Why I love the Radical Birth Keeper School

When I started my doula training a few years ago, I had grand notions that I would be able to support women to have the normal physiological births that they were seeking within the system. 

I thought I could contribute to healing the narrative of birth in our culture - that birth is dangerous, a medical event, and that women’s bodies are inherently flawed, broken, and are essentially machines. I thought that I could help change that, one birth at a time.

In hindsight, I see the naivety of this. Because as a doula, I witnessed women experience abuse, gaslighting, body autonomy violations, threats, interventions that they didn’t want, be lied to, and infantilised. I saw this happening in virtually every birth I attended in one way or another. 

I always saw something being taken away from women. I always saw the lack of trust in the woman’s body by her care providers, their lack of centering the woman. I saw how they were so at the effect of the time restrictions that they have, the policies, the paperwork, and how within this structure, in that framework, there could never really be authentic, with woman care.

I started to become disillusioned with the lack of scope I had to make real change in the birth experience for the women whose births I attended. It began to dawn on me that if I really desired to influence change, with real impact, and reconcile my increasing incongruence with that system, then I would need to step outside of that system to support women who were not willing to surrender their sovereignty, to submit to gaslighting, lies, abuse, the midwife roulette, and all the other unknowns that go with routine standardised care. 

I started to realise all the ways I had been holding back in my discussions with women about the system. All the ways I had withheld TRUTHS about the system. That was confronting for me to acknowledge that I had walked with women out of integrity because I had sought to soften the harshness of the system that they were choosing to birth in, and help them strategise how to make their births better, and build them up with false security notions of informed consent, which in reality, in the dynamic of a hospital institution, with that imbalance of power, simply can’t exist. I began to unravel all these threads and realised that to come back to a place of alignment and integrity when walking with women, I had to step outside the system, and start telling my truth.

The Radical Birth Keeper School (RBKS) came along at the exact right time for me. I’d already made the decision to transition away from births in the system. Revealing that felt super exposing and vulnerable. I received some criticism, “isn’t it better to be there for them through the trauma, so they don’t have to bear it alone”? The thing is, I don’t want to be trauma bonded to women I serve. I want to exalt them in their power. Women deserve to know the truth. 

Since doing the RBKS, I have no longer been holding back in my discussions with women. I have been honest. I have owned my biases and expressed them. This has been so liberating. It’s been received so well. Women value the truth. Women deserve this.

The 2 women who run this course, Yolande and Emilee were the voices in the birth world I would seek out for the past few years every time I wanted to be inspired and hear someone speak about birth in a way that resonated deeply with me. The opportunity to be in an immersive 3 month container with them, and other women who were on the same page as me, who truly believe in women, the brilliance of biological birth, the magnificence of women’s wise bodies, and the power that comes from women owning birth - birthing in their homes with their families, with no intervention - was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up, try as I might. I did try to ignore the call and signed up on the very last day (I had quite a lot of resistance!). 

I haven’t regretted joining, it’s been so mind and heart opening for me to realise I’m not alone in my views and philosophies about the revolutionary potential for birth, and to have sisterhood and support for pivoting away from the technocratic medical model of birth, which never felt true to me, has been so uplifting.

If you’re considering enrolling in the RBKS, I encourage you wholeheartedly. This is so much more than just a birth keeper training. The conscious leadership/self mastery tools are absolutely expanding for any woman and add so much depth to being a radical and integral birth keeper/ birth worker. Then, there’s the business mentoring, and that has been invaluable. I’ve relaunched my business, rebranded, received clarity and had a framework with accountability and mentoring to keep me on track and focused.

This training is truly holistic and full spectrum. There’s nothing like it out there. If you want to be at the forefront of the birth revolution, in community, then RBKS will exceed your expectations.

I’m offering 2 x business coaching strategy sessions with you if you use my affiliate link. One at the beginning of your journey and then 3/4 of the way through. I would be honoured to be the Aussie who introduced you to RBKS and offer you my time and reflections in this way. 

All my love!