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Within our local trust, there has been a significant rise in women being induced for labour and this is cited as one of the reasons for the ‘temporary’ closure of Cossham birth centre, with midwives being pulled across to consultant-led birthing facilities.
During HypnoBirthing classes we always explore what supports the natural onset of labour and birth and what impedes this natural process. Most importantly, we highlight the importance of being informed and prepared when deciding on your preferences for birth, affirming the need to be ‘good parents’ first and foremost, rather than ‘good patients’. This is about building a positive relationship with your birthing team, ensuring there is open, transparent and honest communication of any intervention suggested with clear explanation of need, that can is backed up by science.
Here are the parental responsibilities the HypnoBirthing programme highlights pre-birth:
- Parents wishing to have a safe, calm, and gentle birth for themselves and their baby have a responsibility to reflect on what safe and gentle birth means to them and their baby and to determine how their wishes translate to their birth preferences to avoid conflict and disappointment.
- Parents have the responsibility to see themselves as important members of their own health care team, building a strong partnership with their health care providers—helping to ensure safe and positive outcomes by being their own “health care advocates.”
- Parents wishing to have a safe, gentle birth have a responsibility to actively seek and secure a care giver who genuinely shares their vision for birth and who is committed to support and accommodate their requests whenever medical indication allows, rather than attempt to coerce or convert a care provider who is given to intervention.
- Parents preparing for birth have a responsibility to articulate their wishes early and often during their prenatal visits in a courteous and cooperative way to ensure the smooth implementation of their birth preferences at the time of their birthing. Caregivers who support gentle birth should be addressed.
- Parents have a responsibility to themselves and their baby to disengage from a health care provider who does not listen to their feelings and who will not agree to refrain from unnecessary intervention in the absence of medical urgency.
- Parents have a responsibility to educate themselves about the environment, policies, and procedures routinely conducted at birthing facilities and to assess these factors in light of their birth preferences.
- Parents have a responsibility to educate themselves about what constitutes true special circumstances and should meet any diagnosis with curiosity, asking for discussion of possible outcomes, possible options, and possible resolutions.
- Parents have a responsibility to prepare physically and mentally for the birth of their baby with focus on healthy nutrition and habits and a pre-, peri-, and post-birth environment that is conducive to the healthy physical and emotional development of their baby.
- Parents have a responsibility, whenever possible, to provide for the wellbeing of their pre-born and newborn baby through an awareness of what is optimally beneficial to the baby in relation to the risks involved in any testing, medications, or procedure.
If you would like to learn more about how HypnoBirthing classes can help you get informed and prepare for the birth of your baby, do get in contact today at info@bloomandbirth.co.uk
