MOV Birth

11/20/2025

It's that time of year where slings and receiving blankets are warmed on wood stoves and winter weather advisories challenge travel times to rural births.
Autumn is winding down after three births this past week and it's looking to be a fairly quiet and cozy winter.
I am so thankful for the many answers to prayers for much needed rest between so much intensity this season. Prayers are answered in amazing, and sometimes challenging, ways... but they are answered nonetheless and they are gifts to be grateful for in these times.
My advocacy continues to be for health of the body and mind for preventing complications and opening up choices, especially for non-medical birth. YOU are a part of someone's village... go out there and make a healthy, fearless, contribution to someone's perinatal journey.

11/15/2025

You can experience pregnancy, birth, and postpartum like your ancestors… with health and trust, faith and support for your individuality. You can lean into the guidance of the Holy Spirit and learn the way your body communicates imbalance to you. You can learn to follow this guidance and utilize lifestyle changes and herbal remedies to realign your health.
You don’t have to have a midwife that prefers ultrasounds
You don’t have to have parallel OB care
You don’t have to p*e on a stick or get your blood pressure checked
You don’t have to have labs, including Glucose Tolerance or GBS testing
You don’t have to be induced at 39…40…or 41 weeks
You don’t have to be given ultimatums like non-stress tests or biophysical profiles
You don’t have to transfer out of care when you’re 42…43…44 weeks
You can have your VBAC, breech baby, or your twins… or more… vaginally
You don’t have to have fetal monitoring of any kind
You don’t have to transport to the hospital after 12 hours of labor… or 18 hours of ruptured membranes
You can have access to the clinical and medical perspective and can utilize this at any time, but it doesn’t have to be routine or restricted.
This approach to care does require a responsibility that clinical care seemingly provides. You should actually learn what feeling healthy feels like. You should actually pay attention to, and do something about, what is happening in your body and with your baby. You should actually change your habits if they’re not conducive to optimal health. You should actually address your fears and your trust of ***ALL*** that “nature” includes. You should actually have a non-fearful support team and educate yourself with more than, “I watched some IG videos and I know I can do it.” You should prepare for the hard physical and mental work of the transformation of birth… just like the life your ancestors led did every day.
You should expect a soul-changing experience, whether you want it or not.
If you’re ready for,or intrigued by, this… let’s chat.

11/12/2025

Getting labor started... November newsletter sent out to MOV Birth members in the Amish community... maybe you can benefit from it, too.

It is sometimes said that a day inside the belly is equal to a week outside the belly for a developing baby. A 40+ week baby is better able to gain weight and maintain blood sugar, not to mention for the ability to coordinate breathing and sucking for breastfeeding. A late preterm/early term

10/31/2025

Just another prenatal day.
My kids have been asking for pumpkins and I finally got around to it yesterday.
Self-serve produce stand... because there was a wedding and the community, save one 39 wk mom and her family, were all gone.
A notebook with prices.
A box on the post for payments.
They expect no tricks from the locals.
The treats are nourishing and the farmers wave to me from the fields when I drive by.
How blessed to live in a place where this is not just available, but common.
Where most meals are home grown and home cooked.
Where the whole community supports each other in times of celebration, in times of need, and just because that's what humans who know and live near other humans should do.
Where families try to say no to too much extra when life needs their focus somewhere else.
Where I can palpate someone's belly and give recommendations about human fertility and birthing human babies (and using most of these pumpkins for soups instead of pies 😀😉)... and go right down the road to the person that knows more than I about plant fertility and growing plant babies.

10/28/2025

One of the most beautiful illustrations of placental circulation I've seen so far! As someone that loves art, especially line drawings and concept illustration, this is worth staring at!

This is a gorgeous example of how maternal blood bathes the intervillous space to reach fetal circulation, and how the fetal circulation is still separate from the maternal blood (when mom and baby are healthy and when no one tugs on the placenta) but dips down into this space to transmit oxygen, nutrients, and toxins.

The uteroplacental circulation is unique: it is in essence two distinct circulatory systems in parallel (foetoplacental and maternoplacental). At term, it receives about 800ml/min of blood flow, or something like 14-15% of the total cardiac output. The maternoplacental circulatory system is also uni...

10/25/2025

If you don't want the labs, the IVs, the medications, the checks, the routines, the pings... you must live a life that supports a non-medical and non-clinical approach.
Midwifery is really diluted with obstetric perspective and intervention...
Some of this is because aspiring midwives begin midwifery as a career choice rather than a community service and are going through training that teaches clinical care, not midwifery heArt. But we also must accept that we arrived at this place together.
Birthing women and families have been asking for intervention by way of FEAR for a long time, especially since they let doctors and hospitals take control of birth in the early 1900s. While at the same time, their lives became more processed and physically easier, leading to the sedentary and low nutrient lives many women in “developed” nations are leading today.
If you don't want to eat well...
If you don't want to move well...
If you don't want to hydrate well...
If you don't want to schedule well...
If you don't want supported well...
If you don't want to prepare well...
If you don't want to think or believe well...
If you don't want to take responsibility...
If you don't live well...
You are far more likely to need a clinical and medical approach, and then you may be at the mercy of clinically-minded practitioners.
If you’re planning home birth, you’re planning birth in a low-resource setting. If your midwifery team is non-medical (i.e. no IVs, no medications...etc.), then you must live a life that supports this low-intervention approach to maintain it.
Non-medical midwifery is my passion, but this approach is only appropriate for mothers and families that live a holistic life that supports this low-intervention approach.
If you want this non-medical approach… you need to eat nutrient-dense food, hydrate well, move your body, balance your schedule, follow wise counsel, and have relationships that burst with support through love (not fear)…
And this kind of life should be occurring well before conception for the chance at the most optimal outcomes.

10/17/2025

I see these reports quite often now and sometimes get asked if I offer this service... there just doesn't seem to be congruence with long-term lab results and this is an interesting report explaining some of the concerns of this method of wellness testing

Electrodermal screening” (“EDS”) devices are claimed to use galvanic skin responses to identify health problems and corrective actions. Thousands are being used to persuade people to buy dietary supplements, diet programs, and other offerings. This ...

10/11/2025

Autumn life as a rural midwife in 2025...
The week at MOV Birth:
Postpartum visits after a transport
A very early miscarriage
Many prenatal visits, measuring and wrapping bellies, drawing babies, reassuring mothers, guiding families in informed decision making.
A birth I almost missed because the mom just couldn't tell if she was really laboring until her water broke with pea soup meconium... baby sounded great when my daughter and I got there 5 minutes after and mom could barely talk because her ctx finally got into a rhythm and were intense. Thankfully, because there was no way we were making it anywhere. Baby was born 15 minutes later and looking lovely. Minimal blood loss and a happy family sipping tea in the living room a few hours later.
Prodromal labor and eager moms awaiting their birth season.
Caring for a mid-pregnancy still birth due to expected placental abruption and a family that can finally start to heal as they breathe after months of anticipation of what is to come.
Many messages and phone calls and visits for follow up care, inquiries about births in May and June 2026 as I plan my next year, and women receiving blood work and GI Maps, and Functional Wellness Counseling to improve health and fertility for current and future pregnancies.
Praise Yahweh for the strength to endure as the Holy Spirit is ALWAYS present and accessible with Jesus. Praise Him for my daughter who is such a light in my life and has a strength she doesn't yet quite understand. Praise Him for the families I serve. Praise Him for His care when the road is easy and when the road is hard. Praise Him for these beautiful autumn days where all life is precious and no day should be taken for granted. Praise Yahweh for His gift of rest and healing.

10/10/2025

The amount of mothers I serve that want to be induced at home will never cease to amaze me. It is so common for the conversation around induction to be one that portrays doctors and hospitals as impatient and pushy for intervention... but experience shows me, the request to "get things going" often comes from the mothers... but good nutrition, rest, movement, and love are rarely the way a mother wants to support spontaneous labor.
Mothers are as eager to avoid going over their 40-week date as anyone... some, the moment they hit 37 weeks - some theoretical safety window - start taking all sorts of herbs or using various forms of at home treatments...
But... AN INDUCTION IS AN INDUCTION
While we can't guarantee ideal experiences without induction, we certainly see more complications with induction.... yes, even at home with herbs and breast pumps and old fashioned impatience.
I'm telling you mothers... be steadfast in your patience for the Lord's timing of your baby's birth. Particularly if you've had a challenging pregnancy that has made it difficult for you to consume all the nutrients you need. An early baby after a low-nourished pregnancy is not going to have the resilience of a baby that has been given a few more weeks in a nutrient-dense, low stress, environment.
Your body also needs time to have adequate rest and nourishment to manage the energy of labor (especially when its forced with medications.... OR HERBS). Even a day or two early can bring a long drawn-out labor, or a rapid overwhelming labor... a baby that doesn't breathe or breastfeed as well, and a mom that bleeds too much.
A day inside the belly is like a week outside the belly for your baby's developmental needs, and it is a rare thing for induction of ANY KIND to actually be the safer or more wise option... and in that case, a hospital is usually the wiser place to be.

09/22/2025

The way your baby is positioned really does matter... a few of these positions absolutely cannot continue vaginally without intention and body support... so, the idea is to prevent them from happening in the first place. When you see a baby in a less than optimal position, we balance mom's ability to make space in her body with knowing that most babies in a vertical alignment will come out.

It is GOOD to move your body, stay off your sacrum... vary your position, stretch, and be intentional with your physical health in pregnancy... and beyond!

⬆️⬇️ Fetal Positions ➡️↘️
By

09/21/2025

Drawing babies and seeing this image of a mother imagining her little one is always beautiful.
I often wonder, are we supposed to have these images before birth? I don't know, to be honest.
But His creation is so, so good and the drawing is not even close to as awesome as the first moment these mothers have their babies in their arms.
It won't be long, mother.