Doulas, Apprentices & Midwives: Eight Ways to Help New Families Create Lovely, Healthy, Normal Postpartums
Midwives, apprentices and doulas are uniquely positioned to have an extraordinary affect on the postpartum period of families, and therefore on the family’s entire parenting experience. When we educate mothers and their families about the exquisite importance of a healthy and protected postpartum and how to have realistic expectations, our impact will echo deeply in women’s lives forever beyond the actual birth.
Holistic Things to Do When Those We Love are Winding Down...
Dying is a topic most people vigorously avoid, until they can’t. We’ve found that many natural modalities, such as essential oils & flower remedies, bring comfort & relief to the entire range of life experiences, including dying. And, as a midwife who's personally gone through a number of up-close family deaths, I can say, gently, that there is indeed healing & wholeness to being present in the dying, as well as in the birthing that's usually my focus.
What To Do If Your Newborn Is Not Gaining Weight
There are many things that you can do in the immediate postpartum to help your newborn maintain their birth weight or start gaining. This is the information I make sure every one of my birth clients have received over my 40+ years in midwifery as a midwife and family natural health coach, and the majority of their babies GAINED weight by their one week check-up!
Protecting Your Family From Poor Air Quality, Naturally!
Pure, clean air is increasingly less common, which is challenging our families’ health. Whether from large scale wildfires to industrial pollution, having some options and idea available will improve your kid’s health, lower anxiety for all, and support your informed and proactive protection. Download our free eBook, “How to Protect Your Family From Poor Air Quality, Naturally!”
A Stress Strategy That Actually Helps
Adrenal deficiency is a very real effect of the modern life we’re living, and the consequences include symptoms that are now rampant among my midwifery clients, such as disrupted sleep, anxiety, racing thoughts, heart palpitations, allergies, elevated blood pressure, depression, headaches, and decreased tolerance to stress, just to name a few. The very good news is that real change can be felt quickly through precise supplementation and small changes made with awareness. The first step is to have a new understanding about the scope of stress that is our life - let’s start with this fascinating ‘stress inventory’ that you can take right here!
Using Cleavers the Herb To Clean Up Your Lymph
Cleavers also known as Lady’s Bedstraw, has a long history of use in folk medicine. Cleavers ability to assist in moving lymph and breaking up fibrous tissue makes it a wonderful herb to be considered when there are fibrocystic breasts with cysts or other congestion in the lymphatic system. It is mild, entirely non-toxic, easy to harvest, and is actually very valuable plant medicine. Cleavers are considered very helpful for mastitis or other swollen lymph in the breast.
When Midwives ‘Catch’ the Sillies
A midwife’s tongue-in-cheek poem, a Dr. Seuss take-off of all the places and ways she helped moms deliver their babies (or catch, as midwives say.)
Relieving the Burn of Heartburn
Heartburn is such a pain! It’s caused when hydrochloric acid (HCL), which is used by the stomach to digest food, backs up into the esophagus and irritates sensitive tissues. This creates a burning sensation in the stomach or chest, and pain behind the breastbone. It’s certainly not fun for any of the 60+ million Americans that suffer with it, but as midwives hear from our clients every day, it’s the absolute bane of pregnancy.
Pregnant mamas have two complicating factors that make them more likely to suffer from heartburn.
Recovering from a Shocking Hemorrhage, Part 1/4
PART 1/4: This is a frank discussion to teach homebirth midwives and other birth professionals about effective naturopathic responses to excessive blood loss in childbirth. In addition to the obvious physical improvement in mom’s immediate recovery, unusually rapid long-term postpartum improvements have been confirmed with labwork. Here I discuss which remedies and why - homeopathics, essential oils, flower remedies, liquid iron supplementation, food as medicine, and the power of including visualization as an emergency technique. “Her hemoglobin five hours later was 7 g/dl, something quizzically deemed “impossible” by the medical staff.“ Early nutritional and remedy-based intervention does make a significant difference in recovery!
Recovering from a Shocking Hemorrhage, Part 2/4
This is a frank discussion to teach homebirth midwives and other birth professionals about effective naturopathic responses to excessive blood loss in childbirth. In addition to the obvious physical improvement in mom’s immediate recovery, unusually rapid long-term postpartum improvements have been confirmed with labwork. Here I discuss which remedies and why - homeopathics, essential oils, flower remedies, liquid iron supplementation, food as medicine, and the power of including visualization as an emergency technique. “Her hemoglobin five hours later was 7 g/dl, something quizzically deemed “impossible” by the medical staff.“ Early nutritional and remedy-based intervention does make a significant difference in recovery!