Re: [ozmidwifery] Privacy, comfort and dignity during birth

[AlisonThrum]

Thanks for your reply. You are right about our perceptions sometimes and this gives me another view of the issue. Alison ----- Original Message ----- From: Alesa Koziol To: ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Privacy, comfort and dignity during birth I vividly remember a young Greek woman many years ago sitting in a corner of the room labouring away totally oblivious to the many conversations in the room. There were  23 'support' people in this room who were really getting in the way and taking absolutely no notice (much to her disgust) of the very important midwife,  who was in charge of all important medical type things . However said midwife on one trip out of the room to fetch some very important piece of equipment actually reflected on the labouring woman and perhaps she had an epiphany because she realised that for this particular woman the noise of her close family members doing what they always did when they got together (talked and chatted in small groups amongst themselves) was exactly right for her. When the young woman started to make very obvious birth type noises, most of the 23 melted away to wait for birth outside the room, leaving just the now humbled midwife, the father of the baby and the two grandmothers. A very valuable learning tool for the midwife, who now really looks at the woman when there are support people chatting and asks herself "Is this bothering the woman?". If not she does not interfere. Cheers Alesa   Who really tries to keep the number of support people below 23 these days:)   Alesa Koziol Clinical Midwifery Educator Melbourne ----- Original Message ----- From: Barbara Stokes To: ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 9:53 AM Subject: RE: [ozmidwifery] Privacy, comfort and dignity during birth Dear Alison, I am a midwife in small public hospital.  It is important to maintain privacy to mothers in labour, quietness and I like to have soft lights.  Reduce the support teams chatter to minimal.  This is sometimes difficult when you get both mother/mother-in – law present, plus sisters and partner:  they all want to chat about everything else in their lives.  The use of a sheet as a birthing cape can help mother form her own world. With the birth of my own babies, I felt the “all fours” position disempowering. However I let mothers chose their own positioning. Barbara   -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of AlisonThrum Sent: Wednesday, 20 July 2005 6:53 PM To: ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au Subject: [ozmidwifery] Privacy, comfort and dignity during birth   Hi I am a midwifery student in Perth WA. I am keen on finding information/personal stories about issues surrounding privacy, dignity and comfort during labour and birth, which may be more an issue in hospital births. If anyone would like to share information, it would be much appreciated. Thanks, Alison