Denise and her blog
Today is Expectancy’s 20th Birthday! 🎉
For two decades, we’ve proudly remained the only company worldwide dedicated to providing professional academic courses that teach midwives and birth workers how to integrate complementary therapies into their care.
From designing our unique programmes to launching the signature Licensed Consultancy, it’s been an incredible journey preparing midwives to build their own businesses in maternity complementary therapies.
Thank you all for your unwavering support—here’s to another twenty years! 🌟
Pass The Baton - Where Is The Next Generation Of Leaders In The Specialism Of Midwifery Complementary Therapy?
Whilst in Tokyo recently, I was invited to contribute to an aromatherapy forum discussion on changes in the profession. One question focused on how - indeed, whether - the aromatherapy world is preparing the next generation of authorities for the profession as it moves towards the 2030s. Those who have made a name in aromatherapy, such as Robert Tisserand, Gabriel Mojay and Kurt Schnaubelt - and my host was kind enough to include me in this group - are reaching an age when we will all soon be retiring and leaving day-to-day involvement in the discipline. Yet there is no name that shouts out to us about who might be one of the next generation of aromatherapy leaders.
This led me to thinking about the midwifery specialism of complementary therapies (CTs) and to whom I should hand over the baton when I retire (not that I intend to, yet!). Many midwives are interested in CTs but are not fully qualified in any therapy. It is important to acknowledge that the field of “complementary therapies” is not just about aromatherapy (the most commonly used therapy in pregnancy and maternity care) but requires training and a comprehensive academic knowledge of several other therapies. Whilst interest in a subject is a great starting point, developing an area of expertise requires dedication, a lengthy time commitment and a single-mindedness that is similarly applied to achieving a PhD. However, having a postgraduate qualification in a subject does not, in itself, make an expert in the overall subject matter. Within midwifery, becoming a specialism leader requires a combination of advanced clinical practice and academic involvement including teaching, research and publication.
However, most midwives have not been in positions to enable them to gain wide clinical experience of using CTs in their practice. Yes, there are many several midwives who have introduced an aromatherapy or postdates pregnancy service and sustained their involvement in CTs, but most have other roles within the organisation and are unable to focus solely on CTs. Almost all of these midwives are not qualified teachers (as is required by the therapy regulatory bodies), nor have they engaged in the higher-level teaching of colleagues (and I don’t mean “cascade training” here). There are a few senior academics in the UK and Australia who have engaged in research around midwifery CTs, but who do not necessarily have the direct clinical experience of working with CTs in pregnancy and birth. Additionally, whilst most of these have published their research, which provides a valuable contribution to the subject area, very few, if any, have added to the textbooks available on the subject.
That “complementary therapies” is an established specialism within midwifery is still under debate, despite my having spent forty years developing it. Many still see CTs as an add-on to physiological birth care, but do not appreciate that there are many more facets to the specialism that should be incorporated into midwifery education, at least as a post-registration activity. I have long campaigned for pre-registration education to include a general introduction to the subject, but lack of educators with adequate knowledge and understanding of this vast subject area means that inclusion in the programme is patchy at best. Acquiring a working knowledge of CTs in midwifery is NOT just about learning some massage and throwing a few aromatherapy oils about. It requires an understanding of safety and safe practice, and an ability to apply the principles of the therapies to their use within midwifery practice and their self-administration by expectant and birthing parents.
So which midwives are interested in developing the requisite skills, knowledge and attitudes to become the new leaders in midwifery CTs? Where are they – and importantly, how can we prepare them to continue CTs as a midwifery specialism and to develop it further? I have a few colleagues whom I would trust to take over my own work – but that is not the only issue here. We need new leaders who can sustain the subject of complementary therapies as a significant field within maternity care.
Our Woman In Tokyo
I've been coming to Tokyo since 2001, incredible to think that's almost a quarter of a century. Apart from the pandemic years, I've made the long journey at least I once, If not twice a year, and occasionally even three times .
She invited me to teach in Japan on a new maternity aromatherapy course she was planning, for therapists and midwives (and occasionally, obstetricians). My first journey to Japan was eventful. I flew KLM via Schipol and arrived in Tokyo to find my luggage had gone astray - it only turned up two days later (minus the gift I had brought for my colleague). I was only there for four days but went to try and buy some T-shirts and knickers - at a time when I had no knowledge of Japanese, and very few Japanese people spoke English. I also realised, with such tiny people, that a Japanese T-shirt would just about fit over one of my arms. Needless to say, I couldn't find one large enough and spent the next few days washing the clothes I stood up in and putting them on still damp in the mornings.
Azusa and I have been working together for so long now that we hardly need to question any translations (although to my shame, I can still only say about ten Japanese phrases). It wasn't like that at the beginning though and of course when something is translated it takes twice as long. Japanese midwifery is more similar to the UK system than the US system and there are "midwives' houses'" which are similar to UK birth centres. There is however a medical.dominance and the question I was asked most often was about the ubiquitous home birth situation in the UK. No one could understand how it was allowed and they had the typical medical fear that something might go wrong.
Aromatherapy and most other therapies except acupuncture had a low reputation at that time - and still do to a certain extent. Like the UK, aromatherapy was seen as beauty therapy based on the effects of massage alone. It is fascinating to know that Japan is now leading the way in research into the physiological effects of essential.oils - and contemporary evidence suggests that dermal application has very little impact due to poor absorption of the oil chemicals. There is now more emphasis on the olfactory effects on the autonomic nervous system,, along with western studies into the physiological effects of the chemicals.
I have seen considerable changes in Japanese life since I started visiting. The effect of an increasingly westernized diet and commercial availability of fast food has caused obesity and there has been an increase in domestic violence, thought to be due in part to greater unemployment. There is considerable affluence in the areas in which I have taught, but there is also deprivation in the more traditional parts of the country further away from Tokyo. On this trip, the yen is so badly affected by the pound that prices here have risen and it may not be cost effective for my colleague to invite me to teach in person next year. We will have to go back to online teaching as we did during the pandemic, with me working night shifts to accommodate the time change.
I find the thousands of people overwhelming in the city, and society extremely deferential to authority, and I wouldn't want to live here - give the peace and space of Namibia any time. However, the people are lovely - so kind, thoughtful and polite and always treating me like an honoured guest and addressing me as "professor" out of respect for my experience and knowledge. I love coming to Tokyo and hope I will be able to continue doing so for some time yet.
Previous articles
Today is Expectancy’s 20th Birthday! 🎉
Pass The Baton - Where Is The Next Generation Of Leaders In The Specialism Of Midwifery Complementary Therapy?
Our Woman In Tokyo
Safe Care Cannot - And Should Not - Be Done On The Cheap
Guest Blog : Annual Networking Day
Why I Love Reflex Zone Therapy
Annual Networking Day
My Favourite Aromatherapy Oils
The Conveyor Belt Of Childbirth
Best Foot Forward: Teaching Reflexology In Hong Kong
