February 23, 2003

A great event for childbirth educators

Well, the National Association of Childbirth Educators Conference (NACE)is over for another 18 months - three days of listening, debating, enlightenment, networking and catching up with colleagues. Lots of highlights, but a few stand out in particular:

Sheila Kitzinger, on what will probably be her last visit to Australia. She has been unwell and looked very frail, but her passion, her ability to command attention with her voice and the overwhelming relevance of her message are as strong as ever. Her keynote address looked at the history of childbirth and its intrinsic centrality to women’s lives, illustrated by a wonderful collection of pictures from all over the world. Much of what she spoke about is contained in her lovely book Rediscovering Birth, a must on your bookshelf for those days when you are feeling a bit low and demoralised.

Today she presented a smaller workshop session on the theme of birth as rape, again illustrated with women’s words and Sheila’s own compassionate insights. Real stop-you- in- your- tracks stuff.

Yesterday’s program featured fathers, with wonderful presentations by Paul Pritchard and Richard Fletcher, both of whom are facilitating men’s groups on parenting, in different parts of the country. As most childbirth educators are women it can be difficult to try and put ourselves in men’s shoes so their needs can be met in our pre-natal programs. Paul and Richard had a very simple answer to this dilemma - give the men space an let them explore these issues for themselves. An obvious solution but one that is not offered nearly enough.

The Hypothetical facilitated by comedienne, radio personality and all-round good gal Julie McCrossin was a hoot. A panel of speakers addressed various aspects of the question that women should be allowed to choose an elective caesarean section. A popular topic for debate, perhaps made more popular as a choice by debates such as these!

As usual there were a multitude of smaller workshops and seminars available, requiring difficult decisions to be made. I didn’t get to any of these because I was staffing the Birth International display, but at least I can catch the summaries in the proceedings.

Only one quibble from me - everyone kept talking about “antenatal” programs, classes etc. This language really grates every time I hear it because of its unintentional negative overtones. I much prefer to use the word pre-natal, which seems logical to me as a natural precursor for the post-natal period.

The next event will be in Tasmania in October 2004. Not sure that I will be there as I am always in the UK in October, but I certainly enjoyed being part of this event as I feel sure that everyone else who attended had a fine t ime. Congratulations to NACE on an event that was well organised and very professional.

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