Advocacy

From my journey through childbirth, I discovered an incredible inner strength and resilience that I want to share with you. My first birth experience, despite resulting in an unplanned C-section, set the stage for understanding the different choices and options available to me. It was a challenging yet transformative event that taught me the importance of support and determination.

Informed consent is a hot topic lately, and for good reason. The principle at the heart of informed consent is to ensure that people have autonomy over their own bodies and health care. When enforced, it gives us the right to make informed decisions about our health care, including whether or not to undergo a test, procedure, or treatment. In this blog post, we will discuss what informed consent means for women and families, ways you can enforce it in your care, and how it impacts your health care.

You're pregnant! Congratulations! This is an amazing time in your life and you have a lot of decisions to make. One of the most important decisions you'll make is what kind of prenatal care to have. Our society has programmed us to believe that we need to have an OBGYN and be monitored, tracked, and checked throughout our entire pregnancy. And, what this does for most women is cause more stress during a time when that is the last thing you need. That is not fun. It actually may even lead to problems that would not have occurred if that added stress of going to those appointments weren't there...

There's no denying that pregnancy and childbirth are amazing, life-changing experiences. For many women, becoming a parent is the best thing that's ever happened to them. If you're one of those women who loves everything about pregnancy and childbirth, then becoming a birthkeeper may be the perfect career choice for you. What is a birthkeeper? A birthkeeper is someone who helps to guide and support a woman through pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum, more than a doula and yet not a midwife. They are also known as traditional birth attendants. You will generally find that a Birthkeeper...... 

When you have had the cascade of interventions, the experience of being bullied in labor, or ended up with a planned or unplanned cesarean you know that you have questions that need answered. Most of you will go see the same doctor, unless you have moved or had other reasons to switch your providers. Many of you will find out that your care provider is less than enthusiastic about you wanting to “try” for a VBAC. You have questions and want answers, which you should, but will you actually ask your questions? Are you too nervous to have the conversation because your doctor makes you feel inferior any time you ask a question? Here are some ways that you can prepare for your VBAC, that you have control over and will have a huge impact on whether you are successful or not.

When you are pregnant you will generally be told that you have to be tested to see if you have gestational diabetes between 24-28 weeks of pregnancy. This test is generally done using a glucola drink with 50 grams of sugar for the one hour test and 100 grams of sugar for the 3 hour test. You can, however, decide that you don't want to do this test or opt for another test that doesn't require you drinking the glucola...

Have you ever thought, Can I Have a Homebirth? - You were made to do this one thing without a doubt!!! Many women are more than capable of having a homebirth, EVEN when they don’t think so... If you have been thinking about having a homebirth and are wondering if it is something that you can do, I want to encourage you to seek out as much information as you can before deciding that you can’t...

You Decide, It’s Your Choice!! - Did you know that you have the ability to decline or delay any tests, ultrasounds, or checks that you don’t want during your pregnancy and childbirth experience? It’s TRUE!! Western medicine is trying to change this by changing the conversations and removing words that give their patients a choice...

One of the things that keeps coming up in conversations that I find extremely disturbing is how our medical system is dictating our care and how they are training their labor and delivery teams on how to handle having a doula attending and assisting their patients in the birth of their baby....

So he agreed to having the homebirth I wanted... Having Jonathan (my husband) on board with contracting a midwife and having a homebirth was the answer to my prayers and everything I wanted. I didn’t tell my OB that I was going for a home birth because I wasn’t going to give him any opportunities to speak negatively into what I WANTED!