Showing posts with label facilitation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facilitation. Show all posts

Monday 12 December 2011

Quotes for Midwives

My last meeting with the lovely midwifery students I've been working with in Papua New Guinea is this morning.

 Pacific Adventist University Midwifery Students PNG
I've been surfing the net, looking for quotes that relate to midwifery, women and birth that I thought would inspire them.   I've come across the following and thought I'd share them with you.
"You are a midwife, assisting at someone else’s birth. Do good without show or fuss. Facilitate what is happening rather than what you think ought to be happening. If you must take the lead, lead so that the mother is helped, yet still free and in charge. When the baby is born, the mother will rightly say: “We did it ourselves!”  - From The Tao Te Ching
Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of our greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don’t only give your care, but give your heart as well. ~ Mother Teresa
Ask me for strength and I will lend not only my hand, but also my heart. ~ Unknown
If you lay down, the baby will never come out! ~ Native American saying
Offer hugs, not drugs ~ Adina Lebowitz
Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man (sic) will have discovered fire. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
  Just as a woman's heart knows how and when to pump, her lungs to inhale, and her hand to pull back from fire, so she knows when and how to give birth. ~Virginia Di Orio
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

For God hath not give us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~2Timothy 1:7
If I had my life to live over, instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished ever moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle. ~Irma Bombeck

Making the decision to have a baby – it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

What's done to children, they will do to society. ~Karl Menninger

A woman
in harmony
with her spirit
is like
a river flowing.
She goes
where she will
without pretense
and arrives
at her destination,
prepared
to be herself
and only herself.
~Maya Angelou


Saturday 10 July 2010

Facilitating Online 2010 Course

I'm feeling very excited! The Facilitating Online Course 2010 being run again by the wonderful Sarah Stewart, of The International Day of the Midwife fame, is starting soon.


I'm really looking forward to learning all the elements of online facilitation that Sarah has thoughtfully put together. There are people from different parts of the world, in various occupations who have signed up with Sarah.

Sarah says:


"Facilitation is a rare and valuable skill to have. It is a service that is often used in conferences, debates, panels and tutorials, or simply where groups of people are meeting and need someone to help negotiate meaning and understanding, and to keep everyone engaged and on task.

This online course is designed to help people to access and interpret models, research, and develop professional expertise in online facilitation"
As part of the course, we are expected to keep a reflective blog, so stay tuned for evidence of my learning and development in the field of online facilitation.  Participation in the course is free, but if anyone wants personalised attention and a certificate for completion, fees apply. The program starts on July 19th 2010 and runs until November 26th. If you are interested in learning and exploring online facilitation, contact Sarah Stewart who will be delighted to help you get started.

Item 4 of what we have to do at the beginning of the course is: Make a plan for what you want to learn and explore, and write it up (or present in another way eg mindmap, video recording) on your blog. Answer these questions.
  • What do you want to learn to facilitate?
  • What are you doing now in terms of online facilitation?
  • What would you like to achieve, change or do more of?
  • What do you need to do or make happen to achieve your goal?
I'll have to spend some time thinking about these questions and work out a creative way to answer them!