Vanessa Peterson Birth Doula Services

13/04/2022

Babies come when they do, not when they’re due.
I think there is a small population of women who don’t really care about due dates and I’m one of them. I’m grateful for and proud of my body for providing a safe haven for my babies for as long as they need.

🔥📸: .creative

16/02/2022

⚓️ Navy fams, you get 3 weeks now too!! 👏🏼

We just got some good news for new Navy parents! The Navy has updated its parental leave program with an increase to secondary caregiver leave. Read the story for more details:
https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/2934657/the-secretary-of-the-navy-increases-secondary-caregiver-leave-to-21-days/

NAVADMIN 037/22
Subject: Increase to Maximum Secondary Caregiver Leave

RMKS/1. This NAVADMIN announces advanced notification of changes to reference (a) that increases the maximum allowable days of Secondary Caregiver Leave (SCL), authorized in references (b) through (d).
2. Per reference (a), Sailors properly designated as secondary caregivers were authorized 14 consecutive days of non-chargeable SCL after the qualifying birth event (QBE) or qualifying adoption (QA) of a child(ren).
3. Effective 11 February 2022, Sailors who are properly designated as secondary caregivers, per references (a) through (d), are authorized up to 21 consecutive days of non-chargeable SCL following a QBE or QA.
4. Any Sailor who had a QBE or QA and has not yet executed their SCL as of 11 February 2022, is authorized up to 21 days of SCL, as long as the SCL is started within one year of the QBE or QA. Sailors who are executing SCL may be authorized up to 21 consecutive days at their Unit Commander's discretion. Sailors who have executed SCL are not authorized additional SCL per reference (b). Eligibility and other limitations may be found in reference (a).
5. SCL, as with all types of chargeable and non-chargeable leave, shall be recorded via Navy Standard Integrated Personnel System. Unit Commanders will continue to ensure maximum use of earned leave and minimize the loss of leave within the constraints of operational requirements.
6. This NAVADMIN will remain in effect until superseded or cancelled, whichever occurs first.
7. Released by Vice Admiral John B. Nowell, Jr, N1.//

NARR/REF A IS MILPERSMAN 1050-415, PARENTAL LEAVE PROGRAM.
REF B IS TITLE
10 U.S. CODE SECTION 701 THE ENTITLEMENT AND ACCUMULATION OF LEAVE FOR MEMBERS OF THE ARMED SERVICES.
REF C IS UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (PERSONNEL AND READINESS) MEMORANDUM, PARENTAL LEAVE FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL IN CONNECTION WITH THE BIRTH OR ADOPTION OF A CHILD.
REF D IS DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY PARENTAL LEAVE POLICY CHANGE MEMORANDUM.//

REF/A/DOC/COMNAVPERSCOM//08NOV18//
REF/B/DOC/USC//20DEC19//
REF/C/LTR/USD/23MAR18//
REF/D/LTR/ASN/11FEB22//

15/02/2022

💥This policy is now ACTIVE for all Marine Corps families! 👏🏼👏🏼

The MARADMIN is out making it official!!

The Marine Corps soon will allow secondary caregivers to take three weeks of leave.

11/02/2022

🚨 Hot news! 🗞

Marine mommies & daddies are about to get 21 days vice the current 14 days!! 👏🏼

Per the article, the new updated policy should be in effect within the week! 🤞🏼 We shall see..

Have your Marine be on the lookout for the official MARADMIN (meaning when it’s officially in place), especially if your baby may be born soon!

The Marine Corps soon will allow secondary caregivers to take three weeks of leave.

22/01/2022

🎌Okinawa fams! Thinking about placenta encapsulation? Questions? Jackie has got your back! 👇🏼

11/01/2022

My books for 2022 are already full, as we’ll be preparing for our own new bundle and potentially PCSing after that! I feel so grateful and blessed to have served many families in Okinawa already. 🤍 Trust and believe it hurts my heart a little when I have to refer away.

However, there truly is the B E S T circle of doulas on this island!🏝

Arigatō gozaimasu!🙇🏻‍♀️ I hope our paths cross in the future so that I may have the opportunity to support you then!

08/01/2022

Delayed cord clamping.. what is it? Why is it important? What are the benefits?

🔆A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics, researchers found that benefits to delayed cord clamping extend into early childhood. A Swedish study found that four-year-olds whose cords were clamped three minutes after birth had higher fine motor and social skills than those whose cords were clamped less than 10 seconds after birth. This is one of the few studies of full-term infants on the impacts of delayed cord clamping.

At birth, ⅓ (or more) of your baby’s blood is still in the placenta.

That means if you immediately cut the cord, your baby is missing A LOT of blood.

If you were missing ⅓ (33%) of your blood, your heart and respiratory rates would increase, your blood pressure would drop, and you would become anxious and confused. If you lost 40% of your blood, all those symptoms would be worse and you would become lethargic.

If you lost more than 40% you would die.

So how long should you wait after birth to clamp the cord?

Ideally you would “wait for white”. This means the cord isn’t clamped until it has stopped pulsing and turned white because all of the blood is now inside the baby. This is usually over 5 minutes (I’ve waited until the birth of the placenta with my two homebirths [about an hour]).

But delaying cord clamping for even 60 seconds has been shown to have benefits including:

🔆 Increased hemoglobin
🔆 Increased iron
🔆 Increased blood pressure (early clamping means BP can be too low)
🔆 Increased urinary output
🔆 Increased body temperature (early clamping babies are colder)

If baby is having a slower transition to breathing outside the womb upon their birth, keeping them attached to the cord will also continue to provide them with oxygen until they begin breathing on their own.

31/12/2021

I started out 2021 as a wife and a mom to two littles, often called Mama, Mom, Mommy and sometimes even Vanessa. I’m ending 2021 as a wife, mom to two + another on the way and as a DONA-trained birth doula with multiple births in the books on this little Heaven slice of island, Okinawa! 🏝 God is so good.

I am beyond grateful and honored to have been a part of these families’ journeys from first time moms, third time moms, fourth time moms and even a twin mom! These families chose and trusted me to support them during one the most transformative periods of their lives through hopes and goals for home births, water births, medicated births, unmedicated births, healing births, VBACs and VBA2Cs while navigating the unknowns that accompany pregnancy, labor and birth. 🤟🏼

I am truly humbled and honored to be a small piece of their journeys and can’t wait to see what 2022 has in store (..after a bit of maternity leave myself)!🤪

How is 2022 looking to you?!
🤍 Pregnant
🖤 Trying to conceive
🤎 Fulfilled with my family as is
❤️ Open to whatever is meant for me
🙏🏼 Personal growth in other ways

Oh and cheers to New Year’s Eve! Wishing you all a blessed, happy and healthy new year!🎆🥂