When to Speed up Labor

Much of the means of speeding up labor naturally have nothing to do with speeding up the labor process, but making the labor process more effective through supporting the biology of the birth. So, yes, labor would, as a result, not take so long - but it is not due to forcing the baby through the pelvis, but enabling the baby to fit through the pelvis and comforting mom. Of course, there are often times where a provider suggests you get things moving a little faster and these techniques provide very valuable.

Of course, the first approach is to hire a provider that understands biological birth.
Ask why someone would want to speed up labor.
- Time limits from the provider
- Time limits from the birth facility
- Time limits because you're exhausted
- Recommendations for getting the baby out sooner than later due to medical reasons. This would be the only case where augmenting labor may be useful, though I would have to ask myself, "Is augmentation actually the safest course of action, or would cesarean be more appropriate to reduce the overall short and long-term risks?" Because, in fact, if there is a medical complication, augmenting labor may very likely increase these risks.
Decide if speeding up labor is the answer, or following your instincts with possible physical and emotional guidance from a doula would allow labor to progress more smoothly.

Techniques to Speed up Labor Naturally

When and how to speed up labor might be something you're thinking of during pregnancy, or during a long labor. Here are techniques to prevent long labors and to speed up labor when time limits seem to be approaching faster than you'd like.

The following methods to speed up labor should be used with these thoughts in mind:

These methods to speed up labor can be used in conjunction with one another, or on their own - though nipple stimulation is the most intense of the techniques
These methods to speed up labor can be used to prevent a long labor
These methods to speed up labor can be used to avoid medical (or herbal) labor augmentation
These methods to speed up labor can be used in conjunction with any medicated birth or medical (or herbal) labor augmentation
These methods to speed up labor can be cycled through, revisited at a later time and are often common doula techniques to create a happy healthy birth

Quiet, Calm, Dark to Speed up Labor

Oxytocin, the prime labor hormone, works best in a quiet, calm, and dark space. Oytocin works synergistically with melatonin and dopamine and as such is heightened in dark settings. Continue this environment prior to and during labor (to include the first few hours after the birth). This practice not only creates a calmer environment, but also reduces adrenaline for a safer (normal risk of postpartum hemorrhage) experience.

Clear the Room & Hands Off Mom to Speed up Labor

This is similar to quiet, calm and dark - with an enhanced attribute. The more people and stuff going on in the space, the more mom's logical brain turns on and the less her instinctive brain (the part needed to progress through birth) works. No talking - definitely no asking her questions. No watching TV or carrying on conversations in this space. No touching (unless this is obviously desired by mom). Clear the room down to mom's main support person (as long as that support person is calm and providing positive energy to the mom). The more vaginal exams, monitoring and general fiddling with the mom, the more intense labor sensations will be felt and the longer labor will be (and the more likely recommendations to speed up labor will occur). Historically (I'm talking pre-city culture), women labored on average about 2-4 hours. Labor was thought of quite differently in those times.

Move

If you can't move, your pelvis won't move, and baby won't move. Labor is a blend of feeling safe (building oxytocin) and being aligned (whole body alignment and soft tissue mobility) for baby's movement through the pelvis. Speed up labor by getting baby into a good position prior to labor through prenatal aligned movement is ideal. Continuing this through labor and birth, by mom following her instincts is also ideal. Walk, stretch, belly dance, get some bodywork. If labor feels intense or long, having a knowledgeable doula to provide you with positioning and movement guidance can be quite helpful. This could be side lying releases, massage, hip squeezes, rest, rebozo work and various other forms of movement (and relaxation) suggestions.

Emotional Release to Speed up Labor

It is quite common to have emotional tension holding a mom back from smooth labor progression. Whether this is causing prodromal labor or a long labor, getting your emotions out is ideal. Use the feel, yell and tell method to speed up labor.

Feel your emotions - your anger, your frustration, your annoyance, your hurt, your fear.
Yell - Do you know what it feels like to be alone in the woods - or any solitary place - and just yell? If you don't, you should try it. It is quite liberating. It works in similar ways to how crying releases hormones causing sadness and anger. Sometimes all we can do is just let those hormones flow. Giving a deep empowering Tarzan and Jane like roar can really help you move through adrenaline and let oxytocin rise.
Tell someone what you're thinking or feeling. If you're thinking of something, you are preventing your instinctual brain to take over. Get it out. Tell someone what you're thinking and/or tell the person you're thinking about what you're thinking. If you're annoyed at the way someone is treating you, speak up. If you need to vent about your fear, let someone know. If you're worried you left the stove on, call someone and have them go check. If you'd rather birth in the hospital after planning a home birth, tell your midwife or birth team it is time to transfer. If you just don't understand why you're experiencing labor this way, tell your doula that you're pissed off and tired and just annoyed that you're still in labor.

Sometimes, letting these emotions out is all your mind needs to no longer hold the weight of these feelings and speed up labor.

Kissing, Intimate Touching to Speed up Labor

What gets the baby in, gets the baby out. Birth is intimate. This might make you feel uncomfortable; however, that doesn't make it any less true. Oxytocin peaks during orgasm, and after childbirth. You're meant to enjoy labor with those you love, and those that will love the baby. Kiss and be intimate with your significant other. Eye gazing, skin to skin touching, and open mouth kissing allow oxytocin to rise enabling contractions to be more effective.

Nipple Stimulation to Speed up Labor

While similar to being intimate, nipple stimulation can be slightly different. Ideally this would be involved in your intimate connection. Nipple stimulation (as will happen during breastfeeding) releases oxytocin, the hormone that causes contractions in the uterus (and contractions in the alveoli of the breast to express breastmilk). Using nipple stimulation aggressively, whether through the hands, orally, or with a breast pump, will stimulate contractions. It is very important to note that stimulating contractions in this way is often used first, unfortunately, when there is an alignment issue and baby ends up just being jammed into the pelvis instead of helped through the pelvis through movement and the other emotion-supporting techniques.

Looking for guidance to prevent or remedy a long labor? Get in touch!

5 Must Do Prenatal Movements

April 17, 2017
in childbirth, Health, life, Newsletter
esalibirth
alignment,mobile pelvis,move for birth,movement,nutritious movement,pelvic alignment,pelvis,posture,prenatal alignment,prenatal exercise,prenatal movement,sitz bones,spinning babies,squat,squat for birth,walk for birth

Prenatal movement is equally necessary for a healthy birth as nutrition. Unfortunately, chiropractic care has been touted as the supreme fix for prenatal discomfort. While chiropractic care can certainly have its benefits and uses for pregnancy, it is often a result of poor movement practices that cause the misalignment in the first place and without fixing these movement practices, the return to chiro appointments will be regular. Here are 5 Must-do Prenatal Movements to add into your daily movement-based lifestyle.

Walking in Pregnancy

Walking in pregnancy is by far the most important prenatal movement that should be a significant part of your lifestyle. An average of 3-10 miles a day of walking (though not at one time) is historically supportive for a healthy life including birth preparation, lower cancer risks than non-movers, and decreased uterine (menstrual) discomfort. Walking moves the pelvis in a way that helps to support baby in a biologically desired position and also helps to provide valuable nutrients to the pelvis and digestive system. Walking any amount more than you already do (if you're not in that average 3-10 miles per day range) is beneficial. Work up to 1-3 miles per day, on average. You would likely also benefit from a visit to a physical therapist (find one that is Nutritious Movement Certified or generally uses natural movements as a basis for therapy) for guidance on gait patterns and proper alignment so that your walking is overall beneficial.

Calf Stretches

Unless you're walking barefoot in the woods most of the day on all sorts of terrain, your feet and legs can be a little stiff. Furthermore, if you have any rise on the heels of your shoes at all, your calves are shortening and subsequently reaching your pelvis and back causing misalignment which may contribute to longer more intense labor. Calf stretches as a prenatal movement, or any time, help to elongate the muscles, but these have to be done on top of a movement-based lifestyle. Calf stretches can be done any time. Use rolled up towels or yoga mats, or half domes and place them at your sinks, your stove, your tables, your TV - wherever you find some down-time. Be sure to rotate between multiple areas of calf and foot stretches for diversity.

Hamstring Stretches

If sitting exceeds any other prenatal movement or non-movement activity of your life by any amount, then your legs, pelvis, and back are reducing in length, tightening, and unable to be as mobile as birth will desire. The pelvis helps connect the top of the body to the bottom of the body through muscles, ligaments, and various tissue. Having a mobile pelvis enables baby more of an ability to move throughout pregnancy, labor, and birth. Have a partner hold your ankle and push to the point of stretching, but not pain. Hold this for 30-60 seconds and then go a little deeper. If you don't have someone available, grab a towel or yoga strap to hold this stretch. Sit on the floor without your legs crossed, alternate legs. You can notice tightness if your pelvis has to tuck in this position or your thighs come off the ground. Work on other stretching and work into sitting in this position without tucking. Scoot your bum up against a wall and lift your feet in the air; hang out and read a good book. While these positions may not be suitable for all stages of pregnancy, there are many ways of incorporating movement into your life for a more mobile pelvis.

Squatting

Squatting was once a crucial part of our daily gathering lifestyle. We also squatted to eliminate which helped to loosen the tissue surrounding the pelvis. Squatting is a significant birthing position for many women that instinctively choose their own birthing position. The issue is, we don't squat enough and our often sitting-based (rather, lack of movement based) lifestyles don't promote pelvic mobility. Squatting daily as a form of natural prenatal movement whenever you need to get up and down out of bed, off the floor during down time, to get pots and pans...etc., increases the natural mobility of the pelvis allow better movement for baby. Adding in a few extra squatting sessions - not as an exercise, but as a stretch - further helps to counterbalance work needs and lifestyle choices. Be sure to squat with your knees close to vertical and keep a curve in the spine. Grab a partner and have them support you as you pull your pelvis backwards and down into a squatting position just enough to keep your shins vertical and not tuck your pelvis. Keep your toes pointing forward while you do this, too. Hold that for 15-20 seconds at a time. Butt tucking motions are counter productive to a squat. By the way, relax on the kegels a bit... literally. Tightness is one thing that is common in a sitting based lifestyle. We need more movement, stretching, and flexibility.

Sitz Bone Awareness

Any time you're sitting, be up on your sitz bones (and for the sake of knowledge sharing, these are actually your ischial tuberosities, not your sitz bones... but that's the common term that is used so we're going to call them sitz bones here for ease of understanding). You can see the lack of space baby has in the first photo with a tucked pelvis. You can see the mobile sacrum and increased space for baby with the untucked pelvis of the second photo when sitting up on the sitz bones. These are the bony protuberances at the bottom of the pelvis. Being aware of their location will enable you to sit up (right now as you're reading this) any time you find yourself in a sitting position. Remember, though, that sitting shouldn't be a position that happens more than other positions - but you should be aware of how you're sitting when it does happens. No laying back on the couch, slouching at dinner, or bucket seats in the car (add a puff of air to a pool ring to sit on in the car). Even if you're sitting on a birth ball (physical therapy ball), you need to be up on your sitz bones with a curve in your back (but not over arching and sticking your ribs out). Keep your knees below your hips. A nice comfortable position to align the spine and pelvis when needed. Just remember to take change positions throughout the day (every 15 minutes) and take regular movement breaks (15 minutes every hour). If you haven't put two and two together yet, you can see how a "pushing" position of being in any way other then up off your bum and forward leaning or squatting decreases room for the baby as well.

What prenatal movement do you like to add into your movement-based pregnancy?

Move for Birth – Birth Prep Challenge – Week 3

January 30, 2017
in Health, Perinatal Education, pregnancy
esalibirth
birth prep,esali birth prep,exercise,go outside,move,move for birth,move for birth prep,move for health,move for life,move more,movement rules,optimal fetal positioning,prenatal exercise,prenatal movement,spinning babies,stack your life

Move for birth in multiple ways every day. Movement is vital to whole body wellness. Moving for birth strengthens muscles and enables ligaments to flex to create proper alignment (which means better alignment for the baby and a smoother birth).

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To receive weekly notifications, and supportive student-only tips, for the 10-Week Esali Birth Prep lessons, ENROLL in the FREE Esali Birth Prep Course.

Share your #moveforbirth moments of the #esalibirthprep with me on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter and tell me how you're incorporating this into your new routine.

5 Books to Start Gestating your Birth Mentoring and Pregnancy Knowledge

Birth books never get old at my house. Are you looking for some great reads this winter? Here are five birth books you can cozy up by the fire with and really start digging deep into birth practices, their influences on maternal-fetal health, and how to get started now helping your mentoring clients or making your pregnancy more holistic and comfortable.

Safer Childbirth? by Marjorie Tew

This book is a hard look at the history of maternity practices - from cultural and anthropological influence to studies and evidence completely disregarded and twisted - that literally changed the way we believe about birth and the misconceived perception of safety that runs rampant with many providers and birthing facilities, with research to back. If you're new to the birth scene, definitely grab a copy of this! If you're seasoned, especially if you have formal education and find birthing practices and helping women intriguing, definitely grab a copy of this!

Tew tells us, "Action to reduce losses in childbirth still further would have to concentrate on improving the health of the neediest mothers. In the light of past performance, there is not the slightest reason to believe that the desired objective would be achieved by increasing the medical input into maternity care. On the contrary, fewer losses would result if the medical input into maternity care were greatly restricted, while access to, and uptake of, healthy diets and social support became universal."

Hear, hear!

Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman, M.S.

Many of you may have read Katy Bowman's interview years ago about the negative impacts of kegels (read: mono-movement) and importance of [proper] squatting (though, in reality - it is movement she's getting at - not just squatting). You may not have realized that within that time, that interview exponentially increased her traffic and in addition to her amazing Nutritious Movement website, she has many amazing books that are an absolute must read for any... modern human! What I love most? She further instills my annoyance over "exercises" and instead encourages fun and functional balanced daily movement.

Movement - rather body alignment which is created from healthy daily movement - is crucial for the body's biological ability to birth smoothly. There's only so much healthy eating can do for you. While not a perinatal-specific book, this is a foundational look into some of the most common health conditions of our modern cultures which directly relates to many common birth and breastfeeding complications.

Bowman urges us, "I want you to keep exercise and movement separate in your mind because there are many movements we wouldn't consider exercise that are essential to the tissues of the body. For example, the workings of an infant's mouth while feeding at the breast are different than the workings of an infant's mouth while feeding off a bottle. In the end, the task of getting milk is accomplished no matter if you take a boob or a bottle, but the process of milking the breast, it turns out, is important to the optimal formation of the jaw and face bones. The structure of the face bones and established motor patterns of the face muscles end up affecting other processes, like breathing and swallowing, as ell as the space available for tooth eruption."

mmmmhmmm.... I know - all you mommas out there that have ever interacted with me for breastfeeding support are probably hearing my voice in your head repeating my caution of things like pacifiers, am i right? This is a great lead into the next dig-deeper book recommendation.

Impact of Birthing Practices on Breastfeeding, 2ed. by Linda J. Smith and Mary Kroeger

Still one of my most absolute favorite books. Period. If I could quote the entire amazing information here, I would. It is just so good and I am constantly astonished by the persons that work within the maternity industry that not only haven't read this book, but are completely unaware of the information within. This title is a picked apart, intensely researched, look at birthing practices from the big ones - like cesarean and pain relief - the seemingly insignificant ones with big impacts - like IV fluid and mother's position at birth. I mean, wow! It is worth every single penny and I do so hope that if you're a perinatal mentor, that this is already on your bookshelf. If not, please add this one soon!

The authors explain in the chapter on Effects of IV Hydration on Maternal Stress, Breast Edema, and Lactogenesis, "Postpartum breast engorgement is a major barrier to establishment of effective and comfortable breastfeeding. Only recently have clinicians differentiated between onset of copious milk secretion (lactogensis III) and edema... Many mothers have left birth facilities by day 2-4, and may not have access to adequate professional support in the critical first week postbirth."

Then the snowball just keeps rolling.

Dr. Jack Newman's Guide to Breastfeeding, Revised Ed. by Dr. Jack Newman and Teresa Pitman

Dr. Jack Newman has some of the most thorough and equally the most effective - simple - breastfeeding information available. There are a lot of great resources out there, but if you're looking for that one title to add to your shelves, this is it. It is great for expecting mothers without having to filter through a lot of opinions or outdated support techniques to get to the basics of breastfeeding and likewise a great flip-through reference for perinatal mentors.

Have you experienced this yourself? Newman explains, "A baby who 'latches on just fine for the first few days' and then cannot latch on when the mother's milk comes in and she becomes engorged probably didn't latch on in the first few days: he pretended to. If a baby breastfeeds well in the first few days, the mother may feel full when her milk 'comes in,' but she should not be so engorged that the baby cannot latch on."

Did your mentor share this information with you? This is only the tippity top of the iceberg of information contained within these pages dispelling myths - even in the birth support community.

Herbal Healing for Children by Demetria Clark

You know I couldn't do a list like this without some recommendation of herbal wellness. Many new mentors and parents are looking for compact information that makes their lives easier and healthier. This is a great book for the shelf that does just that. Not limited to children, despite the title, it is great for the whole family by offering pages and pages of whole-family safe recipes and basic herbal care knowledge sharing. Everything from cradle cap and diaper rash remedies to infestations, infections, and fever support - this is a great go-to for feeling more confident in parenting (always helpful) and having resources available for mentoring clients.

A little excerpt encourages, "Treating a child with herbs can be an effective way to fortify the body and cure illness. Herbal medicine is the right choice for kids because it blends modern medical research with ancient practices and remedies. Children generally respond well to herbal remedies, even when they are administers in tiny doses. Children's bodies are sensitive and react promptly to an herb's synergistic, efficient, gentle effects."

This was one of the first books I ever bought on herbal wellness when my littles were tinies and it just fed my obsession of obtaining herbal awareness. I still reference this at times for my personal mentoring clients when time is of the essence.

BONUS!

Man's Guide to Birth by Danielle Bergum

Last but not least, a little bonus book - and free with Kindle Unlimited - though I may be a little biased on this title, is Esali Birth's Man's Guide to Birth which is a pocket-guide style summary of the holistic knowledge shared from Esali Birth Mentoring. From conception through pregnancy, into birth, and during postpartum and early parenting - each page is a tip to follow with a quick summary. No new parent should be without this guide, and every mentor should have this in their lending library.

Belly Dancing for Birth

September 19, 2016
in childbirth, doula, Health, Perinatal Education, pregnancy, Uncategorized
esalibirth
baby position,balotable,belly dancing,belly dancing for birth,birth movement,chiropractic care,engaged,floating,healthy pregnancy,LOA,move for birth,nutritous movements,ofp,optimal fetal positioning,physical therapy,posterior,posture,pregnancy,pregnant,round ligament pain,spinning babies,stack your life,webster technique

I'm sure you've seen videos of the mommas dancing their way through their labors and births. I'm sure you've found it funny, maybe you even tried it. Maybe you're one of the ones that found amazing benefits, even just for comfort, from moving your pelvis. In fact, most of us that have tried this in pregnancy will continue to do this well after the baby is born because this isn't a pregnancy or woman-only movement. Do you know *why* this is helpful?

Belly dancing was historically done for pregnancy and labor. As with most traditions, it developed into more entertainment and theatric performace and lost its connection to a way of life. Let's talk about that connection a little bit.

Birth supporters and advocates are constantly talking about positioning of the body for a smoother birth. We all know (or should know) that sitting on your bum with you pelvis cocked forward or back lying in labor is 100 kinds of wrong for getting baby out in a healthy and happy way, right? We may even suggest a chiropractic adjustment or massage often to help align things. A physical therapist that specializes in women's health will take these treatments a step further and is definitely worth looking into so you can not just treat the symptom but fix the root problem of your discomfort and misalignment; but I want you to take a step further with your care because how you move regularly is how your pelvis and baby are aligned and appointments aren't going to fix the responsibility you have to take care of your body nutritionally and physically.... AND emotionally.

Belly dancing moves the baby. It moves the baby so that baby can move in the pelvis. What it also does is move the pelvis, ligaments, and muscles - including the uterus. If your uterus is tilted from not moving your body enough, your baby is going to be tilted. If your ligaments (way more than just the round ligaments in the front) are tight, they're going to tilt your cervix and overall cause more pain. If your body isn't hydrated, your myofascia will be brittle and crispy and no amount of chiro care is going to keep you aligned. If you're not moving and stretching and overall taking care of your muscles, ligaments, and bones - your body and baby won't be positioned well for birth. Belly dancing, rather big sensual movements of the pelvis in circles both ways and figure eights and dips and turns and just going with your body massages the ligaments, massages the muscles, moves the pelvis, turns the baby - it does all these things that many adjustments are trying to do, but dancing does it all at once from the inside out!

So take a look at the video above if you haven't already at what your baby might be doing inside that cozy womb while moving your pelvis 5 minutes every 30-60 minutes of the day.

The only thing you have to do is keep moving, and stay well well hydrated so that the myofascia doesn't get brittle. This is crucial. Likewise, if you have a desk job...etc., these movements can be done on a birth ball as well. Of course, this is only one piece of the puzzle and one movement you can add into your daily routine. There are a lot of other techniques you can use for optimal fetal positioning in pregnancy to not only prevent discomfort now and in labor, but also increase your ability for spontaneous birth. There are specifics to your situation that change the way these techniques are approached. You can scour the Spinning Babies website for a few of these tips, and if you're interested in learning more? Join me in a monthly birth class or for mentoring sessions online or locally.

Birth Work is Done in Pregnancy

September 12, 2016
in Birth Partner, childbirth, doula, Health, Perinatal Education
esalibirth
birth method,childbirth,childbirth education,doula,fetal positioning,labor discomfort,LOA,OP,optimal fetal positioning,posterior,posterior baby,ROA,spinning babies

WOW - what a weekend. Fresh from a Spinning Babies workshop and I have to get these thoughts out of my head. I wanted to attend the workshop to put all the pieces together from their intense website. I wanted to see how much were we already using, maybe simply not calling it the same thing, how much we needed refined, and how much was new. It was a great workshop. It was fun and educational. Much of it was techniques that have been around for ages simply pulled together. But, overall it was creating a larger network of people we can ask questions to and discuss. It was intriguing in ways I didn't expect because I found the networking more valuable than anything else. However, mostly it empowered my perspective of birth that there is still soooooo much of a medical mindset in even the birth advocacy world that needs to melt away. We have to support our women now in their situations now, absolutely, but we have to continue striving to bring birth back to the basics whenever possible - especially in the way we share knowledge.

Releasing tight ligaments to bring baby earth side. Prevent this tension in pregnancy, remedy this situation during the birthing phases.

If the information isn't there to support your idea of birth, the techniques won't make a difference. A doula can't save a birth choice that doesn't support biology. A birth class can give you the information, but unless you make the choices that support your body, the information isn't going to help you. We can physically support your baby and body, but without the understanding of a quiet, calm, and dark birth space AND the choice to allow you to birth in a space like that - your body may have a hard time moving from physically laboring to emotionally birthing. We need to reduce that fear and reduce too much in the birth space. ALL of these techniques need to work together. ALL of these ideas need to be pieced logically into place for YOU and YOUR BIRTH.

Tight muscles, tight ligaments, and misaligned body make baby misaligned. We know this. Now, let's get baby moving.

For too long, women have been hiring support for labor - separating that roll of educational support and labor support and expecting the hard work to be done during the birth. While taking it easy during pregnancy and enjoying this beautiful emotional time is a goal we need to work towards - ideally we want all this education and physical work to be done prior to the oxytocin-heightening time of labor.

This focus of what a doula is and does needs to change. They are so much more than "labor support."

Want a smoother birth? Do the work NOW. Whatever now looks like to you - whether you're 16, just married, TTC, early pregnancy, or 37 weeks - NOW is the time to start reducing the amount of work your body needs to do when baby is ready and your mind is ready to bring baby earth side.

What does this work look like? Well, it is different for everyone. It is a lot of birth industry navigating. It is independent perinatal education - not just a "what to expect in birth" or "what to expect in the hospital" sort of crash course. It is a lot of wellness counseling, birth trauma processing, relationship building, and likely optimal fetal positioning. It is navigating the birth industry. It is discovering what YOU want and what YOU expect from your birth team and birth location. When you discover your options, you learn how to make choices that support those options.

Where's the Baby? A provider that palpates can help a mom a lot during pregnancy to prevent issues arising in birth. When was the last time your provider palpated? When was the last time your provider touched you other than for a vaginal exam which is typically unnecessary at best. Providers that are only watching monitors won't know. Providers only getting feedback from a middle-person over the phone, won't know. Providers only focused on numbers, won't know. Providers never seeing a mom move during her labor won't know.

Want to know more? Schedule a session with me and let's get started with mentoring sessions that go far beyond "labor and delivery." Let's get to the root of your previous birth experience. Let's get to the root of your fear or misunderstanding of your biology and how a previous birth doesn't have to be this birth - even if you "did it all right." Let's figure out how your baby is working with YOUR body. Let's talk about your health and your relationship. Let's talk about your birth location and your care provider and how that is playing into something like muscle tension, birth pain, and a smooth birth. Let's talk about how all of this influences breastfeeding, PPH, and depression.

Let's talk about how amazing this time can be! Get in touch! You're never too far away!

Archive

Move for Birth – Birth Prep Challenge – Week 3

5 Books to Start Gestating your Birth Mentoring and Pregnancy Knowledge

Safer Childbirth? by Marjorie Tew

Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman, M.S.

Impact of Birthing Practices on Breastfeeding, 2ed. by Linda J. Smith and Mary Kroeger

Dr. Jack Newman's Guide to Breastfeeding, Revised Ed. by Dr. Jack Newman and Teresa Pitman

Herbal Healing for Children by Demetria Clark

BONUS!

Man's Guide to Birth by Danielle Bergum

Belly Dancing for Birth

Birth Work is Done in Pregnancy

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When to Speed up Labor

Techniques to Speed up Labor Naturally

Quiet, Calm, Dark to Speed up Labor

Clear the Room & Hands Off Mom to Speed up Labor

Move

Emotional Release to Speed up Labor

Kissing, Intimate Touching to Speed up Labor

Nipple Stimulation to Speed up Labor

Walking in Pregnancy

Calf Stretches

Hamstring Stretches

Squatting

Sitz Bone Awareness

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