Babies Naturally

Carol Peat knows the strength of a woman. She has witnessed it many times during the past 20 years. With Carol’s gentle guidance and support, hundreds of women have discovered the strength within themselves to become mothers, giving birth unmedicated and listening to their own bodies and babies.  

As a labour support provider and lactation counsellor based in London, Ontario, Carol provides care for mothers, babies and families through pregnancy, birth and beyond.  In hospital or at home, from the moment she gets the call, Carol is there for every contraction and is ready with encouraging words, tips for positioning, a gentle touch, or suggestions for how the mother’s support person can be the best support possible.        

“It is an honour to witness a mom’s strength, because most of my clients go completely unmedicated. To see the strength of the mom and her continuous connection with her baby is an absolute honour that never gets old,” says Carol.   

Carol herself is a mother of three, ages 16, 18 and 21. When her first daughter was born, the birth experience was not what Carol hoped for, so she decided that she wanted to provide support to other women so they would have a wonderful and rewarding birth experience. Carol wishes to restore old traditions to empower families and allow them to have the best birth possible. To that end, Carol directs Babies Naturally with a team of practitioners specializing in childbirth education, labour support, lactation support and parenting classes. 

One family paid tribute to Carol on the Babies Naturally website:

Carol helped me welcome all three of my children into the world.  I cannot imagine how different (and probably not as pleasant) my birth stories would be without her. She has cried with me, laughed with me, and jumped for joy with me. I have leaned on her, stared at her, yelled at her, chatted endlessly on the phone with her. She has given me a foot massage, helped me handle castor oil, introduced me to babywearing (my best parenting decision by far), kept me in shape, and helped me figure out nursing, bundling, diapering, bathing and endless other baby details. She is a birth and baby goddess.  

 My husband is one of her biggest advocates as well and tells every co-worker or friend to head her way. He believes that hiring Carol was the best decision we made concerning any birth/baby purchase or choice.  

  Even though they are now 11, 8 and 6 years old, I still call Carol a friend, and I am grateful to her husband and her children for sharing her with my family. I am forever indebted to her for her time, her energy, her enthusiasm and the sharing of her soul.

By having a positive birth experience, women and their partners can focus their energy on caring for and bonding with their baby, rather than on healing from the trauma of their birth. To have the best birth possible, Carol advises women to know their bodies, their birthing options and to advocate for their baby. “One woman at a time, one family at a time” is her motto. 

Of the hundreds of births Carol has attended, just a small fraction of them have resulted in a c-section, and most of the women have opted for a natural birth, without medication. “Education is the key, since most women do not have a sense of how their bodies work, starting as girls through to womanhood,” says Carol, who often speaks to high school girls about the importance of knowing their bodies so, amongst other things, they may have a positive birth experience in the future. 

For thousands of years, women have given birth outside of a hospital with the support of other women, and women around the world still birth this way. Carol encourages women to move beyond the fear of childbirth and realize that it is a natural process.  “Our bodies were designed to give birth,” Carol points out. “We’ve fallen into an obstetrical belief system where everything needs to be managed. There is no vitality to being hooked up to a machine.  The vitality comes from a hand on your shoulder or a hug.  Or being able to feed off of someone else’s energy when you need it, rather than sitting and staring at a monitor.”

Carol and her team have lobbied the government to setup stand alone midwifery-led birth centres. Birth centres would allow women to have safe, normal deliveries within their communities and outside of hospitals, away from infectious diseases with a decreased need for interventions, such as c-sections.

According to the Ontario Midwives website, the c-section rate is at an all-time high, with nearly 1 in 3 women in Ontario delivering this way. The World Health Organization recommends the rate be 15%. By providing major surgery such as c-sections at such a high rate, it is costing the Ontario health care system $100 million per year. In contrast, the rate of c-sections for women in midwifery care is half the provincial average, according to the site.

With Carol and her team lending their support to mothers through pregnancy, childbirth and into parenthood, it is clear the babies within their care are getting the best start in life. “To welcome these new souls into the world, and to be one of the first people to meet them and witness a miracle is such an honour,” says Carol.

Babies Naturally can be found at http://www.babiesnaturally.ca/ or you can “like” them on Facebook.

To find out about the “Ontario Needs Birth Centres” campaign, please visit the Ontario Midwives website at http://www.ontariomidwives.ca/support/centres.

Written by Elayne Linn

Edited by Kristine Scarrow  

‘Venture’ into the Dragon’s Den

Entrepreneur Arlene Dickinson may not have originated in Canada, but nonetheless we are still proud to include her in our ranks of influential Canadian women.

“I love the country. I’m truly passionate about Canada and I think we’re blessed to live in a land with so much going for it“, she commented in an interview for the Dragon’s Den.

Stylish, strong, and compassionate are just a few of the synonyms often used to describe Dickinson. These are a few of her many commendable attributes.

As CEO of Venture Communications, and a popular member of the Dragon’s Den Panel since 2007, Dickinson has become an inspiration for Canadian women. Not only does she stand out in the male-dominated world of business, she has also managed to find success and a level of balance in work and family life that many women strive to achieve.

Arlene’s life did not begin with a silver spoon. Born in South Africa in 1956, but her family sold everything and emigrated to Canada in search of a better life. After years of working and saving, the family of five managed to afford a down payment on a small home in Calgary.

Arlene graduated high school at the age of 16. Her dream was of marriage and a great family. Unfortunately, life does not always go according to plan. Dickinson was married by the age of 19, and by her 28^th year was divorced with four children all under the age of seven.

Having no post-secondary education, she struggled to make a living for her family. Jobs were hard to come by and often menial in nature. It was during this period, she has said, that she learned a lot about frugality, self-awareness and making mistakes.

With a bit of luck (though she believes one makes their own) Arlene gained a position with Venture Communications and discovered that she had a knack for marketing. She became a partner in 1988. Ten years of hard work and perseverance brought her sole ownership of the firm, which eventually grew from four employees to over seventy-five, with offices in three major Canadian cities.

The hit Canadian show The Dragon’s Den brought her into the limelight and made her a staple in Canadian television and the hearts of her fans.

Ms. Dickinson does wish she had been able to spend more time with her children as they were growing up, but with success must come sacrifice. She kept a floating schedule and guarded her personal time jealously, often opting to spend her free time at home rather than out making business contacts.

Now that her children are grown, with children of their own, family is still a priority. Arlene enjoys having the time and financial freedom to make each moment count: “Material things are wonderful to have, but, at the end of the day, nothing matters more than the people you love”. 

Dickinson’s list of achievements continues to grow. From making Venture Communications into one of the 50 Best Managed Companies, to becoming one of Canada’s Top 100 most powerful women, Arlene also includes philanthropic work and motivational speaking in her repertoire of activities.

Taking the time to pass on her hard-earned wisdom and make a contribution to society, she is accessible to budding entrepreneurs and fans through a variety of social networks. She also helps by offering her marketing services pro bono to non-profit organizations.

Due to her past, she is especially empathetic to causes related to women and children. As a result she has served on a number of boards such as Kid’s Help Phone. Dickinson is also an active member of the International Women’s Federation and is involved with Dallair’s Child Soldier Initiative, which prevents the recruitment of child soldiers.

In an interview, when asked what kind of tree she would be, Dickinson said “I would be a Redwood tree. When they get knocked down, they continue to grow and are resistant. They are lasting and they get better with age. They don’t react to circumstance. Whatever happens around them, they continue to survive.”

This statement provides a glimpse into the nature of the business maven who did not sit back and let life ride over her, and instead decided life’s difficulties were not insurmountable. Despite the wealth and fame she has achieved, her motivations are not money, but personal success and, most important, her family.

Written by Jennifer Jenka

Edited by Lucinda Atwood