High result, low impact Birthwork

When less truly is more. Sustainable and ethical Birthwork.

It seems Birthwork has become a new commodity in which we trade in.

Birthworkers and Doulas are using and overusing products, herbs and technology where skills and experience are failing.

In earlier times across all cultures and still in many parts of the world, women learnt the trade of Midwifery through practise. This would have occurred by apprenticing to Wise Women and having been present at Births from a young age, possibly having even seen your siblings being born.

Birthwork wasn't about having the perfectly curated Instagram or your own logo stickers to stick on everything. You don't need a TENS machine, birth sling or rebozo to be a good Birth Attendant.

Birthwork was about being with Women and being with what is arising for that Women in that moment.

And what does that truly require of us?

~ Nervous system capacity

~ Oxytocin state > Adrenaline state

~ Intuition

What if the most treasured skill in the Birth room is your intuition?

Intuition isn't a commodity we can "trade" in i.e. you cant buy or sell it.

It isn't a quick to learn solution either. Intuition is a skill which develops over time based on the experiences we allow ourselves to immerse into. For many women their first introduction to their intuition happens through Motherhood. It is the internal knowing when something is "off" with your Baby or that inkling when Baby will wake before they do.

Yet the focus for many Doulas isn't to hone in on their intuition or explore their relationship to Birth or even to expand their nervous system capacity but rather to acquire more products, often without the adequate training to accompany it (hello Rebozo and belly binding!). Often it is about creating a pretty picture of a postpartum basket with less focus on what is actually in it and how this serves the Mother in her healing.

Birthwork is falling into the capitalistic mindset of "more is better".

And the environment is suffering for it.

The average Birth produces at least one large rubbish bag of waste, mostly plastic. If we as Birthworkers aren't careful, the items we bring with us, the packaging or special logo items will too end up as waste.

I also wonder if perhaps we too are suffering from the "more is better" mindset in Birth.

What if having more items, more resources to lean on in the Birth Space is actually diverting the Birthing Energy from moving adequately through us?

I am currently undertaking a training from Ruth Ehrhardt from True Midwifery and she speaks to the basic needs of a women in labour:

~ To feel safe

~ To leave the thinking brain

~ Silence

~ Darkness/low lighting

~ Warmth

~ Not feeling observed

~ No adrenaline

When I think of attending Birth I imagine a low resourced setting where there is limited, if any at all, technology. What does the Mother require of me?

I always come back to my presence.

What art of presence can I gift the Mother? How can I expand my capacity to hold her?

What if I don't have a birthing comb or essential oils at hand, how am I going to travel with the Mother to meet her pain?

Carry less in your Birth Kit.

Carry more space in you.

And of course... it is beautiful that we have access to the resources to support a Birth process or Postpartum healing. But please let us not forgot the most important resource a Mother can have is an embodied, grounded Wise Women presence.

With love,

Scout