Support for pregnancy, birth and postpartum

It was after giving birth to my first baby overseas that I started looking into birth work. It was an amazing birth, for which I was well prepared and beautifully supported, with wonderful guidance throughout pregnancy from my private midwife.

Just around this time, the NSW Parliament’s inquiry into birth trauma was taking place. So many stories were coming out about women who’d experienced birth trauma. A large proportion were first-time mums. The stories were so horrible to read, especially after I’d just had such a fantastic experience, despite being a first-time mum in a foreign country. This gave me a burning desire to train and prepare to help women to have the resources they need to be able to have positive births, eliminating all avoidable birth trauma.

Statistics show that 1/3 of Australian women experience birth trauma, most of which could have been avoided.

I identified two key issues that contribute to this shockingly high rate of trauma: lack of education, and lack of support. I can’t fix a broken system, but I can help fill the gap in maternity care and bring positive change by providing quality evidence-based education, and support families to get the individualised care they need.

I trained as a childbirth educator and a doula, but as time passed I knew I wanted to do more. As a certified childbirth educator, I was tired of the “walk in, info dump, walk out” antenatal education models, which leave parents more overwhelmed than when they started. As a doula, it bugged me that I didn’t get enough time with my clients to be able to provide more education. And anyway, I wanted to be able to help more people! And so I started work on a new online programme.

I wanted to develop something more supportive

As I was praying for guidance while researching and writing up the modules for the programme, I started to think how wonderful it would be to be able to work with Christian parents, with whom I could share all these things from a Biblical perspective. And so Amazing Birth was born! (Note that non-Christians are also more than welcome to participate, provided they are aware of and comfortable with the fact that the programme does acknowledge God and his place in our lives and birth.)

Amazing Birth has a somewhat unique approach. Rather than the classic antenatal birth classes using the education model mentioned above, I wanted to develop something more supportive. The programme runs for 8 weeks, with the goal of giving expectant parents the time to learn, process what they’re learning, and be able to ask all the questions they want. We have a 2-hour live group session every week. I then provide ongoing support via messages until baby is 2 months old. Why?

Because quality support during pregnancy and postpartum is the biggest factor for avoiding postpartum depression, helping mothers to thrive, not simply survive.

[Photo credit: Photo by Ömürden Cengiz on Unsplash]