Essex Midwifery Practice

rachel — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:25:44 +0000

I have just been looking through my birth register and reading back over the births I have been at. Such lovely memories! Its interesting to see how many women just use a pool and hypnobirthing in labour. Its also very interesting to see only a handful were laying on their backs to give birth. Left alone to birth how they feel comfortable - women tend to go into an all fours or kneeling position.
When women are with a midwife that they trust and feel comfortable with, they are more relaxed and more in control. This helps so much towards a positive and empowering birth.

Reclaiming Birth Rally Confirmed

jenny — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:55:09 +0000

Rally is confirmed. Brush up on your placard waving skills and campaining voices… NCT, AIMS, ARM, IM UK and Albany Mums are proud to present… The ‘Reclaiming Birth Rally’. Sunday March 7th 2010 at 1pm meeting at Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, Lambeth Road, SE1 4EQ and then marching to Whitehall to hand in a petition.

This is a golden opportunity to send a very loud and clear message to the Government, the media, and the Dept. of Health, and to the public that the maternity services need to be much higher up the agenda, that the current system is failing and that midwifery, in partnership with women and their families need to become the guardians of normal birth once more ….. in other words, we need to reclaim birth back from the fragmented, dysfunctional and impersonal system it has been sucked into… PLEASE come along and join us.

Next Social Gathering

jenny — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:25:44 +0000

The next get together is May 13th at Barleylands in the Hive Cafe. We will be meeting from 11 til 2.
It will be great to see all our lovely babies mums and bumps!
Hope to see you there

Rachel and Jenny

Latest Social

rachel — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:40:08 +0000

The Essex Midwifery midwives had a get together with our clients - present and past! It was lovely to see our mums and catch up with all the lovely babies. We had a little 3 week old to a nearly 3 year old and ages in between. It is so fantastic for us to see the children growing and to hear the mums still talking about their births in such a positive way!

Social Gathering

jenny — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:28:22 +0000

Our next social event is our yearly Christmas tea party! Its on 6th December 2-5. Invites have gone out and we hope to see you there!!!

Immunisation

jenny — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:40:46 +0000

We see our clients up to a month or more before discharge with the Health Visitor introducing herself at about two weeks post birth.Â They are available for women after the midwife discharges and willÂ give information regarding child immunisation whichÂ starts from 8 weeks old.Â Our clients sometimesÂ wish to discuss this with usÂ and we will give them various information including websites with differing views so that they canÂ make an informedÂ decision.Â

The subject whether or not to vaccinate children and also how this should be done is an oft-debated topic for parents who want to know more about the content of vaccines, whether animal testing has been involved in their production and long term safety.Â We have had two clients in the past who have decided not to have their children immunised.

Some websites which give information regarding this subject are: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Yourchildshealthandsafety/YourChildsHealth/DG_10026138

http://www.immunisation.nhs.uk/Vaccines

http://www.vaccineriskawareness.com/

http://www.jabs.org.uk/pages/home/home.html

http://www.wddty.com/SearchResults.aspx?q=child+immunisation&searchButton.x=8&searchButton.y=8

Pre-Eclampsia

jenny — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:10:55 +0000

I went to an APEC (Action on Pre-Eclampsia)Â study day yesterday at Kings College, London which was extremely informative.Â Professor Chris Redman who is a world renowned authority on the subject gave a brilliant lecture.Â Pre-Eclampsia is an illness arising only in pregnancy which can affect the mother, her unborn childÂ or most commonly both. It can occur at any time from around twenty weeks to as late as several days after delivery.Â In the mother, the condition causes a number of symptomless disturbances - including raised blood pressure (hypertension) and leakage of protein in the urine (proteinuria) - which can progress to serious illness if undetected.Â The unborn baby may grow more slowly than normal or suffer potentially dangerous oxygen deficiency.Â There are other symptoms, i.e. bad headaches that don’t go away, blurred vision, bad pain just belowÂ the ribs, especially on the right side and puffiness usually in the face.Â Â The main thing that I brought home with me from the study day was that not all of these symptomsÂ are there for the majority of theÂ womenÂ and sometimes it is just one of them that has been noticed and followed through for PET (pre-elampsia) to be picked up.Â APEC is a charity whose aim is to give advice, informationÂ and help for mothers,Â families of thoseÂ who have beenÂ affectedÂ and midwives.Â They have many leafletsÂ and information packs available, particularly for mothers who have experienced PET in a previous pregnancy and are wanting advice before having another child and also a helpline number. Â Â There are also Precog (Pre-Eclampsia community guidelines) which can be downloaded for midwives.Â www.apec.org.uk

‘The Mother’

jenny — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:03:00 +0000

I was introduced to ‘The Mother’ magazine by a midwife friend who lives and works in Glastonbury.Â She was so impressed with the magazine that she had bought all the back copies……Â I spent a long weekend with her soaking up the magic of Glastonbury, walking several times up the Tor and pawing through her magazines………I was also hooked.Â When I arrived home I subscribed andÂ also ordered all the back copies !!

This is like no other mothering/parenting magazine most of which seem to give a lot of space to advertisments and include articles on ‘the best buys’.Â Â Â Â If you areÂ an Earth Mother then this is for you………

Veronika Robinson, Editor and Author describesÂ it as ‘an international magazine of fertility awareness, conscious conception, peaceful pregnancy, sacred birth, extended breastfeeding, natural immunity and attachment pareting’.Â Â

I have just received my lastest copy and don’t know where to start, literally every article looks so interesting..shall I start with ‘Sane Consumerism’, ‘Compassion in the bathroom’ or ‘Less is MORE’ ?Â

There is also a Mother’s Online Community where you can enjoy a cyber cuppa with like-minded people, share advice, wisdom, eco-tips, freecycle and attachment parenting thoughts

Go to www.themothermagazine.co.ukÂ Â Â Â check out their ‘ethos’ I’m sure you’ll be hooked………………..

Social Events

rachel — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:30:03 +0000

The Essex Midwifery Practice had one of our social get togethers today.Â We have regular ‘meet ups’ with our clients both past and present.Â Its a really good opportunity for us to catch up with how ‘our’ babies are doing and to socialise more with our current clients.Â We really believe that by getting to know our women and building a relationship up with them makes for a better birth experience.Â When we get called to a labour it is like attending a friend and for the women - they feel happy that they have someone on their way that they know and trust.

These events are also great for clients to chat to each other about their birth experiences and share ‘tips’ with each other.Â We think its important to have contacts and friends with babies of similar ages to support each other.Â Many friendships have been born between our clients through our social events which we think is great!

We hold get togethers every couple of months and also have a summer BBQ and christmas party.Â It means we never really have to say goodbye when we discharge people!

Tracey

rachel — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:03:58 +0000

If only everyone could have you as their midwives the world would be a happier place! You rock!!!!

I Just wanted to say you are amazing midwives and friends - I cannot even express how much I valued your input into my pregnancy and how much I appreciate your caring attitude and late night facebook chats!Â Because of you guys my pregnancy was so relaxed and even though it was a tough birth i enjoyed sharing it with you.Â I can honestly say that I trusted you with my life and am convinced that due to your expertise and calm brilliance I had the birth I did and not the birth I would have had if I had been in hospital or with less experienced midwives.Â I am sure Sebastian and his shoulders will always remember you with fond memories too!!