Crowning Achievements Doula Services

Gabe and I spent some hours working on my website today. New photos, new comments from past clients, some new content and better page organization. It is a thing of beauty (and a joy forever?)! Would you take a minute and look around?

I'm working hard to get my name and website more visibility, so that potential clients can find me. If you've known me in any birth-related capacity, could you take a few minutes to write a review? The most important places are yelp and Google maps.

Friends and family with blogs, every time you link to my website it helps Google searches find me. I'd be grateful!

Your help is invaluable! Thank you!

Penny Simpkin on delayed cord clamping

Those of you who aren't interested in birth right now can probably skip this one...but for those of you who are pregnant, might become pregnant, or just like hanging around pregnant women...here you go. :)

This video is of Penny Simkin, a well-known author, doula, and childbirth educator, sharing the reasons for delaying cord clamping after birth. I found the information at the end, regarding oxygen levels and the need for resuscitation to be very interesting. The current standard, of course, is to clamp immediately and whisk the baby away from mama for resuscitation efforts. And while I'm exceedingly grateful for the amazing neonatal nurses and their sometimes lifesaving work, I wonder if we'd get even better results bringing the nurses and instruments to the mama, and keeping baby attached?

Announcing: Crowning Achievements!

I'm pleased to announce that my doula service website is up and running! Gabe was, of course, invaluable in building it, and I have a whole new appreciation for both his job and for designers...building a website from mostly scratch is hard!! :)

I'm excited to have my little space on the web. If anyone has suggestions/feedback, please let me know! And of course, if you know someone who might be interested in a doula for her birth, I would truly appreciate referrals.

Courageous birth

Most of us who are "into birth" got there via some kind of activism. We're pushing for change and we tend to focus on unnecessary interventions and coerced cesareans and birth assault. In our zeal for a better birth culture, sometimes we can come across as, well, zealots. Sometimes we think that we have all the answers and sometimes we may sound like there is only one right way to have a baby. Sometimes we don't seem very loving.

This author? She has noticed, and beautifully written, a very important truth:

"...no matter how educated or uneducated, coerced or informed the choice that woman on the operating table made or didn't make, whether that cesarean was elective or emergency, necessary or unnecessary - it takes a lot of courage to get there. Our birth culture may be saturated in fear-based decisions, but behind every cesarean and "unnecesarean" is a woman of courage."

Read the rest here.

H/T to Jen for the link.

Finished!!

I finished the last of my reading, writing, and feedback submissions tonight (ok, this morning) and I have requested my official certification from Childbirth International. In about six weeks I should have a shiny new certificate stating that I have the right to the letters CLD (CBI) after my name. Sweet.

I'm up way too late, and I'm sure I'll regret that in the morning, but...


I'M FINISHED!!!!

Double shifts

Yesterday evening, as we were getting the kids ready for bed, I was called away to the hospital. I spent all night there with a client, helping her through her labor and birth. I got home this morning just before 7am...just in time to kiss Gabe goodbye and start my "day job".

Mothering and doula work combined. Sometimes I wonder about my sanity. :) But oh, the joy of the birth! And the pride in a job well done!





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