Because of their shared, women-centered maternity health perspectives, midwives and doulas often appreciate each other’s work and may be at births together.  Doulas assist mothers in positioning, provide emotional support and encouragement and act as an advocate for their individual birth plans, regardless of who is their health care provider. Midwives may also do these things, but are actually delivering (or "catching") the babies, and are responsible for the health care and safety of the mother/baby dyad in labor and birth. 

Midwives are highly skilled professionals in the realm of normal birth. Although it’s common for current generations to think that all babies are born in a hospital with obstetricians (OB’s), the preferred attendant around the world for normal birth is still the midwife. So how does one go about finding a homebirth midwife, if you're the first in your circle to consider such a thing? Depending on the health care politics of your area, it could be super easy, or a big challenge!

This question gets asked a lot around the holidays. Here’s my midwife perspective from helping mothers birth, and navigate family holidays, for over 40 years.

Midwives, apprentices and doulas are uniquely positioned to have an extraordinary affect on the postpartum period of families, and therefore on the family’s entire parenting experience. When we educate mothers and their families about the exquisite importance of a healthy and protected postpartum and how to have realistic expectations, our impact will echo deeply in women’s lives forever beyond the actual birth.

Adrenal deficiency is a very real effect of the modern life we’re living, and the consequences include symptoms that are now rampant among my midwifery clients, such as disrupted sleep, anxiety, racing thoughts, heart palpitations, allergies, elevated blood pressure, depression, headaches, and decreased tolerance to stress, just to name a few. The very good news is that real change can be felt quickly through precise supplementation and small changes made with awareness. The first step is to have a new understanding about the scope of stress that is our life - let’s start with this fascinating ‘stress inventory’ that you can take right here!

Herbal baths have traditionally been used by midwives to help mothers and babies soothe and heal after birth. Sometimes however, birth does not go as hoped and planned. There may be grief about small details, or tremendous pain from difficult circumstances. It was in response to these challenging times that mothers and I came up with “The Do-Over Bath.” In this case, the herbal bath is also used as a ceremonial time to honor the closing of a chapter, and to make room for an emotional reset.

PART 1/4: This is a frank discussion to teach homebirth midwives and other birth professionals about effective naturopathic responses to excessive blood loss in childbirth. In addition to the obvious physical improvement in mom’s immediate recovery, unusually rapid long-term postpartum improvements have been confirmed with labwork. Here I discuss which remedies and why - homeopathics, essential oils, flower remedies, liquid iron supplementation, food as medicine, and the power of including visualization as an emergency technique. “Her hemoglobin five hours later was 7 g/dl, something quizzically deemed “impossible” by the medical staff.“ Early nutritional and remedy-based intervention does make a significant difference in recovery!

This is a frank discussion to teach homebirth midwives and other birth professionals about effective naturopathic responses to excessive blood loss in childbirth. In addition to the obvious physical improvement in mom’s immediate recovery, unusually rapid long-term postpartum improvements have been confirmed with labwork. Here I discuss which remedies and why - homeopathics, essential oils, flower remedies, liquid iron supplementation, food as medicine, and the power of including visualization as an emergency technique. “Her hemoglobin five hours later was 7 g/dl, something quizzically deemed “impossible” by the medical staff.“ Early nutritional and remedy-based intervention does make a significant difference in recovery!