The Birth Mindset

L is for Lactation and Lactation consultant.

Who knew that as soon as baby is here 'successful' lactation or feeding your baby with breastmilk becomes the holy grail of a successful start to motherhood?
The catch 22 is this. As a first time mother you don't have the foggiest idea how you will establish breastfeeding starting from naught, zilch, zero milk and yet you may be made to feel like a complete failure if you aren't feeding baby from the minute they are born.
There is immense societal pressure to somehow ace breastfeeding like acing birth. Yet I can give you at least 3 tips of gold - 1. be emotionally Calm 2. embody loving energy 3. Plan B exists.
Emotional calm will ensure your body doesn't rush into a fear - tension - stress response, which will be a sure way to reduce your milk production.
Conversely, an abundance of loving energy, think feeling and radiating love for your baby and world will create a surge of oxytocin in your body - i.e. the superstar responsible for the milk ejection response at birth.
Plan B exists. Before you come come crashing down feeling the weight of 'achieving' breastfeeding at minute 1, remember at this stage you have not yet discovered tongue tie in babies can be the culprit, please be assured that there is such a thing as breast milk banks/donors, artificial fortified powdered milk and a host of ways to get baby fed. Heck there is a whole movement called 'Fed is best' to ensure you don't feel like under-performing nincompoop. My hunch is that they are the same people that canvas for maternal mental health.
Certified Lactation Consultants exist and their job is to help you with breastfeeding and any problems early on. Most of our maternity hospitals have dedicated Lactation Consultants as part of their staffing.
I teach you how to truly own the 3 tips so you are prepared for every eventuality.

Join us for a spot of PREGNANCY RELAXATION. Where: Online on Zoom. When: Saturday 14th May at 10:00am

This event is for all expectant mums. If you are feeling anxious, cannot think straight about the future with a new born, worried about things out of your control like shortages in necessary goods, economic crisis and keeping your job, then I hear you.

This relaxation session will introduce you to an experience that will enable you to feel calm and relaxed and truly confident for the birth of your baby. All you need to do is show up.
You will also learn the fundamentals of hypnobirthing to help with a prepared and stress-free labour and a birth story you may describe as beautiful rather than painful. Imagine that!
A good time to reintroduce myself here, I’m Avani, the founder of this project that aims to educate, empower and enrich the lives of a 1000 expectant parents in the Global South, by facilitating and coaching for life transforming birth experiences.

J is for ‘Just being’. This involves mindfulness and presence. You get to slow down your senses and move away from the frenzied pace to ‘do’ everything and tick off all your boxes before baby’s arrival to just being present and not necessarily doing anything during this sacred time you cutout daily.
You currently are a busy mum juggling many things.MANY THINGS. Perhaps the pandemic feels like another lifetime ago now, as you grapple with a new reality, of living in a country with an economic crisis, inflation, shortages. Do you wish there were more hours in your day? Do you wish you could escape this place completely? Are you unable to emotionally point a finger on what has you in this brain fog, but I hear you saying there is so much to do there just isn't any time to 'be'. You adopt a doer's attitude yet you are left EMOTIONALLY DRAINED DAY IN AND DAY OUT. You are concerned about securing the essential purchases for baby's arrival, close you work commitments and have that real 'happy mama glow' you see on other mumstobe at your upcoming baby shower!
My course teaches you to take back control and allow yourself to unlearn your limiting beliefs that 'doing' is the way forward for a perfect birth outcome. Taking this alternative approach to control and being,away from your current hyper masculine 'doing' energy will make all the difference. It means you will be able to detach from the outcomes and concerns of baby’s birth day, setting yourself up for the real task of ‘doing’ - truly hypnbirthing your baby from a trance state at command when the time comes.

Dr Sara Wickham is a legend of a lady. For the evidence based book worms among us this sort of enlightenment is what we need in the Global South.

Six months ago today, my newest book was published.

It's called "In Your Own Time: How western medicine controls the start of labour and why this needs to stop."

I had already written one book about induction of labour, but I realised that there was more that people needed to know.

Currently, more than a third of women in the UK have their labour induced, but the evidence for this is questionable.

Like the fact that there are numerous benefits to going into labour spontaneously.

That the evidence doesn’t show what some obstetric organisations claim it does.

That there’s also an important history here.

And I do mean “his” story, for the roots of the current situation lie in the patriarchal approach that our culture and western medicine has taken towards birth for the past two or three hundred years.

And whatever the guidelines say, we know that induction is being offered for reasons that aren’t evidence-based.

Women and families need to know what the evidence really says about induction for suspected big babies, and for women who are older or larger than average.

And we needed more understanding of why induction isn’t the answer to the higher perinatal mortality rates experienced by Black, Brown, Asian and mixed-race women, babies and families.

This information needed sharing, and that’s what I did in this book.

I was overwhelmed by the way it was received, and it soon became the most successful book I had ever written.

Thank you for caring about these issues as much as I do 💜

You can find out more at www.sarawickham.com/time

I am so acutely aware of the that you are going through right now.
This period of is so characteristic of these .
You don't know how to when one minute you are happy and hopeful for your and next you are slumped, drained and cannot imagine life with your newborn.
You join pregnancy groups and wish you could feel excited like the other you clicked with. But secretly you feel like a fraud.
Let's get real here. You are overworked, disconnected and .
Please listen to me here, I am NOT pregnant, but I can completely relate. And here's why.
Even when I was not faced with a back in 2018 it felt bloody hard. I felt isolated, had a and the prospect of daunted me.4
So let me say this again. You are a , a fullstop.
Now if you don't mind me getting a little light hearted there is a solution. But you need to implement these . ! your MATTERS!
Timeblock and self indulge like there is no tomorrow. ?, Netflix series, moviethons?, especially in the final few weeks when the are at an all time high, Catch up with an with your (even when the wine is off the cards) will all help .
: There is a power in dumping your thoughts on paper. The will have a weaker hold on you as you start to see them for their true worth.
Chill out and dance in your living room.
No let me know when you have don't some of these things and I'll give you some more! # # #