Thrive Midwives LLC

02/04/2026

Raising funds ($1000) for a Spanish speaking doula to work with a client who cannot afford that layer of care and is one of thousands of pregnant folks who cannot leave their homes safely or easily right now. Spanish speaking interpreters and doulas are being disproportionately tapped right now to help in this crisis, and it is so important that their work is at least partially funded. If you are interested in supporting these endeavors Venmo me -Michalski. If there is an overage, I'll be able to at least pay the interpreters who have been angels at my side for weeks, for mileage and a perhaps a gift card. Thank you for your support and generosity in advance!

Photo courtesy of a birth family I honor and miss so much...captured so beautifully by

01/22/2026

RSV season in Midwest typically wraps down in April but can persist until May. If you don’t choose to receive the RSV vaccine in pregnancy and your babe is born during RSV season, please consider bringing your kiddos to a primary care provider (family med, peds) and asking that your baby receive Beyfortis RSV antibody shot. This is particularly important if you have other kiddos in the household who go to school, preschool, daycare.

01/07/2026

Dear Ericca, my currently neglected social media guru...I know this isn't a pic of a juicy baby or triumphant birth. But I'm just trying to keep my clients from rolling their eyes when I say, again, "Cervical cancer screening continues to change, and this how it applies to you."

The updated screening guidelines are in the photo, courtesy of Jama Network. New, very welcome change: people at average risk between 30-65 years old can now SELF-COLLECT a vaginal swab in clinic for HRHPV (high risk human papilloma virus, the most common cause of cervical cancer) screening every 5 years. No speculum, no exam of your perineum/vulva/vagina/cervix unless you want/need that exam (TBH, a skin exam can be super handy and leads to great conversations around vulvar skin care, l**e, pelvic floor strength, what's normal, p***s v Barbie smooth). Thrive now stocks the self-collection kits. Yesssssssssss! I'm so excited to push my speculae a little further to the back of the exam drawer, bringing you more modern pelvic care.

01/06/2026

Came across an email from one of my favorite sauna/cold plunge locales today. They shared great tidbits about how to cold plunge and regulate your breath. And then, BAM! Nailed why breath is key to moving through the 40-50 degree experience in a way that makes it OK. And more than OK, navigating your breath makes the experience therapeutic. How you breathe during labor is no different my lovelies.

"As you enter the plunge, your body wants to speed up. Try instead to slow everything down. Take a controlled inhale, then prolong your exhale to 8–10 seconds and try not to hold your breath. Slowing your breathing tells your nervous system that you're safe and that this is intentional. Once your body gets that message, the "panic" fades and the cold becomes manageable."

At the beginning of a surge or contraction, your heart rate and blood pressure increase, and the instinct may be to do EVERYTHING to wiggle out of the intensity. But consider instead breathing to down regulate your nervous system. Welcome it with a controlled inhale through your nose and settle in, relinquishing into the discomfort and wild energy. Then stretch your exhale out for 8-10 seconds, pursing your lips like blowing out a candle to slow yourself down...or wide mouthed, slack jawed, "haaaaaaaaaaaa." Then repeat this, over and over. Using your breath is one way to reassure your body that birth is safe, you are safe.

While I dislike coaching a laboring person into a one-size-fits-all formula, one thing I see come up recurrently is this. If you cannot use your breath strategically during labor. If you are huffing and puffing quickly to get above the intensity, you are telling your body that you are unsafe. That disrupts oxytocin release from your brain, dehydrates you, hastens exhaustion. It also decreases fetal oxygenation, resulting in more meconium stained fluid and fetal intolerance of the stresses of labor.

Start a daily meditation practice focused on the breath early in pregnancy. Learn to sit still. It is the single most important practice to prepare for the wild ride that's labor.

Pic courtesy of Ms. Yakovleva, at a sauna+cold plunge event

01/05/2026

Have a large box of breast pads donated by a client. Can anyone use these who are naturally leaky?

12/11/2025

My heart is bursting with joy as the holiday cards from birth families stream in! I muffle my squeals each time I unlock my suite and see these cherished gifts in a pile left by the mail carrier. Watching children bloom from squishy bundles to full fledged humans, can anything be better?! 🥹 I miss and love you all, wishing you a cozy upcoming solstice and holiday season. (Now the rest of y’all who haven’t sent a card, I’m quietly waiting…)

12/11/2025

This is true. All of it. For some reason my counsel on the importance of vitamin K doesn’t have a large impact on parent refusal these days. I wish it did.

11/26/2025

If you’re not keen on getting a TDAP vaccine during pregnancy by 36 weeks in order to confer some level of protection for your newborn in the first six months of life, please reconsider in the interest of your baby. They have such small airways and do not weather serious upper respiratory infections like adults too. Prevention is key.

11/25/2025

LISTEN TO THIS PARENTS!!!! What an incredible hack💃

10/31/2025

10/20/2025

As my clients and SM followers would attest, I’m big on talking about evidence based care. But some folks are simply not clear on what that actually means. Others may feel like what research tells us about a particular topic isn’t pertinent to them, because it doesn’t jive with their own viewpoint or values around their body/care. Or the evidence conflicts directly with what their past experiences are.

I really love how Rebekah Decker PhD from talks about this topic. One salient piece is figuring out how you approach your own care, or scientific evidence. I’m definitely a skeptic…surprising nobody. What about you? How do you filter health information, and how does that influence your decisions or who you seek for care?

https://youtube.com/shorts/Pm_wgXnAbIM?si=4Yy_cBCR3sD5AJJg

10/18/2025

It's national pasta day, and instead of stuffing my leggings (cuz that's where my carbs go) with noodles, I will instead do something healthier...rant MORE about insurance companies. Like UnitedHealthcare. Why? They are by far the craftiest (that is a thin veil for "unethical") and most difficult to work with. Here are some of their tactics:
1. The phone prompts I need to go through to get to a representative take about 3.75 minutes and over 7 different elections. If I fudge it by putting in a wrong #, the call can be terminated.
2. Depending on the plan, instead of sending a check to Thrive Midwives via snailmail or doing direct deposit into my business account, they sometimes send me a paper credit card voucher. In order to cash it, I have to pay a 3.5% "convenience fee," where they (Optum, the evil baby of UHC) get a cut of that. So they send me payment that ends up resulting in a lower payment to a provider or client. In other words, they make money off of my care. If I call and request a paper check, they take another 30 days to send that out. The longer they can hang onto their money, the more $ they make.
3. I have to go into their provider portal every 90 days and "attest" that I am still me and practice in the same location. Can you imagine what a large corporation has to do to complete those "attestations" for thousands of providers every 3 months?! If I forget, I cannot send claims.
4. It takes about 38 minutes to get through a verification of insurance benefits with one of their representatives, where they repeatedly put me on hold to look up a benefit for 4-5 minutes at a time, even if the benefit summary is right in front of them to read. They are likely hoping that the call will be disconnected or I will have to hang up in order to answer another call, have a BM, or God forbid, see a client.

Be under no illusions that all of these are intentional tactics to make providing, billing for care, and getting paid from UHC VERY VERY hard for an out-of-network provider.

Now I'm going to go take a walk in the woods, so that I refrain from spontaneously combusting from frustration (not from eating too much pasta).