This is for you if you are pregnant outside of your home country.
While nothing about your pregnancy will be different, everything else feels completely foreign. Choosing the right care provider, knowing when and where to get the right tests and deciding where to give birth seem like impossible tasks.
I can help you. I am an expat midwife and I work exclusively with pregnant expats. I will guide you to the right resources and be your sounding board so you can flourish during pregnancy rather than take the first plane home!
Hello there! I am Karen.
How can I help you?
✅ I wrote a book just for you! No more random online searches and horrific birth stories – just straight up expert medical advice and curated content.
✅ No chance of missing important tests or investigations with tick lists, cheat sheets and your own personalised care plan.
✅ The knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and communicate them effectively with your OB/GYN.
✅ Get the lowdown on pain management techniques and the confidence to know when you need them.
I have been a midwife for 30 years. I spent 14 years working as an expat in the Middle East and it opened me up to finding innovative ways to support women within a system that supports policy.
I studied prenatal yoga RYT 200, Hypnobirthing the Mongan method, the Mama Bamba way with Robyn Sheldon, Spinning babies with Gail Tully and Active birth with Janet Balaskas.
How Karen helped me
Karen taught me about “holding space” before I even knew it was a thing. The lessons I learned from her altered the course of my life. My pregnancy and birth experience was so amazing that it inspired me to become a doula.
Hayley RandKaren was not only with me for both of my pregnancies and births, she was also my mentor during my doula studies. She taught me the value of honoring every woman’s experience.
Lindsay Lane Ward HoffmanThroughout my wife’s pregnancies I often felt overlooked and rather like a spare wheel. Karen was the only person to make me feel entitled to share and take part in the birth experience. For that I will always be immensely grateful.
Ross BairdA sneaky peek into my life
Listen to my podcast
Honest feedback
Top 10 FAQ’s
Join my Community and feel the love
Facebook Posts
When did the word failure start creeping into birth stories? Or was it planted by us, the medical professionals, with our silly outdated terms like “failure to progress” leading to the cascade of interventions?Transfer Does Not Equal Failure
Moms and midwives alike need to hear this and let this sink in. But for you, moms:
* You did not fail if your birth plan did not go the way you had prepared for.
* You did not fail if an extraordinary and unplanned event occurred and changed everything you had been planning on
* You did not fail if you got too tired or were too physically run down to continue on at home
* You did not fail if your body did not progress for this particular birth
* You did not fail if you got an epidural
* You did not fail if your birth ended in a cesarean.
No mom should ever hang her head because all of her hard work and preparation was not lived out the way she thought it would. No person should make her feel badly or guilt her for where her birth took place. “I told you so” should never be uttered.
Like anything else in life that we plan months for, spend our time preparing for and dreaming about, it is a terrible disappointment when it does not go the way we hoped. Let her feel what she’s feeling. Let her talk about it.
We can be a good friend to these women and hear their stories without our feedback or questioning everything that led to this outcome. As time goes on they will be ready to look at it all objectively, but in the beginning just listen and support her.
Help her to feel at home in an environment she wasn’t prepared to be in. She might feel insecure and unsure about herself. Remind her that she is strong and amazing and worked really hard. Because that is exactly what she did.
She did not fail.
.
-Reposted from Born Midwifery
When it comes to episiotomy, informed consent is essential.
How dare anyone cut you without your consent? The image below is a wonderful reminder of what consent entails and will help you when you are preparing to speak to your doctor about episiotomy. I recommend that you print it out and familiarise yourself with the words and the feelings associated with consent.
If you walk out of a consultation with your doctor feeling as if you have been coerced or manipulated into thinking something that intuitively feels wrong, it is a red flag.
If you want to know more, join me for my free video training to learn about episiotomy and other hospital interventions - what you need to know to avoid them unless necessary.
Sign up here mybirthprep.com/
