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Birth in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Today is the last day of my last workshop in the UK for this tour. It is an Active Birth workshop and is being held in the Birmingham Women’s Hospital.

I was delighted to welcome Christine Choong from Malaysia, into the group. Christine is a British midwife, married to a Chinese obstetrician an they live in Kuala Lumpur. She is a graduate of our Graduate Diploma in Childbirth Education and Lactation Consultant, and she offers prenatal classes, support services for parents and acts as a doula when asked. She has been campaigning for better births in Malaysia for many years and her husband, Kho Hsiang, is a keen supporter of natural birth.

When I last visited Kuala Lumpur I was able to visit several hospitals and was dismayed by the birth practices that I saw - shared labour wards with no privacy and routine lithotomy, episiotomy, shaves and enemas and a conveyer belt approach to care. Malaysia was a British colony in its past and there are still echoes of western systems in place. Malaysia does have midwives (unlike Thailand, for example) yet maternity services are mainly staffed by obstetric nurses.

Christine says that in the past few years several obstetricians have begun to support alternative positions for birth, although only if requested. She therefore emphasises that parents make very definite requests of their caregivers, whom they should choose with care if they want something different from the routine production line that normally operates.

Breastfeeding is well supported and the BFHI has been adopted enthusiastically by hospitals and family health care services. I well remember seeing a woman presented with her baby for immediate breastfeeding just after she had suffered the most inhuman birth practices! The connection between fewer birth interventions and easier and more successful breastfeeding is one that few caregivers anywhere in the world are keen to campaign around. It always seems to fall into the “too hard basket”.

Posted by andrea at March 29, 2003 06:20 PM

Comments

I am living in Penang and have just descovered I am pregnant with my second child. My first child was born in Brighton, at home in a birthing pool with a midwife and my husband present. It was a wonderful, calm, and completely natural experience. I would like some advice, as I am living in Penang do you know where I might be able to find a Doctor who supports natural childbirth? I am not expecting to have this baby at home, but want to be able to give birth in a natural way free from intervention.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by: Natasha Sharp on July 1, 2003 04:26 PM

Comments

I am living in Penang and have just descovered I am pregnant with my second child. My first child was born in Brighton, at home in a birthing pool with a midwife and my husband present. It was a wonderful, calm, and completely natural experience. I would like some advice, as I am living in Penang do you know where I might be able to find a Doctor who supports natural childbirth? I am not expecting to have this baby at home, but want to be able to give birth in a natural way free from intervention.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by: Natasha Sharp on July 1, 2003 04:26 PM

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