achievements to date
Since JCF’s launch we have raised funds or received donations for the following:
· Practical Tools & Techniques – we want to encourage mainstream labour wards to provide a safe, nurturing and relaxing environment for mothers, creating the optimum conditions for labour and helping to dispel the fear of labour in hospitals and enabling mothers to cope better during labour. To this end, we have installed at QCCH three telemetry machines (these allow even high risk women to move around to aid labour whilst being continuously monitored), a new birthing pool and softer lighting in areas of the mainstream labour ward at QCCH. We have also created the “Caribbean Room” (a room with a birthing pool and a relaxing environment with trompe d’oeil on the walls to encourage visualisation) and the double bedroom (the time immediately post labour is normally a time where mothers are left to fend for themselves as there is limited post-natal staff within the NHS. The double bedroom enables fathers to stay and support the mother which improves the post- labour experience for both parents). We have also commissioned the swirls paintings which are in the labour ward and aim to help labouring mothers to use visualisation to overcome pain in labour.
· Educational Resources - We have contributed to and presented the first Jentle Childbirth Foundation Study Day which was accredited by the Royal College of Midwives (these Study Days aim to bring together midwives, mothers, obstetricians, anaesthetists and complementary therapists and promote a cross-fertilisation of experience). Jenny has contributed to various academic papers including one on “natural Caesarean”. The “natural Caesarean” is a technique which allows the parents to interact as fully as possible in a surgical birth watching their baby wriggle out of the womb and have skin to skin contact immediately without compromising sterility. Jenny has also carried out a yoga and visualisation clinical trial at QCCH to determine the impact of such techniques on the birth experience, the results of which will be published soon.