A Birth Film For Fathers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVf4rzam0Xo

This trailer looks interesting. It looks like it will be a film that aims to empower fathers to protect their babies and partners during labour, birth and immediately postpartum. Filmed in the US.

Babies hit the Bottle

Any Ideas What's Wrong with This?

http://www.babysportonline.eu/

A gold star for the first person to give me more than one reason why this product is raising my blood pressure!

outrage behind bars

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1184614595/bctid1772034200

New Doula Course for January 09

Linda and I have set dates for our first course of 2009. They will be the 17th & 18th & 31st January and the 1st of February, with a 5th day later on in Feb. We're taking bookings now, but need to speak on the phone to anyone who'd like to explore the possibility of joining the group.

Full details on our website - just click on the lovely artwork over there on the right hand side of this page to go there.

Love to all on this rainy Thursday.

It's September already!

New Month, New Life

Hi, I'm back! Feel like it's been a long time since I was able to sit down at my keyboard and waffle. Since I last posted, we have moved house, the children have started their new school, I've had a tooth abcess and root canal work and Linda and I have started off another group of Developing Doulas, so I've been a bit stressed!

We moved ourselves to save some cash, so I now have muscles I didn't know I had and a shed full of unopened boxes. War wounds include splinters from ripping up the bathroom carpet (WHO has carpet in a bathroom - especially when MEN live there - yuck!!) and various bruises.

Still almost settled now, and the children seem to have had an almost trauma-free transition. My only gripe so far is with the after school club, that makes you pay in advance for a whole term and insists you pay for the children to be there til 6pm. At their last school we paid monthly and could book a 1/2 session just til 4.30, so affordability and cash-flow wise, I think the system worked much better there.

So do I just not use the club and have to tell all my clients that I only work in school hours, or do I come across as the busy-body new girl and encourage them to think again about how they run things? It's a thorny one.

Playground Politics

Talking of being the new girl in the playground - isn't it a nightmare? I'm not the most extrovert of people, and playgrounds can seem soooo intimidating to outsiders. I certainly have lots of empathy with the kids, who seem to be doing much better than me!

Seems like I had the seal of approval the other day, when I was approached by a very tall and horsey-looking woman with a cut glass accent:

- 'Are you the new girl's Mother?'
- Yes, I reply.
- 'Which one is she and what's her name?'
- She's over there and her name is Libby.
- Ahhh, very nice, well done.

I duely felt pretty small and patronised. Still, I've always been mostly comfortable with my plebeian status!

Love what this woman can do - take a look at this:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11866448

Wonderful for educating children - maybe preparing older siblings for being at a homebirth?

Linda and I seem to have successfully put a group together for doula training in September. It looks like we have 7 or 8 wonderful women coming, so room for one or 2 more...

The groups seem to come together in the same way every time - we worry that we won't get anyone enquiring, then boom we get 3 or 4 bookings in a week! I'm beginning to believe that the women who are meant to start their doula journeys with us just find us, somehow.

The women we meet on the course are always so loving and committed to being the best doulas they can possibly be - it's such an honour to be able to give them a helping hand on their way.

Actually, I feel very maternal towards them and can't help worry about them when they get their first clients. Doulaing can be painful both physically and emotionally and I do worry that we just can't prepare our girls for being with a woman in labour for 30 hours straight, only to see her carted off to theatre.

All we can do is make sure they look after themselves too and turn to other doulas and their mentors for support during those dark moments - and celebrate the wonderful births with us too!