Aurore encourages providers to do 'emotional check-ins' and find out about the support plan for the new baby.

Transcript

I guess what I would encourage the training to involve, and encourage new midwives to consider, is to have… to create space, and allow space in appointments for that emotional check-in. The how are you doing, not just physically, but, how is it feeling, what’s it like, are you… how are you feeling about becoming a mum, especially if it’s a first-time mum? What supports do you have in place? And not just the physical supports of how’re you going to learn to breastfeed and change a diaper. But some mums experience a lot going on, as they become a new mum. And do you have people that are going to come and check in on you, or just help you with feeding? And I don’t know if it’s midwives’ jobs to do that, to talk about, you know, the perinatal care beyond the six weeks, but even just posing the question, “Have you talked to anybody about how you’re going to care for things after the baby arrives?”

And maybe they have some contacts, or maybe they have like a checklist. You know, who’s going to help with cooking, have you talked about roles if you have a partner, role responsibilities, things like that. How are you taking care of yourself, how are you going to take care of yourself after your baby arrives? If you do this now, say, exercise, reading, as, you know, things that feel good, what are you going to do after the baby arrives, because your focus is going to be different? And so, if midwives can engage in that conversation, or at least engage in the questions, and see if the client wants to talk about it, then that gives a bit of space. And if the client doesn’t want to talk about it, you know, then that’s fine.

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