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Back to Hull

I am back in Hull today, to present an Active Birth workshop for the Sure Start Doula program. Once again I have a group of volunteer doulas who are undergoing their training in preparation for working with needy women during their pregnancy, birth and postnatal period. There are some other Sure Start people in the group and a number of midwives from the Hull area and further afield.

This is a very different group from the one I worked with in Mansfield on the weekend. That group was mainly older, experienced midwives, who felt that had already established an excellent midwifery service. Some of the feedback from them indicated some dissatisfaction with the workshop and I suspect they misunderstood some of the teaching strategies that I used. I wondered if, at times, they felt a little uncomfortable being challenged to think again about the services they were offering. I have still to find a unit anywhere in the UK that has managed to be completely “woman-friendly”.

This group in Hull are fresh-faced and young. Many have said they would like to become midwives and a number of the doulas are working towards gaining university entry and a place in a midwifery course in the near future. We’ve had a fun day exploring the physiological basis for natural birth and tomorrow we’ll tackle how to enable normal birth to unfold. Almost everyone in the group has had children as well, which always adds an extra element to the discussions. I think we’ve managed to explain why some of the events in labour occurred for several of these women, which will perhaps help them to resolve some of their feelings. Tomorrow will be another good day, I am sure.

Posted by andrea at April 04, 2006 05:27 PM