What should I do with my life?
3 Tips for dealing with a crossroads and transitions in life and some help deciding if becoming a doula might suit you.
Nibbling the Biscuits, or, Why I Love Waiting
At the risk of you all getting the impression that I only ever think of my stomach, I am reminded today of the way I used to eat biscuits when I was a child. First, I revelled in the anticipation: just knowing they were there, a whole packet of bourbons or jammy dodgers hidden in … Read more
Use Your Loaf: The Curse of the 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 … Read more
Simplifying the Complicated
Photo by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash Life is complicated. The world is complicated, so that means pregnancy and parenting is complicated, sometimes overwhelmingly so. On a micro level, the million and one choices we have to make every day, the conflicting advice – and the differing needs of all the kids and everyone else we … Read more
Why I Am No Longer Talking About the Medicalisation of Childbirth
by Tracy Sealey I have a confession to make. I am a doula and an antenatal teacher but I am done talking about the medicalisation of childbirth. DONE! For years, we’ve been locked in this endless, circular debate about whether childbirth should be “natural” or “medical,” and it’s getting us nowhere. All we’re doing is … Read more
Babywearing
Dr Rosie Knowles of Sheffield Sling library and author of Why Babywearing Matters Why babywear? There are lots of reasons, not just to encourage our clients to be able to soothe and carry their newborns hands free, but for us to become confident using a number of different types of slings and carriers. When we can … Read more
The Power of Gathering
It’s always been part of us, this alchemy of groups. Something, bigger than the sum of its parts, happens when we gather. Together is a word that resounds with the feeling of connection. To-gather, a doing word full of intention and anticipation; a longing for the profundity and sacred nature of a group. In over … Read more
