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Hello, and thank you for joining me for today’s podcast.
Whether you’re pregnant, you’ve got a baby in your arms or a child at school. Whether you are a birth worker or an allied health practitioner, you will find this conversation very interesting.
I believe it is important to have conversations with people who think differently, especially those who are curious. People who speak their minds and research outside the mainstream narrative.
Dr. Stuart Fischbein has been an obstetrician in America since 1986. After working in the standard medical model at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, California, he now practices community-based birthing. He works directly with home birthing midwives through www.birthinginstincts.com to offer hope for those women who prefer and respect a natural birthing environment and cannot find supportive practitioners for VBAC, twin and breech deliveries. He is an outspoken advocate of informed decision-making, the midwifery model of care and human rights in childbirth, receiving the 2016 “Most Audacious” award from HRIC.
He has spoken internationally on breech and vaginal birth after cesarean section. He has appeared in many documentaries, including: “More Business of Being Born”, “Happy Healthy Child”, “Reducing Infant Mortality”, “Heads Up: The Disappearing Art of Vaginal Breech Delivery” and multiple YouTube videos discussing birth choices and respect for patient autonomy and decision making.
He still actively cares for pregnant women while teaching hands-on seminars on breech birth around the globe. He has the goals of improving collaboration amongst the differing professions in the birthing world and the re-teaching of the core skills, such as breech and twin vaginal birth, that make the specialty of obstetrics unique.
We’re all walking around with our own perceptions of truth. And we all project beliefs and judgements onto others continually. During birth we often experience this from the system and if we are smart we realise that the pressure is actually on us to find out what we really believe and what we want for ourselves and our babies, so that we can communicate that clearly.
One of the most challenging conversations I have during She Births is informing people that your body is your own and only you can decide what to do with it, even during pregnancy and birth. No one else can or will ever be able to take responsibility for yours or your baby’s health. Certainly no one will even think about it as much as you do, or care about your experiences as much as you do or live with the consequences.
The second uncomfortable truth is that so-called evidence based care is a term that gets bandied about a lot in search of status and prestige and power, but in truth health care varies from practitioner to practitioner. From hospital to hospital. From country to country. So in broadening our awareness and seeing this reality we can potentially explore new ways and craft a unique and satisfying path for us.
In today’s conversation Dr Stu and I explore how the medico-industrial complex is more likely to be influencing the policy and therefore the suggestions, trickling down into advice and maybe even coercion that is given to us during pregnancy and birth.
There are different policies that flow down to us as consumers from the private companies that own the hospital as to whether we are allowed to birth in water for example. An insurance company that covers an OB may be the determining factor as to whether you are offered a VBAC.
We all need to find our own way in life and especially with our health and our birth. We all need to realise that we are all responsible for us, no one else. No one is coming!
We need to do our own research and choose. Just because someone says so, does not make it so for you.
In my experience I love to do all the reading and researching I can. And if I am at the point where it’s a bit confusing and the books or papers are starting to contradict each other I know I’ve read enough. At the end of the day, when I get into bed at night all I have is me and my choices, my inner feeling and my intuition.
Intuition is heightened as a pregnant woman and mother. And that is our theme this season: intuition. Last week’s podcast explained how intuition is the parental brain working beautifully because so many pathways are changing during this time.
Intuition, I believe, is going to be one of the most important and guiding factors we can utilise as we move forward. The brain cannot possibly hold all the information we would like it to, especially in this age of information. We have to trust our innate intelligence and natural wisdom in our bodies and hearts as well and go beyond the pros and cons list or the data sometime. Or even question where that data came from and follow the money.
Right now we are living in an age of disinformation and misinformation, and as the powers that be seem to continually try to confuse us and divide us. We’re going to have to come back to ourselves.
We talk about
And finally my favourite part is seeing this system vs consumers as a Star Wars battle. We also lean into a vision that has hope.
I hope you enjoy today’s conversation with Dr. Stu – sending lots of love across the ethers to you and your family.
It feels like there is a desperate need for more birth support and education right now. To really democratize and hand more power and knowledge back to mothers and partners.
If you feel passionate like I do, and you want to help families have better births then reach out and join me in our upcoming training. Become a wise woman of birth and help others find their own way. I also will be holding a Wise Woman Retreat towards the end of the year.
Oh and I have a Soul Mama Circle starting in the Byron Bay area soon so reach out and join up. You will love meeting like minded people and sharing the journey of intuition reclamation together.
I love hearing from you. Leave us a review, send us an email and let us know what you think and feel please.
Links
http://www.birthinginstincts.com/
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/birthing-instincts/id1552816683
Weekend course dates https://shebirths.com/weekend-birthing-classes/events/
Soul Mama Circle https://shebirths.com/mothers-groups/
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