Moon Sky Doula Services

06/17/2021

BRB

03/06/2021

Today I had the honor of preparing a placenta for encapsulation. These organs never cease to amaze me. They are truly stunning. These images are being shared with the permission of the mother*

11/13/2020

Pahahahaha true story.

10/27/2020

Your body grew an entire human being.

You are more than enough.

You are magic.

Respect your body. Respect means caring for it, appreciating it, seeing it, recognizing the work it does, feeding it. You may not be happy with your body, you can have disappointments, you can struggle to love it. But to respect it you have to ask where those thoughts come from and are those values more important than the value your body brings?

We're all in different places in our journey and I won't shame anyone struggling to love or respect their bodies. I hope though that we can each work on living the understanding that we are worthy just the way we are.

I am enough.

You are enough.

Artist Credit: Artist unknown! Would love to credit but my searches turned up nothing. Do you know the artist behind this? Please link if so and we'll edit to reflect the credit. Thanks!

10/26/2020

Child birth education classes available for individuals or small groups! DM me for the deets 🙌🏼

10/19/2020

Please sign and share to show support to our local families.

Lift Restrictions On Doulas At Allegheny Health Network. 100 signatures are still needed!

10/09/2020

Two weeks of memories to supplement a lifetime of loss. I hope we can all become more compassionate and learn to sit with the uncomfortableness of someone else’s grief. Maybe then we can begin to offer support to those experiencing the unimaginable.

There are many healthy ways to grieve pregnancy and infant loss, even including walking stillborn babies and taking them home.

10/01/2020

I had two wonderful hospital births. I really truly loved them and at the time, the hospital was the best place for me to give birth because I felt safe (and my husband was such a strong advocate for my wishes). However, IF* we ever bring another baby into this world, it’ll be from our own home ❤️

In today’s peer-reviewed Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health (JMWH), a landmark study** confirms that among low-risk women, planned home births result in lower rates of interventions without an increase in adverse outcomes for mothers and babies.

This study, which examines nearly 17,000 courses of midwife-led care, is the largest analysis of planned home birth in the U.S. ever published.

(Read study here- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jmwh.12172 )

The results of this study, and those of its companion article about the development of the MANA Stats registry, confirm the safety and overwhelmingly positive health benefits for low-risk mothers and babies who choose to birth at home with a midwife.

At every step of the way, midwives are providing excellent care. This study enables families, providers and policymakers to have a transparent look at the risks and benefits of planned home birth as well as the health benefits of normal physiologic birth.

Of particular note is a cesarean rate of 5.2%, a remarkably low rate when compared to the U.S. national average of 31% for full-term pregnancies. ***THIS IS HUGE!***😮

When we consider the well-known health consequences of a cesarean -- not to mention the exponentially higher costs -- this study brings a fresh reminder of the benefits of midwife-led care outside of our overburdened hospital system.

Home birth mothers had much lower rates of interventions in labor. While some interventions are necessary for the safety and health of the mother or baby, many are overused, are lacking scientific evidence of benefit, and even carry their own risks.

Cautious and judicious use of intervention results in healthier outcomes and easier recovery, and this is an area in which midwives excel.

Women who planned a home birth had fewer episiotomies, pitocin for labor augmentation, and epidurals.

Most importantly, their babies were born healthy and safe. 97% of babies were carried to full-term, they weighed an average of eight pounds at birth, and nearly 98% were being breastfed at the six-week postpartum visit with their midwife.

Only 1% of babies required transfer to the hospital after birth, most for non-urgent conditions.

Babies born to low-risk mothers had no higher risk of death in labor or the first few weeks of life than those in comparable studies of similarly low-risk pregnancies.

Article shared from - https://mana.org/blog/home-birth-safety-outcomes
📸 Ashton Janae Huseman

10/01/2020

‘‘Tis the season! Happy October 😮😁

These dilation pumpkins are the scariest thing I’ve seen all night. 🎃🙀 🤣

It was set up by midwives at the Royal Oldham Hospital in Lancashire, England as part of a pumpkin decorating competition.

09/15/2020

What are you mamas planning for your first postpartum meal?!

07/30/2020

Birth, postpartum, virtual support and placenta services available. Pleeeeeeease let me nerd out on all things birth with you.

Rachel Hornbeck

07/12/2020

A traumatic birth can happen in so many different ways. You might have been in labor for so long, you ended up receiving interventions you didn’t want, or having an unplanned cesarean birth. You might have been in labor for no time at all, never having the chance to process, feeling like you missed out on the full experience. You might have been mistreated, ignored or abused by a provider. Maybe everything happened without any “complications” but it just wasn’t what you expected. That’s OKAY. All birth is emotional and your feelings are always valid.

It's Birth Trauma Awareness Week. So we want to raise awareness that ideal birth outcomes are NOT just about delivery of a healthy baby.

Never, never say to a mother, "at least the baby is healthy". Please never be dismissive of a mothers painful birth experience.

A birth experience for a mother (AND the witnessing partner) leaves an imprint that can forever change their lives and impact on the health and wellbeing of the entire family.

Terror, shame, embarrassment, fear, guilt, helplessness simply should not be words we have to use to describe birth experiences. But unfortunately for many mothers, this is the case. 1 in 3 women describe their birth as traumatic.

Birth Trauma can be both physical and psychological trauma and can be a contributing factor to perinatal mental illnesses, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Postnatal Depression and Anxiety and Postnatal OCD.

Peach Tree provides a safe space for mothers who have experienced birth trauma to come, and know they are not alone in their experiences and to seek help. ❤️

06/29/2020

There are many benefits of using a birth or postpartum doula!

06/25/2020

That new, new from evidence based birth 💡🧠

Rebecca Dekker PhD, RN Evidence on: Pitocin® During the Third Stage of Labor Written by Rebecca Dekker, PhD, RN and Anna Bertone, MPH on June 4, 2020. Get our two-page handout on Pitocin® During the Third Stage to use in your informed decision making! Table of Contents How Has Care During the Thir...

06/24/2020

A M A Z I N G

Shared with permission! This momma had a super fast labor. In Midwife terms, it was precipitous. When dad called a few minutes before arrival and said she fe...

06/15/2020

All the more reason for a postpartum doula.

While I can’t provide medical care for you or your baby, I can offer guidance and support you may be missing during these uneasy times.

A neonatologist explains how postpartum care has changed because of Covid-19 and, while virtual medicine has been good for this period, it will never replace the emotional support that new parents need in person.

06/14/2020