Supporting physiological birth
At Journey to Postpartum, I support women who desire a physiological, unmedicated, and low-intervention birth. If you are unsure what physiological birth is, let me quickly tell you.
Physiological birth is when labour begins naturally, progresses without intervention and medical assistance, and is followed by immediate skin-to-skin, breastfeeding, and the natural birth of the placenta. However, in the system we are currently birthing in physiological birth is quickly disrupted if we aren’t supported by the right birth team, unaware of our options, just wanting to go with the flow or see birth as a medical event.
When it comes to birth I believe that physiological birth is best. It’s a bias I have, which I’m well aware of and have no shame in. So when I was creating my doula business it made sense for me to niche down and support women who are desire a physiological, unmedicated, and low-intervention birth.
But it certainly came with some eyebrow raises and some questions about what it means to support women who desire a physiological birth, which I admit is understandable considering we are birthing an over medicalised maternity system.
The truth is the over medicalised maternity system makes me want to niche down all the more!
Why? Because those women who desire and dream of physiological, unmedicated, and low-intervention births deserve to be supported in that! I also believe that there is a rise of women wanting to birth in all its natural glory, the way birth was intended.
So, what does it mean to support women who desire a physiological birth?
My birth doula support is built on preparing women for a physiological birth throughout their pregnancy in many different ways including conversations that normalize what happens in physiological birth and the common practices that disrupt it, birth education, sharing knowledge and resources that support physiological birth, continuity of care that makes women feel safe, supported, and comfortable, plus unpacking fears towards birth and discovering birth preferences based on knowing the risks, benefits, and alternatives.
My niche does not mean that I will abandon and stop supporting women if their birth takes another path. In the moments birth doesn’t go the way women dream I will be there to help them feel supported, reassured, informed, and in control.
By supporting women who want a physiological birth, I’m promoting and protecting physiological birth for them and others to come.
In my perfect world, every woman would have the opportunity to birth physiologically. However, we are very far from my perfect world and I recognize I won’t be able to change birth as a whole but by supporting women who dream of a physiological birth I’m doing my bit in normalising normal, physiological birth!
Not only am I supporting a handful of women in the birth they are dreaming of, but they will also go on to share their stories to normalize physiological birth and encourage other women to dream of having a physiological and supported birth.
My birth support is not about shaming women who choose or need to be intervened and medically supported in birth.
It is about putting the power back in women’s hands through birth education, trust in birth and continuity of care.
If you are dreaming of physiological birth you can download my free resource; 13 common practices that disrupt birth here.