 What made a midwife, an actress, and a doula/birth photographer decide to come together and make a documentary about Australia’s maternity system Good question. If we skipped to the end of the article the answer would be… care. Three women who knew what the gold standard of care is for pregnant and birthing women… and between them having delivered it (the care, of course, not the babies- they were birthed), having been on the receiving end of it, and in my case, as a doula, having witnessed all of the alternatives. Rewind to 2008 when Jo Hunter co-organised the Sydney Homebirth Conference and the Australian premiere of the documentary, the Business of Being Born (BoBB). Whilst the BoBB was a game-changer of a film, it was American and therefore a lot of people dismissed it as being irrelevant to us. Creating an Australian birth documentary was an idea and a pipe dream in her head. Fast forward to about 2015 when Jo and I met and became friends, she told me of her idea and showed me a homebirth film from the 1980’s called Labour of Love. The film was funded by the ABC and was a quaint, simple and quite delightful film which followed three homebirth midwives in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. It seemed like such a good resource to share in regards to birth, and particularly homebirth, but as lovely as it was, it was very dated (including lots of lovely pubic hair!). So we started dreaming of the possibility of making Labour of Love II. A current, Australian birth film. We went so far as to get permission from the filmmaker to do this (although she was slightly bemused that we wanted to go to the effort of making a homebirth film - having been there herself and knowing the time, money and effort that goes into such a thing). We became a little perplexed by how on earth we would go about making a film between the two of us, so the idea remained a dream. Later that year Zoe Naylor booked Jo to be her midwife for the birth of her second baby in 2016. Zoe had birthed her first baby in hospital and this time was looking for care with more depth. A little closer to the birth Zoe also called me - as she had decided she wanted to have her birth filmed. She was germinating an idea about a TV series and wanted to have the footage available to use for that. The birth team was set. Zoe’s birth of Beau was a magical evening and she was astounded by how different she felt having received true, one to one continuity of midwifery care. In the conversations that followed, Jo showed Zoe The Business of Being Born, and told her of our dream to make an Australian birth documentary. Zoe was in. Together we decided it was time to find out why so many women were coming out of their births traumatised, why birth related PTSD is on the rise, and why we have a postnatal depression epidemic. At this stage I was in the second trimester of my first pregnancy, so what better trio to start making a documentary - a newborn mother of two, a pregnant woman and one of Australia’s busiest homebirth midwives. The urgency was real. The mission became clear...to ask the question- what would it take for women to emerge from their births physically well and emotionally safe? I had cameras which were enough to start filming, so we bought sound and lighting equipment, learnt where the ON buttons were and hit up Hannah Dahlen to be our first interviewee. By this stage I was 35 weeks pregnant and Beau was 4 months old. Our timing could not have been better… in two weeks time the Normal Labour and Birth Conference was coming to Australia, and Hannah was organising it. Jo and I were to be attending the conference and after her interview Hannah said, “If you’re really making this documentary you need to make the most of these people being in the country. I will connect you with anyone you want.” We flew into action, Hannah played cupid and we found ourselves for the entirety of the conference in a private room, with the likes of Lesley Page, Sheena Byrom, Soo Downe and Melissa Cheney rotating through to share their expertise. This was October 2016. One week later I gave birth to my first baby, at home, with Jo as my midwife. Hands down best day of my life. We had about a 6 week hiatus and from there things snowballed. We were back at it-interviewing whoever we thought could lend their opinion to answer our burning question. We fitted these filming sessions in between birthing women, young families, running businesses, writing a thesis, speaking at conferences and many, many other things. We spoke to the likes of Sarah Buckley, Rachel Reed, Rhea Dempsey, Nicky Leap, Pat Brodie, Andrew Bisits, Andrew Pesce, Kirsten Small, Jane Hardwicke Collings, Sheryl Sidery, Bashi Hazard as well as following several women in their pregnancies and births both at home and in hospital, and interviewing many other women and partners. We travelled with our babies in tow, often with one of Jo’s teenage daughters with us to look after the little ones whilst we filmed. We breastfed through interviews, filmed women sitting on their beds with our babies lying asleep next to them, just out of frame, and conducted interviews in Air BNB’s after bedtime with the kids asleep in the next room. Again, the urgency was real. During this whirlwind of interviews, we met Olympian Selina Scoble while in Brisbane. Initially we interviewed her for her story as a 40 year old first time mother with various risk factors, and how she was being treated in the system. But our relationship with Selina quickly escalated and she became a key member of the Birth Time team. She is our behind the scenes goddess who is constantly tinkering away at all the little unseen things- our emails and website, accounts and merchandise as well as helping to plan and execute our next big moves. Our filming took us to some incredible places, none more incredible than to Alice Springs in July 2018. By this stage our babies were old enough to be left with their fathers for a few days so we jetted off to Alice with the two co-chairs of the Birthing on Country Project- Mel Briggs and Cherisse Buzzacott, to film the story of these two women working together, and to visit Cherisse’s home country. We also started hosting live events, as a way of bringing the birthing community together to boost education, moral, and a sense of togetherness. We have hosted three events to date - Feminism and Human Rights in Childbirth with Hannah Dahlen and Bashi Hazard, An Evening with Rhea Dempsey, and Birthing on Country with a panel of the key players from the project. All of these events are available to watch online through our website. Early 2019 after over 60 interviews, we decided it was finally time to draw a line under the filming side of our project and start to carve this body of work into something digestible. It was decided that our beautiful friend and honorary sister Ryan Harrison and i would take on the first pass of this mammoth task. Ryan and I spent the next 5 months locked in his studio bachelor pad with his dog, Biscuit and lots of dark chocolate, watching and scribing every single interview, and pulling together themes and threads which ran through 2.5 years of interviews. At times it felt like an insurmountable project, but by the end of the 5 months we had a 1 hour 45 minute film which was so dense with information, it felt like being hit over the head with a baseball bat. Simultaneously while this was going on, Zoe was on a fast learning track of the executive producers role. She threw herself into learning the ins and outs of the film industry from the angle of funding and government tax offsets- otherwise known as “how the hell you find enough money to finish a film”, because post production in films is the money equivalent of a postpartum hemorrhage. Since then we have agreed on, and then pulled out of a deal with a post production house, and as well as never quite agreed on and consequently pulled out of a distribution deal, all because we weren’t feeling respected and listened to, and they wanted more than we were willing to give. We have likened our experience to a birthing woman in the system more than once in this process. In October last year we revisited the hour forty five baseball bat of a film- Zoe, Jo and I locked ourselves away together for 36 hours and re-edited it to a much more palatable 1 hour 20 feature length documentary. We call Jo our Captain. Our chief breath taker. Whenever we need direction on something, whenever we need a decision finalised, we turn to her. Her wealth of knowledge having worked as a birth worker, activist and private midwife for over 20 years has been the bedrock of this project. Being held in such high regard in the birth world is what has given us access to the incredible array of people that have come on board our project. Through Zoe’s wizardry on the finance and relationships front we have landed ourselves in the incredible hands of Spectrum Films at Fox Studios for all of our post production, we have original animation and composition created by amazing artists, we have a new distribution deal and our film will be finished next month. And then comes the slightly heartbreaking part of the story- which someday we are sure will be viewed as simply a bump in the road… we were set to release our film at the end of April, tour the country with screenings and Q&A’s in 13 locations, and start the next chapter for what we have planned to change the landscape for birthing women. But alas, the world has ground to a halt. So, like any good midwife would, we sit with what is, not with what we want to be (thank you Jane Hardwicke Collings) and we wait for when this baby of ours is good and ready to be born. To stay up to date on all things “Birth Time” make sure you head to https://www.birthtime.world and sign up to their newsletter, get shopping or make a doantion.
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 Homebirth NSW
How are you going? We truly hope you are well, safe and breathing a sigh of relief as restrictions ease a little. Been missing those cafe babyccinos? Maybe your kids have created SO MUCH ART and there's no more fridge door room for their creative genius. Well, good news, we want your kids' art! KIDS ART COMPETITION Is your child the next Picasso? Fancy their artwork being the cover of our next Birthings Magazine? Of course you do! What an incredibly beautiful keepsake it would be to have your own child's drawing, collage or painting of your family's homebirth as the cover of our timeless Birthings Magazine. Surely that's a future family heirloom, am I right?! Not to mention, the money we raise will go towards our efforts in advocating for ease of access to homebirth. It's all about intrinsic motivation these days, and what more reward would a kid love than having their artwork gain them fame by it appearing on an awesome magazine? Wait, maybe that's extrinsic motivation, oh well! Better than ANOTHER Bluey sticker book. All entries by gold coin donation via Paypal to [email protected] SUBMISSIONS BY 01 SEPTEMBER 2020 Send artwork to [email protected] Did you know that last week was National Volunteer Week? Here at Homebirth NSW, we are all volunteers who work hard and devote our time to changing the limitations and restrictions women face when it comes to choosing a homebirth. The theme of Volunteer Week was 'changing communities, changing lives'. The options available to families and the way women feel about their birth experience is foundational to building communities and changing lives! Homebirth NSW wanted to offer a huge thank you in particular to the incredible Virginia Maddock for her 11 (and a quarter!) years of dedication to our committee. As Virginia leaves our management committee, she has been presented with a lifetime membership with Homebirth NSW! Thank you so very much, Virginia, for: • taking on almost every different committee position at different times • attending and organising numerous rallies • being involved with sooo many Birthings magazines • running stalls at various conferences and events ...and much much more! Virginia runs her own amazing business too and you can check out all she offers here: Natural Beginnings - Holistic Health, Doula and Placenta Services. Our advertisers and partners - Your logo could be here! Advertising with us is a great way to support homebirth advocacy whilst reaching a wider audience for your business! To find out more about how you can become an advertiser, friend and/or sponsor, simply reply to this email and we will send you everything you need to know! Homebirth Q & A - We recorded it! Did you miss out on the amazing opportunity to listen in or ask your questions at our Homebirth Q&A session? Now you can check it out at whatever time works for you! We have it recorded and ready for you, just click here. Two highly experienced, wonderful privately practising midwives speaking all things birth in the comfort of your own home? Did your Sunday just get a million times better or what?! Join Janine O'Brien and Jo Hunter as they share some invaluable insights! Janine and Jo answer all the homebirth questions you could think of! I learned so much from listening to this! Thank you so much to our members for being a part of our community and supporting our advocacy work! We can't wait to see the beautiful homebirth artworks your kids create. Stay safe and reach out to us if you have any questions at all about homebirth and Homebirth NSW. Claire Heenan (Communications) Homebirth NSW
Your voice matters. Your experience in choosing where to birth matters. Your responses to our survey are a step towards advocating for what birthing families want. Have your say & help expand homebirth services nationally We have a game-changing, short survey live now, and would love it if you could add your voice. Please click here to tell us about your experience accessing and planning a homebirth in your area, wherever you are in Australia. Whether you ended up choosing a planned homebirth or not, your response matters! We want to hear from anyone who has actively considered a homebirth in the past, even if you didn't ultimately choose homebirth. We're interested in exposing the limitations and barriers to homebirth, as well as any perceived shortfalls of the hospital maternity system versus homebirth. We'll use the results to highlight the issues in our advocacy efforts, working towards more choice and more availability of homebirth for women and families in all parts of Australia. That's gotta be worth 10 minutes of your time, right?! By telling your story through surveys like this we hope to see:
Thanks for participating, your responses are deeply valued: click here! Claire Heenan (Media & Communications) and Kathryn Bell (Secretary & Intern supervisor) Birth is the labour of unconditional love. It is a transformative experience for both mother and baby. It is a time when mum has to go deep into her instincts and bring her baby into the world. It is the experience of a Goddess warrior.  Photo courtesy of Lora @rnr Creative After birth, the mother is in a very vulnerable state. Mum’s psycho-physiological state is as delicate as her newborn’s. In Ayurvedic medicine, it is explained that after childbirth the mother's physiology is going through a natural reset process to embody her ideal health for the years to come. It is a time when she needs proper support for her healing and rejuvenation to take place. Ayurveda is an ancient, holistic practise that has existed for more than 5,000 years. It is known as the sister practise to yoga. Yoga is the path towards self-realisation and ayurveda is the path of health and well-being. Together, these practises can bring so much love and harmony into one's life. According to the ayurvedic medical texts by the sage Shushrut, women are in an exceptional window for the first 42 days after childbirth (extended by ten days to 14 days if there was surgery). This window, also called the ‘Sacred Window,’ is a time where the mother's nervous system is like a flower; very delicate and sensitive to the environment. The sacred window is the time for the newborn mother to be nourished and nurtured so she can offer the most exceptional ability to love and serve her baby. It is a time for extended bonding with the baby and deep rest and rejuvenation. Why 40 days? "The first 40 days will impact the next 40 years to come" Ayurveda explains that it takes around 40 days for the essence of food to become Ojas (the juncture between consciousness and matter which is enlivening and regenerative), and for all of the seven tissues to be rebuilt properly (plasma, blood, muscle, fat, bone, marrow, and reproductive). After childbirth, this is the time for the mother to rebuild her tissues and establish health and well-being for the 40 years to come. What is mum’s Dharma? Dharma is one’s purpose in this life; one’s mission. The dharma of the mother is to go through labour to bring her baby into this world. After labour, it is mum’s dharma to nourish, protect, and love her baby. So in ayurveda, there is this special window to nurture mum so she can be there for her baby and serve them in abundance of love. What is happening during the ‘Sacred Window?’ During this time, mum's digestive fire is very depleted, creating difficulty in digesting food, life, and emotions. During and after childbirth, mum's body is experiencing different sensations such as pain, inflammation, and abdominal space. From the ayurvedic perspective, these all increase the ether and air elements within the body and mind, which can lead to mum feeling unsupported, bloated, empty, anxious, and with loss of appetite. What is happening with the hormones during this time? Right after birth, mum is filled with oxytocin and her heart with love. She is naturally radiating a divine glow. But around the third day postpartum, when the hormones drop and the milk comes, mum can start to feel overwhelmed, tired, and anxious. During this time, proper postpartum care is essential for the mother to have appropriate support and loving care. What are some of the practices to nourish mum? - Abhyanga: warm oil massage over the body - Belly binding - Ayurvedic herbs to enhance the healing process - Warm and nourishing foods - Rest - Warm showers - Sitz bath - And much love and care What is the benefit of Abhyanga and belly binding? Oiling the body in Ayurveda is called snehan. In Sanskrit, the word snehan means oil as well as love. It is the practice of loving our bodies and falling back in love with the God of our hearts. "This is a clear message of love, honor, and appreciation for your body" - Myrica Morningstar After childbirth, vata dosha (ether and air elements) is aggravated, and it needs genuine care and attention for the mama to have balanced health and to be able to recover and cultivate her strength. The oil recommended for the mother is black sesame or bala thailam (medicated oil) to help the nourishing, cleansing, and healing process. Belly binding is an ancient practice for postpartum mothers. It gives the newborn mother a feeling of groundedness and helps the organs come back into their proper place. Ideally, belly binding is practiced from the first day of delivery. For caesarean birth it is essential to wait so that the scar heals appropriately (4 to 5 weeks). What is the postpartum diet? Ayurveda has specific guidelines on mothers' postnatal diets. The food for the first three days should be peya (soupy rice) with panchakola (medicated) ghee and plenty of iron-rich sugar, low salt, and digestive spices. This food will allow mum's digestive fire to rest and reset. It will also give mum time to digest everything that happened and for her heart to fully connect with her baby. Ayurveda recommends slowly increasing the thickness of the food and gradually adding some cooked veggies, as well as some legumes like mung beans or red lentils. Ayurveda also recommends that the newborn mother must have warm spiced milk at night, which will help with the quality and quantity of breastmilk. For more information on Ayurvedic postpartum recipes check out “Healing recipes to Nourish the Newborn Mother” at www.soma-shakti.com.au. Mama’s spice milk recipe: Bring milk to a boil three times if you have the time with spices (cardamom, clove, black pepper, saffron, black cardamom and fennel; limit cinnamon until mother’s bleeding is under control), iron-rich sugar and a teaspoon of ghee (you can use oat milk instead of cow's milk). Final Word Food is one of the essential factors for mum to heal appropriately and for her milk supply to be consistent. A proper diet will also protect mothers from anxiety or postnatal depression. Currently, one in every seven women who give birth in Australia experiences postnatal depression. This a significant number of newborn mothers having difficulty in connecting with their babies and with themselves. A newborn mother needs to have proper support around her. I truly believe that planning a postpartum program is as important as a birth plan. If you are a pregnant mama, take your time to connect with different doulas and find the right postnatal care for you. Daniela Escobar is a dedicated and devoted practitioner of ayurvedic medicine and a yoga educator. She specialises in women's Health and postpartum care. She offers her services in Bondi - Sydney, and online. For more information visit her website. www.soma-shakti.com.au www.autismnaturally.com.au |
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