The Waiting Room, Mother & Midwife

30/07/2025

“Because most women actually want to have an uncomplicated vaginal birth, with the national caesarean rate of over 35 per cent, many women feel that their chances of this are reduced if they give birth in hospital."

Home births have doubled in WA in the past five years, but stigma remains, and many women simply can't afford to have one.

03/07/2025

“Our culture encourages us to hover, place limits and keep our toddlers physically safe, while simultaneously pushing them into deeper, unfamiliar waters where emotionally they feel anything but safe.

Nowhere is that truer than of nighttime parenting.”

It felt easy to be gentle and responsive with a baby, she said. To welcome her baby into her bed. To respond to his cries. To feed him on demand. But then her baby became a toddler. And things started to feel different. Society’s white noise started to resonate a little louder and she felt [.......

21/06/2025

Absolute joy after the wait

Born at home
(photo credit Abbey the Midwife)

13/06/2025

“be responsive to their needs. To pick them up. To hug them silly. To hold them, even if we can’t stop their cries. To reassure them through our actions that our love is unconditional

Do you feel pressured to sleep train your baby so they will learn to "self soothe"? In this post I'll explain why self soothing is nothing more than a myth.

21/05/2025

🟣 Another blog post updated and moved to my website!
This post is about routine vaginal examinations (VEs) during physiological birth ie. an uncomplicated birth without any medical intervention. A VE is a useful assessment in some circumstances, but its routine use in an attempt to determine labour progress is questionable. As birth knowledge evolves, and research challenges the current misdirected approach to labour progress, there is an opportunity to shift practice.
https://www.rachelreed.website/blog/vaginal-examinations-in-labour

14/05/2025

🟣 Another blog post updated and moved to my website!
The research evidence regarding induction for rupture of membranes is poor. Giving antibiotics in labour 'just in case' is not supported by current evidence, and may cause problems for baby and mother. Women need adequate information on which to base their decisions regarding the management, or not, of this situation. Women who choose to wait for labour should be supported in doing so.
https://www.rachelreed.website/blog/prelabour-rupture-of-membranes

23/04/2025

https://www.rachelreed.website/blog/placenta-resuscitation?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR6QVUG5ET8JlBE6b7A34enYSOxnNzTw-iQB98MFDc4gLoR_FLOEAQ-8aa11iw_aem_-2UUTsGr5RNT-JnISzOs2g

This post explains how the placenta helps the baby to transition to breathing and why any resuscitation of the newborn should be done with the umbilical cord intact.

01/01/2025

When your Xmas wish comes true!

Born at home the day before Xmas

Photo credit ‘Abbey the Midwife’
Permission. Given to share photo

14/11/2024

30/07/2024

Here she comes into her mums waiting arms
Photo credit Vanessa Simply Midwifery

29/07/2024

Midwife Liza is busy doing an antenatal visit to this wee girls mum
of course this wee girl needs to be checked too 😁
Liza was there when she was born almost 4 years ago (her mummy’s Midwife)