When my children were small we read and reread a book called “One Duck Stuck” by Phyllis Root and illustrated by Jane Chapman. I am sure when they wrote and drew for this book which was published back in 2001, they didn’t think that it would get mentioned in a motherhood blog at The Pregnancy Centre.
The book starts with one duck who “gets stuck in the muck, down by the deep green marsh.” The story goes on through each of the two, three, four, five and through to ten other types of animals who came to help but couldn’t pull the duck out of the marsh. So each next page ends with “No luck. Still stuck.” Until, you guessed it, right at the end when ALL of the animals get together and respond to the duck’s cry again of “Help! Help! Who can help?” with “We can, We can!” So all of the animals, who all had made a different noise or sound when by themselves, all together helped to get the one duck out of the muck!
When I was working as a part of a team of health professionals in women’s health in the Goldfields, Kalgoorlie, WA, we all had an integral role to play in the care and health of a pregnant or postnatal women. There were many wonderful midwives, child health nurses, doctors, an obstetrician, a women’s health centre, other physio’s and allied health members who all knew what each other did, because of the size of the city and did a great job of referring women usually to the right person, in the right place, at the right time. We worked well and hard together to cater for the varying and specific needs of women who were choosing to have their babies there.
We offered specific advice in antenatal classes, where the physio had an integral role, so that no one missed out on hearing about their pelvic floor muscles and definitely no one went away without knowing how to do their pregnancy abdominal bracing, or knowing where to seek help if they needed further advice on this or with any pregnancy discomforts. It saddens me to hear that in different parts of the country, what should be common place is in fact not. Many women still don’t know what I would call the essential basics on how to look after their own bodies during and after pregnancy. While they may hear a lot about labour preparation, they are sometimes missing out on understanding their bodies fully in areas that can have quite a long term impact on their life.
For this reason, we are going right back to the beginning again at The Pregnancy Centre, and starting with, what we did many years ago in 2000. We are bringing back the booklet As Your Shape Changes, with a new look cover and updated page records and charts for you to USE during your pregnancy. Head knowledge is one thing. Knowing and doing are not the same and we want you to not only know but DO the important things for you. Simple in its use, it is conveniently sized to travel with you for your appointments with your exercise or health professional, who can help you to measure and record your personal body fitness details and USE this new and revised booklet. The good thing about it is that it can be used together with any other program that you are doing. So together we can add that extra to give you the boost that you need to care for your body, so that you can also care for your baby or babies and enjoy motherhood more.
When I was the Special Projects Officer for the Pelvic Floor First project, we used the title or wording a number of times together we can make a difference. When you USE this booklet together with those other great programs that are out there, we believe it will all work together to give you the best results for you.