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Eilidh (Ay-Lee) Venning shares her two beautifully peaceful home birth stories. Originally from Scotland, she now lives in Cape Town, South Africa, where the birthing "norms" are very different. She was determined to have a natural home birth both times, and she did it well!

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Dr Stephanie Barto is a crazy busy women. She's a mum of 2, with a third baby on the way, she's a prenatal & paediatric chiropractor and business owner. 

In this episode we discuss the importance of self care throughout pregnancy and into motherhood. Stephanie & myself also veer off into the extremely important discussion of expectations. The people around you (and their views on pregnancy/birth) can make or break your outcomes, so choose them wisely!

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This episode is a MUST LISTEN for anyone in the UK.

The face of birth is changing - midwives are currently regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (an oxymoron in itself!), who are proving themselves to be unfit for purpose. 

Rather than being responsible for assisting the wants of the women they are providing care for - which has always been the duty of a midwife - under the new regulations, midwives are instead going to have their practice ruled by what their employer (the NHS trust or the private company who they work for) wants them to do.

Why does this matter? Well, if you want to give birth outside of the "norm" for that employer then you may be told you're not allowed. 

For years, I've seen memes that pronounce "You're not allowed to tell me I'm not allowed" and "My body, my baby, my birth". 

Under the current changes, this has the potential to all change.

Listen to Katherine explain the situation much better than I can! It really is an eye opening episode.

Feeling like a failure after my caesarean

This is an off-the-cuff episode that I recorded whilst sitting in a hotel room early in the morning. The weekend away was a planned bit of relaxation for myself and my beautiful friend MaryAnne (from the You're Doing Great Mom podcast). We had a few glasses of wine in the bar in the evening and got talking about my first birth with George, which was a planned home birth that turned into an emergency caesarean at 33 weeks. Although MaryAnne knew bits and bobs about my birth, she didn't know the full depth of it. She had no idea that I felt like a failure after my caesarean. I told my family that I felt like a failure, that my body let me down, and most of all that I didn't deserve to have children. My feelings were invalidated and dismissed, because I had a "healthy baby". That's not how it should be. Clearly this had been on my mind all night, because I woke up with the urge to record a heartfelt episode to go in depth into the birth trauma and associated feelings that led to me having PTSD.

Challenging core beliefs

"As a chiropractor, one of my greatest fundamental beliefs is that the body is just perfectly designed, and here I was with a body that wasn't perfectly designed… that had failed me… that had made it so that I couldn’t have a baby naturally. It really challenged every single belief that I have" I really struggled with coming to terms with what happened, and how I felt about it. Not just the birth, but the initial feelings toward my beautiful baby. As pregnant mums, I think we all sit and visualise how our lives will be, and what kind of parents we'll be too. Nobody sits and thinks to themselves, "I think I'll get separated from my baby and not even coo over a photo of him". But that's the reality for many of us. It wasn't this overwhelming surge of love and affection that I thought it'd be. I was scared. Petrified in fact. It wasn't how birth was meant to be. It wasn't how my birth was meant to be.

Letting go of the stigma

There's SO much stigma surrounding mental health anyway, but although people talk about PND, I'd never even thought that you could get PTSD unless you were a soldier or the victim of a horrific crime. I believe that it's so important to share stories of birth trauma, PTSD, PND and any other mental health issues surrounding birth & pregnancy. While I'm totally in support of positive birth, sometimes things aren't rosy, and we need to validate that. Feeling like a failure after my caesarean, I've since discovered, is not uncommon. I wish I'd known at the time. So, if you can think of anyone who could benefit from knowing they're not alone in how they're feeling, please share this with them. PS - Here's where MaryAnne and I chatted for You're Doing Great Mom

Download Episode for Later!

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Child development is something every parent is concerned about - we all want our children to be the best! As with many health-related issues, we often wait until something is wrong before seeking help. When we wait until school age tests to be certain how our child is developing, it's often past the critical period to be able to see the biggest change to their brain function. In this episode, I talk to Dr Marty Rosen who teaches internationally on the topic of how skull movement affects brain development in babies and children. Often babies have small but noticeable asymmetries in their skulls, which can alter the way the child's brain develops. This is sometimes due to a traumatic delivery, like forceps pressure, sometimes due to sleeping positions, but often the baby's positioning inside Mum's tummy has a big effect too. As a baby's brain begins to develop before he/she is born, by the time of birth, the foundations are in place for this growth and development to continue through infancy. A whopping 80-90% of brain growth occurs within those first two years, so this is a really important episode for all parents to listen to. One of the biggest things I hope to do with this podcast is to encourage change before things "go wrong", and Marty is absolutely on the ball with that message too. But be warned, Marty is an absolute wealth of knowledge, and he talks fast.... really fast! So you may have to rewind back a few times, but I promise you, it's worth it. What this man doesn't know, is not worth knowing. About Marty Rosen Martin G. Rosen, DC, is a 1981 graduate of Life Chiropractic College.  He lives and practices with his wife Nancy Watson, D.C and his daughter Erin Rosen, D.C. in Wellesley, Massachusetts.  Dr. Rosen taught his first chiropractic seminar in 1979 and has traveled the world teaching SOT®, pediatrics, cranial adjusting, practice management and chiropractic philosophy and neurology ever since.  For over 33 years, he has been at the forefront of chiropractic pediatric and specifically pediatric craniopathy.  He has written multiple books and research studies as well as run a successful family chiropractic practice.   Dr. Rosen has dedicated his life and inspired thousands of others in the pursuit of excellence in the application in the art and science of chiropractic.  His "Pediatric Chiropractic Care" book is a "must have" book for those chiropractors looking to become experts in the care of children. He is widely active on social media, and you can find him on Facebook in many forms: his personal page, his office, his paediatric page and he's also on twitter. In this episode, we discuss:

• How a baby’s brain begins to develop before he/she has even been born
• The formation of synapses (connections) between different parts of the brain begins in utero!
• Foundations are needed to build the basis for the baby to grow on, and reach developmental milestones
• At birth we have almost all the raw materials to develop upon
• 80-90% of brain growth occurs in the first 2 years
• The survival part of the brain (cerebellum) grows 240% in the first year of life
• Social developmental milestones are reached as a result of the nervous system growth
• Psychologists describe the first 2 years as the period for most dynamic growth
• Why it’s so important to identify children at risk of neuro-developmental delay within the first year
• A lot of the issues we are seeing in children at school age actually occurred within the first year of life
• The health of our future generations is declining due to the onslaught of environmental insults
• Children need a nervous system that is able to deal with the insults in order to develop appropriately, which is the aim of the chiropractic paradigm
• Environmental insults can be physical (falls, bumps to the head, junior sports), chemical (air & water pollution, electromagnetic fields from mobile phones and iPads, food), emotional (lack of bonding) & sometimes spiritual
• The nervous system usually adapts, but sometimes compensates
• The three parts of the nervous system and what they control within the body: central, peripheral and autonomic
• How a stretched spinal cord (from forward postures such as children playing on iPads, or even from a straightforward birth) affects the developing brain and body, as a result of changing the tone of the nervous system
• Compensatory patterns - what they are and how we get them - if we have too many things to compensate for, then we can’t develop as well or as quickly as intended
• How nerves from the upper neck feed directly into the brain, and while glitches may not show up immediately, as different areas of the brain begin to develop, differences are noticed
• How an overloaded nervous system can begin to balance once subluxations are corrected
• Different children with different personalities will show their inability to adapt in different ways, but it all comes down to the same thing - an overwhelmed nervous system
• How the skull is designed to allow the brain to grow, but with altered movement in the skull bones, the whole system down to the coccyx is affected - this changes the speed of nerve reaction times
• Slower nerve reaction times may result in slower learning
• The younger you are, the better the ability to adapt
• Symptoms aren’t a good indicator of whether a child needs to be checked
• How birth affects the infant’s nervous system
• Marty’s preference is to check all babies within 7-10 days
• Final thought: “It is imperative to have your child’s spine and nervous system checked by a competent chiropractor as soon as possible to make sure that you give them the greatest opportunity to develop their optimum potential: neurologically, immune system, socially, emotionally & physically”

Further research:

• Pediatric Chiropactic Care by Martin Rosen, DC www.drmartinrosen.com
• Journal of Vertebral Subluxation McCoy Press
• International Chiropactic Pediatric Association
• SOTO-USA 
• SOTO-Europe

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In this episode of the Pure Natural Pregnancy podcast, Sarah talks to Mark Harris from Birthing for Blokes.

Mark Harris

Mark is registered as a midwife and nurse. He is an author, podcaster, speaker and general good guy who loves people! Mark travels around the country teaching men, and same sex partners, about the importance of their role in pregnancy and birth.

“The choices I have made in my professional life have been shaped by this gregarious inclination. I have trained and worked as a Nurse, Midwife, Teacher in Further Education, hypnotherapist, NLP trainer, out reach youth worker. I still work as a Midwife offering a birth education through a programme called, Birthing For Blokes (@Birthing4Blokes), work and play often merge for me.”

You can find Mark on Facebook, twitter & on his website.

In this episode

In this first episode, we discuss the brain, hormones and the differences between men and women. We also have an introduction to the physiology of the partner’s role, and why they are so crucial to the pregnant woman.

Resources

• Simon Baron Cohen – “The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain”
• Louann Brizendine – “The Female Brain” and also, “The Male Brain”
• Cordelia Fine – “Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences”
• John Gray – “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” and “Why Mars and Venus Collide”
• Mark Harris – “Men, Love & Birth”

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Mark is registered as a midwife and nurse. He is an author, podcaster, speaker and general good guy who loves people! Mark travels around the country teaching men, and same sex partners, about the importance of their role in pregnancy and birth.

Please support the hosting of the show by donating at https://ko-fi.com/purenaturalpregnancy

Suzy Ashworth is an author, pregnancy coach and a mindset & marketing mentor for pre and postnatal specialists. As founder of The Calm Birth School and The Baby Business School, she has a passion for showing women exactly why they can and should believe in themselves, empowering them to create mind-blowing birth experiences.

When she is not working and entertaining her two children Caesar and Coco, mainly she’s sleeping/growing another human being as she incubates the latest addition to her family.

You can find Suzy on Facebook, twitter, instagram & on her website.

In the episode

In this episode, we discuss the foundations of hypnobirthing, what it is and what it isn’t. She touches on the science and the woo woo, and also how hypnobirthing isn’t just for those wanting a home birth, but can be used in any type of birth, and in life in general! We have a chat about our own pregnancies and generally have a good laugh!

Resources: Episode 004

• Suzy Ashworth – The Calm Birth School Book
• The Calm Birth School free videos
• YouTube Videos for hypnobirth and hypnobirthing water birth

Please support the hosting of the show by donating at https://ko-fi.com/purenaturalpregnancy