Suzanne Moquin DONA Doula Trainer and Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator

10/16/2026

Wise Birth Doula Collective is thinking of all that have suffered the loss of a child during pregnancy, birth, and beyond. 🤍 October 15th. 🕯️

10/04/2026

🚨🚨 BREAKING: Research catches up with physiology....

Don't want to push for a long time in labor? Just don't push for a while and use gravity. Then you might end up pushing less than 15 minutes!

Is purple pushing FINALLY on its way out? While many facilities and providers have stepped away from strong and forceful purple pushing, variations of it still exist. This often leaves parents pushing for 1, 2, or even 3 hours - especially in first births and with epidurals.

Despite awareness of the fetal ejection reflex and birth being a normal physiological process, modern obstetrics left many believing we MUST push as soon as we reach full dilation.

Yet this often leaves moms pushing for hours.

Research from Besançon University Hospital, France looked at over 10,000 term singleton births.

Their research concluded: Under a delayed pushing policy of up to 3 hours, active pushing remained less than 15 minutes, supporting high rates of spontaneous vaginal birth and potentially reducing the need for instrumental delivery.

While there are occasional situations where directed pushing might be indicated (baby showing signs if distress, signs of cord compression, etc.), research is showing what midwives, many l&d nurses, and doulas have observed: birth needs patience.

👇🏽 Did you labor down or push as soon as you were fully dilated?

Study below.

10/03/2026

A 2025 study published in AJOG adds powerful, up-to-date data showing associations between doula care and improved maternal and newborn outcomes.

Key Maternal Outcomes:

More vaginal births after cesarean (VBAC): For every 100 patients who received doula care, there were 15 to 34 additional VBACs compared with those without doula care.

Higher postpartum follow-up attendance: 5 to 6 more per 100 received postpartum office visits.

Key Neonatal / Infant Outcomes

Increased exclusive breastfeeding rates: Babies whose families had doula support were more likely to breastfeed exclusively.

Fewer preterm births (and early preterm births): Doula-supported births showed a reduction in preterm birth rates.

In short, the study links doula care with improvements in birth outcomes — across birth mode (more VBACs), infant health (less prematurity), and early infant care (breastfeeding, postpartum follow-up).

Read more: https://internationaldoulainstitute.com/2025/11/evidence-for-doulas-new-ajog-study-finds-doulas-improve-outcomes/

09/14/2026

Welcome to our WiseBirth Family! 🩵🩷

09/10/2026

🚨 BIRTH NEWS: What happened after the ARRIVE trial?

The 2018 ARRIVE trial changed the conversation around elective induction at 39 weeks. A 2024 study published in Birth looked at 10,821 low risk, first time births to see what happened in real world hospital settings afterward.

Researchers found:

✨ Labor induction increased from 14.7% to 22.8%.

✨ Overall C section rates slightly decreased from 20.2% to 19.2%.

✨ After adjusting for other factors, induction was associated with 67% higher odds of C section.

Importantly, studies following ARRIVE haven’t all found the same results. Some have found an association between increased induction and C section, while others have found stable or reduced C section rates.

Essentially, this shows an important point: outcomes from controlled studies don’t always translate directly into real world practice.

Another VITAL piece these studies don’t answer: How do moms describe their birth experience and satisfaction after elective induction compared with spontaneous labor?

Birth outcomes are important, but the experience of the person giving birth matters, too!

👇🏽 What have you seen with induction rates?

📖 Fineberg AE, et al. Birth. 2024.

08/29/2026

Beautiful work!!

08/25/2026