Natural birth (and mirth) by Joanna J Potter
My irreverent, but (hopefully) genuinely useful guide to preparing for birth.
Based on extensive reading, conversations with practitioners and my own experience of two home births (one breech).
It is opinion, not prescription.
Read it, question it, discuss it with your healthcare team, and make your own decisions.
Yes, many facets to being a female founder…we don’t just talk shop.
The most controversial thing I’ve ever designed wasn’t a brand identity.
It was a guide to natural birth.
This week’s maternity care headlines reminded me why I wrote it in the first place – after my friends and their friends kept coming to me for advice on birthing naturally.
Most people here know me as the founder of a branding and design studio.
Some know me as a painter. A handful know me as a massage therapist.
Very few know that I’m also quietly evangelical about this natural birth thing.
Following the publication of the UK’s latest maternity care findings, I found myself digging out this piece and updating it: an unapologetically opinionated little guide called Natural Birth... (and mirth).
Before anyone says it...
No, I’m not a doctor. No, I’m not a midwife. And no, this isn’t medical advice.
It is simply the culmination of hundreds of hours of learning, listening, reading, conversations with practitioners, and my own experiences of having two home births – one of them breech – with independent midwives. It also reflects my long-standing interest in pregnancy massage and women’s choices in pregnancy and birth.
Some of what I’ve written will resonate with you.
Some of it won’t.
Some of it may even irritate you.
That’s OK.
The point isn’t that every woman should choose the same path I did.
The point is that every woman deserves to understand her options, ask questions, prepare well, and feel like an active participant in one of the most extraordinary experiences of her life.
If there is one message I’d love every expectant mother to hear, it’s this:
Birth is not something that simply happens to you.
Whatever birth you ultimately have, feeling informed is empowering.
So yes... this is a departure from the branding, campaigns and murals I normally post about.
But perhaps not as much as it first appears.
Whether I’m designing a brand, painting a mural or writing about birth, I’ve realised I’m always trying to do the same thing: help people see possibilities they hadn’t considered, think independently, and approach important moments with a little more confidence.
If you’re expecting a baby, or know someone who is, I hope this guide gives you something useful to think about.
And if you violently disagree with parts of it...
That’s OK too.
Good conversations usually start there.
