From A Mother's Heart

21/07/2024

Are you looking for continuity of care through pregnancy, labour, birth and beyond? We would love to chat about how we can support you and help you make the right choice with care providers.

19/05/2024

There is no 'one shoe fits all' when it comes to pregnancy and birth and that's why it is so important to be well informed and to have the right support team around you.

If you are pregnant, or about to embark on this amazing journey of starting a family, we would love to chat about how we can support you and help prepare your body for a great pregnancy and a more functional and easeful labour and birth.

01/04/2024

A beautiful reminder as we begin the week after the Easter long weekend.

Don't let circumstances define you or prevent you from being grateful for all that you do have. It's so easy to get overwhelmed in life, especially as mothers, and miss these little opportunities to be thankful for. If you can, take the time to stop for a minute, breathe and be grateful for all that you do have.

We are grateful for you and all that you do.

21/01/2024

10 days ago we welcomed our first 'From a Mother's Heart' baby for 2024 in a beautiful (quick) physiological hospital birth.

We are so proud of this little girl's mama who followed her personalised movement program to ensure she created space for baby to find the best position for a more functional and efficient labour and birth. If you are pregnant (or soon to be) - reach out to see how we can help you prepare your body for birth and postpartum. It's never too late (or too early) to start making changes.

25/12/2023

From my family to yours we hope you have had a very happy and blessed Christmas.

Thank you to all the beautiful families that I have had the honour of serving this year and with a heart full of love and expectation I look forward to those whom I will meet and journey with in 2024.

Hugs, Tracy.

12/12/2023

To all the mumma's who are expecting to birth over the Christmas and New Year period, please keep trusting your baby and your body. Providing you and baby are well there is no reason to feel pressured into having an induction. Dr sarawickham.com continues to shine the light on this hot topic - the good reasons for an induction, as well as the questionable reasons. Be patient, your beautiful baby will arrive at the perfect time for you both.

Are there good reasons to induce labour?

That's a question often posted when I talk or write about labour induction.

It's an understandable question.

I have spent more than twenty years writing about how induction isn't always beneficial.

I've often pointed out that, sometimes, induction is offered or recommended for less-than-good reasons.

Convenience, fear or a lack of trust in the female body.

And many of those who work in birth-related areas see many unnecessary inductions.

They also see the negative consequences that can sometimes result.

So I understand why people ask.

But the truth is that there are some stunningly good reasons to offer to induce someone’s labour.

I've explained that in a blog post, where I have also listed the reasons for induction that I would consider to be questionable.

You can read it at https://www.sarawickham.com/articles-2/are-there-good-reasons-to-induce-labour/

And yes, please feel free to share/repost our pic with our text, credit and link intact. Please don't put my words/work into your own branding.

18/11/2023

My heart is to ensure you feel valued, supported, held, loved and encouraged through your pregnancy and birth. Bookings now open for births due in March 2024 and onwards.

17/11/2023

Am so excited to be studying to become a Certified BRM Pro and working with mumma's to help them have a more functional and efficient birth.

Squatting during pregnancy. I have heard a lot of myths! I have heard everything from "don't let your knees go higher than your hips in the third trimester" to "just do a bunch of squats and you'll be good." Neither is all that accurate.

Squats are amazing and amazingly helpful during pregnancy. They create length the pelvic floor- which is critical to the great stretch of giving birth. They create space in the bottom of the pelvis, which is great for when baby is LOW in the pelvis. Squats also create strength and stabilization in the pelvis- which tends to really need it during pregnancy!

The squat can get too much glory, though. Believe me, I love the squat, but the caveat I like to give is that the squat is NOT the new kegel. The kegel isn't even the new kegel 😉. Honestly, I wish it were that easy, but the body is a complex and incredible system of parts that work together. Think of your pelvic floor as a gear in that system. If you polish up one gear... is the system going to work better? Well maybe a bit, but if the gears don't work together well you've got yourself a problem that can not be fixed by polishing one gear (spot treatments). If we look at the relationship between all the gears and learn how to get them to work together? Boom. That's how we do it!

This is why we at OSM talk about the 5 pillar approach. This targets the relationship between all our parts and gets them working together in a way that creates a responsive pelvic floor, core, and whole system. For pregnancy, birth, and beyond.

Like if you are a fan of the squat! You know I am!

09/10/2023

Thanks for keeping us so well informed sarawickham.com.

On social media, we often see people telling individual stories about their experiences.
Sometimes this kind of information is helpful, and sometimes a bit less so.

But there's another kind of story that I think can be really helpful.

I call these the stories behind the evidence.

The kind of things that researchers like myself learn when we dig really deeply into what's happening.

The stories BEHIND the guidelines, the research and the realities of what happens in practice.

Why do we not have better evidence on the most effective dose of oral vitamin K, for instance?

Well, because it hasn’t been a research priority.

As a result, we only know that the effective dose is somewhere between the dose that was shown to be effective and the dose that was shown to not be effective enough.

That's quite a span, though.

Why don’t we have more evidence on possible alternatives?

Perhaps because those who fund research find it difficult to see outside their own belief. ‘It works and improves short-term physical outcomes, so let’s give it to everyone.'

Why do we still see so many websites which tell women that babies who had instrumental births are at higher risk of VKDB?

Because that was what we thought at one time, but later research proved us wrong.

Unfortunately some people don't check their sources and keep up-to-date and are still giving out-of-date information.

So many stories.

So much that we can learn about the wider context of our knowledge, if we are open to that.

I've written about what I’ve learned in more than twenty years of researching vitamin K.

If you’d like to read more, I have a blog post on this topic at https://www.sarawickham.com/articles-2/vitamin-k-the-stories-behind-the-evidence/

And there are links to loads of other resources and my book on Vitamin K and the Newborn if you’d like to know more.

I hope you’ll find it useful.

13/09/2023

Thinking of all the mama's with baby's in NICU - please reach out if you are needing some extra support - we are here for you x

Octopus teddies aren't just cute; they have a purpose. And I wish I had known about these when Nahla was taken to NICU straight after birth.🐙

Small octopuses and jellyfish are knitted by groups such as 'Octopuses for a Preemie' in such a way that the tentacles feel like an umbilical cord. The octopuses are placed in incubators or cots with preterm bubs, allowing them to grab onto the tentacles. While growing inside your tummy, bub's grab their cord, which this teddy is designed to mimic. As a result, bubs will leave their cords, monitoring lines, and wires alone because they're too busy holding the tentacles.

If you know your bub will be born preterm and you've got warning beforehand, you can ask for one of these teddies and pop it down your shirt. This is to make the teddy smell like you, which will then stay with bub after they're born and go home with them after discharge.

Being a NICU mama, something that pulled on my heartstrings the most was leaving my precious baby girl in the hands of someone else. My heart ached that I couldn't be right beside her every second, singing to her and holding her hands. So having something like this that would've smelt like me and given her comfort would've improved my mama guilt dramatically by knowing that even though we weren't together, a little piece of me was still right there with her.

How beautiful for them to be able to have something of their own that gives them comfort and smells like their mama. Plus, it's also a nice little keepsake to show them when they're all grown up.

Tag an expecting mama or NICU mama in this post, and let's spread the octopus/ jellyfish love for our preterm or unwell bubs in the nursery. 🐙

📸: Calvary Hobart- Maternity page