Why we say 'good birth', and what it means for you
It was way back in 2013 that I briefed this logo to a trusted art director I'd worked with in my previous life. Back then I had a 4 year old and a new baby, and was coming to terms with the reality that life was not going to return to what I'd been very comfortable with before. For the foreseeable future I would be primarily mothering, and teaching hypnobirthing as a side-hustle. This gear change was always more evolution than revolution, though, and from the start, while I loved the calm embodiment I knew hypnobirthing could bring, I knew two things; 1) a 'Good Birth' is more complex than breath-work and MP3's, 2) 'Good Births' come in more than one flavour.
I had three lovely home births and most of the women I work with have a strong preference towards physiological birth, but this doesn't mean I'm ideologically wedded to babies coming out of vaginas or to mothers taking total control of their birth experience. Mother's preferences for less intervention in their births is evidenced in research, but it's not the whole picture by any means. We know that 'Good Births' are more closely correlated with respect, trust and honesty than they are with outcomes tracking where and how babies are born. We also know that decisions about how and where babies are born are complicated. They're mediated by deeply held cultural expectations about bodies in general and female bodies in particular, our personal experiences, and the practical, situational realities of our lives. Giving birth is a human interaction, and so your care providers are not neutral by-standers, they influence your perception & experience. Birth is bloody hard work, whether you're sick, or tired or hungry or extremely uncomfortable makes a difference to the forms or support and relief you're prepared to accept. These co-existing, multi-layered realities mean that there really is only so much influence you can have over your experience, and also that what 'Good' is dynamic and mercurial.
So the work we offer you is not a singular guide. It's not antenatal education by rote, or modular birth plans that suggest that if you just do x, y and z your preferences will be realised. If it were so simple we'd all be doing it and we'd all be having better births. We know birth is complex and interrelated, and dynamic and subjective so we encourage you to look beyond the outcomes and to ask yourself what 'good' means to you. We're honest with you about the gritty, sweaty and institutional realities of birth. We absolutely herald how birth can be brilliant, and we're also honest with you about how your perspectives, needs and resolve may change at different stages of your pregnancy and labour. If we're ideologically wedded to anything at all it's that you should not have to suffer.
New doula-led antenatal classes with Ruth, Laura and Charlie start in Summer 2022.
Email us at charlie@thegoodbirthpractice.co.uk for more information
