EBB 65 - Navigating the Hospital Birth System with Midwife Afua Hassan
Evidence Based Birth®
Rebecca Dekker
4.3 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2019
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, I interview midwife and Evidence Based Birth Professional member Afua Hassan. Afua has practiced as a midwife since 1984. In 2011, she expanded her home birth practice and founded The Birthing Place, Houston's first freestanding birth center owned and operated by a black midwife. The name "The Birthing Place" was chosen by Afua in response to her observation that many women felt that they needed a hospital and a doctor to deliver babies. In her practice, Afua's philosophy is that the mother is the captain of the birth, the partner is the co-captain, and she - as midwife - is the advisor. As of today, she has assisted in nearly 1200 births.
We discuss Afua's initiatives to educate women on the hospital system and the medical model of care, as well as the steps she is taking to support the women in her community.
For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) and our Instructor program. Find an EBB Instructor here, and click here to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.
RESOURCES:
Learn more about Afua and The Birthing Place here. Check out her recent feature on the Today Show at the same link!
You can also find The Birthing Place on Facebook and Instagram.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everyone on today's podcast we're going to talk with Afu-Haasan about the importance of |
| 0:06.0 | understanding how to navigate a hospital birth. |
| 0:12.2 | Welcome to the Evidence-based birth podcast. My name is Rebecca Decker and I'm a |
| 0:16.7 | nurse with my PhD and the founder of evidence-based birth. Join me each week as we |
| 0:22.2 | work together to get evidence-based information into the hands of families and professionals around the world. |
| 0:28.0 | As a reminder this information is not medical advice. |
| 0:32.0 | See EB Birth.com slash disclaimer for more details. |
| 0:37.0 | Hi everyone today I'm super excited to welcome Afua Hasan to the |
| 0:41.8 | evidence-based birth podcast. Afua created her to the in In 2011, she founded The Berving Place, |
| 0:55.0 | the first freestanding birth center owned and operated by a black midwife in Houston. |
| 0:59.0 | Today, she has more than 30 years of experience |
| 1:02.0 | and she's assisted in more than 1,100 births. |
| 1:05.6 | The name The Burthing Place was chosen because after about 15 years of practice, Afua realized that many |
| 1:11.0 | women did not believe that they could actually give birth. |
| 1:14.0 | The majority of their introductions to the medical model of care left them feeling that they |
| 1:18.1 | needed a building called a hospital and a person called a doctor in order to give birth. |
| 1:24.0 | A Fuwa's philosophy in her practice is that the mother is the captain, the partner is the co-captain, |
| 1:29.6 | and she is the advisor. |
| 1:31.0 | A Fuwa is also a professional member at Evidence |
| 1:33.6 | Space Birth and we're super excited to have her on the podcast. Afuwa welcome to |
| 1:38.2 | the Evidence Space Birth podcast. Oh wow thank you so much for having me today. So tell us ifua how did you get into |
| 1:46.2 | birth work and becoming a midwife? I know you shared your story on the today show |
... |
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