What do you get when you cross a doula with a life coach? A Birth Prep Coach. A Birth Prep Coach is a person who helps you prepare your body and mind for birth. They teach you about what to expect, and what to do if things don’t go as expected. Coaches also help your…
3 Things Every Pregnant Person Needs To Do.
Just about every person who has given birth in modern times remembers the day their child was born. For some people, it’s a fond recollection of a day they still remember in great detail. For others, it’s a confusing or even traumatic day . . . that they still remember in great detail. If such…
I’m a Know Your Rights Graduate
Birth Monopoly has made it their mission to champion the rights of birth givers – and training birth workers is just one part of it. If you haven’t heard about Birth Monopoly, it’s probably because you’re not aware of the heinous acts of obstetric violence that occur far too often in the United States. I…
COVID-19 Service Changes
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.
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…
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?…
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…