Heartbeats Birth & Beyond

18/10/2023

Love this!!

✨For those of you who have attended my Calmbirth Classes, you will know that one of my favourite birthing affirmations is this one…

“the power and intensity of your contractions cannot be stronger than you, because it is you."
-unknown✨

📸

13/10/2023

Offered an induction of labour?
Here is a great resource on questions to ask and what to do with the answers given.

What are the best questions to ask if you're offered induction of labour?

As a midwife who has researched and written about induction of labour for more than two decades, I get asked that quite a bit.

Especially as I have a fundamental belief that there is no one 'right' path for everyone.

Twenty years before anyone hashtagged , I was promoting that very idea to women and families.

One size doesn't fit all.

You need to decide what's right for you.

And in order to do that, you might need to ask some questions.

So I have put together this guide to the five best questions that you can ask in order to get more information and make the decisions that are right for you.

I'm also going to tell you what can you learn from the answers you are given.

You can find my blog post at https://www.sarawickham.com/articles-2/five-questions-to-ask-if-youre-offered-induction-of-labour/

There's a link to my website in my bio as well.

I hope you'll find it useful.

03/08/2023

Love this from my fellow Calmbirth colleague. It’s so true.

⁣
•y o u r • b i r t h • y o u r • c h o i c e •⁣
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Or worse…allowing someone else to convince ourselves we can’t give birth.

If there are two important things to understand with child birth first it’s the power of the mind and equally the power of the body.

Understand birth - be proactive, be educated and become empowered. Trust and surrender to your bodies natural processes.⁣
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28/07/2023

Dads can have skin to skin with their babies too 🤍🤍🤍

26/07/2023

Dr Sara Wickham shares and unpacks four commonly-seen vitamin K myths, explaining why some information sources have got it wrong.

16/05/2023

Love this post from Carrying Matters - Dr Rosie Knowles about conscious parenting and building bonds with our babies!!

Building secure attachments isn’t about ticking a checklist of things that must be done (eg how a baby is fed, where they sleep, however you gave birth or even if you gave birth, your gender, your family set up, whether you use a buggy or a carrier or both etc.)

Secure attachments develop when a baby feels

❤️ this person is present
🧡 this person turns up in my distress
💛 this person meets my needs
💚 this person I can trust
💙 this person is my base while I explore
💜 this person comes back
🖤 this person loves me

12/05/2023

https://heartbeatsbirth.com.au/

28/10/2022

08/10/2022

Eating 6 fresh dates a day for 4 weeks before your due date may shorten your first stage of labor and soften your cervix before birth. Eating dates in late pregnancy has also been shown to lessen the need for oxytocin, the medication used to start or speed up labor.

03/10/2022

Spaces still available for Calmbirth Class starting this Saturday 8th October!

01/08/2022

Happy International Breastfeeding Week!!

📆 Today marks the start of World Breastfeeding Week.

Breastmilk is a powerful 🦸‍♀️ superfood. Packed full of antioxidants, enzymes and antibodies, breastmilk sets up a 👶 baby’s immune system for life.

Breastfeeding has many health benefits for mums too!

🙌 Let’s help celebrate and support breastfeeding across Australia this week.

The Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy: 2019 and Beyond, aims to support mothers, partners, family and carers and increase breastfeeding in Australia. For more information on breastfeeding, visit https://health.gov.au/resources/collections/australian-national-breastfeeding-strategy-collection

25/05/2022

Mums … Do you know you have rights that protect you to breastfeed 🤱🏻 in public!!

21/01/2022

SHARE YOUR BIRTH STORY

If you've completed a Calmbirth course and have recently had your baby, we would LOVE to share your birth stories and experiences so that we can inspire other couples who are having a baby during these uncertain times to have a positive birth experience despite how your birth unfolded.

PLEASE send your birth stories and photos to admin@calmbirth.com.au

21/01/2022

Love this great explanation on our Calmbirth classes from a fellow Calmbirth Educator. If you’re interested in joining me for an upcoming class here in Toowoomba, please message me 🙂

When people found out I had a PhD they'd often say something along the lines of, "Wow, you're so smart!" I took a lot of joy in telling them that in my mind, a PhD has very little to do with intelligence, and a whole heap to do with determination 🙌 It wasn't my intelligence that stayed up night after night finishing that last paragraph, that last chapter, learning new statistical programs and methods. That? It was all determination... but I couldn't have done it without some guidance, support and encouragement.

So, when my hubby gifted my daughter and I this puzzle for Christmas, I took great delight in sharing that experience with Willow. The feeling of working on something a little each day until, suddenly, you're plugging the last pieces of the puzzle in 🙌 The recognition that you did that, you finished it 🥳 And yes, supporting and encouraging her to keep plugging away was a big part of that.

Why, you ask, are you talking to us about puzzles and PhDs? Because this has EVERYTHING to do with Calmbirth!

We speak a lot in Calmbirth about how practice makes permanent 💜 How by practising a little each day, plugging away at the puzzle, you can rewrite your beliefs and redirect your perceptions. You can practice your innate abilities of relaxation and visualisation so that you can use these techniques to support you through the birth experience. You can learn more, gain more knowledge, and consequently feel more confident in your capacity to labour and birth in a beautifully, positive way 😍 You can do these hard things with the guidance, support and encouragement of your Calmbirth educator.

The puzzle... it has everything to do with birth in the end 😊

If you're interested in learning more about your own psychology, physiology and incredible capacity to birth, and gaining tools for you and your partner to use throughout your experience, then join us at the next class 🤗 19th and 20th February in Hartley - see the link in my bio for more information 💜