Birth, Baby & Beyond Blog
Healing After (Vaginal) Birth
There’s a lot of pressure after having a baby to “snap back”, especially if you have a vaginal birth rather than a c-section. Celebrities often seem to be back on their feet quickly, with tennis player Naomi Osaka headed back to practice at 2 weeks postpartum being a...
How to Care for Your Emotional Well-Being and Cope with Baby Blues As a New Mom
Picture this- you just had a baby, and you’re filled with a love like you never felt before. You can’t believe how blessed you are, and everything your little one does is adorable. It doesn’t matter so much that you’re sore and tired and this hospital bed feels like...
Embracing Matresence & Finding Joy for Black Moms
Keke Palmer's joyful and bold personality is no secret to her fans. However, when she became a mother, her partner had certain expectations of how she should change her demeanor and appearance now that she had a new baby. There are lessons here for Black women during...
What We’re Missing About Black Maternal Health
For the last week or so, I've been sharing about a new mini-course, focused on Black maternal health. Expecting Excellence is new, but it's based on experiences over years with Black women seeking out a doula. Listen to Musings of a Black Doula- What's Missing When We...
Advanced Maternal Age- Having a Baby After 35
We often hear a statistic that women aged 35-40 will spend a year+ before conceiving and will often fail. But that data on what medical professionals call "advanced maternal age" is from a French study in the 1700s. What’s more relevant than 300 year old statistics...
Natural Induction Methods
Most expectant moms I know aren’t hoping for 42 weeks of labor. Sometimes there are medical conditions being monitored like high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia and related issues, gestational diabetes, which might be a cause for induction. Other times, you get tired of...
Symptoms of Postpartum Depression and Other Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorders
Despite all of our efforts as birth professionals and postpartum doulas, when people hear the word “postpartum”, depression is the very first thing that they think of. I’ve always thought that this association says a lot about our expectations for life with a new...
Recovery After Vaginal Birth
“Hey Samantha, can you come here for a second?” I walked from where I was standing next to the newborn baby in the bassinet, and went over to the bathroom door. “Sure, what’s up?” I asked. As a doula, I pride myself on being someone other women can poop in front...
How an Overnight Postpartum Doula Can Help You
Picture it- Columbia, MD, 1AM. Your baby is crying. You just fed her, and changed her. You’re holding her close in your arms but for some reason she’s unhappy at the moment. You're exhausted, sleepy, and a little hungry, but she’s in your arms so you can’t...
A Step Closer to Reducing SIDS Fears
SIDS is a major fear of most new parents that I’ve known. I can’t count the number of times a mother has told me she watched her baby sleep all night. Sometimes it's in awe. Other times it is to ensure that the baby is breathing. If you’ve ever held a compact mirror...
In giving birth to our babies, we may find that we give birth to new possibilities within oursleves.
– Jon Kabat-Zinn