Magdalena Eschenberg Doula

03/15/2026

This sweet babe turned 1 yesterday. Her mom made a really intentional choice to have an epidural with her 2nd birth after realizing that, despite a lineage of home birth in her family, birthing with an epidural was what she truly wanted in her experience. She had the most peaceful, present, beautiful way of bringing her baby into the world.

Yesterday I attended my 50th birth as a doula, and I realize with each birth how little I know about the mystical portal of life. Finding my intuition has been the biggest lesson. I don’t ever know how a birth will unfold. What I can tune into is knowing what the families I’m serving need to hear, to understand, and to feel to be safe and supported in bringing new life into the world.

I’ve learned I can trust the wisdom of babies in knowing how and where they want to be born, and I believe they deserve to be heard. Yesterday we pivoted from a planned home birth, to discovering baby had turned breech in labor, and then a hospital transfer, where there were options of trying for a vaginal breech delivery or having a cesarean birth. Baby had been vertex for months, so it was unexpected to everyone, but baby made sure their voice was heard in this journey, and we listened.

Birth is WEIRD, beautiful, hard, and so much more. It’s an honor to be supporting and protecting the portal of life.

03/09/2026

Happy International Women’s Day❣️ What an honor it is to be supporting women in creating new life. I believe each empowered birth brings us a step closer to liberation for all.

03/04/2026

Ginger baby sweetness

02/21/2026

I love a placenta tour and I encourage all of my clients to ask for one. This placenta had a velamentous cord insertion, meaning the cord inserts into the membranes surrounding the baby rather than the placenta, leaving vessels exposed without protective Wharton’s jelly. It can lead to other complications, but in itself is not an issue that compromises maternal or fetal health. There is also some meconium staining (a slight yellow tinge) on this placenta because baby decided to take his first poo in the womb.

02/18/2026

She did it ⭐️

02/16/2026

Almost immediately after getting an epidural and expecting to take a long nap before getting to work, this baby said nope! I’m ready now!

My client, a first time mama, decided to labor down for about 45 minutes, and was able to have a good cry, get grounded, and take a power nap. Baby came down to +3 station before any active pushing efforts and just 16 minutes later this sweet babe was born. I had never seen a first time parent push out their baby so quickly and I was AMAZED 💛 Birth always finds a way to teach you something new

02/10/2026

Only a few days left to register!

Visit magdalenadoula.com/ebb for more information

02/03/2026

Message from Kaiser Midwife about the strike:

As some of you may know, 3,600 beloved medical professionals from across Kaiser Northern California have been on strike for over a week. This includes me and my amazing midwifery team. This comes at the end of nearly two years of trying to negotiate a new contract with Kaiser, during which they have repeatedly offered us pay CUTS and REDUCTIONS in our current benefits, while putting out press releases and doing interviews stating the opposite. We tried shorter strikes last year, to absolutely no avail. We are not asking for exorbitant salaries; only to be brought up to the level that they pay other providers with our same (or lesser) level of training.

This is painful. We don't want to strike. We don't want to be away from our patients, our work, our teams. But the level of calculated politics and power-playing has felt incredibly disrespectful (at one point they offered CRNAs, who make them A LOT of money, a pay raise of 5 cents an hour). We don't even get raises that keep up with inflation or cost of living.

A CALL TO ACTION:

I don't think us picketing is going to sway them. Perhaps some local media coverage might, just a little bit. But if community members and Kaiser members started writing and calling in, this will affect them greatly. If you have a few minutes, it would make a bit difference if you could do any or all of the following:

1) Call Kaiser Member Services at 1800-464-4000 and tell them something along the lines of:
"I am a Kaiser member/member of the community, and I am appalled that Kaiser is not offering the midwives and other striking employees a fair contract. If you continue to avoid offering them fair wages and benefits, it tells me that you care more about your profits than your communities. If you do not settle this strike soon, I will seriously consider switching to a non-Kaiser insurance plan at my next open enrollment."

2) Email the above message to Kaiser Member Services at: kpfbthrive@gmail.com

3) If you are a Kaiser member, log into your kp app and send a message to Member Services through the message center.

4) Forward this email and/or post about this on social media, asking others to join in.

02/02/2026

If you haven’t heard, the midwives at Kaiser are on strike indefinitely. This means that until Kaiser meets their demands for fair wages and benefits, there is no midwifery care with Kaiser. I know first hand as a doula what these incredible humans provide and that it is the reason many people choose to birth at Kaiser Santa Rosa. If you value midwifery care and/or have had personal experience with the midwives at Kaiser, please call member services and tell them your concerns about not having midwifery care at 1-800-464-4000. You can also email KP CEO gregory.a.adams@kp.org with your message.

Midwifery care is ESSENTIAL!

01/25/2026

Visit magdalenadoula.com/ebb for more information

01/25/2026

Look what's coming to Birth in March!

If you or someone you know is expecting a baby in May or later, please check out Magdalena Eschenberg Doula 's Evidence Based Birth childbirth class, starting March 7th. I'm excited to offer my classroom for this class to be available to Bay Area families and hope you can benefit from this deeply educational and empowering resource!

Learn more and register here: https://www.magdalenadoula.com/classes

01/10/2026

When you push out your VBAC baby in just 30 minutes 👑
One of the hardest parts of attempting a VBAC is when the same “sticky spots” show up, or the same complications that led to the first cesarean. This birth was long and hard and had lots of sticky spots, but this mom persevered and had her beautiful baby vaginally!