New Life Doula Services

07/16/2025

Big Rapids area Moms, Tina does a great job with these breastfeeding meetups. It is so fun getting to meet other local moms with babies of similar ages and you get lactation support too!

06/09/2025

Watching siblings meet is the absolute best. Their curiousity and joy is infectious.
I was able to attend this beautiful homebirth last week and seeing the concern and care these boys had for their momma was so touching. They were so excited when labor was finally over and they could meet their new baby.

05/24/2025

Looking over the calendar, I have space for two more November clients and then the calendar is closed for the year. Let me know if you would like to sit down and chat about having personalized support during your pregnancy and delivery!

05/09/2025

I'll be at the Family Expo in Fremont tomorrow from 11-2. If anyone wants to stop by and chat, I'd love to see you there!!

05/02/2025

Hi there! It's been a while since I've shown my face, so I figured I should reintroduce myself.
I'm Rebekah the owner of New Life Doula Services.
I got into this beautiful work after I had a midwife friend step in to be my doula as I attempted, and achieved, a VBAC. Having her support for myself and my husband was invaluable and I wanted to be able to allow other women to have that as well. I attended training through DONA International.
I have used that training and some from many other classes over the last eleven years to offer support during pregnancy, labor, and the first weeks postpartum to many women both locally and hours away.
I support medicated births as well as unmedicated, home and hospital births, cesareans and vaginal births.
I do believe inductions are over prescribed and can harm women more than help them.
I believe that our culture has to relearn the depths of a mother's strength and one of the first places you see it is as she travels through the mountains and valleys of labor.
I believe that YOU choose what happens at the birth of your child, not your care provider, your spouse, or your mother.
I believe that you are strong enough to have the unmedicated birth you want.
I believe that being loud does not equal being in pain.
I believe that you can breastfeed your baby.

If you are looking for support throughout your pregnancy and delivery, feel free to reach out. I would love to set up a time to chat with you!

04/23/2025

Found this great list of tongue and lip tie symptoms from Mommypotamus - Heather Dessinger while I was looking some things up for a client. If you weren't able to make it to the Birth and Beyond Expo last fall, you missed a great talk from Dr Brittany Mailloux of Mailloux Dentistry. She shared how she sees oral ties effect older children and adults.

Other physical signs that aren't mentioned on this graphic, but are important to note:
*a recessed chin or "overbite" of the top jaw
*sleeping with their mouth open
*not being able to relax their hands or feet very often (because fascia runs through the entire body)
*being a "strong baby" and being able to roll over shortly after birth.

One of these signs does not necessarily mean that your baby has a tie, but if you are noticing more than a couple, I would highly suggest an evaluation by a pediatric dentist or contacting an IBCLC that has been trained in tie evaluation and oral rehabilitation. :-)

03/28/2025

Opinion. Routine induction at 39 weeks harms more women than it helps.

Sometimes there are actual medical reasons for induction, these can include hypertension, pre-eclampsia, choleostasis, IUGR, diabetes, and a few other things.
Non medical reasons would include a "big" baby, simply the fact that you are 39 weeks, not showing any signs of labor or dilation, one high blood pressure reading, the color of your skin, etc.

How do routine inductions regardless of the health of mom or baby, and without taking into account previous birthing experiences harm women?
It makes them feel like their body doesn't know how to birth. It lowers a womans trust in herself and her intuition. Your body was created to birth a baby, you have the organs and pelvis for it. When your baby is ready to be born, they signal your body to start the hormone cascade that brings labor on. When you force the hormones to to start working, it can cause issues because the woman's body wasn't ready for it.
Also, when we create unease and distrust in a woman's body and intuition before baby is earthside, it can cause problems when baby is here and she is trying to trust her body to bring in milk and her intuition about her baby and things that might be going on with baby.

It can force a baby into the birth canal in a bad position and before baby was ready. This can lead to increased pushing times, shoulder distocia, posterior positioned babies, and babies that have a bad reaction to being forced out before they were ready.

It creates unnecessary trauma for the woman which she will then carry the REST OF HER LIFE. And it may also influence her decision to have anymore children. It could be mental or physical trauma. The way your body was designed to work with your hormones and change and move during in labor is an absolutely beautiful thing, when we force labor to happen and skip those hormone changes that naturally happen, this can effect how our body responds, leading to higher rates of tearing or needing instrumental help or a cesarean. All of these all effect us mentally besides anything else that may happen during a delivery that doesn't go how we expect it.

I am not saying you cannot have a good induction. I have had my own medically necessary inductions and they were beautiful. BUT routine, just because, inductions are harmful.

And you must know that most hospital systems DO NOT recommend routine induction. I've spoken with birth workers all across the US and this is unheard of in most places.

In 2020, I had 10 clients. 10 inductions. 1 vaginal birth. 2 of the inductions were for medical reasons. The rest were just because. Several of those clients have described the induction experience and the resulting cesarean as traumatic for them and how they viewed birth.

Routine induction for healthy women and healthy babies harms more than it helps.

03/03/2025

Was recently asked how to prepare for pregnancy over age 35. That dreaded age when a women becomes "advanced maternal age".

First off, remember that this benchmark was created by someone without taking into account a woman's personal health at the time, previous pregnancies, or health history, and while some risks do rise, you can mitigate some of them by making sure that you are as healthy as possible before pregnancy.

Second, pregnancy preparation should be focused on eating nutrient dense foods, cleaning up your diet if needed, and maintaining some sort of exercise routine. For best egg quality at least three months of preconception care are recommended. Two great books to read about ferility and preconception health are It Starts with the Egg and Real Food for Fertility.

Third, when you are being given risk percentages, ask for actual numbers, not just percentages. Something can sound very risky when you say that your chances of x increase by 50 percent after age 35, but it doesn't mean that 1 out of 2 women experience that, it means that the risk that could have been 2 out of 100 increases to 3 out of 100.

Fourth, like always, just because your care provider recommends something, does not mean that you have to do it. You have the right to refuse anything that you do not feel comfortable with.

Send a message to learn more

01/10/2025

Accepting clients for with estimated due dates in April-December 2025.
Currently I can take Priority Health Medicaid and straight Medicaid clients as well as private pay. Working on being credentialed with other Medicaid providers as well.

11/05/2024

So excited for this event that is just over a week away!! You'll learn so much about oral ties during this FREE informational evening! This would also be a great place to learn about local resources for a healthy pregnancy and postpartum life. So many awesome vendors coming again this year!

10/23/2024

Samantha Kauffman is one of the speakers for the Birth and Beyond Expo on November 14th.

Samantha Kauffman, RN, IBCLC. Samantha worked as an RN for over 30 years and was the Educational Coordinator for 13 years. She is a certified childbirth instructor and teaches for HypnoBirthing, Evidence Based Birth, and Birthly. She teaches labor/delivery preparation, breastfeeding, infant massage, and a safety and basic CPR class. She became and IBCLC in 2018. She took the masterclass of Oral Habilitation in 2021 and went to the 2.0 class in June 2024 which she uses to help asses oral tether and provide post release support. She is the owner of Beloved Beginnings, LLC a childbirth education and lactation support service for both virtual appointments and in person sessions.