Informed consent, informed mindset, get informed: it seems like ‘informed’ is the birth-buzz word at the moment, and rightly so. But how do you get informed…?  

Imagine you’ve decided to book a holiday of a lifetime: one of those, hell-we’re-only-doing-this-once-so-lets-go-all-in affairs. How do you go about arranging it? Do you: 

A. Walk into a travel agents, ask them what’s best and go with it. 

B. Do some googling, speak to some friends, think about what you’d like and then decide to rock up at the airport and see where fate takes you. 

C. Create lists of what sort of holiday you’d like, then use TripAdvisor and Bookings.com as a basis to see your options but speak to people who’ve been there recently too as well as independent reviews before making your decision.

All of these scenarios would lead to a holiday, I won’t argue with that. But what sort of holiday? 

• Option A could give you a nice holiday … with the definition of nice being defined by your travel agent. Who may or may not just be trying to sell a package that’s convenient to them, for whatever reason. 

• Option B has the potential to be better … it’s certainly got more of a personal aspect in the preparation. But that’s counterbalanced by the lack of actual decision and logistics - you might have the right idea, but have you got the practicals in place to make it happen? 

• Option C would more than likely give you a bloody lovely holiday. All of that research, the fact finding, the thinking, the weighing-up has given you the basis for choosing a holiday that’s going to give you all the right kind of memories. 

Knowing where you sit on this scale is actually really useful when it comes to pregnancy and birth. It can help you to find your comfort spot. 

If you’re genuinely happy with option A or option B, and are happier for other people to take the reins and control the kind of experience you have, and not be worried about what that holiday (aka birth) experience will be, then that’s absolutely fab. You do you, love. 

BUT if you do really care about the type of holiday (aka birth experience) that you have, then option A or B are really not a great way of getting it. 

Option C’s approach to holiday planning is what an informed perspective on birth looks like: it’s knowing the ins, the outs, the benefits, the risks, the consequences, the independent reviews and research AND THEN making a choice which reflects your priorities.

While the law (Article 8, Human Rights Convention 1998) states that we hold bodily autonomy and therefore have the right to decide exactly what happens to our bodies, especially during our pregnancies and birth.  

We are individuals. We should get individualised care, right?

But, as you might have noticed, maternity care is in a bit of a hole right now and when big systems get put under pressure to ‘be better’, that creates a whole lot of stress on the individuals working for that system to perform ‘better’. 

I speak with 14 years experience of teaching here. The parallels between the systemic issues in education and healthcare are terrifying. And it’s with that head on that I choose to take the optimistic view: that the midwives and doctors looking after us during our maternity journeys really do WANT to give us individualised care, but can’t. 

The can’t is not a lack of willing but opportunity. Theirs is a workplace of policy, guidelines, administration and rotas. And it has been that way for a long time, creating trends that have become expectations that have become norms that have become comfort zones.

And when you’re pushed for time, and exhausted, how many midwives would be able to consistently dig deep enough to find everything they need to give every single one of their patients the plethora of information and explanations needed to truly inform them of every choice, benefit and risk available to them. 

Even if they wanted to, it’s not possible in a 15 minute appointment once a fortnight.

The vast majority of us implicitly trust our midwives and obstetricians to do what’s best for us: the harsh reality is that they’re doing their best, but it might not always be what’s best for us. 

The only way that we can know, REALLY know, what our options are and what the best choice is for us, is to take charge of that information finding process ourselves. 

But who the hell has time for all that? And where do you even find the information you need? 

1. Follow legitimate, reputable birth-workers on social media: as independents we are both incredibly passionate about positive birth experiences and are not beholden to policy or contracts. We create our content to educate and inspire.  

2. Read independent evidence-based information: you don’t need to make sense of the complex research papers. Clever people like Dr Sara Wickham and Dr Rachel Reed, and the people behind Evidence Based Birth unpick the research and statistics so that we can make sense of it all.  

3. Memorise question scaffolds like BRAIN: having ready made questions in your head for those quick-fire antenatal meetings with midwives and consultants mean that we can challenge what’s said more easily, getting the information we want and need in the short time these incredibly well trained individuals have.  

4. Speak to a doula: many of us offer Power Hour packages that give you the chance to pick our brains and contact lists to find the information you need, and make sense of it,  more easily.     

5. Add a doula to your birth team: having someone like me - an experienced, trained and independent to walk by your side through pregnancy, labour, birth and postpartum means that you’ll have someone to do the researching, the questioning, the unpicking for you. But never the decision making: that’s your call.

As with everything birth and baby, you should ALWAYS do what’s best for you.

For some, the idea of researching and unpicking this information - and then advocating for yourself -  is just too overwhelming. That’s where a doula comes in. We do the leg work, so all you have to do is the thinking.

Sound interesting? Get in touch and we’ll talk about how doula support could help you create a path through birth that you’re excited about taking.