Politics and midwifery have been closely intertwined in South African Apartheid history and the women’s liberation movement. Western models of childbirth were accepted at the expense of indigenous wisdom and knowledge.
The key to the Helping Babies Breathe programme is the First Golden Minute, within which most babies will recover and breathe after birth. A quick visual and auditory assessment of the baby at birth and simple steps to assist babies to breathe, can save lives and give a much better start to babies who struggle to breathe at birth.
The midwifery and Birth Conference provides a platform for a group of midwives and women to gather together to share and collaborate on ways to improve the culture of birth in South Africa.
Physiological birth is an involuntary process, related to activity in the primitive brain and body structures. It occurs best when a woman’s parasympathetic nervous system is operational and she is in a state of trust. The fetus ejection reflex is a short series of involuntary movements that result in the birth of the baby followed by transcendent feelings for the mother baby dyad.
Twins Skye and Eden were born in the sanctity of the home in Cape Town. Both twins babies emerged in waterbirth and parents Andre and Vivienne are superhuman!
A seminar to learn about physiological birth and how to support it for midwives, doulas, childbirth educators and anyone interested in caring for women at birth.
As a young white woman I was horrified at how white medical students would force black women to lie on their backs when their natural posture is to squat for the urge to bear down and give birth.