Everything we see and feel and do is about movement and flow. We watch daily the movement of the sun from one horizon to the opposite horizon, we feel the wind tug at our bodies as we walk outside, see the flight of birds from one point in the blue sky to another. Each night the milky way of stars makes its rotation, or is it ours. Continue reading
“There still remains the mysterious exception of birth pain.”
Eugene Marais was an Afrikaans (South African) genius and scientist, lawyer and poet. He spent years in the African wilderness observing termites or white ants, baboons and other animals and made a significant observation about the pain of childbirth. Continue reading
Mtwana Birth Centre is proud to present International Healer and Ecstatic Birth proponent Binnie Dansby, who has been working with breath and ecstacy for 30 years. Her workshops are designed to empower each person through the use of practical and powerful tools, techniques, inspiration, and the breath. Continue reading
When I arrived at Penelope’s home, I found her in a makeshift plastic bath of warm water that her husband had rigged underneath the shower head in the apartment. She was curled up in a fetal position and there was a stillness about her. I arranged my midwifery bags, laid out a few things quietly and protected her privacy so that gentle silence enfolded us. Penelope turned on the shower Continue reading
I am holding a series of workshops across South Africa covering all you need to know as a birth professional to effectively manage cases of Shoulder Dystocia, beginning in April 2015.
Shoulder Dystocia describes cases during birth where a baby requires an assisted manoeuvre in order to allow the baby’s shoulders to pass through the birth canal. Understanding the specific causes of Shoulder Dystocia and learning how to assist a baby caught in this predicament can dramatically reduce Continue reading
It has been more than a year since I attended the Midwifery Today Conference in Brussels in November 2013 and then went on the spend time with Michel Odent at his Doula Workshop in Barcelona. Continue reading
The prevalent culture in modern society is that of dominion over and control of nature, as well as the domination of groups of people by the other groups of people that hold more power. Similarly women and their bodies are dominated by the cultural paradigm of the time, no less by doctors and midwives in the arena of childbirth. Women and doctors alike are bearers of the culture and in settled agricultural societies it has been expedient for the offspring to be warlike and to be bonded to the prevailing culture of the group, not to nature, the individual or the close family. For this reason, it has been common through centuries for midwives and birth attendants to interfere with and control labour and birth. Continue reading