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.
Empowering Choices: Using the B-R-A-I-N Method for Informed Decision-Making Throughout Pregnancy, Birth, and Beyond
Informed and shared decision-making during pregnancy is essential for empowering expectant parents to navigate their journey with confidence and clarity. By embracing the principles of transparency, collaboration, and respect, healthcare providers and parents can work together to explore all available options, weigh the potential risks and benefits, and make decisions that align with individual preferences and values. This approach not only fosters a sense of ownership and autonomy but also ensures that expectant parents are equipped with the knowledge and support they need to make informed choices that best suit their unique circumstances.
Understanding Labor Progression: 6 Important Things Every Expectant Parent Should Know
Understanding labor progression is essential for expectant parents as they prepare for childbirth. Labor progression involves several key stages: Cervical Changes, Effacement and Softening, Dilation, Baby's Position, and Baby's Rotation. By recognizing these stages, parents can better understand the process of childbirth and prepare themselves for the journey ahead.
Push It Real Good
In childbirth, pushing positions are game-changers. Opting for gravity-friendly positions, like hands and knees or side lying, enhances comfort and pelvic alignment. Comprehensive childbirth education and doula support empower informed choices aligning with personal preferences. Water births provide unique benefits, offering pain relief and supporting movement. While epidurals offer pain relief, they limit movement, emphasizing the need for advocating position changes. Chiropractic care and pelvic floor therapy ensure optimal pelvic alignment. The key? Empowerment and advocacy, shaping a positive birthing experience through informed decisions and personalized choices.
BeHerVillage: Transformative Support for Your Pregnancy Journey
BeHerVillage fosters community collaboration, turning gifting into a shared celebration of your journey. Ready to explore? Our comprehensive guide walks you through registration, service selection, and enjoying the benefits. Motherhood changes everything, and BeHerVillage ensures the support you receive evolves with you.
Packing for the Big Day: Essentials for Labor and Postpartum Stay
Prepare for your special day by packing these hospital bag must-haves: comfortable clothing for labor and postpartum, essential toiletries, energy-boosting snacks, entertainment, important documentation, and personal comfort items. Don't overlook a change of clothes for your partner. Tailor this list to your preferences for a relaxed and enjoyable birthing experience!
Cooling Comfort: DIY Homemade Freezer Pads with Witch Hazel, Lavender, and Aloe Vera
As you navigate the incredible journey of pregnancy and postpartum, finding moments of comfort becomes a cherished necessity. Enter homemade freezer pads – a cooling oasis infused with the natural healing trifecta of witch hazel, lavender, and 100% aloe vera. These simple yet effective pads offer a soothing embrace, alleviating swelling, calming the senses with lavender's aromatic charm, and nurturing your skin with the gentle touch of aloe vera. Dive into the joy of creating your own at-home remedy with our easy-to-follow recipe. Let the cool relief become a delightful part of your self-care routine, providing comfort and care during the beautiful, transformative moments of pregnancy and postpartum. Your body deserves this nurturing touch – a gift from nature to you.
Embracing Support: The Meaning and Benefits of a Postpartum Doula
The blog explores the significance and benefits of having a postpartum doula during the delicate period after childbirth. It defines a postpartum doula as a trained professional who offers emotional support, practical assistance, and educational guidance to new parents. The benefits include enhanced recovery, reduced stress, increased confidence, and improved family bonding. The blog concludes with a call to action, encouraging readers to schedule a free consultation with a postpartum doula to explore how their support can positively impact their postpartum journey.
Premature Rupture of Membranes (PROM)… You mean the dance?
What does PROM (premature rupture of membranes) mean, and how do you know how to navigate it?
Nurturing Your Body and Easing Pregnancy Discomfort
During the remarkable journey of pregnancy, your body undergoes remarkable shifts and transformations to accommodate the growth of your little one. While some of these changes may bring about discomfort, making everyday activities like sleeping more challenging, it's important to understand that stress can often play a significant role in intensifying these discomforts. Indeed, stress has a tangible impact on our physical well-being.
Labor Pain: The Important Role it Serves During Childbirth
Childbirth is an extraordinary journey filled with awe-inspiring moments and a wide range of emotions. Along with these beautiful moments, however, comes labor pain - an integral part of the birthing process. While the idea of enduring pain may seem intimidating, it is crucial to recognize the important role it serves during childbirth. In this article, we will delve into the significance of labor pain, shedding light on how it benefits both the mother and the baby.
How to write an effective and meaningful birth plan
Exploring the Assumed Norm and Gaining a Fresh Perspective for Optimal Safety and Health. Writing a birth plan is important but the process of creating your birth plan is where the true value and growth exists. You may have heard someone say "Birth plans are pointless!” or “You can't plan your birth, so why have a birth plan?”. We are here to tell you that I agree with part of that statement. You can't 100% predict or plan your birth but you can reduce your fear and uncertainty and increase your confidence as you prepare for your upcoming birth.
What is a doula?
A doula is a trained professional who guides and supports families during pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum care of the newborn and birthing person. A doula might specialize in birth support, postpartum care, or both. Doulas receive training about emotions and mental health, and in many communities they can help birthing individuals find additional resources for mental health needs during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. The goal of the doula is to help families feel supported and informed throughout pregnancy, postpartum, and after loss.
What are the benefits of a birth doula?
What are the benefits of hiring a doula? There are many benefits to having a doula as part of your birth support team. Learn all the ways a doula can support you in an evidence-based, individualized, and compassionate way. Having a doula as part of your birth support team can help you have a safer, healthier, and more satisfying birth experience!
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.