Pinter & Martin

Sprogcast

Sample from the audio book of Ania Witkowska's Understanding Babies: How engaging with your baby's movement development helps build a loving relationship, published by Pinter & Martin, read by Alice Allan

The first three months of your baby's life, sometimes called the 'fourth trimester', is a transitional phase, in which each of you is processing the birth experience you shared and acclimatising to a new way of being. It can be hard to interpret your new baby's behaviour: is she arching her back because she has tummy ache, or does she simply enjoy a stretch? Does sucking his hands indicate hunger or something else? As you navigate these early days your emotions might be all over the place and it can be hard to find and trust your instinctive need to connect with your baby.
In Understanding Babies, experienced movement specialist Ania Witkowska looks at what your baby needs to thrive, and how they show you they need it, revealing how you can tune in to your baby so that both of you can relax and enjoy your new life together. By explaining how your baby's development is supported through movement and interaction, and guiding you through simple exercises and activities, she helps demystify the early days of parenting so that you can feel more joy and less anxiety as you and your baby flourish.

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Understanding Babies – audiobook sample

A sample from the audio book A State of Fear, written and narrated by Laura Dodsworth.

This is an audiobook about fear. Fear of a virus. Fear of death. Fear of losing our jobs, our democracy, our human connections, our health, and our minds. It's also about how the government weaponised our fear against us - supposedly in our best interests - until we were one of the most frightened countries in the world.

But why did the government deliberately frighten us. How has this affected us as individuals and as a country? Who is involved in the decision-making that affects our lives? How are behavioural science and nudge theory being used to subliminally manipulate us? How does the media leverage fear? What are the real risks to our well-being?

Ahead of any official inquiry into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Laura Dodsworth explores all these questions and more, in a nuanced and thought-provoking discussion of an extraordinary year in British life and politics. With stories from members of the general public who were impacted by fear, anxiety, and isolation, and revealing interviews with psychologists, politicians, scientists, lawyers, Whitehall advisers and journalists, A State of Fear calls for a more hopeful, transparent and effective democracy.

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A State of Fear - audio book sample

This is a sample from the audio book of Flourish: A Practical and Emotional Guidebook to Thriving in Midwifery by Kate Greenstock

The only book addressing the stark psychological impact of midwifery work while giving midwives the tools to choose a brighter future. Flourish aims to support you as a midwife to do two things: to name what’s going on around you and within you, then to find and claim your distinctive place in the midwifery world. You might be a newly qualified or early career midwife facing the challenges of finding your voice as well as your feet. Maybe you’re an established midwife but feel as though you have lost your way – and with it the energy to reshape either yourself or the environment you work in. Perhaps you're a team leader seeking to find the vocabulary to connect with your team, acknowledge what they might be feeling and reach out for resources and tools to support them to thrive, reflect and grow.

As a guidebook, Flourish is a tour of discovery that reveals how ‘standard’ maternity environments and practices might be impacting you personally, and then invites you to reconnect with the core of your personality and purpose. You'll recognise more clearly the realities of trauma exposure, burnout, compassion fatigue and moral injury, and explore what's really needed for psychological safety. You'll choose from an array of exercises to practice living well in the day to day, and you'll find a way back 'home', to a place where your sense of motivation for being a midwife is rekindled – a place where you can reconnect to your values, strengths and your unique voice. Once there, you will be able to make real, rich choices about your life and your career. Kate Greenstock is a distinctive combination of practising midwife and coach, bringing the flavours of both: reality and possibility; rawness and hope.

Flourish - audio book sample - Introduction

Hosted by Karen Hall and Mark Harris, with Maddie McMahon.

Sprogcast - Episode 1 -  Breastfeeding (January 2015)

Hosted by Karen Hall and Mark Harris, with Charlotte Russell.

Sprogcast - Episode 9 - Sleep (December 2015)

Hosted by Karen Hall and Mark Harris, with Aimee Humbly.

Sprogcast - Episode 8 - Queer parenting (November 2015)

Hosted by Karen Hall and Mark Harris, with Mia Scotland and Kim Thomas.

Sprogcast - Episode 6  - Traumatic birth (September 2015)

Hosted by Karen Hall and Mark Harris, with Rebecca Schiller.

Sprogcast - Episode 4 - Risk (June 2015)

Hosted by Karen Hall and Mark Harris, with Denis Walsh.

Sprogcast - Episode 2 - Men in the birthplace (March 2015)

Sprogcast - Episode 10 - Hypnobirthing (February 2016)

Hosted by Karen Hall and Mark Harris, with midwife Virginia Howes and doula Mars Lord

Sprogcast - Episode 11 - Twins (March 2016)

In this episode we look at emerging research about the human microbiome, and talk to author Toni Harman, and student midwife Natalie Corden. Mark and Karen also discuss women's right to request a caesarean birth, and new guidance to reduce stillbirth.

Sprogcast - Episode 13 - Microbiome (May 2016)

In Sprogcast 14 we're talking Sex and Relationships, a bit of orgasmic birth, and an interview with agony aunt Petra Boynton.

Sprogcast - Episode 14 - Sex and Relationships (June 2016)

Presented by Karen Hall. This episode features discussion of infant feeding, and breastfeeding support. We talk to Maureen Minchin, Karen reports back from the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers conference, and we have a bonus interview from there with Heather Trickey.

Sprogcast - Episode 15 - Infant Feeding and the Future of Public Health (July 2016)

Karen and Hall and Mark harris talk to midwives Denis Walsh and Natalie Corden, and chat about the latest news and research.

Sprogcast - Episode 16 - Interviews with midwives (August 2016)

Sprogcast - Episode 17 - Sprogcast live! (September 2016)

This episode is about the air we breathe, particularly during pregnancy. Bex Bolland from Global Action Plan has some great tips for avoiding air pollution, and Mark chats with Francine Bates, CEO of the Lullaby Trust, about the risks of smoking.

Sprogcast - Episode 20 - Air & Smoking (December 2016)

In this episode, Mark and Karen get stuck into the representation of birth in fiction, and chat to author Alice Allen. We have a short report from Doula UK Conference, as well as ten minutes with independent midwife Claire Harbottle on ways of working within the NMC constraints.

Sprogcast - Episode 25 - Birth in Books (May 2017)

In episode 29, Mark and Karen have a good chat about why Karen is standing for election as president of NCT, and then get into the furore around the "normal birth" campaign. Research Midwife Shawn Walker talks about her important research into supporting breech birth, and we finish with a freewheeling breech freebirth story.

Sprogcast - Episode 29 - Breech Birth (September 2017)

In Episode 40 of Sprogcast, Mark and Karen take a long hard look at their own prejudices, and narrowly manage to avoid insulting the people of Slough. Heather Trickey talks about her research into health messages around alcohol in pregnancy, and we also discuss the recent articles about giving early solids in order to make babies sleep "better."

Sprogcast - Episode 40 - Health Messages (August 2018)

In Sprogcast episode 42, Mark and Karen mark Baby Loss Awareness week, including interviews with author Mel Scott, and psychologist and agony aunt Petra Boynton, about their forthcoming books.

Sprogcast - Episode 42 - Baby Loss (October 2018)

Sprogcast 46 sets out to be about motherhood, and evolves to include discussion of language and culture, and an interview about running. Tune in to listen to Maddie McMahon talking about her book, and Sally Golightly on running 52.6 miles.

Sprogcast - Episode 46 - Motherhood (February 2019)

We promised Helen Ball but delivered Amy Brown. With a full interview about her new book 'Informed is Best', as well as some feedback on episode 55, and comments about the recent issues of racism in midwifery.

Sprogcast - Episode 56 - Informed is Best (December 2019)

Our festive Q&A ranging from culture change to hedgehogs in audis.

Sprogcast - Episode 57 - Festive Q&A (January 2020)

Mark and Karen awake from post-festivities slumber to record the first episode of the 2020s, in which there are many and varied digressions, so it seems that nothing much has changed. Our interview this month is with pelvic health specialist Grainne Donnelly, and we discuss the latest news and gossip!

Sprogcast - Episode 58 - Pelvic Health (February 2020)

We're calling this episode 'Homo in the birth room,' and we're very pleased to have an interview with the great Michel Odent (unfortunately on a rather patchy line). Karen is down with a cold, but Mark is upbeat enough for both of them.

Sprogcast - Episode 59 - Homo in the birth room (March 2020)

In Episode 60 of Sprogcast, Rebecca Brione explains the Holding It All Together research carried out last year by Birthrights and Birth Companions. Karen also chats with the Secret Midwife about her revelatory book.

Sprogcast - Episode 60 - Birthrights & Secret Midwife (April 2020)

Script 1 - Breathing practice and positive affirmations

Disclaimer

These are the hypnobirthing scripts from the book Let's talk about preparing for your baby's birth by Jackie Kietz. This scripts include background music - a version without music is also available.
In this ‘antenatal course in a book’, experienced hypnobirthing and antenatal practitioner Jackie Kietz discusses labour and birth in the way that it would be covered at face-to-face birth preparation classes.
From how to tell whether you’re really in labour, to choosing where and how to give birth and communicating your wishes to healthcare staff, the book is packed with essential information for new parents. As well as practical details, there are also MP3s and suggestions for ways to relax using hypnobirthing and breathing techniques to help you think positively about your upcoming birth.
As a useful reminder of what’s covered in a course, or as a substitute if you don’t want to or can’t attend classes in person, this friendly, easy to follow and reassuring book is invaluable for anyone expecting a baby.

Script 7 - Induction of labour (music)

Script 6 - Caesarean birth (music)

Script 5 - Top-to-toe tension release/Pre-surge body scan (music)

Script 4 - Fear-release script (music)

Script 3 - Safe place and confidence relaxation – partner (music)

Script 1 - Breathing practice and positive affirmations(music)

Script 2 - Safe place and confidence relaxation – mother(music)

MP3s of exercises accompanying the book Understanding Babies: How engaging with your baby's movement development helps build a loving relationship by Ania Witkowska.

The first three months of your baby's life, sometimes called the 'fourth trimester', is a transitional phase, in which each of you is processing the birth experience you shared and acclimatising to a new way of being. It can be hard to interpret your new baby's behaviour: is she arching her back because she has tummy ache, or does she simply enjoy a stretch? Does sucking his hands indicate hunger or something else? As you navigate these early days your emotions might be all over the place and it can be hard to find and trust your instinctive need to connect with your baby.
In Understanding Babies, experienced movement specialist Ania Witkowska looks at what your baby needs to thrive, and how they show you they need it, revealing how you can tune in to your baby so that both of you can relax and enjoy your new life together. By explaining how your baby's development is supported through movement and interaction, and guiding you through simple exercises and activities, she helps demystify the early days of parenting so that you can feel more joy and less anxiety as you and your baby flourish.

Settling Your Brain

Starfish Adult Exploration

Exploring Body Language

Being Inside Adult Exploration

Spinal Adult Exploration

Symmetry And Rolling Adult Exploration

Sprogcast is an independent podcast about birth, pregnancy and early parenthood, hosted by Karen Hall and Mark Harris, and sponsored by Pinter & Martin.

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