I once asked one of my friends what it was like to have twins. "First one came out, then the other," she said. I didn't bother to ask her if it was as easy to raise twins. Everyone here knows the answer. As you know, New Zealand is in a special situation that makes women and midwives around the world jealous. Here, women who are pregnant and their families have a "choice." A midwife is the main person who takes care of pregnant women. This is true for more than 85 percent of all pregnant women. The government pays for maternity care, and women can give birth at home or in the hospital. They can also have the same care provider with them during their pregnancy, labour, and time after giving birth.
Yet, the rate of elective caesareans has doubled since midwives took over maternity care in 1995, and women who are pregnant with breech babies or multiples are more likely to be strongly encouraged to have one. This is a very strange thing. On the one hand, women are told that giving birth is a natural and normal part of their lives. On the other hand, there are more births that are helped by doctors. In Nelson, 26% of all babies are born through a caesarean section. What's the meaning?
How do Common Knowledge Trust and The Pink Kit Method for better birthing fit into this, and why would you want to read this article? First, it's important to know what the Trust is, besides the fact that it's based in Nelson and gives money to good causes. The Trust was started by a woman who goes by the name Wintergreen in 1996. She has been a natural health practitioner for more than 30 years. During many of those years, she worked with groups of people who still lived in traditional ways. In those places, people always gave her a name, and she chose this one. She worked with regular families in the US in the early 1970s, which is where she learned what most people know about birth.
The Pink Kit Method for giving birth better is based on the idea that we are all the same.
Even though we all have the same body, we all have different beliefs, health, religion, ethnic backgrounds, etc. We seem to pay more attention to what makes us different than what makes us the same. That's how The Pink Kit Method came to be, though. We kept our attention on our universal female body for giving birth. Then, we used what we had learned in every single birth. The Pink Kit Method also gave our birth coach, who was probably our partner, husband, or the father of our child, or a friend or family member, skills and tools.
The bodies of men are the same. They were also born in a woman's body, so it's easy for them to figure out what everyone else knows. When a woman's coach is another woman, they find out how they are alike and how they are different. There are always different ways to approach a theme, which is why this information is so important. For example, women are often told that and are the best positions. However, once you've mapped your pelvis, learned how to relax your Minnie Mouse muscles, done Kate's Cat, and prepared with the Internal Work from The Pink Kit, you'll know which positions keep you open and relaxed.
Birthing beliefs have been falling apart for the past 30 years. Now, women think and are told that they can choose between births with a midwife, at home, or naturally, or with a doctor, in a hospital, or with medical care. But the strength of The Pink Kit Method comes from the fact that you will have another contraction no matter where you give birth or with whom. You can learn positive birthing and coaching skills so that you can breathe well, relax internally, stay open, stop your natural response to pain, which is to tighten up, work as a team with your coach, and manage your way to a positive birth experience. Even if you don't like the experience, you'll be proud of how you dealt with it. That's being in charge!
In today's birth environment, where "choice" and "information" are the most important parts of childbirth education and care, Common Knowledge Trust teaches "skills" that have been terribly neglected. Women often say to each other, "There's no way to get ready for it," which is sad. It's true that work is an unknown journey, but there are many simple skills that can help you make the most of it as it goes. Why do we think that ignorance is bliss, that we should hope for a good start in life, and that "natural" means that we all know what to do? Knowledge is bliss, not ignorance. Hope is not a plan, and neither is a birth plan. However, skills can be changed. Birth is a natural process that happens after pregnancy. However, we tend to get tense during labour, which is also natural. Our minds are one of the best things about being human. We can use our skills to help natural physiological processes work. It's something we always do. When we're hungry, we cook, not just pick at whatever bush is nearby. If we really want pleasure instead of rut, we learn to make love when we're drunk. When we need to pee or poop, we wait until we get to the right place instead of doing it right now.
There has been a sad trend over the past 30 years or so that people have lost their birthing skills. This belief is being changed by Common Knowledge Trust, one woman at a time, one father at a time, one contraction at a time. When skills and choices go together, we are more likely to have a goal and a plan for how to reach it. When we combine information with skills, we are more likely to have mastery than intellectual knowledge. For 30 years, skills have been missing because the focus has been on who and where women should labour and give birth instead of what we can do to have a good birth because we have the skills to handle the process of labour as it happens. This is not hard to figure out. It's common sense and well-known.
You might be reading this because you know you want to have a caesarean section. You are the same as a woman who will have to work hard to give birth. These skills can also be used by you and your partner. You can enjoy getting your body ready for birth and working with other people to improve your teamwork. And you'll still have to give birth, so you'll use these skills.
Common Knowledge Trust is the voice of tens of thousands of women who are expecting and their partners, so we can talk to you about any situation. We've all used the information and gotten a lot out of it. We've all felt more connected, competent, capable, and in control of ourselves as a result of learning how to give birth and coach. Our skills that we taught ourselves have helped us be better parents and made our partnerships stronger.
When you're pregnant with more than one baby, you and your birth provider will need to talk about how you want your birth to go. This is called a "trend climate of care." The way multiple pregnancies are taken care of has changed over time. No matter what choices you have or make, you can still enjoy getting your body ready to give birth. Become Pink Kit parents!
