • The maximum number of hours you can work each day/ week
  • Travel time and lunch breaks
  • How many days per week you can work
  • How many days of holiday you want each year (the standard for the employed is 20 days plus 8 bank holidays)
  • How many days you need to assign to finding clients (attending MVP meetings, local doula gatherings, networking events etc)
  • How much time you need to set aside for admin (website updates, bookkeeping, invoicing, social media content creation etc)
  • How many sick days you ought to allocate (10 is common in employment)
  • Predicted work rate – this is such a tricky thing to estimate. Research I’ve done suggests estimating actual billable work won at 70% which you can review after your first year of business and it will likely improve with each year if you continue to deliver on a clear business growth strategy
  • Potential Earnings (your ‘guestimate’ hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours you are available to work x 70%)
  • Business running costs
  • Fuel and car maintenance
  • Mentoring/ CPD
  • Insurance/ DBS/ First Aid Certificate
  • Accounting and Legal Fees
  • Phone and Internet
  • Consumables – stationary, essential oils, drinking straws etc
  • Professional/ Networking memberships
  • Revised Earnings – Now you know your running costs you can deduct them from your Potential Earnings. If that’s leaving you out of pocket or short of your financial goals, then you need to adjust your hourly rate! In 2019, the average salary in UK was £36,611 according to this site so what would your hourly rate need to be in order to bring your annual earnings inline with the UK average? Having run these figures myself, I’m willing to bet it’s around £30 per hour.

Please understand that I am not sharing this information with you to be prescriptive. What you choose to charge for your services is ultimately up to you. But I want you to be successful. I want pregnant women and birthing people to benefit from receiving support from energised, grounded, compassionate doulas just like you. I don’t want you to hit compassion fatigue, burn out and pull away from your calling. This is a wake-up call. Reducing your fees may give an initial boost to the volume of clients but it’ll be temporary and working for such low rates is not sustainable. Keep the long-term view in sight and stay out of the race to the bottom.

Before I round off, I said I’d address the point about keeping doulas accessible to those in need.

When I launched my doula business in 2016 I was keen to make doula support accessible to those who were vulnerable and in financial hardship. Having reviewed my packages, personal financial needs and availability I aimed to support at least one pro-bono client per year. It took me longer than I hoped to build up to the number of births per year required to make this happen, but last year (my busiest year for births to date) I was able to offer a return client a hugely discounted birth package so that she could secure the support she wanted, at a price she could afford. I know many other doulas who will commit to supporting a specific number of births via the various different charities as an alternative option.

Please don’t see this as bragging. I’m trying to illustrate the fact that, despite being the most ‘expensive’ doula in Hampshire, I am working consistently and my client base grows each year. I am working well within my capacity, my energy level is high, I am able to afford regular mentoring sessions which keep my doula practice healthy, and I feel great about delivering on my promise to keep doula support accessible. My hope is that you experience the same and so much more.

If you would like to book a mentoring session to discuss your business practice as a doula please click on this link – https://courses.nurturingbirth.co.uk/mentoring-booking-form


I am literally bursting with excitement to have joined the team of facilitators at NB. Supporting fledgling Doulas as they take flight into the birth world is pure joy; I have limited ability in enabling birthing people to have awesome births, but by supporting Doulas as they support others, the impact ripples on and on. I am filled with hope that together we can make a real difference. – Charlotte

If you would like to reach out to Charlotte to discuss her becoming your doula mentor, click here: https://nurturingbirth.co.uk/mentors/charlotte-bailey/

Charlotte’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/birth.warriors

Charlotte’s Facebook: www.facebook.com/birthwarriors

Filed Under: Doula Mentoring, Your Doula Business Tagged With: Charlotte Bailey, doula mentor, Doula mentoring, how much should I charge as a doula, How should I price my doula services, your doula business

Victoria Fox – My doula journey

March 14, 2022

By Victoria Fox

Photo of Victoria Fox, a black and white image of a white woman with long, dark hair.

Although I’ve not yet taken on any clients, this is my journey to where I am now and why I trained to be a doula!

I first heard about doulas after I gave birth to my son in April 2020. I was speaking to a fellow new mum about how we would love to be involved with birth but didn’t feel midwifery would be a good fit, and she mentioned Doulas. I had no idea what she was talking about! We spent hours talking about it and it occurred to me that my sister had been acting as my doula even though none of us knew it was a role that existed. I felt very lucky to have had that support. I could see first hand how beneficial it could be to other pregnant women and people, even though Covid-19 meant my sister could not attend the birth in the end or visit me postnatally.

I was on maternity leave when I trained as a doula. My job at the time was Front of House Administrator for the Deafness Support Network. I enjoyed this work as it was incredibly varied – I got to help people with hearing (and sight) loss everyday and it meant I could use my British Sign Language (BSL) skills. I didn’t return to this role, however, as I wanted to dedicate myself to doulaing. Then I found out I was unexpectedly pregnant again!

I’d been to one birth before training to be a doula. I was 21 years old and a birth partner for my best friend. It was a miracle she even fell pregnant due to a long list of medical issues, so the whole pregnancy had been closely monitored and the birth was always going to be a high-risk event. Although we had agreed beforehand that I would leave for any internal examinations and for pushing, I was thrilled to be able to support her through the long labour process and any spare time I had outside of my job at the time was spent supporting her postnatally.

Training to be a doula just felt like something that would fit me and my new life as a mum. Particularly having given birth during a global pandemic, I feel well equipped, like there’s nothing that a new parent could say to me, good or bad, which would shock me. I feel confident that I can support them without judgement.

I think when I do start working more, the main thing I may struggle with is when I can’t ‘fix’ something. Even though I know that’s not my role and I’ll be helping by supporting and listening, I am a people pleaser and I do worry that I’ll perhaps give too much of myself. My other concern will be to not fall into an educator role simply because I’m so excited about everything I’ve learned and learning, maybe it’ll all come spilling out of me when it’s not in the clients’ best interest.

I see myself eventually becoming a birth doula when my children are older, and I have more freedom/flexibility and I just really hope that it becomes something that helps put food on the table whilst not feeling like a ‘job’. I think it will bring me so much joy.


Victoria is a doula based in Ellesmere Port. Want to get in touch with her? Here you go!

  • https://www.mamafoxdoula.co.uk/
  • https://www.instagram.com/mama.fox.doula/
  • https://www.facebook.com/TheMamaFoxDoula
  • https://nurturingbirthdirectory.com/doulas/united-kingdom/cheshire-west-and-chester/ellesmere-port/victoria-fox/

Filed Under: About Doulaing, Doula Stories, Training to be a Doula Tagged With: doula in Ellesmere Port, doula journeys, doula stories, Training to be a doula, Victoria Fox

Nurturing Birth Book Review: The AIMS Guide to Giving Birth to Your Baby

March 7, 2022

Book review by Natalie Stringer

Front cover of The AIMS Guide to Giving Birth to Your Baby

The AIMS Guide To Giving Birth To your Baby by Deborah Neiger is available from the AIMS website for £8.

The AIMS Guide to Giving Birth to you Baby is a fantastic resource for expectant parents who have maybe not yet explored antenatal education. The contents pages towards the front of the book make it easy to find what you’re looking for, from birthing hormones to shoulder dystocia, meaning you can manage the reading of this book in little bite-size pieces over time, resulting in a very easy read.

The title of this book gave me the impression that I would be reading up on lots of information which would lead to a smooth sailing physiological birth. There were elements and focuses of physiological birth weaved throughout this book, but I think a title of “The AIMS Guide to Giving Birth Within Our Medical Model” may have suited it better. That way we know we are looking at physiological birth, assisted birth, episiotomies, epidurals, induction of labour, augmentation and much, much more than ‘giving birth to your baby’ as the title suggests. Unfortunately, the book has no information about caesarean birth. With a current local statistic of 35% caesarean rate, both planned and unplanned, this means that the book has no information regarding the potential mode of birth for over a third of pregnant women here. Including information about giving birth via caesarean would make the information within this book more abundant and link better to the title.**

However, what this book does want to focus on is the second stage of labour, bearing down and bringing your baby earthside, however that happens. I haven’t actually come across a book before that is mostly dedicated to that momentous moment of when birth actually happens, so this book is unique in that way. There are fantastic anecdotal stories throughout from those who speak about instinctive positioning, birthing in water and hypnobirthing. Reading these is very fulfilling to know just how variable birth can be and how every mother feels and births in her own unique way.

There is really useful information regarding episiotomies and how they are performed more often than you might expect (15%). I also really appreciated how the author took time to bullet point potential adverse outcomes to either mother or baby when assisted birth may be required. Throughout pregnancy many tend to focus on the wellbeing of their baby and forget about themselves, and this comes into play during labour too. They may be told of some risks that could occur to the baby if forceps or ventouse are used to help with birth, but mothers are all too commonly unaware of the potential short-term and long-term physical effects that births assisted with forceps or ventouse could have on themselves. The fact that these risks are highlighted within this book is really brilliant, so parents can be more informed from the get-go.

Ultimately, this book strives to accentuate the huge benefits of physiological birth as well as highlighting when a helping hand is necessary, which is important to note as birth (especially within our medical model) happens in many different forms. We cannot predict how our births will unfold, but with this book to hand you will be better equipped to know how possible interventions could help or hinder your path to birth. Throughout the book the author pulls us back to physiological birth many times, so you can always compare how your own birthing hormones may flourish or dwindle when choosing how, where and when to labour.

Above all, If you are looking for a general overview of what giving birth vaginally could be like within a mostly hospital setting here in the UK, then this book is for you (there are a couple of pages dedicated to homebirth and Birth Centres too). You may also find that you wish to explore certain topics further through other resources or with other AIMS books such as:
The Aims Guide To Your Rights In Pregnancy And Birth
The AIMS Guide To Induction Of Labour
Caesarean Birth: Your Questions Asked

Natalie Stringer is a Nurturing Birth doula and can be found at:
www.equilibrium-birthing.com
https://nurturingbirthdirectory.com/doulas/united-kingdom/kent/sevenoaks/natalie-stringer/

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Deborah Neiger, Doula book reviews, Maternity book reviews, Natalie Stringer, The AIMS Guide to Giving Birth to Your Baby

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