Pregnancy Birth & Beyond Doula Services

03/05/2019

What is a birth ball? A birth ball is simply an exercise ball. The name “birth ball” is used affectionately when used to prepare for, or during labor.

01/27/2019

Research based parenting for today's growing families.

05/18/2018

Hospital stops telling women to lie on their backs and “push” during childbirth, reduces instances of severe vaginal tearing from 7% to 1% Nine in ten women suffer some form of vaginal tearing during childbirth. In severe cases, they are left to suffer from incontinence and lifelong nerve proble...

04/17/2018

Lathered ✨incredible vernix coating on this little one. Did you babies come with a vernix coating? 📷
Vernix caseosa, is the waxy, creamy or cheese-like white substance found coating the skin of newborn babies. This photo above is a brilliant example of how thick it can be!
It acts like a waterproof barrier on your baby’s skin, protecting it from the effects of months of submersion in amniotic fluid. It is believed that it may also have antibacterial and cleansing properties.
Vernix is made up of sebum (oil on the skin) and dead skin cells and is secreted by your baby’s sebaceous glands in the second half of your pregnancy.
It will generally begin to disappear just before birth. Some babies are born with a great deal of vernix still present (especially premmie babies) while others will have just a little.
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04/17/2018

Listen to your body. And not the voices directing you on how to birth.

04/04/2018

04/02/2018

Trust the process.

03/30/2018

Wanna see something cool?! Did you know that your grandmother carried you inside her womb 😱🤗 that’s right! A female fetus is born with all the eggs she will ever have in her lifetime. So when your grandmother was carrying your mother in her womb, you were a teeny tiny egg in your moms ovaries 😍 the three of you have been connected for a very long time❤️ TAG YOUR MOM AND GRANDMA TO SHARE THIS MAGIC!

03/27/2018

03/19/2018

Wait wait wait.

Fun fact: What modern obstetrics is calling "delayed" cord clamping is still not the optimal timeline to clamp a newborn's umbilical cord.
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Check out the amount of blood still within the cord on the left versus the cord on the right in this image. All of that blood still contained in the cord on the left is biologically intended to be in the newborn's body post-birth if we left things to Mother Nature. Newborns whose cord is left intact after birth until all of the blood is transferred to baby have up to 32% MORE blood volume than newborns who have immediate cord clamping! And that comes without any increased risks despite what some care providers are telling women... and we know that based on a study done all the way back in 1995. Another one came out in 2010 stating that early clamping may interfere with 'nature's first stem cell transplant'. Once more, in 2013, a study published in the Cochrane database further supports the practice of allowing a newborn's umbilical cord to fully transfer all blood before clamping. And yet immediate cord clamping is still common practice in most hospitals today.
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Newborns whose cord is left intact after birth have higher levels of iron, a lower risk of anemia, fewer transfusions, and fewer incidence of hemorrhage. Even waiting just two minutes before clamping an umbilical cord will increase that baby's iron reserve by 27 to 47 mg of iron! You guys, that is equivalent to 1 to 2 months of what an infant requires in iron. Does anyone find it interesting how pediatricians recommend supplementing with iron when you have a newborn…? What if we just allowed nature to take it's perfectly planned course and that baby already had the iron s/he needed thus no need for supplementation? Hmmm...