We often hear people ask how they can help. What can they do to inform more people and create better options for birthing women and their families?
Originally published in Midifery Today, here is a list of 26 simple things you can do to change birth!
- Get a bumper sticker that supports midwifery and gentle birth.
- Wear a T-shirt that does the same!
- Talk to everybody you meet about what you do and why you do it.
- Be able to cite the evidence for midwifery care, homebirth and so on.
- Offer women free/low-cost experiences of midwifery services (free tours, short talks or pregnancy testing). This can enable women to meet midwives for themselves or bring potential clients into a birth center to see what they could be experiencing.
- Talk to people in an unbiased way.
- Talk to children/school audiences.
- Offer workshops/talks to the public.
- Breastfeed in public.
- Offer to go on local TV/radio.
- Write short articles for local newspapers.
- Write to TV shows that misrepresent birth.
- Create and distribute information leaflets about midwifery/gentle birth.
- Target partners and grandparents as well as women themselves.
- Arrange to have your births listed in the local papers—offer photos on special occasions (e.g., first baby of the new year).
- Enable women to reflect on their experiences.
- Encourage others to reflect on their practice.
- Encourage people to visit your place of work.
- Develop a team of birth change agents in your area, to work together and support each other.
- Ensure that women you know understand the enormity of the decisions they need to make.
- Seek opportunities to speak to teenage girls.
- Be able to lend books/videos.
- Know your enemy and practice his argument!
- Foster a dialogue with women's groups.
- Ask everybody you midwife to tell a friend about their experience of midwifery and about their birth.
- Sponsor a couple of miles of highway—in return for clearing up the rubbish, you can have the name of your practice or group displayed for all to see!
Grass Roots groups like Birth Matters are also a great way to stay up-to-date on the information most relevant to your area, as well as keeping informed about opportunities to take part in community events!
Comments