Debs Neiger: Birth Confidence Summit
Debs' Bio
I'm Debs, I'm an independent midwife in the North of England. working with the Yorkshire Storks Midwifery Collective I came to independent midwifery 16 years ago, after the birth of my first child, supported by independent midwives and after feeling utter disillusionment while working for the NHS. I thrive on relationship-based midwifery with honesty and authenticity and helping women enable themselves to make the right choices for THEM without fear or coercion, be that a freebirth or an elective caesarean.
Here is Debs Guest blog - The Oxytocin Quandary on Blood to baby website that I reference in the interview. An interesting comparison of our natural oxytocin and artificial oxytocin as used in the induction process.
Here is a video about the Fetoscope as Debs didn't have hers to hand.
Time Stamps:
Debs started working as an independent midwife whilst on maternity with her first son.
3.32 Postnatal care is invaluable and Debs really appreciated this with her independent midwife.
6.00 Debs shares her reason to choose home birth and how the birth went.
10.00 Fascinating to experience birth from the other side and to feel what was going on insider her body.
11.08 Debs shares her second child's birth story.
15.18 Trusting your own intuition and knowing what to do. Debs actually broke her own waters!
17.30 When do you call the midwife? Debs tells you might get it wrong and that’s OK as there is no hard and fast rule. Don’t go by the numbers as there is lots variance in numbers and in women and in different pregnancies
24.30 Debs explains what a fetoscope is and how she uses it to check babies including their position. A skill that we are losing that is very useful.
33.40 Debs shares her bafflement that half of women are not deemed capable of starting their labour spontaneously and how this is not what she sees in her own practice where induction is rare. Plus striking a balance on having important nuanced conversations to support a woman to make choices.
43.45 Supporting a Vbac for Debs is kind of a non issue as support with physiology of birth and choices is just as important as for anyone else and if it is not going well there would be warning flags that pop up.
47.00 Debs discusses respect versus trust for birth.
49.59 We need to see women as more than just a vessel to give her the best care.
55.00 How helpful it is for both women and care providers to be very direct and say what you need and what you want.
