I am continuing to offer my one-on-one virtual consultations and now I am proud to be part of the team providing childbirth education via the SoShe app.
Spring Break Staycation In Place? Let’s do this.
How are we going to recognize spring break while we have to stay home? Here are some ideas.
Helpful Tips for a Positive Birth Experience
I came up with these Tips for a Positive Birth Experience for prospective students when I first started teaching. Many expecting parents think that taking a childbirth class is just ‘learning how to breathe’. While breathing effectively is important to having a positive birth experience, there are many other factors that will contribute to how…
Write Your Birth Story – Before the Baby Comes
A couple years back, I was reading the excellent book by Cynthia Gabriel, “Natural Hospital Birth” and came across her suggestion for readers (pregnant people) to write their birth story in advance of their birth. It was brilliant. I thought, ” . . . but OF COURSE! This can help us manifest the birth we…
CH-CH-CH Changes . . .
Hello Friends! Today I updated my website to reflect that I will no longer be teaching private childbirth preparation classes. However, you can still catch me for limited group childbirth classes or a virtual consultation! I am making this change to focus on some other business pursuits as well as to free up some time…
Dates: eat them up, yum
So your midwife said to start eating dates because you are approaching your due date (and some evidence shows that they can shorten pregnancy), and you’re looking at the giant container you bought from Costco and wondering how in the world you are going to get 6-10 of those suckers down the hatch every day?…
When to Take a Birth Class
Short answer: The earlier, the better; but keep reading and I’ll explain why (even though you may not like what I have to tell you.) The best way to figure out when to FINISH your class is to count backwards from your guess date (which you may call your due date) about 8-10 weeks. That…
What to Do if Your Care Provider Pushes Back
Say you are in labor and your care provider (obstetrician or midwife) says they are going to use an intervention. You do not wish for this intervention to be performed, but they push back and tell you that it’s hospital policy, or *only* tell you the risks of not doing the intervention; or worse, they…
List of labor interventions
(not an exhaustive list) Drugs or measures used to induce or augment labor such as: Misoprostol (Cytotec) Cervidil Prepidil Foley Balloon Membrane Stripping Pitocin Practices used to gather information about the mother or baby’s condition: Cervical checks Electronic fetal monitoring (both internal and external) Procedures/medication used to manage pain: Epidural, Spinal, CSE (combined spinal-epidural) Oral…
Baby Announcement Etiquette in the Social Media Age
During many of my childbirth preparation classes, one of the things we discuss is how and when to announce the birth. This was obviously not a huge concern before the advent of social media, but given how effortless it is now to share our thoughts, feelings, experiences, excitement and whatever we’d like without a second…