Maura Mendenhall Birth Services

01/27/2021

🌈Doulas improve birth outcomes. More birthing individuals and their families should have complete access to them. Doulas are for every kind of birth!🌈

photo credit: TDW Photography

01/26/2021

12/05/2020

🌈Placentas are amazing organs. We might be just a little obsessed with them.
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The placental membrane is composed of three distinct layers: the amnion, the intermediate layer, and the chorion.
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The placenta acts as baby's lungs to supply oxygen, kidneys to filter out waste, and as gastrointestinal and immune systems by delivering nutrients and antibodies.
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Every minute, one pint of blood is pumped to the uterus, exchanging oxygen and nutrients via the placenta. The gestating parent's blood and baby's never mix, however, if they did, the gestating parent's immune system would create antibodies for the baby's blood in an attempt to get rid of it. Instead, the baby's blood and gestating parent's blood pass through separate arteries in the placenta.
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photo credit: Elizabeth Ashdown Photography

12/01/2020

🌈 The Double Hip Squeeze 🌈
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The double hip squeeze is a maneuver performed by a midwife or doula during labor to help relieve that pain in the pelvis and back. It is usually executed with the laboring individual in an upright, leaning position, but it can also be achieved while they're leaning over a birth ball or on their hands and knees.
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The double hip squeeze works because the manipulation stabilizes the pelvis and frees the baby from pressing on the sacrum. Besides relieving pain, an added benefit is that it can also free the baby to rotate more easily.
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🌈 To learn more about this technique and its many benefits, sign up for SDA's upcoming Virtual Doula Training being held on December 7th & 10th. 🌈
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photo credit: TDW Photography

11/23/2020

There are many ways doulas improve birth outcomes. Have you heard of the "Doula Effect?"
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“I believe the Doula Effect is related to attachment. When the mother feels vulnerable in labor, she directs attachment behaviors to suitable figures around her, who may or may not be her attachment figures (parent, mate). When the mother directs attachment seeking behaviors to the doula, the experienced doula responds in a unique manner. She is able to respond as a secure base, thereby soothing the mother’s attachment system. The accompanying diminishment in stress hormones allows for a surge in oxytocin in both the mother and the doula… theoretically, oxytocin is the hormone of attachment, and it is released during soothing touch and extended eye contact, which are habitual behaviors of birth doulas.”
Dr. Amy Gilliland, July 2015.
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✨Who would have thought that attachment theory is even applicable in birth. This is another reason trust and the bonds we create with our clients is imperative.✨
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photo credit: Elizabeth Ashdown Photography