birthmapping

A few days ago I launched my birthmapping offering. You can WIN the gift of a free birthmapping session over on my instagram.

A 3 hour session designed to help you to chart an intended course in birth and beyond; and to prepare for any road bumps along the way.

As I pondered how I would talk about to the world about it I decided to distill my thoughts on it here.

Birth mapping at it’s core, is informed preparation for birth and beyond.

It’s about collecting information based on the knowledge gaps you have and which you would like to fill up. It’s not just information about the process of birth or healing afterwards, or about hospital policies, systems and models of care, it’s about collecting information about yourself. Knowing yourself, what you want and what you bring with you to the experience.

The most common way that we birth in Australia is systemised, that system is based upon what the average person needs and is likely to experience. So it assumes that we are all sitting somewhere on the middle of the bell curve when we know that in order for the bell to exist that there are going to be experiences outside of the average at each end of the spectrum. In that way it is problematic.

We are witnessing induction and c-section rates climbing as we see rates of spontaneous birth and birth without intervention continue to decline. And yet, maternal and neonatal mortality is remaining stable and not improving. But yet we continue to do it more, I wonder if soon we will see a terrible swing in the other direction.

It sounds corny, but it ain’t.

Knowledge is power.

Currently and unfortunately.. in many instances the person who should hold the power, the woman or person birthing, does not. Care providers are in control of the information they give us and how they do that, they have significant control over the timing of your care and birth and with that they have taken on a lot or all of the responsibility (ie all those policies and insurance and reasons why “things have to happen a certain way”). This responsibility goes hand in hand with power. When we don’t take that responsibility for ourselves, our experience…we give that power away.

And so then we become a passenger in our own experience.

Sometimes you will have known it at the time and accept it because they’ve been told to believe someone else knows what is better for them than they do themselves and others don’t realise until afterwards and they are left to heal physically and emotionally from a disappointing or traumatic birth experience.

We continue to bring babies, mothers, parents and families into the world, but many of of don’t know anything about it until it hits us head on. We aren’t prepared and this modern world doesn’t allow for the village approach to life and support that we so need for new and growing families.

Your care provider does not know you better than your know yourself.

We keep our stories to ourselves, or we only share the good stuff, not the difficult shit that is part of basically all of these experiences and so we can’t draw on one another for strength and fortitude. Instead all feeling alone like nobody else is feeling what we are.

Birth has been around for all of time, it’s inconceivable to me that our bodies have forgotten how to do it. They haven’t. We have lost touch with our bodies and our instinct, we have been conditioned to believe that in birth we need to give up our power and not come into it.

Birth plans have been around for a while now, when they first came about they allowed for a balance in power, improve communication and for us to share our wishes and preferences with our care team. They do however have their limitations in that they can be too rigid or not explore all the options and pathways that might arise.

A plan that doesn’t go to plan, can feel like a failure.

Enter the birth map.

We start with your values, who you are and what birth means to you. We move to what’s important to you in birth and beyond. It’s so important to begin here, because sometimes we don’t understand or can’t fully comprehend the impacts of our decisions on our future selves. Birth is one of those times when decisions made out of alignment with who we are can have rolling effects.

Three key pathways will be unpacked through play and through discussion. Covering off first stage, second stage, third stage and post birth.

Your fast birth pathway

You give birth before arriving where you plan to give birth, aka car birth or unassisted at home

Your expected birth pathway

You give birth in the way that you intended to outside of an emergent or unexpected situation. There can be unexpected decision points on this path, but the path mostly follows your overall birth path (vaginal birth, c-section, induction)

Your contingent birth pathway(s)

Things don’t go how you plan, such as if you were planning a vaginal birth, this would be your plan for a c-section. If you were planning an induction or c-section, this would be your plan if you went into labour prior to your the booked date of induction or surgery.

In the Birth Map there’s also some detail around what happens after birth. This is SO IMPORTANT.

In my birthmapping sessions we will also unpack an expected and contingent pathway in the early weeks and parenting. Postpartum is forever and if we put the same amount of energy into unpacking what we need to thrive in it as we do in birth then we can transform motherhood and parenthood in a really powerful way.

Your expected early weeks pathway

Your plans for family life go how you expect, feeding, sleeping and resting as you wish.

Your contingent early weeks pathway(s)

Things don’t go how you planned, perhaps a c-section means your ability to do what you had planned can’t happen, you aren’t able to feed your baby the way you wanted to, you experience post natal depression or anxiety.

After the exploration, the maps will be plotted. Distilling these into a form that is easily digested and understood by anyone. Different and unique as you are. Maybe the work in the process is enough and you don’t need it written down; it’s all in your own and your support person’s mind. You can draw on the preparation and make decisions based on that.

The birthmapping process isn’t just about birth, it’s a tool to take with you to appointments and jot down your feelings and thoughts. Extra questions that you have in addition to the many there for you to draw on. An amazing resource that will transform your pregnany, birth and beyond. Buy your own copy here.

I love this so much that it’s included in my born to thrive offering and is essential to the work I will do with you and your new or growing family.

the game

of birth

One of the tools in birth mapping is the game of birth. This is a no risk way to unpack the different ways birth can unfold and allow mental preparation for many pathways. With each game and die roll, you may need to make a decision, then you will research and educate yourself on the different options that are available.