Birth, with its blend of anticipation and unpredictability, is a journey filled with moments of joy, challenge, and profound connection. However, the way birth is often portrayed in movies and TV shows can sometimes create unrealistic expectations.
All tagged Rachel
Birth, with its blend of anticipation and unpredictability, is a journey filled with moments of joy, challenge, and profound connection. However, the way birth is often portrayed in movies and TV shows can sometimes create unrealistic expectations.
Applying for midwifery care in Alberta?
Here are five tips to increase your chances of getting a spot…
I can’t count the number of times I’ve worked with clients who have a clear vision for their birth that would 100% be better supported by birthing at home (and conversely, has a high chance of being derailed by birthing in hospital) and yet they’re dead set on birthing in hospital anyway.
We can influence birth, but we can’t control it
What I mean is that there’re a lot of decisions that you can make in advance of birth that statistically affect outcomes on a population level. For example:
Choosing a midwife increases the chance that you’ll feel positively about your birth experience
Choosing to birth at home decreases the likelihood of experiencing birth interventions
Choosing to have a doula present at your birth reduces the chance you’ll use pain medications
Choosing which hospital you birth at affects your chances of having a cesarean birth
But none of the above are guarantees. When it comes to YOUR birth, you’re a sample size of one and either a thing happens, or it doesn’t.
Have you ever thought about what qualities you want in your medical care providers? What makes a care provider/patient relationship work for you?
If not, and you’re currently pregnant, now’s the time to ask yourself the following questions. In my experience, answering yes to these questions increases the likelihood that you’ll get respectful, nurturing care whether you’re with a midwife, OB, or family doctor for your birth.
I love attending home births - they’re often calm and cozy, even when labour gets intense. Here are my top tips for a great homebirth (most require prepping BEFORE labour but the last three can be done as early-labour-do tasks).
Welcoming a new baby into your family is a time of change and transformation. Because things are already shifting, it’s also a time that lends itself well to updating your rituals and traditions around the holidays.
There are many reasons we hold onto old rituals and traditions (you love them, social conditioning, passive aggressive family shenanigans, obligation) but it never hurts to take stock and see if what you’ve always done is still working for you now.
(Bonus, if your family or friends get weird about it, you can blame the baby. 😏)
Here are five questions to consider for building the type of holiday time that serves you and your family:
Welcome to Birth Geekery, the blog series designed to put interesting, fun, USEFUL, and usually nerdy resources at your disposal.
Each post features two to three resources that I either love and frequently share with our clients OR something I’ve come across recently that’s got my brain all 🤯.
As a doula, one of the best things I can do to support your labour is create a birthing space that feels safe, private and unobserved.
Why does it matter? Because when you feel safe, private, and unobserved, your labour may be less painful, happen more quickly, and result in fewer complications for you and your baby (want to learn more about this? Check out Dr. Sarah Buckley's work on physiological birth).
Do you ever get tired of hearing about surrender? Yay, me too.
The reason birth workers go on about it so much though, is because surrender is often a necessary part of birth and parenting – sometimes it’s surrendering to the power of the surges running through your body, or surrendering to the need for unwished for medical interventions, or surrendering to the sleep deprivation and high needs of your newborn in the early weeks of postpartum.
Planning a home water birth? Here are 10+ practical tips to create a smooth home water birth experience:
Talk to your care provider about their experience and comfort with water birth
How often do they attend water births? How often do their clients who plan water birth actually have water births? When and why might they ask you to get out of the tub?
You may have known you were going to hire a doula before you even got pregnant or you may not have learned about doulas until your 8th month of pregnancy.
Either way, it’s a good time to hire a doula!
If you’re nearing the end of your pregnancy, you may be worried it’s too late to hire a birth doula but as long as your little one is still inside your uterus, it’s not.
(Once, I was hired by somebody already IN labour so really, if you’re still pregnant, you’re ahead of the curve! 😉)
