The midwife who blends ancient and modern know-how to deliver 'dignified' childbirth

Naoli Vinaver recently concluded an Australian tour, sharing information with experts in her field about the benefits of combining the age-old knowledge of midwifery with modern medicine to provide women in labour with the "best of both worlds".

Mexican-born Naolí Vinaver says childbirth techniques had common aspects regardless of the country or area of the world.

Key Points

• Naoli Vinaver travels the world instructing on natural childbirth methods.
• She has helped deliver more than 4000 babies in her 40 years as a midwife.
• She says ancient rituals and therapies can help make childbirth more dignified and less overwhelming for women and their families.

With almost 40 years of experience as a midwife and after assisting women in more than 4000 births, Naoli Vinaver said it was possible to have a natural birth that provided a “dignified and integrated experience for both mother and baby”.

She tours the world from her base in Brazil, sharing her knowledge and insights with doulas and midwifes and recently visited Australia.

Doulas specialise in supporting women's emotional needs during childbirth while midwives have medical training and focus more on the physical processes and delivery of a healthy baby.

During her Australian tour, Ms Vinaver presented several workshops and gave lectures to share her teachings with midwives, doulas, therapists, health professionals, doctors, pregnant women, and couples.

Ancestral knowledge comes into play

Mexican-born Ms Vinaver combines the wisdom of traditional midwifery, based on the ancestral knowledge of women in indigenous communities, with modern-day, scientific learnings.

“I learned from traditional midwives in my country, who are older women with a lot of experience in giving birth at home, in rural areas. They know about the use of herbs and the preparation of natural remedies,” she explained.

Source: Getty / Getty Images

She said the women used their hands to feel and accommodate the baby during childbirth in a kind of specialised massage.

In some cultures, resources such as 'temazcal' or stone sweat houses, used by ancient civilisations throughout Central and North America, including the Maya, Aztecs and Toltecs, were also used as a kind of steam bath for birthing women, she told SBS Spanish.

Considered to be the "womb of the Earth", the houses were part of ancestral hygienic and therapeutic rituals with spiritual purposes, she said.

Ms Vinaver promotes the use of the sweat houses and other techniques as a part of her "Art of Birth" teachings.

Becoming a midwife was a 'calling'

Ms Vinaver said she considered her work as a midwife as more than just a job. She said she experienced a "calling from life" which came in her dreams when she was a young adult.

Almost every night for more than three months, she said she had dreamt of being present at various childbirth situations.

“In my 20s, I started dreaming about births every night. I would wake up in the morning with images of births, in which the protagonist was the woman giving birth and I was there to help. Then, in the morning, I would try to find meaning in all that I´d dreamt, to understand how I had helped the woman in the dream,” she said.

“So I would start reading to understand if I had done the right thing (in the dream) ... I felt as if my life during the dreams at night was just as real as my life during day."

Naoli Vinaver toured Australia, sharing her knowledge and insights of childbirth. (foto N.V)

Ms Vinaver said she discovered that she was not the only one who had experienced this "call" to become a midwife. During a midwifery conference in Mexico, she said she had asked the audience if anyone had chosen to become a midwife or a doula on the basis of dreams.

“To my big surprise, of the 300 midwives and doulas gathered there, the vast majority raised their hands,” she said.

'More choice in childbirth needed'

Australian doula, Mary Giordano, said Ms Vinaver's teachings had influenced her on both a personal and professional level.

Ms Vinaver demonstrates a birthing technique during one of her workshops. (foto N.V)

She said the key message she had learned from Ms Vinaver was that the main "blocks" women experienced during childbirth were "emotional and spiritual" rather than "physiological".

"I think midwifery professionals in Australia have a lot to learn from a wide range of cultures, many of which are represented right here in our communities and even right here in our maternity wards," she said.

Ms Giordano said she believed there should be more choices available around childbirth in Australia and that more effort was needed to create a sense of safety particularly for families from CALD backgrounds.

Universal themes in childbirth

Ms Vinaver explained that doulas or their equivalent existed in all cultures around the world. They were traditionally women who accompanied other women during childbirth and their skills have been passed down from generations to contemporary doulas.

"They are the anchor for the mother and the family,” she said.

Childbirth flows much better when the emotional and psychological aspect is embraced, satisfied, supported.

Naoli Vinaver

A pregnant woman discusses her birthing options with her midwife. Credit: David Jones/PA/Alamy

“When women are afraid, they are insecure and tense, they are 'cold', so through calming and 'warm' practices, the doula helps to turn cold into warm. This relaxes the mother, reducing her adrenaline, which directly increases oxytocin and relaxin, which are hormones that aid in the delivery process of a baby."

Heat is a vital element that reduces the stress of childbirth, she said, and could be introduced to the mother through massages, compresses and the use of the temazcal with herbs. This helped the mother to "let go and relax", she said.

“In my travels, I have come to see that traditional midwives from other parts of the world, for example, Japan, China, India, Africa and several countries in Latin America, including some tribes in North America, also use the elements of heat to aid the mother during childbirth,” she said.

Listen to the full interview with Naolí Vinaver by clicking on the play icon at the top of the page.