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Power Imbalance in Labor: Allowed vs Supported, Remember the Mother
How does an imbalance of power in labor happen? It is pretty common in the birth world for women to ask if their care provider will “allow” them preferences. A few examples are: Will I be allowed: movement during labor and pushing to wait on spontaneous labor to begin until 42 weeks to eat and drink during labor intermittent monitoring Why is the difference in language between allowed and supported so important? Why does it matter? Support imparts dignity, and allow takes it away. Support humanizes. Allow dehumanizes. Support restores balance of power. Allow leads to imbalance of power in labor. When we use the language of “allowed”, it is…
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Doula’ing the Doulas
When the doulas need replenishing Why doula’ing the doulas? As clients know, sometimes labors can be quick and intense. Sometimes, they can be long and intense. Sometimes, labor can be traumatic. Other times, everyone present is floating on air. While we don’t get to choose what will happen during each birth, we do get to validate and value each birth and family. I love my job …pretty much everything about it. If there was a contest for best clients, I would nominate mine. They are a pleasure! If I there was a contest for the cutest babies of clients? Well, it wouldn’t be fair to other doulas. Refresh Sometimes, it…
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The Postpartum Doula
In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order-Carl Jung The Postpartum Period Melody, a new mom who had just given birth, described her postpartum experience as difficult: She had a Cesarean section and described lifting as a challenge. She went on to explain the difficulty of breastfeeding and how she had to rely on other family members to help her with household chores while she battled postpartum depression. Melody is just one example of what many women experience after giving birth. Often described as chaos, the postpartum period deserves reflection. In the U.S, women are sent home with a newborn just briefly after giving…
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Patrick’s Birth Story
My newest lil man has arrived!!!! Such an exciting time! I’m gonna try to get all my thoughts into one place (mainly for my own reference/memory keeping hahaha — you’ll have to excuse the punctuation — i had to type it in ‘thought’ format! ha! Sooo let’s see… we found out about Mr. Patrick in November.. It made going home for Thanksgiving a lot of fun. We had Sadie do both the family announcements. At the in-laws we had her say (and she’s got a very dramatic flair so this was extra fun) – “Wait a minute, Erin needs an extra plate because she’s eating for two!!!!!!” Then at my…
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Beck’s Birthing Story
On this page, we share birth stories our clients have written and sent to us. Permission is given to share these birth stories and pictures. We hope you find them as inspirational as each of our clients have been to us. Welcome sweet baby boy. Your mamma is so beautiful, strong, and courageous. She is kind of a hero. Your daddy? He sure knows how to stand by your mamma. He’s kind of your mamma’s hero. I think you’re going to like them. It was an honor to be with them as they welcomed you into their arms. Here is your story: Our baby boy was born at 10:28am on July…
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Breastfeeding a newborn! Help!
Help! I just pushed a baby out of my body and breastfeeding my newborn is making that look easy! This is common. Breastfeeding is well…it involves a learning curve and is possibly the hardest, most rewarding learning curve ever. We want to encourage you on this learning curve. We will be posting a series on breastfeeding helps. Keep going. It will be so worth it!* We offer postpartum doula support for mothers during this very special season. Please visit postpartum doula to learn more. For our first post in this series about breastfeeding a newborn, how about a couple of recipes? By the way if you know someone expecting…
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When the Bough Breaks -Documentary on Postpartum Depression
Review of When The Bough Breaks I recently had the opportunity to view a documentary on postpartum depression and psychosis. As a doula who provides support to women during the perinatal period, the information in this film provided a great starting place for the recognition of the characteristics of postpartum depression, an important and lesser recognized condition found in approximately 20 percent of women who have given birth in the United States. What is Postpartum Depression? This documentary addresses the difficult subject of recognizing and managing postpartum depression and the less common but more severe symptoms of postpartum psychosis. Throughout this film, different women struggle with postpartum depression…
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Freedom to birth with your unique female pelvis
Your Unique Female Pelvis I had the opportunity to attend an interesting midwifery class discussing the 4 different female pelvic shapes. Each woman is endowed with her own unique shape – variations of these 4. The midwife giving the discussion was quite experienced in recognizing pelvises. It was funny how she could identify whether a woman had an Android, a Platypelloid, Anthropoid,or a Gynecoid pelvic shape based on how she walked and moved. The take away from the discussion was encouragement! A woman can successfully birth a baby with whatever type of pelvis she possesses. The midwife further demonstrated optimal positions most women naturally chose to birth in with…
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Sad State of Postpartum Care in the U.S.
Why am I writing about the uniquely U.S. state of postpartum care and recuperation? When a woman carries a baby and gives birth, her body undergoes great changes. There are visible signs of those changes, but that only shows a very small part of what her body has done. Her blood vessels have changed in order to accommodate twice the blood volume. Her lung capacity has changed, and it will take most of a year for it to return pre-pregnancy way of operation. Her muscles separated for the expansion of her womb, joints and connective tissue all became looser in preparation for delivery. All of her abdominal organs were…
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After Birth – The Golden Hour
The Golden Hour – What it is, what it is not Many changes for the better have been happening in the labor and delivery ward. New terms such as Baby Friendly Hospital and the Golden Hour are becoming a part of the new jargon. What do they mean? We have written an article describing Baby Friendly Hospital designation. Briefly, it encourages polices that support the mother-baby dyad, promotes policies that support breastfeeding and remove policies that interfere with breastfeeding and the mother-baby relationship. The article is available here. One of the policies that is part of the baby friendly designation is honoring the Golden Hour following birth. The Golden Hour…
