Midwife Rach

24/10/2025

happy international sweet treat day 🧁🤱🏼

23/10/2025

Australian actress Teresa Palmer snapped a picture of the moment her four children watched her give birth to her fifth baby. 👩‍🍼 SEE THE PHOTOS: https://bit.ly/4h2Bg6d

22/10/2025

🙌🏾

21/10/2025

🤍 Rest in Peace beautiful soul 🤍

To add to HBNSW comments; Unfortunately morbidity and mortality can occur wherever the labour/birth occurs. Thankfully here in Australia we have an extremely low rate of maternal and neonatal mortality compared to other first world countries. Statistically speaking if you are low risk you are more likely to have better outcomes (for Mum and Bub) when planning a homebirth with a known midwife.

21/10/2025

Poolside Bo***es anyone? 💧🤱🏼

29/09/2025

In Michel Odents’ birth utopia he envisaged authentic midwives caring for all women and authentic obstetricians making themselves available to women and midwives on an ‘as needed’ basis if/when the clinical situation required it

Michel saw that obstetricians were becoming under skilled in dealing with complexity and emergency because they spent too long trying to monopolise the care of all pregnant and birthing women instead of focusing on authentic obstetric skills.

Get the full story podcast ep. 166 Ode to Odent.

I’m exploring the hierarchy of power within medicalised maternity care as I explore the idea of ‘medical gate keeping’ for an upcoming podcast episode and book chapter. Watch this space

28/09/2025

⚡️Lightening Crotch ⚡️

An annoying & painful random twinge or sharp shooting pain that occurs in pregnancy.
It’s often caused by the baby moving around and down into your pelvis & thus compressing nerves within the v***a and pelvis. The sharp shooting pain alone isn’t a cause for concern.

A check in with your midwife or a women’s health physiotherapist can help alleviate your concerns as well as help you with management of this annoying pregnancy symptom.

27/09/2025

What to expect during a home visit 🏠

- Me, the same midwife each visit (aren’t you lucky?!)
- Casual & relaxed (pls don’t worry about the mess or getting out of your pjs! I honestly won’t mind!)
- Longer appointments (so you don’t feel rushed)
- Maternal & Baby Health Checks (I bring the clinic to you)
- Pregnancy, Birth & Postpartum education (ask me anything!)
- Emotional & Psychological Support
- Family involvement (yes, even the dog too!)
- Referrals for bloods & scans (if needed)

27/09/2025

I have witnessed a few beautiful births using forceps in my time and many that have made me wish forceps were no longer used.

In my birth debriefing work, I often meet with women either postnatally or during their next pregnancy and they’ve experienced a prolapse or avulsion and weren’t aware of the higher chance of these occurring with forceps.

Being informed about this risk in pregnancy is essential and impacts how your birth can unfold and how you feel about it after.

My top tips for decreasing your chance of forceps:

• Avoid the cascade of intervention -> this starts in pregnancy with non evidence based ultrasounds, vaginal examinations and inductions booked from fear rather than evidence. A “big baby” is still not an evidence based reason for induction according to our national and international guidelines.

• Avoid induction

• Avoid internal examinations -> these lead to you being diagnosed as “fully dilated” or worse “nearly fully dilated” and encouraged forced pushing as opposed to waiting for your pushing mechanisms to kick in once baby is low enough in your pelvis to actually be birthed with ease.

• Avoid epidural which leads to the above.

It’s easy to say in an IG post to “avoid”. I want to acknowledge all that surrounds decision making and maternity care.

My biggest tips to support the above (if possible acknowledging the issues with accessibility to these) are:
• have a doula
• have a private midwife that’s aligned with your philosophy, or continuity of midwifery care with a known midwife
• plan to birth at home

I hope this post brings information that helps you. This isn’t about driving more fear it’s about knowing the risk and making a full body decision that feels right for you and your family. Acknowledging that this is unique to you and the tips I’ve shared above want feel right for everyone.

If you’d like some 1:1 support please know we have an epic team of midwives and physiotherapists that would be honoured to support you (sessions are online).

NB: ‘All types of prolapse’ refers to cystocele, uterine and rectocele.

(Zhu et al., 2018)

23/09/2025

Interesting 🧐

23/09/2025

Not to get too political here but Trump’s recent claims about Paracetamol in Pregnancy is pretty absurd 😓😒

**Please speak to your care provider and pharmacist if you are wanting to take medication in pregnancy or have any concerns about medication safety.

The Trump administration has made highly controversial claims about the causes of autism and ADHD, asserting that paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) use during pregnancy increases the risk of children being diagnosed as neurodivergent.

RANZCOG joins leading clinicians and scientists worldwide in rejecting these claims. Scientific evidence shows no link between paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism or ADHD during childhood, with several large and reliable studies directly contradicting the administration’s statement.

The causes of neurodivergence are incompletely understood and remain complex, involving both genetic and environmental factors. Earlier studies raising concerns about paracetamol could not determine whether the medicine itself was responsible, or whether other factors explained the association.

A much larger and stronger study, published in 2024 by Ahlqvist and colleagues, looked at 2.5 million children in Sweden. When they accounted for important factors like family history of autism/ADHD and sibling comparisons, they found no link between paracetamol use during pregnancy and children developing autism or ADHD.

The use of medications during pregnancy should always balance the potential benefits against any potential harms - both of the medication and of the condition being treated - to the mother and the fetus. The Ahlqvist study provides conclusive evidence that paracetamol use during pregnancy does not increase the chance of neurodivergence in the offspring and therefore should be considered safe to use in pregnancy where there is a clear reason to do so.

People who are uncertain about medication use in pregnancy should discuss this with their doctor or midwife.

Learn more in a statement on the College’s website: https://ranzcog.edu.au/news/paracetamol-use-in-pregnancy/