Balsam + Pine Birthing Services

05/23/2025

In the spirit of memorials this MDW, I’m sharing this new pet memorial ring with kitty whiskers set over a black background with subtle silver shimmer to provide depth.

My jewelry isn’t just limited to breastmilk; there are so many beautiful moments in life to capture, preserve, and memorialize:
🖤 whiskers and/or fur
🤍 cremains, either of a pet or human
🖤 formula from feeding your little one
🤍 bits of a pregnancy test cap
🖤 powdered placenta
🤍 sand from somewhere meaningful
🖤 gravesite soil
🤍 nearly anything else you can imagine

It is always an honor to create something gorgeous for you to wear to remember and honor something or someone special to you. I’ve been leaning into my jewelry side of things so much more lately and it feels so right for this season of life. I’m forever grateful for your trust and support in making beautiful things!

05/08/2025

A couple of days ago, I got a call from someone in my community wanting to order a breastmilk necklace for his wife for Mother’s Day. He knew he was up against the clock and it wouldn’t be made in time, but we talked about options for giving her something to open this Sunday. Yesterday I sneakily dropped off a card for him to give her while her necklace is in process.

Mother’s Day is just a few days away and if you are scrambling at the last minute, consider this your reminder that you’ve still got options for a beautiful, meaningful gift that she’ll love.

💌 I have printable gift certificates like this one if you know what she’d like and want to place an order or digital gift cards if you want to let her pick out her own piece.

Either way, you’ve still got time to win this Mother’s Day. 💕💕

02/28/2025

It’s Friday, it’s maybe payday, it’s gorgeous open-window weather, and it’s the last day to save 25% on a piece of jewelry to commemorate your feeding journey with your little one.

Do with that info what you will. 💚💛😘

02/20/2025

A very simple lil post to remind you that if you’ve been on the fence about placing an order, you’ve got eight more days to take advantage of my 25% off sale for all breastmilk jewelry. That is all. 🤍

02/04/2025

Ever wonder what your midwife is up to when she’s not at your birth? Follow Sarah Hood of Home Sweet Home Midwifery Services for a day!

By Sarah Hood, CPM, APRN, CNM of Home Sweet Home MidwiferyPart of having a small home birth practice means that no two days are ever the same. So, when prompted to write about a day in the life of a home birth midwife, the first challenge was finding the right day. I picked this day because not only...

01/27/2025

I looked at the calendar and realized it’s a very important week!

FIVE🖐🏻 years ago yesterday, I finished my doula training, and FIVE🖐🏻 years ago today, I launched Balsam and Pine!! 🥳

(Also five years ago tomorrow I got engaged! It was a wild week.)

(Also cue the bewilderment that 2020 was somehow 5 years ago but also feels like both 10 years ago and maybe only 2.5 years ago??)

The average doula career lasts between 3-5 years; I even heard someone recently say it’s only 2 years. Doula burnout is so real and such an important thing to be aware of and protect yourself from. I am grateful for so many educational opportunities out there to keep things interesting and keep me finding new ways to be involved in the birth realm. These days, my doula work is resting while I focus on ramping up my breastmilk jewelry and placenta encapsulation. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from working in this space is that you’ve got to stay adaptable and go where waves take you. 〰️

Today I’m celebrating 5️⃣ years of Balsam and Pine and thinking of how grateful I am to you all for supporting me during these years. 💓

01/24/2025

Feeling like Steve from Blue’s Clues over here, singing “here’s the mail it never fails it makes me wanna wag my tail when it comes I want to wail…MAAAIIILLL!”

Iykyk. If you don’t, just pretend that didn’t happen.

New jewelry supplies day is always an exciting day. Pretty sure I startled our delivery person with how quickly I ran out to the mailbox. I’ve been working with a new team of metalworkers and am really pumped about the ✨new✨ chains and jewelry selections I’m now offering (and planning for future launches).

I love making your breastmilk jewelry so dang much and am in awe of all of y’all who nourish your babies. I’d love to create a gorgeous keepsake for you.

I’m honor of settling into business again after my big move, I’m doing a little impromptu 2️⃣5️⃣% off sale on everything on my jewelry site. (Daaaamn, I know.) No coupon needed for this one. Tell me whatcha want and you’ll see the discount automatically applied at checkout, now through the end of February. Easy peasy.

🔗 jewelry.balsampinebirthing.com

01/09/2025

Lil late in posting these but that honestly feels fitting for this season of life. 2024 was an abbreviated year in my doula career as I took leave at the end of the year to relocate my family across the country. It may have been slower than usual but I am so proud to have supported 2️⃣0️⃣ incredible families as they welcomed their little ones. I had the honor of meeting some truly fantastic folks this year and wouldn’t have changed a bit of it. Thank you all for trusting me to walk alongside you and for welcoming me with open arms (and delish dinners and tears and book recommendations and inside jokes) into your life. 🫶🏻

Here’s to my fifth year of birthwork. Let’s do this, 2025.

#2024 #2025

01/09/2025

Just another way to eat your placenta 💁🏻‍♀️

OK, so not every cake can be a teddy bear or unicorn or a really cute sloth, sometimes our customers need body parts. To all of you, Doula’s, OB/GYN, nurses, or midwives who can appreciate this request for a placenta cake, this one’s for you. (And yes, we did hesitate posting this, but the reality is there are all sorts of jobs who require some funny cakes to celebrate coworkers 😂). Honestly kudos to our cake decorators for their diversity in creativity!

01/01/2025

Oh hey friends. It’s been a minute.

Life lately has been full of emptying totes and boxes and figuring out where the hell things got packed (thanks to my dear friend April for telling me, “if you can’t find where we put things, check in a dresser drawer”), painting (and painting and painting and painting), checking for coyotes and owls and prairie dogs, moving my body and taking full belly breaths, asking myself (and my husband) “is this who I am now?,” deliberately driving around without GPS, re-learning how to bake (being 4,000ft higher really does change things in the kitchen), processing several major life changes with varying degrees of comfort and success, retrieving packages from the front porch (single-handedly keeping Amazon in business over here), staring at the horizon and exclaiming “oh my god looooookkk how beautiful! LOOOOK!,” and a lot of green chiles and bombass Mexican food.

I took a longer personal leave than I intended but it’s been wholly necessary. I don’t know to what degree I’m back on social media but I’ve officially transferred my business licenses from Kentucky to Colorado. I’ve had the privilege to create some beautiful breastmilk jewelry during this transition phase and have fully re-opened that side of B&P. I also have begun setting up my placenta encapsulation area and am ready to start taking those clients again. I haven’t officially opened my calendars back up for birth doula work and don’t have a firm answer on when that will happen, though I’ve been rebuilding my resource list for when the time feels right.

Thank you to alla y’all for reaching out and wishing me well and checking in on me. Sometimes this career is really complicated and weird to try to balance with being a full human at the same time. I have been so honored to walk alongside y’all on this path and am forever quietly cheering you on from the sidelines as you and your sweet babies grow and change—even if I have missed liking your photos over the past few months.

Love y’all ✌🏻

08/08/2024

I've got some big news that I've been sitting on for awhile.

Kentucky is my first home and I've spent all but five years of my life here. This is where my business was built, where I supported my very first birth, where I learned what a doula was, and where I've grown in so many more ways than I expected. That being said, it's time for the next chapter of my life.

My family and I are moving to Colorado over the next couple of months! 🏔️

Colorado has always called to me and I'm beyond thrilled to be at a place in my life where I can answer that call. My husband and I got married there four years ago and we've talked about moving there ever since. This will be a big change and man oh man, we are SO ready for it.

I will miss all of y'all so much and will be eagerly watching your families grow over social media. (As awful of a beast as social media is, it *is* great for staying in touch.) Also sorry to say that none of y'all are allowed to have more babies because now I can't be your doula for them, so sorry but I don't make the rules.

I am so grateful for the opportunities I've had in birthwork here and for all of the wonderful clients, nurses, midwives, doctors, doulas, activists, lactation consultants, and fellow birthy nerds I've connected with. This chapter of my birth business has been phenomenal thanks to you.

And to y'all Coloradans reading this, get ready!! I am so excited to meet, connect, and learn from you. I can't wait to support some Centennial State births!

xo

07/28/2024

🎉 We congratulate Clarisse Agbegnenou, French Judo champion, for her successful advocacy work - athletes at the 2024 Olympics in Paris will be offered hotel rooms they can share with their breastfeeding children close to the 10,000 population athletes' village. 🥋

🧡💙💚 Clarisse said "To put things in perspective, I've decided to breastfeed my daughter until she's weaned. She hasn't yet, so I'm following her. I've made sure that I feel good physically, because of course there's an element of tiredness. But as a mother who needs to be very present for my daughter, I asked for the opportunity to have her with me during the Olympics." 🤱🏻🤱🏽🤱🏿

Image credit 📷 clarisse_agbegnenou on Instagram, from October 2022.
[Image description: smiling mother wearing judo kit sits on a bench in a sports hall breastfeeding her baby. She smiles broadly at the camera.]