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The Curse of Meconium Stained Liquor
Dear unborn baby, Please consider holding your poo in until after you are born. The big people on the outside get very stressed about your poo and will want to change the way you are birthed if they...
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Testing, Testing…
I am visiting the BaBs Sunshine Coast group tomorrow to talk about the tests offered during pregnancy and afterwards to newborns. You can download my antenatal tests summary information if you are...
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Shoulder Dystocia: the real story
Recently the media have been demonstrating ignorance and lazy journalism with a scattering of items about shoulder dystocia. Apparently doctors are having to attend special classes to learn how to...
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Stages of Labour and Collusion
My New Years resolution is to stop colluding in the myth of stages of labour. Will you join me? This may be a little difficult as a midwife and an educator but I’ll give it a go – will you? The stages...
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The Anterior Cervical Lip: how to ruin a perfectly good birth
Here is a scenario I keep hearing over and over: A woman is labouring away and all is good. She begins to push with contractions, and her midwife encourages her to follow her body. After a little while...
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VBAC: making a mountain out of a molehill
VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean) is big. A google search for ‘vbac’ results in ‘about 1,390,000′ results. Reviews, guidelines, policies and statements are being produced by every organisation with...
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ACM Homebirth Position Statement & Guidance: My response
The Australian College of Midwives have issued an Interim Homebirth Position Statement and Interim Guidance for Privately Practising Midwives along with a request for comments. Here is the response I...
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The Assessment of Progress
This article was written for AIMS Journal (2011, vol. 23, no. 2) and expands on my previous post about my New Years resolution – which by the way I have kept. AIMS have kindly allowed me to reproduce...
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Asynclitism: a well aligned baby or a tilted head?
This post is a quickie. I am compiling a list of suggestions for future posts via Facebook and Twitter which I will start working through. In the meantime this little topic has been cropping up a lot...
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Early Labour and mixed messages
Artwork by Amanda Greavette: http://www.amandagreavette.com This post is about early labour and the mixed messages women are given about this important part of the birthing process. Defining the...
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Midwifery Practice During Birth: rites of passage and rites of protection
Finally I have completed my Phd! It took me six years – the last two mostly writing… and writing… and rewriting. Entire chapters did not make the final ‘cut’. There is so much more I wanted to say (and...
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The Future of Midwifery and Homebirth in Australia?
A lot of changes have occurred in Australian midwifery over the last few years, and I think many midwives and women are unsure or confused by them. I am going to attempt to make a clear and coherent...
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The Human Microbiome: considerations for pregnancy, birth and early mothering
This post was co-authored by Jessie Johnson-Cash and based on her presentation at the USC Midwifery Education Day. The human microbiome is rather fashionable in the world of science at the moment. The...
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Vaginal examinations: a symptom of a cervical-centric birth culture
This post is about routine vaginal examinations (VE) during physiological birth ie. an uncomplicated birth without any medical intervention. The VE is a useful assessment in some circumstances, but...
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Supporting women’s instinctive pushing behaviour during birth
Artwork by Amanda Greavette This article was published in The Practising Midwife journal in June 2015 along with ‘practice challenge’ questions for midwives (not included here). Introduction Clinical...
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Responsibilities in the mother-midwife relationship
When I facilitate workshops with midwives and students, there is always a lot of discussion and debate about professional responsibilities in the mother-midwife relationship. These debates often get...
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The Placenta: essential resuscitation equipment
Resuscitation Equipment Knowledge about the short-term and long-term benefits of ‘delayed cord clamping’ is finally making it into practice. Midwives and in some cases obstetricians are realising the...
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In Celebration of the OP Baby
How many times have you heard “I had to have an epidural/c-section/ventouse/etc. because my baby was facing the wrong way”? An occipito posterior (OP) position occurs when the baby enters the pelvis...
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VBAC: making a mountain out of a molehill
VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean) is big. A google search for ‘vbac’ results in ‘about 795,000’ results. Reviews, guidelines, policies and statements are being produced by every organisation with an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Anterior Cervical Lip: how to ruin a perfectly good birth
Here is a scenario I keep hearing over and over: A woman is labouring away and all is good. She begins to push with contractions, and her midwife encourages her to follow her body. After a little while...
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