Wyld Garden Full Spectrum Birth Services

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Wyld Garden Full Spectrum Birth Services

Fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum support. Qu**rs! Plants! Science!

01/13/2025

New blog post! ✨🌳👶

Before I dive into the things you can do with your placenta (I could think of 7 but I'm sure I forgot something...), I talk about common scenarios that I've seen come up when my clients request to take their placenta home.

01/09/2025

2024 was a goo 💦🦋 year for me. I spent the first 2 months out of the country at the tail end of a world trip. To kickstart my business I said yes to EVERYTHING. I was a yes man. I started attending births full time again in May, which coincided with my partners top surgery. As soon as we caught our breath in recovery, we moved.

A week ago it all felt hard and big and tiring. My best friend shouted, “You did a year of work in 6 months!!” Too real. But then I had the chance to go on a retreat with said best friend (and 10 other beautiful humans) this weekend and it reset my entire nervous system, body & soul. More coming there…

Anyway, stats are just numbers and I’ve done enough data work to know you can tell any version of a story so take it all with a grain of salt. But I am proud of the year I just had.

You can be nosy on my blog and read more if you want.

01/01/2025

Me at what I thought was my last birth of 2024… two births later and im flying high. I spent tonight toasting bubbly apple juice with my clients and the staff and it is going down in history as the best way to spend New Year’s Eve 🥂🎉

12/25/2024

Merry Clitmas to all who celebrate! 😉 Call me if your sugar cookie gets a sprinkle in 2025…

12/06/2024

QTTC Chi is open to ALL this month!

Register and join us on Zoom to talk to Karin Carli from for a conversation about second parent adoption, securing your q***r family, and preparing for 2025. Bring your questions! There will be a lot of time for Q&A.

Note that anyone is welcome to register, but this will be an Illinois-specific event.

08/06/2024

New post up on the blog! Why You Should Add a Birth Photographer to Your Care Team by Erin Loughlin .

Erin is a gifted photographer and dear friend. Her pictures regularly blow me away. When I work with folks, I always take iPhone pictures (and I recently added a light so they aren't as grainy as they used to be!) but I'm always a doula first. Which means that when big moments happen, I'm going to help advocate and support first and take pictures later. Having a dedicated photographer means you don't miss out on those beautiful moments: the big challenges and feelings that come up in the heroic journey of your birth.

But don't take my word for it - Erin has 7 good reasons you should hire a photographer!

Read at www.wyld-garden.com/blog or click the you-know-what in my you-know-where.

04/27/2023

This is a birth story filled with resilience. At the final prenatal, E described her discomfort and D jumped in: it was worse than she was letting on and had even made it hard for her to get out of bed. When she mentioned a pain at the top of her uterus, alarm bells went off in my head. I encouraged her to call the midwives right away.

E called me from her appointment to tell me they diagnosed her with HELLP and wanted to induce her immediately. She sent D home to get their stuff and settled in for a long night. So began the tug of war between magnesium (a muscle relaxer) and Pitocin (a muscle / uterus contractor). The next morning Pitocin was at 20 but E wasn't feeling anything. Her midwife wanted to break her water so I got ready and headed to her.

The anesthesiologist was concerned about placing her epidural catheter because of HELLP. E wanted to wait until she felt she needed relief to use an epidural. Luckily, they were able to place it without administering any meds.

In the middle of the next night, E was working hard when the baby's heart rate dipped. During an exam E went from 4cm to 6cm in 10 minutes. All of the providers got panicky. E was so amazing, breathing for herself and her baby as the chaos played out. The midwife said, "I need to place an FSE. It's a little hook that goes into the baby's head." No pause for consent. Then, they turned off Pitocin. An OB got involved. In that moment, I had the calmest nervous system so I breathed with E and hoped that it would wear off on the others.

Not long after the OB came back and did another cervical exam. To the midwife, rather than E, she said "Still 6, firm, VERY firm, code as failed induction." Then she turned to E + D and started talking about the risks of a Cesarean without saying her recommendation or asking for consent. I asked if we could all have 5 minutes to process before moving to the next step. She was annoyed but acknowledged that it wasn't an emergency and left.

E + D cried and took the pause they needed. Soon they were ready to call everyone back in and consent to a surgical birth. Sweet Baby Z was born less than an hour later and come out pink and crying.

📷 & doula: me!

04/14/2023

I got to meet one of my amazing doulas face to face today finally! Melissa made us homemade banana bread! Mmmmm 🍌🍞 😋 ! I'm so grateful for you Melissa, thank you for all you do!🙏💕👣

04/04/2023

Have you heard that sitting on the toilet is helpful in labor? We birthworkers call it the "dilation station." You can sit on it forward or backward with a pillow for rest. We automatically relax our pelvic floors on the toilet when we go to the bathroom, so everyone is preconditioned to relax in labor, too.

Let's just say that at this birth, the toilet worked like a charm. Baby was born within an hour of this photo.

Stay tuned for this magical birth story! ✨

03/31/2023

Back on my s**t about how looking at other countries' data gives context for the U.S. perinatal system. Can you think of a reason why gestational age decreased dramatically from 1990 to now? Or why that might be so different from two other countries in the year 2020 (graph on slide 2)? Or why other countries deliver a measurable number of babies at 42 weeks but the U.S. does not?

One part of that answer is that providers don't get sued for taking extreme measures to save an unborn baby's life. Another answer is the ARRIVE trial. Another answer is racism and the systemic intentional eradication of Black midwives.

So what does this look like irl? You go in for an ultrasound and one small thing looks off. You're "overdue" at 40 weeks and 3 days, or the fetal heart rate slowed once during your NST. Your provider tells you that it could be nothing but they highly recommend that you head to the hospital immediately for an induction. Better safe than sorry, right? You rush there without your stuff. Then, you have a multi-day induction that is hard on you, your partner, and your baby.

Maybe zooming out like this or reading research is overwhelming. That's why you hire a doula - preferably one who knows how to reach and decode research. Maybe even one who has published their own research. 🤓

🔗 in bio for the article I cited

03/19/2023

I'm so excited for my class offering on Baby Wearing this Wednesday! Come join to learn about all the different types of carriers, why it will help so much in postpartum, and what works best for your biomechanics.

Babes in arms are welcome! If you are newly postpartum and want to practice wearing your baby, bring them along. If you are pregnant, I'll have weighted dolls to practice with.

Cost is $100 per pair, please reach out if that is not accessible to you.

***rdoula

Address

Chicago, IL

Website

https://www.wyld-garden.com/

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