what are echos of birth?
Babies are much more aware than you think. As they develop in the womb they are learning about the environment that they will be born into through the experience of the mother. When the mother feels stressed, or angry, or scared, or joyful or excited, her baby experiences the same emotions through the cocktail of hormones that pass through the placenta.
When babies are born they experience the physical pressures of birth, just as the mother does, but without the cognitive ability to process what they are experiencing. Although the baby cannot form cognitive memories of these earliest in-utero and birthing experiences, they create what are called implicit memories that are stored in the body. This is an essential part of how our babies prepare for life on the outside and they directly influence the way that the baby experiences the world and how they interact with the people around them for the rest of their lives.
These implicit memories influence how we feel about ourselves, our relationships, our health and wellbeing, and can have a profound influence on how we conceive, carry a baby, birth and experience parenting.
Our own experiences of conception and being born can replay when we are becoming parents, just as the birth experiences of our grand parents repeated for our parents, the powerful implicit memories echo throughout our lives and reverberate generationally in the birthing environment.
we call this "echos of birth"
I can see the value of this field and the Echos of Birth community, to professionals working across all areas of health… after all, I believe this field provides a missing piece (a core piece) to the puzzle of understanding human experience; that is, the blueprint we arrive with, the multiple imprints that follow, and all the wonderful and challenging ways these imprints impact us; our health, our relationships and our lives; and how we can integrate these imprints to lead a more meaningful life.
Implicit memories during pregnancy and birth
The closest you will ever be to when your own implicit memories were created, is when you are in the pregnancy, birth and post-natal environment again. During pregnancy and birth women, their partners and their birth professionals can be triggered in ways that profoundly impact their birth journey experience.
If we are able to better understand our implicit memories then we can be better prepared for how they might surface during this critical time in our lifecycle. We can reduce the negative impacts on ourselves and the baby, break intergenerational patterns so that the next generation can experience more empowering and joyful birth and parenting. Better connect with newborns during those critical but often challenging early days, weeks and months. Heal past traumas and discover a self-awareness that empowers you for the rest of your life.
we are all about creating positive change
We all know someone that has been left damaged by birth in ways that are not visible, we all know someone that has found early parenting exhausting and emotionally draining. We all know of babies that can’t settle, frequently cry for no apparent reason, babies that have problems feeding. These experiences can profoundly impact the critical early bonding between baby and parent, robbing them of a precious time that will never be recovered. Indeed, you may have experienced this first hand.
What if there was a way to change this?
What if we had the understanding and skills to create a more positive birth journey for everyone and start repairing the damage of birth?
We are doing exactly that!
the echos of birth community
The echos of birth community is a digital online community that brings together parents, birthing professionals and other pre and perinatal professionals around the common mission of transforming the way we support and experience birth through understanding implicit memories
We are creating something unique. We’re not another social media platform, we’re not just a course provider, we’re not just a network, we are something much better!
- There are no ads or tracking algorithms
- There are no sponsored posts and no influencer gimmicks
- Most social media is like shouting off your front porch into the abyss, but here you are part of our community where you can make genuine connections and where your contributions make it much more unique, interesting and valuable to every other member
- By being a member you will be contributing to creating positive change to our birthing culture
come join the community...
The community is a fantastic blend of curated educational resources, mentoring and support to integrate new knowledge and skills into practice, on-line community meet-ups, knowledge sharing, regular articles and discussion topics and access to some of the leading experts from across the world.
together we can transform the way we support and experience birth
why build a community?
Many parts of the world are already benefiting from understanding the importance of implicit memories and how they can influence birth. Being aware of how our own birth experiences shape who we are and how we react to different situations means that we can be better prepared before, during and after birth. We are building a community so that we can transform the way we support and experience birth.
Nobody can do this alone, we all need help, access to the best minds in the world, access to educational resources and an ability to learn from and support each other.
That’s why we think the best way to do this is through a community of likeminded people who want to make a positive and lasting impact on the birth scene.
Community is the single best way to navigate rapid change.
Community is the single best way to build new practices and habits.
Community is the single best way to achieve results and transformation.
Want to learn more?
The echos of birth community is designed to help you understand implicit birth memories and find practical ways to harness their power to improve your birth experiences, either as a parent or as a birthing professional.
If you’re interested in learning more about echos of birth and how you can benefit from being part of the community, please read on!
A free to access space where you can explore what echos of birth has to offer, get access to articles and community events, and connect with likeminded people.
A space for birthing professionals to create better birth experiences for parents and babies by understanding how the parent’s own implicit memories of pregnancy and birth can influence how they give birth and how those experiences can pass to their baby.
A space for parents who want to have better birth experiences for themselves and their baby by understanding their own birth experiences and that of their baby during conception, pregnancy and birth.
A free to access space where you can explore what echos of birth has to offer, get access to articles and community events, and connect with likeminded people.
A space for birthing professionals to create better birth experiences for parents and babies by understanding how the parent’s own implicit memories of pregnancy and birth can influence how they give birth and how those experiences can pass to their baby.
A space for parents who want to have better birth experiences for themselves and their baby by understanding their own birth experiences and that of their baby during conception, pregnancy and birth.
meet the founders
Hello! We are Jo and Martin, the founder of echos of birth and the creators of the echos of birth community.
We met at high school in England when we were 13 years old, and have been together since we were 15. We have 3 wonderful children, two girls aged 20 and 16, and one boy aged 7.
We left England in 2009 and moved to the suburbs south of Sydney, Australia where we stayed for 13 years. Like a lot of people, the pandemic and related issues that were caused by the management of the pandemic led us to challenge our status quo and question what we wanted for our family. So in March 2022 we sold our house, Martin quit his job, we bought two caravans and took a 6 month road trip up the east coast. Having never even towed a caravan before, it was all quite a new experience for us!
In September 2022 we arrived in the Whitsundays, North Queensland, fell in love with the place and bought a house with a few acres, settled our two youngest into school, our eldest found a job that she loves and we got stuck into building the echos of birth community, something that we had been mentally sculpting and shaping since we first hit the road.
The echos of birth community is the culmination of 20 years of Jo’s training and experience in supporting fertility, pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period using a wide range of modalities, and Martin’s extensive experience in innovation and research management, strategy and business planning. For the first time in our 35 year relationship, it is an opportunity for us to work together on something that we are both passionate about.
Transforming the way we support and experience birth.
You can read more about us inside the community.
