One Doula’s Favorite Pregnancy Books

I love reading. Put me in a big bookstore with a good cup of coffee in my hand and I'll be happy forever. Even if you aren't a huge reader, pregnancy is an important time to learn all you can! Whether it be podcasts, conversations with your doula, audio books, or paper books, learn all…

5 Birth Affirmations for Your VBAC

If you've hung around my blog at all, you know I love birth affirmations. I love how changing your language can literally change your brain and shift your experiences. This is especially true for one of my favorite categories of people: moms pursuing a vaginal birth after a cesarean. After having my own experience with…

Baby Showers or Blessingways?

Most women are pretty familiar with the standard baby shower. Cupcakes, the clothes pin game, measuring mom's belly, gifts, ect. Baby showers are a wonderful way to come together and bless the expecting family with things they need, and show support for the pregnancy! I loved all of my baby showers, and so appreciate the…

Choosing a Provider for Your Pregnancy

Often, when I ask women how they chose their care provider for their pregnancy, I am met with a bit of confusion. "I'm just seeing the OB that I've seen for years" is a pretty common response. If they didn't already have an OB, they maybe just called up the office that their insurance covered,…

Why Delay? Cord Clamping, That Is

It has been pretty well known for several years that delayed cord clamping has many benefits for a newborn baby. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, World Health Organization, and The American College of Nurse-Midwives all agree that delaying clamping by at least 1-2 minutes after birth raises neonatal iron levels, which can provide cognitive…

3 Easy DIYs For Your Third Trimester

The third trimester can be an exciting, but exhausting, time! It can be tempting to rush around doing all of the last minute things you want to get done before baby arrives. Combine that with the "nesting" urge, and many women find that they are over-doing it when they might actually benefit more from slowing…

What Made Me a Doula: Part Two

This is a birth story. But it's more than that. Read Part 1 to find out how the birth of my son led me to birth work! In October of 2018, we moved to a new apartment. I was 38 weeks pregnant, and planning a home birth. My doula, also a good friend, lived a…

What Made Me a Doula: Part One

This is a birth story. But actually, it's more than that. It's the first chapter in the story of how I discovered my passion for birth work. It's an integral part of who I am, as most birth experiences are to the people who live them. In the summer of 2015 I was pregnant with…

15 Gender-Neutral Nature Names

Naming your kids feels like such an important job. These little people will be stuck with their names for their whole life! It's a bit nerve-wracking, to be honest. When searching for names for our second child, I was really drawn to gender-neutral names. When we decided on our son's name, Aiden, it just happened…

Should I Throw a Gender Reveal Party?

Gender reveal parties have become a pretty standard part of the prenatal line-up in the last decade or so. Pregnancy announcement, gender reveal, baby shower, birth! But are they really necessary? I hear mixed feelings about them pretty regularly in the world of pregnant mamas. Of course they aren't required. Throwing a separate party might…