The inspiring AIM Breakfast series was back again recently with more than 100 ladies in attendance at the Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort Willow Room.
The breakfast’s two speakers, Jo-Anne Page and Laura Davis had very interesting stories to tell both involving families, mothers and children.
Jo-Anne Page spoke first about her early life as a self-diagnosed ‘what could possibly go wrong’ (WCPGW) person and her three-decade long career in child protection.
“One thing I would like for the next generation to know is that you don’t have to have a plan. I learnt as I went and everything has gone fairly well,” Jo-Anne said.
“I have spent 34 years in child protection and I recommend a lot of people to join the career, it is a fabulous career opportunity and has been so rewarding.
“I have met some amazing people through my life, both through work and having five children. I’ve been blessed and I am now in stage three of WCPGW.
“Life has been interesting but I have experienced so many lessons in life.
“One of my favourite pieces of advice is to ‘not make life decisions with no life experience’ but then in saying that if you make mistakes, learn from it.
“Don’t sweat the small stuff.”
Laura Davis spoke of her career as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, the sad reality of birth trauma and women’s experiences especially during pregnancy and birth.
“I was born and bred in Yarrawonga and have always felt privileged to be part of the Yarrawonga community,” Laura started.
“One in three women have birth trauma which we are working hard to fix but every woman’s birth journey is different.
“We need to educate women more on exactly how their bodies are going to change more so after babies are born and how to navigate their new life with a beautiful baby.
“Education is power.
“Myself and my best friend Ange Schofield work together at the Wangaratta Hospital and were seeing so many women presenting to give birth with no idea of what is going to happen to them specifically.
“From this we started the Country Born Support classes which we hold in Yarrawonga for women from right across the area. These classes cover everything to do with the late stages of pregnancy, birth and postpartum.
“These classes are real, honest and true in an intimate and informed manner from a doctor and midwife who have both also recently been through pregnancy and the new stages of motherhood.
“Our hope is to reduce traumatic birth experiences so the birth of a child and the first few months can be the blissful period it is meant to be.”
MC for the day Tracie Holgate, who is only a matter of weeks away from welcoming her first bundle of joy thanked the women of Yarrawonga Mulwala for their support and praised the two speakers for their insights into motherhood.
“Aren’t we lucky to have such vibrant, diverse, intelligent women in our community, giving back to our community,” Ms Holgate said.
“Thank you very much for imparting your knowledge.
“The idea is that we get around each other and celebrate other women and I think that recipe for success has made our community even stronger.”
The next AIM breakfast is scheduled to be held in November at YMGCR’s Willow Room with further details to come in due course.