With sadness I must announce that the Rebozo For Comfort Measures Classes I was to be running while down in Victoria have been cancelled until further notice due to the current Pandemic Restrictions that have been implemented because of Covid-19.

I won't lie by saying that I'm not disappointed, because I am very disappointed, and there are others that I know will be very disappointed too.

Here at Footprints & Rainbows I take your health and well-being very seriously, and while I am not sick, and no one in my family is either, I do not want to risk anyone else potentially becoming sick during a class.

I will be postponing these classes to another time, when everything has calmed down and travel is back to normal and I can safely travel interstate without worrying.

For those who live in the Brisbane and Brisbane North Side areas I am still available to do 1-on-1 in person Rebozo Classes - you can find the details on the Packages & Prices Page.

As a result of this decision I will now have more Rebozo's available for sale. Each Rebozo is individually packaged and is not handled directly as a result. I have, prior to the escalation of Covid-19 to Pandemic status, already wiped down the packaging with bleach and disinfectant wipes as part of my standard practice in keeping my own family safe from potential germ transmissions and will do so again before any are posted out. I will also recommend that those who purchase them wash your Rebozo's on a hot (60 degrees Celcius or higher) wash cycle before you use them just as a general precaution.

I will update the Facebook Page at some point this week with what quantities are available in each colour/pattern when I have a free moment away from my children and the usual housework

In the mean time, practice universal precautions (thorough handwashing, staying away from people if you are sick etc), rest, relax and don't give in to the urge to panic buy (seriously, I couldn't even buy our usual fortnightly purchase of bread, 2-Minute Noodles, toilet paper and pasta yesterday because of the greedy panic-buyers who emptied the shops! I am so glad that we have enough meat in the chest freezer to last until the end of April if self isolation becomes mandatory and can scrape together enough filling - though not as nutritious as normal - meals for my growing children, I know that others are not as lucky as we are!) or live in fear for your life - if you're not exposed you are safe, if you have not been touching someone who has the virus (and very few do have it here in Australia) for 15 minutes or longer you are safe.

Much love,
Jen
​FOOTPRINTS & RAINBOWS

Going into my first birth as a mother I was so excited!

My requested (or rather demanded!) induction for my estimated 41 weeks and 3 days gestation, just 4 days before Christmas Day, had been approved.

My OB was someone that I considered to be the perfect care provider for me (and in hindsight she was, and had only grudgingly approved the induction for before 42 weeks – which is such a rarity these days!)

The hospital I had chosen to birth at was 40 minutes or so away from the home we had just bought in September, but that was all good because we had family and friends near it and a guaranteed place to stay for a couple of days after I was discharged before heading home to start our new life as family of 3.

I’d read every single pregnancy and birth book I could get my hands on locally, and had Googled the heck out of everything I could about vaginal birth – that was my goal of course!

I was going to have the perfect drug free labour.

It was going to only last maybe 24 hours at most.

Everything was going to go perfectly and nothing was going to go wrong – it couldn’t go wrong!

I was excited to finally meet our son.

And then the induction started.

The gel took 3 doses + the tape to get me from 0 dilated and 0% effaced to 1cm dilated and something effaced (even now, over 11 years later I still don’t know how much effacement had happened) between 7pm on the 21st and 9am on the 22nd of December, syntocinon was started around 9:30am that day after my waters were broken.

Cue a long, tiring, extremely painful induced labour that saw me very quickly getting an epidural – that slipped out of place late at night on the 22nd and left me with permanent nerve damage to the nerves where they joined my spinal cord – and then finally making it to 9cm dilated at 9am on the 23rd, and fully dilated and starting to, ineffectively, push shortly afterwards.

After somewhere between 2-3 hours of pushing and my son starting to have heart decels that were slow to recover once the syntocin-induced contractions had ended it was decided that a caesarean would be the best option – not by me though, I had adamantly refused it repeatedly, it was decided by my OB who went to my now husband and told him that if a caesarean wasn’t done our baby and myself would both die (and oh how ironic it was that she said that, because one of the anaesthetic medications in the spinal nearly did kill me while they were stitching me up!)

It was agreed that they would try the ventousse (vacuum) briefly in theatre, technically they were only meant to try it 3 times in total but I distinctly remember through my exhausted fugue the surgeon attaching it to my sons head at least 6 or 7 times before giving up.

The caesarean was, initially, very straight forward. I felt the tugging, the pulling, but did not feel any pain, and I was terrified and shaking and it all felt extremely surreal – like it was happening to someone else and I was looking in from the outside.

I saw my son briefly as they held him up over the blue drape before they whisked him over to the heated table to clean him up. He cried the moment he was out, then promptly pee’d on the surgeon. I got to touch his cheek briefly after he was cleaned and wrapped up before he and my husband were taken away to the nursery (there was no skin-on-skin in theatre back then) and shortly after that I nearly died.

My vision went black and I remember trying to tell the anaesthetist that I couldn’t breathe a few times before he finally heard me and then I lost consciousness.

My blood pressure had bottomed out while I was being stitched up. I was later told that they were worried that they’d have to do full CPR before they were able to get it back up. Not the kind of thing you really want to hear right after you’ve woken up after having major surgery. I was also told that I’d never be able to give birth vaginally, that my pelvis was “too small and the wrong shape” for vaginal birth. I’d need caesareans forever afterwards and they would not “allow” me to have more than 3 caesareans at most.

I eventually recovered – 6 whole long months of pain before I reached my “new” normal.

At around 3 months postpartum I threw myself into planning my next birth. My next birth HAD to be better than what I had gone through with my first, the whole experience of an emergency caesarean had traumatised me so greatly that just the thought of needing another one left me anxious and feeling very panicky.

I found out that vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC) WAS an option for me, that the “diagnosis” of my pelvis being too small and the wrong shape (cephalo-pelvic disproportion, or CPD) was so rare that it only affected 2% of the population in the western world and could not be diagnosed from just one birth alone or even during a caesarean.

I aimed to have a VBAC, even when I was diagnosed with whooping cough at 16 weeks gestation and then gestational diabetes at 30 weeks and put on insulin at 35 weeks I still aimed for a VBAC. That was my plan, my goal, my whole reason for living while battling undiagnosed PND – resulting from that first unplanned caesarean birth - during my next pregnancy.

Did I have a VBAC?

I sure as hell did! 4 hours & 43 minutes of labour, no syntocin, induced at my request solely by having my waters broken, only 20 minutes of pushing. My 2nd child was born vaginally at 40+2 and was my smallest child at what, to me at least, seemed a teeny tiny 8pd/3.65kg (my son was 8pd 3, 3.774kg, when born at 41+5).

And it was how my first birth should have been and wasn’t.

It was healing.

It was how I’d always imagined my births would go.

I was respected. I was supported.

I made all the choices and decisions myself and none of them were taken out of my hands and made by anyone else.
It was how birth should be for everyone – respectful, caring, supportive and following the birthing persons lead.

I had picked a new supportive care provider (not my original OB who had travelled to Tibet for volunteer work by then) who respected my wishes, who didn’t push anything on me, who left all decisions in my hands and who treated me respectfully as a human being with thoughts, feelings, knowledge and the ability to make the right choices for me and my baby.

Like with my first birth I didn’t have a written birth plan, but this time I did have a plan that I had discussed many times with my care provider so that I knew, and could trust, that he was on board and supportive of what I wanted.
I sit here typing this all out now, remembering my first and second births as my 2nd child’s 9th birthday approaches, March 30th, thinking about the long journey that I had along the way.

And I am also thinking of all the mothers who were left disappointed, feeling broken, had their choices and bodily autonomy taken from them during their own births, like mine was during my 1st and 3rd births.

I remember why I entered into this field of doula work, birth work, and why it means so much to me.

I remember the student midwife who supported me so well during my 1st birth even when everything went to crap, and the other student midwife who supported me during my 2nd birth - I only remember her first name, Elise, because it is my 2nd child’s name as well, and though I had picked that name out many many years before I saw it as a good omen that the student midwife who supported me the way that I, as a doula, would have wanted to be supported from another doula bore the same name (MANY MANY THANKS TO YOU ELISE! I always wanted to thank you in person afterwards and wasn’t able to, I hope that you will see this one day and will know how very grateful I was, and still am, for your support during my first VBAC).

I also find myself wishing that more women, more birthing people, were able to experience the kind of respectful support and care that I was given during my 2nd pregnancy and birth.

As both a mother and a doula I have become somewhat jaded towards obstetricians over the years – I have experienced disrespectful and outright abusive care and treatment as a birthing person (#metoo #sayNOtoobstetricabuse), and I have witnessed, oh so many damn times, the way that many care providers act and speak in order to make their patients do what they want them to do – and yes, I have reported those who needed reporting. I have had to bite my tongue so many times – it’s not my job to argue with a care provider in the exam rooms, my job is to support and educate the person I am supporting so that she can do that herself if she wishes to! – until I’m outside and able to let loose those condemning words that I’ve held inside.

BUT...

I have also witnessed amazing, respectful care, just like what I had received from the obstetrician that I chose for my 2nd birth, too. And while it isn’t often that I witness it, it still gives me hope. There are still respectful care providers out there.

They might be few and far between, the proverbial Unicorns of the Obstetric world, but they DO exist.
Their rarity is part of the reason why I do what I do.

Why I have chosen to support women, to support birthing people, to support new and growing families.
I have, as a mother, been on both ends of the spectrum of hospital based maternity care and also right in the middle of that spectrum too – I have received respectful care, received completely average care and received bloody awful care – and that gives me something unique that my clients can and do benefit from. I have that knowledge learned from experience of what birth usually is in a hospital setting, what it could be, what it can be and also what it’s like when it’s really fucking crap.

Have you been on the receiving end or amazing care? Or have you been on the receiving end of pretty average or really bloody awful care?
​
I’d love to hear from you, and if you are willing to share your birth story/stories I would love to be able to post it on this blog so that others can see them, read them and gain hope from them.

Re-bo-what-now?!

I know you're likely thinking "what the fuck is this shite?" (or something along those lines).

Let's start with a little bit of background history so you can see what I'm going on about:
"The rebozo is a wonderful tool originating in South America (including Mexico, Guatemala and other South American Countries), it is used as an all-in-one garment, a wrap, a head covering, a provider of shade from the sun, a blanket, a baby & shopping carrier, a tool for comfort measures during pregnancy, labour and birth, a massage tool, and much more.
While the original rebozo’s themselves were made before the Spanish invaded they were somewhat different to what they are like now, not only because they were made on a different type of loom but also because they were not used as a hair cover. After the introduction of a new type of loom by the Spanish and the native women being forced to cover their heads/hair with a cloth – as was the fashion in Spain and many other European countries at the time – the rebozo, and this hair cover, were amalgamated into one item by the innovative and resourceful native South Americans, creating the rebozo that we now know of. 
Traditional midwives in Mexico use it for anything from helping to move the baby into a better position in the womb before and during birth and to assist with bringing the uterus back down to its normal size after birth (often via belly binding), comfort measures to aid mothers as they work through their labour contractions, as an aid in traditional remedies and therapies, massage and so much more.
We can be very thankful that these traditional midwives have trained other people in their use, and that those people have also trained yet more people in how to safely use them too, allowing many in the wider world to know and be able to utilise the rebozo as a tool for assisting birthing people as they bring their babies into the world. We who teach and use the rebozo thank them for gifting us with this knowledge, for gifting us with the rebozo, so that we might help, teach and support others better and more easily and hopefully aid in improving birth in the process."
​
OK, now that we've got the brief background history part out of the way lets get down to business!

As a rebozo practitioner my job is to teach YOU (only if YOU want to be taught, of course!) how to use a rebozo safely, regardless of if you are the birthing person yourself or the partner/support person of the birthing person, so that you don't go and do something stupid that you later regret with it.

​Now, that being said, not everyone wants to use a rebozo or can see, just from looking at it, what kind of benefit it might have for their pregnancy and/or birth.

For the partners & support people: What if I told you that the rebozo would help to reduce the strain that you WILL put on your neck, back, hands, arms and shoulders? Yep, that's right, in many instances the rebozo gets used instead of your arms, your shoulders, your back etc.
Sounds pretty awesome, and believe me, it is, after 24 hours of supporting someone through their labour you will be very very thankful for being able to use the rebozo to help!

For the birthing people: What if I told you that the rebozo could lift up your belly up enough to help reduce some of the weight of baby at your front and on your bladder? Or that it could be used to ease some types of hip and pelvic pain? Or that it could help to reduce the pressure that your pregnancy might put on your back? Or that it could help with relaxing your neck, that you and your partner/support person could use it to help you get up out of chairs, up off the floor and even out of bed, more easily? Or that, with the use of tennis balls and a wooden spoon (yes I really do mean a WOODEN SPOON!) we can use the rebozo to help reduce the pain of back labour?

The rebozo can help you with all of these and more and I can teach you how to do it.

​Enquire now to find out more!

Check out the Victorian class dates and times below (QLD/Brisbane dates will be put up after I get back from Victoria at the end of April!) and sign up via the Eventbrite links - I look forward to seeing you all there!

​Rebozo For Comfort Measures Classes


Date & Time: 4th & 15th April 2020, 11am to 2pm
Location: Koo Wee Rup (exact location still to be arranged - hoping to book with the Masonic Lodge within the next 2 weeks)
Cost:
Class ONLY - $200 per couple/birthing person & support people
Class + Rebozo to keep - $300 per couple/birthing person & support people
Birthworkers (Students & other) - $150 each
 
Classes will last for approximately 3 hours - 2 hours of class with around 1 hour for lunch (sandwich platter lunch included, coffee & tea will be available too!) and chatter in the middle. Babies are welcome however there will not be childcare facilities available so you will either need to arrange care for older children or have someone with you who can care for them while you are doing the class.

Rebozo's can be purchased separately prior to the class or during the class for $140 each incl postage (all rebozo's pre-ordered will be sent via Express Post prior to April for arrival before the classes start), and there will be some available for purchase on the day, and you can arrange to pick up a preordered rebozo on the day too!

April 4th - This class I will be donating 25% of all the fees received (from both registration & rebozo sales) to Our Haven Wildlife Shelter to assist them in saving, feeding and helping orphaned Joey's from the fire affected areas and greater surrounds.
They are registered with the ACNC (Charities Commission) and endorsed as a DGR so all donations are tax deductible.
To donate separately:
NAME: Our Haven Wildlife Shelter
ADDRESS: 26 Haven Way, Golden Beach, Victoria, 3851, Australia
BSB: 633000
Account number: 152037628
SWIFT NO: BENDAU3B
 
April 15th - This class I will be donating 25% of all the fees received (from both registration & rebozo sales) to the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund to assist them in helping those who are affected by emergency situations like fires and flooding in the Gippsland region.
 
To donate separately:
Visit HERE for full donation details.
 
TO REGISTER:
April 4th: SIGN UP HERE - Use the early bird discount code EARLYBIRD2 by March 15th to get 20% off your class and/or pre-purchase rebozo!
April 15th: SIGN UP HERE - Use the early bird discount code EARLYBIRD2020 by March 15th to get 20% off your class and/or pre-purchase rebozo!"

Rebozo For Comfort Measures Classes


Date & Time: 8th (Morwell) & 20th (Tecoma) of  April 2020, 11am to 2pm
Locations:
Morwell – CoAbility Space, 215 Princes Highway, Morwell, VIC, 3840 – On street parking or free parking at the back of the building
 Tecoma – CoAbility Space, 5/1563-1565 Burwood Highway, Tecoma, VIC, 3160 – free all day parking around the back
Cost:
Class ONLY - $200 per couple/birthing person & support people
Class + Rebozo to keep - $300 per couple/birthing person & support people
Birth Workers (students & other) Class ONLY - $150 each
 
At this stage we only have room for a maximum of 30 registrations for each class.
 
Classes will last for approximately 3 hours - 2 hours of class with around 1 hour for lunch (sandwich platter lunch included) and chatter in the middle. Babies are welcome however there will not be childcare facilities available so you will either need to arrange care for older children or have someone with you who can care for them while you are doing the class.
Rebozo's can be purchased separately prior to the class or during the class for $140 each incl postage (pre-ordered rebozo's can be sent via Express Post prior to April for arrival before the classes start or can be collected on the day).

April 8th - This class I will be donating 25% of all the fees received (from both registration & rebozo sales) to Our Haven Wildlife Shelter to assist them in saving, feeding and helping orphaned Joey's from the fire affected areas and greater surrounds.
They are registered with the ACNC (Charities Commission) and endorsed as a DGR so all donations are tax deductible.

To donate separately:
NAME: Our Haven Wildlife Shelter
ADDRESS: 26 Haven Way, Golden Beach, Victoria, 3851, Australia
BSB: 633000
​Account number: 152037628
SWIFT NO: BENDAU3B
 
April 20th - This class I will be donating 25% of all the fees received (from both registration & rebozo sales) to Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund to assist them in helping those who are affected by emergency situations like fires and flooding in the Gippsland region.

To donate separately:
Visit HERE for full donation details.
 
TO REGISTER:
April 8th: SIGN UP HERE - Use the early bird discount code EARLYBIRD2 by March 15th to get 20% off your class and/or pre-purchase rebozo!
April 20th: SIGN UP HERE - Use the early bird discount code EARLYBIRD2020 by March 15th to get 20% off your class and/or pre-purchase rebozo!

Whether it’s your 1st child or your 15th child birth can be a scary and even nerve-wracking experience for dads-to-be.

You love your partner, and you’re worried for her.

You’re likely nervous about what could happen, what could go wrong, and what the birth itself will be like – potentially you’re even nervous about how you will cope as a father too.

And you’re also likely trying very hard not to let her know just how much it is affecting you because, culturally, you are expected to be strong and brave and to be able to keep it all together for her.

Your partner is going through a life-changing experience as she gives birth – AND SO ARE YOU!

The biggest difference between you both, within that birthing room, is that no one is there to support you as well.
Everyone is there is there supporting your partner – even you!
​
Who will support you?
A doula certainly can.

Who will support you as you support your partner?
A doula certainly can.

Who will help you as you help her?
A doula is more than capable of helping you so that you can help her.

Who will be able to get things for you when you are otherwise occupied with what your partner wants and needs from you?
A doula can get you whatever you need, allowing you to stay with your partner and support her.

Who will be able to take over your support role when you need a break, a rest?
This is what a doula does, we don’t take your role away from you, we’re like the backup option – quietly supporting from the background and only stepping in when needed.

Who will bring you food and drink when you are hungry and thirsty but can’t physically leave your partner because she needs YOU?
A doula will happily do this for you – you need to eat and drink too!

Who will wipe the sweat from your forehead when your hands are both busy applying yet another hip squeeze in the middle of a contraction, or providing counter pressure for back labour, or holding your partner up as she relaxes back into you as a contraction ends?
A doula can do this for you.

There’s a common misconception in the general community that doulas are only there to support the mother herself, and are there to replace the supportive role of the father/partner/other support people.
This is most certainly NOT TRUE!

While, as a doula, our role is most often that of supporting the mother during her birth it also encompasses so many other things as well, and supporting the mother can mean so many different things too.

Sometimes supporting the mother means supporting the father, her partner or husband, or another support person, as THEY support her.

Sometimes it means just staying on the other end of the phone, calmly speaking to dad  and bringing him down from a panic attack because contractions have started and he has, in his panic, forgotten what to do.

Sometimes it means giving dad a short crash course in childbirth education at the prenatal meetings, because he has no clue what happens and quite frankly just the thought of a baby’s head coming out of his partners vagina makes him feel woozy and scares the living crap out of him.

Sometimes it means just quietly reassuring dad, in a quiet moment between his partners contractions, that he’s a doing a great job.

As a doula I do not replace you. I work beside you and help you to support her. I support you so you can better support her. I guide you when you need guidance. I help and aid you when you need aid and help. I share my knowledge and skills with you so that you can know what is happening and when, and how to help your partner.
I assist you to be the best support person that you can possibly be for your partner as she brings your baby into the world.

Dads, I know it’s hard to accept extra help and support sometimes, and I know it’s hard to hear and accept your partner wanting someone else, that isn’t just you, in the birthing room with her as she births your child.
We, the doulas, are here for you too.

We are a tool for both you and your partner to utilise as and if and when needed, to help you both have the best birthing experience possible.

Use us well, and use us the way that is right for both of you, and your partner will thank you for it.

Doulas are there for you too.