I am honoured to host this article by my friend and colleague Becky Young. Becky is a doula and breastfeeding counsellor who recently travelled to the Ivory Coast. Read on for her reflections on parenting in this wonderful country and how it throws our way of life in Europe into stark relief. Continue Reading
Sweet Sixteen Doula: My 2019
This year I've officially been doulaing for 16 years. And just like my real 16th year, it was full of love, adventure, awkwardness and a looking forward with excitement to what the future brings. There has been joy and heartbreak, beginnings and endings, and most importantly, this year has been Continue Reading
Building Bridges: Questions Midwives Ask About Doulas
Over the years I have been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to talk to groups of midwives about the doula role on a number of occasions. Sometimes they are student midwives and sometimes experienced, qualified midwives. The last couple of years I have had the pleasure of talking to Continue Reading
Saying Thank You To Midwives: Do you not believe me, or do you not want to?
Today's post is a guest submission written by Ruth Pay, birth and postnatal doula in Kent and South London. Thank you so much for your words, Ruth - your thoughts on gratitude and how it is accepted are so interesting and I'm sure many of us will be able to identify with Continue Reading
Complementary Therapies in Maternity Care: are we blind to the bias?
I was scared. VERY. I am dreadfully phobic of enclosed spaces and didn't know how I was going to cope with an MRI. For a while I considered putting it off but I realised that being a doula has given me a number of useful tools. First, I reached out to a friend who was able to use her Continue Reading
A Handful of Gemstones: Doulas Celebrate Wonderful Midwives and Doctors
I recently wrote a post about some of the things that are said to parents to cajole, manipulate or threaten them into accepting interventions. This is a widespread problem but the last thing I would want is for my readers to think that I have an unrelentingly negative view and experience of the way Continue Reading
Inducements For Induction: is it really a choice when push comes to shove?
INDUCE: verb gerund or present participle: inducing succeed in persuading or leading (someone) to do something. "the pickets induced many workers to stay away" Of course, the definition we usually use in maternity care is: bring about or give rise to. "none of Continue Reading
Parents or Judges, Juries and Jailers?
Would you order your life partner to stop swearing? Or manhandle them onto the naughty step? How about sending your girlfriend to her bedroom? Would you consider it appropriate if your husband sent you to bed or dictated what you wore? The chances are, if one adult acted towards another Continue Reading
When We Let the Ad Men Decide the Health Of Our Children…
Cow & Gate, one of the UK's biggest baby and toddler brands, has shifted its entire consumer PR work to Frank PR and launched a major campaign promoting toddler nutrition. So said the press release back in 2016 on PR Week And so the PR machine cranked into action; millions spent on Continue Reading
Oh Pat&Archy, why do you hate us so?
Oh Pat&Archy, you have the lion's share. You're playing footsie with the FTSE, Stuffed shirts on all the boards you Chair. Oh Pat, why are you so greedy and so fat? Oh Archy, why must you always play the autocrat? Dear Pat&Archy, why do you hate us so? You rape and take or turn away Continue Reading