Welcome to Passionate about Birth!
Childbirth is a rite of passage, not a medical event, even if medical care is part of the birth experience. The birth process is much more than physically birthing a baby. Conceiving, growing a baby, giving birth, breastfeeding and parenting is a continuum. Science is increasingly discovering that the way of birth has life-long effects on the mother and the baby.
The Six Lamaze Healthy Birth Practices support a woman’s natural and inherent ability to give birth:
1. Let labour begin on its own
2. Walk, move around and change positions throughout labour
3 Bring a loved one, friend, or doula for continuous support
4. Avoid interventions that are not medically necessary
5. Avoid giving birth on your back and follow your body’s urges to push
6. Keep mother and baby, together – It’s best for mother, baby, and breastfeeding
As a Birth Doula, a Birthing From Within Mentor and a Lamaze Birth Educator I:
- View pregnancy, birth, lactation and parenting as a normal healthy process.
- Encourage women to build self confidence and to trust their body's natural ability to grow, nourish, birth and breastfeed their baby.
- Encourage partners to expand thier knowledge and skills as well as build confidence in providing the vital support needed during pregnancy, labour, birth, breastfeeding and postpartum.
- Support women/couples to be active participants in their birth process and to birth in awareness versus achieving a specific birth outcome.
- Support women/couples to lay the foundation to parent their baby.
- Recognize and honour this time of transition as a profound rite of passage.
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Karen Reed is a Halifax, Nova Scotia based, birth doula, Birthing From Within mentor and Lamaze birth educator. Karen provides birth doula services, Birthing From Within and Lamaze childbirth preparation classes to pregnant women and their families in the Halifax, Nova Scotia area.