MyBirth

Learn about your pregnancy and birth. Work with doulas that will help realize the birth that's right for you. Build community. Explore your birth options.

It is an incredible gift to help a family welcome new life into the world. At MyBirth, we cherish the opportunity to support you through your journey to parenthood, whether you're welcoming your first child or introducing a sibling to your family. After a combined 20 years of doula experienced, we have all learned one certain thing: there is no right way to birth, just what is right for you. At the end, you will confidently say, "This was My Birth."

09/07/2025

Happy Birth Day to this sweet Virgo!! When she’s not attending births or having her own VBACs (3!! ~ Welcome Evan ♥️) she’s running MyBirth behind the scenes keeping us all organized as our office manager. Thank you for all that you do, Sarah and all the joy and laughter you bring to our lives! It’s extra special that your being born day is on a full moon eclipse in Pisces. 🌕✨💖🥂 Enjoy your day!!

09/01/2025

Did you know we’re the only studio in Richmond that offers yoga, massage, education, support groups, and doula services—all under one roof?
🤰🏻🤰🏾🤰💕
Imagine meeting a new friend at Monday prenatal yoga, then grabbing coffee and exploring vintage shops—right next door to our Scott’s Addition hub.
Come see why so many growing families are making us part of their village.

08/31/2025

This month, MyBirth Village is excited to have Sydney Hanabury, FNP-C speaking on the “5 Pillars of Postpartum Wellness”. New Parents & Babies and Pregnant people are invited!

Sydney is a Family Nurse Practitioner with Coming Home and has many years experience working in primary and urgent care settings. She has received additional training in perinatal nutrition and mental health and is passionate about providing an additional layer of healthcare support for new moms as they navigate the fourth trimester and beyond. Please visit cominghomerva.com for more info on Sydney!

MyBirth Village, our group for postpartum and new parents, will meet Tuesday, September 9 from 10am to 12pm at the MyBirth studio. Sydney will be speaking for the first hour, then plan to stay and mingle with other moms and new parents & babies.
MyBirth Village is a group for postpartum/new parents and their babies to share all things first year — postpartum recovery, emotional transitions, lactation and feeding information, adjusting to life with baby, normal newborn behavior, and more. Bring a friend and build community as you need it! Hosted by Courtney Woodburn, LCSW, and Sara Krivanec, certified doula & lactation counselor. We will also invite occasional guests who will bring their knowledge and support around babies and postpartum health during the first year.

Held every second Tuesday from 10a-12p at the MyBirth studio, MyBirth Village is a drop-in gathering, so come for part or all of the time slot. We’ll have light refreshments; feel free to bring your own snacks. All parents are welcome, and you do not need to be a client or student of MyBirth to attend. No need to register as this is a free group!

08/09/2025

Did you know we’re the only studio in Richmond that offers yoga, massage, education, support groups, and doula services—all under one roof?
🍼🍼🍼
Imagine meeting a new friend at Monday prenatal yoga, then grabbing coffee and exploring vintage shops—right next door to our Scott’s Addition hub.
Come see why so many growing families are making us part of their village.

08/08/2025

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2025

Victoria shares the importance of lactation professionals being more open-minded to what’s working and listening to mothers. Good for you for trusting your instincts and finding someone more compatible!

“Okay I have such an odd breastfeeding story and wanted to share! So when I was in the hospital Wolfie just would not latch - no tongue tie or lip tie or anything, I think it was more the shape of my ni**le and it not sticking out enough to trigger his sucking reflex. Well neither of the lactation specialists I saw in the hospital could get him to latch even though they tried just about every position/hold in the book and then one of them finally got me a ni**le shield and he latched with that and ate GREAT. The next morning the other lactation specialist came back and I asked if I could just use the shields for now because trying to get him to latch was so terrible and stressful and I was in so much pain from my c section still and she was so incredibly negative. She told me “You will never be able to sustain breastfeeding or keep a supply if you use shields” and I was heartbroken. contd…

08/07/2025

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2025

Heather, a 2x MyBirth doula client & student, shares her struggles and triumphs with lactation. 🙏💕

After a 40+ hour induction, ni**le shield from the first feed, tongue & lip tie release at 3 weeks, triple feeding when that didn’t make a difference, multiple daily oral exercises from a SLP, and finally switching to exclusive pumping at 4 months with my first, I was ready to do things differently with my second!

This time, I:
✨Learned more about hand expression & did some antenatal colostrum collection starting at 39 weeks
✨Hung out skin-to-skin and nursed on demand, letting go of anxiously tracking feeds using an app (I did use the hair tie method to remember which side to start with next!)
✨Worked with the hospital’s lactation consultant to practice multiple nursing positions before going home
✨Used the hand pump before feeding to make it easier for my daughter to latch and avoid the ni**le shield —> cont. in comments

08/06/2025

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2025

MyBirth doula, Dana Tatum , shares her story of lactation with her second son.

When I was told my newborn baby had a tongue, lip AND buckle tie, I was obviously worried that we had a long road of difficulty ahead of us. Despite all that, my baby was transferring milk well, and I wasn’t in pain with feeds- but I figured that my oversupply and the poor latch combination was a reason for excessive gas and fussiness.

We were fortunate enough to have support from a great SLP/IBCLC, Hinde Haa . With the combination of oral therapy, body work, managing my oversupply, lots of practice and patience- we made it through the newborn days without a release. And then? Things just gradually got easier without any extra effort. I didn’t need to keep doing all the things. My supply regulated itself. I’m thankful that I had support to get us through those early weeks. Throughout the process I told myself that it would get easier after 3 months and if it didn’t, we could revisit the release conversation then. Hinde was totally supportive of that and never pressured us to do the surgery at all. Luckily for us, it did get easier with the right support and time!

08/06/2025

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2025

Thank you to MyBirth doula client, Sara Beth for your submission.

I had a beautiful breastfeeding learning journey with my first, born in 2021, so I knew what to expect with my second born in 2023. I didn’t struggle with production, but I also didn’t oversupply.

My second was whisked away to the NICU on the day we expected to discharge; I had heard some clicking when he fed, so my CLC doula Sarah F suggested some micro adjustments to work on that organically. I thought everything was fine. No one really gave us any reason to worry.

They took baby for an X-ray since he was breathing quickly and had swallowed meconium at delivery. He was admitted, and I didn’t get to put baby to breast for over 24 hours. I was determined to pump and keep him EBF like my first, but the NICU fought with me about the amount— 45mL of formula every two hours. I pumped 15mL of colostrum the first time with the hospital pump. It was crushing and excruciating. I watched them use a machine to tube feed my baby. —> Tbc in comments

08/05/2025

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2025

This post is about both the importance of pediatricians having current lactation knowledge and listening to mothers. Thanks to Sarah for sharing her recent experience…

“I had a baby last week. My fifth. All four of my older kids were exclusively breastfed, so I expected to have a similar experience again. I’m very lucky in that I’ve never struggled to produce and my babies have always fed well.

Our regular ped has been with us since my second was still an infant and knows our family well. She has a background in lactation and has her IBCLC, so she’s always been incredibly supportive and helpful when it comes to lactation, and incredibly trusting of my intuition as a mother. She was out of town for this visit (day 2 of life), so we were seen by someone we’d never met before. The first question the doctor asked me was if this was my first baby. Had she taken the time to look at our chart, she would have seen that I have four other kids that have all been seen by her practice since birth. We waited a good while before she was available and baby had been weighed. He was down from his birth weight of 8 pounds to 7lb 5oz which didn’t sound great to me, so while we waited, I googled a calculator to figure out what his weight loss was. 8%, not wonderful, but I knew with my milk transitioning, we’d be rounding the corner in no time. While we waited for her I also fed baby from both breasts and asked to have him reweighed just out of curiosity. He’d taken in 1.5 ounces just while we were at the office, so I had confirmation he was getting just what he needed and more. —> contd. in comments

08/04/2025

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2025

We are grateful to Cassie, MyBirth doula client & student for sharing today. Photo courtesy of her doula, Colleen McDonald

“My advice would be to give yourself lots of grace and not panic when there’s a struggle. When I tried to latch my daughter for the first time right after she was born (pictured), we didn’t get on the first try (or second, or third....) but I said out loud to her as she was crying “It’s ok that we didn’t get it! We’ll figure it out, don’t worry.” And thats what I’ve held onto. The times I would stress about her latch, a feed, my supply, etc were times when I struggled the most. Taking a step back in those moments to remind myself that she and I will always figure it out with time and space (and rest!) has been key in my breastfeeding journey so far.” :)

08/03/2025

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2025

Is My Baby Gaining Well?

It’s a question many new parents ask...and the answer isn’t just about the scale!

Signs that your baby is growing well include:
💙 Gaining weight steadily
🤍 Waking up for feeds
💙 Content after feeding
🤍 Being alert and active during feeds
💙 Wet and poopy diapers
🤍 Reaching developmental milestones

Every baby grows at their own pace and it’s okay if that pace doesn’t match the charts exactly. What matters most is that your baby is feeding well and thriving in their own way.

Learn more about what healthy growth looks like for breastfed babies on our website: lllc.ca/growth-breastfed-baby —> LINK IN BIO

08/02/2025

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2025

The breast crawl is a technique where newly birthed babies are brought to the birthing person’s body and left undisturbed to experience the nine instinctive stages in skin-to-skin contact. These include the birth cry, relaxation, awakening, active, crawling, resting, familiarization, sucking, and sleeping phases. It’s a process that can take anywhere from 60-75 minutes, but research has found it leads to fewer early feeding problems.

An Indian prospective, single-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trial saw less ni**le pain, increased milk, and less mean weight loss on Day 3 with babies who did the breast crawl as their first feed.

Ask your doula or nurse to help facilitate this if you are pregnant or birthing soon! You can learn more about these nine stages at bit.ly/BA2-BF1stHours —> LINK IN BIO

Screenshot from video
Research comes from Breastfeeding Answers, Second Edition by Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC, FILCA

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1726 Altamont Avenue Ste 2
Richmond, VA
23230

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Behavioral Health Services of Virginia
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It is an incredible gift to help a family welcome new life into the world. At MyBirth, we cherish the opportunity to support you through your journey to parenthood, whether you're welcoming your first child or introducing a sibling to your family. After a combined 50 years of doula experience, we have all learned one certain thing: there is no right way to birth, just what is right for you. At the end, you will confidently say, "This was My Birth."

MyBirth

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