Did you hear about the 3D ultrasound clinic in Canada that seems to have been giving EVERYONE a printout of the SAME baby?! We always knew our low-tech, non-invasive, guaranteed risk-free simplistic method of giving families photographic memories of their babies’ development was better! If you missed the CTV news article, here it is: Ultrasound […]
Women birthing with medical care providers such as doctors and registered midwives often have vaginal exams performed every 2-4 hours during a woman’s labour, depending on the care provider and birth location. I could go on and on about cervical exams and how important I believe it is to be extremely cautious with both choosing if or […]
“On the day you were born, I funneled the universe through my body with my breath. And when, finally, face to face, a place I had stopped believing in, bid me come in. I entered delicately through your eyes, and standing there was the heartbeat of creation.” -Bethel Lee, Mother Earlier this year I attended […]
In honour of Cesarean Awareness Month, I wanted to share a story of Gina, client who chose to have a cesarean last December due to discovering her baby was breech at almost 41 weeks of pregnancy. While woman do have the option of choosing to birth breech babies vaginally (read another client’s vaginal breech birth story […]
There are many herbs and essential oils that are commonly recommended for childbirth. I always encourage my clients to treat any herbal or plant preparations as medicine. I typically do not recommend using herbs for inducing birth, and encourage people to avoid thinking that herbal inductions are “natural inductions”. Herbal medicines can be powerful, and […]
I’m an anomaly in the birth-professional world in that some of my favourite births to attend are those of first-time mothers. It’s quite typical of anyone who attends births for a living to prefer what we call “multips”: women who’ve given birth at least once before. It’s commonly accepted that multips birth more quickly and easily than […]
In addition to attending births as a birth doula and teaching prenatal classes, I also teach a well-known doula training course. Part of what we teach in our Wise Woman Way of Birth course is an introduction to the business side of being a doula. Here is a video and some readings on how I built […]
I’d like to welcome Teresa Butler to our village. Teresa is a nutrition student at The Institute of Holistic Nutrition here in Vancouver, and will be working with Birth Takes A Village as part of her co-op hour requirements. Teresa’s interest in nutrition grows from a desire to help women have healthy, positive birth experiences. She […]
When I shared my sister’s family freebirth (birth outside the medical system) story and birth images last week, they created a ripple effect in the online world that inspired a lot of women to want to share their stories and images from their beautiful births. Over and over again I have women tell me that the […]
There are many herbs and essential oils that are commonly recommended for childbirth. I always encourage my clients to treat any herbal or plant preparations as medicine. I typically do not recommend using herbs for inducing birth, and encourage people to avoid thinking that herbal inductions are “natural inductions”. Herbal medicines can be powerful, and […]
A Louis CK clip has been making the rounds the last couple days in a clip from Conan. The clip is about cell phone use, but it actually can teach us a LOT about what all the hype is regarding natural childbirth. Stick with me here, this is important! Watch the whole clip below and […]
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting lately on stimulating change in the birth world. I’m extremely involved in the birth community, and actively promote the creation of a more gentle and informed birth culture. With induction rates of up to 25% and cesarean rates of up to 35% here in British Columbia, it is […]
I don’t blog too much about cesareans, as most of my focus is on educating women on how to maximize their chances of having a healthy vaginal birth and there is only so much time in the day! However, one of my favourite topics is the importance of delayed cord clamping. Normally when I speak about […]
One of the most amazing things about attending births for a living is sharing in the moment where a woman becomes a mother. I talk so often about that moment when a woman reaches down to hear newborn baby for the first time with an incomparable look on her face of “I DID IT!”. If […]
