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Midwifery in Eden

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Cairns, QLD
Midwifery in Eden

Private Midwifery Care
Cairns & Surrounds
Antenatal Birth Postnatal
Public Health
Education & consultancy for Maternity represented in creative media.

15/12/2025

A sun halo! How blessed to have this in our skies today Cairns. I have never seen one before, has anyone else?

A sun halo is caused by sunlight refracting (bending) through tiny, six-sided ice crystals in high-altitude cirrus clouds, acting like prisms to create a halo, sometimes with faint rainbow colors.

Spiritually it is associated with divinity, heaven touching Earth.

14/12/2025

I have only ever had henna (mehmdi) done in India and Nepal but yesterday I recieved this beautiful artwork from a woman who migrated from Pakistan. Henna is for celebration and blessing, during festivals or special occasions such as weddings. Christmas is our festive time in Australia but yesterday we were also celebrating a woman becoming a mother.

So often when I get to spend some one on one time with a woman (especially someone from a different culture to mine) I love it when they share their experiences of being a woman in their culture, family, religion, and country.

I was getting my brows laminated in bali (such a bali thing to do) and I spent the hour listening to what it was like to be a 21 year old woman in Indonesia. Marriage, pregnancy, birth, family and religious expectations. She also asked me if I had seen a waterbirth, because a local celebrity had just birthed in water and was receiving a lot of media attention labelling it "dangerous".

When I was in Dehli learning to cook beautiful Northern Indian cuisine I spent 4 hours in a tiny kitchen listening to not only cooking instructions but how it was being a mother of 1 child, living and sleeping in the same room as your in laws and saving up money to pay for the private hospital she wanted for the 2nd birth. Not to mention running the most popular cooking class in the capital of India.

Yesterday I listened to a labour and birth story of a young woman when she lived in Pakistan. In labour she arrived at the hospital in a rickshaw shortly before she birthed.

I value all these stories so much and continue to stand in awe of the work women do for themselves, for their families, faith, and communities.

18/11/2025

After birth bliss. The fresh smell of a baby, an undisturbed cord, a placenta in a bowl, a cup of warm tea and the sound of the morning birds coming from your own backyard.
Here is oxytocin blossoming 🌸

03/10/2025

Can I relate anything to midwifery and birth? Possibly. The juxtaposition of footy and midwifery. I'm a mum of three boys who have thrown me onto world of NRL AND I am a Midwife dedicated to supporting women!

Months of preparation, physical and psychological training, your support team, your supportive and motivated coach and of course the BIG day/s.

27/09/2025

Have you been recommended a CTG? Often women are recommended a CTG in labour for a long list of reasons (BMI, GDM, your 42 weeks etc). It seems simple enough, and it seems like a very evidence based thing to do, to constantly listen to your baby's heart rate. Surely CTGs save lives?

The evidence says they don't. It's not that simple. Evidence does say it increases interventions, including cesarean section birth. Even saying this out loud often brings a mountain of judgement, hence why you don't see alot of these bags being carried around a hospital, and you don't hear alot of people talking openly about the lack of evidence to support CTGs.

What is evidence based is listening into your baby's heart rate intermittently with a doppler by a clinician who understands how to do this well.

I will not write anymore on this long topic but refer you on to a passionate intellectual/researcher and retired Australian obstetrician, Dr Kirsten Small. She has dedicated herself to this topic. She has short courses for women who would like to know more about fetal heart rate monitoring and CTGs, as well as comprehensive ones for clinicians.

If you are planning on birthing in a hospital, whether you have already been recommended a CTG or not it is important to be informed. Things can change in labour and you could be offered one during labour. Know how you feel about CTGs now so you are confident in your decision at the time. This is not a small thing. This could hugely impact your labour and birth.

https://birthsmalltalk.com/about/

26/08/2025

Thankyou Melanie for reminding me of this gorgeous story. Whether you believe this story to be fact or fiction its hard to deny seeing that these two Midwives in Egypt (Exodus 1:1-21) faced exactly the same challenges Midwives continued to face, and still do today.

I wrote a piece on this story in 2017 when I was still a Midwifery student, here is a little snippet:

"What must they have thought? When the current environment around their profession/skill was looking so dire? Stressed? Afraid? Maybe they thought it would be easier to not be a midwife anymore, that way they didn’t have to involved themselves with this ‘situation’, that way they couldn’t get into trouble.
I haven’t worked as a midwife, I’m just studying and learning right now. I see things on social media and on the news, I hear things from other midwives, that make me scared to be a midwife one day, will I just burn out like many others? Will I lose heart about things and just settle into the routines of the building I work within, too tired to try again for change."

2017 me, with 4, 6, & 8 yr old boys, trying to study full time alongside a husband studying full time. I was already feeling the politics and challenges of Midwifery.

I am relieved that I don't read this and cry. I read this and I smile. Because every step of the way I chose to stand up for women and my values, despite uncomfortable situations. Despite many many tears, despite mental health, despite bullying, despite having to change jobs, despite having to move my family (a couple times). Despite hours and hours of lying awake thinking about women, thinking about myself as a Midwife.

It's nice to read a story set thousands of years ago and know this is a story we all share in. Even if you are not a Midwife.

Its a story of doing the thing you believe in.

25/08/2025

Yesterday I pulled out this craft activity which I hadn't used since a workshop at Wallaby Creek Festival in September of 2023. It was the first time in Australia I had stepped out to do something that had nothing to do with any organisation, just myself and one of my good friends (also a Midwife). We sat with a small group of women and talked about being true to ourselves in pregnancy and birth and knowing all the ways we can recieve care during this special time.

Yesterday I sat with another small group of women and we made our felt vulvas. Small things matter. Small beginnings, seemingly small decisions, seemingly small acts of bravery, can all grow into something you dreamed of. Or sometimes its nothing you dreamed of, its even better.

That small workshop was only the beginning of a life out in the wild for me as a Midwife. My female brain is dreaming and creating, and I love sharing that with you.

"Whether it's the birthing room, the bedroom, or the board room... the female brain reacts the same way to stress. Are the signals stoking or diminishing the female desire or creativity... the question of the the female brain is, am I safe here?"
(Va**na: A New Biography. Naomi Wolf)

05/08/2025

"Criteria" is an awful term that has been used to exclude pregnant women from so many choices. Historically, and still today many pregnant women were/are labelled too "high risk" for Midwifery led models of care, certain hospitals, birth centres, homebirths, waterbirths etc.

There is also a misunderstanding that private Midwives only do homebirth, or only care for "low risk" women. There is a misunderstanding that they don't care for women having a CS birth.

Midwives are for every pregnancy, in and out of the hospital. The possibilities and choices you have are likely far more than you may believe.

You deserve all the choices to consider and someone who will explore them with you and be supportive. If you would like to explore your choices with me, I would love to hear from you! Contact me via my contact page on my website (link in bio) or direct email 📧 Jessica@midwiferyineden.com.au

03/08/2025

One of my favourite little people out and about with a Midwifery in Eden tote bag! I don't think anyone could model it cooler.
I love that in the homes I visit children learn what a Midwife is and what we can do. They can also see pregnancy and birth as normal life events that happen in familiar environments instead of always hidden away, in a clinic or hospital setting.
I notice the interest often develops over the course of some appointments. Sometimes children moving from shy and observant, to talkative and excited to participate in the appointment.
They can also tell me quite freely when they think the appointment should be over and I've taken "too much" of their mothers time! 🤣

18/07/2025

In a different Eden, enjoying the sunshine, crystal clear beaches, and time with my family. Opening my laptop for a little bit of "work" today (if we can call it that).

11/07/2025

Annie Harlow birthed her own twins by the side of the road with the help of her husband who cleared a spot on top of a load of wool and put up a mattress for her.
She also supported many mothers in the Blackall region during labour and birth.
In the big wet season when no-one could get to Evora Station and the manager's wife was in labour with her first child, Mrs Harlow, mounted a horse and with water up to the girth of the saddle, rode side saddle to Evora Station on Midwifery duties.
Granny Harlow, as she was known by most, had no hospital training but, she used the gifts she was given to help others in need. She was indeed a grand pioneer.

Here in the Stockmans Hall of Fame is Annie Harlows story. A self made Midwife, fueled by her personal experience of birth and the love for her community in remote Australia during the late 1800s.

Even on holiday my eyes always find the strength of women and midwifery in the past and present. Well over a century later the story of a woman, who appears to have had a simple life, inspires us. May we be pioneering women and midwives in the communities we live in. May we also use the gifts we are given to help others.

Address

Stratford
Cairns, QLD
4870

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://www.midwiferyineden.com.au/

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