Services

Jill Bergman Nils Bergman

Jill Bergman

On this website, the work and services offered by Jill are described in detail.

Nils Bergman

Nils is a popular speaker around the world, and also does consulting for hospitals wishing to improve obstetric, neonatal and breastfeeding outcomes.

See www.skin2skincontact.com

Jill’s passion is supporting mothers in the broadest sense, but particularly at the critical time of giving birth, and the early days thereafter. She is a counsellor and qualified doula, and an effective teacher and mentor. ________ Nils and Jill combine their passions and expertise in working together to provide training courses, which can be brief or up to two weeks. They are happy to do this to individuals or small groups (coaching and mentoring), or to large groups in workshops or hospital staff training.

Jill Bergman working

Personal Services

Jill is a qualified DOULA (birth companion to mother in labour and birthing) and provides such services in the Southern Suburbs area of Cape Town, South Africa.

However she brings a unique aspect to this, which is a deeper insight from Kangaroo Mother Care principles and neuroscience. She is therefore a support to the mother, but even more to the newborn. This makes her a Kangaroula (Kangaroo + Doula) !

At a normal birth she is able to be a constant presence for the mother and the baby and keep them together as far as possible, and ensure that bonding, breastfeeding and early development get off to the best possible start. Research is showing more and more that it does matter very much how babies are born, and what the first hours and days are like.

The Kangaroula is able to help parents with this best early start in the operating room when there is a Caesarean section. While mother should be able to have the earliest possible contact with her newborn even in theatre, the Kangaroula supports the baby by also helping the father carry baby in skin-to-skin contact until the mother is able to do so in the recovery room or postpartum ward.

Premature babies need all the equipment and technology that supports their immaturity, but they also need mother’s and father’s presence, and the smaller and more immature they are, the more so. The Kangaroula’s function is to help staff and parents to increase skin-to-skin contact time, and to decrease environmental stresses in the NICU. Stress reduction is one aspect of developmental care, and Jill works with the parents to help them create a developmentally supportive ethos in their approach to their premature baby.

As an experienced parent herself, Jill has a passion for supporting new parents in the first hours and days of their parenting, based on the belief that a good start makes the rest of the journey so much easier and happier. She provides counseling support services to new parents, but also to parents with bigger problems. She has a referral network of skilled professionals to whom she can refer when needed.

Professional Services

Jill is an EDUCATOR, with a proven ability to convey the concepts and principles of Kangaroo Mother Care. Over and above, she is passionate about imparting a caring ethos and creating a empathic and caring atmosphere. This includes specially bridging the knowledge and communication between nurses and mothers, an often neglected aspect. A mother may be experiencing her very first birth, her nurse has experienced very many.

Jill gives talks and lectures to groups of mothers and to parents, both antenatally and in the parenting context. She provides talks to nursing staff, on understanding mothers as mentioned, but also on developmental care, in which she has long had an interest, and for which she is currently receiving formal international training. She has already done some international conference presentations, and hopes to do more now that her youngest is starting university!

With or without Nils, she will arrange and provide training courses, from a morning through to two weeks, and to individuals through to large groups.