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Hello and welcome
My name is Ruth Ehrhardt
I invite you to join me for the one-year
Silent Birthkeeper Journey.
I am a mother, traditional midwife, and birth attendant from South Africa.
I have put this course together to share my own journey, learning, stories, and findings on this path of studying midwifery, being a birth attendant, and mother.
I humbly invite you to come, listen, learn and share together.
Together we weave our threads together, keeping the tapestry of birth and birthkeeping alive.
To find out more about me and my work please visit truemidwifery.com
This course is for:
Aspiring midwives, interested doulas, women, and mothers who want to explore and investigate for themselves whether this path is something they would like to consider further.
For those who are already walking this path, this is an opportunity to reflect and immerse yourself more deeply in your learning and to be part of a supportive community of birthkeepers from around the world.
You can expect to immerse yourself in the following over the 12-month journey together:
What is 'True Midwifery'? What does it look like?
A deep look at our collective and personal history as birthkeepers
Exploring and finding clarity on this path
Ceremony, dance, tradition, meditation, and song
Preparing an ideal learning environment for yourself and supporting one another
Listening skills
Self Care
Birth Stories, storytelling, and learning from birth stories
The Basic Needs of a Woman in Pregnancy, Labour, and Birth
Basic midwifery skills, terminology, and record keeping
Antenatal/Prenatal care
If you are assisting at a birth, what is your role in labour, birth, and postpartum?
Immediate postpartum care of mother and baby
Introduction to care and assessment of the newborn
Breastfeeding
Cultural competency in childbirth and care of women
Sexual Abuse Triggers in Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Postpartum
Pregnancy and Birth Complications
Difficult outcomes, grief, and death
Homeopathy and herbs
Connection and support within your birthing community
A Taste of the Silent Birthkeeper Curriculum
- Our Second Call
- What is a Midwife?
- The International Confederation of Midwives
- The Midwifery Model of Care
- The Philosophy of Midwifery
- Some Midwifery HerStory
- Exploring Midwifery (107:04)
- Pathways to Midwifery
- Linde's Pathway (47:21)
- Traditional Midwifery (12:11)
- Traditional Midwife in Malawi
- Zimbabwean Traditional Midwifery
- Pathways to Traditional Midwifery in a Modern World
- Conversation with Lana (57:47)
- Do We Need Midwives?
- Our Third Call: Connection and Self Care
- Pause and Reflect
- Breathing In (3:06)
- Nature First
- Words of Wisdom from Maria Sabina
- Nature Exercises (6:56)
- Self Care (35:05)
- The Healing Ripple Effect of a Beautiful Birth
- Acts of Self Love (20:09)
- Self Care Dream Dance
- Taking Care of Ourselves While we Serve
- Self Care Social Media Post
- Deep Listening and Loving Speech
- The Power of Connection (19:47)
- Non-Violent Communication (5:41)
- The Compassionate Birth Project (14:47)
- Who Cares for the Midwives?
- Burnout is Real
- Managing Stress
- Recommended Reading and Listening (14:52)
- Our Fourth Call: Creating our Learning Container
- Centering and Grounding (9:29)
- Introduction to this Section
- The Thinking Environment (15:17)
- More on the Ten Components
- Thinking Inhibitors
- Thinking Enhancers
- Deep Listening
- Thinking Pairs (10:42)
- Dialogue (31:45)
- On Listening
- Just Listen...
- 9 Alignments and 4 Agreements
- Our Fifth Call: Meeting the Basic Need of Pregnancy, Labour and Birth
- Introduction to this section
- Womb Meditation (12:44)
- Michel Odent
- Antenatal Scare
- Birth Preparation
- Looking at the Basic Needs (14:42)
- Preliminary Phase of Labor
- What is a Safe Birth?
- What Peace There is in Silence
- Circle of Elephants Birth
- Labour is like sleep
- Oxytocin (50:43)
- Hugging
- Synthetic Oxytocin
- Basic Needs Continued (39:07)
- Hello Darkness my old Friend
- The Good Old Thinking Brain
- Trust
- The Fetus Ejection Reflex (28:40)
- First Time I Witnessed a FER
- What is it About Birth?
- After the Birth (24:59)
- The Ideal Birth Attendant
- The Montessori Midwife: Understanding the Basic Needs of the Mother and the Unborn and Newborn Child (58:35)
- Words of Wisdom
- Knitting Midwives
- In this Moment...
- Challenging Tradition
- The Father at the Birth
- The Performance: Sex Like Birth
- Failure to Progress
- The Cat Who Adopts Ducklings
- Peace on Earth (3:02)
- Recommended Reading/Listening
- Our Sixth Call: Birth Stories
- Introduction to this section
- The Power of Stories
- Sharing Stories
- Healing Through our Stories (48:19)
- True Midwifery Birth Stories (52:11)
- Bungee Jumping Baby
- The Babycatcher
- Wild Naked Ladies
- Birth Talk (56:19)
- My Two Very Different Births (60:16)
- One long one, one short one (41:28)
- Reclaiming my Birth (66:13)
- Two Sisters Sharing (47:21)
- That Time I Rocked my HBA2C
- An Incredible Birth Journey (55:11)
- Birthing at The Farm (35:25)
- Home Water Birth of Twins
- Birthtellers
- Exploring your own Stories
- Recommended Reading/Listening
- Our Seventh Call: Loving Care During Pregnancy
- Introduction to this section
- When a Woman is Pregnant
- Hand washing as a meditation (6:26)
- Receiving Loving Care
- My Practice (23:01)
- My Equipment (47:47)
- Antenatal Care (21:37)
- Calculating Due Dates
- Waiting...
- The Tree and the Fruit
- Testing Urine
- Taking Blood Pressure
- Touching the Pregnant Belly
- Paperwork
- Herbs and Homeopathy
- Pregnancy Issues (28:20)
- High Risk Factors
- Potential Problems (37:45)
- Cholestasis and Early Labour (16:42)
- Pre-Eclampsia (18:23)
- Asking Some Questions...
- Exercises
- Recommended reading/listening
- Silent Birthkeeper zoom call
- Introduction to this section
- Jai Ma (5:59)
- Signs of Labour
- Home Birth Supplies (47:47)
- Arriving into the Birth Space
- Practicalities at a Birth (46:31)
- Listening to Baby in Labour
- Touch in Labour
- Touching the Yoni
- Putting on gloves
- Dilation and Labour 'Progress'
- Yoni Song
- Herbs and Homeopathy in Labour
- Pushing for First Time Mums
- Birth Without Directed Pushing
- Birthing in Water
- Birth of the Baby
- Cord Around the Neck
- Emergently
- Emergency Care Plan
- Change of Birth Plan (40:53)
- More Labour Complications (45:12)
- Meconium in the Waters
- Paperwork and documentation
- Exercises
- Recommended reading/listening
- Our Ninth Call: Mother & Baby
- Introduction to this section
- After the Birth... (24:59)
- The Basic Needs After the Birth
- Postpartum (26:11)
- Postpartum Care (26:11)
- Birthing the Placenta and Bleeding After Birth
- Retained Placenta (50:50)
- Examination of the Placenta (4:28)
- Little Brother - The Placenta Song (6:45)
- Giving Rectal Fluids, an alternative to IV Fluids
- Skin to Skin
- Do Not Rush to Cut the Cord!
- Newborn Exam (34:44)
- Vitamin K
- The Baby's Incredible Immune System
- Basic Needs of the Newborn
- Recommended reading/listening
- Silent Birthkeeper zoom call
- Introduction to this section
- Birth and Death
- Born Still
- Nature of Grief
- Thich Nhat Hanh on Grief and Loss
- Ram Das Perspectives on Death
- Liam Andrew
- How Grief can be Assisted - Mama Bamba
- Holding Grief and Loss as a Birthkeeper (188:53)
- Death and Disability
- My Story of Life, Love and Loss - Nadia's Story (173:29)
- Processing a Year Later...
- Ho'oponopono (6:56)
- Spirit Babies
- 3rd January - Silent Earthquake
- Recommended reading/listening
- Supporting Sexual Abuse Survivors in Childbirth
- Creating a Safe Space
- Sexual Abuse Triggers - video and audio (65:29)
- Sexual Abuse Triggers During Labour and Birth
- Power Differences Between Caregiver and Woman
- Unhelpful Reactions by Caregivers
- Clinical Challenges in Labour and Possible Solutions
- Postpartum
- Some Audios
- This is a Baby of Rape
- Ho'ponopono Prayer (6:56)
- Recommended Reading
Silent Birthkeeper Information Session
We held a Silent Birthkeeper Information Session in September 2024 for those interested in joining this immersion.
Here you will get a sense of the course and the community.
DISCLAIMER:
This course will not qualify you to practice as a midwife. This is purely an explorative journey for those interested in pursuing a path of birthkeeping, or to deepen the learning of those walking this path already.
