Bio
British Nationality
Born in Rhodesia 1950’s
Educated The Bulawayo Convent
The Teachers College
Executive Secretarial Diploma
Fluent in both French and English
I am one of the eldest of eight children and I suppose my love of, and understanding of children and babies started there. The first half of my working career was as a teacher in various Junior schools in the then Rhodesia now Zimbabwe
Having my own son made me realise how little young women know about one of the most important roles they are ever going to play, that of being a competent and happy mother.
In this fast changing world of ours we have moved so far away from what our lives should be, Careers, living away from our families (I for one was living on an isolated farm when I had my son with absolutely no support and no one to explain to me what to do with this terrifying bundle for whom I was entirely responsible! ) have taken most of us from the loving support of a large extended family.
Before the Second World War, women did not go far from their families and marriage was often in the same village or town that they were born in and when a baby came along, it was welcomed into the home by various aunts, sisters, grandmothers and all the other women of the village. Every advice and all the collective knowledge on how to raise a child was put to the service of the mother and a young woman did not feel the terrors and stress of doing it all alone.
Maternity Nursing has come into it’s own in the past decade as young woman realise how little they know and how much they need the support of someone who has the experience to help guide them through these difficult few months. There are a number of books on this subject some of them put together by very competent Midwives and nurses who have also over time accrued useful and sound understanding and laid down this knowledge for us to read and benefit from.
I have read and tried most methods long my career, and whilst I am absolutely in agreement that there is a natural rhythm of waking and sleeping and feeding for every baby and it is vital that in the early days one knows and understands how to adjust it until one has a workable routine which fits our modern life style, it takes more than a book to help in those early hours, when one is left standing at the steps of the Hospital with a tiny human being who’s very life depends on you.
For the last twelve years, I have been accruing knowledge and experience and learning about New born babies, their needs and how to start them off in a very comforting and easy routine that gets them feeding well and taking an active interest in their waking moments; Breast Feeding, without the usual anxiety and teaching how to increase milk supply; Most importantly, setting in place a daily routine which encourages an interaction between baby and parents, learning to understand your baby and his/her needs, learning how to encourage communication between infants and guiding them (and their parents) towards a happy and expansive childhood.