Midwifery, Pregnancy, Natural Birth and Parenting Articles
Dr Grantly Dick Read wrote about the fear of birth and how this rising anxiety towards the end of a pregnancy may inhibit a woman’s ability to go into labour and give birth spontaneously. He called it the fear-pain-tension cycle. His premise was that fear leads to pain and tension in the body, which can …
Obstetric ultrasound diagnostic techniques should carefully adhere to a cautious scientific attitude and exposure should be kept to a minimum during pregnancy.
The human propensity for war can be prevented by starting at the beginning: Gentle and Safe Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting.
Physiological birth is an involuntary process, related to activity in the primitive brain and body structures. It occurs best when a woman’s parasympathetic nervous system is operational and she is in a state of trust. The fetus ejection reflex is a short series of involuntary movements that result in the birth of the baby followed by transcendent feelings for the mother baby dyad.
Bowlby’s landmark hypothesis that attachment to a loving caregiver is the core element in optimal development from infancy to adulthood, was a great step in our understanding of babies and children. The questions he raised about the importance of relationships for the growth of a baby’s brain preceded advances in neurobiological research over the last thirty …
It is possible to create receptivity to oxytocin during sensitive periods of life. A baby is particularly sensitive to neural development during pregnancy, before and after birth and in early childhood. By increasing loving social interactions we prime our babies and children to behave in loving and co-operative ways.
The traumatic experiences a mother brings with her to her labour and birth increase the levels of tensions and fear in her body, that may impede her ability to give birth naturally and interfere with her recovery post birth.