The Basics
(consultant workshop material)
Key in helping parents determine what their own best birth decisions will be is:
Defining the problem:
For parents this will likely be that they want to avoid problems they see their friends and family struggling with, or they had a previous experience they would like not to repeat.
Rapport building:
In order to hear, understand and implement your recommendations, your client needs to trust you. People like people who are like themselves, so you are going to need to establish this mutual trust in the very first encounter.
Exploring beliefs:
It’s important to establish whether their beliefs about birth are based on factual reality or perceptual realty. Faulty beliefs about birth lead to faulty conclusions about options. It is very important to explore this before moving on to data gathering! If erroneous beliefs are challenged in the data-gathering phase, the information will be rejected and likely the client will lose faith in the consultant!
Data Collection:
This means from as many varied sources as possible. Steering them away from material that is non-productive, and exposing them to ideas they may not have known existed.
Analyzing Data:
Assist parents in using critical thinking skills to determine what information is based on fact (and can be substantiated) and what is based on perceptions (which are not evidece-based). Distill this newly deciphered information to determine what will be useful in their particular circumstance.
Recommendations:
Give the client your assessment of their situation, along with your suggestions on what they might do to move toward their stated objectives.
Implementation:
Assist the parents in finding the resources to implement the recommendations they feel they can adopt.
