Birthing Better

There are some of us who have lived long enough to know there have been two pregnancy and childbirth paradigms since the 1960s.

• Do what your doctor says ... curiously coupled with the beginning of a 'skills-based' approach to pregnancy and childbirth.
• You have 'choice' ... coupled with Birth Plans yet created the shame, blame and guilt so often felt.

Listen to this audio podcast and begin to think forward to your baby's birth.

Giving birth to your child should never leave you with so much shame, blame and guilt that your life is disrupted. 

Curiously when women didn't have 'choice' they did accept birth for what it was. Since there is 'no way to know what your birth will be like', women may not always have liked what happened to them or around them but they got on with life.

At the end of this paradigm there was a societal expectation (in the US) that families become skilled. Lamaze and Bradley were the two childbirth preparation systems commonly used by families as they worked together around the medical assessments, monitoring and procedures. They felt empowered by what they did for themselves.

Once women were empowered with 'choice' they had a great expectation their Birth Plans would come to fruition. Yet, we forgot a vitally important element ... the skills. We replaced skills with a 'choice-based' approach to pregnancy and childbirth as though you could plan your birth. You can't. 

Birthing Better with The Pink Kit Method® evolved in the early 1970s by families like yours. We wanted effective skills so we could always work with our baby's efforts to be born. While many of us achieved a successful vaginal birth after a previous Cesarean because we learned how to handle the naturally occurring pain of birth labor, many of us also had another Cesarean. You know what we did? We continued to stay connected to our baby's birthing process by continuing you use our skills.

We got pregnant to have a baby no matter how our baby enters the world. Our job is to become skilled parents and use the skills even when the whole situation is challenging. 

We must change the paradigm. Work hard to become skilled so you can cope, manage, deal with, work with and tolerate 'labor' and then commit to using your skills if your labor turns into a Cesarean. And that's true if you have a non-laboring Cesarean. You are empowered not by your 'choices' but by your 'actions'.