Initial thoughts on today's workshop
Apr. 13th, 2021 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitewriterI had a mini breakdown when the workshop convenor asked us to go around the room and share why we came to the workshop today. I said, that I was a midwife with SSH, however I'd recently gone back to nursing full time due to the disempowered feeling I have as a midwife who only graduated last year.
The room was filled with midwives from MSH whom had trained me (the educator was there) and my chosen clinic mentor (I hadn't been assigned one - an oversight I'm sure so I asked her to be mine since we had been on so many shifts together and taught me so much) as well as an old friend who is now a nurse midwife too from SJA.
There were 2 SSH midwives (one 2 yrs in, and one from 6 months before me who had been thrown to nursebank post her graduation from MSH) -- the new news is that she got.
During the breaks some of the midwives I didn't know came up to me and gave me a hug and sympathised with my feels re: empowerment of women and how disempowering it can be to work in the system.
It probably doesn't help that SSH has a terrible reputation at the moment and rather than looking at evidence and making changes based on evidence (that less is more) -- we get heaped on more and more paperwork. More and more media reports that are negative (I don't blame SSH for those); leading to randoms asking me "whats going on at SSH" and overall leading to my negative experience as a new midwife.
Lately, due to all the incidents- they have added 2 more midwives to every shift. More doctors to keep MAC flowing. What's wrong with the picture? It means we're 2 down every shift unless someone pulls overtime because there is no actual "extra staff". The important thing is that it shows the gap we are trying to fill.
I digress.
The course was about antenatal education: us as midwives - looking at problems and questions we can pose to women to help get their critical thinking going regarding Birth and what birth can look like, should they want it to be that way.
They talk about antenatal education being where it needs to start - and that once the women get in to the birth room, it's really quite too late to really change any preconceptions or ideas about birth.
About laying on the bed all the time.
About wearing the hospital gown and how degrading that can be.
That women can say no.
That our language matters.
Palmer touched on some very interesting ideas - all which I want to fact check for my own knowledge and understanding.
*oxytocin as leading to increased rates of PPH ( therefore in home births there are much less PPH)
*Less mec liquor at home births (Rarely seen)
That women who have had cesareans pick up their children less, are less - attached to their children.. -- is this true and how did they ascertain this, and are women - concerned by this?
I've actually dug up this article - but I need a librarian to retrieve it from me so I've put in a request. Can't wait to read it. Probably will be as riveting as the case study article about air embolisms caused by doggy style sex positions in 3rd trimester (kid you not, it's rare but it has been documented as a risk).
*That synthetic oxytocin interferes or blocks natural oxytocin.
*That melatonin and oxytocin are similar and work together
*Prolactin peaks at birth (hardly surprising considering its role in milk production)
*Female fetus can be affected by synthetic oxytocin
*there is low evidence for performing a vaginal examination on a low risk prinip
*King Louise the 15th as the one who promoted birth in bed
*Upright labours promote better oxygenation to the baby as the superior vena cava is not being compressed.
Debriefing and the role of debriefing. (reminds me of Paula from MSH who would go see women the day after, if she could to debrief and talk to them about how they felt things went).
Australian Birth Stories podcast
Social media as an unrealistic representation of birth.
1 in 3 women experience birth trauma.
People/books in the field I want to look up:
- Optimal maternal positioning by Jenny (unknown last name)
- Deborah Betts
- Birthing like a feminist by Millie Hill
PS. I joined the 100km Oxfam trailwalker for 2021. Call me crazy but this is meant to be my 2nd one.
I've done it before so I'm just chill to go for the ride on this one.
https://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/t/gotbeers-for-rrmj
The room was filled with midwives from MSH whom had trained me (the educator was there) and my chosen clinic mentor (I hadn't been assigned one - an oversight I'm sure so I asked her to be mine since we had been on so many shifts together and taught me so much) as well as an old friend who is now a nurse midwife too from SJA.
There were 2 SSH midwives (one 2 yrs in, and one from 6 months before me who had been thrown to nursebank post her graduation from MSH) -- the new news is that she got.
During the breaks some of the midwives I didn't know came up to me and gave me a hug and sympathised with my feels re: empowerment of women and how disempowering it can be to work in the system.
It probably doesn't help that SSH has a terrible reputation at the moment and rather than looking at evidence and making changes based on evidence (that less is more) -- we get heaped on more and more paperwork. More and more media reports that are negative (I don't blame SSH for those); leading to randoms asking me "whats going on at SSH" and overall leading to my negative experience as a new midwife.
Lately, due to all the incidents- they have added 2 more midwives to every shift. More doctors to keep MAC flowing. What's wrong with the picture? It means we're 2 down every shift unless someone pulls overtime because there is no actual "extra staff". The important thing is that it shows the gap we are trying to fill.
I digress.
The course was about antenatal education: us as midwives - looking at problems and questions we can pose to women to help get their critical thinking going regarding Birth and what birth can look like, should they want it to be that way.
They talk about antenatal education being where it needs to start - and that once the women get in to the birth room, it's really quite too late to really change any preconceptions or ideas about birth.
About laying on the bed all the time.
About wearing the hospital gown and how degrading that can be.
That women can say no.
That our language matters.
Palmer touched on some very interesting ideas - all which I want to fact check for my own knowledge and understanding.
*oxytocin as leading to increased rates of PPH ( therefore in home births there are much less PPH)
*Less mec liquor at home births (Rarely seen)
That women who have had cesareans pick up their children less, are less - attached to their children.. -- is this true and how did they ascertain this, and are women - concerned by this?
I've actually dug up this article - but I need a librarian to retrieve it from me so I've put in a request. Can't wait to read it. Probably will be as riveting as the case study article about air embolisms caused by doggy style sex positions in 3rd trimester (kid you not, it's rare but it has been documented as a risk).
*That synthetic oxytocin interferes or blocks natural oxytocin.
*That melatonin and oxytocin are similar and work together
*Prolactin peaks at birth (hardly surprising considering its role in milk production)
*Female fetus can be affected by synthetic oxytocin
*there is low evidence for performing a vaginal examination on a low risk prinip
*King Louise the 15th as the one who promoted birth in bed
*Upright labours promote better oxygenation to the baby as the superior vena cava is not being compressed.
Debriefing and the role of debriefing. (reminds me of Paula from MSH who would go see women the day after, if she could to debrief and talk to them about how they felt things went).
Australian Birth Stories podcast
Social media as an unrealistic representation of birth.
1 in 3 women experience birth trauma.
People/books in the field I want to look up:
- Optimal maternal positioning by Jenny (unknown last name)
- Deborah Betts
- Birthing like a feminist by Millie Hill
PS. I joined the 100km Oxfam trailwalker for 2021. Call me crazy but this is meant to be my 2nd one.
I've done it before so I'm just chill to go for the ride on this one.
https://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/t/gotbeers-for-rrmj
