Elevate Birth Doula Services

Elevate Birth Doula Services Elevate Birth Doula Services offers prenatal, birth and postpartum doula services as well as nutriti

I'm so happy to be providing this new service as a Registered Dietitian. In home lactation support is for anyone who's n...
06/11/2025

I'm so happy to be providing this new service as a Registered Dietitian. In home lactation support is for anyone who's needing help in their feeding journey. If you have a newborn and need support in those first few weeks or have come across a new challenge after the first few months I'm here to meet you where you're at and help you reach your feeding goals. We aren't meant to do this alone!

January can be a hard month. I know we have been feeling it in our house. This is my small attempt at lightening the loa...
01/11/2025

January can be a hard month. I know we have been feeling it in our house. This is my small attempt at lightening the load for anyone who could use it. Birth Pool rentals are now on sale until the end of January, both the basic and full package. Prices are reflected on my website. Contact me now to secure your month.

Birth Story Part 5: We were keeping the s*x as a surprise and I wanted to wait to know for a few mins until I was fully ...
02/02/2024

Birth Story Part 5: We were keeping the s*x as a surprise and I wanted to wait to know for a few mins until I was fully aware after the birth. I thought I heard someone say he right after baby was born then one midwife say it was a surprise and put a towel over baby. My son was so happy to be there and wanted to tell me right away what baby was. I asked him to wait a few minutes until I felt ready. He smiled at me and said “It's a Boy!” the midwives said you might want to check. I looked and said “No way! It’s a girl!” I was shocked. Since I was about 10 I always thought I would have 4 boys. I held her trying to take it all in, checking a couple more times that she was actually a girl. My mom and other two children came in to meet their little sister for a couple minutes. They left and the placenta came not too long after with a little pushing still attached to her. My midwives checked me out to see if I needed any stitches and make sure me and baby were all good. I went to the bathroom and everyone cleaned up the bed while my partner and son did skin to skin with her. I climbed back into my bed, my wonderful doula brought me some food, tea and birthday cake. My photographer took a few pictures and my midwives did a few more checks. Then everyone left us in a quiet peaceful afterbirth bliss, other than the intense 4th baby after pains.

This birth, as every birth, taught me so much and confirmed many things I already knew.
• You can't fully plan your birth.
• It doesn't matter what you try to get labour started your body will do it when it's ready.
• Those last few days/weeks are really really hard.
• Dilation really doesn't mean a whole lot.
• Pushing still sucks for me.
• Doulas and midwives rock.

I felt so supported with everyone on my team and was so happy to have my partner and oldest son with me as this little soul came into the world.  

Doula:
Midwives: *x
Photographer:

Birth Story Part 4: I felt like I was pushing so much but I couldn't feel the baby's head yet. It wasn't something I cou...
02/02/2024

Birth Story Part 4: I felt like I was pushing so much but I couldn't feel the baby's head yet. It wasn't something I could control but it felt like it was taking forever, in reality it was only about 10-15 mins. I am not a quiet birther, I told everyone about 100 times I hate pushing and didn't want to do it. I yelled and I pushed. I held my partners hand and I pushed. I pushed and my water broke, still no baby. I pushed a bit more and felt the head start to come out. The plan was for my 5 year old to catch the baby. I could tell he was still in the corner and thought if he's going to catch he better get over here. I heard one of the midwives tell him to come over if he wanted to. I could tell he moved closer. The next push baby came flying out at 7:54, 2 hours and 54 mins after I was woken with contractions, 1 hour and 40 mins after being maybe 3 cm. My son didn't catch but was right there when baby was born. I was frozen with relief. They asked if I wanted to reach down and get the baby and I said NO! I took a few seconds to catch my breath and come back to my body. I then turned onto my back and they handed baby to me. I was so relived for it to be over and have my warm, wet, squishy baby in my arms.

Doula:
Midwives: *x
Photographer:

Birth Story Part 3: I was moving all over, trying different positions for every contraction, trying to listen to what m...
02/02/2024

Birth Story Part 3: I was moving all over, trying different positions for every contraction, trying to listen to what my body needed me to do. My doula, partner and midwife were reassuring me that I was ok. My midwife said she had called the second midwife as I seemed to be progressing with my behavior. It was only then that I accepted this was happening and not going to stop. Thinking back, I was partly in such denial because my main midwife who has caught all my other babies wasn't able to make it. I thought surely this baby would wait for her. I had to let that go in that moment and knew I was in amazing hands with my back up and the second midwife who was on her way. I asked my doula to tell the photographer to come, which I should have also done earlier but denial. After all the different positions, squating, standing, Captain Morgan, I finally settled hands and knees on my bed. My partner was supporting me at my head and my doula was squeezing my hips. I had a contraction and was digging my elbow into my partners thigh. I could feel him trying to move my elbow and thought "you can endure this pain for one contraction, you better not move me". After that they got me a peanut ball to lean over. The second midwife arrived, followed shortly by my photographer. Things then get a little blurry. I was in labour land. I remember my son bouncing on the exercise ball in the corner. My cat jumping up on the bed. Telling everyone there was a towel warmer in the corner (star of the birth 😆). Then yelling that someone better take off my underwear because baby was coming.

Doula:
Photographer:
Midwives: *x

Birth Story Part 2: For the next 3 days I had noticeable cramps every 10 to 15 mins. They weren't intense but I knew the...
02/01/2024

Birth Story Part 2: For the next 3 days I had noticeable cramps every 10 to 15 mins. They weren't intense but I knew they were there. I ignored as much as possible and tried to stay relaxed and trust. Early Sunday at 39w6d I woke up at 5am with one harder contraction. Of course my 2 year old woke up at the same time. I went to the bathroom and my husband when to lay with him. I went back to bed and had another contraction that I had to stand up for. I went and got my partner and told him to bring my son to my mom, who was staying with us for a couple weeks. I went back to our room to get things set up and continued having strong contractions every five or so minutes. I texted our doula Keri that I couldn't talk through them but I was nervous they would stop. She said she would start to get ready. My partner saw me have a few as he was making the bed and said to call the midwife. At 5:45am I paged the midwife. My back up midwife called back and tried to gage how I was doing. I told her I thought it was happening but was still nervous they would stop. She said she would come over and assess me. At this point my room was set up and all my kids woke up. I was moaning through them. I tried to get in the shower and was in there for about 1 min before it felt like my skin was crawling. The midwife arrived first at 620am. She listened to baby's heart beat and asked if I wanted to be checked. I said yes and got on the bed. I could feel she had to go really far up to try and feel. It was painful and I asked her to stop. She stopped right away and said baby was still floating, I was maybe 3cm but she couldn't really tell because there was no pressure on my cervix. I told her it was going to take a long time and I couldn't do it like this for 24 hours. She reminded me it could change quickly and not to be discouraged. My doula arrived and the contractions just kept coming. Because of babies high position we tried welchers, where you lay on the bed with your legs hanging off. I only stayed this way for one contraction and yelled the whole way through. It was not wonderful but seemed to work because after that they became even stronger.

Birth Story part 1: Baby number 4 was a real test for me in trusting my body. This pregnancy was my longest by 5 days. I...
02/01/2024

Birth Story part 1: Baby number 4 was a real test for me in trusting my body. This pregnancy was my longest by 5 days. I had many many nights of prodromal labour starting around 38 weeks. It would happen all afternoon and evening then stop once I went to sleep. During these last couple weeks I went to the chiropractor, osteopath, did many different exercises and movements to make sure baby was in an optimal position and my body was as ready as it could be. I kept in touch with my midwife during my 39th week and we both agreed baby would show up during the weekend as all my others were born on weekends. My son, the mini doula, helped me with some Ribozo sifting and I did a lot of relaxing and trying to let everything go. The weekend came and went and I made it to my 40 week appointment. I decided at this appointment to get checked and see what was happening since I was having so many contractions already and maybe get a sweep depending where I was. Well baby decided to be so high there was no pressure on my cervix so she could only feel the external cervical opening. I left this appointment with my doula brain on of all the things to try and get baby to engage. I did the miles circuit many times, bounced on the ball, walked, did some curb walking, did some spinning babies moves, relaxed and tried to mentally let go. At 40w2d I had some more deep contractions and tried pumping to encourage things along. Again nothing. I was getting frustrated as I was now the most pregnant I had ever been. I paged the midwife to see if we could try again to do a sweep and my back up midwife said there were 3 people in labour so they couldn't do anything at that point. I took this as my sign to try even harder to trust my body. I had a little breakdown, ran through all my worst case scenarios, texted with my doula and had a good cry. I gave up trying to do anything and just relaxed and rested as much as possible.

It's biologically normal for baby to want to be close to you at all times. Bedsharing can help everyone get more sleep. ...
02/01/2024

It's biologically normal for baby to want to be close to you at all times. Bedsharing can help everyone get more sleep. Even if you don't plan to, it's important to know how to do it safely in case you are totally exhausted and bring baby into your bed as a last resort. Do your own research and decide what will work best for you.

Address

London, ON

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 6pm
Tuesday 8am - 6pm
Wednesday 8am - 6pm
Thursday 8am - 6pm
Friday 8am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

+15198717749

Website

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