Brisbane Midwife in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | Medical and health

Brisbane Midwife

Locality: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

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25.01.2022 https://www.contemporaryobgyn.net//immediate-postpartum-la

25.01.2022 https://www.burnet.edu.au//1168_evidence_backs_women_s_cho

25.01.2022 An obstetrician encapsulates the state of things... https://www.obgynowino.com//on-my-departure-from-hospital-

23.01.2022 Family birth... the mother potters about the living room, stopping to breathe with each contraction. Two small siblings go about their morning - eating breakfast, playing, squabbling a bit. They know that something is afoot. One midwife sits quietly writing her notes, the other warms up the pool water - we think she'll be wanting it soon. Dad moves between his wife and his children - pressing his warm, strong hands into the lower back of the one while playing word games with ...the others. Little boy climbs up his mother for a cuddle and she holds him tight while surfing the wave of a contraction. The mother enters the pool ...ahhhh, bliss. The little ones dabble their hands in the water; the midwife shines her torch into the water to observe the mother opening up to birth her child. The father anchors his beloved as she tosses and rocks in the ocean of her labour. At last the baby makes his entrance - quiet joy floods the room; the siblings are awestruck and yet unfazed. An hour later, the children are having their lunch (including the baby) and the mother is snuggled up on the couch in the middle of her family. Nobody has had to leave the house and the baby has eased into his family's life without fanfare or trauma. See more

23.01.2022 Drink up, folks!

23.01.2022 Cathy from Chilled Mama nails it again Hospital policies give guidance to practitioners, which is really useful for big organisations. They ensure that the ...care is safe, and updated when new evidence comes along. Policies ensure that all are receiving equitable care. Midwives and doctors are obliged to adhere to their setting's policies, but you are not. Policies are often based on population level outcomes, i.e. on average x happens. You want to make decisions on a individual basis. Hospital policies have weighed up the pros and cons and made a decision on that population level. You will want to weigh up the pros and cons on an individual basis; you may well give different weighting to the factors than those drawing up the guidelines. You will have additional factors to consider that the guideline committee didn't; such as looking after a toddler; living on a high rise; partner off on tour of duty. Hospital policies will also have taken some things into consideration which will not be relevant to you, such as ease of carrying something out, buildings, staff time. An example is Glucose Tolerance Test. The research into the best way of ascertaining if someone has gestational diabetes is not conclusive. GTT are 'offered' as they are easy to administer and have high levels of 'compliance'. You get everyone in one room and get it done. However you may prefer to do finger prick testing at home, to being sat in a room for two hours and having to arrange childcare/time off work. Or not to do either. There is an assumption that guidelines are based on the best research. They probably are based on the best research possible, but actually often there isn't research, or it is not good quality. A review by obstetricians found that only 9-12% of guidelines by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists were based on top quality guidelines, and that 66% of all obstetric guidelines were no more than the experience/good practise of the guideline committee (all obstetricians). Sometimes the research is there but it contradicts the way doctors were trained. For example, there is no evidence that continual electronic fetal monitoring in labour improves outcomes; there is good evidence that it is no better than intermittent auscultation (listening in intermittently with a dopler or pinard), and plenty of evidence that it dramatically increases the chance of a caesarean. Yet it is still used. The RCOG green top guidelines are good because they do give the levels of evidence clearly which can help you with your decision making. Conversely some guidelines are not adhered to at all. NICE guideline on caesarean section states that all women should be informed that having another woman with them in labour reduces their chance of having a caesarean. Were you told that? I have yet to meet a woman who has been told this by her midwife or doctor. Yet this is recommendation has top level evidence to back it. Midwives and doctors sometimes feel under pressure to get 'compliance' to policies. But that doesn't mean you have to comply. If their policy does not have provision for your wishes it is breaking human rights law, consent law, and NHS guidelines. Your individual midwife may feel she has to stick to the policy but usually a letter or email to the head of midwifery or consultant midwife is usually enough. Contact AIMS and/or Birthrights for any more assistance. The Better Births report found that individualised care, rather than blanket policies, led to better outcomes for women and babies. Have you thought about writing your own policy? In fact, that's what a birth plan is. Again, the Positive Birth Book is a brilliant resource for looking at all your options. There are even downloadable visual birth plan icons from the publisher Pinter and Martin. And just out this week Positive Birth Book Visual Birth Plan Cards to help you discuss the issues with your partner, your midwife, your clients. My body. My baby. My choice. Birth rights are human rights. Autonomy. Dignity. Equality. Privacy. Respect.

22.01.2022 Nothing sweeter than being able to attend at the birth of my own grandchild at home yesterday. Watching my lovely daughter-in-law grow into the challenge of labour and birth was as inspiring as birth always is :)

22.01.2022 This is wonderful! https://www.facebook.com/721910649/posts/10164311460425650/

22.01.2022 I just love this video (well maybe not quite so much the accompanying music ;)). It is decades old but still gives a powerful message - "birth is magical but not mysterious". We can trust a woman's body to birth her baby. We can trust the perineum to soften and stretch to accommodate the moving baby. We can trust the baby to take his/her first breath without being forced. We can trust the moments straight after birth where the mother pauses to come back into the world before greeting her baby. No, giving birth is not easy but it works. And, no you do not have to squat, though upright ,mobile positions certainly help the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch

22.01.2022 A handy Q&A with a private midwife for those contemplating a home birth. https://homebirthsydney.org.au/ask-a-midwife-robyn-dempsey/

20.01.2022 I'm such a fan of Sara Wickham's. As with her other research, she addresses the topic of ever-increasing rates of induction succinctly and accurately. Every pregnant wonan needs to read this!

20.01.2022 Sharing again this extract from Joseph Chilton Pearce via Denise/Birth Matters...this explains an awful lot about societal violence and the state of emotional desperation that so many people are in. As a society, our bonds are looser than ever. We support a maternity system that runs on fragmentation (known as "specialisation"; we interfere in labour and birth so much that mother and baby are often traumatised and their crucial bonding is disrupted. We fail to support new fa...milies in the weeks and months after birth so that mothers and babies are unable to simply rest and get to know each other, and partners are relegated back to the work force because they have to. In all of human history, no matter how patriarchal the society, the elemental union of mother and child was recognised as the foundation of human survival. We have gone tragically wrong now and we must turn it around. "Failing the initial bond with the mother, all subsequent bonding is not only put at risk but is very difficult to bring about. Studies at Harvard show that the nature of our early bonds is reflected throughout life, both in one's health and ability to interact socially. Allan Schore describes how the first eighteen months determine the subsequent moves of the intelligence. Why? Because the emotional experience the child is given during the first eighteen months determines the nature and quality of the neural structures that develop in that period. Emotional nurturing translates directly into the field affect, shared or not shared, with the immediate environment. During those first eighteen months that environment is mother, father, and other primary caregivers."

20.01.2022 This documentary is one of the sanest and most science-based examinations of home birth that I've seen to date. To those who fear birth, you need to know that mothers and midwives are not "mavericks" who want a home birth at all costs. For up to 85% of women, it is a safe and viable choice (by the way, contrary to the blaring trash-tabloid headlines, I have never yet met a mother who wanted the experience of home birth at the expense of her baby's welfare). And this film also... has a lot to offer those of us who attend women who birth in hospital. We need to provide sound, coercion-free information and interventions. We need to give mothers and families time to consider their options. We need to facilitate women to have kindly birth support in hospital where the staff are simply too stretched to provide that emotional support (yes, I know we need more midwives but we also need to be real). To paraphrase one of the midwives in the film, birth is not just about pushing out a baby. It is a challenge, a triumph, a great precursor to the rigours of parenting, a fundamental experience in the life of the mother, but ultimately doable - it is really important and life-changing! See more

19.01.2022 This popped up in my FB memories today. They are my answers to some of a bunch of questions that a group of us private midwives addressed, with the aim of getting to know us better. Alison Reid - Midwife 1. How do you think that Australia can reduce the number of unnecessary C/sections? ...Continue reading

18.01.2022 Wish these had been around in my day! https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/916980

16.01.2022 https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2888504131255581&id=492020314237320

16.01.2022 https://www.westernsydney.edu.au//study_finds_women_are_mo

15.01.2022 https://medium.com//you-dont-need-to-burp-a-baby-f9ab1c194

15.01.2022 Hurrah! Research supports reality! https://www.dur.ac.uk/research/news/item/

15.01.2022 When my kids were babies (26 - 34 years ago) we were taught to swaddle tightly, basically to shut them up. So many mothers I knew, including myself, struggled with maintaining our milk supply when our bubs failed to wake properly for feeds or dozed off after a few sucks. Thank goodness we have better information now! https://www.mothering.com/articles/routine-swaddling/

14.01.2022 This is how it is :)

13.01.2022 https://www.facebook.com/492020314237320/posts/2335882253184441/

13.01.2022 This is the plain, unvarnished truth. https://www.facebook.com/1380733673/posts/10220045041381257/

12.01.2022 Worth a shot... https://www.ausdoc.com.au/n/one-tip-help-mums-breastfeeding

12.01.2022 As a mother and a midwife I have been personally involved in this struggle for more than 30 years. We are no better off than we were 30 years ago and in many ways we are worse off. It's not that out-of-hospital birth is dodgy (there is ample evidence that says it is a valid option for many women). It's not that we Endorsed Midwives are not qualified or "safe" enough. We have done all the study, gained the years of experience, paid our insurance, collaborated with our hospit...al and medical colleagues and kept ourselves educated with current research. You would not believe the hoops we jump through on a never-ending loop. Make no mistake - this is not about our competence as midwives. It is about turf wars whereby the AMA and obstetricians want to curtail our activities so we don't encroach on their territory. To those people I say: You are in no danger from us. There are relatively small numbers of us and the bar is so high we will remain few. We respect and value the medical profession and love to have a collegiate relationship with them - we would like that trust to be reciprocated. You do not need to worry about losing clients to us - the vast majority of birthing women are still doing it in hospital. Meanwhile, because birthing outside the system is expensive or simply not available in many areas, some women are either free-birthing (birth without attendants) or birthing while being attended by people who are not trained and experienced in spotting and addressing potential problems in a timely manner. I don't blame them, but every woman should have access to safe birthing with a midwife and ready access to more services as needed. At the moment this is a distant dream. So please sign this letter and send it off <3 https://homebirth.good.do/home/EmailFederalHealthMinister/ See more

10.01.2022 https://lactationmatters.org//new-research-direct-correl/

07.01.2022 https://parenting.nytimes.com/fe/breastfeeding-medications

06.01.2022 http://theconversation.com/jaundice-in-newborns-could-be-an

06.01.2022 This is such a vexed topic. In the past few years I have attended several seminars/workshops addressing tongue-tie, including a really satisfying evidence-loaded presentation by Donna Geddes (lactation scientist). In my working life I have seen many instances of what, at best, could be seen as over-catering to parental anxiety surrounding breastfeeding or, at worst, over-servicing. I don't have a pat solution but I do think that each potential tongue-tie needs to be soundly e...valuated by properly-trained practitioners, and the pros and cons of treatment thoroughly explained to parents. In our "quick-fix" society, tongue-tie release can be seen as an instant remedy but it often is not, and can be hugely traumatic for baby and parents alike. I have seen many babies suffer atrociously after laser release of posterior tongue-tie, and whose breastfeeding ability not only did not improve, but went backwards. To me, one of the major problems we have is that breastfeeding (and postpartum support) is not valued or financially supported by our government. Almost all first time mothers struggle at first with breastfeeding and they need timely support and information to get them over the hump. Many mothers turn to the internet for the missing support but, often, the anecdotes shared by other mothers are not helpful and can be misleading. It is about time that our society recognised that breastfeeding can help turn around our children's future health and save buckets of money as well. https://www.ausdoc.com.au//most-tonguetie-ops-not-needed-s See more

05.01.2022 https://www.facebook.com/492020314237320/posts/2374486009324065/

05.01.2022 https://www.facebook.com/492020314237320/posts/2170447636394571/?substory_index=0

04.01.2022 Good to share. Those of us who have been attending water births for decades can attest to the safety and satisfaction for mother and baby. It's time people stopped fearing it just because they are unfamiliar with it and became educated as to its many benefits. https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/19271

02.01.2022 Mummas, we are off the hook! https://theconversation.com/no-pregnant-women-arent-primed-

02.01.2022 Something sweet for us to enjoy... https://www.facebook.com/aimediaAUS/videos/2086370825007180/

01.01.2022 Hear hear! https://happinessishereblog.com/comfort-is-always-ok/

01.01.2022 "Although induction at term could prevent rare cases of fetal death," write SeijmonsbergenSchermers et al (2019) in the BJOG, "all induced women will be expose...d to potential disadvantages. Women whose labours are induced have a higher risk of postpartum haemorrhage, uterine rupture, hyperstimulation resulting in fetal distress, and perineal injuries (Miller et al. Lancet 2016;388:217692). Furthermore, more women need pain medication and have limited freedom of movement, a longer labour, and a negative birth experience. There is increasing evidence that suggests negative consequences of synthetic oxytocin administration. This may influence maternalfetal bonding, the maternal psyche, and neonatal preparation on being born. A large cohort study found higher rates of jaundice, feeding problems, infections, metabolic disorders, and eczema up to 5 years of age among children born after induced labour (Peters et al. Birth 2018;45:34757)." This is just the beginning of half of a debate about whether or not induction should be offered to all women at term. It's fascinating to see that the publishers have made the "pro" induction paper freely available, and yet one can only see the "against" argument, which begins with the paragraph above, by either paying or having academic access. That's why I'm sharing this today. Women deserve better than this. The evidence on which pro-induction arguments are based is not as sound as it could be. We need to understand that waving a research finding around isn't good enough. These days, "evidence" is cheap. We need analysis and careful thinking, especially when the issues are as complex as they are here. And I am constantly meeting practitioners who work on labour wards who laugh at the finding that 'induction reduces caesarean rates'. Not in their experience it doesn't. Induction will be the right decision for some, and not for others. Some women regret agreeing to induction, and others are happy. We need to share the viewpoints that are being suppressed. And spend more time helping people see that there is always more than one perspective. https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com//10./1471-0528.15887