Mary_Young_CROPPED

Mary Young
Founder,
Know Your Midwife

I believe childbirth can be much calmer, more gentle and more natural than is generally considered the norm.

While pregnancy and childbirth has never been safer, many mothers’ birthing experience is not what they had hoped for, nor what they deserve.

Our confidence in medical science, procedures and professionals is entirely appropriate and has never been higher. But it is also mixed blessing.

The more confidence women have in their highly skilled care-givers and the procedures at their disposal, the less confidence we seem to have in our own ability to birth a child in a calm, gentle and natural way.

Our self-doubts and shortfalls in self-confidence surface on the maternity ward as apprehension. This morphs into anxiety, stimulating the physical tension that amplifies pain: complication-free births can become more difficult and complications can become more complex, perhaps even more likely.

This occurs often, reinforcing commonly held views on what ‘normal’ birthing is. This view is not just wrong, it is detrimental.

 
To have the best chance of a calmer, more gentle and more natural birthing experience, expectant mothers must believe that it is possible, better still probable, and enter labour with their minds prepared and equipped to work in harmony with their bodies.

Better preparedness is within the reach of many more mothers and is surprisingly simple with the right partnerships.

I launched Know Your Midwife to help mothers have a better chance of experiencing the birth they want and deserve; whether that is by protecting and enhancing the natural birthing process or finding natural ways to enhance birthing in which medical interventions are required or desired.

The biggest difference we can make as a society is to be open-minded and recognise that widely held views on ‘normal birthing’ are not necessarily conducive to the birthing experiences most women want. I launched The Childbirth Manifesto to encourage all of us to open our minds once again to the possibility that birthing can be calmer, more gentle and more natural.


Mary Young - Founder

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CONTINUITY OF CARE
from pregnancy through birthing to motherhood makes a big difference.Today’s expectant mothers benefit from exceptional access to exceptionally skilled care-givers. But bouncing from GP’s to midwives to ultrasound technicians to on-duty hospital midwives, registrars, surgeons or obstetricians, some of whom we meet only once, perhaps only hours before birthing, does little for our peace of mind. We humans feel most secure when supported by familiar people. The known and knowledgeable companion is notably absent in the modern maternity journey.		 BIRTH PREPARATION
works best when it begins early and is comprehensive. Today’s expectant mothers, confident in the extraordinary capabilities of modern maternity care, often take prenatal classes late in their pregnancy, compromising their ability to fine-tune what they learn to fit their personal circumstances and preferences. Self-education helps, but on and offline information is steeped in contradictory facts and opinions. The best preparation for birthing requires education that is broad, deep and integrated early into a personalised continuity of care programme.		 BIRTH INTERVENTIONS
are the many outstanding medical procedures skilled care-givers have at their fingertips to help modern birthing, and our awareness of them boosts our confidence during pregnancy. But this confidence can and usually is offset by nervousness about the circumstances in which interventions are indicated and apprehension about experiencing them. Birthplans can help, but to prepare one we ponder what if? scenarios, adding angst. Some complications require medical interventions, but preparation and partnerships can help mothers wishing to avoid them increase their chances of so doing.		 PEACE OF MIND
in a broader sense helps birthing experiences too. Today women have more complex lifestyles than previous generations. Balancing our personal, professional and familial needs in a time-starved world is tough. It’s tougher still during pregnancy. As we enter labour, apprehensions about emerging parenthood, and the new life that comes with it, can add to our tension. Support and guidance is needed that helps the transition into parenthood, rather than stopping at birthing.