Greater Love Birth and Community Care

01/27/2026

2026 Childbirth Ed Schedule 🗓️

I’ve decided to give scheduling out the rest of this year’s classes in one go a try! We’ll see how it goes 😅

If you’re looking for an in-person childbirth ed class in the Milwaukee area, I’ve got you covered! From unmedicated home birth to planned cesarean and everything in between, everyone deserves access to all the information they’ll need to have a positive birth experience. My goal is to help you feel mentally and emotionally prepared for labor, birth, those first few hours after birth, and those first few weeks with your new baby and your new role as their parent.

My class is offered on a sliding scale to help make it more accessible. No proof of income or justification required - I trust you to make the choice that works best for you. I am also open to bartering for all or part of tuition, just ask and we’ll see what works :)

Classes are taught at the office in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee. This space does double as a birth suite so occasionally class needs to be rescheduled or relocated due to a birth.

If you have any questions, please feel free to DM or email me! ♥️

01/15/2026

✨Nitrous Oxide Gas✨

Nitrous oxide gas, sometimes called “laughing gas”, is a mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen that’s used as an inhaled pain management tool during labor. If you’ve ever had laughing gas for a dental procedure, then you know how it works (and feels)!

Unlike with dental procedures, it’s not something that you are continuously inhaling while you’re in labor. Instead, you time breathing in the gas with your contractions. Ideally, you’re already breathing it in 30-45 seconds before a contraction begins and continuing to breathe it in through the contraction.

Nitrous oxide gas can help ease anxiety, promote the ability relax and rest, and sometimes avoid an epidural if that is part of someone’s goals. It also allows you to still be able to move, change positions, get in and out of the bed, etc. which is really beneficial for labor progression. I’ve worked with several clients who’ve used nitrous oxide gas during their labor and a handful of them used it as their primary method of pain management.

In the Milwaukee area, Aurora Sinai is the only hospital that offers nitrous oxide gas as an option. If you’re elsewhere in Wisconsin, do you have a hospital near you that offers it? Is this an option you’d like to have?

12/31/2025

✨2025 Highlights✨

It was quite the year, y’all.
• started off slow with recovering from top surgery
• spent a lot of time in and building community (very excited to do more of that next year!)
• thought I was going to finish my numbers but ended the year with 7 births left
• started attending more clinic and births with other midwives (s/o )
• drove to New Hampshire and back and even though I didn’t catch any babies, taught me so much
• worked with several repeat clients, both as a student and a doula! And there are more coming up in 2026!

I can’t thank my students, clients, partners, community, and enough seeing me through another year ♥️

Some of my goals for 2026:
• finish my numbers, take and pass the NARM exam, become licensed 💪🏻
• expand my childbirth ed and train a teaching assistant 🤓
• continue learning and expand my skills as a midwife 🩺
• continue reading for fun and pursuing joy and rest outside of work (I read 53 books this year!) 📚
• take a vacation with my partners 🛣️

See ya 2025! ✌🏻

12/28/2025

We’ve got some last minute openings!

Transitions Birth Services is a welcoming, inclusive midwifery practice providing out-of-hospital care for your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period in Milwaukee, WI. Lucky Tomaszek, LM, CPM, has spent more than 20 years as a birthworker and more than

12/13/2025

It’s about to get absolutely frigid, so let’s go over some winter safety tips! 🥶

🧊 Layers are your friend! This goes for everyone - babies to adults. Layering up can help you stay warm and quickly adjust your temp as needed to avoid overheating.
🧊 Choose your grippiest shoes or boots with the best ankle support for walking outside. Balance changes with pregnancy and it’s also much easier for your joints to shift due to the increase of relaxin in your body, so take it slow.
🧊 No shoveling, please! Between the balance changes, easier moving joints, and heavy lifting, enlist someone else to do the major snow removal.
🧊 Stay hydrated — water, broths and soups, fruit, tea, anything that suits your fancy! Maybe even a little hot chocolate? 👀
🧊 Speaking of hydration, dry and itchy skin can be really irritating while you’re pregnant. You can support and protect your skin with lotion, oils, and chapstick.
🧊 Avoid winter activities with a high risk of falling — sledding, skiing, ice skating, etc. Going for leisurely walks, building a snowman, baking holiday treats, and snuggling up with a good book while the snow falls are all great options, though!

Have you been pregnant over the winter before? What are your best tips and tricks? ❄️

11/28/2025

Hey friends! 👋🏻

If you’re looking for ways to support small this holiday season, I’d love for you to check this it my shop! Whether you’d like to show off your support for community birth or are searching for a gift for the midwife or doula in your life, I’ve got several options for you to choose from. And! Every purchase helps me pay for my certification paperwork and exam! 📑

Use code GREATERLOVE10 at checkout for 10% off your entire order between now and Monday, December 1st! ♥️

https://www.bonfire.com/store/greaterlove/

11/13/2025

The Newborn Metabolic Screening, or the “heel poke test” 🩸

The newborn metabolic screening is a blood test performed on babies within 24-48 hours of birth that checks for a total of 50 disorders, including hemoglobinopathies, cystic fibrosis, and severe combined immune deficiency. Many of these issues would not be apparent at birth but, if discovered early enough, can be managed.

The test itself isn’t fun (in fact, it’s one of my least favorite parts of my job). Not only do we need to prick baby’s foot and make them bleed, but we also need to hold their foot steady while we collect their blood. Have you ever noticed how much babies hate having their feet touched and messed with? 😅

Everyone has their own method of performing the test, but in the practice the test generally takes 3-5 minutes or less. In fact, our most recent screening took less than 90 seconds!

Do you have any questions about the newborn metabolic screening? Drop them in the comments - I’d love to answer them! ⤵️

11/06/2025

“You must get to hold so many babies!” is something I get a lot. Which makes sense, right? My whole job is to take care of people through their pregnancies, support them as they birth their babies, and see them through that initial postpartum transition. But the short answer is no — I don’t get to or even expect to hold my clients’ babies all that often.

Everything I do to take care of them can be done in the safety and comfort of their parent’s arms (or very close by). In most postpartum and newborn care settings, it’s not uncommon for babies and their parents’ to be separated. They go to the warmer after birth to be assessed and weighed, they get swaddled up and put in a bassinet by everyone who comes to check on them or every time someone comes to check on you, they suddenly have their own care provider with their own visits scheduled, and everyone who comes to visit wants to hold the baby. So as far as I’m concerned, babies who are in my care spend as much time as possible in their parents’ arms.

But when I do get offered to hold them? When a client needs a moment to eat, use the restroom, take care of another child, or just not have another person touching them? Well, you definitely won’t have to ask me twice ♥️

📷 Shared with permission

11/05/2025

I had the privilege of being interviewed by last week about my life post-graduation! 📰 I’m so grateful to still be connected with the .uwm department!

“Aster enjoys bringing babies into the world, but the part they like the best is caring for the parent-to-be.

“Getting to see somebody through an incredibly transformative moment in their life, whether it’s their first baby or their 10th baby – it’s new every single time,” they said.“

Check out the article here: https://uwm.edu/letters-science/in-focus/what-can-you-do-with-a-womens-gender-studies-major/

10/22/2025

It’s a haunted house, but it’s… 👻

Y’all there are so many of these that I could make. I left out some of my spicier ones and tried to have a good split between things that birthworkers and our clients can relate to but it was hard to limit myself 😅

Do you have a good “It’s a haunted house, but it’s…”? I’d love to see them!

10/18/2025

Heads up: I’ve rescheduled the last class of the year! It’ll now be taking place on Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:30 pm starting on October 28th 🗓️

Note: there will be no class the week of Thanksgiving, so this class will run until December 9th

If you’re due in late December-February, this is your class! Register asap 💻

10/12/2025

Wrapping up National Midwifery Week by working on birth stats from the last two years (plus catching up on this year!) and reliving some of the most challenging and incredible moments of being a student.

I honestly don’t think I have the words right now to wax poetic about midwifery. This work has some of the hardest and most rewarding moments and through it all I don’t think I could imagine doing anything else. I am endlessly impressed with my clients, their families, and the community we build through the experiences we share.

📷 Shared with permission from a recent repeat client birth! ♥️