Mapleseed Birth & Bodywork

03/22/2024

We've extended registration until April 6! Perfect for due dates May-August!

Mindfulness-based childbirth education that is holistic, inspiring, and inclusive. Designed to give you practical tools and compassionate wisdom for giving birth with calm, confidence, and connection. Based in Iowa City, IA.

03/15/2024

Expert, compassionate care for you & your baby For those planning a hospital birth, my team and I offer a set of services designed to give you the many benefits of personalized midwifery, doula, and lactation care before and after your baby’s birth. Whether this is your first baby, or you’re a s...

08/31/2021

Remembering this dear little one’s birth so fondly! I can’t believe it’s been 5 years! Her mama was so strong, determined, and trusting of herself in ways that I could just feel rippling out into the past and future, healing and setting a new course.

If you look closely at this photo, you can see an attentive big sister’s hands helping to hold the sling that I’m about to weigh her in. 🥰 Family-centered birth, family-centered care, family-centered newborn exams. 🙌

08/26/2021

40% off through the end of the month! Mindful Birthing is designed to help you cultivate a sense of calm, confidence, and connection as you prepare to meet your birth and your baby. This beloved course is now fully online and self-paced, including 10 modules and 50+ lessons, meditations, and embodiment practices. Taught by Monica Basile, CPM, PhD with more than 25 years of experience as a birthworker and educator.
🌼 Unit 1: Understanding Birth. Let’s demystify the birth process to build reassurance and connection with your body!
⭐️Mindfulness & breath meditation
⭐️Anatomy & physiology of birth
⭐️Sensations & hormones of labor
⭐️Physical & emotional stages of labor
⭐️Essential mindset shifts for birth
⭐️Embracing the unknown
🌼 Unit 2: Finding your Flow. Let’s get you and your birth companion feeling confident, knowing that you have a wide range of tools to move through labor in the way that works best for you.
⭐️Tips for birth partners
⭐️Positions for labor & birth
⭐️Optimal fetal positioning
⭐️How to use the birth ball
⭐️Breath techniques
⭐️Comfort measures for labor
🌼 Unit 3: Embracing your Experience. Let’s build resilience, self-compassion, and curiosity as we explore decision-making strategies and embracing your birth experience with non-judgement.
⭐️Choosing a care provider & birthplace
⭐️Tools for decision-making
⭐️Doulas
⭐️Self-advocacy in the context of health disparities
⭐️Birth plans & preferences
⭐️Compassionate use of epidurals
⭐️Cesarean birth options
⭐️Unexpected outcomes
⭐️Postpartum & the 4th trimester
⭐️Infant feeding
I would love to have you join the mindful birthing circle! Link for registration in bio! 💗

08/25/2021

Welcome to the world, precious little one! And -why are baby feet just the most perfect thing? 🥰

08/19/2021

It’s harvest time — and that means 50% off my current stock of herbal apothecary items! Comfrey salve, Violet breast balm, cooling leg balm, and all of my steaming herb blends. All lovingly crafted with herbs from my organic backyard garden. Through the end of the month! 💗

https://www.mapleseedbirth.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

07/28/2021

I love getting to see families joining their most tender, loving energies together in the space of birth. Happy 9th birthday to this little one!
(Photos used with permission, always💕)

11/24/2020

Friends, I have exciting news: I am offering a guided self-care membership!

As a healer, I have lots of tools at my fingertips - and it is my heart’s greatest joy to be able to share those tools to help others. Since I’m not seeing people in person for bodywork right now, this membership is a way for me to hold sacred space for you online.

Beginning in December, I'll be offering weekly guided wellbeing practices for cultivating a calm mind, spacious body, and peaceful heart: self-massage and movement techniques, guided meditations, affirmations, coloring pages, and more. I’m excited for all the goodness I’ll be sharing here, and I'd love to have you join me!

As we move into the deep season of winter, in the midst of challenging times, I am finding myself more committed to self-care than ever before.

11/16/2020

Happy birth day to this beautiful mama/bebe! Can’t believe it’s been 3 years! I’ll never forget the unfolding of this birth, and the intuitive space we all embodied together as a family and birth team. 💗

11/13/2020

For whoever needs to hear this today! 💗

When people really get to talking with me about their deep fears about birth, this comes up all the time: what/who will I turn into in labor? Will I yell at my loved ones? Will I be recognizable?
Birth is absolutely transformative. Of course it changes you- it is a rite of passage. You may find yourself connecting to your more primal self, making sounds you don’t normally make, feeling a bit (or a lot!) like a wild animal.
BUT: despite what TV and movies tell us, you will still be yourself in labor. The things that tend to comfort you in everyday life will usually be the same things that comfort you in labor. It’s helpful to learn some specific coping techniques for birth, but know that your toolbox is already full, by virtue of being you!

11/10/2020

🙌 thank you MVP! 🙌
Repost from 💗

11/04/2020

Hi friends. I posted this 5-minute guided self-massage practice on my Instagram yesterday, and thought I would share it here today, too. It offers grounding, and targets the “worry muscles” in the forehead and face.

Worry isn’t necessarily bad or wrong- but it’s helpful to give the body a break from carrying it. When we can release worry, stress, and anxiety from the body, it helps the mental & emotional body, as well. Hope this is helpful! Lots of love. 💗

10/07/2020

It’s such a joy and an honor to be present for all the siblings’ births! 🥰

10/07/2020

Birth can be both safe and sacred. I find myself saying this to expectant parents all the time, and I wholeheartedly believe it to be true. We have set up a false dichotomy in our culture: that you can have safety, but only if you compromise your principles and preferences — or you can have the sacredness and dignity of your experience, but only at the expense of safety. Midwives know that this is not the case. We are about the both/and. We are experts at preserving, enhancing, and guarding the sanctity of your body and your birth space, and simultaneously, your safety. In fact, the two go hand in hand. ❤️

10/05/2020

All birthing people deserve to be treated with love, respect, compassion, and all the f*ing sweetness in the world! Happy national midwifery week! 💗

10/05/2020

To all those who have experienced pregnancy and infant losses: You are in my heart. I see you. I love you. I support and honor you, today and always.

10/03/2020

My lovely client shared her birth story, “the only way out is through,” on the podcast recently! Take a listen - beautiful insights in her story. It was such a pleasure to support her and her family!

10/03/2020

I remember the moment when I realized this during my own labor. It’s normal to try to find a “way out” of the sensations when things get intense. As a midwife, I can feel and sense when this is happening. Helping a birthing person to know they are supported and safe as they make that journey, holding space for them, and trusting their process is one of the most fulfilling parts of what I do.
At one recent birth, this phrase struck a deep chord for the mother I was supporting, and she told me later that hearing those words was a turning point for her. More on that mama’s birth story coming up!