Tell me why pregnant women need midwives

Gulf News

Nicola Oliver, also known as The Fit Midwife, joins Maria Botros to discuss the role a midwife plays throughout a woman’s pregnancy journey and explain the differences between a midwife and an OB/GYN.  A midwife is effectively an expert in normal birth, trained to assist, support and educate women throughout their pregnancy and labor, says Nicola Nicola: An OBGYN is there to put out 'fires', they are there for emergencies and life-saving intervention Don't share your traumatic pregnancy experience with expecting mothers, we don't need to plant seeds of doubt, says Nicola Nicola: The best thing partners and family members can do is attending antenatal classes with you  ---------------------------------------------------------------------  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km

Transcript

00:00It's indirectly supporting you but if they have had a traumatic experience with their own

00:07birth or pregnancy, not to tell you. Oh right. So I like that. Yeah so people we're like it's

00:15human nature, we talk about the bad stuff, we don't really see a lot of positive stuff being

00:20shared. That's how we are, that's how the world is. But um asking like your mum when she's like

00:28oh well I was in labour with you for 15 hours and you did this. Oh dear. You know like we always hear

00:33stories like everyone shares their birth story with you and there's always some drama in it

00:39and that's so fine. Ask them to do it after your birth because one of the things that sticks in

00:45people's heads when I talk to women is well my auntie said this and my best friend this happened

00:50to her is it going to happen to me and I'm like it shouldn't even be in your head. These negative

00:55thoughts, we don't need to plant the seeds of doubt so you're asking your friends and family to like

01:02just really buffer what they're sharing with you because you're not going to talk about

01:09you know planes falling out the sky to your friend who's about to board a plane. Right.

01:26All right Nikki Oliver aka the fit midwife is with me in the studio. You've been dubbed so many things

01:33the UAE's go-to midwife, the fit midwife. Tell me more about these nicknames I'm actually interested.

01:39You know I it's nice to have such nice nicknames. I've been here for eight years and I started the

01:46fit midwife as a kind of an outlet because what I found throughout my midwifery career is that

01:54women just weren't getting enough information. Yeah. And when I moved over here I think the

02:00difference between public and private health care I wasn't able to kind of express myself as a

02:06midwife as easily. So I started the fit midwife to just kind of have a platform. Okay. For women to

02:11come to if they wanted to and I could just give them the bare facts there's no bias there's no

02:18benefit in it for me as a practitioner it was just this is what we know and they can take that

02:25and go with it. Yeah. So it's almost like a podium sometimes for ranting. Okay. About things that

02:30frustrated me as a midwife you know. Yeah. Or as a woman. Yeah. And kind of it just kind of grew

02:37from there really and it's still wild to me. I love that. People are so interested. Yeah I think

02:42it's really interesting and I think we we miss that you know not having a hidden agenda in the

02:48information that you're receiving. I just want it you know I want the facts I just want it as is.

02:53Yeah. With nothing nothing hidden. Yeah. Okay. So how did you get into all of this? What made you

02:59think okay I want to become a midwife? I don't really know I've always kind of been interested

03:05in it. Okay. And if you ask my mom she she told me when I was like five years old I made like a

03:10like a book and I cut some pictures out of a magazine and I was right I wrote I want to work

03:15in the place where babies are born. And I think I misspelled babies and you know it wasn't the

03:20greatest piece of work I've ever done. Yeah. So she's like I've always kind of been that way

03:26inclined. I think it's always going to be something healthcare related. But I didn't actually do my

03:32midwifery degree till I was 25. So I was considered a mature student. Okay. But I just wasn't mature

03:39in myself and I to take on such a degree nursing midwifery medicine and to be straight in the

03:47hospitals as your your sort of learning placements. Yeah. I it was it was when I was about 25 that I

03:55was like right now I feel like I'm emotionally a bit more mature. Okay. I was ready to go into it.

04:02Okay. What I like about it most is that it's actually midwife means with woman. So people

04:10think like it's so lovely. You get to cuddle babies and I'm like this is what I do. It's

04:16a really nice part of it when it happens. Yeah. But it's not what we do. It's about kind of

04:22empowering women educating women and helping them. So that's always been

04:28something I'm passionate about. I love it. I love that it's been your calling ever since you were

04:33five. I think that's fantastic. A lot of people don't know what they want to do with their life

04:38in their 30s. So like you always knew. That's great. Okay. So in your opinion, what okay. So

04:45before actually before we get into that, that was one of the questions that I had for you before the

04:49show. What's the difference between a midwife and a gynecologist? Like I think I was telling you the

04:54first time I ever met a midwife. I think I was 22 and it was when my sister-in-law was giving birth

05:00and she came in and she took over and I was like what's happening? Like where's the doctor? What's

05:05going on? So yeah. No, it's a good question because it's still a relatively new term

05:12in the UAE. Some countries don't have midwives at all. Yeah. And some are more heavily weighted

05:19with midwives. It just depends where you are in the world. Right. So a midwife is effectively

05:24we're an expert in normal birth. Okay. We are trained to assist women, to support them,

05:34to educate them through their pregnancy, their labor and birth and then in the postpartum period.

05:40We also have very skilled, highly trained sort of critical care midwives. So even though a birth may

05:49not be deemed uncomplicated or low risk, we have midwives that specialize in providing like that

05:55same quality of care and information and support in a high risk situation. Wow. And the difference

06:04between a midwife and an OB-GYN is obviously an OB-GYN is a doctor and OB-GYNs are there to put

06:15out fires. That's what they're brilliant at. So they are good when you have emergencies, when you

06:22need life-saving interventions. They're the people you want around and they do such good jobs. But

06:28we know that predominantly birth, it's not an illness. Like pregnancy is not an illness. Birth

06:36isn't a bad thing. So midwives are the ones who are actually the best people to support women

06:43through that. Okay. And all the evidence nicely backs us up. We have better outcomes, less

06:49intervention, more positive experiences. So I mean the thing, there is a difference between us

06:55obviously, but the ideal birth has a multidisciplinary team at the end of the day. Okay.

07:01Whether that's at home in some countries, they have home birth, whether it's in a birth center

07:06or in a hospital, everybody should be on the same page because we're looking after the same person.

07:11Exactly. People. Yeah. The goal is the same. I mean everyone has that shared goal. Okay. So we're

07:17going to get into the technicalities of things. So what are some of the do's and don'ts that women

07:22should keep in mind during a pregnancy to ensure that smooth birth, the least complications during

07:29childbirth? Yeah. So obviously maintaining a kind of healthy lifestyle. We should be doing that all

07:38the time and sometimes we're good at it, sometimes we're not so good at it and that's just life.

07:43Yeah. During pregnancy there are so many like simple little things that you can do. So

07:49maintain like you're taking your vitamins, keep taking those vitamins. It's hard to remember,

07:53set an alarm on your phone. Keep moving, whether that is walking, swimming, the gym,

08:03you know, whatever you do, whatever gives you joy activity wise, keep doing that.

08:11Pregnancy is about adapting what you do around your pregnancy, not stopping what you do because

08:16you're pregnant. Right. And we know that exercise has so many benefits and it doesn't have to look

08:24like you see on Instagram where there's women picking up weights in the gym with a big baby

08:28bump. If that's not your jam, that's fine. If it's just you going for a walk for 45 minutes,

08:34even if nowadays that is in the mall, because it's really hot. Yes. It doesn't matter. They're

08:39all, that's movement, that's steps. Yeah. And also I would always, always recommend people,

08:47one of the best ways to serve their body and like their pregnancy is to get antenatal education

08:54classes. Because what we're doing is not only we're helping you prepare emotionally, good

08:59antenatal education classes help you prepare physically. So we give you exercises, positions,

09:06things that optimize baby's position or optimize your pelvic floor. But also what it gives you is

09:12like a really good like bank of knowledge so that when you go to talk to your OB-GYN and they say

09:17something, you can be like, oh, hang on, I learned about this. Yeah. Right. I need to ask this,

09:24this and this. Or you go away and have a chat with whoever ran your antenatal classes and they give

09:29you something to bring back to talk to the doctor with. But when you know what's going to happen,

09:35what's likely to happen and what's not likely to happen, then you feel more calm with that journey

09:42ahead. Of course. Because if I, if I put you on a plane and just went, okay, see you, bye-bye,

09:46you'd be like, oh, hang on, wait, what, what do I need to pack? What do I need to bring? Where am

09:49I going? When will I come back? Whereas if I tell you every step of a journey, as best I can, you're

09:55going to feel more prepared. Of course, you feel at ease. I mean, the knowledge helps you sort of

10:01foresee what's to come. Absolutely. And without knowledge, like the right knowledge,

10:07you can't make an informed decision about anything. Absolutely. So

10:12you're never, ever going to have peace of mind if you're making important decisions,

10:19if you only learned about it two minutes ago. Right. Right. Absolutely. So it's interesting

10:25that you mentioned so exercise and nutrition obviously are key during the pregnancy.

10:30What about work? Because I know that it's one of those things that we have to deal with. I mean,

10:35until your maternity leave, you're going to be working. You're going to be under stress.

10:41How can women manage that? And how important is it to manage stress during a pregnancy? Because

10:46how can it affect the baby? We know that prolonged stress can directly affect a baby.

10:57One of the common like links is a risk, slightly heightened risk of premature labor, for example.

11:02Yeah. But when we think about work,

11:09you're basically in a really long interview process for the biggest job of your life when

11:15you're pregnant. Right. Because being a parent is a job. It's just a not paid one with no holidays,

11:22but it's a job. And we know that the way that the working culture nowadays is not set up for

11:32women who are either pregnant or postpartum. It's still not. We're still really not great at

11:39that generally, like globally. We're not doing great. Yes. So it's hard, but you really have

11:47to kind of put yourself and your baby first. Whether that is having a meeting. I know working

11:54hours can be quite long. So whether it's having a meeting and saying to your boss,

11:58look, I'm really, really struggling. How about I do this day and this day from home? Or, you know,

12:05just it's having that discussion of right. What can we do? Like, how can we meet in the middle?

12:10Because your employers will always get the best out of you. Oh, yeah. If if they give you that

12:16sort of room to work within your means at that time, especially during pregnancy. We know that

12:22the first trimester you may have nausea, vomiting. You might not be able to be more than two feet

12:27from the bathroom. Absolutely. And that's difficult. And we know in the third trimester that

12:32that kind of some of that nausea can come back. But fatigue, it's tiring growing a human body.

12:38Yeah. So kind of thinking, how do we work around these things and still maintain that output that

12:46you're you need to give for work and also requesting help when you're at work. So if you

12:54have an overwhelming amount of tasks or presentations or anything like that, just

13:00saying, is there anyone who can help me with one or two of these? And it's really hard. We're not

13:05good at asking for help generally as women. We just kind of get on with it. Yeah. But

13:11stress is not going to if you're eating well, you're moving, you're educating yourself,

13:17you're doing everything right. But you have overwhelming stress at work.

13:21Absolutely. It's it's going to negate what you're doing.

13:24Yeah, absolutely. I love that you mentioned that we we find it difficult to ask for help because

13:28we've sort of been conditioned to prove that we are capable of doing everything and anything

13:34without any help. And it defeats the purpose because everyone needs help at a certain point

13:39in life, even men. I mean, it's not it's not just nothing to do with us being women, you know. So

13:46OK, you mentioned nausea and that's why I want to go back to that. Can the pregnancy aversions and

13:52these like the the pickiness when it comes to food, can they be serious? Can they turn into

13:58something serious? And how can women control them? It's unlikely to turn into something serious in

14:05that if you have the most pregnant women have an aversion to one or two things, it's very rare to

14:10have aversion to completely to all food. Right. Some women who have extreme nausea and vomiting

14:17called hyperemesis. It's a very that's a very serious condition. And it's not just morning

14:22sickness. It is morning, noon, night sickness. They cannot keep anything down that can seriously

14:28affect both mom and the pregnancy, the baby. But general food aversions usually they just come and

14:36go over a few weeks, sometimes after the first trimesters passed. You know, there's no more food

14:44aversions sometimes in the early few weeks. You'll you know, I've I hear mom say to me, I tried to

14:51have my coffee this morning and I couldn't even smell it. Wow. And that might stay that way for

14:56the rest of pregnancy. I know people that haven't eaten things since the first 12 weeks of their

15:02pregnancy because they just have that memory of it making them feel so nauseous. Yes. I did hear

15:08that some of these aversions actually continue after childbirth. Like someone can just put you

15:13off. Yeah. They're put off by that certain food or drink. Interesting. So how do you deal with

15:18the severe cases then? Like what if like a woman has the severe aversions to certain to all foods

15:25or like cannot keep food down, has severe morning, night sickness? Because I had a friend that was

15:32like that. And I think her doctor, you know, put her on some sort of protocol. But like,

15:37how do you deal with that? It's very difficult to manage. And there's a lot of research about

15:42it going on now. And we are making like progress. The research is is really, really great. And it

15:49seems like we're getting closer to figuring out who is more predisposed to suffer with that.

15:54Interesting. But it really is something that is medically managed for the most part. So if you

16:00cannot stomach any food, water, you're most likely going to have to be admitted into the hospital

16:07because we would have to hydrate these women with an IV to keep their electrolyte balances

16:13because our electrolyte balances are so important for organ function in general. So it's it's about

16:19maintaining all of that to keep the organs healthy, not just to keep mum fed, to keep baby

16:24fed. It's about like fundamentally like the building blocks of our body. Oh, absolutely.

16:29Okay. And then how can like the family or like partners support women during their pregnancy

16:34journey? Like what kind of support can your surroundings offer you during that journey?

16:39So one of the best things that partners or family members can do is if they're going to be

16:49the birth partner. So it's not always dad. Sometimes it's your mum, sometimes it's your

16:53sister, your best friend, you know, whoever you're comfortable with. But they need to be coming to

16:59antenatal education classes with you. Right. So what you're learning, they learn. No, like, oh,

17:05this isn't for dad. It's all for dad or it's all for your birth partner. So knowing that you have

17:09that one constant person who's kind of there with you, absorbing the information, going to

17:14appointments. It's not just on you to listen to everything and to think of the questions. So

17:21that's something that I say quite a lot. Like even if you have to write questions down and ask next

17:25time, just helping out if you're suffering from fatigue, nausea and vomiting, just helping out

17:33like, can I walk the dog? Can I, shall I get you an Insta shop and get it delivered to you? You

17:40know, just really simple things like that. But when you're so exhausted, you can't move off the

17:44sofa. Right. Those things are, they'll change your day, they'll change your week. Right.

17:49And one thing I think is super important with family and friends is that you need to ask them,

17:58and this isn't it, like it's indirectly supporting you, but if they have had a traumatic experience

18:06with their own birth or pregnancy, not to tell you. Oh, right. So I like that. Yeah. So people,

18:14we're like, it's human nature. We talk about the bad stuff. We don't really see a lot of

18:19positive stuff being shared. That's how we are. That's how the world is. But asking like your

18:27mom when she's like, oh, well, I was in labor with you for 15 hours and you did this. You know,

18:33we always hear stories. Everyone shares their birth story with you and there's always some

18:38drama in it. And that's so fine. Ask them to do it after your birth. Because one of the things that

18:45sticks in people's heads when I talk to women is, well, my auntie said this and my best friend,

18:49this happened to her. Is it going to happen to me? And I'm like, shouldn't even be in your head.

18:54These negative thoughts. We don't need to plant seeds of doubt. So you're asking your friends

19:00and family to like, just really buffer what they're sharing with you, because you're not

19:07going to talk about, you know, planes falling out the sky to your friend who's about to board a

19:13plane. Right. Right. Exactly. So why are you going to do that in any other situation? I like that.

19:18I really like that. I think we tend to forget that, you know, like pregnant women, I mean,

19:24are already worrying enough. So we don't need to add to that. Like we don't need to talk about

19:29what happened to who, you know, it's just it's something that we can cut out.

19:34So the support and the do's and don'ts and I mean, everything that you've mentioned,

19:40how can that actually factor into the delivery aspect of, you know, that end goal? How does

19:48that help with can it actually help with having a smoother delivery? Yeah, absolutely. So if you're

19:56keeping on top of your nutrition, for example, one of the best things we do and we keep on top

20:03of our nutrition is keep our iron levels high. And that's important for birth. Right. So if we

20:08have low iron levels, most pregnant women will have a touch of anemia anyway. Okay, we have 50%

20:14more circulating volume. So we have lower iron levels. But if you're kind of maintaining that

20:21through your diet, then what you're doing is when we have good iron levels,

20:28we're reducing our risk of something like a postpartum hemorrhage. Okay, so it's all these

20:33like, because our muscles need iron, they need the heme, the stuff that carries the oxygen,

20:40because your uterus is a muscle. So it's kind of all these little things that people aren't told

20:44about. But all of these things are connected. When we're exercising and keeping mobile,

20:51what we're doing is we're keeping our like mind muscle connection going with our body,

20:57especially as our body changes, our center of gravity moves out as our bump grows. Right. And

21:02if we're learning how we move around that, then during labor, or birth, you can get into the

21:06position that you feel most comfortable. And you know, you can because you've been active throughout

21:13your pregnancy. We also know that the more sedentary lifestyle that we have, especially

21:20during pregnancy, encourages baby to be in that back to back position. So instead of the baby's

21:27back being sort of at the front or on the side, it's kind of along the back of your back, spine

21:32to spine sort of thing. And we want baby to be in an optimal position. Sometimes they're not,

21:39they do what they want babies. They're the boss, right? This has got nothing to do with the rest

21:43of us. It's their world we all just live in it. But it's really, I think for when we want a really

21:49positive experience with our birth, no matter how we give birth, it's all about doing what you feel

21:56you can within your power. So if you're doing all these things, you're going to go into birth

22:01thinking, okay, like, I've done I've done everything I can possibly do. And I've known my birth

22:09partner or whoever it is. I know they're on the same wavelength as me. I've taught them

22:16what to do when I react like this. They've got a copy of my birth plan. They know everything.

22:22You're going in, you feel supported. So all of these things that you do in pregnancy, and especially

22:28with the reducing the sort of negative noise around birth and pregnancy and all the scary stories,

22:34what you're doing is you're just creating yourself like a little bubble.

22:39And you only let the good stuff in. And that's what you go into the labour with.

22:43Yeah, absolutely.

Category

Transcript

Recommended