Our deeper understandings of birth may come to us from the most unexpected sources, and at the most unanticipated times. During a stretch when I was selling insurance, I found myself in a very unusual place: a stud farm for some of the most valuable horses in the world. One of the stalls emanated energy that felt like so much like birth, I peeked in the large horse box. It was a familiar scene, but with a four-legged mama; a swollen mare was pacing restlessly in the afternoon quiet, deeply breathing and blowing. Her unborn foal was already worth about three million dollars (in 1990 dollars!) because of the lineage it shared with two Triple Crown winners. As horseman explained the barn birth I was about to see, it was entirely shocking how MUCH better it was than humans experience in modern hospitals!

During pregnancy, women are already feeling extra warm because of their hormonal changes and increased blood flow.  When the weather turns super-hot, midwives look for all the tricks to help their miserable mamas stay a little more comfortable and guard against dehydration and overheating.  

Here are the strategies that helped me get through my own hot pregnant July, and that help my midwife clients get through their hot season.

While some swelling (or ‘edema’) is normal in well-nourishing pregnancies, nutrition plays a big role in how much swelling a woman might experience. It’s not true that it’s only ‘luck of the draw’ or that you have to ‘just wait it out’ until the baby’s born. As a holistic midwife, nutrition is a part of our very first consultation because of its powerful role in keeping mom comfortable and both of them healthy.

You are NOT powerless in RSV season! During the respiratory season, pregnant women and moms are especially alert to the risk of RSV for their babies, but there are many option beyond “being worried or getting the RSV vaccine.”

Here are 3 powerful preventions and some RSV vaccine info to help you be more empowered in your choices, and keep your babies safe and healthy.

A healthier new year makes everything better! These simple five ideas are powerful starting points, and are offer improvements to everyone regardless of where you are on your healthy journey.

Because of their shared, women-centered maternity health perspectives, midwives and doulas often appreciate each other’s work and may be at births together.  Doulas assist mothers in positioning, provide emotional support and encouragement and act as an advocate for their individual birth plans, regardless of who is their health care provider. Midwives may also do these things, but are actually delivering (or "catching") the babies, and are responsible for the health care and safety of the mother/baby dyad in labor and birth. 

Midwives are highly skilled professionals in the realm of normal birth. Although it’s common for current generations to think that all babies are born in a hospital with obstetricians (OB’s), the preferred attendant around the world for normal birth is still the midwife. So how does one go about finding a homebirth midwife, if you're the first in your circle to consider such a thing? Depending on the health care politics of your area, it could be super easy, or a big challenge!

The two round ligaments that support the uterus are rope-like bands of connective tissue. As the baby and uterus grows, the ligaments stretch along with them, which sometimes results in a spasming pain which may be described as sharp, jabbing, stabbing or ‘a ping’. It’s pretty common for pregnant mamas to bring up “Is it normal to have this weird pain?” in the 4-7 month range. Here are a number of approaches that can bring relief, some that you can do with your hands right on the spot!

“The imitative nature of the baby and young child is so obvious and so all-pervasive that we tend to be blind to it, unaware of its implications for parenting,” opens a 1987 Mothering Magazine article by author Rahima Baldwin. “Your child learns everything through imitation - walking, talking, toilet training, tying shoes, endless tasks. And imitation manifest in expressions and gestures, as when we see and hear ourselves in our children’s play. “ I’d add that while parenting is now extremely child-centered, none of these actions are learned better from a screen or app. “The most effective way to correctly behavior in the young child is to provide an example in movement rather than to reason it out….”

In an impersonalized health care system, the professional doula has become a tremendous asset for modern birth in any setting. Doulas are experienced, trained, sensitive, labor-support privately hired by families to be with them during the labor and birth of their babies. They provide continuity of care, share knowledge of the normal process of labor and birth, and use their experience to ease the mother/baby’s birth process.