We Have Lift Off!

September is all about the second edition of The Birth Map: Boldly going where no birth plan has gone before!  Released to the doula community on September 8, during the Doula Network Conference, with much excitement, the book is now available worldwide via blurb (details below), or via my website.  You are invited to The Launch Party in Braidwood on September 29th.  My book now has a place in the National Library of Australia. 

A donation of $5 per book sold in September will support the final push for the documentary Birth Time. As you can see from the thermometer below, we are off to a great start supporting the final push to finish the documentary.  You can help by sharing this post on FB or Instagram and tagging @birthtimeworld.   In addition to this, $10 from books sold at the launch will go towards the cost of the end of year show for the talented young dancers of the Braidwood Dance Studio.

Word of mouth is one essential part of getting a book off the ground.  Thank you for your support here, when you tell people about my book, and the website, you are giving them reassurance of the quality.  Your word has weight.  This is why businesses love testimonials.  It feels great getting the feedback, but it also helps reassure others that this is a good business/book/resource/service/product.  This is especially important for heart businesses, like bellabirth.  There is so much on the internet - it is big.  Mind-boggleingly big!  My website is my 'shop front', but also (i'd like to think) a community centre, a place to gather and find support.  I think of it as a library, with quality resources. 

I imagine, if my website were a building, it is a green house.  Surrounded by greenery - flowers and fruiting plants,offering beauty and nourishment.  Inside, more plants, and cushions and rugs to make you comfortable.  Encouraging you to sit down and relax, picnic style.  The only information I ask is your name, so that I may welcome you.  From there it is up to you to share, or not.  Quietly peruse the library, in your own time.  Sometimes we meet at the park, to get to know each other properly.  If you need Support, it is there for you.  

I encourage forward thinking, and my focus is The Informed Decision, my goal is to help you find Your Way.  It is all about The Questions.  We need to know The Questions in order to make sense of the answers.  The themes that have emerged since the last newsletter have been very much on decision making, the trouble with consent, and taking responsibility for your Journey.  So many awesome conversations are being sparked, and Birth Cartography reflects in all of them!  I am buzzing with possibility and a positive change is coming.


YOU ARE INVITED
On Saturday 29th Sept, at the Braidwood Library (see Map) from 10am - 12 pm.  
October School Holiday Gatherings:  Celebrating Spring with a walk around Black Mountain, and exploring Shallow Crossing.  Meeting Dirt Girl at Floriade?  Maybe you'd like to meet at the Blue Mountains on October 14th?  Where would you like to meet?
See the events here

Book Launch Poster

Taking my book to the National Library of Australia, for 'Legal Deposit'.

STORYTIME: Oh! the Places you'll Go Dr Suess because it is awesome.

I'd also like to share with you Love you forever written by a dad featuring a song he made up after he and his wife "had two babies born dead" You can hear Robert Munsch read his story here.

POINTS OF INTEREST
Queensland's rise in baby deaths sparks rethink

Top Tips from mums to mums-to-be from Lucy Mendelssohn, Sydney postpartum doula extraordinaire!  If you are in Sydney, she has a workshop coming up on October 20/21.  I highly recommend her.  A Birth Map includes your postpartum pathways: Lucy has the knowledge to help you make this transition informed, supported and confident.

This upworthy 'letter to my husband' highlights the importance of communication.  It also touches on issues that Anne Manne tackles in Motherhood.

Defending FreeBirth by Cindy Lever on essential baby.

Exploring Informed Consent, on PPBmedia.org:  A birth story
And I encourage you to listen to the insightful 4 part podcast on Informed Consent  (simply sign up to the newsletter).  This podcast is an issue very close to my heart.

Ted Talk: Transition to Motherhood  Have you heard of matrescence?  This fascinates me.  I heard this word, then saw this talk, I it made sense!  So much sense.  It was likened to adolescence, in that it is a time of change, physiologically.  When we become a Mother, that first time, our brain changes, our hormones shift.  We start thinking differently, what was once important, fades and is replaced by new interests, and previous freedoms are replaced by new responsibilities.  And just as adolescence does not get the respect or acknowledgement it deserves as a powerful time of growth and awareness, neither does matrescence.  The reason mothering a second baby is easier, is the pathways have been laid down, we are not reconstructing our brain, but accessing the switched on Mother brain.    Like riding a bike, or driving a car, at first we are consciously thinking of what we need to do, once mastered: it is second nature!  BUT, I also discovered something interesting: just as with some adolescents, this is not necessarily useful to tell a mum during her first year.  Being likened to a teenager can be received as belittling, talking of physiology can feel dismissive.  This is knowledge we need well before Motherhood.  

Mother (and Journalist) Cindy Lever was interviewed on 'The Morning Show' (in 2017) about how she used Elimination Communication.  I like this interview because she is holding her baby.  

The latest podcast from Circle of Birth highlights the power of informed birth preparation. Jessie talks of the full preparations, of the body, the mind and the various 'what if's'.  This is a story so full of love, insight and joy.  (and thanks to Aly for the mention!  The Fast Birth Pathway is so important!)

TedxUNC: Revisiting Birth, Reviving Death  watch this AWESOME young woman talk about the parallels between birth and death, in the context of decision making and autonomy (agency).

 
NEW IN THE MEMBER AREA DISCUSSION GROUP:
A breastfeeding thread

NEW IN RESOURCES:
a pdf copy of this article by Rhea Dempsey on Understanding Pain Dynamics in Normal Birth
 
MY BLOGGING (new and relevant posts on the bellablog):
The Birth Cartographer's Guide to the Internet  Do you find the internet as confusing as me?  It is rather big, after all.  I mean Mindblowingly Big....

We should be focused on choice, not consent 

Elimination Communication

Five Reasons to prepared for an unassisted birth

GUEST POST ON EVOLUTIONARY PARENTING
Navigating the Motherhood

GUEST POST ON PBBMedia
Why consent, when you can decide?

On my wordpress:  

in promo mode:
More than just another birth book
Discover Birth Cartography

in other news:
How I turned the beast of fear into a friend for life
The beast of fear
It is Spring!