Wise Womb Childbirth Services

10/12/2024

24/11/2024

I will be taking a break from posting on this page for a while.

For years, I thought about, talked about, and read about pregnancy and birth every single day (and those who know me know I'm not even exaggerating 😏).

The seed that became my passion for birth work was knowing how much I hoped for my own babies one day and so looked forward to meeting them. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, and for years it felt like the most important people in my life were missing.

I wanted to be there to support and hold space for people during those incredible moments (and I still do!) but now that my own sweet baby is here, I need to soak it in as much as I can. We have around four months of mat leave together and I'll do my best to be present 💝.

Thank you all for being here. I have so loved sharing birth education and pieces of my journey. I will be back 🙏🏻🌈

11/11/2024

Life lately 🌷

Trying to practice speaking more kindly to myself because little ears are listening

Exploring the world of solid foods with my baby

Debating what to do during nap time

And absolutely loving my baby up 🥰

02/11/2024

Some tips for labour and after the birth✨

21/10/2024

It's a Haunted House part 2 🏚️🎃🕸️🕷️🕯️🔮🦄🦇🦉🧚🏼‍♀️🧙🏼‍♀️🧟‍♀️

Pregnancy edition

Which one is the spookiest?

11/10/2024

It's a Haunted House but... Postpartum edition 🏚️🎃👻🕸️🔮🕯️🦇🧟‍♀️

05/09/2024

Unfortunately, there is so much shaming when it comes to how someone chooses to feed their baby, so I know this is a sensitive subject! I am a huge supporter of "do whatever works for you", but I think being supported and educated on your options is so important.

Human milk is optimal for growth and development, and can reduce the risk of several childhood and adulthood illnesses for your baby such as respiratory infections, type 1 diabetes, asthma, NEC, SIDS, obesity and digestive illnesses. It also reduces the risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes and hypertension for the breastfeeding parent.

Most of our generations grandparents and some of our parents were encouraged to formula feed, and were told that it was not only the same but HEALTHIER than breast milk- which is not true, and has impacted breastfeeding rates around the globe to this day.

With that being said, NOTHING supports a baby's wellbeing more than the wellbeing of their parent(s). It is important for people to know factual information, but it is also important for people to be supported in their decisions.

I don't like the phrase "breast is best", because it isn't best if it sacrifices your mental health or wellbeing.

I also don't think that "fed is best" is a perfect phrase, because it can give the wrong impression that formula and human milk are the same when they are in fact very different.

Parents should be informed so they can make a decision that they TRULY feel good about. It breaks my heart to hear folks express regret and say that they would have made a different choice if they had different information or support at the time.

This is why I love the phrase ✨informed is best✨. If you have the choice between breast/chest feeding, pumping and bottle feeding, combined feeding, or formula feeding, you should be supported in weighing the pros and cons when it comes to your life, body and health.

There are so many wealths of knowledge for baby-feeding support:
Midwives, maternity/postpartum/public health nurses, lactation consultants, and doulas.

Which phrase do you prefer?

22/06/2024

Things I have learned in the time with my little bestie so far 💖

1. Baby wearing is the best

2. Yes, there are challenges when you are initially adjusting, but you've been tired and overwhelmed before. What no one can prepare you for is the sheer amount of love, fascination, and awe that you will feel every single day.

3. She loves bath time but hates getting out 🛁 warming the towel beforehand helps

4. Baby swings! I was about to get rid of ours and then my best friend told me that she used it when her baby was about to fall asleep and my life hasn't been the same since! I still savour the contact naps because they are a temporary and beautiful time that we have together, but it's also nice to be able to make and eat food with two hands!

5. Chores can wait, time with my baby while she is still a baby can't wait.

6. Music and slow dancing soothes her over-tired cries (I can't take credit for this, this is Chris's specialty 😍)

7. We don't have everything figured out, but I will do my best to just be there for her and share my calm while she navigates this new world 🌍

8. Her smiles and coo's are the greatest things I have ever seen and heard.

09/06/2024

I've taken a step back from posting on this page. My family has been going through some personal things and I have been needing and wanting to be more present.

Being a new mama myself has made me reflect a lot on my own mama and how incredibly lucky I am. Not only have I been lucky enough to have her as my mom, I also have her as a role model now that I am trying to figure out how to be a parent. It feels so much easier because of all of the beautiful memories I have to look back on when I was little, and it is my greatest hope that I can make Willow feel the way I always felt.

Willow will have a mom who is eager to hear her thoughts and dreams, who always creates space to listen to the details of her day, and who wants to hear about new crushes or friends at school. She will have a mom who pulls over while driving so we can collect pretty wildflowers, and who makes sparkly "sleep potions" when she can't sleep. I will always do my best to be honest with her, to listen to her, and to apologize if I think I'm wrong. I had no idea how important that was until I grew up and realized how hard that is for a parent to do and how much strength my mom has for making it all look easy. I will hold her and sing to her as much as possible, so that she never has any doubt how loved she is.

I will try my best to do and be all of these things, because that is the kind of mom that I have and I had no idea just how deeply lucky I was because it was my normal. And that is just so beautiful 🥰✨🤱🏼

This is the mother's day post that you deserved and I was too distracted to write. You are so very loved my momma 💗

10/05/2024

A warning to all breastfeeding parents-

Make sure your b00b isn't out before taking a photo 😅

We went for a walk on the beach a couple days ago and I took this selfie with my baby, feeling very proud of myself. I had just finished feeding her and was reflecting on how far we have come since the breastfeeding issues we faced a few weeks ago. Being able to pack up a few things, head out somewhere and feed her from my body felt so good and I wanted to celebrate and capture the moment. It made me feel like getting out of the house more and living a normal life (our new normal ❤️) was just around the corner.

I looked at the photo later and cracked up. Let this be a warning to all 🙏🏼

02/05/2024

3 1/2 weeks with our sweet baby 🐥🥰✨🌱

I am starting to feel like we are slowly finding a groove and I can think about gradually emerging back into the world. I will still need to take things really slow for a while to support my body healing and to allow me to rest and bond with my baby.

The first two weeks were a complete whirlwind. I got a full body rash from one of the medications during her birth, followed by engorgement to the point of my lip swelling and then mastitis.

In that time, I also faced a lot of breastfeeding challenges and I needed to pump while Chris gave her my milk with a syringe. My mental health plummeted during these feeding challenges and I felt like I was failing my baby. This combined with processing the birth was really hard, and I am so grateful for my supportive husband during this time.

Thankfully we seem to have figured out the feeding challenges 🤞🏼🤞🏼🙏🏼 and for the last week Willow has been only breastfeeding and is gaining weight like a champ 🏆. Mental health and breastfeeding can be tied in ways I never truly understood before, and it is so important to ask yourself what you need and to have support through whatever you feel is best for you. I know some people feel the need to stop in order to support their mental health. For me, after our challenging birth experience, I felt like it HAD to work or I was not going to be ok. I have a newfound empathy for people facing breastfeeding difficulties- it really is hard! And celebrating breastfeeding wins isn't meant to diminish the pain that people experience if they aren't able to breastfeed. I really and truly do feel for anyone going through that ❤️

I also have a new appreciation for all of the education and prep that can help the early postpartum period be smoother. When I get back into educating, I will definitely be focusing even more on postpartum than I did before!

I will continue to share more about my own journey through postpartum and motherhood and share less about birth education for the time being. This is just what I have the capacity for right now, and if you want to stick around thank you for being here 💖

20/04/2024

PSA of the day ❤️

19/04/2024

We are 12 days postpartum today ✨ we are more in love with our little girl than words could ever describe

14/04/2024

Willow Maeve's Birth Story, part 3/3

We didn't get the home water birth that I wanted, but we got the birth that we needed. It seems clear to me now that with how not ready to birth my body was (despite trying everything), Willow and I would have continued our pregnancy together for likely another 2-3 weeks. With gestational diabetes AND preeclampsia, it would not have been safe for us to wait until my body was ready to birth, and that is a hard reality to accept.

I already felt in my gut that my body was just not ready for me to give birth to her physiologically, and declined the Misoprostol. It was probably around 4:30am, and the plan was to wait until 8am to go to the OR. Over the next hour, Willow's heart rate was consistently high and I developed a fever, so the plan changed and we went to the OR early.

I spent months working on my labour playlist, making sure that each song would help bring me into a calm, happy, safe and loving state of mind. I listened to it daily, singing to Willow and envisioning our birth together. I always knew that a cesarean was a possibility. Luckily, with my background, I knew how to make informed decisions and that if we did go that route, it would be out of medical necessity.

I got to listen to my playlist in the OR while she was born, and had my amazing husband by my side who was my absolute anchor throughout everything. He was able to watch her birth and take photos for me over the drape, and my OB delayed clamping her cord as I requested. She was born at 6:09 and was 8lbs 4oz.

We had an amazing team, and I felt very supported. Based on my experience as a doula and birth educator, I have always said that being informed about what is going on and being involved in the decision making process can reduce birth trauma- even if nothing goes as planned- and now I have experienced it first hand. I do have a lot to process, and having two pregnancy complications and a 44 hour failed induction that resulted in a cesarean was traumatic. I also think that it would have been much more traumatic if I hadn't had all of the support that I had from my incredible team.

My body grew my amazing perfect baby and I am proud ❤️🌹

13/04/2024

Willow Maeve's Birth Story Part 2

The next day, we waited to see if contractions would return on their own but they didn't. The Foley hadn't come out so we knew I was under 3 centimeters. We made the decision to start a Pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) drip, and I had mild "early labour-like" contractions for a few hours. I tried a bunch of different positions and a pelvic release circuit with my nurse/coworker/friend. At this point it felt like things were progressing in a way a typical labour would, starting off slow and intensifying as the pitocin increased.

My waters broke and contractions became very intense, long and close together. With my waters being broken, the Foley was removed and I was still 1cm dilated. I used a TENS machine and found it really helpful, and after a while went back into the bath. I tried to get into a similar headspace as the day before and listened to my labour playlist and tracks. Things felt much more intense and I was on a very high dose of Pitocin. I got out of the tub and needed something more to cope and used nitrous oxide (laughing gas).

At this point it was late in the evening, and another cervical check revealed that I was just under 2cm. This part feels hard to share, but I knew that birth would have lessons for me and I would need to surrender to whatever our story was going to be. I grieved and cried, accepting that things were not going as I hoped.

I agreed to an epidural, and by the wee hours of the morning, my contractions had been less frequent and less strong. There had not been any further progress. My OB suggested trying Misoprostol, but there was an increased risk of fetal distress with me having preeclampsia. I had also been extremely sensitive to the Cervidil and Pitocin, and another risk with Misoprostol is that it's a pill and can't be removed or turned off like the other induction meds. At first I agreed, wanting to try everything. Then, I thought "at what point am I ignoring my body and the clear message that it is just not ready?".

Part 3/3 to come

08/04/2024

Willow Maeve Macdonald joined us on April 7th at 6:09. We are so very in love ❤️✨🌱

Birth story to come

03/04/2024

Some of my favorite quotes 🌱🌷✨🌖

Feeling calm, ready and excited to embark on this journey whenever you are ready little one ❤️

25/03/2024

There is a popular acronym in the birth world that I always teach in birth classes- BRAINED 🧠

This acronym helps remind us of important questions to ask when faced with decisions during pregnancy and birth.

B- what are the BENEFITS?
R- what are the RISKS?
A- what are the ALTERNATIVES?
I- what does my INTUITION say?
N- what happens if I say NO/NOT RIGHT NOW?
E- EXCUSE YOURSELF
D- DECIDE

I am learning a big lesson about INTUITION right now as I approach the end of my own pregnancy. Since I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, I have felt an internal battle which I refer to as "nurse brain vs doula brain".

Unfortunately, the research on induction for gestational diabetes is quite gray if you are diet/exercise controlled. My nurse brain wants to turn to reliable sources and research. Some sources that I trust () outline clear statistics on outcomes for induction and it seems that 39 weeks is safest if you are diet/exercise controlled- other trustworthy sources ( and ) say if you are diet/exercise controlled, you are no different from anyone else and only medically need to be induced sooner than 41 weeks if there are clinical indicators such as abnormal blood glucose levels, or your baby has abnormal amniotic fluid levels or abnormal stomach size.

I had the great realization today that birth is teaching me an exercise in intuition. As much as I would love to just lean on evidence, I have a type of pregnancy complication that isn't the most clear-cut and it forces me to make a decision based on what feels right for me and my baby. This is something I am always telling other people to do, but I haven't had to do it myself 🌱

This is simply me sharing a piece of my personal journey, this is not medical advice. I hope that like me, you have a care team that share your goals and values who discuss your options with you and support you in doing what feels best ❤️