The Village Doula

Saturday, 10 ~ 10:45am

Firstly I will trace the threads of why and how I came to midwifery and the convictions that drove the model of care we developed. I will speak  of how the world I was in and the people I met influenced and shaped my understanding of the birth process and parenting.
Secondly I will outline how our community worked together to support each other, detailing the sorts of things we achieved. This will include the model of care we developed for pregnancy; labour and postnatal care; and our relationship with hospitals, the medical profession and midwives.
Following these memories and stories I will highlight some things that bother me as I watch current birthing practices, especially how todays’ contemporary culture considers conception, birth and children.

About Anne Blanche

My journey to being with birthing women began intensely when we moved from Melbourne to a small rural town in northern Tasmania way back in the late 1970’s. Following the birth of our first child in Melbourne I grappled to unravel the effects of the hospital environment had on a very normal birth and the consequences for parenting my newborn. I met and worked with fantastic women exploring the same issues and my commitment and calling to midwifery was born!
Deloraine was a hub for like-minded people and as “newcomers” we clung together. When we're all having babies I was often there. During those 17 years of attending approximately 500 births I was delighted, excited, sometimes bemused and above all, in awe of the very domestic miracle of welcoming new life into the world. I was also often very tired!
I mostly worked in partnership, often with a registered midwife, sometimes alone and in those days with great support from some of the local obstetricians and doctors. As well as supporting women to have homebirths we all worked together to establish birth centres, share care plans and postnatal support. It was a wonderfully rich and nurturing time.