Doula Blog
Guidance, resources, and wisdom from a team of doulas and childbirth educators to help prepare you for a safe, healthy, and empowering pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and beyond.
My Mission for Childbirth Education
As a childbirth educator, my goal is to promote normal birth, build women’s confidence in their ability to give birth, and ultimately provide the knowledge and skills birthing people need to give birth normally in the current maternity care system. In order to meet these goals, we need to help birthing people learn more about the normal birth process and identify their options.
8 Practices for a Safe and Healthy Birth and Postpartum
Steps to take to ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy and birth. Drink half your body weight in ounces everyday, eat 5 servings of fruits and 5 servings of veggies everyday, walk 30 min/day, get sunshine, eat ground flax seeds, do prenatal yoga, eat naturally occurring folate, eat a variety of healthy fats.
Breathing for Releasing Tension During Labor
Breathing and how to use it to cope with pain during labor and birth. Learn why we need to think about this helpful technique and how pain and discomfort experienced during labor and childbirth has a spectrum that ranges significantly. You may hear some stories of a fast and easy birth or a long and arduous birth or one that was very emergent or scary or extremely painful. Part of getting to a place of not being fearful is understanding what purpose the pain serves during labor and birth.
Balanced Nutrition: Healthy Pregnancy & Birth
If you desire a birth free of (or minimal) medical intervention, one step you can take is to ensure you are getting the proper nutrition for you and your baby. To keep it simple, start with ensuring each meal includes Protein, Fat, Fiber, and Greens...with a small side of healthy carbs. Below is a list of healthy options to consider as well as some of the evidence supporting the connection between balanced nutrition during pregnancy and positive birth outcomes.
Easy No-Bake Protein Balls
Great for pregnancy & postpartum snack as well as a healthy snack for the whole family. These can be a staple in your house and they are great to share with friends, family, and new parents after they have a baby. They are delicious and nutritionally dense and they happen to also support your milk supply!
Positive Affirmations for Pregnancy and Birth
Birth affirmations are not only for birthing people desiring an unmedicated birth. Birth affirmations can help keep you focused and centered throughout pregnancy and your birth no matter what type of birth you desire. The goal of affirmations is to help keep you grounded through every aspect of the birthing process including times when events arise that are stressful and diverge from your original birth preferences.
7 Reasons to Hire a Doula
A doula is a person, typically without formal obstetric training, who is employed by the birthing person to provide guidance and support during pregnancy, labor, and birth. A doula is a person trained to provide advice, information, emotional support, and physical comfort to a birthing person before, during, and just after childbirth. Doula’s help to support birthing families through the life changing experience of having a baby.
Top Questions During Pregnancy
This is a time of change and growth and uncertainty in many ways. Each day we are faced with new questions and sometimes the answers are unknown. Here is a list of just a few of the questions I receive from my clients as well as my answers to them and additional links and resources.
Recommended Books, Videos, and Websites for Pregnancy, Childbirth, Infant Feeding, and Postpartum.
Gaining knowledge and then applying it to help make the best decisions for you and your family is key to being an active participant in the care you receive during pregnancy, labor, birth, and beyond. Check out these helpful resources to help you along your journey to giving birth.
Tips to Avoid an Unnecessary Cesarean Birth
Your birth matters…no matter how, where, or with whom you birth. Natural or medicated. Vaginal or cesarean. Each baby matters. Each woman matters. For some, having a c-section is absolutely necessary (about 15%) but for others, c-sections are happening unnecessarily. Tips to avoid an unnecessary cesarean.