The South African Safe Motherhood Quilt Project aims to raise awareness about maternal mortality and honour the memory of mothers who die in South Africa.
Pregnancy and childbirth differs in different countries and cultures, these posts are about birth in South Africa.
The idea of our own Midwifery and Birth Conference with a South African flavour was born in the care during many journeys and discussions while travelling to homebirths with Ruth, my apprentice. Meanwhile, on travels in India, my good friend, Dr Gauri Lowe, was inspired by a similar concept and the idea took off. We [...]
A true midwife operates from a place of deep respect and reverence for life. She understands suffering and is therefore capable of magnanimous compassion. Such a midwife is able to stand in her strength yet be as flexible as a willow branch in the wind, in order to withold her projections and refrain from disturbing the process of labour and birth.
The brains of rat pups who have been mothered abundantly, licked and attended to by their mothers show lifelong benefits. These pups show less anxiety, learn better, are more adaptable and more resistant to stress than rat pups who have not been attentively mothered. Rats pups who are mothered well have less stress hormones, more [...]