Informed Choice: How to Assert Your Rights During Birth

If you have done any amount of digging into the birth-y blogosphere, you have probably come across the phrase “informed consent” in regard to interventions that may be offered to you during your pregnancy and birth experience. Informed consent is a bit of a buzzword right now, and for good reason. There are countless stories…

Sexuality in Birth: Making the Connection

There's a movement you may or may not have heard of in the natural birth community. It is a movement to educate women about the possibility of having a pleasurable, even orgasmic, childbirth experience. Does that sound crazy to you? Or maybe just plain weird? If you're freaked out, don't worry! I am not going…

4 Questions to Ask Before Hiring Your Doula

Finding the right doula can sometimes seem like a big job. This is a person that you will trust to share accurate and helpful information with you as you prepare for birth, support you during your labor, and help set the tone for your entire birth experience. Most doulas offer a complimentary interview in order…

How Can Birth Partners Prepare for Labor?

When I first became pregnant at a very wise (ha!) 22 years old, I had a major pet peeve. I absolutely could not stand hearing a father or other non-pregnant partner say, "We're pregnant." Whenever someone said to me and my husband, "Oh, you guys are pregnant?" I would jump in with a very adamant,…

Do Babies Need Baths Right Away?

It's been over twenty years since studies first started showing that bathing a baby right away had no benefits. Back in 2013, the World Health Organization recommended that baths be delayed by a minimum of six hours, with a preference of waiting at least 24 hours after delivery. There are many studies showing the benefits…

I Use Cloth Diapers…Sometimes

I am the first to admit, I used to think cloth diapers were gross. I said I would never use them. They seemed difficult and stinky and like way too much work. But then I got pregnant, and one day while I was down in the Pinterest rabbit-hole, I saw a blog that talked about…

A Short To-Do List For the First Trimester

As a first-time Mom, there will be no end to the lists that you'll come across. Many of them are focused on tests you need to have done or the things you aren't supposed to be doing, eating, or drinking. With my clients, I love to focus on the things that they do want from their pregnancy and…

Curiosity Over Criticism: Exploring Your Pregnant Body

Let me start by saying that I am not at all about telling you that you need to love being pregnant. I'm not the person to tell you that you need to just try harder to love your body and enjoy every moment of pregnancy because it's so wonderfully special and pregnancy should be a…

Staying Positive When Google is Scary

How many times have you Googled, "Is (insert weird thing happening to your body) a pregnancy symptom?" only to be directed to a Mommy Board full of women telling each other everything from, "That's totally normal" to "I had that and almost died!" I know with my first baby especially, I spent hours on Google and…

The Sleep Deprivation Made Me Do It

I recently shared with a new parent this memory from the early days nights with my first child: I was sitting in bed, nursing my baby in the middle of the night. I didn't understand why he was still crying if he was nursing...then I looked down and realized my arms were empty and my…