Lucinda Holman Doula & IBCLC

12/05/2024

https://www.facebook.com/thegirlgod/posts/pfbid0rBvYRWU49RckwUSKHZykY4SoStMp9ueg78mSUdXq86arhHMrHRDtY3tGbRryHzGXl

''All the eggs a woman will ever carry form in her ovaries while she is a four month old fetus in the womb of her mother.

This means our cellular life as an egg begins in the womb of our grandmother.

Each of us spent five months in our grandmother's womb, and she in turn formed in the womb of her grandmother.

We vibrate to the rhythm of our mother's blood before she herself is born, and this pulse is the thread of blood that runs all the way back through the grandmothers to the first mother.''

~ Layne Redmond, When The Drummers Were Women

Art by Arna Baartz

30/04/2024

This beautiful sunshine makes me feel Spring is finally here.

26/11/2023

I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may be sometimes not to expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a journal. A day when one has not pushed oneself to the limit seems a damaged, damaging day, a sinful day. Not so! The most valuable thing one can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room.

~ May Sarton
From Journal of Solitude.
[You can find her books here: https://amzn.to/47vb7aE ]

art | Bettina Baldassari
https://www.instagram.com/bettipigna/
https://amzn.to/47NIMMz

05/11/2023

Breastfeeding can be a beautiful act of love and support! 🤱💕 Here's a heartwarming moment from a family gathering where Elizabeth's sister selflessly fed her 12-month-old and Elizabeth's 17-month-old.

She said, 'It's a bit controversial, but we are both very comfortable with it and so are the babes! If we were sitting around a campfire in a cave, we would think nothing of it.'

We love how they embraced the magic of breastfeeding, making it a memorable family bond. 🙌💖

Share your beautiful moments with us, and let's continue to normalise breastfeeding anytime, anywhere! 📸

30/06/2023

Looking forward to this new breastfeeding group starting on Wednesday in Boscombe. Come down and say hello, we'd love to see you!

24/06/2023

😂😂

10/05/2023

Yes, they are ❤️

21/02/2023

A study has offered a unique perspective on place of birth by carrying out research into the experiences of women in Ireland who have given birth both in hospital and at home.

The authors begin by explaining that, while hospital care is perceived as the norm in western cultures, “Homebirth is at least as safe as hospital birth for those with low-risk pregnancies, yet access is strictly regulated.” (Gregory et al 2023)

The researchers collated the experiences of 141 participants who birthed both in hospital and at home between 2011 and 2021, and found that:

“Participants’ overall experience scores were significantly higher for homebirth (9.7/10) than hospital birth (5.5/10)." (Gregory et al 2023).

“In hospital, midwifery-led care scored significantly higher (6.4/10) than consultant-led care (4.9/10).” (Gregory et al 2023).

“Homebirth was perceived far more positively than hospital birth experiences across all aspects of care surveyed.” (Gregory et al 2023).

The authors conclude that, “This study provides evidence regarding the need for genuine choices for maternity care and reveals the importance of care which is respectful and responsive to divergent ideologies about birth.” (Gregory et al 2023)

You can see the study at https://www.womenandbirth.org/article/S1871-5192(23)00035-5/fulltext and we’ve just added this to our home birth information hub on my website.

This is just one of the studies that I’ll be sharing in my monthly Birth Information Update, which we will be sending out to our email friends next week. If you’re not on our list and would like to be, you can sign up at www.sarawickham.com

And if you’d like more information about homebirth, and the evidence for its safety, I have an information hub on this topic, which you can find at https://www.sarawickham.com/research-updates/is_home_birth_safe/

13/02/2023

🥰

Our very own senior student, Ashley Jungjohan is a twin herself. When I asked her what’s the most important thing for me to know about twins, she responded immediately that they don’t like being apart. Even in birth.

And when baby A was waiting for her sister, we made sure to remind her that her sister was safe and joining her soon.
When sister finally joined us, we put the babies cheek to cheek and all the crying immediately stopped.
I don’t know if it was the exhaustion, or the triumph or simply the holiness of the babies being reunited, but there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

(Dutch Mama Doula and Photographer)

15/01/2023

❤️

13/01/2023

Mothers sharing with mothers is a fundamentally female approach to problem solving

09/01/2023

❤️

I'm starting my posting this year with this quote, which might be the most important sentence I've ever written.

Your birth decisions and experiences are nobody's business but yours.

You have the right to make the decisions that are right for you and your baby.

No matter whether that's to do with where you give birth, who you have with you or what you want going on around that.

We need to ensure that ALL birth decisions are respected.

No-one should be hassled, groomed, shamed, coerced or bullied about pregnancy and birth decisions.

Before, during OR afterwards.

This quote comes from my book, "What's Right For Me? Making decisions in pregnancy and childbirth."

That and my other books have helped tens of thousands of women and families for more than 20 years.

If you need information on induction of labour, Anti-D (RhoGAM), group B strep, vitamin K, placental birth or any other birth decision, I have a website full of information at www.sarawickham.com

I also have books on each of these topics, which are written to help you make the decisions that are right for you.

Your body. Your baby. Your decisions.

Happy 2023 💜💜

01/01/2023

❤️

Happy and loving 2023
“Babies...capable of manipulation?!
I don’t think so.
And a society that perpetuates a belief system like that needs a serious reality check.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Why have babies if not to dote on them?

Why have babies if not to hug them and hold them and make them believe without a shadow of a doubt that they are truly loved, unconditionally, day and night, whether they’re chill or high needs?
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The way you respond to your baby literally wires her brain. It sets the stage for the love she believes she deserves for the rest of her life. It builds neural connections that determine how she will experience the world.
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Taking care of a baby’s physical and emotional needs allows her to focus on learning and growing and experiencing life from a place of calm and presence.
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Hold those babies mama. Pick them up. Carry them. Dote on them. Delight in them. Light up when you see them. Love them. Show them the joy their presence bring you. You simply cannot spoil a baby with love.
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Please tag a mama who needs this today. 📷:Renee 

🔥 Counting down the Top 10 posts of 2022 as we ring in the new year….2023 is going to be a good one, I can just feel it! 🔥”

Repost •

#2023

14/10/2022

❤️

When I was nursing my first little one, we had a black Chevy Nova and there was a hole lot of milk spray on the dashboard. It was clear that milk didn’t just come out from one single hole. You may have noticed this, too.⁠
⁠
But years ago, midwives at The Farm in Tennessee, enrolled in nursing school, were told by an OB that it does come out of just one hole. Amongst them, several were breastfeeding, so they showed him – it’s a spray.⁠
⁠
It's easy to be convinced that the person in the white coat knows more about how your body works than you do. But you know your body better than anyone else. You are the expert, you are the authority.⁠
⁠
What I love about this story is that it reminds us that it’s the experienced women - the mothers and grandmothers who have done this before - that can often teach us the most. If our own bodies are the library; each other's are the university.⁠
⁠
If you are a pregnant or new mama I encourage you to reach out to the experienced mamas, the grandmothers, and aunts, the healers, the wise women and sages in your circle. The women who have walked this path ahead of you - sometimes three, four, five times - so that they can tell you where it gets steep, where the pitfalls are, where to stop, rest, replenish. You don't have to carve your own trail when there are hundreds and thousands of footsteps to follow.⁠ I’m here for you, too.
⁠
And what if your milk isn’t coming out in a spray right bod - because you’re struggling to produce enough? It’s so emotionally wrenching to be worrying about your baby’s weight while trying to establish feeding your baby and can be filled with so much anxiety and dread! Often I’m asked about herbs. These are my top 3 from my own wise woman basket:⁠
🌿 Fenugreek ⁠
🌿 Silymarin, an extract from from Milk Thistle ⁠
🌿 Moringa ⁠
⁠
And please continue to turn to the wise women for support. Happy , mamas 🧡
📷

03/09/2022

❤️

29/08/2022

💜

kkhorhnphotography.com

Happy Black Breastfeeding Week

21/08/2022

❤️

Doulas in the news! We were pleased to contribute to this article in in The Sunday Times today sharing the benefits of doula support.

We were able to share that Doula UK doulas supported nearly 2000 births last year, and 2500 families were supported postnatally. An increase on last year. 😍

The article highlights the possible benefits of doula support from studies:

‘…women who work with a doula have shorter labours and are less likely to have unwanted interventions, including caesarean, forceps or ventouse deliveries.’

‘Postnatally, mothers supported by doulas have greater breastfeeding success, more confidence and lower rates of postnatal depression.’

Of course doulas are not only for celebrities, nor are they the preserve of the rich, famous or reserved only for the middle class. Doulas are for all.

Happily this article also mentions our Doula UK Access Fund which provides free doula support to those who cannot afford a doula and who are more vulnerable.



Find a doula to support you from our directory of over 650 birth and postnatal doulas working across the UK.

www.doula.org.uk or Link in Bio.

20/08/2022

😉

Pretty much. And aside from the valuable nutritional content, nursing through toddlerhood is pretty much the most helpful parenting tool in my experience.

04/08/2022

In 2021, I wrote a new book about induction of labour.

And when I looked at some of the professional body responses to the less-than-stellar ‘evidence’ concerning induction of labour, it made me want to re-share this information.

No-one has to make decisions about induction (or anything else) ‘in partnership’ with any health professional.

A woman has the right to make any and all decisions about her body, her baby and her childbirth journey.

Herself.

No matter what the policy, the guideline, the evidence or anybody else says.

It’s up to you to decide what’s right for you.

Your body, your baby, your decisions.

End of.

Lots of information and details of my books if you’d like to get informed about induction at www.sarawickham.com/iol

03/08/2022

Yum!

02/08/2022

When I was pregnant for the first time, I heard a mother recommend we get the hang of breastfeeding lying down asap in order to get the maximum amount of rest possible with a new baby. Of all the advice I've heard on breastfeeding this is undoubtedly the best.

After a frightening separation immediately following my baby's birth, I struggled to breastfeed him. I often ended up lying down with him, exhausted, and at a loss how to encourage him to latch on. He seemed to fight with my breast, as though he were trying to get it out of his way rather than into his mouth. And it was lying down, coiled around him, my lower arm under my pillow, knees bent with his feet resting on my thigh, half drowsing in and out of sleep, that he first managed to latch on well and breastfeed properly.

Throughout time and all over the world, mothers have been discovering this pearl of mother wisdom for themselves.

01/08/2022

❤️

My toddler has been sick for five days. In his fever, at times he has been agitated and inconsolable until he can nurse at my breast.

Once he latches, he is immediately delivered into comfort. He sinks into layers of sleep, like a scuba diver on slow descent into the deep blue.

I watch everything in him relax and surrender. His body presses heavy and flushed against my skin. Even after his cheeks stop moving from sucking, he keeps his mouth firmly on my breast, his face intent as a solemn prayer. He is fully held.

Some would say he’s using me as a pacifier. Do they forget that the pacifier was designed to imitate me— mother?

I know there is something much deeper at work.

Our bodily connection is not a straightforward insertion of any ni**le prong to mouth hole.
My ni**le is not an incidental plug to his need.
My body is not a commodity he is seeking.

I am original peace to him. Spirit passes between our flesh.

Here is a remembrance of the bond that we shared when he, in my belly for nine months, floated in absolute safety. He returns to that state of primordial comfort, instinctual attachment. We return briefly to the state of when we were one body.

I could say this nursing bond we share is rewarding. But even that feels too prescriptive and tame, oriented to a modern culture of productivity and gains.

Most days, my child attaches to my breast as ordinarily as I take a sip of water. But every now and then, I get a window into something sacred as I watch an ancient story come to life between us.

I remember that I am animal. I remember that I am human. And somewhere in between those blood memories, I am stirred back into my body’s own forgotten innocence.
(Please receive this excerpt as one small slice of a much larger story. My celebration of the beauty and power of breastfeeding today is one part of my story. This story includes an emotionally intense start to motherhood, a labored and painful initiation into breastfeeding, the use of pumping and formula as allies, a sense of triumph in experiencing an 18-month nursing relationship, and so on. Let’s remember that every story is more complex than what we can see in one moment.)

📷 by my #1 partner in life: Lloyd Gray

06/07/2022

🍉

29/06/2022

💜

I still stutter when the receptionist asks me your date of birth. The day and the month seem to scramble around in my head.

And I've no idea why. Because that date, once a day like any other, is now the only date. It screams out at me from the calendar now. A separator of lifetimes. There is only Before Casey and After Casey.

You've taken to calling me by my actual name lately. "Karen!!" you shout up the stairs, which sounds so funny from you. Your dad goes to correct you, but I wish he wouldn't. I like it. It feels like the before and the after, the old and the new are getting acquainted. Like I can be both.

Because, even three years in, I still feel like I'm playing mum when I ring your nursery school with a forced authority: "Hi. This is Casey's Mum".

And it seems more unfathomable the older you get. Walking past the playground and hearing the murmur of children, knowing that YOU are amongst them. Out there in the world. That one of those little yells belongs to me. A dizzying mix of pride, disbelief and terror.

How am I somebody's mum? But also, how did I ever not know you?

Art: Ellen Marcellis ( on Instagram)

Words: Karen McMillan (Mother Truths)

From "Warm Like Summer: Little Stories of Early Motherhood"
Available to buy: https://linktr.ee/mother_truths

Mother Truths

🍂🍁 For support in your gentle parenting journey, pick up a copy of our gorgeous autumn issue which is out now!. Grab your copy from supermarkets throughout NZ and newsagents throughout Australia! To find your local stockist, or to subscribe, visit https://linktr.ee/TheNaturalParentMagazine 🍂🍁

12/06/2022

Reposted from

Question: who do you think is really in charge of your birth?

Answer: YOU ARE

Unfortunately, society doesn’t view it that way and many of us feel like we have to do what we are told by doctors and health care professionals.

Let’s start changing that. Let’s take back control!

19/05/2022

❤️

As I'm walking between the gardener's shed and the fields, you're nursing. Then you pop off, settle into sleep, and are my silent little co-worker for a few hours of weeding, planting, hauling mulch or spraying nutrient spray on all of the plants I take care of.

Sometimes I think about my shoulders and how I am pretty sure you actually weigh five hundred and twenty three pounds more than your alleged seventeen pounds.

Often, though, I think that there is poetry in this. In the beating of your heart and in your soft little breaths. In the size of you and how you sit against the size of me. In the delicate chill of early morning as the sun tries so hard to warm everything up, but the shadows still feel like the chill outside of a cave or an ancient mineshaft. There's songs and lyrics about the feelings of joy at having you and the sadness of the time lost from being myself. The bumblebees in the purple spikes of flowering bugleweed, and the dappling of sunshine that sways in a slow dance with each breath of the wind.

I don't pause to put any of it to paper, though. And the moment passes by, unrecorded. At the end of the day, though, I can feel all our steps in my muscles as I sink into bed and stretch out, exhausted.

It would be easy to remember just the weight of the moment, and to let all of the other little details go. To let them dance away on the wind like the petals from the cherry trees in the orchard. More ephemeral than the tiny green fruits that will spend all season ripening into a soft, tart, bright red.

You're next to me, right now. Your eyelashes are longest in the middle of your eyelid, not a uniform fringe. Your newest tooth is barely poking out, and the tooth next to it has just started to break through. You have started to grab for my face when you look at me, and when I kiss your little nose you squeal in delight and tense your entire body like you're doing crunches at the gym.

Your tiny newborn self with unfocused eyes and hypnotic little wavering limbs? That version of you is already passed. Blown away on the breeze of time. It moves so slowly and so gently, yet it sweeps everything away before I even notice that it's disappearing, unrecorded. Like the snippets of poetry that passes us by during all these gorgeous ordinary moments.

10/05/2022

09/05/2022

❤️

And I wouldn't have it any other way. ❤❤

Visit my fundraiser to help me on my journey towards becoming a midwife, links in the comments:
https://www.facebook.com/295509681082180/posts/1005260993440375/

05/05/2022

Midwives make all the difference ❤️

Today is International Day of the Midwife.

Literature from around the world shows that women who have midwife-led care have better outcomes, a higher chance of a live, healthy baby, less unwanted intervention and are more satisfied with their experience.

There are no known downsides to midwifery-led care.

Midwives can make a huge difference but, as the World Health Organization points out, socio-cultural, economic and professional barriers must be overcome to allow midwives to practice to their full potential.

In honour of the day, we have updated our 'midwifery practise wisdom and reflection' information hub. This treasure trove contains links to many articles and blog posts about midwifery practise.

Several of them are the result of my sitting down (as a researcher and colleague) with groups of midwives to record their thoughts and knowledge on different topics.

I hope you enjoy the articles and posts. You can find them at https://www.sarawickham.com/topic-resources/midwifery-practice-wisdom-and-reflection/

And to all the midwives out there who strive to offer amazing care to women and families despite often working under horrendous constraints and awful conditions, I send a huge hug.

14/02/2022

She's awesome!