Dr Rachel Reed
midwife • author • presenter • researcher
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I'm having an intermission for week or two. In the meantime you can contact me via email or my website (link in bio).The audiobook version of Why Induction Matters is now available from Audible and iTunes Books.One of my mottos cross-stitched in cat font. What a perfect gift @drsarawickhamLet's face it, we all have egos and some of us like to be needed. As careproviders we must keep an eye on ourselves and our actions/agendas. A woman's birth is her rite of passage. It is not an opportunity for us to meet the needs of our ego, or worse use for self-promotion.Old black cat was not cooperating with the photoshoot - apologies @drsarawickham.Missing my partner in (thought) crime @midwife.dr.clare. So happy we got to hang out before lockdown and quarantine. Photos = Clare being impressed with my trot-stumble route but unimpressed with my pace. She went for a 'proper run' the next day. + Noosa National Park after I trapped her finger in the car door to slow her down.
Archived by the National Library of Australia and Partners
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Recent Posts
Top Posts
- Gestational Diabetes: beyond the label
- Post-Dates Induction of Labour: balancing risks
- The Anterior Cervical Lip: how to ruin a perfectly good birth
- The Curse of Meconium Stained Liquor
- Shoulder Dystocia: the real story
- Amniotic Fluid Volume: too much, too little, or who knows?
- Pre-labour Rupture of Membranes: impatience and risk
- Nuchal Cords: the perfect scapegoat
- Supporting women's instinctive pushing behaviour during birth
- In Celebration of the OP Baby
Tag Archives: birth
Birthing the Placenta: women’s decisions and experiences
We have just published new research findings. You can access the full journal article free here: BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth There has been a lot of research exploring the outcomes related to interventions during the birth of the placenta. I … Continue reading
Posted in birth, midwifery practice, publications
Tagged Australia, birth, midwifery, placenta, research
9 Comments
Understanding and Assessing Labour Progress
Updated: October 2019 I have previously written about how the current framework for understanding and assessing labour progress is inaccurate, not supported by evidence, and fails to incorporate women’s experience of birth. This post is in response to readers asking … Continue reading
Posted in birth, midwifery practice
Tagged birth, contractions, labour pattern, oxytocin, pushing
15 Comments
Childbirth Trauma: research findings
A big THANK YOU to all the women and men who shared their experiences of traumatic childbirth for Christian Inglis’ Honours study. There was so much data that Christian chose to focus on paternal mental health for his thesis and publication. Later … Continue reading
Pre-labour Rupture of Membranes: impatience and risk
Updated: July 2019 Amniotic sac and fluid play an important role in the labour process and usually remain intact until the end of labour. However, around 10% of women will experience their waters breaking before labour begins. The standard approach to this situation is to induce labour … Continue reading
Posted in baby, birth, intervention, midwifery practice, pregnancy
Tagged amniotic fluid, amniotic sac, augmentation, baby, birth, contractions, induction, nuchal cord, oxytocin, prelabour rupture of membrances, risk, syntocinon, waterbirth
229 Comments
The Anterior Cervical Lip: how to ruin a perfectly good birth
Updated: June 2021 Here is a scenario I keep hearing over and over: A woman is labouring away and all is good. She begins to push with contractions, and her midwife encourages her to follow her body. After a little … Continue reading
Posted in birth, intervention, midwifery practice
Tagged birth, cervical lip, cervix, occipito-posterior, OP, pushing
442 Comments
VBAC: making a mountain out of a molehill
VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean) is big. A google search for ‘vbac’ results in ‘about 795,000’ results. Reviews, guidelines, policies and statements are being produced by every organisation with an interest in birth. Support groups and networks are growing. I am … Continue reading
Posted in birth, intervention, midwifery practice
Tagged birth, caesarean, uterine rupture, vbac
347 Comments
In Celebration of the OP Baby
Updated: June 2021 How many times have you heard “I had to have an epidural/c-section/ventouse/etc. because my baby was facing the wrong way”? An occipito posterior (OP) position occurs when the baby enters the pelvis facing forward with his back … Continue reading
Posted in baby, birth, midwifery practice
Tagged birth, blame, cervix, intervention, labour pattern, occipito-posterior, OP, optimal fetal positioning, positions
209 Comments
The Placenta: essential resuscitation equipment
Updated: September 2019 The common practice of premature cord clamping has been challenged in recent years due to a greater understanding of how this intervention disrupts the physiology of placental transfusion (Mercer & Skovgaard 2002). Premature cord clamping results in … Continue reading
Posted in baby, birth, intervention, midwifery practice
Tagged ARM, baby, birth, heart rate, intervention, nuchal cord, placenta, resuscitation, syntocinon, umbilical cord
115 Comments
The Human Microbiome: considerations for pregnancy, birth and early mothering
This post was co-authored by Jessie Johnson-Cash and based on her presentation at the USC Midwifery Education Day. The human microbiome is rather fashionable in the world of science at the moment. The NIH Human Microbiome Project has been set up to … Continue reading
Posted in baby, birth, midwifery practice, pregnancy
Tagged birth, breastfeeding, Chris Kresser, gut bacteria, gut microbiota, human microbiome, microbiome, nutrition, pregnancy, probiotic, stress
119 Comments
Perineal Protectors?
Updated: September 2019 Most women will sustain some damage to their perineum during birth (AIHW 2018). Around 50% will have a tear or graze in the skin and/or vaginal wall (1st / 2nd degree). Occasionally (1% of non-instrumental vaginal births) … Continue reading
Posted in birth, midwifery practice
Tagged birth, episiotomy, perineum, positions, pushing, water
109 Comments
