We are three weeks away from starting the next cycle of the Birth First Aid for Mother and Baby and I find myself wanting to speak to where this course actually comes from.
Not in terms of curriculum or structure, but in terms of roots.
From the age of 8, I was raised in a rural, mountainous part of South Africa, far from towns, hospitals, and easy access to help. We lived without electricity or hot water, and “making a plan” was simply part of daily life.
My mother, a farmer and a self-taught rural traditional midwife, was my first teacher.
Part of her work revolved around growing herbs, preparing natural medicines, and offering care to the local community.
Birth happened quietly, often in the background of everyday life. Sometimes in the middle of the night, and then life simply went on.
To be honest, it wasn’t something we, as children, paid close attention to. It was simply part of the landscape we grew up in. Women trusted my mother to sit with them while they birthed their babies, and this trust felt natural and unremarkable at the time.
Birth wasn’t feared. It was accepted as a normal part of life.
My mother had a still, calm, and deeply accepting presence. The women she supported often spoke of her quiet nature and her healing hands. And although much of this was absorbed unconsciously, it shaped something fundamental in me: a sense that birth, when held with trust and respect, usually unfolds as it should.
Later, as a birth attendant myself, I experienced those rare situations where a baby struggled to breathe, a mother lost more blood than expected, or a birth asked something extra of those present. These moments taught me that preparedness does not need to mean fear, and that calm, grounded response is very different from panic.
This understanding was later deepened through my work teaching Helping Babies Breathe and Helping Mothers Survive in African hospital settings. These experiences reinforced that even in moments of urgency, calm presence and simple, well-understood responses matter more than fear-driven reaction.
This is the soil from which the Birth First Aid course that I now offer grew.
The course is not about anticipating disaster or turning birth into a clinical event. It is about cultivating steadiness, discernment, and confidence. Knowing when to trust the process, and knowing how to respond when gentle, respectful support is needed.
Birth isn’t about fear. It’s about trust.
And when we hold birth with trust, and pair it with simple, well-understood first aid skills, we create safer, more held spaces for mothers and babies, without unnecessary intervention.
If this way of approaching birth speaks to you, you’re warmly invited to read more about the course and its upcoming cycle here
