Rebecca – “ I grew up at Lakes Entrance, Victoria. I moved to Melbourne and started my nursing training and in that 2 year period I met my now husband. He was in Sydney so we did the long distance thing for a year and then I decided to move to Sydney and finished my nursing degree there.
I worked in a hospital my first year out but all I really wanted to be was a Paramedic. Oncology interested me as well but when I got into my nursing training I did three different areas of nursing, medical ward, recovery ward and then a surgical high dependancy ward which was all great but what got me was recovery. I loved working with patients after their operations but more importantly I loved working in recovery with women who had just had their babies. I loved reuniting Mum and baby back at the ward.
Six months into my first year I was thinking maybe I want to be a Midwife. Back then I could do a Post Grad year of working and studying and I became a registered Midwife. So I became a Clinical Midwife 14 years ago now. I did my nursing graduate rotation and my Midwifery at Westmead Hospital and was there for 6 years. During that period Mark and I found out we were having a baby which was a big surprise. A couple of months prior to finding out we had booked a 6 month trip around the world so we had to change our plans. We still got a little way around the world. So when I say 14 years of clinical practise I’ve been on and off having 3 children. Our fist boy Dash is now 11, Ayla is 9 and Elke is 7.
We moved to the Gold Coast in 2011 when I was pregnant with my third baby. When she was 18 months old I got a casual job at the Gold Coast Hospital. I was then assigned to restructure the whole parent education program as there were a lot of people not attending the entire course so I reinvigorated it.
We moved to the Northern Rivers and lived off grid for 18 months. We were chasing financial freedom, space and connecting with the land. The suburbs weren’t doing it for us. We got flooded 3 times. Mark is a great trench digger now. You live and learn. We needed to move and It was just after the 2017 flood so there were no houses to rent. Our children go to the Steiner school at Lillian Rock and we love that school so there were 2 houses at either Kyogle or Lismore. We chose the Kyogle house which is fine for now. We are looking for some land to build our off grid home which is our dream.
The idea for my business started when I was preparing to birth my first baby. A friend suggested I do a weekend course in Bowral. It wasn’t cheap and although I was a Midwife I hadn’t been a mum and all mum’s can learn. Marc and I had the most beautiful time. It was a course called Calm Birth. We sat in the founders lounge room and had 2 incredible days. This was the start of more awareness for us. It opened every facet of life for us. We are very health conscious already but Calm Birth sort of made us blossom. That was 12 years ago. I walked away from there as a Midwife saying… I want to be a Calm Birth educator one day. When Elke was 4 I said to Marc..It’s time! I went to Sydney and did the course and now Empowering Birth Journey’s here in Lismore. I feel like I have so much personal experience with Calm Birth I can now share with others. The course runs over 2 days…Saturday and Sunday. I’ve also just finished a course that’s accredited through the Australian College of Midwives called Acuneedling for Midwives. I’m not an Acupuncturist, I can just assist a little further providing symptomatic relief. Things like heartburn, nausea and vomiting, hip discomfort, relaxing the body and birth activation.
A lot of people prepare for so many aspects of their life. They prepare so much for one day to get married, they prepare so much to have a baby shower so why can’t we prepare positively for one day to have a baby so the experience will stay with us for the rest of our life.
Calm Birth is not about having a vaginal birth with no pain relief, what it’s about is keeping everything positive, providing couples with the tools and resources they can utilise, make conscious choices and decisions and build up their support teams and partners to be their advocates. Support people sometimes don’t know what to do or say.
Marc – “For me as a support person back when we first went to Calm Birth I was saying..Why? Why do we need to do this? I thought I was well educated in birth being Bec’s partner but for me coming away from that weekend changed my view on everything. The whole birthing process….I feel like I want to be a Calm Birth educator because I thought it was so incredibly valuable for people going into this experience without being scared or fearful. For me it was great.”
Bec – “This isn’t just about having a home birth. We have couples who have private Obstetrician, we have a couple who are having a booked Caesarian, couples who are home birthing with or without a Midwife. Calm Birth fits everyone. We are trying to move your body into wellness, not fight and flight or that necessary tension. It’s hard work with a newborn baby so these skills move on into your parenting. At the moment I’m looking for a clinic space in Lismore. I’d like to build up Post Natal debrief because I can be that compassionate listener. If women have had an experience that wasn’t so positive I’m really happy to help turn it around.
I really feel like the baby’s personality comes through in the birth. With my personal experience, two of mine were really slow and cruisy and that’s what they were like as babies. My middle girl was a bull at a gate and she still is.
Another passion of mine is really reconnecting to the first 40 days after your baby is born. In Australia our partners go back to work so soon sometimes after a couple of days. Women don’t really get that time to nurture and nourish their bodies back to where they were pre-pregnancy. We are rushed into all these demands. I really want to give that some time, It’s so precious.”