Birth Professionals And Skilled Birthing Families

How would skilled birthing
mothers and skilled coaching
dads impact all Birth Providers?
Birthing Better Childbirth Preparation Online
Courses www.birthingbetter.org

Childbirth debates center
broadly around…
• Natural vs Medical … Skilled birthing mothers and skilled
coaching dads/others birth much better in both compared to
unskilled families.
• Obstetrician vs Midwife … Skilled birthing mothers and skilled
coaching dads/others WOW both obstetricians and midwives
• Home vs Hospital … Skilled birthing women and skilled
coaching dads/others birth equally as well in both places
compared to unskilled families

Change the conversation
• We are debating rather than turning our focus on growing a
skilled birthing population.
• All pregnant women can prepare their pregnant body to give
birth. All expectant fathers/others can help them do this.
• All birthing women can use skills to birth their baby no matter
where they birth, who is present or what happens to or
around them.
• All fathers/others can become great birth coaches.
• All birth providers could see more skilled families

• POLITICS: We’ve been having a political debate about who is
the best birth professional, where is the safest place to birth
and what type of birth is best.
• SOCIAL: There should be no debate that skilled birthing
women and birth coaching men/others benefit everyone.
Skills work just as well in hospital as home. Skilled families
impress obstetricians and midwives. Skilled families work
better with all forms of medical care whether needed, wanted
or imposed.
Social or political?

• What if a social change could improve all birth professionals’
enjoyment of their work with birthing families?
• What if a social change could stop much of the political
debate or at least stop the ‘either/or’ approach to birth care?
• This can happen when we reframe the relationship between
pregnancy and childbirth from the point of view of expectant
parents and the benefits of all families becoming skilled?
• WE ALL WIN!
Reframing our conversation

• Obstetricians and midwives have all the skills to care for a
woman in birth.
• Birth providers learn their skills from extensive education.
• Birth professionals are responsible for the health and well-
being of the mother and child
• Most birth professionals also want birthing women to have a
subjectively positive birth experience
Birth professionals are skilled

• Childbirth education is all about information
• Information is used to make ‘choices’ and Birth Plans
• Birth Plans often fail. Choices are not always available or
change too frequently.
• For such a BIG event, families are not encouraged to become
skilled.
• Birth skills help mothers and fathers to work through this big
event.
• Information is what you know. Skills are what you use.
Birthing families have information

• Families are often left with either ‘do what the
Doctor/Midwife says’ or create Birth Plans to try to take some
control over an experience that is surrounded closely by
professionals.
• Birth and coaching skills give both mothers and fathers the
ability to remain in control of their responses as their baby’s
birth unfolds even if they have to follow orders or their Birth
Plans change
• Feeling in control is possible in all skilled births
Whose in control?

• Birth is an unknown situation until the event unfolds so skills
help mothers/fathers work through the unfolding of the
unknown
• Childbirth has a 100% chance of unfolding.
• Mothers/fathers can’t always control external factors but skills
permit them to control their responses.
• Birth is an action. Women have to ‘do’ the birth no matter
where she births, who is present or what happens. Actions are
best done using skills.
• Skills work as a focus as well as coping and managing.
Why birth and coaching skills work

• All women are human beings and all men have essentially the
same body this means there can be a set of shared, common
knowledge skills.
• Regardless of where or with whom a woman gives birth, she
has to breathe and her body will be in some position so she
can use skills to breathe better.
• Here are some skills: Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or
Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral
Manoeuvre
Men and women have same body

• Every obstetrician/midwife wants a healthy mother and baby.
That’s objectively observable.
• In reality every birth provider loves to see a woman have a
great birth experience. Now that fathers or partners are
encouraged to help at birth, all birth professionals really love
to see men do something practical and helpful. This is a
subjective experience not always observable but KNOWN by
the mother and father.
• Important question: Does having a skilled birthing population
hinder or endanger the birthing process?
Healthy mother and baby

Birthing Better statistics

• 1950s-late 1970s … Skills-based Childbirth trend that ONLY focused
on achieving natural birth, painless labor and less medical care.
• Early 1980s- present … Choice-based Childbirth trend that focused
on what each woman wants for her birth … but ‘there’s no way to
know what your birth is going to be like’. Too many Birth Plans have
failed and choices change
• Present onward … We must couple skills and choices but do it this
way.
• Skills for absolutely all expectant parents for every type of birth
• Birth professionals encourage all their birthing families to use
skills whether their choices unfold as they want or change
dramatically.
Childbirth trend has to change now

• Every family wants a safe birth with healthy mother and baby.
• Every family wants an empowered and positive birth.
• Every birth can be a skilled activity.
• Obstetricians believe ‘birth is safe after the fact’
• Midwives believe ‘birth is safe unless proven otherwise’.
• Every family can use skills to birth their baby whether the
birth is safe or unsafe, whether birth is natural or medical,
whether birth is in hospital or home.
• Birth professionals MUST want families to be skilled no matter
their professional beliefs.
Birth Professionals have to see
birth differently

• We … the EXPECTANT MOTHERS AND FATHERS … must take charge
of our own birth.
• Labor and Vaginal birth … Prepare body for birth. Learn birth and
coaching skills. Use skills to cope with contractions. This is your
baby’s birth
• Labor and unplanned Cesarean … Prepare body for birth. Learn
birth and coaching skills. Use skills to cope with contractions, while
being prepped and during surgery. This is your baby’s birth
• Non-laboring Caesarean … Prepare body for birth because your
hormones are. Learn birth and coaching skills. Use your skills on
drive to hospital, while being prepped and during surgery. This is
your baby’s birth.
Don’t wait for your birth
professional to change

• https://birthingbetter.org/comprehensive-childbirth-
preparation-skills-births/
• https://birthingbetter.org/birthing-skills-specific-successful-
vbac/
• https://birthingbetter.org/body-skills-short-course/
• https://birthingbetter.org/breathing-communication-touch-
short-course-online/
• https://birthingbetter.org/soft-skills-short-online-course/
Birthing Better Childbirth
Preparation Online Courses

Birth Professionals And Skilled Birthing Families

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