Midwifery, Pregnancy, Natural Birth and Parenting Articles
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.
I am returning to South Africa after attending the annual International Primal Association Convention in The USA (and just missed hurricane Irene!!)at which William Emerson presented his workshops and seminars on healing the birth trauma that we may have experienced as babies. The healing is effected through reliving the original trauma and making connections between …
The process of conception and pregnancy is not only a physiological process, but primarily a psychological journey. The psychology of this journey into being for the unborn baby is dependent on the conscious awareness of the parents who create him, and in particular their conscious awareness of the baby in the womb. Preborn babies are …
The forces and feelings driving our behaviour are located largely in three different brain systems or three levels of consciousness, namely: the brainstem or 1st level of consciousness, the limbic system or the 2nd level of consciousness and the cortex or 3rd level of consciousness. The brain is also divided into two hemispheres which serve different functions.
Today I bumbed into a client whose births I attended a few years ago. Karen happened to be driving past the gate as I stepped out of my Cape Town home. Seven years ago in Cape Town, Karen birthed Teano, her firstborn son, in hospital and was home a few hours later. Second time around, Karen gave birth …
How does a midwife explain a slow labour or a long ‘second stage’? The fact that a woman may be fully dilated does not mean she is ready to expel her baby from the womb. Midwives and obstetricians make this mistake all the time, as if the woman were a mechanical engine that should fire it’s pistons at the turn of a key. Midwifery is both an art and a science and part of that art, in the present climate, seems to be to prevaricate in order to align ourselves with what obstetric theory advises we should be doing.