Now serving the Clermont area for births and/or post partum!

Orlando post partum Doula services

Are you looking for overnight help with your newborn baby?  I provide excellent in home overnight services. You can choose only a few nights per week or 7 nights a week!  It is up to your needs and what you desire.  I would love to discuss your needs and meet with you for a free consultation.  Contact me today at 407-342-9030.  I look forward to working with you!

Vocalization in labor is important!

Here is a great article that teaches some great ways to vocalize in labor.  It is so important to stay away from high pitched yelling, squealing or screaming.  Instead, focus on low, deeper throated moans or groans.

http://thechildbirthprofession.com/teach-vocalization-childbirth/

Skin to Skin

For at least the first two hours of your baby’s life, the two of you deserve to be–need to be–together, with your bare or diaper-only baby on your bare skin, chest to chest. If you’re wearing a shirt or gown, just open it. Lean back comfortably and let gravity hold your baby against you; no need to lie on your back. A regular blanket over both of you is all you need. Study after study shows the importance of this skin to skin contact. Measurements, ointments, everything can wait. This is your time together. It comes once in both your lives. And it can shape both your lives. It’s your right. And it’s what your baby expects and needs. Skin to skin contact after birth helps to:

* Stabilize your baby’s heart rate, breathing, and temperature
* Stabilize your own temperature
* Prevent baby blues later on
* Reduce your baby’s stress (no, crying doesn’t exercise a baby’s lungs; it strains his heart and brain)
* Reduce your baby’s pain from medical procedures
* Reduce your stress
* Increase interactions between you and your baby
* Increase the likelihood and length of breastfeeding

Taken from: The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

WIC certified lactation peer counselor

I have finished my training as of today to be a breastfeeding peer counselor through WIC.  I am very excited and look forward to working with pregnant and nursing women in this aspect.

Now accepting new clients

I am accepting new clients for August and beyond.  Please feel free to contact me and I’d be happy to speak with you!  Your prenatal visits include childbirth education as well as developing a birth plan of your choice.  I look forward to meeting you!

Home Breech Birth

Pitocin

Interesting article on the potential effects of Pitocin…..

http://birthfaith.org/pitocin/pitocins-untold-impact

Elephant birth video

Very cool video of an elephant giving birth.

Things I’ve learned so far…

After attending 8 births now here are some things I’ve learned….

1.)  If you are COMPLETELY dedicated to having a birth with no medications (epidural, pitocin, etc…) then stay away from hospitals!  I’ve had many clients now who say they want a natural birth only to go into the hospital and have their birth plan completely shot down, ending up with numerous interventions and drugs.  Is this to say that EVERY single mother that enters a hospital will end up with some type of drug or intervention?  Absolutely not, but in my short yet eye-opening experiences, this tends to be the case.

2.) You MUST feel comfortable and at peace with who your care provider is.  If you have any red flags or gut feelings about who will be delivering your baby, RUN!  Find someone or some place else that will give you the peace you need when you go into labor.  Having someone you trust, and who shares your same core birth beliefs is a priority.  If you are desiring a natural childbirth ask your care provider what their beliefs are about natural childbirth.  If they say it’s not that important or it’s not that common in their practice, then let that be your last visit with them.  Find someone new!  Shopping around for a care provider is not a bad thing.  I visited 3 birthing centers and two OBGYNs before I found the right person/practice for me.

3.) Don’t feel bad getting a second opinion.  If your doctor tells you that your pelvis is too small to push your baby out, please get a second opinion!  Overall, women’s bodies are designed to be able to accommodate a baby, big or small.  Are there cases when a woman’s pelvis may be too small?  Maybe, but I would absolutely get a second or third opinion if someone told me that.  With anything, if it doesn’t make sense or you don’t necessarily agree with the answer, get another professional opinion!

4.) Advocate for yourself.  This is your birth and your baby.  You are paying the care provider for their services.  They work for you, not the other way around.  If you don’t like something being done, stand up for yourself and tell the care provider.  You have a voice so you use!

5.) Trust your body.  Women have lost touch with how to do birth.  We rely on someone else telling us what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.  Listen to your body and let it guide you in the birth process.  Back when Jesus was born Mary did not have doctors standing around telling her when to push or telling Joseph where to cut the cord.

Overall, I want women to understand that natural childbirth is obtainable and normal.  Birth is not a medical condition in need of being treated.  It’s a normal part of the life cycle.  We just need to get back to the basics.  🙂