Precious Thoughts Midwifery

03/27/2025

WE’VE MOVED…. a whooping 3 blocks down the road!😂

I’m so excited for Precious Thoughts new office. We have a lot more space and, a much needed, waiting room! No more waiting in the hall way enjoying the hair salon’s jam session 😉!! (those who know what I’m talking about, know what I’m talking about 🤣).

Here’s a quick peek into what it looks like! Yes, The waiting room is still in progress! No, I don’t plan to use folding chairs long term. 😝

A big thanks to my little bro who helped me lay the flooring (or maybe he laid the flooring and I just encouraged him... laying a piece every once in a while). Also thanks mom, Maria (sis) and Dwayne (sis’s BF) who peeled wallpaper, sanded, mudded and painted the walls! And thanks friends (you know who you are) who rotate though and did so many of the odd-and-end, little things! I’m so grateful to all of you especially to the Samson family (aka the moving crew).

03/20/2024

I am so excited to announce that Emily Aynes is joining me at Precious Thoughts! She is going to be taking on the big project of keeping up with the administrative side of things! Y'all will start seeing her respond to questions and emails! I love Emily's kindness and orderliness (both much needed). She also is a home birth momma, a doula (woo-hoo), and a homemaker. Here is a really cute 🥰 picture with her and her two children!!

05/19/2023

☀️Postpartum self care ☀️

This is important ladies! You’re body just did an amazing and wondrous thing. It also was exhausting, painful and requires healing.

It’s easy to focus on the baby. You are trying to balance healing, taking care of a newborn, keeping up with household, maybe tending to other kiddos, potentially breastfeeding and trying to discover a rhythm. It’s ALOT!

Don’t forget to take time for yourself!
Here is my must do postpartum self care list. But feel free to throw in some fun ones, such as:

Get your nails done 💅🏾
Have breakfast with a friend or your spouse 🥞
Take a walk and soak up the sun ☀️
Go get that glass of wine you’ve been craving for 9 months! 🍷
Take a nice bath and enjoy some Netflix romcom🛁

05/14/2023

03/14/2023

I have had a lot of great questions about meconium from multiple families recently. It is no surprise since 15% of term pregnancies will have some amount of meconium in their amniotic fluid. So what is this stuff and what is the hubbub about?

Meconium is baby’s first p**p! There are a wide range of reasons as to why this occurs in utero. The most common reason is a well developed digestive system especially for a baby that is nearing or after their due date! Yup, the number one reason is because a baby is healthy! Meconium can also occur as a baby’s reaction to a stressful event. Temporary stressful events (such as a physiological oxygen deprivation in labor, a temporary compression of their cord etc.) do not indicate any reasons for concern. Meconium becomes of concern when it is in conjunction with ongoing fetal distress. Babies communicate this through their heart tones. A distressed baby will have a sudden rise in baseline, a sudden drop in baseline, abnormal decelerations (abnormal drops in their heart rate) or a sinusoidal pattern (metronome sounding heart rate). The concern with a distressed baby AND meconium is that a distressed baby is more likely to inhale meconium into their lungs. If this were to happen, it can irritate and congest airways. This is called MAS (meconium aspiration syndrome) and occurs in 1-4% of the 15% of babies who will have meconium in their fluid. With babies who have this rare complication some degree of respiratory support is required. Sometimes it is a simple resuscitation or sometimes it can lead to a need for more intensive resuscitation and potentially NICU stays. In the homebirth setting, we are always prepared to assist any baby in their respiratory efforts. However, in midwifery care we practice a style of care that is preventative. Simply by the way we practice, there is a significant reduction of fetal distress which (when we are thinking about meconium) caused this snowball effect. (How midwifery care reduces fetal distress is a big topic. I should write a whole post about it). The fear and/or over-care around meconium is when there is no distinction between meconium in the fluid and MAS.

Important takeaways:
1) The older the baby is the more likely that meconium is a healthy sign of a well developed baby
2)MAS is rare
3) Midwifery care in the homebirth settings decreases the chance of having fetal distress.

Baby picture added just because it is cute...and because I cannot find any meconium picture I want to post :)

02/20/2023

Rachel Mans is a passionate doula and childbirth educator. She is passionate about supporting women to discover their inner intuition, which uniquely guides them in their birth. She is passionate about helping families feel informed about birth. We are so lucky to have her in the St. Louis area. Check out her website https://www.thenaturalbirthsite.com/

Rachel and I were able to meet and share our love of birth, women feeling empowered and seeing families off to a healthy start.

Did you know evidence shows hiring a doula:

Leads to better birth outcomes,
Improves experience of pregnancy and birth
Shortens duration of labor
Lowers cesarean rates
Decreases instrumental deliveries
Lessens experience of pain
Reduces epidural use
Leads to better newborn APGAR scores
Boosts early breastfeeding scores
Raises mother’s self-esteem and resilience
Improves mother-infant interaction
Helps mother adapt if birth doesn't go as planned
May reduce postpartum depression
Cuts hospital costs
Improves outcome equality across socioeconomic divide
And, much more?!?!

02/14/2023

Discover your baby’s gender as early as 7 weeks though Peekaboo! That is 13 weeks earlier than a 20 week anatomy scan (the time most families discover their baby’s gender)!! It is as easy as 1-2-3.
1- Call 636-388-8232 to schedule.
2- Have one blood sample drawn.
3- Expect an email in the next 24-48hrs with the results.

It’s 99.5% accurate. 100% money back guarantee.
Here are some other amazing local providers who also offer exciting gender reveal tests as well: Primrose Midwifery, Heart to Heart.

02/07/2023

Hey friends! This is Caeli Werner from Precious Thoughts Midwifery services. I am so passionate about this work and feel honored to offer “ informed choice” to families and thus see their personal birth journeys unfold. It’s laughter, blood, sweat and tears all rolled into one!( Did I mention sleep deprivation yet? lol) Just for kicks, I put together a list of stats that I have experienced and wanted to share!
176- Births
93- Boys
87- Girls (one girl who surprised everyone because she was suppose to be a boy)
57- First time mothers! You guys are killing it!
47- Babies born in water
12- VBAC
4- Sets of twins
2- Breech
Average busiest month- August (closely followed by September)
Lightest baby born 5lb 8oz, Heaviest baby 10lb 8oz

Crazy stuff! I would love to hear from you and can be reached at 636-388-8232 if you have any questions/ desire a consultation. Hope you are having a great day!

01/30/2023

Setting up a midwifery practice is an adventure. It is so rewarding to see things completed. Today, I was admiring the “lab basket”. If you are going to do something, do it cute! Midwives run all standard labs including prenatal panels, CBCs, CMP, urine cultures, GN/CT, glucose testing, GBS, bilirubin, and so much more. I love that I can offer the ease of in-house labs to my clients.