Yesterday was the Homebirth Association of Ireland's conference in Dublin and I am very glad I attended. Me and friends drove up early in the morning full of excitement to meet Ina May Gaskin who was to be the keynote speaker of the conference! I would love to tell you about it minute for minute, but I don't have the time so will give a quick overview instead :)
There were a number of people speaking including the wonderful women who organise and run the HBA Ireland (now in it's thirtieth year), parents who had given birth at home and of course Ina May Gaskin. A panel was held to discuss homebirth in Ireland including a variety of women involved in birth (a midwife involved in the set up of a DOMINO scheme in Ireland, another who is involved in AIMS Ireland, a homebirth midwife and new mother, a 4th year student midwife, a midwife involved in Community Midwives Association of Ireland and finally Marie O'Connor who wrote Birth Tides-a book based on a homebirth study in Ireland in 1992). Question and answer sessions brought up some fantastic topics such as VBAC's and HBAC's, why hospitals and hospital midwives are often so unsupportive of homebirth, student midwives gaining experience in homebirth and the 'rules' that disqualify women from the option of homebirth.
How fantastic it was to meet Ina May, such an inspiration to me! Her talks were very interesting and wonderful, she is someone who is great to listen to in person. She spoke about the Sphincter law, shoulder dystocia and the development of the 'Gaskin Manouver', the Farm in Tennessee, historical and other current birth figures around the world, cesarean births, sheela-na-gigs and many other birth-y things :) Sheela-na-gig is a fertility figure that appeared carved over many early Christian churches, especially in Ireland. Ina May described how we can learn from these for supporting birthing women- a calm, smiling, relaxed face with no wrinkles or lines is linked with less tearing. As you can see from this picture the sheela-na-gig's face is smiling and calm and her vagina is opening wide.
One of the other student midwives I went along with went up to Ina May during a break and started chatting to her and of course pulled us over too so we all got to have a little chat with her by ourselves, that was pretty cool! She asked us about our first birth experiences and commented on how lucky we were that they were minimally traumatic. She really understood how student midwives get traumatised and shocked by what we can experience. A piece of advice from Ina May: Write a journal of your experiences and births, write down your thoughts, intuitions and feelings about the experiences you have had into it. She says this because when you have a run of bad days or are feeling fed up with it...you can forget the good times and why you're following this path, by writing a journal you can remind yourself and re-motivate. At the end of the conference I bought her newest book, Midwife Matters- A Midwife's Manifesta and she signed it for me, also snapped a photo of us together! (photo is not the best, but this was my 33rd hour without sleep...)
Also due the fantastic-ness of my outgoing student midwife friend we got tips from a lactation consultant for our upcoming breastfeeding exam (and of course for the rest of our careers!). She was a wonderful woman who had breastfed her own four children and really encouraged biological breastfeeding (mother comfortable in best position for her and baby on mummys tummy), especially when struggling with breastfeeding.
Overall, a fantastic day without a doubt. I learnt so much and felt so happy to be there, as my friend pointed out-when we were there we felt 'normal' because everyone was so passionate about birth, homebirth, mothers and their babies. It was wonderful, I would really encourage you to get to as many birth events as you can and if possible meet Ina May!
There were a number of people speaking including the wonderful women who organise and run the HBA Ireland (now in it's thirtieth year), parents who had given birth at home and of course Ina May Gaskin. A panel was held to discuss homebirth in Ireland including a variety of women involved in birth (a midwife involved in the set up of a DOMINO scheme in Ireland, another who is involved in AIMS Ireland, a homebirth midwife and new mother, a 4th year student midwife, a midwife involved in Community Midwives Association of Ireland and finally Marie O'Connor who wrote Birth Tides-a book based on a homebirth study in Ireland in 1992). Question and answer sessions brought up some fantastic topics such as VBAC's and HBAC's, why hospitals and hospital midwives are often so unsupportive of homebirth, student midwives gaining experience in homebirth and the 'rules' that disqualify women from the option of homebirth.
How fantastic it was to meet Ina May, such an inspiration to me! Her talks were very interesting and wonderful, she is someone who is great to listen to in person. She spoke about the Sphincter law, shoulder dystocia and the development of the 'Gaskin Manouver', the Farm in Tennessee, historical and other current birth figures around the world, cesarean births, sheela-na-gigs and many other birth-y things :) Sheela-na-gig is a fertility figure that appeared carved over many early Christian churches, especially in Ireland. Ina May described how we can learn from these for supporting birthing women- a calm, smiling, relaxed face with no wrinkles or lines is linked with less tearing. As you can see from this picture the sheela-na-gig's face is smiling and calm and her vagina is opening wide.
A sheela-na-gig
One of the other student midwives I went along with went up to Ina May during a break and started chatting to her and of course pulled us over too so we all got to have a little chat with her by ourselves, that was pretty cool! She asked us about our first birth experiences and commented on how lucky we were that they were minimally traumatic. She really understood how student midwives get traumatised and shocked by what we can experience. A piece of advice from Ina May: Write a journal of your experiences and births, write down your thoughts, intuitions and feelings about the experiences you have had into it. She says this because when you have a run of bad days or are feeling fed up with it...you can forget the good times and why you're following this path, by writing a journal you can remind yourself and re-motivate. At the end of the conference I bought her newest book, Midwife Matters- A Midwife's Manifesta and she signed it for me, also snapped a photo of us together! (photo is not the best, but this was my 33rd hour without sleep...)
Me and Ina May with my signed books :)
Overall, a fantastic day without a doubt. I learnt so much and felt so happy to be there, as my friend pointed out-when we were there we felt 'normal' because everyone was so passionate about birth, homebirth, mothers and their babies. It was wonderful, I would really encourage you to get to as many birth events as you can and if possible meet Ina May!
