lindsay askins
photographer + doula
horses and birth…
“Owning, riding, breeding, and caring for horses has shaped almost every aspect of how I approach my role as a doula and birth photographer, I worked in both large and small animal clinics, and accompanied veterinarians on hundreds of farm calls for horses and cattle during my almost ten years in veterinary medicine. During that time, I learned a lot about how mammals give birth. When I became pregnant with my first baby years later, I was shocked that almost everything I encountered within prenatal “care” and hospital birth that was considered "normal" or "routine" was actually 100% contradictory to what I had learned about mammalian birth.
Humans are mammals, and mammalian birth is mammalian birth regardless of the species.
Obstetrics has much to learn from mammalian biology.
When I am in a Mother’s laboring and birthing space, I behave as though I am in a barn with a laboring or birthing mare. If that mare senses my presence, her labor will stall - or potentially stop altogether - as a protective measure to her and her unborn foal. Her adrenaline will spike which will then decrease her oxytocin levels. Mammalian labor and birth do not exist without oxytocin. Allowing the process of birth to function without disruption or intervention introduces the least amount of risk for both Mother and baby.
Over the years in this profession, I have realized most doctors, midwives, and nurses have never been taught what mammalian birth requires, and most have never seen it. They barge into rooms, flip on lights, and start speaking loudly and asking questions irrelevant to labor or birth. I see this most often in hospitals however, I have unfortunately witnessed this behavior in birth centers and private homes as well. There is a real lack of reverence or awareness of undisturbed birth in general. The phrase “failure to progress” which is often used as a justification for a Cesarean birth, is simply a label invented by obstetrics to explain a disturbed birth. In a sense, there has been more disruption and intervention than mammalian birth can tolerate before the process ceases to function.
Do you believe this happened to you? Do you want to prevent this from happening again? Are you expecting your first baby and you want to learn more about what mammalian birth requires in order to function as designed, without disruption? I moved away from attending hospital births in 2018 and now spend a lot of time helping expecting parents prepare for their baby’s birth, and support them in avoiding the pitfalls of obstetric birth. I offer this in the privacy of your own home, and worldwide virtually as well.”
