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In my classes, I describe our caregivers (midwives, doctors, obstetricians etc.) like the life-guards at the beach. When we swim at the beach, we choose to swim between the flags \u2013 because we know that should we get into difficulty, the life-guards are there to assist us.<\/p>\n
Of course, we don\u2019t enter the water expecting<\/i> to need assistance. We enter the water with positive anticipation and look forward to enjoying the experience of working with the currents of the ocean. However, if we were to need assistance, that is when we would expect the life-guards to come to our aid. Our midwives and\/or obstetricians\/doctors are there to watch over us, and to come to our assistance should there be any special circumstances. A good caregiver is happy to stand aside during our labour and birthing \u2013 and only intervene if necessary. Birthing our babies is a very private and intimate time in our lives. It is not a time when we want to be thinking analytically, asking or answering questions, or being moved around. We use a primal part of our brain when birthing \u2013 and so we need to be left undisturbed. As an extreme example: if you would be comfortable making love in a room under bright fluorescent lights, with a bunch of strangers standing around you telling you what to do, then you might be able to birth that way too! So the caregiver that we choose to attend our birth can make a very big difference to our experience. I suggest that you \u2018interview\u2019 your caregivers to ensure that they are supportive of the type of birth that you want. Perhaps you could ask some questions such as:<\/p>\n We have several options for maternity care within Australia. We have many Birth Centres available (midwife run \u2013 remember that midwives are the experts in natural birth); we have hospital maternity wards; we have public or private care; we have the option of birthing at home with a registered midwife. When my husband and I \u2018interviewed\u2019 our caregiver (obstetrician) for our second birth \u2013 this is what we said to him\u2026 \u201cWe want to pay you to do nothing.\u201d He rocked back in his chair, held his belly and started chuckling. He said, \u201cNobody has ever said that to me before!\u201d We explained further\u2026 \u201cWe are preparing ourselves for a natural birth (using hypnobirthing) \u2013 and are anticipating a calm and beautiful birth. We want to assure you that if there were to be any special circumstances, we appreciate your expertise and are willing to deviate from our birthing preferences, as we want what is safest for mother and baby. However,<\/i> we don\u2019t expect <\/i>to need your services (said with a smile). Are you comfortable standing to the side and just watching over us as we allow our birthing to unfold naturally?\u201d It was a successful interview. He got the job. And we got our calm, beautiful, uninterrupted natural birth with the security of knowing that we were swimming between the flags.\u00a0 In my classes, I describe our caregivers (midwives, doctors, obstetricians etc.) like the life-guards at the beach. When we swim at the beach, we choose to swim between the flags \u2013 because we know that should we get into difficulty, the life-guards are there to assist us. Of course, we don\u2019t enter the water expecting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
![\":-D\"](\"..\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/icon_biggrin.gif\"){kind=icon}
Melissa Melissa Spilsted CHt BEd BA HPCE Director \u2013 Hypnobirthing Australia W:\u00a0https:\/\/hypnobirthingaustralia.com.au\/ Facebook:\u00a0http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hypnobirthingaustralia Twitter: http:\/\/twitter.com\/hypnobirth1 The natural approach to a calm\u00a0& positive\u00a0birth<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"