Virtual Midwife—Who is she and can she help you?

I sat down with Karen Wilmot, the Virtual Midwife, and asked her some questions about the 6-week course she is offering to mothers around the world.

Karen is a midwife who has been helping mothers give birth in foreign countries for the past 20 years. 

She understands the core of the fear and anxiety that mothers experience while they are knocked up abroad and they are the same themes that come up again and again in the Knocked Up Abroad stories.

We’re talking about language barriers, unfamiliar healthcare systems, local birthing practices that clash with personal preference, lack of a supportive family/friend network, and the multitude of factors that impact mothers giving birth abroad.

The Course

Karen has gathered her 20 years of experience and packed them into a 6-week course that she is offering at a huge discount for a limited time only.

The cost is currently $279 which includes all course material and monthly group calls for the duration of their pregnancy—and beyond if they choose as it is a lifetime membership, however, they understand that the real value of the course is during pregnancy.

Virtual Midwife Course Details 

Week 1 Objectives

• Assessing the services —choosing a care provider
• Questions to ask your service provider
• Which tests are required in each trimester?
• The purpose of the tests & how to interpret the results
• Guidelines for decision making (stay or go?)

Week 2 Objectives

• Understand the relevance of the Left & Right brain functions when preparing your mind for birth
• Learning the art of “doing” and “being” in your mind preparation
• Identifying your learning style so that you can maximise your
  understanding of your role in preparation & coping style.
• Learning to embrace the power of your mind during pregnancy and birth.
• Learning to let go of factors that are out of your control
• Learning to work with factors that are within your control.

Week 3 Objectives

• Getting to know your cervix during pregnancy
• How your cervix works in labor ( letting go of “cm”)
• Understanding the role of the mucus plug
• Understanding the role of the amniotic fluid
• The effects of relaxin on all systems and how it helps in labor
• The importance of vernix caseosa
• Wonderful Wharton’s jelly and how it works
• Understanding the muscle layers of the uterus and how they work in labor.

Week 4 Objectives

• How to use intuition during pregnancy
• Learning what intuition feels like for you.
• Exploring intuition and your five senses.
• The importance of listening, self-reflection & introspection
• Balancing intuition and common sense
• Learning to trust your intuition.
• Using your intuition to guide you during decision making.
• Using your intuition to connect & communicate with your unborn baby

Week 5 Objectives

• Knowing what to look for in the last weeks of pregnancy
• Understanding probable and positive signs of labor
• Differentiating pain from sensation.
• How to eliminate factors that influence pain.
• Getting to know how your uterus works
• Understanding the stages of labor in real life
• Working with the Birth
• Breath & pushing
• Things to think about when birthing your placenta

Week 6 Objectives

• Choose a care provider and a birth setting that have low rates of using common interventions.
• Understand the cascade of interventions
• Know how to discuss & negotiate interventions during pregnancy and labor.
• Understand the concept of “watchful waiting” (doing nothing and waiting for labor to move along or for issues to resolve on their own) or using simpler, less invasive alternatives.
• Know that you have the right to accept or refuse procedures, drugs, tests, and treatments, and to have your choices honored.