Jo Askham Birth Attendant
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"..​I felt as if I had an angel by my side who every so often impinged on my inner world to help me relax more, to find my rhythm, to make me more comfortable, stronger, more capable, more empowered."

As a doula or birth attendant I will develop a relationship with you and your partner during pregnancy. I will help you to conceptualise your ideal birth and to develop your birth plan. During labour I will help to maintain the best birthing environment that you need to enhance the process of your labour. I will support you physically, emotionally and help you to work through decisions that may need to be made during the journey. I will also assist partners to give them the confidence to support the pregnancy and birth process. My overall aim is to serve and protect your familie's needs in order to achieve the best possible birth experience and outcome for you.

I will focus exclusively on your current beliefs about birth and help you with information to extend, support, build and ground these informed beliefs. We will also work with these beliefs and how best to support them in the current birthing options offered in Melbourne.

I support families in any setting they are wishing to give birth, which includes supporting you at home before transferring to your intended setting. 

About Me


Doula and bringer of community to life and birth through support, events, knowledge, and advocacy. I moonlight in the day as a student, website concocter, administrative consultant, and organise a broad range of birth & family events, camps, workshops, yoga, and support circles.

My passion lies in supporting optimal birth experiences and outcomes. I have had three babies of my own whose arrivals took me on a journey through a hospital birth and the process of two planned home births.  After a fully managed pregnancy and birth in the United States, I knew there must be some other way to better the 'production-line' birth experience and I discovered there was.
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This discovery lead me to realise that woman striving for a natural birth are in a better position to achieve this outcome if they trust in their body and its natural ability to give birth. They are also empowered with the knowledge to make necessary choices along the way in a system that may not embrace the same ideas. Being well informed and feeling physically, emotionally, and spiritually supported in the pregnancy and during the birth process leads to greater birth fulfilment however that journey looks.

As a doula since 2002, I have gained experience in homes, hospitals, and birth centres, family & sibling involvement, single mothers, same sex couples, a variety of ethnic & cultural backgrounds, inductions, VBACs, and C-sections.

All of the above and a continued passion for birth knowledge help me feel confident to assist birthing families find their power to have the best birth possible. I know this outcome is achieved by working closely with individual situations, personal connections, and intuition.
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Some of My Training
  • 2017 to Current - Rhea Dempsey Apprenticeship program
  • 2022 - Internal Pelvic Release Work
  • 2021 - Birthwork Training Part 1&2
  • 2019 - Spinning Babies w/Gail Tully
  • 2019 - When survivors give birth.
  • 2018 - Spinning Babies meets  Birthwork
  • 2017 - Spinning Babies - Jinny Pang
  • 2015 - Birthwork Training Part 2
  • 2012 - Birthwork Training Part 1
  • 2010 - Birth Into Being  Training
  • 2008 - Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training
  • 2008 - NACE (now CAPEA) Childbirth Educator Training
  • 2008 - Optimum Birth Doula Education
  • 2007 - Rhea Dempsey's Birthing Wisdom - Birth Attendant/Doula Training
  • 2001 - Doulas of North America
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Doula Support Research


Continuous doula support  results in:
  • a labour shorter by 41 minutes.*
  • 39% decrease in Caesarean sections. *
  • 38% decrease in low APGAR scores. *
  • 31% increase in birth satisfaction. *
  • 16.9% decrease in anxiety. ***
  • 15% increase in spontaneous vaginal birth. *
  • 12.5% decrease in pain. ***
  • 10% decrease in pain medication use. *
  • 10% reduction in instrumental birth. *
  • 8.7% increase in initiation of breastfeeding. **
*Bohren et al. (2017), **Hans et al. (2018), *** Ravangard et al. (2017)

A systematic review of evidence by the Cochrane library, which reviewed fourteen trials involving more than 5000 women (Hodnett, 2003) found that:
The continuous presence of a support person reduced the likelihood of medication for pain relief, operative vaginal delivery, caesarean delivery, and a 5-minute Apgar score less than 7. Continuous support was also associated with a slight reduction in the length of labour. Six trials evaluated the effects of support on mothers' views of their childbirth experiences; while the trials used different measures....in each trial the results favoured the group who had received continuous support.

Earlier research show similar findings. Following their review of this evidence Klaus, Kennell and Klaus (1993) itemised the positive effects of doula care as:
  • 50% reduction on caesarean rates,
  • 25% shorter labour,
  • 60% reduction in epidural requests,
  • 40% reduction in syntocinon use,
  • 30% reduction in analgesia use and
  • 40% reduction in forceps delivery.
walking with women and their companions on their journey through pregnancy, birth and, early parenthood
Craftily concocted by Jo @ Mojain Pty Ltd
mojain.com.au
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