Anya – “I’m 20 years old and I’m from England. I live about 30 minutes south of London in the same house I was born in. I went to school in Guildford which is the county I live in and I go to University studying Midwifery there too. I lived at the Uni in my first year but I moved home mainly to save up for this trip.
I got into Midwifery because I loved the idea of taking women and their families through that transition in their life, supporting them through it and seeing a little baby at the end of it. I love that we can trust women to birth without too much intervention but we can be there to help.
I’ve come to Lismore to stay with Bron at the Birth House. I found her on a Facebook page for Midwives..the power of Social Media! I got talking to her and she said ‘Why don’t you come over and see how we do it here.’ I work in a hospital back home as my placement so this is very different. Bron offers this unique model of care where she can be the woman’s Midwife the whole way through the pregnancy and offer support. The thing I love most about what Bron does is she gives the women a lot of her time and supports them to make their own decisions about their care as well.
There is a birthing room here, an antenatal room and a postnatal room. The mums can choose to have their babies here or at home. She can come here for her appointments throughout her pregnancy and she can stay in the postnatal room after bub is born if she chooses. Dad can stay as well as there’s a lovely double bed. It’s a very holistic approach. I haven’t assisted here yet but we are on call for a lady at the moment who is overdue. Fingers crossed! I’m here for another week then I’ll head up to Brisbane then onto Cairns. I can’t hire a car yet as I have to be over 21.
I will be on a Home-birth team at home when I get back. It will be interesting to see the differences from what we do here to back home. I have helped deliver 15 babies so far and I’ve had one named after me which is really nice. There’s another little Anya somewhere. It’s so great when you’ve known the woman through her whole pregnancy and you get to see her hold her baby for the first time.
I’ve seen a baby born still in its sac. That was really cool. She was in the birthing pool as well and the baby was still enclosed in its water filled sac. Apparently that’s really rare. There’s an old wives tale that if the baby is born in water in it’s sac it will never drown. It’s so amazing as it’s an insight into what the baby is like in the womb.
I love Lismore! I could definitely live here and I’m definitely coming back. I hope to take information home and see what we can do to get a place like this started. We have the Home-birth team but we don’t have a birth centre like this.”