Looks like I better blog regularly since my blog was posted on the Top 100 Natural Birthing Blogs... I'm listed in the doula category.
http://www.mritechnicianschools.org/top-100-natural-birthing-blogs/
So, what has been going on with me lately???
We are busy, busy, busy! I've been to 13 homebirths since January. All of them were beautiful, amazing, powerful!
We have several mamas due in the next few months. I love catching up with our moms in the office during prenatal visits.
Palpating their growing bellies is a joy and I love feeling the little ones squirm around under my hands.
I FINALLY started teaching Hypnobabies classes again! I began my first class the 2nd weekend in June and it went very well. There are 2 couples and 2 doulas in the class. 1 doula is observing for her DONA certification and the other is the doula of one of the couples.
One of the doulas was amazed at the level of hypnotic amnesia she produced during the final hypnosis script. She's definitely a believer now if she wasn't before!
I have another Hypnobabies class beginning next week and then another beginning in August! My August class will be held at Wildflower Diapers in Scottdale. It's a wonderful opportunity for my students to see what cloth diapering is like in real life.
Catch up later!!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Another Happy Homebirth!
I attended another beautiful homebirth Monday night/Tuesday morning!
The mom's water broke around 10pm and contractions started about a half an hour later that were 3 minutes apart. We arrived at the house around 11:30pm.
When my preceptor and I arrived, the doula was already there working with mom and keeping her relaxed and comfortable. We listened to the baby, set up our equipment, then went into the other room to give them privacy.
As I rested on a chair in the living room I heard mom begin to really vocalize so I figured she was getting close. My preceptor also noticed the change and peeked her head up from the couch she was laying on. I went to the bathroom just in case I wouldn't be able to for a little while and then we quietly went back into the bedroom to see what was going on.
The doula started filling up the tub because mom wanted to get in. We knew this meant business. After the tub was filled mom hopped in and her noises began to change to those of a women that is about to push out her baby.
Baby's heart tones continued to sound excellent and mom continued to do her thing. Baby began to move down with no effort and mom was doing an amazing job.
Pretty soon mom was feeling that pressure of the baby on her bottom.
My preceptor (an amazing midwife) encouraged her to listen to her body and not be afraid of what she was feeling.
The baby crowned soon after with excellent control from mom. The shoulders were a little "sticky", but my preceptor handled it very well and quickly. Mom and dad were both able to reach down and pull the baby up onto mom;s chest. The mom was immediately beaming. Just gorgeous!
Baby girl was born at 1:43am weighing a good 9lbs 6oz. She is beautiful, just like her mom, with a thick head of gorgeous black hair.
The mom's water broke around 10pm and contractions started about a half an hour later that were 3 minutes apart. We arrived at the house around 11:30pm.
When my preceptor and I arrived, the doula was already there working with mom and keeping her relaxed and comfortable. We listened to the baby, set up our equipment, then went into the other room to give them privacy.
As I rested on a chair in the living room I heard mom begin to really vocalize so I figured she was getting close. My preceptor also noticed the change and peeked her head up from the couch she was laying on. I went to the bathroom just in case I wouldn't be able to for a little while and then we quietly went back into the bedroom to see what was going on.
The doula started filling up the tub because mom wanted to get in. We knew this meant business. After the tub was filled mom hopped in and her noises began to change to those of a women that is about to push out her baby.
Baby's heart tones continued to sound excellent and mom continued to do her thing. Baby began to move down with no effort and mom was doing an amazing job.
Pretty soon mom was feeling that pressure of the baby on her bottom.
My preceptor (an amazing midwife) encouraged her to listen to her body and not be afraid of what she was feeling.
The baby crowned soon after with excellent control from mom. The shoulders were a little "sticky", but my preceptor handled it very well and quickly. Mom and dad were both able to reach down and pull the baby up onto mom;s chest. The mom was immediately beaming. Just gorgeous!
Baby girl was born at 1:43am weighing a good 9lbs 6oz. She is beautiful, just like her mom, with a thick head of gorgeous black hair.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Babies, babies everywhere!
I really do need to get better at this blogging thing...
Last week on Thursday night and Friday morning (4/2 and 4/3) I witnessed 2 babies enter the world just hours apart from each other. Both births were very quick and beautiful.
The first baby was born only 1 hour and 21 minutes after my preceptor and I arrived at the home. It was a smooth labor and birth and a gorgeous 9lb 4oz baby boy was born into his fathers hands. Simply amazing!
I arrived home around 1:30 (ish) am and got a call from my preceptor about 2 hours later. Another mom in labor! Here we go again!!
We arrived at the home a little after 4am and another baby boy was born just after 6am. Another quick, smooth labor for this 3rd time mom. Baby needed a little help with his transition to the outside world and after a little stimulation he was just fine.
We are currently on call for 5 more moms and I can't wait to be there for their births as well! I love what I do!
Last week on Thursday night and Friday morning (4/2 and 4/3) I witnessed 2 babies enter the world just hours apart from each other. Both births were very quick and beautiful.
The first baby was born only 1 hour and 21 minutes after my preceptor and I arrived at the home. It was a smooth labor and birth and a gorgeous 9lb 4oz baby boy was born into his fathers hands. Simply amazing!
I arrived home around 1:30 (ish) am and got a call from my preceptor about 2 hours later. Another mom in labor! Here we go again!!
We arrived at the home a little after 4am and another baby boy was born just after 6am. Another quick, smooth labor for this 3rd time mom. Baby needed a little help with his transition to the outside world and after a little stimulation he was just fine.
We are currently on call for 5 more moms and I can't wait to be there for their births as well! I love what I do!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Me again!
So it turns out that I'm an awful blogger. What else can I say?
Lots of things have been going on here. I'm still apprenticing with a great homebirth midwife. I've only been to 2 births with her so far. We have a few births coming up and April and a few in May. I'm very excited about those.
She is getting pretty busy and we have a lot of prenatal appointments during the week and pretty soon we'll have a lot of postpartum appts with the births of all these babies! I can't wait!
I really love getting to know the moms that we are caring for. They are all wonderful women and I wish them all the best. I'm blessed to be a part of their lives.
I am slowly building my skills. Right now we are focusing on prenatal skills, such as palpating baby and determining position, listening to fetal heart tones, measuring fundal height, etc... I am thankful to these women that let me "practice" developing my skills on them.
I did end up going to a birth at a hospital as a doula a few weeks ago. This was my first doula birth since Zach was born at home in November 07. Let's just say I was less than thrilled with the outcome and the way things unfolded. The mom was fine with the way things went, but I feel awful just knowing how much better things could have been. Hospital births are just not homebirths and I can't change that.
Lots of things have been going on here. I'm still apprenticing with a great homebirth midwife. I've only been to 2 births with her so far. We have a few births coming up and April and a few in May. I'm very excited about those.
She is getting pretty busy and we have a lot of prenatal appointments during the week and pretty soon we'll have a lot of postpartum appts with the births of all these babies! I can't wait!
I really love getting to know the moms that we are caring for. They are all wonderful women and I wish them all the best. I'm blessed to be a part of their lives.
I am slowly building my skills. Right now we are focusing on prenatal skills, such as palpating baby and determining position, listening to fetal heart tones, measuring fundal height, etc... I am thankful to these women that let me "practice" developing my skills on them.
I did end up going to a birth at a hospital as a doula a few weeks ago. This was my first doula birth since Zach was born at home in November 07. Let's just say I was less than thrilled with the outcome and the way things unfolded. The mom was fine with the way things went, but I feel awful just knowing how much better things could have been. Hospital births are just not homebirths and I can't change that.
Friday, January 16, 2009
My week
Ok, so it's Friday and I haven't posted a thing all week (obviously).
my week started off well on Monday, seeing appointments (well, observing appointments) with my preceptor. I observed some routine stuff, a prenatal for a mom that is 34 weeks, an initial prenatal for a mom at 11 weeks... All went well and the appointments lasted for an hour each. Very nice. I saw a mom that had just had her baby 4 days prior (A HBA3C!! with a 9lb 13 oz baby) and her baby is gorgeous. She was actually seeing the Chiropractor, not the midwife. That mom just plain rocks.
Monday evening we went to do a home visit for a mom that is due soon. Her birth will be my first as an apprentice midwife. Exciting!!
Then late Monday night rolled around.... Jim was up all night vomiting, then the older kids woke up and vomited, too. Fun.
Jim got up and went to work Tuesday morning because it was technically his first day starting a new job and he couldn't call out on his first day!
The kids stayed home with me. Then I started to feel woozy. Great. I didn't actually "get sick" until late in the afternoon and the kids were pretty much done puking at that point.
Tuesday night was a bad one for me. I threw up and then felt better. Then my stomach started to hurt like hell again and I couldn't get comfortable in bed. I tossed and turned all night long.
Wednesday the kids stayed home again because they weren't 100% and hadn't really eaten much at that point yet. I was supposed to see an appointment with my preceptor that day and Mr. Baby was supposed to hang out with a friend, but I was too ill. My preceptor was very sweet about it. In fact, her husband had been vomiting on Tuesday as well.
Thursday I felt much better and the big kids did, too, so off to school they went. I had a day of doing loads of laundry that came out of nowhere.
Today (Friday) was spent with my friend. We picked up a dresser (from another friend) and then headed back to her house to hang out and talk birth stuff. She is actually apprenticing with the same preceptor as I. She's also 33 weeks pregnant so I played around palpating her belly and measuring her. Fun stuff for birth junkies like me. Super boring for people that could care less.
Then I went and picked up the big kids from school and here I am now.
Tomorrow night we're going to hang out with some friends and have a bonfire. That should be fun for the kids.
my week started off well on Monday, seeing appointments (well, observing appointments) with my preceptor. I observed some routine stuff, a prenatal for a mom that is 34 weeks, an initial prenatal for a mom at 11 weeks... All went well and the appointments lasted for an hour each. Very nice. I saw a mom that had just had her baby 4 days prior (A HBA3C!! with a 9lb 13 oz baby) and her baby is gorgeous. She was actually seeing the Chiropractor, not the midwife. That mom just plain rocks.
Monday evening we went to do a home visit for a mom that is due soon. Her birth will be my first as an apprentice midwife. Exciting!!
Then late Monday night rolled around.... Jim was up all night vomiting, then the older kids woke up and vomited, too. Fun.
Jim got up and went to work Tuesday morning because it was technically his first day starting a new job and he couldn't call out on his first day!
The kids stayed home with me. Then I started to feel woozy. Great. I didn't actually "get sick" until late in the afternoon and the kids were pretty much done puking at that point.
Tuesday night was a bad one for me. I threw up and then felt better. Then my stomach started to hurt like hell again and I couldn't get comfortable in bed. I tossed and turned all night long.
Wednesday the kids stayed home again because they weren't 100% and hadn't really eaten much at that point yet. I was supposed to see an appointment with my preceptor that day and Mr. Baby was supposed to hang out with a friend, but I was too ill. My preceptor was very sweet about it. In fact, her husband had been vomiting on Tuesday as well.
Thursday I felt much better and the big kids did, too, so off to school they went. I had a day of doing loads of laundry that came out of nowhere.
Today (Friday) was spent with my friend. We picked up a dresser (from another friend) and then headed back to her house to hang out and talk birth stuff. She is actually apprenticing with the same preceptor as I. She's also 33 weeks pregnant so I played around palpating her belly and measuring her. Fun stuff for birth junkies like me. Super boring for people that could care less.
Then I went and picked up the big kids from school and here I am now.
Tomorrow night we're going to hang out with some friends and have a bonfire. That should be fun for the kids.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Getting started
Yesterday I met my preceptor at her office and got the run down of how things work. She showed me where everything is and we went over charts, her birth bag, etc...
Tomorrow morning I start seeing appts with her. I'll just be in the background observing, but it's still very exciting.
We went out to lunch afterwards and talked birth. We mainly told our own personal birth stories with a very curious onlooker listening nearby. Thank goodness we didn't talk placenta prints, placenta capsules or eating placentas! LMAO!!
Tomorrow morning I start seeing appts with her. I'll just be in the background observing, but it's still very exciting.
We went out to lunch afterwards and talked birth. We mainly told our own personal birth stories with a very curious onlooker listening nearby. Thank goodness we didn't talk placenta prints, placenta capsules or eating placentas! LMAO!!
Friday, January 9, 2009
It's official!!
I am officially an apprentice midwife!! I couldn't be happier. My husband is even thrilled. He's been asking me for years when I was going to start studying to become a midwife. My friend Jen and I will be swapping babysitting with each other and I have another friend that will be "on call" for me when we have clients near their "due date".
We're changing the world, one birth at a time!!!
We're changing the world, one birth at a time!!!
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