Sue Pollard - Midwife, newborn photograper and guardian to a new lifeAs I approach the end of my pregnancy, I wanted to celebrate such a special journey and invite my fantastic midwife Sue Pollard to share insight into the world of midwifery. Sue works for Annerley Midwives and has guided me through all of those 9 months, educating me through every stage of the way. Sue kindly agreed to chat with me to share her personal journey, the science and evidence based facts regarding pregnancies, all of the pregnancy myths, tips and tricks and her love for newborn photography as well. You’ve been a bus driver before becoming a midwife. What was the transition and what made you change your career paths? Oh my goodness. I have done so many things. My journey to midwifery is an interesting one. I was a bus driver, and then I got a job as an off-licence manager, this is where I met my husband. Whilst doing this, I started doing an Open University science course. I really loved it. My daughter was about 11 years old at that stage and I was looking at potential job opportunities for her - to know what she should be thinking of studying at school. Since her aunt is a nurse, I was just randomly looking at nursing stuff on the Internet and seeing what happens and what she would need. I stumbled across midwifery, and it ticked all of the boxes for me. I already had 2 children, so had an idea about childbirth. As soon as I started reading through all the requirements that it takes to become a midwife, I thought to myself “wow, yeah I could do that, I found something I can do and would truly enjoy doing!” My Open University courses meant I already had the entry qualifications. So, I contacted the course director of the university near me, and it just so happened that she has also done the same Open University course! Destiny! Destiny! So, I gave up my job at the off-licence and moved a bit closer to the university and went back to bus driving, so that I could fund myself through the course. I guess the rest is history. What were the requirements that ticked the boxes for you? Well, I don’t know why I thought that I would need loads more qualifications than those I already had. And it’s not something I would necessarily have considered before. However, the Open University course gave me the same science and the biology background that I needed to get onto the course in the first place, plus I found I really loved the biology. The idea of helping someone through such a lifechanging experience really appealed to me. Was it always Biology that you’ve always been attracted to? No, not really (chuckles). What happened was that my husband studied physics and science at university, and I was always saying “I could not do that, it’s way too brainy for me…!” And he said “No, actually you could, try this…”. So, I tried it and was like “wow” - I sucked it up like an empty sponge. So, I absolutely loved all the education and then being with women. That brings me to another question - it must be quite challenging to be part of this miraculous scientific process, at the same time as being surrounded with all of these pregnant hormonal mums or children carriers to be. So, what is it actually about being around pregnant people? You know when somebody is getting married, and everyone seems to want to hover around the bride? So, with pregnant women I get to be that person that is there with them - holding their hand all the way through this whole pregnancy process. Then I get to see them and meet with the baby. It’s a very positive experience, not like something that you get with general nursing, where you might have an ill patient. I guess it is very different from nursing in that respect. I just love going through the whole process with people. Seeing them becoming parents and develop as parents - witnessing the whole transition is fantastic. I may not remember every single woman that I ever met but I’m pretty sure that a lot of those women will remember me. So I want to make sure that I give them something very positive to look back on. Especially somewhere like Hong Kong where you have a lot of expats and they don’t have their families with them, I am so lucky that I get to be that person that helps you through that whole process which is so rewarding for me. There are so many physical, biological and psychological aspects to it. Absolutely! Everything comes together and everyone’s transformation, including coping mechanisms, is so different, isn’t it? Yes! And I feel that having had two children of my own I kind of have an idea where people are coming from. Although I haven’t done it in Hong Kong, I have been through the process of having a baby. That makes perfect sense. I was wondering how difficult it is for you to keep yourself updated with all of the new trends and science researches that come up for midwifery. When I look at the internet there are so many trends there that keep progressing and changing so much… So I need to make sure that my practice is always evidence based, not based on hearsay or on chat forums. There will always be so many different opinions such as to “my mum said this, my dad said that, and this is what we used to do, and my mum said that this is what she did with me”. I am a member of the Royal College of Midwives. They send important and updated data. Then at home on my computer, I have subscribed to a newsfeed that comes up on my homepage every day that tells me what’s going on, regarding research. On Facebook, I am a member of several groups that are specific to science or midwifery. For example, one of them is looking into Microbiome, one into Evidence based Midwifery etc. I think it’s all about having your finger in loads of places that are engaged in monitoring the sources, really. That includes reading the NICE guidelines (note: NICE guidelines are evidence-based recommendations for health and care in England) and keeping yourself updated with any changes. What was the latest trend that you recently bumped into? I am quite into looking at the microbiome at the moment which I mentioned before. And that is the relationship between the baby getting the bacteria from the mother’s vagina and that helping to programme the baby & immune system. So when, for example, people have a caesarean section without having their water breaking or the baby coming through the vagina, then the baby doesnt get the same type of microbes. That is an emerging aspect of childbirth that I think needs more attention. That is fascinating, indeed. I think it was about two days ago when I bumped into this “news” when people go through a c-section, apparently even when they have their curtain in front of them that they want to take the baby out of their own womb by themselves? Yes (chuckles), some people still want to feel like that they still have the childbirth experience as it’s “meant to be”. I think that most doctors would much rather be the ones who lift the baby out of the uterus then handing it to the mother but that is more about making sure that it is all sterile and reducing infection. However, there should always still be a possibility of doing the skin to skin contact with the baby, and delaying the cord clamping as well, before removing the placenta. And I guess that is another trend - delaying the cord clamping that has massive physiological and emotional benefits for the mother and the baby. What would you like people to learn about their pregnancy and about the whole process of being pregnant? I guess if there is anything that they don’t feel sure about, go and research it. If anybody tells you anything - doctors, friends, anybody, and you are still not quite sure - just go and research it. It may be factually correct with a good amount of evidence behind it, or maybe this is just another thing that someone found on the Internet. Do you have any favourite sources where to look? I would suggest looking into places that have evidence-based guidelines, such as the NICE guidelines or the Lullaby Trust (good place to look for things like infant’s cot death and baby safety). If you want to look at scientific journals, try Google Scholar. What are the most ridiculous myths about pregnancy and labour that made you laugh? Probably if you are carrying your baby very high or low, determining the gender of your baby. There is one more that is probably more “Hong Kong myth” and it can work both ways, but I’ve heard people saying if you are carrying a baby girl, she sucked all of your beauty - (so basically someone is telling them that they are ugly). I even had a colleague telling me that because I am craving pineapple during pregnancy then it definitely must be a girl! Yeah! You cannot tell the gender of the baby by just looking at somebody (chuckles), neither will any particular food cravings that you may experience. Coming back to you - you have lived in Hong Kong for over 8 years, what was the biggest culture shock that you learned? Oh! Some of the Hong Kong style of doing things - like for example the Confinement (ancient postpartum practice that comes from China) ladies and the family doing things, like for example: “We need to wrap up the person who just gave birth and keep her very warm so that the cold does not get into them”. So, when I go to their homes for the first time after giving birth and see them with mastitis and a temperature 39 degrees I say “we need to cool this person down” the mothers always come and wrap them even more, so they get even hotter. Or the next one would be not even bathing, using only ginger water, for basic hygiene for the first whole month. I’m sure it is based on some truth somewhere down the line, but in the modern age? Please shower (laughs). You need to be careful of infection and be mindful of these things. That must be quite hard - if you go to their homes after giving birth and their parents are there with them to “help them recover” - how do you communicate it out? I can only tell them the research and I don’t want to be drawn into a lot of debates over cultural norms and science. There is often a clash sometimes - yes, it can be quite uncomfortable - all I can do is to show them the latest evidence-based research. I need to recognize when to step back and also recognize that the health of Hong Kongers in general is really good - who knows maybe they are onto something that we in a Western world got wrong! What is it about your own personal pregnancies that you would change, after gathering all of the knowledge as a midwife? If I would have the chance to relive my pregnancies again with the knowledge that I have right now, I’m not sure if I would change a huge amount about my pregnancies, however I was a smoker back then (chuckles, hangs head!) - I wouldn’t be a smoker, and I would have had a healthier lifestyle back then. But the thing I would change the most would be the process of labour and the birth. Back then I was a ‘very good girl’ and I thought that I had to sit on the bed and have my IV. and just basically sit there while they were monitoring the baby for six hours and then follow the instructions on the pushing process. Right now, I would definitely do hypnobirthing, would have a lot of candles, some relaxing music, maybe a water birth if I was in the right place, move around and just be comfortable and do whatever I felt like. I would want to eat and drink all the way through rather than being in this cold clinic environment - I’d love to change it into more of a spa environment. Do you think that it is more dangerous for first time pregnancies to give birth at home? No! (chuckles). The research has shown that it is safer for women to give birth at home in low-risk pregnancies. Obviously high-risk pregnancies are something completely different. But if you have a low risk pregnancy and are supported by a midwife - do it! However It may not be as easy to do it in Hong Kong - it is still lacking the support of the medical community and it is not widely accepted in Hong Kong. Maybe at some point in the future it will change. It would be lovely if it did. But in countries where you can give birth at home and it is supported by the medical services then yep - absolutely go for it, as long as you are supported by an experienced midwife, who is ready to transfer you to the obstetrics unit if the need arises. How many home births have you had a chance to give, so far? Well, none in Hong Kong. I haven’t done that many - probably about 4 or 5. However please bear in mind when I was in the UK, most of my time was spent working in the hospital. If I had been working in the community, that would probably be different. I was working at the Midwife-led, standalone birthing unit where it was just me, healthcare assistant, a couple of birthing pools and no doctors. In fact, if we would need a doctor, we would have to put the person giving birth in an ambulance, for a 20-minute journey to a hospital. So that was like the next step up from a homebirth. I loved that job (laughs). You also do newborn photography! So I was wondering how did you start? Well, I was doing a home visit. I had already been doing my photography for a while - I’ve done a couple of wedding shoots (which I hated…) Oh really, why? Well at weddings you get a one chance to get THE shot and if you don’t get it right on the day, it’s not like you can bring them all back in and do it all over again. It is very stressful. So I did a couple of those, I did some landscapes and also did some more fashion-type beauty type shots for women, which I quite enjoyed but I kind of felt like people thought that if they were having photos of themselves, it was a bit vain. So, I was doing a home visit for this one lady, and she had had some photos gifted to her from her family member. She showed me her photos and I was pretty sure that even without any newborn photography training, I could make a better job of it. So I asked if she would like me to go around and try. She said yes - and it kind of started from there. Of course, it started with the whole journey of learning how to be a newborn photographer. A couple of years ago I set up my own business. It definitely gives me a creative outlet to what I love doing, which is midwifery, and they go hand in hand - making sure that the baby is safe. I always take my husband along. He is an extra pair of hands and ensures safety by observing the baby whilst I am trying to capture the shot. That’s lovely getting support from your husband as well! He doesnt get a choice!!! (laughs). He is very good - he wants to support me in my hobbies too! He is not as comfortable around newborns as I am, but he is quite happy to sit there and pat the baby’s bum for a few minutes whilst I’m getting everything sorted (laughs). My last question is whether you would be willing to share a few extra tips for someone who is experiencing their first pregnancy? Don’t listen to any of the negative stories - if somebody wants to always offload their story to you, it is a very cathartic thing FOR THEM - just put your hand up, say “STOP, I will listen to this after the birth of my baby, I don’t want or need to be hearing it now”. Don’t listen to anybody’s negative experiences, fill your head with positive thoughts because that is going to help you have a positive mindset. If you are thinking about the worst things that can go wrong - how is that actually going to help you? Having a positive mindset is going to increase your oxytocin and will help you to be in a more positive mindset which will benefit your baby as well. When you are in a negative mindset, you are more likely to have a high level of adrenaline and stress and that’s not going to be helping you or your baby. Follow Sue on Instagram: dbay_photography
Sue's Website: dbayphotography.com Annerley Midwives Website: annerley.otandp.com Annerley Midwives Facebook: AnnerleyMidwives
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AuthorAlex Edwards is a founder of Creative Womxn in Hong Kong who has media and journalism background but also experience in art community development and social media management. Archives
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