Birth in Focus

Becky Reed

Sujets

• Pregnancy
• Midwifery

Informations

• Publié par: Pinter & Martin Limited
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 0001
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781780662381
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

B IRTH IN F OCUS
Stories and photos to inform, educate and inspire
 
Becky Reed has been a midwife for over 25 years. She believes passionately in the importance of continuity in midwifery care, as well as in keeping birth normal, home birth and water birth.
Becky helped to set up the well-known, much-loved and influential Albany Midwifery Practice (AMP) in Peckham, South London, and has spoken widely about the AMP both nationally and internationally. Throughout her midwifery career Becky has documented births in photos, and used these when preparing women and families for birth. She believes strongly in the power of the image in education, particularly at a time when students are increasingly ‘learning’ via television and the internet, and midwifery skills are at risk of being lost. For many years Becky was on the editorial board of The Practising Midwife , where many of her photo-story articles have been published.
Birth in Focus is her first book.
B IRTH IN F OCUS
Stories and photos to inform, educate and inspire
Becky Reed
Foreword Ina May Gaskin
Birth in Focus: Stories and photos to inform, educate and inspire
First published in the UK by Pinter & Martin Ltd 2016
Copyright © Becky Reed 2016 Foreword © Ina May Gaskin 2016
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-78066-235-0
Also available as an ebook
The right of Becky Reed to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1988
Edited by Zoë Blanc and Susan Last Index by Helen Bilton Proofread by Debbie Kennett
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade and otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
Printed in the EU by Hussar Books
This book has been printed on paper that is sourced and harvested from sustainable forests
Pinter & Martin Ltd 6 Effra Parade London SW2 1PS
pinterandmartin.com
Dedicated to the memory of Tricia Anderson 1961-2007
We planned this book together
Contents
Foreword Ina May Gaskin
Introduction: Looking at birth Becky Reed
A note on the photographs Hermione Wiltshire
Birth stories
Laura (1976)
Amelia
Gideon
Charlie
Desmond
Edward and Harry
Emily
Berenice
Saxon
Livi
Nat and Thomas
Samuel
Jai
Trevon
Valerio
The Albany model of care: working in partnership with women Sue Brailey
Glossary
Thanks
Index
Foreword
This lovely book tells in stories and photos what birth-giving can be like when fear or anxiety are not present in the birth environment. A careful reading will reveal layers of hints and ideas about how fear of birth can be reduced or even eliminated. This is the true art of midwifery. The contents of the book show how a team of seven midwives managed to work together in south London in a way that made individualised care possible for each woman, wherever she chose to give birth. One of the most significant points to remember about the Albany Midwifery Practice is that the values that produced the high rate of home birth (43 per cent) – in a country where the national home birth rate remains below 3 per cent – seems also to have translated into a beneficial effect on the rate of normal birth for those who wanted or needed birth in hospital. How curious the world might be about how this practice worked! The proportion of normal births in the practice could be achievable almost anywhere, because that’s what is possible when the needs of the birthing women are put before other concerns that often enter into maternity care policy-making and practice.
Individualised care in this much-acclaimed midwifery practice meant that the midwives found many instances in which the mother’s intuition, backed by their own, moved them more than the view that guidelines must be treated as hard-and-fast rules. Working together without ‘what-if’ thinking constantly hovering over them, these midwives concentrated their energies on producing a beautiful model of maternity care during the dozen years that the Albany Midwifery Practice existed.
The closure of the Albany Practice is not the subject of this book. Becky Reed and the other midwives had a firm conviction that their midwifery equipment kit should include a camera to photograph what birth looks like when women are well-prepared, confident, and able to follow their own rhythms during labour. They knew that such visual images would surely inspire and instruct not only pregnant women, but also student midwives who might not otherwise have a chance to see the instinctual behaviour that they saw birth after birth. To see how women behave when no one messes with them as they work with the pain that is usually part of the process in the environment in which they feel most secure is a life-changing gift. To read the stories about how some of the women laugh and sing and move about adds layers of meaning that sends one back to the photos. Still another layer is added by the midwife’s account and the various perspectives on how and why women made the choices they did, whether it was to be in hospital or at home, and what kind of pain relief or not they wanted. There is no ‘best birth’ within this kind of model, no judgment regarding any woman’s choices, but there are surprises sometimes, despite the most conscientious preparation and plan-making.
Labours do happen before they’re supposed to or later than they’re supposed to. Some are preceded by prematurely ruptured membranes and take a while to get under way. Decisions have to be discussed and thought about. Twins who were planned to be born in hospital sometimes decide to come too fast for the mother to go anywhere. Labours may start and stop a few times before going the full way to birth. Some mothers with pregnancies of 42 weeks or longer need reassurance that they are neither crazy nor irresponsible for resisting induction when all signs are good. Some babies who start to be born head first whirl around at the last minute and come feet first.
The stories also reveal an ideal scheme for birth preparation – the 36-week visit to the mother’s home to really talk things over, inform her of her rights and what she might expect and prepare for, so that her plans are based on what comes out of her deepest heart. One of the stories involves a teen mother who decides not to make a plan at all and to just go with what happens.
The book is and will be for a long time a resource for expectant parents, antenatal teachers, doulas, midwives, student midwives, doctors and student doctors who wish to be exposed to normal birth in a way they may not encounter otherwise. They’ll see the creative ways that women who labour and give birth in their home use the furniture they are so familiar with and how often they are on their knees, or hands and knees, as they give birth. They’ll learn how often a woman following her own deepest rhythms may take a few moments before she lifts her baby into her arms. Continuity of care and a promotion of normality through pregnancy and labour are themes that are illustrated throughout the book. There is a deep message here.
In these stories (some told by dads, partners, and older siblings) and photos, the wisdom and the caring ways of the Albany Midwifery Practice are preserved for the future. I hope that the stories and photographs will be read and seen as widely as possible, to reduce the fear that makes normal birth far too rare.
Ina May Gaskin
Introduction Looking at birth
My first baby, Laura, was born in 1976, and my husband Adrian recorded her birth in black and white photos. I have no idea now why I felt so strongly about having a photographic record of her birth, but I do remember that it mattered to me very much at the time. Forty years ago taking birth photos was an unusual thing to do, and I can still see the midwife’s bemused expression when she noticed the camera slung over Adrian’s shoulder as he accompanied me on my trolley ride from first stage room to delivery room. Those photos, a few of which I am including in this book to give a sense of historical perspective, became part of my birth ‘story’, adding to and making sense of my experience of Laura’s birth. Over the next eight years I had three more children, all of their births recorded in photos. The late seventies and early eighties saw a huge change in birth practices in the UK, and those four sets of birth photos document this beautifully.
In 1997 I helped to set up the world-renowned Albany Midwifery Practice in south London, UK. The Albany Practice followed a simple philosophy about preparation for birth, having as its bedrock a belief in women’s ability to give birth with minimal assistance, and their ability to work with pain in labour. As part of each woman’s antenatal care, her two dedicated midwives visited her and her chosen birth supporters at home at around 36 weeks of pregnancy, for what was known as the ‘Birth Talk’. At this visit we used visual aids such as birth diagrams and a doll and pelvis to explain clearly the process of labour. But, more importantly, we showed photos of births, such as those in this book. These photos were given to us by other mothers, and through them we hoped to instil in women and their families a confidence in the birth process and the idea that birth can and should be a joyful event. The photos illustrated (among other things) positions in labour and birth, perineal stretching, and physiological third stage. Women told us how important those visual images were to them when they had their own babies, and how seeing other women’s births helped them to believe in themselves. When a woman was anticipating a different birth, such