We might be stuck at home, but the wonders of the World Wide Web can bring us together, create and maintain strong bonds and enable us to achieve a lot of what we used to do face to face! If you are self isolating or limiting social contact currently, but need some support, I am happy to talk to Continue Reading
A Watched Pot Never Boils: Waiting for Labour to Begin
We have been lying to women for years. Labour doesn't 'start' when we are 3 or 4 or even 5 cms. The birth process started weeks ago, when your body and brain began to change. Waiting for labour to begin can be a time of impatience and discomfort at the best of times, but these days it can be even Continue Reading
Twin Birth – How it CAN Be
A very special, very strong, determined and wonderful client has given me permission to share her story here. After a homebirth first time round, she had implicit faith in her body's ability to grow and birth her babies in a very ordinary, normal way. It took us a while to get our equally trusting, Continue Reading
Why Just One Day?
This post is dedicated to all the amazing doulas I know who 'mother the mother', to every breastfeeding support worker I know and to every single mother I have ever supported - you are all incredible. One day? One day of the year we get. Just one. One day to appreciate, to thank, to hug to our Continue Reading
Do We Need Antibiotics for Premature Rupture of Membranes?
Articles The Lancet, Volume 372, Issue 9646, Pages 1310 - 1318, 11 October 2008 Editors' note: In 2001, the ORACLE I trial showed that in women with premature rupture of the fetal membranes, but no overt sign of infection, erythromycin and co-amoxiclav prolonged pregnancy and erythromycin also Continue Reading
Fathers’ Home Birth Handbook
This book has just been published and I think it is so well written and will fill a much-needed void in the information available for Fathers. It is written by the lovely Leah Hazard, a doula colleague of mine and I'm proud to say that a couple of the fathers who tell their stories are the husbands Continue Reading
Why we need to make informed choices about the drugs we take while breastfeeding
I wasn't aware til recently quite how much an effect codeine can have on us and our newborns when we're breastfeeding. I've recently been supporting a mother who was very sleepy and extremely constipated around 1 week postpartum. Her baby was also very sleepy indeed and just not taking the breast at Continue Reading
Love what this woman can do - take a look at this:http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11866448 Wonderful for educating children - maybe preparing older siblings for being at a homebirth? Continue Reading