About Kate
A little bit about ME
“My mission and goal is that women enjoy and embrace their pregnancy for the amazing time that it is, that they approach their birth with no fear only calmness and joy and that their postpartum period is one of rest, restoring and bonding.”
Hi my name is Kate, I am a Mum of two beautiful boys Tallow and Jax. A partner to an amazing man named Nelson, a Registered Midwife and Registered Nurse and a Certified HypnoBirthing Practitioner.
I fell in love with the idea of becoming a Midwife over 15 years ago when I was placed in a maternity unit as a rotation when I was a student Nurse. Whilst there I had the privilege to be a part of a birth. Words fail to describe how special the moment of birth is. It is such an overwhelming, emotional, magical and amazing experience to be a part of and I knew right then that that was for me. After all to be a part of that moment that a couple will remember for the rest of their lives, the birth of their baby, is pretty special and an honour to be a part of. I am now on the other side having had two of my own births both in water, one a planned home birth and both absolutely the most empowering, satisfying, rewarding and incredible thing i have ever done (you can read about Tallows birthHERE and Jax’s birth HERE! But I digress… back to my story of where it began…
I first specialised for 5 years in Emergency Nursing before undergoing a Diploma in Midwifery. I spent the next 10 years working as both a Midwife and a Emergency Nurse as well as becoming a Hypnobirthing Practitioner in 2012.
Becoming a Midwife was an incredibly inspirational experience. It taught me all about childbirth- the amazing hormones involved and just how our bodies and babies work together during this process. From conception, pregnancy to birth- it is an incredible and amazing process. Midwifery teaches all about this process and also centres around the philosophy that childbirth is a normal and natural event. Special circumstances of course do arise and we are trained to recognise these and intervene when necessary but it also centres on the fact that these are rare in the majority of healthy women.
Unfortunately, what I was being taught and what I was seeing in practice was two very different things. The realities of birth today is that we are seeing more and more intervention and labour and birth is being portrayed as something to be feared- it is portrayed as this on TV and even spoken about by well-intended friends.
There is a tremendous amount of fear surrounding labour and birth and we seem to be approaching a time when intervention is seen as something routine when birthing a baby. Caesareans in some hospitals were and are at a higher rate than vaginal births and artificial inductions higher than spontaneous labour in many hospitals. This had a big impact on me. But probably the part that affected me the most was the amount of fear surrounding childbirth and the lack of knowledge and preparation surrounding pregnancy, birth and the postpartum (to which there is virtually none!). We are a culture (Western) that focuses on the negatives and in my experience, offers little in the form of education during pregnancy except for the things “not to do”.
During pregnancy we put the majority of our education and focus into the birth but more often than not this is in the form of standard antenatal classes that focus heavily on analgesia, induction and basically promote the narrative that birth is to be feared, painful and that something is likely to go wrong.
But childbirth IS normal and natural, we are made exactly for this and it does NOT need to be feared. In contrast it can be something we approach with excitement, calmness and knowledge so that in the event that intervention does arise we can make informed and educated decisions.
That is where my passion lies. I believe we need to go back to the beginning and back to basics. To pre conception ideally but if not then early pregnancy. We need to start there with empowering our Mums, Dads/Partners about their pregnancy and the incredible physiological process occurring, how they can optimise maternal and baby health through proper nutrition and the essential role the autonomic nervous system has to play. Knowledge is power and all couples should be provided with current evidence based information. After all intervention sometimes is necessary and lifesaving, but I believe every birth, whether “natural” or with intervention should be one that the Parents still have birth satisfaction. I believe that is maintained when the family feels that they are truly informed and part of the decision making process, not when their decisions are being taken away.
I believe that we have the ability to re write todays common narrative of fear surrounding birth. Imagine if when our children grew up the common birth story was one of empowerment, love and excitement rather than fear. I believe it can be and it starts with you.