Presentors
Janine Shifman
Janine Shifman is a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist with 20 years' clinical experience, and a birth doula with 6 years' experience in the birth space. She has a special interest in women's and pelvic health, trained as a doula with Rhea Dempsey, and has also trained in internal pelvic release work with Fiona Hallinan, Founder and clinician at Anara Health in Melbourne. Janine has published research with Dr Laura Whitburn through La Trobe University, exploring how first-time mothers plan to cope with labour pain.
Dr Laura Whitburn
Dr Laura Whitburn started her career as a physiotherapist before transitioning into tertiary education and research. She is currently Associate Professor and Discipline Lead (Anatomy) in the School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment at La Trobe University, where she has coordinated the physiotherapy anatomy program for over a decade and contributes to an international anatomy syllabus for physiotherapy courses. Her clinical research focuses on the multidimensional nature of labour pain and intrapartum communication — how cognitive, social and environmental factors shape a woman's pain experience, and how communication between healthcare providers and birthing people affects perceptions of pain and psychological safety. Dr Whitburn is co-Chair of the Humanising Birth Research Network, an international collaboration of researchers, clinicians and consumers advancing respectful, person-centred maternity care.
From Cocoon to Coping:
Reframing Labour Pain as Intrinsic and Extrinsic Transformation
Like a pupa, a labouring woman draws on two kinds of resources to transform: what she generates from within, and what the world builds around her to protect that process. Drawing on a recent survey study of 56 first-time mothers (Shifman, Jones, Davey, East & Whitburn, 2024, Midwifery), this presentation introduces a new way of thinking about coping in labour - moving beyond the old "pharmacological vs non-pharmacological" split to a framing of intrinsic strategies (self-generated: breathing, movement, mindset, self-trust) and extrinsic strategies (requiring equipment or others: baths, TENS machines, support people, epidural analgesia). We'll explore how women plan to use both, why labour pain can be framed as purposeful and productive rather than threatening, and what this means for how doulas, midwives and support people can foster the psychologically safe "cocoon" that lets a woman's own coping resources emerge - echoing this year's theme of transformation and becoming.