WORKING TOWARDS A POSITIVE BIRTH EXPERIENCE

Author: Liz Uliana

Calmbirth® has been changing the narrative of Australia’s birth culture since 2004, empowering pregnant women and couples with knowledge, confidence and skills for birth and the transition into parenthood.

Calmbirth takes a holistic and evidence-based approach to pregnancy education, supporting the connections between mind, body and birth.

A woman will birth best when she feels safe, calm and private. Calmbirth’s goal is to educate and improve the birthing outcomes for all women and their families, not just physically, but emotionally as well.

Calmbirth leads the way in childbirth education by:

• Normalising and enriching the birth experience,

• Informing expectant mothers of their birth choices and rights,

• Empowering women to work with their bodies, partners and families to create their best birthing experience,

• Helping to retrain a woman’s response to stress by instilling confidence in herself, and

• Encouraging expectant parents to be proactive in their birth journey choices, as opposed to reactive.

Through guided relaxation, the Calmbirth programme teaches fear-release techniques which help to lessen concerns and anxieties about childbirth.

Calmbirth also demonstrates complementary therapies such as:

• Birth positioning,

• Acupressure points for pregnancy, labour and birth,

• Massage techniques,

• Calmbirth breathing techniques, and

• Visualisations and guided relaxations to help reduce pain naturally and prepare expectant parents for birth.

The evidence behind Calmbirth

A recent study by Shand et al 2022 found that parents who attended the Calmbirth programme had lower rates of inductions of labour, epidural use, third and fourth-degree tears, and births by caesarean delivery. Expectant mothers were also more likely to go into spontaneous labour and had higher rates of breastfeeding on discharge from hospital.

These results support the findings from a comprehensive research study being undertaken by Dr Jane Svensson at the Royal Hospital for Women in New South Wales. The study, due to be published in two medical journals later in 2022, shows that the Calmbirth education programme significantly reduces:

• The rate of medical interventions during childbirth,

• The use of pharmaceutical pain relief in labour, including epidurals, and

• The impact of perinatal anxiety, which is linked to postnatal stress.

The study also found the Calmbirth programme enriches the birth experience, irrespective of how a baby enters the world.

Other studies also point to the benefits of techniques such as Calmbirth, showing that antenatal education not only reduces the rates of medical interventions during childbirth, but can also save the healthcare system up to AU$97 million in costs.

The Calmbirth programme is suitable for firsttime or subsequent births; for parents who have already had a challenging experience and would like their future births to be different; as well as for couples who know they will be birthing with help of a Caesarean section.

Find more information, visit: www.calmbirth.com.au