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Birth in 2073: Malina’s Selkie And The Little Flat Cake

1st February 2023 By doulamaddie 1 Comment

Placenta

Malina felt the hot, wet child between her breasts wriggle and lift its head away from her sternum. Looking down, she meets her baby's gaze for the first time. With eyes as huge and dark as the depths of the sea, curls of wet, black hair stuck down in seaweed strands and ears as delicate and Continue Reading

Persephone Visits The Taramco Arcadia

13th January 2023 By doulamaddie Leave a Comment

Taramco arcadia lobby

"Welcome to the Taramco Arcadia", says the sign above the huge glass doors at the entrance to the hospital. The font is informal, yet classy, conjuring the atmosphere of a 5 star hotel rather than a hospital. Persephone steps through the doors as they slide silently open before her and is greeted by Continue Reading

Birth in The Year 2073: Malina Has Her Baby

13th December 2022 By doulamaddie 1 Comment

Grandmother's quilt

Derisa pulls her scarf up over her head as she hurries down her garden path and out onto the quiet, dark street. It is frosty; in the gardens icy fronds flash white in the light of a full moon, which is partly obscured by clouds pregnant with the possibility of snow. Once again Derisa reflects on Continue Reading

Frida’s Home Birth

8th December 2022 By doulamaddie Leave a Comment

Yoga

This is a guest post by my lovely friend Izzy. I was honoured and grateful to be one of her doulas, alongside my wonderful friend Becky Talbot. This is long for a blog post, but if you are a doula, midwife or parent preparing for birth, I urge you to read it all. Izzy leaves nothing out, so her Continue Reading

Green Birth: How Modern Birth is Killing the Planet and Killing Us

30th November 2022 By doulamaddie Leave a Comment

nero fiddles while rome burns

Greta has not minced her words: our house is on fire. The count down to global destruction has well and truly started and the human race must act, now, to avert the extinction of our species. We know it's too late to avoid the crisis: it's coming and we will need to learn to live in a new, hotter, Continue Reading

Umbrella of the Love Gods: The Clitoris, Female Sexuality and Birth

25th November 2022 By doulamaddie Leave a Comment

Clitoris anatomy 2

Button, Devils' Doorknob, Bald Man in a Boat...the English words for the female clitoris are far and few between and not particularly positive or enlightening. As a woman in her 50s, born and bred in England, I have a suspicion that my lack of vocabulary to describe this part of my body is a symptom Continue Reading

Use Your Loaf: The Curse of the Baby Hat

26th July 2022 By doulamaddie 9 Comments

Baby hat

It's deeply ingrained, this habit of putting hats on newborns. Search online for images of newborns and almost all of them are togged up in a woolly hat, for all the world like they are about to go outside for a snowball fight. So why do we do it? And why do so many midwives and doctors insist that Continue Reading

Shame and Blame in the Birth Game: Part 2

13th July 2022 By doulamaddie 1 Comment

Lonely woman

'I have failed.' I hear it almost every day. It's women who whisper this. Men don't. Men say, 'I was robbed', 'It wasn't fair', 'There wasn't enough time', 'Ah well, that's just the way it is.' Our bodies are branded. Labelled and judged: “Failure to progress” "Incompetent" "Lack of Continue Reading

All That Matters is a Healthy Baby

11th April 2022 By doulamaddie Leave a Comment

Sad mother

It matters. Of course it matters, more than anything else. When you give birth, the most important thing is that you and your child come out the other side, alive. Alive is GOOD. It's the BEST, for most of us, most of the time. But is that ALL that matters? Really? Does it matter that you Continue Reading

Weaponising the Ockenden Report

7th April 2022 By doulamaddie Leave a Comment

baby shoes in wheat field

  This Guest Post is an edited version of an article which appeared on www.thearticle.com on 28 March, with the title The Ockenden Report: are we making natural birth a scapegoat? reproduced by permission of the editor. The author Sarah Johnson is a doula and birth educator and has Continue Reading

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