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What the Real Birth Company Does

The Real Birth Company is all about helping women achieve a positive pregnancy and birth experience. Our positive approach to birth is deeply embedded in our ethos and values to provide relevant, up to date evidence-based antenatal information that is imparted with a positive attitude to birth.

We believe the key to feeling empowered and confident about birth is by knowing how the body works in labour and knowing your rights and choices, alongside birthing techniques. We provide our Real Birth Workshop to give pregnant people a much deeper understanding of the changes that take place in labour, we offer a safe haven to breastfeeding mothers with a lactation consultant in our Real Birth Studio, and we provide antenatal training through our

Real Birth Programme to those working within health care, developed using a modern approach to birth with the latest evidence-based information that is constantly being developed to move with the ever-changing maternity services.

How does the real Birth Company differ from other organisations?

Fear of birth is very common. Our goal is to help pregnant women and people and their birth partners feel relaxed, and even excited, about the birth process. We believe that every expecting parent should be able to access positive birth information and guidance. Our antenatal class is designed to do exactly that. We want every birth experience to be positive, for every type of birth.

A positive birth experience does not have to be linked to type of birth, for example a vaginal birth, women can have positive caesarean births and assisted births, the important factors are communication, being listened to, respected and involved in decision making. Something that has been evidenced for years.

We have a highly renowned international reputation for bringing balanced evidence together with the holistic needs of pregnant women and people at the heart of its teaching. We have a world class reputation for offering the highest standard of antenatal education, assisting pregnant women and people to understand how the mechanics of labour work and the interaction of the endocrine (hormonal) system in pregnancy and labour. This information is vital to understanding how to make decisions in labour which can affect the outcome of birth.

Feedback to our Real Birth Teacher course wrote “Currently our hospitals are offering Solihull, which as a model I love and it is what we work from, however, the feedback from parents is negative as they find it condescending and don’t complete it whereas the Real Birth, they find it very informative, reassuring and it helps them feel prepared for birthing…”.

We often are questioned on why we are different from the well known Solihull Approach Programme, which is a very good Parenting Programme.

The Solihull Approach is regarded as a Parenting Programme, looking at the feelings and emotions for the whole family, it is based on the Solihull Approach model of containment, reciprocity and behaviour management. It uses a social learning theory to impart the information and has been developed by many professionals and is cascaded down to various professionals through cascade training.

The Real Birth Programme uses a reverse learning theory technique, that is based on how our brains retain and store information. It has been written from a midwifery understanding of birth physiology, using this technique, as it is shown to enhance understanding and memory of information, in this instance birth physiology and preparation information. Each Real Birth Teacher is trained in our programme, this is not cascade training as each midwife, doula or doctor is required to show an understanding of the programme methods to become certified to teach. This way we are helping with continuity of the information shared to women.

In comparison to The Real Birth approach, the Solihull Approach birth preparation section is much shorter, as it is a parenting programme not a birth preparation programme. The Solihull Approach can be found here for further reading.

Why is there a shortage of midwives?

An article by Nursing Times has included a statement from Professor Baker, chief inspector of hospitals at the Care Quality Commission where he stated “… these professions reported “a lot of bullying” which he believed were linked to the culture and safety problems in maternity services. A culture where staff were bullied “creates tensions in teams that makes it actually very difficult to work. I suspect we lose a lot of good people from some units [and] from the profession entirely, because of the way we look after them in terms of the culture in which we make them work…”.

Midwives are facing understaffed, stressful, and unsafe working conditions. RCM has stated “The safety of maternity services is under serious threat, according to a new survey by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). The survey found that eight out of 10 midwives (83%) do not believe their NHS Trust or Board has enough staff to operate a safe service. Services are already stretched almost to breaking point, with 42% reporting that half of shifts are understaffed, and a third saying there are very significant gaps in most shifts. These shortages are taking their toll on midwives and maternity support workers, with morale at rock-bottom. Seven out of 10 (71%) have considered leaving the profession, while over a third (38%) are seriously thinking about it.”

How can midwives get involved with the Real Birth Company?

Midwives all over the world are leaving their profession because they can’t cope with the stress of their working environment. An article by the WHO has stated “New report sounds the alarm on global shortage of 900,000 midwives. Fully investing in midwives by 2035 would avert roughly two-thirds of maternal, new-born deaths and stillbirths, saving 4.3 million lives per year.”. The statistics show just how important it is to invest into midwifery care is; but also, to provide a healthy, sustainable, and calm environment for both midwives and pregnant people and their family. Here at the Real Birth Company, we’re helping change that.

You can learn to facilitate face-to-face and virtual workshops, using our accredited antenatal teacher training programme and how to impart these sessions, in any format, in a positive manner and help support women through all of their birthing choices. You will gain a certificate as a registered Real Birth Antenatal Teacher where your training will allow you to set up and deliver your own antenatal sessions or 1-2-1 classes, either within a private framework or if you work in the NHS, it will enhance your current offering for antenatal classes or assist you to redevelop the provision you have. In all cases it will give you additional skills and thought processes, at what it means to impart positive, evidence-based, antenatal education classes.

We have had such fantastic feedback on our programme. “Annemarie and Zoe, thank you both so much for the last 4 sessions. They have been fantastic and despite years of practicing midwifery they have completely revaluated my approach to antenatal education and care in labour. It has been thought provoking and will be a valuable tool in my everyday practice going forward and hopefully for the future as I rethink the direction in which to take my career. Thank you again so much, it has been so inspiring – Jenny.”

We can collectively change the future of midwifery by investing into a positive approach to birth and helping pregnant people and their birth partners feel relaxed, and even excited, about the birth process by reigniting midwives’ passion for midwifery.