Clarice Davis - Midwife

31/01/2023

Who attends your birth is everything Mama ✨

Lip service is easy when you’re choosing your care provider or hospital.
👉🏻”Yes, I support physiological birth”
👉🏻”Everything is your choice”
👉🏻”We don’t force anything here”
👉🏻”We have pools to use”

🤷🏼‍♀️But then you get to your 40th week and they start talking inductions, failing placentas, big babies and the water birth is off the table.

❓So how do you know if your care provider will truly support you in natural birth?

📣Ask for the stats!
And just ask…
❓What is the c-section rate?
❓How often is there a hands-off birth?
❓What is the intervention rate?
❓How many intervention free, physiological birth (including the placenta) happen here?

👉🏻👉🏻𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗺𝗮𝗺𝗮, 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵.

🚩If your OB (or midwife) stats don’t match what they are telling you it’s a major red flag. You can’t expect a care provider to be an expert in something they rarely see.

What questions did you have for your care provider before your signed up with care from them?

☝️and remember, the more you surround yourself with people that believe in birth, the more positively your will view birth!

24/01/2023

My thoughts on siblings at birth ✨

If we are truly wanting to change the culture of birth, children deserve a place in birth ceremony ❤️

For way too long now, birth has been held in secrecy, out of our homes and away from our next generations enquiring minds. 😢

👉🏻In fact children make wonderful birth companions… mainly because they haven’t been witness to years of social conditioning around birth and decades of scary birth scenes.

They come to birth with complete neutrality and wonder. 🤩

There’s many ways you can prepare your child for birth:
📚Reading birth books (Welcome home by .bourke.author)
🎥Watching birth videos
✨Include them in setting up your birth altar
👩‍🎨Create art about birth together

When preparing your child to witness birth there really needs to be zero pressure on you and them and it doesn’t need to be hard. 🙅‍♀️

Encourage their curiosity and let their interest organically unfold. ✨

If you are wanting your child there, go for it mama. 💜

28/12/2022

What an incredible year 2022!
 
It’s really hard to put into words how I’m feeling right now as 2022 comes to an end.
 
I moved to the Whitsundays in January and I feel so held, blessed, supported and encouraged by the community. Thank you, guys, from the bottom of my heart.
 
I think I’ve watched this reel a million times by now and I still choke up thinking about each and every one of the 21 mamas that trusted me in their birth space in 2022.
 
See the thing is, I find this profession very hard to call a job… its honestly a privilege, a calling or maybe just a way of life.
 
Living on call 24/7, with your mobile as an extension of your body, sleepless nights, long ass labours (you know who you are and you are freaking incredible), laughing, crying, wonderment, blood, p**p and amniotic fluid covered pants isn’t for everyone… but it is for me.
 
I reflect back to the first birth I supported as a private midwife years ago and I’ve changed…
 
I can hand on heart say I truly believe in women and I 100% believe in birth.
 
When I first moved here a doctor told me “Every woman is pathological until proven otherwise” but I absolutely know this to be untrue. I know this to be untrue because despite “risk factors”, BMI, GDM, postdates, previous C-section etc women keep showing up and birthing their babies undisturbed.
 
Women, you’ve got this. Trust yourself and your baby. No one knows you two better than yourself.
 
And don’t let anyone else tell you any different.
 
The truth is 99.9% births that I attend don’t need me there and I’ve spent a lot of time sitting on my hands this year and crocheting cord ties, and it’s the way it should be.
 
I’m going to share my stats in my next post… because I want you to know that birthing undisturbed is for you and it’s for ANY woman that chooses to. You don’t have to be skinny or big hipped or within the 37-42 week window. You don’t have to be a 2nd or 3rd time round mama. You don’t need a text book pregnancy or someone to sign you off to say its ok. You just need to be you.
 
Do your research mama.
 
A joy filled, life changing, ecstatic birth is for you too mama.

28/12/2022

What my university degree didn’t teach me about physiological birth 👇🏻
 
1️⃣ The less I touched, intervened, talked, took blood pressures, listened to the fetal heart…
The better birth worked.
 
It’s a learnt skill to sit on your hands, hold space and just be, when your whole career and knowledge is built on “doing” thing and managing women.

Margo from sums this up so well “𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦’𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘴𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘮𝘣 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴”
 
Things I did this year to strengthen this skill:
🤷🏼‍♀️Literally sat on my hands
🧶Crocheted cord ties for baby and wrist bands for siblings
☕️Sat in another room
💦Boiled the jug
 
2️⃣ Did you know that YOU are very capable of “catching” your own baby?
 
🙅‍♀️In-fact I NEVER assume that is going to be my job, and rarely I’m needed to help or do it.
 
There is so many benefits to parents catching their own baby.
💕Increased bonding at birth
🦠No contamination of microbiome
😌Mamas’ satisfaction
💪Less power externally placed
 
3️⃣ When the babies born, step away from the mama… I repeat step away from the mama and for goodness’ sake put the towels down- no one needs to launch themselves at a mama who just birthed with a towel… as well meaning as it is, it’s just not necessary most of the time.

Not every baby is going to need to be “rubbed up” or stimulated at birth- so if we could please stop doing this as routine that would be great, ok? 🤷🏼‍♀️
 
👀Watch, Wait, careful poise. In almost all my births I attend babies, need no resuscitation. So let the mama land, let her have that moments- just her and her baby. Intuitively she knows what to do if she’s given the opportunity. ✨

25/12/2022

It’s really not a lot to ask for…

All I want for Xmas is….

Recognition of womens experiences
Accountability and transparency
Bundled funding
Human rights to be upheld
Political donation scrutiny
And federal and state law reform

22/12/2022

Ring a ding ding 📞😂

12/10/2022

I want you to think of your first memory of surrounding birth 💭
 
💪Was the woman powerful?
💆‍♀️Was the woman being supported calmly?
💕Was the woman joyful, ecstatic, blissful?
 
If your answer was No, No and No… 😫
 
👉🏻Chances are THIS is why you fear birth!
 
I want to let you in on a little secret though 🤫
 
I think humans LOVE drama so it’s no wonder our first introduction to the birth world is that of the media which has saturated our minds with of births filled with:
😲Violence
😢Gore
😱And births that are downright scary.

So it’s absolutely no wonder why our brain turns to FEAR any time we think of birth 💔
 
But Mama… I’m here to remind you today that you’re actually a mammal 🤷🏼‍♀️
 
… believe it or not
 
When we see a doco about a giraffe giving birth, we never once think:
🦒I wonder if her baby is too big?
🦒Has she gone past her due date?
🦒Is her pelvis too small?
 
No! We trust birth, we make the assumption that because they are mammal’s things will just… work! 🙌
 
👉🏻Just as giraffes, monkeys and elephants are mammals… we are too.
 
Mother nature’s physical design is not the problem.🧬
 
I mean, our bodies have been doing a pretty darn good job about keeping our species alive right… only 7 billion and counting. 🌏
 
🫵You, Mama, have the knowledge and the imprint in your DNA to birth.
 
If you want to find out how to unlock the fear around birth… even if you think you don’t have ANY… join my mailing list mama as I have some pretty exciting offerings coming up… 🫶🏻
 
💕My wish is to help mamas like you, unlock their birth knowing’s and step into their power.
 
Link in my bio 🔗

30/09/2022

I feel for all the women in my local area affected by this 😢. I know this is why homebirth is such vital important model of care that women deserve and need. What I will say is that Mackay Base Hospital management has been very welcoming of me offering continuity of care and homebirth in Mackay, so I’m hopeful for change. There can’t be any other way but to improve drastically for women and babies everywhere ❤️❤️

19/09/2022

There’s absolutely nothing worse when you have been working really hard to bring your baby earthside and your care providers says “You’re only 4cm dilated” 😭
 
😵‍💫Talk about deflating!
 
Please understand that in physiological labour this number literally means NOTHING, zip, nada…🙅‍♀️
 
See the thing is, birth is not linear, it doesn’t fit perfectly into an ascending graph.📈
 
You can’t measure it or control it 🎛
 
And you definitely can’t put labour in to a one-size-fits-all box!🎁
 
👉🏻You could be walking around for weeks with a 3cm cervix or you could go from 4-10cm in an hour… there’s no right way for your body to open and release.
 
Knowing where you’re at numbers wise for your cervix will not:
⏰Tell you how much longer labour will go for
🎬Let you know when labour will begin
🏁It doesn’t even predict the outcome of your birth

🤷🏼‍♀️Cervix checks CAN be useful if you want to make a decision regarding an intervention and they do tell you how far you’ve come however…
 
Cervix checks have risks such as:
🦠Increasing your risk of infection (esp. if your waters have released)
😵‍💫They can be an absolute mind bend if you are expecting to be further along
💉Which then leaves you venerable to choosing interventions such as epidurals, breaking your waters and Syntocinon.
 
A skilled provider can use many non-invasive ways to gauge how far you are by:
👀Seeing the purple line that extends from your buttocks
🧘‍♀️Observing your behaviour
🎵Listening to your vocal sounds
 
‼️Just because your 10cm doesn’t mean you’re ready to push and if you need to push you don’t need someone to tell you you’re 10cm!
 
✌️At the end of the day, it’s your body and nobody can put their fingers anywhere without your consent and being X amount of cms during labour doesn’t really mean a lot.
 
⏩Also, in physiological birth cervix checks are not evidence based.
 
🤔Did you have cervix checks in labour? Did you know you can decline them? We’re they helpful?
 
 
 
 

01/09/2022

The increasing medicalisation of birth is not benefiting mothers and babies… but benefiting mothers and babies is the reason medicalisation of birth exist 🤔
 
🫣Did you know that only 43% of women gave birth without a vacuum, forceps or c-section
 
YES, you read that right ONLY 43%!😲
 
Maybe we could accept these facts as beneficial IF there was improvement in our neonatal morbidity or mortality rate… but I’m afraid ladies and gents… there isn’t. 👎
 
😓In fact, the APGARS scores we give babies by 5 minutes are decreasing, showing us that more babies are being born more unwell because our increasing intervention.
 
I’m here to tell you mama… your body is not flawed!💜
 
I’ve noticed there are 2 types of care providers
🏥Medical or Holistic🫶🏻
 
Where does your care provider fit?
➡️Doctor is the Expert or Mother is expert of her body
➡️Fear of litigation or Trust in a woman’s body
➡️Pregnancy as a risk or Pregnancy as a physiological process
Inductions as policy or Physiology protection
➡️Medical event or Normal bodily function
➡️Technology and interventions for safety or Woman centred care for safety
➡️Patient or Woman
 
🚨Sometimes, women WILL need (or want) medical interventions- and that’s ok! I certainly am very thankful for the times it’s been lifesaving.🙏
 
But… you can’t convince me that 47% of first-time mamas NEED inducing!🧐
 
By looking at your pregnancy with a holistic mindset you are:
✨Empowering yourself
✨Connecting with your intuition
✨Growing your confidence
✨Harnessing your power
✨Tapping into your wisdom
 
🧬Your genetic blue print has set you up for success and sometimes we just need to relearn the tools to tap into the map.
 
👉🏻I’m running my next FREEBIE masterclass 𝕋𝕠𝕠𝕝𝕤 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕒 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕓𝕚𝕣𝕥𝕙
26/8/22 @ 12noon AEST
LINK IN BIO♥️
 

01/09/2022

Think you have a low pain threshold Mama? 🤷🏼‍♀️
 
You can STILL birth unmedicated 💯
 
👉🏻Natural child birth is 10% physical effort and 90% mental effort… Now of course these aren’t official statistic but you can see where I’m going. 🤷🏼‍♀️
 
All you have to do is overcome the FEAR TENSION PAIN cycle ♾
 
Prepping for labour and birth is more than:
🧘‍♀️doing all the exercises
👩🏻‍⚕️attending prenatal appointments
📚reading all the books  

It’s mostly remembering all the knowledge held in your DNA 🧬
 
There’s a deep knowing here mama, passed down through woman to woman for thousands of years and it feels like this:
✨Pregnancy joy
✨Complete confidence
✨Total trust and surrender
And it definitely doesn’t feel like this:
😖External validation
😣Doing what your friend did
😩Looking for the negatives
 
👉🏻When you are experiencing pregnancy joy, confidence, trust and surrender you can totally relax
 
😍You’ll glide right past your due date without the worry and you’ll sink in to that calm space even when things seem stressful or overwhelming.
 
🙌Having total confidence in your body to birth your baby takes practice and sometimes this is the first time you have ever had to truly trust yourself.
 
🚨You KNOW birth can be better but do you want to know HOW??
Join me for a Masterclass in The ULTIMATE tools for a 𝔹𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕤 𝕓𝕚𝕣𝕥𝕙…
FRIDAY 9/9/22 @ 12 noon AEST
For $55 I’m going to share with you…
The most important skill I believe to have
Why you fear birth and how to overcome it
What you can do TODAY to change your birth experience
Q&A access to ask me all the questions
ARE YOU READY TO have a Blissful Birth?
Link in the bio ⛓
 
❓What was your best mindset tool you used in pregnancy?
 
 
 
 

29/08/2022

If you wanna…💁‍♀️
 
➡️Have an elective induction at 39 weeks, go for it!
 
➡️Have a Home birth, your choice mama!
 
➡️Get all the full menu of labour drugs or decline all of them, more power to you!
 
➡️Change your care provider, no problem!
 
➡️Decline an induction for advanced maternal age, your choice!
 
➡️Get all the scans or none of them, no worries!
 
➡️Have a VBAC or choose to have a c-section, ok mama!
 
➡️Push in a position that feels intuitive, sounds incredible!
 
✨Your birth plan matters!
 
Remember, Mama this is your pregnancy and you at any point:
🔄Switch provider
✋Get a second opinion
🤔Ask questions
👩‍🏫Research for yourself
✅Make informed choices
 
YOU, Mama are more than a room number in birth suite!💜
 
You CAN choose what’s RIGHT for you based on your INTUITION!✨
 
🙌All your pregnancy care is OPT-IN

25/08/2022

Hospital policy are not rules Mama!
 
Hospital policy are GUIDELINES by which your hospital care provider will offer maternity care, but YOU get to choose which policies you would like to follow. 🧭
 
See the thing Mama is, our modern maternity care has been pathologized, risk assessed and ligation led, which leaves women thinking they have no other option but to ‘Do as their told” 😔
 
And some women are really shocked to find out that hospital Policy is not:
❌Rules you have to follow
❌Laws that can’t be broken
❌Policy that must be enforced
 
Your body is not machine and I’m here to tell you, you are not bound by any policy Mama!
 
➡️ What if I told you there was a different way?
 
🙌 A way where women couldn’t be labelled or put into box. Where they felt they had the knowledge and power to choose what they wanted 🤔
 
❌Maternity care shouldn’t be a tick and flick sheet. We are unique and require a care plan to be as unique as us.
 
➡️ Following the BRAINS acronym in the comments is just one way you can take back your power. YOU can decide what routine interventions you want… or don’t.
 
✨Your body is more intuitive, powerful and incredible then you realise. 💫
 
🙌I am offering a free masterclass this Friday at 12 noon AEST on Tools for a Positive Birth and I’d love you to join me. 💜
 
👉🏻If you are ready to up level your birth, tap into your innate wisdom and take back your birth…
 
Head to the 🔗 in my bio
 
See you in there xx
 

24/08/2022

Birth flows from feminine energy ✨
 
Physiological birth is an act of remembering, when we work with our body, we need to get out of our head… 🧠
 
🧭There is an innate knowing within us, mapped cleverly and divinely within our bodies DNA.
 
Physiological birth has nothing to do with woo or listening to the sounds of the dolphins while your birth support chants or Chakra opening incense but it has everything to do with complete trust and surrender over your body. (Disclaimer: I’m totally down for the above to though😅)
 
💫Physiological birth is so beautiful, feminine and POWERFUL
 
Physiological birth doesn’t take
🙅‍♀️A high pain tolerance
🙅‍♀️A fearless attitude
🙅‍♀️A huge amount of strength
 
But physiological birth does take
✨Total surrender
✨Unequivocal trust
✨Devine feminine energy.
 
Working with your body instead of trying to control it. ♾
 
Physiological birth cannot be controlled
 
It ebbs and flows, 🌊
 
it is ordinary,
 
and extraordinary.💫
 
 

23/08/2022

If your care provider tells you they’re the same thing 🚩🚩🚩
 
➡️➡️Syntocinon (Pitocin) are often branded as the same thing as Oxytocin, in fact the actual vial of medication is called Oxytocin but things couldn’t be further from the truth
 
I once worked at a hospital where calling Syntocinon “Oxytocin” was enforced! No wonder Mamas are so confused by the names and which is what 😵‍💫🥴
 
Sure, they will both give you contractions, but that is where the similarities cease.🤷🏼‍♀️
 
❤️Oxytocin triggers the Endorphin effect (your bodies naturally occurring opiates
VS
⛔️Syntocinon stays only in your blood system, by bypassing this critical effect
 
❤️Oxytocin has its own rhythm intricately balanced for mum and baby and peaks at birth
VS
⛔️Syntocinon creates contractions with no natural ebbs and flows.
 
✨Oxytocin is the hormone of love, its released during s*x, birth and breastfeeding. It’s why midwives will often say do what you love at the end of your pregnancy, to get your oxytocin flowing and to encourage labour.❤️
 
💫Oxytocin is such a magical hormone, its responsible for:
👉🏻Reducing Stress
👉🏻Having a calming effect
👉🏻Making you feel affectionate
👉🏻Triggering your endorphins
👉🏻Reducing pain
👉🏻AND most importantly…bringing on your labour contractions
 
At the end of your labour, you will receive a surge of oxytocin, to help you bond with baby. Have you ever seen the dreamy faces on Mum’s post birth? Oxytocin is responsible for that!🤍✨
 
If there is a medical emergency or the mama wants to be induced and needs Syntocinon, there ARE ways you can help boost your own body’s natural Oxytocin. These are:
💡Dim lighting
💜Feeling safe
🫂Being Supported
✨Privacy
🤱🏼Nipple stimulation
💆‍♀️Light touch and Massage
🎆Orgasm
🧘‍♀️Relaxation

👉🏻What are some ways you have boosted your oxytocin levels in childbirth?
 

27/07/2022

Confession time⬇️⬇️
I once thought home birth was a dangerous choice 😵‍💫
 
⏩Fast forward 16 years later, 1 midwifery degree, prescribing medicine endorsment and a couple hundred home births later I can safely say…
 
WTF was I thinking 🤦‍♀️
 
Don’t worry I’ve heard it all… believe me!
🙄”Only hippies birth at home”
🙄”OMG, home birth is so dangerous!”
🙄”I think women that birth at home are so selfish”
🙄”It’s not even legal to birth at home”
 
🤷🏼‍♀️And a million other ridiculous statements towards women that choose to birth at home.
 
But, I’m guessing if you’ve found this page and you haven’t hit unfollow yet, you probably already know I’m a loud-mouth advocate for home birth mamas, but what you might not know is firstly, I’m just a straight up advocate for ALL mamas!💪
 
See the thing is, home birth 🏡 definitely isn’t the right choice for all women, but neither is hospital.🏥
 
👉🏻And when you’re choosing the place you want to birth at… just know that birth place 💯 matters, just by PLANNING a home birth you are increasing your chance of a vaginal birth.

There’s risks in home birth and there’s risks in hospital birth, only you get to choose what’s right for you. 🫵
 
🙌There’s so much evidence out there now… available to anyone… on the safety of home birth.
 
By choosing to birth at home there is:
👇🏻Reduced chance of vacuum, forceps or c-section
👇🏻Reduced chance of having a post-partum haemorrhage
👇🏻Reduced chance using an epidural
 👏🏻And with NO increased risk to your baby!
 
♥️The most important factor in where you give birth is that you feel safe and supported whether that’s a home, hospital or even a birth centre.
 
And where ever you choose to birth you have my total support, my advice is don’t try to change the nay-sayers opinions or let them change yours! 🗣
 
It’s your body, your baby, your birth!👏👏
 
How did you choose your place of birth?

🤰🏼the one and only .deans
📸 the magical