If I can offer anything to you, it's that I invite you to show up with all of your history and life experiences. I do not assume that I have more power or authority over your body and your health than you do (and I reject health care models that concentrate power in the hands of a provider). I always want you to feel comfortable in making your own decisions, because ultimately you know what's best for you and for your family.
Feeling Anxious?
I want to share the resources that I have always shared with midwifery and doula clients struggling with anxiety. All of the following are ways that we say “I love you” to our body. As you do them, you can say to yourself “this care is how I love myself.” <3
Midwife Tips for Preconception Planning
If you want to grow a baby that’s delicious enough to nibble on (this is a real thing), it’s good to start off from a healthy and nourished place. Here are some of the tools I use as a midwife to help folks planning a pregnancy.
Swiping Right on Your Provider
You wouldn’t go on a second date with a guy who didn’t listen to you, or belittled you, or made you feel like he didn’t have time for you. Why would you go to a second prenatal appointment with a provider who makes you feel that way?
DIY Elderberry Syrup
Elderberry syrup is a great, tasty, and simple way to fortify our immune systems in the winter.
Postpartum Resources in the Garden State
Because we need it. Here’s my always-evolving list of postpartum resources for Central New Jersey.
Hello New Jersey!
Everything I do, everything I cultivate about myself and in my community, is about being of service, and becoming more resilient, more flexible and adaptable…
Post-Cesarean Healing: A Holistic Approach
Healing from a cesarean adds a new dimension to postpartum care. Here I offer my approach, which considers folks’ lifelong wellness.
Vitamin D's surprising impact on pregnancy
Obstetric providers rarely check for this crucial nutrient, and yet low levels of Vitamin D are linked to various serious complications of pregnancy.
Immune Support in Pregnancy
Tis the season. Hit bugs hard with this pregnancy-safe immunity protocol, or shore up your immune system to deal with everything that's out to get you.
Why I don't write birth plans.
A plan implies that if we just make the right choices and feel really strongly about those choices, then we can control what happens during birth.
Labor Induction
Common sense dictates that there is no single universal length of complete gestation. Rather, there's a normal range during which a healthy pregnant person will spontaneously go into labor.
Reclaiming what fear steals.
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
First Trimester Thoughts
Nope, I'm not pregnant. I'm wrapping up the first three months of my midwifery apprenticeship at the Concord Birth Center and wanted to take a moment to consciously reflect on what it's been like and what I've learned.
Recent research suggests that supplementing with probiotics in pregnancy can minimize GBS colonization.
Next month I begin a busy midwifery apprenticeship, with my eyes on my own home birth practice in 2019. If I told myself six years ago that this was the path I was on, I would never have believed it.
Being pregnant during periods of anxiety, grief, and anger can be complicated. We know that the stress that we experience in pregnancy is also experienced by our babies. Cultural traditions worldwide recommend that pregnant women not look at or think about upsetting things. Unfortunately, that's not the reality that we live in, or that of many of our sisters around the globe.
Obstetricians practicing in the United States are influenced by ACOG statements and practice bulletins, and it's important that parents familiarize themselves with the recent position changes that are relevant to birth, choice, and justice.
Your liver performs hundreds of metabolic functions—that is, the processes our bodies perform to maintain life. These roles include detoxifying waste products of digestion, environmental toxins and chemicals, and clearing hormones from the body (which is so important for our fertility).
Did you know that bacteria outnumber your human cells by about 9:1? Yup. We are more bacterial than human, by far.