Norwest Doula Services

04/10/2025

Remembering all the precious babies, their parents and loved ones 🩷🩷

Babies don’t replace babies.

October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month, and I think it’s important to say this out loud,

A new baby doesn’t erase the one you lost.
A rainbow doesn’t erase the storm that came before it.
A new heartbeat doesn’t silence the ache of the one that stopped.

Every child is their own person.
Every bond is unique.
Every love is sacred and irreplaceable.

Grief and joy can exist side by side.
You can miss one baby with every ounce of your soul, while still loving another with your whole heart.
It’s not replacement.
It’s not forgetting.
It’s carrying both love and loss at the same time.

So if you’ve lost a baby, your love for them is forever valid.
And if you’ve gone on to have more children, that love doesn’t replace, it simply multiplies.

Because babies don’t replace babies.
And this month, we remember them all.

©️Caty Sanders

25/09/2025

Sometimes we have a to break out the big guns with this position. It’s not fun but it can definitely do the trick! Have you ever done Walchers during labor? Here’s a great explanation on how and why it works

Posted • This crazy-looking position is called Walcher’s and dates all the way back to 19th-century Germany and was first described by Gustav Adolf Walcher, a German obstetrician, in 1889.

The goal was to physiologically (naturally with no medicine) increase the anteroposterior (front-to-back and also medically known as the true conjugate) diameter of the pelvic inlet (top of the pelvis), potentially allowing the baby to descend and get into the pelvis. It can increase the pelvic inlet size by 1-2 cm!

This position is meant to be used if the baby is high in the pelvis, and you’ve tried everything else to help it get in (lower), especially if the pregnant person is very dilated but the baby is still high.

Nurses, you know those cervixes that are super dilated and stretchy and all that needs to happen is the baby drop and you’ve tried everything… consider Walcher’s!

Thank you for this incredible birth photo! Be sure to follow them!

Some Walcher’s tips to remember:

- You (nurse) needs to be there and make sure the sacrum is anchored on the top part of the bed.
- Lower the lower end of the bed first before you fully disconnect the bottom of the bed (you can see this here, the bed is broken in 2 pieces, so that you can assure that you or your patient doesn’t fall off!
- Do this for 3 contractions only. If you feel light-headed, let your nurse know and then readjust so they don’t pass out due to aortic compression.
- Be prepared that if it works and this was the reason baby wasn’t coming down, you may have an immenent birth!
- Expect the FHR (fetal heart rate) tracing to potentially have decels. It’s 3 contractions, ideally the reason is for rapid descent.
- This is NOT to be used as a routine position, but rather one as a back-pocket trick.

Have you tried this and seen it work?

Share your stories below for both families & nurses!

21/09/2025

Disrupting breastfeeding confidence a drip at a time.
Alex Smith draws attention to the effect that IV fluids given to the mother in labour may have on her baby’s initial weight loss.
https://www.aims.org.uk/journal/item/iv-fluids-labour

08/09/2025

04/09/2025

This is for our birthing sisters 💗

24/08/2025

How To Store Pumped Br€ast Milk

Pro Tip 1: Use a sharpie and br€ast milk storage bags to label when the milk was pumped. You think you will remember, but as a new Mom you have plenty of other things to worry about. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

Pro Tip 2: Any remaining milk left in a bottle after your baby is finished with a feeding should be used within two hours, or, if quickly refrigerated, used for the next feeding.

⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣Pro Tip 3: After thawing frozen milk, use within 24 hours if kept in refrigerator. Use within 2 hours if kept at room temperature. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

Pro Tip 4: If you're unsure if milk is still safe to feed your baby, you don't have to throw it out. You can use it on their skin to treat diaper rash or to treat sore n1pples.

📸 ⁣⁣⁣juna.moms

15/08/2025

Where you birth matters. Current stat's coming out from the 2023 Australian Mother's and Babies report.

14/07/2025

07/07/2025

Letting a baby cry it out might sound like tough love but science says it’s tougher on the baby than anyone else.

Research now shows that ignoring a crying infant or frequently leaving them to self-soothe without comfort can have real consequences not just emotionally, but neurologically. A large-scale Japanese study involving over 100,000 mother-child pairs found a clear link between chronic non-response during infancy and developmental delays. These included setbacks in communication, social interaction, motor coordination, and even problem-solving abilities.

But it doesn’t stop at developmental skills.

When babies cry for extended periods without comfort, their bodies release large amounts of cortisol, the primary stress hormone. And while short-term stress responses are natural, prolonged elevated cortisol levels can disrupt brain development, particularly in regions responsible for emotional regulation, memory, and attachment.

This early emotional stress may also lead to weaker caregiver bonds, and increases the risk of anxiety, aggression, and lower IQ later in life. The baby learns not just that their needs won’t be met but that the world may not be safe or responsive at all.

Comforting a crying baby isn’t about spoiling them it’s about building their brain, shaping secure attachment, and laying the groundwork for emotional resilience. Every time you respond with love, you’re not just calming a cry you’re wiring a healthier future.

02/06/2025

Sending much love to all of those special people 🤍

June is World Infertility Awareness Month.

To the ones who are silently struggling to become pregnant…
To the ones who hold their breath at every ultrasound…
To the ones who are undergoing fertility treatments with so much hope and so much fear in their hearts…
To the ones who smile through the pain of yet another insensitive comment from someone who just doesn’t get it…
To the ones who feel stuck between grieving the life they planned and holding on to the dream they still hope for…

You are not alone.

Infertility isn’t just about a negative test.
It’s about grieving a version of your future you thought was guaranteed.
It’s feeling like your body is betraying you.
It’s sitting quietly while others celebrate something you’re still praying for.
It’s carrying a weight that most people don’t see and even fewer understand.

I see you.
I’m sending you love, patience, and so much compassion this month.
You are doing your best with a burden you never asked to carry.
You are allowed to feel it all… the hope, the grief, the anger, the exhaustion, the love.
All of it is valid. All of it is real.

You are not alone in this.
You are deeply, completely, endlessly loved.

24/05/2025

A really good walk through the placenta after a physiological delivery of the placenta.

24/05/2025

🟣 Another blog post updated and moved to my website!
This post is about routine vaginal examinations (VEs) during physiological birth ie. an uncomplicated birth without any medical intervention. A VE is a useful assessment in some circumstances, but its routine use in an attempt to determine labour progress is questionable. As birth knowledge evolves, and research challenges the current misdirected approach to labour progress, there is an opportunity to shift practice.
https://www.rachelreed.website/blog/vaginal-examinations-in-labour